Tag Archives: brian long

What Is Love? The root of selfishness and self-seeking (audio)

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Brother Brian shares about the love of God. He defines it Biblically and gives many examples of how much love means to God and each believer. He exhorts us to seek and pursue love above all things. Love is not selfish, he shows clearly that the root of love is not self-seeking. A great challenging message to all of us.

What Is Love? by Brian Long (audio mp3)

 

Some excerpts from the message:

“We are all born grabbers.”

“This type of love is rare amongst true believers in our day, Oh brethren this should not be.”

“For Paul it was rare for him to find someone who was not seeking their own.”

“I know him he is a gifted preacher but he is still seeking his own.”

 

 

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

The True Evidence of the Spirit Baptism in a believers life in the body of Christ

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There have been many teachings on the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and the need for an experience of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have heard and experienced so many wrong teachings on the subject that true believers shun away from this experience or to even talk or teach about it. But Acts 1:4-5 says:

And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Many teach that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit will have with it a special manifestation or experience. Others teach that when you receive that baptism experience you are truly saved then. Others teach it is a power that we can utilize for miracles and to have power in such outward ways. Others say it is a one-time experience that gives sanctification and perfect wholeness. But what does the Baptism experience do? Can it be experienced today?

Through simply looking at the Scriptures we see that the Lord exhorts us to receive many filling’s of the Holy Spirit and such times of this give power to be witnesses and to live holy lives. If an experience of the Holy Spirit does not encourage saints to live godly and to take up their cross daily and suffer then the baptism is not clearly accomplishing what the Lord intended. We see clearly in Scripture this experience happened many times to the Apostles and early disciples and it allowed them to have the grace to lay down their lives in martyrdom as missionaries around the known world. It also gave them a supernatural love for enemies and the world to preach the Gospel.

Here is an excerpt from the Principles Book where brother Brian Long shares his burden on this subject:

 

THE EVIDENCE OF THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT

What is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit?  Power!  Power to become holy – because He is the Holy Spirit – power to be witnesses of Christ!  You know better than I because I don’t know Greek, but I know this Greek word for ‘witnesses’: martus.  The same word for martyrs.  The same word in other parts in the scripture where they actually use the word ‘martyr;’ Acts 22:20, the Apostle Paul speaking of Stephen:

“And when the blood of thy martyr [martus] Stephen was shed.”

Revelation 2, Jesus speaking of Antipas:

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs [martus] of Jesus:”

Witnesses / martyrs: a holy people endued with power from on-high who did not love their lives to the death.  How?  You tell me, how did that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us – some of them sawn in two, some of them ripped apart by lions in an arena as the crowd cheered, jeered, mocked, some of them burned at the stake – they never denied Christ; never stopped loving their enemies; never stopped preaching; never stopped praising the Lord even in the midst as their bodies burned.

How?!  ‘Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.’  That’s the only way, brothers and sisters.  Lydia Perpetua – a 22 year old mother – had her baby boy taken away from her, thrown into prison, thrown into an arena of wild beasts . . . and finally was martyred at the end of the sword of a gladiator in that arena.  While she was laying there before she died, cried out ‘Give up the world.  Stand fast in the faith.  Love one another.  Don’t let our suffering become a stumbling block to you.’ How did a 22 year old mother do that?  ‘Not by might, nor by power but my Spirit says the Lord’ – she was filled with the Holy Spirit.  There is no other way.

Allan Cameron, a Scottish covenanter, while being held in prison, they bring to him the head and the hands of his son.  They cruelly asked him, if he knew them.  He said ‘Yes, I know them . . . I know them’ as he kissed them ‘they are my son’s . . . my own dear son’s.  It is the Lord . . . good is the will of the Lord who cannot wrong me nor mine, but has made goodness and mercy to follow us all of our days.’ How did he do it?  ‘Not by might, not by power but my Spirit says the Lord.’  You must be filled with the Holy Spirit.  We must be endued with power from on-high.  We need the Spirit of the Living God.

—–

Footnotes:

706 Acts 1:8

707 Acts 22:20

708 Revelation 2:13

709 Revelation 17:6

 

A Great Shaking Is Coming To Christians in North America

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A judgment of God is coming not upon the world or a nation but on the Church. When sinners and a nation reject God in very outward ways they at times will receive wrath and punishments from God mostly in the form of due consequences to their sinful life-styles and actions. Even as a nation what you shall sow you shall reap. If a nation has sown perversion, immorality and greed, they will soon reap sexual deviancy, rampant adultry and materialistic fervor and consumation. Leaving a nation without morality, without God, without purpose and without peace. Such nations fall in the end or come under such darkness.

How much more is God concerned for His Church in a nation, His children, His bought people by the blood of Christ who have come to know His life and power. His body on the earth where His Son is head of it. When this body, this Church falls from dependency and love of God and allows worldliness to share in its life, such a Church will come under the loving judgment of God.

There is a great shaking coming to the Church in North America. We have left God in many ways, following worldly methods and techniques and sought to do great things in the Name of God apart from the presence and leading of God’s Spirit.

Below is an excerpt of a message delivered by brother Brian Long and is included also in its full form in the upcoming free Principles Book, that is soon to be released:

 

A SHAKING IS COMING

Every house of worship where the Holy Spirit has been rejected, resisted, ignored . . . because we want to have church without Him . . . is coming under the judgment of God. When the shaking comes, that house will shake and it will not stand. We cannot have church apart from the Spirit of the Living God. He has been grieved. He has been resisted. He has been rejected. Listen to this scripture from Ezekiel 6:49. We think of homosexuality and perversion . . . to God that was an abomination . . . God sent fire and brimstone on Sodom . . . but that was not the sin even mentioned here. These were the sins of your sister Sodom:

“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”840

Arrogance. Pride. Over-fed. We’ve been given so much, and yet unconcerned . . . the poor and needy die outside the house of God. Have we abandoned our mission, Church of Jesus Christ? Have we forgotten the great commission . . . to go and preach the gospel to every creature?841 And it’s two-fold: and also to make disciples of all nations teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded us. Have we forgotten that? Have we forgotten what true religion is in the house of God? Caring for the orphans, the widows in their trouble, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to the poor, visiting those in prison and keeping yourself unspotted from the world. I tell you, because we have neglected this – we have not taken this seriously – judgment is coming to the house of God.

But even that judgment will be an expression of God’s mercy and love. The worst thing that could happen today is for God to allow Christendom to continue as she is without Him. And there is a clear distinction in 1 Peter 4 that God makes between the punishing judgment of God upon the unbeliever and the purifying judgment of God upon the believer.

—-

Footnotes:

840  Ezekiel 16:49

841  Mark 16:15

 

 

How To Run With The Vision fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ not denominations – Brian Long

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This is a powerful excerpt from a longer message: Coming Persecution and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, you can watch the video here.  And the full transcription is part of the Principles for the Gathering of Believers book soon to be released.

Here is the excerpt from the book:

HOW TO RUN WITH THE VISION

He said write the vision that He may run who reads it. In other words, do something with this vision. It demands a response, a practical response. Run with the vision. Someone who is running is either running away from something or they are running in pursuit of something. I want to say to you tonight to run with this vision is to run in pursuit; not of something but Someone.

Hebrews chapter 12:1. Run with the vision but how? Run pursuing Someone: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”821

This is a pursuit, namely, of Jesus Christ Himself. You want to run with the vision? Pursue Christ with all your heart. Fix your eyes on Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Let Jesus #ll your vision. Go after Him. Let Him be your chief delight, your highest ambition, your most passionate pursuit . . . your greatest desire should be the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Otherwise, you’re not running the race! You’re not running with the vision. Make it plain. Make it personal.

How is it with you? What is your greatest passion? What’s your most passionate pursuit? What do you talk about the most? Who do you talk about the most? Jesus Christ? Or your bible translation? Jesus Christ? Or your particular doctrine, theology, eschatology . . .? Jesus Christ? Or your ministry? Jesus Christ? Or your gifts? Jesus Christ? Or your head-covering? Jesus Christ? Or your children, your family . . .? Jesus Christ? Or your denomination? It can be a number of things, brothers and sisters, and they’re not all bad. Everything should pale in comparison with love for Him. Love for Christ; the pursuit of Christ. I tell you, this remnant that God is raising up that is scattered all over the earth shares one thing in common: to you who believe, He is precious! Christ is precious! Hallelujah!

—-

Footnotes:

821 Hebrews 12: 1-2

 

God does not dwell in church buildings but in the hearts of Believers

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There seems to be so much emphasis on a church building and monuments that are made to the Lord. We do not want to slight this fully for the Old Testament is replete with altars, monuments, twelve stones, bethel’s, temples and sanctuaries. But we must also understand that in the New Covenant God is desiring to dwell with His people where ever they gather. So the building or even no building if they meet under a tree. What matters to the Lord is the hearts who are His who make together the  Church.

As the Scriptures say in 1 Peter 2:5 – “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Brian Long shares his heart passionately on this subject, and is including in the upcoming Principles Book, here is an excerpt of the message:

“Displaying and seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We beheld His glory. Our Lord went to the cross, died on the cross for our sins, was raised again on the third day, ascended into heaven and He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. That temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. Not one stone found left on top of another. I still hear the Spirit of the Lord ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build for Me? Where is the place of My rest?’ God longing to visit His people. Where is the place once again where God will display His glory? Habakkuk said ‘I see the Lord in His holy temple, all the earth be silent’ and through that holy temple the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth even as the waters cover the sea. But where is that temple? Stephen said in Acts 7 ‘the Most High no longer dwells in temples made with human hands.’ Where is that temple? The answer is given by the Apostle Paul:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”775

The prophet says ‘I see the Lord in His holy temple’ and the Apostle Paul says ‘yes, the temple of God is holy and which temple you are.’ You see it, brothers and sisters, that’s the vision. The vision of God’s coming glory is the coming of the greatest display of the glory of God ever in the history of the world. I want to tell you that this is the Church’s finest hour. I believe it with all of my heart. We are living in incredible days. God almighty wanting to display His glory once again to such a degree: that glory will be greater than the former glory. It has to be if the knowledge of it will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. He wants to do it where? Through His Church, through His body, through His temple which is us.

—-

Footnotes:

775 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

 

May we be part of a gathering in a local area where the Lord can manifest His glory in the midst. May the Son of God be honoured as we gather towards Him.

Coming Persecution And The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit by Brian Long (video)

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Dear Saints, This is a very powerful message that was delivered at the conference run by SermonIndex in Lilburn First Baptist Church in the Atlanta, GA area. Brian Long shared a very burdened message of the Lord to those at the conference and also those watching via webcast and simulcast. There have been many testimonies shared back that this message has really challenged and greatly impacted the faith of God’s elect.

Oh that we would be ready for what is coming upon us. The Church needs to awaken and heart the words of the Lord from Gods true watchman that are preaching God’s truth. It is time to be “utterly astounded” as God spoke to the prophet Habbakuk.

Watch this powerful video here:

The Humility Of Christ (a powerful message by Brian Long)

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There is a weekly prayer conference call where saints across North America join in to pray for revival and first hear a short devotion from a speaker. This last week Brian Long shared a very powerful article he wrote. It was very moving and challenging to hear. You can join in the prayer call every monday night at 9pm EST call: 209.255.1000 and put in this code: 109083#

Please take some time to listen to this wonderful message:

The Humility Of Christ by Brian Long

Brian Long shares a powerful message on the Humility of Christ. He reads this message on a prayer revival conference call. Hear afresh the humility of our precious Lord and how this challenges us to follow in His ways.

Here are some excerpts from the message:

“Jesus made Himself dependent.”

“Humility is a life of dependence on God.”

“The humble pray constantly not out of a religious sense of duty but because they desperately need God.”

“And remember: humility serves, Jesus washed the disciples feet.”

 

House Church Meeting Audio Recording

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As an example of a house church meeting we thought to share these 2 audio recordings:

This house church meeting took place the day after the SermonIndex Conference on Coming Persecution in Atlanta, GA. Brothers: Mark Case, Steve Gallagher, Brian Long and 25 others met together for a 3 hour meeting where also others were given time to share and exhort the body there. It was a blessed time and gathering of so many precious saints from different parts of North America.

House Church Sunday Meeting – Part 1

House Church Sunday Meeting – Part 2