And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus’ famously commanded us to go and make disciples and then He instructed us how to make disciples. He gave us two key words:

1. Baptize
2. Teach

Baptize means to immerse, throughly soak and saturate. This month we’ve been talking about “Intimacy”, and how much more intimate can you get than being completely saturated in someone. In order to make disciples, followers of Jesus, we must build immersive communities. Most churches are “sprinkle” communities. You show up and get briefly sprinkled by other people’s lives. Relationships remain superficial and at best shallow. Think about that… What does an immersive community look like?

Next Sunday is Father’s Day so we’re going to hear from some of our Wellspring dads. I asked a few of our men to reflect on two questions:

• What does it mean to be immersed in the name of the Father?
• As natural fathers, what does it mean to immerse your children in your name?

I can’t wait to hear their thoughts. Join us on Sunday. Let’s celebrate our Heavenly Father and our natural fathers, and let’s continue raising up spiritual fathers in Wellspring. The world NEEDS fathering like never before!

Let’s grow together!
Matt

Matt Neese
Wellspring.Live

DAILY WORD FOR JUNE 16, 2021

In John 20:22, Jesus breathed on His followers and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 1:8, He says to His followers, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The same Holy Spirit is in both references and the same Greek word is used for “receive” (to lay hold of by aggressively accepting what is offered), but what is being received and how it is received is different.

In the first, Jesus breathed and the followers inhaled. The Holy Spirit was given to all who would receive and He would inhabit them and make the mind of Christ available to them, leading them into Truth. To those who seized the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit, another level was coming and with it another opportunity to aggressively take hold of something from heaven. In the first, the Holy Spirit was received into the follower. In the second, the Holy Spirit would come upon the follower and dynamite power was received by the follower. In both cases, something glorious and wonderful is made available and it is up to the person to lay hold of what is offered by aggressively accepting it.

The first seizing enables us to live for Christ and the second seizing enables (powerfully empowers) us to die for Christ. The power made available through the Holy Spirit coming upon us is for the purpose of being a “witness”. In the Greek, this word is what we get “martyr” from. When we are dead to this world, we’re no longer constrained by its rules and possibilities. We take hold of the power to fully surrender to the miraculous mission of God and operate as His divine agents. As Paul wrote (Philippians 3:8 NLT), “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.”

• 6/16 Deuteronomy 14, Psalm 17, I Chronicles 16, Acts 1
• 6/17 Deuteronomy 15, Psalm 18, I Chronicles 17, Acts 2:1-13
• 6/18 Deuteronomy 16, Psalm 19, I Chronicles 18, Acts 2:14-47
• 6/19 Deuteronomy 17, Psalm 20, I Chronicles 19, Acts 3
• 6/20 Deuteronomy 18, Psalm 21, I Chronicles 20, Acts 4:1-22
• 6/21 Deuteronomy 19, Psalm 22, I Chronicles 21, Acts 4:23-37
• 6/22 Deuteronomy 20, Psalm 23, I Chronicles 22, Acts 5:1-16
• 6/23 Deuteronomy 21, Psalm 24, I Chronicles 23, Acts 5:17-42

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