Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by your observing the law, or by your believing what you heard? - (Galatians 3:5)

God’s Spirit is given and God’s power is displayed in those who believe. We don’t make the Spirit come to us — the Spirit is God’s gift to followers of Jesus. We cannot make God’s power happen in our lives — this power is released through the work of the Holy Spirit in those who believe.

So what is the bottom line? Do we believe or do we try to force God to act by adhering to a set of laws or do we believe in Jesus and trust God will supply what we need?

There are two important points. The first is the Spirit is a gift, given freely.  All that is necessary is for us to allow Him in.  The second point is that He is the Gift of both God, the Father, and God the Son.  Jesus promised that after his departure, He and God, the Father, would send the Holy Spirit, to assist the apostles in their mission to spread the message of God.  The Holy Spirit  is also referred to as the the Advocate or the Spirit of truth.

The gift of the Holy Spirit did not end with the apostles.  God continues to give out the Holy Spirit, as the church grows in Acts.

Prayer: O Father, move among us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe in Jesus and his power to save, redeem, and transform. So we ask for you to move with power among us! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

It’s Not the Size of the Church, But Its Health That Counts!

For some pastors, serving in a small church creates something of a self-image problem. We look at the big church on the hill, compare ourselves to that operation, and feel inadequate or insignificant.

“Every assignment is holy ground because Jesus gave Himself for the people who live there. Every place is important because God wants you to accomplish something supernatural there. Every situation is special because ministry is needed there. Like Queen Esther, you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. All of these factors give a pastor a much-needed sense of destiny about his assignment.”

In other words, there are no small assignments, and there are none of you who are insignificant in any way.

Guidelines for assessing health of a Church

1. Biblically Based. Do your congregation members have a clear understanding of what they believe and substantial information to assist them in defending their faith? Is there a discipleship training program?
2. Mutually Concerned. Do your people genuinely care for one another? Is there a system in operation that easily allows your congregation to know when people have needs and a prayer chain to respond to those needs?
3. Socially Concerned. If you do not have a small group ministry, do you have a Sunday school program that provides adequate time for your people to break bread together? Church is fellowship as much as it is a formal worship service.
4. Community Saturated. Are you aware of the day-to-day decisions that are made in your community that affect the school system, the social programs, and the overall moral climate of the city you serve?
5. Financially Stable. The church that is fiscally responsible will be able to weather any situation. Every pastor and governance board should insist on maintaining a certain dollar reserve, and do everything possible to avoid paralyzation of ministry through an unrealistic building or property debt. People must be taught by example to give and to give cheerfully.
6. Clearly Understood Vision. Every church needs to know who it is, what its calling is and how it will be directed to meet the challenge of the future. If not, many small, and even larger, churches will simply exist to support an institution.
7. Positive Outlook. Please do not allow yourself to fall into a “poor me, small us” mentality. Little-mindedness is contagious. See yourself as God sees you — full of potential and planted for a purpose.

Christianity needs you to find a way to make your ministry meaningful and to help change the way pastors and laymen alike look at the church of Jesus Christ. 

Download : Pete’s Story Slideshow

Click the above link to download “Pete’s Story” slideshow (6.44 MB)

Preview:-

Pete Mason’s Story in Slideshow : Out of the Darkness, into the Light

Early Years – I was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada on September 28, 1962. I am the youngest of five children: Allan, Don, Lorraine, David (R.I.P. 1987) and me. My earliest memories are of feeling a lot of love, warmth and excitement. As time went on I recall a number of tense times when my older siblings would fight. I was quite shy as a young boy.

I was baptized into the Catholic faith in St. Jude’s Church in Vancouver as an infant. As a young child, I recall taking the baby Jesus out of his crib from our Nativity scene, holding him in my hands and kissing him. I loved Jesus with a simple, pure love that I learned from my parents. My mother used to kneel down to pray with me every night.

I attended St. Francis de Sales elementary school in Burnaby. I enjoyed going to the school masses and singing songs with all the other children. I grew up to love adventure!

I remember when I was in elementary school, probably around grade 5 or so, watching a video on the life of Padre Pio, the famous stigmatist—priest from Italy, who, like St. Francis of Assisi, bore the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet and side for over 50 years. I remember this video really having a powerful impression on me and made me think of being in God’s service when I grew up.

Soon, however, my passion for rock and roll completely overshadowed any spiritual goals, as this was the time of Beatlemania, the Rolling Stones, etc. While in school, I learned how to play the electric guitar – and dreamed of becoming a rock star. I was greatly influenced by my brother David, in his choice of music and long hair. Black Sabbath, Vol IV was the first album I ever bought and I listened to it all the time and knew it by heart.

I even brought it one day to “show and tell” along with my stereo and cranked up Ozzy and the boys, much to the horror of my elementary school teacher! (Other kids were bringing “nice” things like dolls, toys, etc.)… I also won the “longest hair for a boy” in school as well, which I was very proud of!

Sold on Satan - In grade seven, I gave my soul to Satan. I was fully aware of what I was doing. I figured that since I enjoyed doing bad things, I might as well join the devil’s team. I began to take an interest in the occult – using tarot cards, a ouija board and a mask of Satan. I painted my walls dark red and my ceiling black; I posted a picture of Satan with horns, a pitchfork and a wicked grimace.

High School and Beyond - When I entered St. Thomas More High School, I played with a band. Those were the days of wild weekend parties and lots of drinking. Once, arriving home from a wild party, I looked in the mirror – and my face was bloodied, my hair a mess and my clothing filthy. Instantly, I thought about the sufferings of Jesus, even though I was not in a loving relationship with him at the time.

My older brother David was a huge influence on my musical tastes: he introduced me to Led Zeppelin and the rest was history. I had a poster of Robert Plant on my wall and grew my hair long like his, dressed like him, sang like him, etc. and then got into Black Sabbath in a huge way as well as Alice Cooper. Kiss was the first rock concert I ever went to.

I was blown away by the sound, the lights, the special effects, the real fire explosions (you could feel the heat hundreds of feet away), the stage blood, the breathing fire by Gene Simmons, etc. and I was hooked! All I wanted to do was do what they were doing: be a rock star and totally rock the world!

At the time I did believe in God and went to Catholic mass every week, but really didn’t care at all about religion and I never prayed. I was just taking up space in church. Sometimes I bugged the people there by making noise, talking and even throwing pieces of paper over the balcony to try to land them on people’s heads below! I must admit, that was a lot of fun!

Some of my friends used to sniff gas but I never got into that because I thought it was a stupid thing to do. For Halloween, however, I did put gas into a glass spray can that used to have hair spray in it, and went around with a lighter shooting 5-foot flames around Burnaby, which was a potentially deadly thing to do! Fortunately, I didn’t blow up or set myself on fire.

I quit Catholic school because the principal was bugging me about my long hair and most of my friends had left for public school because there were girls there, and there was none at STM. I had a real knack of mimicking our teachers to a STM. My friends laughed their heads off at my impressions of our teachers.

I was kicked out of school for a day because I refused to cut my hair: I just put it up in curlers to trick them into thinking it was short, but it rained out and it went long again and the principal got mad at me and sent me home! So, I went to Burnaby South High School for grade 12. I joined the progressive rock band Tom Foolery. We were a trio, very much like Rush, and our drummer, Phil Haslip, was amazing and could play like no other drummer I had met before.

After graduating, I went on the road with a rock band named Roxcity. We were loud, heavy and loved to party. Once, after a gig, I watched a TV movie about the life of Jesus. It caused me to think about my spiritual life briefly. God was planting a seed.

I quit Roxcity while on the road, as I was getting worn out with the wild lifestyle. I joined another couple of musicians, to form Tyranny. The name aptly describes what life was like in the band. In that band, though, I did start writing songs and lyrics that were expressing a searching for meaning, like “Questions in My Mind:” “What makes the stars shine and the earth spin? What makes a man think he is real?” I shut the band down after doing only one live show with them, because I was restless and unhappy and I began to search for a purpose in my life.

One day, an unusual thought came to me: “I am a Catholic.” I realized that I had not lived as a Christian should – and I felt guilty. I continued to search for something to make my life meaningful. I slowly began to believe God must have something to do with these feelings.

Prodigal Son Gets Tired of the Pig Sty! - One day in May, 1982 I was mowing our front lawn. At one point, I sensed a strong presence — the presence of Jesus. I stopped the mower, and listened interiorly. An image of Jesus knocking at a door appeared in my mind, and I heard Jesus saying to me:

“Peter, I am what you have been searching for. Open your heart to me and I will give you peace and a new life.”

I explained to the Lord that I was like the prodigal son – but that if he wanted me to, I would open my heart to him. So I prayed, giving my life to Jesus, accepting him as Lord and Saviour, and expressing sorrow for all my sins.

As soon as this prayer was finished, I felt a great weight lifted off me; the power of the Holy Spirit filled me with joy, peace and love. I finished the lawn, and went inside. My mother noticed a change in me, and I said something to her about Jesus. Shortly after, I went to Confession. I was welcomed by the priest, who heard all my sins. He encouraged me by saying that, even though I had not paid much attention to Jesus all these years, the Lord had never abandoned me. I felt such a spiritual burden being taken away. I walked out of that church feeling like a new man.

From that point on, I wanted to please God. I began to participate actively in Sunday Mass, and eventually began attending daily Mass. I loved to pray after Mass, having just received Jesus in Communion. My life was transformed in ways I could hardly believe. I was filled with a joy I had never known before, and a burning desire to share Jesus with everyone. I had a deep hunger for God, and loved to begin the day with quiet prayer, reading the Bible and the lives of the saints.

I read about the life of St. Clare and how she had all of her beautiful long blonde hair cut off when she decided to follow the way of life that St. Francis of Assisi had embraced, so I took a pair of scissors and cut off all my long hair. I stuck it in a glass box, thinking, at the time, that if I ever became a canonized saint it would be a neat relic, because I saw that they had a box of some of St. Clare’s hair! It was a real hack job but it did the trick: I made the change: I felt like a new man both interiorly and exteriorly.

For me, my long hair had been a kind of symbol of my dreams of rock star fame. The new short hair was a symbol of giving myself to Christ and rejecting the lure of sin and the world. I walked around Burnaby to see what it felt like to have short hair (I had long hair constantly since about grade 5!)

I helped to start a youth group in my parish with friends. Since that time I was involved in many kinds of ministries in the church and travelled on pilgrimages to Israel, Rome, Assisi, England, Medjugorje, Mexico, USA and across Canada. I released several Christian albums and have made three Christian music videos. I wrote a book on spiritual warfare called “Spiritual Weapons” which is available on this site for free as an e-book. Many more things could be shared but this is the main part of my testimony: how Jesus reached out to me back in 1982 and transformed my life forever.

Today, many years later, I am still following Jesus and am now married to my wonderful wife Cyndie. Together we started the Missionaries of Merciful Love, a group that is dedicated to living and spreading the merciful love of Jesus in the world. In 2004 I started the band Myztery, which is now a recording band in our studio while we tour with our new music ministry songofthelamb.net.

Thank you for taking the time to read my testimony of how Jesus changed my life. Open your heart to Him, ask Him to cleanse you of yours sins, give your past, present and future to Him. Trust in Him and ask God the Father to reveal His perfect will for your life. Be baptized by water and the Holy Spirit. Attend church every Sunday and receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in holy communion at every mass. Read the Word of God, especialy the Gospel according to John. No matter what darkness you have been in or may be in now, the light of Jesus is greater and more powerful!

God loves you! God is merciful! Trust in Him!

- – - written by Pete Mason