Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor - exAdventist Outreach

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DISCOVERING THE NEW COVENANT
whole new level. We also became a part of a church in our
area that had a dynamic prayer ministry. This little church
adopted us and poured love and acceptance into our lives.
We started going to the church during the week for prayer
and discovered anew the healing power of prayer. The fear
and wounds of the rejection that we had been experiencing
melted away when God’s people surrounded us in prayer.
The joy of the Lord in our hearts started blossoming as never
before. Soon we were serving in that prayer ministry and
discovering new depths of prayer and walking in the Spirit
that we had never tapped into before. Every day our joy in
the Lord grew in spite of our circumstances. Our whole
worship experience began to deepen. Soon we were asking
ourselves why we had missed all of this joy while in the
SDA church.
The answer came one day while I was studying
Galatians. (I just couldn’t get enough of Galatians!) In
Chapter 4 the Apostle Paul writes about the blessing of Isaac
versus the blessing of Ishmael. As long as Law is in the
picture, there is bondage. But when we truly let go of Law
and move into grace, we begin to experience the blessing and
laughter (Isaac means laughter) of Isaac. The Holy Spirit is
so gentle. He does not push Himself on any one. When we
hold onto Law, He is still with us. He is just limited in how
much He can do in our lives. But when we let go of Law and
trust Him fully, He is released in greater power into our
lives. Does this make us less sincere in our walk with the
Lord? Absolutely not! We find ourselves more careful to
follow Him, but our focus is no longer on the Law but on
Jesus. The joy of the Lord becomes our strength!
After those seven and one half months, God opened a
door for us to serve in a new church plant in Hagerstown,
Maryland. The church is sponsored by the Brethren in Christ,
an open-minded evangelical denomination with a heart for
church planting. The church is now almost three years old.
At the time of this writing, I am working with the planting