Servias Ministries Blog

For those of you who read this website, Servias Ministries is offering multiple copies of the book “Ascending to Love” to those who send us written requests.  Simply write us at:

Servias Ministries Inc.

PO Box 1471

Bethany, OK 73008

Please tell us how many copies you want to distribute.  We will pay shipping costs.  This offer is good while supplies last.  We want to sow seed into the lives of people you know.  Requests by blog comments are not often reviewed so be sure to write.  We would like to see the request in writing (for our records).

Of anything you could share, Our Heavenly Father’s Love is most important.

We also invite you to read our blogs and join us in our weekly online Bible Study each week at 3PM CST at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love

You can also view all past broadcasts as well at this site.

John 13:34   A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Jesus gave us a command.  The SON of the Most High GOD, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, commanded us to Love.  STOP right now and think about this command…

How are we to Love?  We are to Love as Jesus LOVED us.  His Love is the standard by which we are to Love, not man’s examples.  Jesus laid down His life for His brethren, AND us.  We are to judge our own fruit by how we Love each other and compare our fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Are you willing to lay down your life for others or are you always seeking ways to extract something from them?  Do you find yourself asking the question “What do they have that I need?”  Instead, you should be asking the question “What can I do to bless them?”

None of us are at the same level of revelation.  If you decide to wait until the other person has taken the first step, you might be waiting a long time.  Your love is conditional in that case.  Jesus did not wait for mankind to take the first step but He became our example of unconditional Love.  He expressed Love before we had the ability to Love.  He planted the seed of unconditional Love so that it would grow, produce good fruit, and encompass the world.  Love is the only solution to all the world’s problems.

Do you see anyone operating in this commandment?  Do you have a current example to look at?  Why don’t you become the example for others to consider as an expression of this Commandment?  When should you start?  Now.  Who is your role model?  Jesus.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;

Don’t compete.  Competition is selfish ambition to exalt yourself above others.  Value others above yourself and show them respect.  Value their words and keep quiet while they are expressing themselves.  How many of us are busy thinking of the next thing to say while the other person is still communicating their thoughts.  I have been guilty of this.  I must make my mind submit to Love rather than letting it take control.  Your mind should be a servant to you, not the opposite.

2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

You must decide to be interested in what the other person is interested in.  What is your priority?  Do you have the same priority as Jesus?

2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Have you emptied yourself?  Have you taken on the form of a bond-servant?  Jesus did not demand to be exalted as the Son of GOD but He came to serve mankind.  He deserved the glory due to the manifested presence of Our Heavenly Father but He did not demand it but instead He emptied Himself for us.  Which path are you going to take?

2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

As we commit to walk in Love with Jesus as our example, change will occur both in yourself and others around you.  We must not wait for someone else to initiate this walk, we must.  The time is now!

Happy Purim!  We celebrate the winter Feast of Purim.  The Book of Esther expresses Love in action of a young woman who was called to save her people from certain death.  In John 5, I believe that Jesus healed the impotent man at Purim and that the impotent man represents the church in the wilderness.

Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be made well?”  The man knew not that the Healer was before him.  The man had no idea that the SON of the MOST HIGH GOD was standing right in front of him.  Instead, his hope was based on stirred up water by an angel at a certain time.  LOVE came to heal and none of the people recognized HIM.

“Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  What a simple command!  Thirty-eight years of suffering, gone in an instant.  How did the established leaders respond?  Their egos wanted to seize back control over the man by questioning the legality of the man carrying his bed and “doing work” on the Sabbath.  None of them rejoiced concerning his restoration.  Instead they focused on the legality of the day.  Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”  The man did not know.  The man was too “self-centered” to even inquire about the person who just healed his impotence.  How could there be such little gratitude for your restoration?  Is this man any different than those who live today with the expectation of entitlement?  Jesus immediately left the pool after the healing of the impotent man.  The man could not tell the leaders who had healed him.  Later, Jesus later found him and said to him,  “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

His impotence was tied to his sin.

We have assumed that something noteworthy would happen at only a major feast yet this man’s day of release happened at Purim. Is today your day?  Purim is known for the culmination and essence of Esther’s calling.  The deliverance of the Jews did not happen at Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles.  Instead it happened in the winter months.

Our individual callings are not necessarily tied to a specific corporate cycle.  We should treat each day as though it is our day for our calling to be fully manifested.  Your calling may require faith and courage to complete the task at hand.  Mordecai posed the question to Esther:

4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"

Esther responded:

4:16 "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."

Purim is the most joyful of all Feasts for the Jews.  May today be the day when your calling is fully manifested as well!

John 5:1  After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

:2   Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.

It is believed that this feast in John 5:1 was the Feast of Purim.  By traveling to Jerusalem, Jesus observed the Feast.  Jesus went to a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.  Bethesda means “house of mercy” and the number five represents “mercy or grace”.  Since John did not mention one of the three major feasts by name, it is possible that is was Purim since in John 6:4 we see that now Passover was at hand.  Hence the feast prior to Passover would have been Purim, a winter feast just prior to Passover.

:3  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

How is this scene different from today?  What if the “moving of the water” indeed is to represent a great movement of the Holy Spirit?  Have people been in a paralyzed state waiting on something tangible to happen?  Have people been sitting in “houses of mercy” or churches simply waiting and hoping for a move of the Holy Spirit?  Are the sick being healed?  Are the blind eyes being opened?  Are the lame able to walk?  If you can’t walk, then your feet cannot be prepared with the gospel of peace.  The paralyzed people are unable to move.  Why?  Could it be that their focus is on something other than the “here and now”?

:4  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

The first mention of an angel and water is in Genesis 16:7: And the angel of the LORD found her (Hagar) by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur (wall).  This angel was expressing mercy to Hagar.  Hagar represents the bondwoman or “bondage”.  All of these people around the fountain were in bondage and were waiting on an angel or messenger to release them from their infirmity.

:5  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

I have heard many messages preached about this man representing Israel, referencing the thirty-eight years in the wilderness as a result of their unbelief to enter into the Promised Land.  What if the impotent man represents the Pentecostal Church Age?  The church age is the age of being in the wilderness and has relied on “grace” due to them having “sin in the camp”.  This age is known by the presence of leaven in the bread.

:6  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Jesus knew of his long-term impotence.  We would call that a chronic problem.  Could the long-term refer to 2,000 years of the “Church Age”?

:7  The sick (impotent) man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

The man did not know Jesus The Healer.  The man was relying on some sign to bring him to wholeness.  However, he indicates that there is no one to help him into the water, every man for himself.  The epitome of self-centeredness.  There is no sacrifice of Love.

:8  Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

Jesus did not expound some long, calculated prayer.  He was in command and had power and authority over the man’s impotence.  Love spoke and the body responded.

The Book of Esther is all about Love taking action to save mankind from death and destruction.  Esther fulfilled her calling and the Jews were spared from certain death by Haman.  Tomorrow is Purim.  May the manifestation of the healing of the impotent man take place!

Rute, our Brazilian sister, sent this song.  Enjoy!