Spiritcode

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES PART 2

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES PART 2

Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.

Last week we spoke about the witness in the stars for signs, and today we are looking at the witness of the stars for times. When God proclaimed, "Let there be light," He initiated not only the existence of matter but also the unfolding of space and time itself. He had created an energy outside of his spiritual energy, the energy of light, the closest natural energy that can be compared and contrasted to his all-powerful Spiritual energy

Created light preceded the matter that was created to become the universe of galaxies of stars, and what lies between us and the stars is not just time and space, but an immense delay of emptiness and silence that stretches across time because sound cannot travel where there are no particles to transmit it. Time is limited by the speed of light, and space is also measured by that. One light-year is approximately 9.46 trillion kilometres. With a Hubble telescope we could see a protostar heat up and eventually ignite, and we would say it is a new star, but what we observe is in fact very very old. 
What we see and touch in our immediate temporal world is a familiar instant, close and graspable reality, but the stars teach us about the waiting and silence of time delay and that becomes a parable concerning our faith, as we shall see.

The Bible describes God’s essential nature as two things; God is light and God is love.
The power of the energy of God’s light brought into being the material and temporal world of matter with its beauty of created order. But the power of God as light is also truth which speaks into our spirit, and the spiritual energy of God’s light is not limited to time and space – It is everywhere at the one time. 

The power of the energy of God’s love brought into being the lifeblood of relational harmony and unity and goodness and blessing to all mankind through Jesus. 
For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son… (John 3:16)

I have two questions.
Why do we experience the delay time of God’s instant presence with us when we know he is there within us? 
Why do we experience an apparent distance between God and us even though we know he is closer than our own thoughts?

Regarding the delay time of presence - it does not take God time to get to us, nor does it take us time to get to God. 
The delay occurs because it takes time for us to get away from our soul self, and into our true spiritual self in Christ. We have taught our soul to live in the immediate temporal world, which is always instant, close and graspable. But the stars teach us a parable about the waiting of delay time, and the delay time is the often reluctant yielding of our soul life to our faith-ready spirit life. Putting off our old soul self and being renewed in the mind of our spirit and putting on the New Creation spirit self. (Ephesians 4:20)

Regarding the apparent distance between us and God - Our soul self lives in self-consciousness, which makes us aware of our own insufficiency of falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That makes a separation between us and God (Isaiah 59:2) but it does not make a separation between God and us – he is always close. He says I will have mercy upon your unrighteousness, and your iniquities I will remember no more! (Hebrews 10.16)
The Bible tells us to exchange our idea of our self as an unlovable self, for God’s idea of us as his deeply loved child (1John 3:20) who grows into his likeness because of his love for us. Our self-serving soul life should not be allowed to take the mastery over our true spiritual reality as partakers of the divine nature - ‘God with us’. Our choice to receive.
Sometimes the honest thing to say is ‘I find that hard to do - Please help me Lord’.
We can trust that God’s plans are unfolding in our lives even in the midst of our own doubts and mistakes and suffering and the attacks of darkness upon us. 
David said in Psalm 139 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your intentional thoughts about me, O God (rêa). They cannot be numbered! (Psalms 139:16)

So there is a book about each one of us with our name on it and there are special times of grace arranged by God that he has purposed for us - to receive as an act of his sovereign grace or to access by persistent faith (Romans 5:2). There are two kinds of times in the Bible –Chronos time – clock time, with its seconds and minutes and hours and years of ordinary day-to-day time, and Kairos time - special times of grace arranged by God that he has purposed for us. Jesus lived in both Chronos time and Kairos time like all of us. Not everything in the everyday clock time life of Jesus needs to be in the Bible because the Bible is not just a history book but a book of revelation and faith and purpose. And so it is with us - God’s book about us is not just a history book but a narrative of the eternal milestones of purpose and meaning that he has planned for our lives. How many milestone opportunities have we missed? There are things we can do. It is called REDEEMING THE TIME

Ephesians 5:15 See that you live diligently, redeeming (getting back) the time (Kairos) because the days are evil.
I believe that we are living in a time when God is restoring his Kairos occasions for us that we may have lost or neglected throughout the Chronos minutes and years of our busy everyday lives. But the Bible says that God restores those years (Joel 2:25) – not in clock time but the times of his Kairos purpose and meaning to us through the work of God’s grace through the Holy Spirit. This grace can abound sovereignly in special times of the outpouring of God’s Spirit as at Pentecost and at times of spiritual refreshing in sovereign moves of the Holy Spirit. But we can also access this grace through our faith (Romans 5:2) That is for all of us – all of humanity – his grace includes his forgiveness to us and the restoration of his eternal purposes for us. This is what brings a renewed connection with God and the healing of our souls. 

We can’t get all our Chronos years back – they’re gone, but we can miraculously get the lost Kairos opportunities restored in a few Chronos weeks or months – and I’m seeing that happen in people in these times. The Apostle Paul saw one Kairos moment restore his entire past on the road to Damascus, and then he learned to manage living in both time frames in perfect harmony. God’s word from heaven shines upon us to unveil a life of fulfilment in God. It is time to let God begin to rewrite our narrative and we will have so much to be thankful for, living in a new spiritual energy not an old natural energy. 

I have found the following pathway of redeeming the time helpful   So note the Scriptural references. Every moment of chronos time is filled with something. But when we interrupt our busy clock time and ask God to awaken us to the present moment Kairos energy of loving partnership with him, we let God rewrite his eternal events back into our life. This waiting on God and waiting for God takes practice. Each moment of time belongs to God, and it is filled with his love for us – not because he just decided to do it because we turned up – no it is the very nature of God that his energy of love and light fills every moment of time.

We start to see by faith that the waiting time is not passive but active, being filled with the supernatural unseen activity of God, bringing his loving eternal purpose and meaning into ordinary daily things, even loss and suffering. 
I find it helpful to pray in this way. ‘Thank you for your loving presence Lord, and the powerful work that you are doing on my behalf in the world of the unseen’

That kairos consciousness invites us into living in him through Christ living in us. 
There are two delays - one is the delay of detachment from self-consciousness in our soul into our true spirit conscious self - this is what the ‘Healing of the Soul’ course is about, moving from the soul to the spirit - and the second delay is the delay of the eventual manifestation of Gods activity. We can bridge that first delay through faith and grace, but only God is in charge of the second delay of the manifestation of his activity. Paul speaks of having faith for God’s love to fill us and of how that brings the manifestation of God’s extravagant good will into our lives and glorifies His name in the earth.

Ephesians 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Only He who is able to manifest such exceedingly great goodness is in charge of how and when he does that – and we wait in that glorious hope, day by day, and moment to moment. We discussed redeeming the time and I said we could interrupt the clock time but it’s not about snatch and grab if we’ve got a couple of spare moments here and there. 

No, it is setting aside time purposefully to practice the renewing of the spirit of the mind and learning to use the new operating system that God has spiritually equipped us with through the Holy Spirit, understanding God’s idea of who we are. And sometimes it can seem like a waste of time but it’s not. Our spirit will rise, as the Bible says They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up with wings as eagles, they will run and not be weayl they will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). Teach us Lord to wait.
We can put that into practice exchanging the soul life for the Spirit life, our time into God’s time, his energy into our effort. Amen.

Paul O’Sullivan  -  pauloss@icloud.com

 

 

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES

WRITTEN IN THE STARS FOR SIGNS AND TIMES
Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.

Ancient Egypt and Babylon were the first civilizations to study the stars, and in Babylon around the time of the birth of Jesus, some wise men called Magi, who were scholars and astronomers noticed something extraordinary in the heavens. For centuries the Magi (where our word magic comes from) had studied the Jewish prophecies passed down during Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and those prophesies included the foretelling of a Messiah. When an unusually bright convergence of planets began to shine as an apparent brilliant star in the eastern sky, they interpreted it as the sign of a great ruler’s birth. 
The Bible says that the stars speak forth the knowledge of God, and we see that that includes the birth of Jesus. 
Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God and his splendour is written in the stars. Day after day utters knowledge and the night sky unveils knowledge to us all. Their instruction (qaw - rule) has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. - The life of Jesus, as the Word astonishingly revealed in the heavenly stars. 
And God said to Job, ‘Can you lay out Mazzaroth (from Nazar – divine purpose - Strongs Concordance says the 12 signs of the Zodiac- the path or the way) Do you know the ordinances (prescribed arrangement) of the heavens? Can you ordain their authority over the earth? (Job38:32)

The Godly significance of this cannot be ignored or dismissed. But this knowledge was corrupted in ancient times, firstly through idolatry to the Egyptian sun god Ra where calculations of the positions of the stars was used for the building and usage of the pyramids. And the popular use of the zodiac in today’s world is associated with superstition and fortune telling. Counterfeiting is robbery - robbing God of glory for the trickery of man.
But in the Babylonian main temple depictions of the zodiac reveal archaeological findings that the zodiac was associated with the biblical Tower of Babel. indicating that the current naming of the constellations was of Babylonian origin thought to be around 500 years BC – this roughly coincides with Daniel’s ministry to the king during the captivity of Israel and the Bible says that Daniel was ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm(Daniel 1:20). I am only joining Scriptural dots there and inferring the Daniel connection, and there is no solid historical documentation of various other cultures and constellation names.

Remarkably however, the original twelve Babylonian constellations start with the sign of Virgo and end with the sign of Leo. The depiction of Virgo is a sphinx, with the face of a woman and the body of a lion, a clue to the beginning and end points of the life of Jesus, representing the virgin birth and Jesus returning as the Lion of Judah to complete the message of the Gospel - because remarkedly again the 12th zodiac sign is that of Leo the lion. The constellations in between tell the astounding story of the life and ministry of Jesus for humanity. The second sign is Libra, the scales that weigh humanity in the balance after the creation of Adam, followed by Scorpio, denoting the fall of mankind through the attack of darkness upon humanity. We may look at the compelling story of the other constellations more closely at another time. Back to the Christmas story.

The Magi (and the Bible doesn’t say how many) set out on a long journey westward to where this bright star shone. The Gospel of Matthew says In the days of Herod the king, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it arose and have come to worship him (Matthew 2:1).
Their inquiries about the “new king of the Jews” reached the ears of Herod the Great, the local ruler appointed by Rome, and he feared that this child might threaten his dynasty, a potential Messiah heralding a kingdom that could upend his tenuous grip on power. He called in his scribes, demanded answers, and they pointed to the ancient prophecy of Micah, which pinpointed Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah. pretence, Herod craftily met the Magi, urging them to locate the child and report back so he could “worship” him too. 
The Wise Men continued following the radiant star, and Matthew writes ‘And when they were come into the house (oikia – family house – there is no mention of a  stable in the bible, only a manger – feeding trough), they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:’ (Matthew 2:11). Inside, the wise men found the child, Jesus, with Mary and Joseph. And they reverently knelt and worshipped him, presenting gifts of profound spiritual significance:
Gold – Godly stewardship of material and entrusted with the spiritual. (Luke 16:11)
Frankincense - prayer and presence and spiritual devotion. (Psalm 141:2)
Myrrh - sharing the sacrificial suffering of Jesus for self and others. (Philippians 3:10).

Warned in a dream by an angel not to return to Herod, the Magi quickly departed, and then the same angel appeared to Joseph, instructing him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. Herod was furious at being outwitted, and he ordered the massacre of all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two, just as Pharoah ordered the massacre of all male children at the time of the birth of Moses. Pharoah, like Herod feared for his own dynasty, and Moses became the deliverer/saviour of Israel and here Jesus became the deliverer/saviour of the world.
But Herod died soon after, and an angel appeared to Joseph again, instructing him to return to Israel. But learning that Herod’s cruel son, Antipas, ruled Judea, Joseph was wary, and was guided by the angel to lead his family to Nazareth in Galilee. 

The journey of the Wise Men is prophetic of the precision of how God’s purposes unfold in our lives also, even in the midst of our own mistakes and frailties and suffering and attacks of darkness. Just as the life of Jesus was written in eternity, God has eternally written the narrative of our lives also. David said in Psalm 139 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! (Psalms 139:16).

God told Abraham that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky (Genesis 22:17). The sand represents Israel, of the earth, and the stars represent the Holy Spirit in the lives of multitudes of believers. So just as the witness of the stars was a witness of the life of Jesus, the Bible says that the witness of the brightness of the stars is a witness to the measure of the life of God on display in our lives as well. 

Daniel 12:3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the expanse of the heavens, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

1 Corinthians 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies (soma - entities or things) and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star 
differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The bodily state of being is sown in decay and raised in immortality, it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. 

The Sun is seen symbolically as the Father, and the Moon is seen as Jesus who reflected the light of the sun. The stars are seen as the Holy Spirit within our lives, from one measure of transformation into the likeness of Jesus to the next – from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18 All of us, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The more we consciously behold Jesus by faith, in our lives here on earth, the more we become transformed to become like him. The way we are told to measure our faith in this life involves how much we know and understand the love of God for us, and how much we live a life of his love to others (1John 3:17-18). 
Paul describes the transformation process for our lives. 
Ephesians 3:22 put off your old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds (repentance), and to put on the New Creation self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
This process is one of moving from our old self reality which is based on our idea of who we are to moving to our new creation reality in Christ, which is God’s idea of who we are. We will feel insufficient in ourselves and our own strength as we go through times of trial and suffering, but his loving presence is always with us, and that depends on our faith in God’s idea of who we are not on our idea, or how we feel. 
2 Corinthians 4:6-7 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the presence of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; That new mindset of faith in being partakers of the divine nature of God is the good news of the Gospel. And knowing that and believing that is our salvation.
Paul OSullivan - pauloss@me.com

 

THE INN CROWD

PRELUDE TO THE INN CROWD

I spoke a couple of weeks ago about how God always steps in at critical times when God’s people are ready to come into a greater fullness of what God has prepared for them from the beginning. Just as he did with setting Israel free from their 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven he prophesied that in the last days before his second coming that Israel would be hated by all nations.                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Matthew 24:5 … you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake (happening now). And then many will be offended and will betray one another, and will hate one another (happening now). Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many (happening now). And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold (happening now). But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (happening now), and then the end will come.
 
My prayer is that Australia will be a nation that will not hate Israel. It will mean a wake up call to our nation, which has failed in the last three years in curbing or disciplining the open displays of hatred towards Israel from their historical Middle East persecutors – and in our very own streets of Terra Australis – In 1606 the a Portuguese explorer, Pedro Ferdinand de Queros named the region La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo The Southland of the Holy Spirit - the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit. This may be a time when God is calling the Church to be in prayer for Israel.
I have looked at a couple of Scriptures over the years concerning the land of the South. I don’t have a revelation of this, but I ponder these Scriptures. I always come from a place of believing that nothing is written that does not have significance – I then ask God to reveal any significance in his time and in his way. I’ll submit these two Scriptures for you to look at. Jesus said 
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation (houtos – this or that) and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
That of course applies to that generation in the time of Jesus, but it also applies to the last days when Paul said that because of deceitful signs and wonders even the elect might be deceived (2Thessalonians 2:9). As in most cases the word of warnings apply to both Israel and the Church. (1Corinthians 10:11)
Also Zechariah 9:14 Then the LORD will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet,And go with whirlwinds from the south. The LORD of hosts will defend them;
And today, we find ourselves in a similar season of crisis in the earth when global darkness has never been darker upon a world of uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. But in these times of empty-but-full silence, God speaks Suddenly - God’s people wait with hope as God is stirring the hearts of His people to hear his voice, knowing that God is never silent without purpose. Our silence can also be purposeful, and our waiting is with hope and faith that God is at work in reordering all things. 
God waits to speak.
Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you

THE INN CROWD 
Caesar Augustus as the emperor of Rome decreed that a census be held so that everyone in the empire could be taxed according to their property ownership and other possessions. They all had to go to their place of birth to be registered so Joseph who was of the house and lineage of King David had to take Mary to Bethlehem, to his family home. The Scriptures had prophesied that the true King of Peace would be born in Bethlehem at that very time, in a small village nearly five thousand miles distance from the palace of Caesar Augustus in Rome. And we read the amazing prophecy of Micah, over seven hundred years earlier that declared that Bethlehem would be the place of the birth of Jesus.

Micah 5:2. O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!” God will allow his people to become subject to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last these fellow countrymen—the exile remnants of Israel—will rejoin their nation in their own land. And he (The Son) shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall remain there safely, for he will be greatly honoured all around the world. He will be our Peace. 

Joseph and Mary were sent to the right place at the right time for the birth of Jesus, fulfilling the seven-hundred-year-old prophesy of his birthplace, and becoming the King of Peace.
Joseph walked beside the donkey that carried his wife. He was getting weary, and the journey was tiresome for Mary, and he knew he had to get his wife to the place of his family’s household and out of the cold, and the time was getting close for her to give birth. They finally arrived at the family home where they were warmly welcomed and invited inside. The dwelling complex was the usual cluster of rooms surrounding a central courtyard and it became clear to Joseph that the house was overcrowded, and that all the guestrooms were occupied. The word for guestroom in the Bible is kataluma, and this is the word for ‘Inn’, as in Luke 22:11 which states in the narrative that ‘There was no room at the Inn’. So we are not talking about two travellers trying to book into a local tavern that had already filled its quota in such a busy season, and they did not have to go and look for a stable in some paddock up the road. What the story is saying is that Joseph and his wife would have to stay in the stable of the family home, downstairs, in that warm place where the animals slept and fed. 
Joseph saw the signs of the oncoming birth in the drawn face and the discomfort in Mary’s eyes and he settled her as quickly and gently as he could.  Then Mary gave birth to her child, and a baby cried its baby cry as it entered the world. Father’s joy in heaven would be echoed by Joseph in the earth, and he would now adopt the role of the child’s earthly father. 
On earth it was the natural and familiar scene of new birth. In the universe it was the most supernatural of any birth in history. It was also ordained that this birth would become the most celebrated event for all time, being celebrated annually by millions upon billions down through the ages, many of whom have scarce idea of what is really being celebrated.

Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star reached its zenith and was lighting up the entire night sky. The shepherds looked up in wonder at this light and suddenly the lights of shining angels dazzled them, and they became terrified and ran and huddled together. The Angel Gabriel appeared above them, sent to tell them of the birth of Jesus. He told them not to be afraid, and that he had great and marvellous news for them, for all the world to hear. He told them that they would find a child, the Newborn King of the universe, God the Saviour, wrapped in simple clothing in a nearby stable. Suddenly Gabriel was joined by a multitude of angels as the brilliant night sky resounded with their voices singing, and they listened enraptured at the magnificent words. “The glory of God is being seen in the heavens, and his love and goodness is creating a new era of peace for all mankind.” The angelic song about this new creation in the world was the magnificent sequel to the angels’ song of the first creation of the world as we read in the book of Job after God challenges Job and says ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:4,7,8).

When the angels’ singing had stopped, the shepherds were guided to the place where this extraordinary event was taking place in the earth. These simple shepherds became the emissaries to the world of the birth of this king of kings, this child, and all who heard them were astounded and amazed.

A great light shone upon a newborn child who would bring light into this world, to every person born into this world (John 1:9). And this light would be contested by darkness as always, but the conflict now rose to a new height. Time waited for the outcome, the verdict, the final encounter between light and darkness on a cross that would come one dark and stormy day. Time would wait until Father was ready, then this light would be released into the earth with the power to overcome darkness in every single life of faith.

God with us means more than just alongside us. It means he is within and through our being, and more than that, we are within and through his being. Jesus had declared this mystery of the human/ Divine intersection of life and being when he prayed to the Father in front of the  disciples “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:22)
This Divine intersection of our being with God is how we get to ‘know God’. The Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit the mind and words of Jesus, and we ‘see and know’ Jesus in this way. Faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. 
1John 2:27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need to learn another person’s personal perception of God to know what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
This does not mean we disregard Scriptural teaching. This Scripture simply makes alive and real the personal and individual whisper of God into our spirit as the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need in any given situation and at any given time. That is what Jesus accomplished for us. That becomes the light to our path allowing us to express our unique and truest self in the best possible way. That is our faith.
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated within this understanding. We need to understand the story of the human beginning of Jesus. We also need to know the story of his redeeming work in the earth and we need to knowthe story of his death and resurrection, in order to know him and love him and serve him and become one with him forever. Amen.

Paul O’Sullivan  - pauloss@icloud.com

A PREGNANT SILENCE

A PREGNANT SILENCE
Many times, God has spoken after long periods of silence. There were 400 years of silence after the prophet Malachi spoke in the last book of the Old Testament, and then John the Baptist and Jesus were supernaturally born into the earth. there were also 400 years of silence during the time of Israel’s slavery in Egypt under Pharoah until God spoke to Moses to set his people free and prepare to journey into the promised land. The number 400 in the Bible speaks of these seasons of Pregnant Silence, which can be described as a time of silence when all communication is suspended and that time feels both empty and yet strangely full, filled with anticipation that something important is about to be spoken or revealed.

For about four thousand years after Adam when Jesus was born the earth had suffered under the weight of its brokenness. Humanity was lost, unable to heal itself. Suspicion and hostility toward Father God, sown by Lucifer, had led to a distorted view of God in the earth, and many saw Him as distant and judgmental, and even Judaism opposed itself from within through doctrines of legalism and hypocrisy and pride. This distancing of Israel from the love and grace of God caused Jesus to tell them at that time that they had ‘missed their day of visitation’ (Luk 19:44). 
Galilee of the Gentiles was the battlefield of good against evil and of light against darkness, as Isaiah had prophesied concerning the birth of Jesus as the light out of darkness and the new birth of life out of death.
In Galilee of the Gentiles the people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2. 
God had a greater answer—not a set of rituals or rules, but Himself. Jesus, as God and man, would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. He would step out of eternity and into time, exchanging pure Spirit existence for divine/human existence as the first New Creation Being in the earth. In this great mission, the Holy Spirit played an essential role. The Holy Spirit partnered with Jesus, sharing every moment of His earthly life. This partnership ensured that the Holy Spirit too would intimately experience human existence. After Jesus completed His mission, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of revealing God’s love - and drawing humanity into communion with the Divine so that we too could become a New Creation in Christ.

To begin this new chapter, God sent a divine Spiritual seed into the earth, choosing Mary, a young and humble woman, to receive it. The angel Gabriel appeared to her, announcing that she had been chosen to become pregnant and bear the God-child Jesus, and he reassured her that this was God’s will. Although Mary was initially confused, having never been with a man, Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, and she would conceive a child by divine power, and Mary, in faith and humility, responded, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph and in the cultural context of Mary and Joseph, betrothal was a formal, legal agreement between families, often formalized with a written contract (ketubah) and the couple was considered legally married, but if there was a breach of honour to that contract, either party could initiate divorce proceedings. 

When Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant with child, he was deeply troubled, but he resolved to act with compassion, planning to quietly divorce her (Matthew 1:19). However, the angel Gabrielle also appeared to him in a dream, telling him that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save His people from their sins. Joseph obeyed the angel’s command, and he took Mary as his wife.

Six months earlier a priestly prophet named Zechariah was told by the same angel Gabrielle that his wife Elizabeth who was beyond the age of childbearing, would also supernaturally give birth to a child and the child would be called John. 
Luke 1:17-20 … a child who would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. 
However, Zechariah could not believe this, so the angel said I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. 
This was another supernatural pregnancy and from this moment a supernatural pregnant silence occurred as the priestly prophet was struck dumb until the pregnancy was over and the baby John was born. Zecharia the priestly prophet being struck mute for a season of time was symbolic of Israel, who had not heard a prophetic voice since the prophecy of Malachi, the last prophet to speak until both John the Baptist and Jesus came to proclaim the supernatural birth of the Kingdom of God in the earth. 

Following Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah and Mary and Joseph, Mary journeyed to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who had been with child for six months, the baby John, who would prepare the way for Jesus. And the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb as the two sisters shared the wonder of their supernatural pregnancies. Elizabeth finally gave birth to her son, and it was assumed the child would be named Zechariah, after his father. However, Elizabeth insisted he be named John, and when questioned, Zechariah, who had been struck mute for doubting Gabriel’s prophecy, wrote the name John on a clay tablet and immediately, his voice returned, and he praised God. The silence was broken for all the world to hear God and have his presence amongst them. When John the Baptist began his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus, many in Israel believed that he was Elijah whom Malachi had prophesied about.
The final words of Malachi’s prophesy came from the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, and they declared that God would send the prophet Elijah before the coming of the Messiah and that he would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children. 
 and even Jesus said that John had come in the spirit of Elijah - This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. (Matthew 11)

And today, we find ourselves in a similar season of pregnant silence from Heaven upon a world that is rife with uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. Many voices in this global culture clamour for attention yet rarely do they bring clarity or wisdom. But in the midst of this time of empty-but-full silence, God’s people wait with expectant hope as God is stirring the hearts of His people to hear his voice and to awaken others and turn their hearts back to him. Just as John’s mission was to prepare the way for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is working in us who believe, to bring light and hope to the world. 

This preparation doesn’t rely on loud proclamations or dramatic gestures but on God’s people hearing his voice and responding with consistent acts of love and faith as he moves through our everyday lives inspiring us to reflect God’s mercy and truth in our daily interactions.
Zechariah’s regained voice reminds us that God’s word always comes at the appointed time. As we await a fresh movement of the Spirit, we can take comfort in knowing that God is never silent without purpose. Our silence can also be purposeful, and our waiting can be with hope and faith that God is at work in the world of the unseen on our behalf. The Bible says
Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1John 5:4)
We wait in silence, but that silence is pregnant with the faith of bringing to birth God’s will in our lives and in the Church. When His voice breaks through, it will be with clarity, cutting through the confusion of the world. We wait to hear and God waits to speak.
Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Malachi prophesied before the 400 years of silence that God would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children before his return – in the days his first coming to Israel - and in the days of his second coming into the world. Today this means that there will be a grace upon families that will become reunited in the love of God and one another. This promise remains true for us today. In the midst of the darkness of today’s world of chaos, the light of God’s love is beginning to shine. As we choose to live in that love and its light, we will witness the hand of God bringing order out of chaos and bringing unity, hope, and peace to people in our own personal world. Amen

Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@me.com

 

 

THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS BUT GOD'S

THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS BUT GOD'S

The Bible gives the account of God speaking to King Jehoshaphat, who was a faithful king – the fourth king of Judah, and he was about to go into battle against the enemy, which was an ungodly alliance (I’m using that term from time to time today) of the armies of Ammon and Moab and Mt.Seir. 2Chronicles 20:17. You will not need to fight in this battle for the battle is not yours, but God's. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you.”

In that battle of Jehoshaphat’s, that army was about to attack Israel to prevent them from entering into their inheritance of the promised Land. Earlier on, Israel were told not to attack these three nations when they first came out of Egypt. However God always steps in at critical times when God’s people are ready to come into the fullness of what God has prepared for them from the beginning. The people of Israel were in fear and terror and Jehoshaphat cried out to God ‘O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

The Bible goes on to say ‘And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush (âra? - to lie in wait and destroy) against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were destroyed.  God set the divided kingdoms of the enemy against one another (ungodly alliances turn against one another).
For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, and destroyed them first, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.’
So by the time Israel appeared on the scene ready for battle there were dead bodies everywhere and the fight was all over, and it took Israel three days to gather up all the spoil from the treasuries of the opposing armies. 
I believe we are living in a time such as this for the Church as the rebellion of ungodly alliances of darkness against the light of God’s people has also begun to reach its peak.
In ancient times, and up to the time of Jesus people worshipped a multitude of different gods and therefore could never agree on anything. There were no athiests. Today there are atheists but people have invented their own gods, or their own images or ideologies of what they believe will give them everything they want in life.

Over the last decade or more a cultural slogan called DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion has become a rule for social and sometimes educational and political and corporate life. If done in a godly way this slogan has a lot of merit, as diversity is an accepted fact of life, and equity means an appropriate sharing of privilege (it doesn’t mean equality), and inclusion means inclusion. Nothing wrong with that.
But when done in an ungodly selfish way, individuals or groups of people compete to be more diverse or different than anything ever seen or heard of before and demand to be applauded for their choices it can put a strain on the fragile cultural window of tolerance and confusion and resentment starts happening everywhere. Equity then becomes I/we want to be more equal than most other people and want to enjoy every privilege that other people have without responsibly earning or paying for or deserving. 

The ungodly nature of the DEI slogan is because it was based on an unspoken agreement in our culture to reject traditional Western values of Christianity which stood for a creator God with authority over human affairs through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Traditional values such as family order, freedom of speech, and obedience to the Commandments have been despised and rejected. This has caused ungodly alliances to form, and become set against one another, just as with King Jehosophat where God set the divided kingdoms of the enemy against one another (ungodly alliances turn against one another). DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion then devolves over a short time into division, inequity, and exclusion (DIE). Identity groups compete for priority of privilege and within what looked like a united front of many identity groups fragments into different splinter groups cancelling one other out and leaving more conflict and hostility in society than there was in the first place. 
We might think that what is happening today is something new, but it isn’t, as we have seen with King Jehoshaphat, and Paul sums up the rebellious attitude of today’s culture when he wrote over two thousand years ago in Romans.
Romans 1:19-28 (Message Bible)
By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what normal eyesight can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap statuettes you can buy at any roadside stall.
So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us.
Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless.
Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives and they ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

The basis for Christian unity, a Godly Alliance, is found in Ephesians 4:1 walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Paul sums up the Church’s confidence in our unity of trust in God’s power on our behalf.
1 Corinthians 8:4 we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge;

Israel did physical warfare – we do spiritual warfare. We can receive peace from God, knowing that he alone can subdue all things to himself (Philippians 3.x) including the hearts of people, and that he is the creator God who alone can bring order out of chaos, and who speaks light into darkness. And as Paul explains in Ephesians 6:10 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the times of evil, and having done all, to stand. We do not fight against people but against dark spirits called principalities, which are social demographic regions where the culture of states and cities is expressed. We also wrestle against powers that buffet our personal souls. We wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this age, that means the darkness that is influencing the collective mindsets and ideologies and attitudes of the global atmosphere that exists in this time of worldwide crisis. 
 
Paul writes about our strategic spiritual defensive pieces of armour such as a ‘helmet of salvation’ protecting the mind and thoughts, and he talks about a spiritual breastplate over the heart that protects us from fear. The head and the heart are the two most vulnerable parts of the body in warfare, and in spiritual terms the mind is the stronghold to where darkness directs his primary attack. We are directed in the Scriptures to bring our thoughts captive to the present moment that contains the ever-present presence of God with us through the indwelling Holy Spirit who reveals the reality of the power of Jesus to reorder our lives.This is being renewed in the spirit of our minds. We magnify the reality of God’s supernatural activity above the unreality of our anxious imaginations about everything that might go wrong. 
 
The other vulnerable area is our heart. That is where either fear or faith can dwell. Darkness fires darts of doubt and fear into this stronghold of our relationship with God, and we are given a shield of faith to protect ourselves from this kind of attack. The very areas that satan seeks to attack you are the areas of your strength as you enter this new season - and because you have paid a price and kept going, God is giving you access to the next step in your destiny - a short climb to the next place of rest and refreshment, where God will bring healing to the wounds the enemy may have inflicted you with.
Paul also mentions spiritual weapons, like the sword, which speaks of the word of God. 

The people under Jehoshaphat were told to ‘Position yourselves, stand still, and see, and to fear not.’ We Position ourselves – Our position is as partners together with God. We are partakers of his Divine nature - Joint Heirs together with Jesus. We do not earn this – it is a gift of God’s grace. But we dare not neglect it.
We stand still – We come into a place of readiness and alertness in our spirit, not passively but actively - mindful of the now moment of God’s ever-present presence with us. We See - That is seeing God at work by faith in the world of the unseen, as opposed to seeing things happen the way Israel did at the ambushing of the enemies in Jehoshaphat’s battle. Our outward ‘seing’ will come if we have been inwardly ‘seeing’ by faith. That lifts us into a present moment assurance of the greatness and goodness of God, and we magnify God’s greatness above our own weakness – ‘For The Lord your God is with you’. Amen

PRESENCE PRAYER AND MINDFULNESS

PRESENCE PRAYER AND MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness can be described as the practice of paying attention, with an intention, and in the present moment. So mindfulness is a key aspect of Presence Prayer.
God Is mindful towards us and that is where the original concept of mindfulness came from. 
Hebrews 2:6 What is man, that you are mindful of him (mnaomai), or the son of man, that you care for him? This Scripture is quoting David in Psalm 8:4-6 and is speaking of the Father being mindful of Jesus but it is ultimately speaking of God being mindful of all of humanity. 

People in our Western culture use mindfulness as a practice for sharpening their focus of attention in the present moment for doing productive things or for engaging in leisure or creative skills, and also as a form of emotional therapy for staying calm in times of stress. It has generally become a psychological discipline that is useful for finding some order in a busy and agitated world. That is well and good and helpful, but it does not reach the highest goal of conscious mindfulness that God has prepared for us. 
Our mindfulness of God does more than just help us to pay attention to the inner space of what is meaningful in our life, it puts us in touch with the source of all meaning in our life, God himself. David also wrote of God’s initiative in this mindfulness. 
How precious are your thoughts (rêa – intentions, purposes) towards me, O God! How great is the sum of them! (Psalm139:17)

It was God who invented the practice of mindfulness and we can see that he is focussing his full attention upon us with an intention of seeing us becoming the person we were created to be from eternity, and in the eternal now present moment. And he wants us to get to know him and also to know that we are known by him – so it is a two-way thing -  God starts the process of mindfulness towards us and invites us to respond. When we complete the loving circle of mindfulness back to God it delights his heart, which yearns for that intimate connection (James 4:5 - The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. And right there begins a divine process of inner wholeness and transformation for us. (Romans 12:2 - being transformed by the renewing of the mind). So What becomes transformed is more than just our behaviour - it is the consciousness of who we really are in union with God through Jesus. When this consciousness is front and centre in our mind we become actively guided by his attentive gaze, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. (Psalm 32:8). We also read in Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the thoughts I have towards you, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’

God wants us to know that we are known. God wants to help us locate our known self within himself – and that is our inner source of power and love- the treasure in the earthen vessel. That is the wellspring, the fountain of living water. We can’t find it on our own, we are taken there by the Holy Spirit. 
John 16:14 he takes of what Jesus has said and of who Jesus is and reveals it to us. 

He takes us on this journey of mindful focus and intention. The Holy Spirit hears the cry of our heart which says; I want to know someone who really knows me and can help me find who I really am and who understands how I feel so that I can be who I really should be. That is powerful – and that is why David exclaimed ‘What IS man that you are mindful of him – are you that interested and focussed in me? – in us?
Our life as part of the human race, created to be part of God’s family is about knowing God and becoming KNOWN! – Known of God; Galatians 4.9. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world? 

When a person really feels heard they are tremendously grateful. They feel like saying – ‘how wonderful to know that someone is beginning to understand what it is like to be me’. And God says; ‘how wonderful that someone is beginning to want to know me and to be KNOWN by me’. And he then says My presence will go with you and I will give you rest, for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name. (Exodus 33:14) and also Behold, I have written your name on the palms of my hands; (Isaiah 49:16). 
We have to know we are being heard by a merciful God without being judged, condemned, or rejected for imperfect performance. This is because he knows we are serious about knowing Him. When we begin to understand this and believe this that we are known like this we enter into the healing  light of his lovingkindness where our darkness can be conquered. ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you to me.’ (Jeremiah 31:3)

We develop in the growth of mindfulness with God through the challenges of life. We each have different personal situations to contend with; relational, financial, self-worth, and general fears and anxieties. But the greatest challenge is not what the actual external situation is but the fear on the inside that needs to be faced and met with faith. Our state of mindful faith in these situations determines the quality of peace and stability in our personal lives. Otherwise, life becomes a series of reactions because we are not in that settled place of mindful faith within ourselves and this affects the quality of our wisdom in decision making and the ability to recover from the consequences of our mistakes and from the mishaps that happen unexpectedly. ‘be anxious for nothing, but talk to me about what your needs are, with hope and thanksgiving in your heart. And the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds…’ Philippians 4:6

When we are flowing in mindfulness with God we can not only find a place of peace within ourselves but a place of empowered faith in God that makes us more aware of his compassion for the pain and suffering for others that we know, so that we can touch his compassion and be more effective in providing help and care and prayer. In this way we can come together in many places as groups and gatherings of faith and love and care, being mindful of one another that we are all going through different things at different times at different levels, and being aware of a ‘faith safety net’ of common goodwill and care in the group. In this year of my own grief and loss and other difficulties I have felt that safety net of your intercessory prayer for me in this way.

In the Book of Joshua when Joshua prepared to take Isreal across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, he told the company of twelve priests (representing the twelve tribes) to carry the ark upon their shoulders across the flooding river (Joshua 3:8 – shoulders speak of representative authority and bearing burdens). The ark contained the presence of God, and the people were to follow this company at a distance of 2000 cubits. The priests were commanded to stand at the edge of the Jordan River and God said he would do a great miracle and drive out all their enemies before them. The people were told ‘When the priests who are carrying the Ark touch the water with their feet, the river will stop flowing as though held back by a dam and will pile up as though against an invisible wall all the way back to Adam!’ This was the work of God, not the work of the priests; all they had to do was to carry the ark, the presence of God, but they had to have faith that God would do the mighty miracle work in the world of the unseen. Their natural minds would have said ‘We are going to drown in there’, but they would have had no doubt that they were bearing the presence of God on behalf of all the people.

Then all the people crossed at a spot where the river was close to the city of Jericho, and the priests who were carrying the Ark stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan and waited as all the people passed by.
The people would never have entered into the Promised Land or entered into a new life under God where they could give thanks to have his spiritual blessings and his provision of fields and crops and houses. They had become used to struggling and straggling in the wilderness without hope or confidence – and now their time had come. But it required that the priests stood in the gap. Those priests who were 2000 cubits in front of the rest were a prophetic picture of Jesus as our High Priest overcoming darkness and death for us almost 2000 years ago on the cross so that we could enter into the fulness of the Promise of God in Jesus and could be included in his life, and his baptism in the Jordan river was a picture of his death and resurrection

Today we can be like those priests that stand in the gap for others, carrying the presence of God in our hearts for his supernatural working in the world of the unseen not only in our lives, but also in the challenging situations of those people in our world that we stand in the gap for. Everything about this battle is about celebrating victory rather than fearfully anticipating the dreadful sense of failure or helplessness – no, we expect the supportive and authoritative burden carrying power that God has given to each one of us, as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. So enter into the simplicity of this, it not complicated, and don’t expect to have to have some ecstatic feeling or experience of the presence of God – no it is by faith. You’ve heard all the Scriptures today, look them up. Know that this is the purposeful intention of God and know that he gave those priests a commandment to carry his presence for themselves and for the other people. At these times you may not feel very confident but you don’t need to have confidence in your own strength – it’s not you, it is simply knowing that God has placed the burden and the authority upon your shoulders but he is doing the supernatural work in his way and in his time, and we just give God thanks that he has included us in his loving mighty work. Thankyou Lord for this privilege, Amen.

Paul OSullivan – pauloss@me.com

 

THE HEALING OF THE SOUL AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITH SCOTT KARDASH

 

 

SCOTT KARDASH AT NBCC

Working with Paul over the last few years has been a real privilege for me, a real pleasure. And as you know, a lot of you have been with Paul for many, many years. And it's very rare to find somebody with a depth of wisdom and understanding of the Scriptures that Paul has. He has a real detailed recall and is able to connect dots across Scriptures in a way that I've never seen anyone else do it.

Paul approached me and said, you know, we were talking about just other things. And he said, "Oh, well, you'd really like to get something going with some podcasts to get some of these messaging out." I said, "Oh, yeah, I'd love to help you." And so we've put out two series to date, hopefully many more to come: Our Ten Commandments and The Healing of the Soul and the Life-Giving Spirit. And so today I wanted to put some of that in context. Actually, they are related. It's all on a very similar theme. And the theme is all around the Spirit who heals us and reshapes us.

But before I do, I might just mention briefly that for those that don't know, I did speak to Paul during the week. And he's recovering well from the operation. I think he's been home for a few days now. On Friday, he got home. And so he said things could be going as well as could be expected. That's really good news. I have a lot of faith for Paul's situation. I know we're all praying for him.

An Ancient Look at the Ten Commandments

In preparation for this, I did listen to Peter Carblis last week. You all here for that? Did you all hear Peter Carblis? I was very impressed with his ancient Greek. So I decided to one-up him and use an ancient manuscript. He used like modern Greek. He had lowercase. There's no lowercase of the original manuscripts. And I also decided to go for the Hebrew, not the Greek. So this is even older than the manuscripts he was relying on.

Now, would anybody like to give it a crack? Because I can't read it. No? Does anybody know what that might be? No. I didn't know either. I had to look it up. So it's the Ten Commandments. And this is probably the earliest manuscript we have of the Ten Commandments. And it was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And you can see they've got a numbering system, which is a bit mysterious until you realise that it's quite simple. 4, Q, 4, 1. 4 is the cave they found this scroll in. Q means Qumran, which is where the caves were. And 41 was the number that they registered the scroll. So there's nothing magical about the 41. It's just the one. They got two in that sequence.

And you can see that with these ancient manuscripts, they're actually quite different to the modern languages that we have. There's no punctuation. They have the same in the Greek. There's no punctuation. There are no spaces between words. They all run together. There's no chapters or verses. There's no vowels or accents. They call it the Tetragrammaton, which is Yahweh. It's always written out in full. In the New Testament, they contracted Jesus Christ, and they put a line above it. But in our Bibles, the Yahweh is always written as capital L-O-R-D, Lord. So in the Old Testament, you'll see where it's written Lord, capital letters, it's in the original, it's Yahweh. And they had very strict rules about how they created these scrolls, parchment and kosher animals. And of course, in Hebrew, it's right to left, not left to right. If you start on left and try to go to the right, you'd be in real trouble.

But maybe it's better that we deal with the English today. I know I find this a lot easier. The Old Testament law, and God was forming a new nation. And so they needed a set of commandments. And it was part of a covenant that God had with this new nation. He formed them out of nothing. This nation didn't exist. It was a miracle, really, where God spoke to Abraham. And from Abraham, he said, "I will bless through you all the families of the earth, all the nations."

He started with these commandments. He wrote them. He wrote them on two tablets of stone. He wrote them with his finger and gave them to Moses. Remember what happened then? Moses came down the mountain. And what were the Israelites doing? They were already rebellious and worshipping a calf that they'd made out of the gold. And so what Moses did, he smashed the Ten Commandments. They had to go back up and get a new set. The fact that they're on tablets of stone is quite important because where is the law written now? On our hearts.

And Jesus came to fulfill that. He came to fulfill the law. And he helped us understand that there are two commandments that actually summarize everything. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbour. And then he said, "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." That's a phrase which actually means the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures. He wasn't just talking about the Ten Commandments, he was talking about the entirety of the Scriptures. And in the New Testament, when you see the word Scriptures, it's referring to what we now call the Old Testament. So they're referring to the Old Testament. They were always talking about the Old Testament when they talked about Scriptures. And Jesus came to fulfill everything in that Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Purpose of the Law

So there's a purpose to the law, and the purpose is still around today. So you can see since the law comes, it produces a knowledge of sin. Have you seen those YouTube videos of Ray Comfort running around and interviewing? Has anybody seen him? And he convicts people through the law. He says, "Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen anything? Even something small?" And he's using the Ten Commandments because most people think they're good people. And they need to have something which exposes sin and to make them realize they need a Savior.

Paul tells us later on in Galatians, the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

And then Paul again says,

But God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin and the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

So there's an uplifting of the law, and that's what Jesus came to do.

From the Law of Stone to the Law of the Spirit

And then Jesus ascended. It always surprises me that the disciples spend their time in the Holy Spirit, and they walk in the Holy Spirit. They spend all this time with Jesus face to face, had no clue who he really was for most of that time. And even when he died, they all went back to fishing and they thought, what was that all about? And it wasn't until they saw him resurrected that they realized actually who he is and he's still alive today.

Jesus did ascend and there was a prophecy in Joel, which was fulfilled in Acts.

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh...

And I will give you a new heart. This is Ezekiel now.

And a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and to be careful to obey my rules.

We're seeing a transition here from outer to inner. And then this is a key passage here, and Paul actually talks about this a lot in the healing of the soul.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father. And he will give you another helper.

Who's the helper? The Holy Spirit.

...to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

And the disciples, they were terrified that Jesus is going to ascend and leave them all alone again. "No, no, no. Go back to Jerusalem and wait and I will send the Holy Spirit."

And then one of the most startling verses I think in the Bible,

...he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

For me, that's amazing that we are joined with our Creator through the Spirit and through our spirit, actually.

The Spirit of the Law: A New Perspective

So that now opens up a whole different view of the Ten Commandments. And this is where Paul has really made some interesting insights. And you can see the letter of the law is phrased in a very negative, "thou shalt not." Most of it's negative, but the spirit of the law in the New Testament enhancement of that is rephrased and uplifted in positive terms.

Take a few examples, "don't murder." The New Testament spirit of the law really is to say, is addressing the root of anger and unforgiveness to become an agent of reconciliation and peace. We're moved from avoiding murder to fostering life. And you see that the whole thing is flipped on its head.

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labour, that he might have something to give.

So we're moving from a taker to a productive giver.

"Don't tell lies, don't bear false witness." Speaking words of life that fill others' hearts. Not just avoiding literal falsehoods. So we're moving from avoiding deception to speaking truth in love. So can you see this transformation?

The other thing Paul has noticed is that each of these commandments are linked. They're not just a laundry list of commands. One actually leads to the other, and ten actually goes back to one. But if you go the other way, you have a diagnostic tool. So say you're having a problem with honouring your parents. You go back one, and it will help you. And there's probably an issue there that's resulting in a symptom in the next one. I won't go into any more depth than that. If you'd like to find out more, go to YouTube and just search on "uncreated ten commandments." And there's a playlist there of all of them. It goes into much more detail there.

Sanctification: The Process of Being Renewed

Now, we're moving to a Greek text. Can anyone read this? I'm not even sure whether Pete can, but that's all right. Well, I was going to whisper to Carlos when you need him. He would love to get into this. I bet he'd struggle with this one, mate. This is actually Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 23 to 24.

The truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

The new self is created in the likeness of God. Does anybody know what process this is describing? Think of justification, sanctification, glorification. This one here is a process, so justification, glorification, less of a process. This is talking about sanctification. That's the technical word for it.

Our Threefold Salvation: Spirit, Soul, and Body

There's a number of scriptures which talk about that. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because you will have heard Paul talk about, the three stages of being saved. In the past, our spirit has been saved—this is our justification. We can look at it this way with the spirit. And the soul is being saved, or sanctified. This is the process, which is a lifelong transformation process. And in the future, our bodies will be saved, or glorified.

Very tempting for us to separate these into three discrete entities, body, soul, and spirit. But in reality, that's very Greek thinking. Greeks used to like to separate everything into their parts. Hebrews liked to keep everything together as one entity, and they looked at different aspects of that one body.

This is a key verse that Paul has really lent on heavily for the healing of the soul. And it provides a lot of meaning around sanctification.

For you're receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation, or healing, of your soul.

So, the Greek word for salvation can be translated as healing. Most of our modern Bibles just call it salvation. But some of the earlier English Bibles really did translate it as healing or health. That's 1 Peter 1.9. But in reality, we are one person. And so, we have three aspects that work together to keep us whole.

How Spirit, Soul, and Body Work Together (Clip 1 with Paul O'Sullivan)

And so, I just wanted to now move on to having Paul tell us a little bit more about this. To answer the question, how do our spirit, soul, and body work together to shape our lives?

Paul O'Sullivan: Well, we've spoken about the spirit, and the soul, and the body. And there's three parts there. So, our whole being is tripartite, if you like, Paul. And it's interesting that God is a trinity, a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one making unity. And you said that the soul is both part of our inner life and part of our outer life. So, could you illustrate how the spirit, soul, and body work in harmony to shape our lives?

Well, if you draw three concentric circles, and you can see the diagram there, we can see that the body in the outer circle sends information to our souls from the outer circle of our outer world. There's a world out there, a sense world, a material world. And our spirit sends information from the innermost circle of our spirit into our souls. And our spirit is made up of our heart and our mind. So, there you've got parts. And there are divisions of working parts all working together. That's functional, but it's a design.

And all of that information from the spirit coming in from the deeper parts of the spirit and then coming outwards from the body inwards to the soul can be either helpful or harmful, whatever direction, whether it's coming from the spirit or coming out from the body. It can be good information or bad information. I mean, good things can come from the outside. Bad things can come too from what the body experiences and sees and feels. There can be traumas, all kinds of things.

And our spirit also sends information from the innermost circle on that diagram. And as I said, that's made up of the heart and the mind. And so the information from the spirit and from the body can be helpful or harmful, good or bad, true or false. And that can have a damaging effect upon the soul, that expresses everything that it receives from the body and the spirit. It doesn't say, "Oh, look, I'll just decide to accept certain types of information." What it can do is after it has received certain types of information that it realizes it doesn't like, it can learn a lesson and say, "I don't want to receive that anymore." But at first, if you're a young child, you're not discernible. You're not understanding what authority that information's coming from. I mean, that's just the way things are. We need to know that. There's naivety and vulnerability.

Scott Kardash: Well, Paul, you're moving into an area now that we need to elaborate on quite a lot in the upcoming episodes because we've laid out a foundation, I think, for the series in this particular session. We talked about the different parts of the body, how they interact and how they function together as an overall person. But we're going to start to unravel this now and talk about the healing of the soul, aren't we? So we're going to drill into this in quite a bit of detail because it's important for people to understand. And there's going to be little keys to unlocking different applications within people's lives that I don't think they would have even realized were there. They didn't even realize there was a lock there to unlock. And I think that's where a lot of the value of this series is going to come.

Paul O'Sullivan: Yeah, that's good, Scott. Yeah. And we're going to go right back to the beginning, the beginning of humanity, creation.

Scott Kardash: Excellent. Yeah, thanks, Scott.

Through my interactions with Paul, there are many things that I've disagreed with him on, actually. I know it doesn't come through in the podcast, but after spending time with him, I've realized he's right on just about everything. And some of them are quite big things, you know. Well, one of them was this. And I think there's a lot of confusion. Many people may not agree with this. He said, "Our spirit is made up of our heart and mind." So the heart and mind are in the spirit. Actually, I thought it was in the soul. So I was a bit confused about that.

A Profound Question: Who Forms the Soul? (Clip 2 with Paul O'Sullivan)

The answer to that question relates to the answer to this question. Who created our body, spirit, and soul? Quite a profound question. And this is one of the keys that Paul's unlocked as part of this series. And again, I'm just going to play some of that to look at the answer to that question.

Paul O'Sullivan: Okay, remember, we're body, soul, and spirit.

...God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

A Hebrew word there, ruach, the spirit of life. So Adam has an inner spiritual life now. He'd already become an outer physical body. He had two God-created parts. As we all do. But then it goes on to say in that verse, and this is the pivotal turning point,

...and man became a living soul.

That's the third part. The astonishing statement made here is not that God instantly created a living soul like he did with the body and the spirit. It says man became a living soul. So that begs a question. If God didn't form that living soul and man became a living soul, then who forms the living soul?

Scott Kardash: All right, Paul. So this is a concept which was a bit of a revelation here. So would you say that this understanding sparked this series?

Paul O'Sullivan: Yeah, that was the trigger. The startling question of who formed the soul. Because we'veseen God create man in his spirit and body, and suddenly the body and spirit become something. They became something, a living soul.

So the startling conclusion that I've come to, I'll put it to you now, we'll look at it in the scripture, is that the first living human soul was ready to be formed by the created spirit and body of man himself. So man formed the human soul from the God-created body and spirit that it already had. So we're going to look at that scripture a little more closely. I want to say here that God made provision for that soul. That's part of his creation for us. But he left it to us to form its nature.

First of all, the human spirit is breathed into the body by God. Then the soul and its inner life is formed throughout each person's life out of the activity of the two God-created parts. The inner part, the spirit. The outer part, the body. We form or generate our own souls. That's what I'm saying.

Scott Kardash: Alright, and it says that in Genesis.

Paul O'Sullivan: Well, all it says in Genesis is that man became a living soul. Now I've pondered that. What does that word became mean? It does not state God created. It said man became. So where does the Bible say that we are forming or generating the soul?

Well, that's another journey. I had to start searching for that and in the New Testament I found the place where Paul, writing in Corinthians, describes what it means to become a living soul. He knew about this. The same English word, became, that's used in Genesis in Hebrew. That's the English word. And that was a breakthrough. I was looking for something that humanity could generate and perhaps have a responsibility for, like a stakeholder with accountability. The formation of character within us and how the soul operates and how we participate in that. And that was all in that scripture that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15, 45, where he says,

So it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living soul.

And Paul is using the same English word that's used in Genesis. Same English word, right? But Paul, who was a Greek and Hebrew scholar, knew the deeper meaning of that Hebrew word became. He uses a Greek word in the New Testament. And the Greek word is which means "to generate." Now that's not apparent in the Old Testament, became. But here it is in the New Testament. To generate, to cause to be, to become, to come into being, to have a self. It's all there. You can read it in the concordance.

So humanity generated a living soul. And that scripture is pointedly clear. Man became a living soul. It has to come into being and become the responsibility of the person who generates that soul over the period of a lifetime. So God is not forming or generating the nature of that soul. We are. There is something waiting to become the expression of our spirit and our body. The angels didn't have one. The soul didn't exist. God designed the means whereby the living spirit and the body of man could generate a soul for the first time ever. And our whole life is the expression of that becoming of a living soul.

Scott Kardash: So God designed humanity to have a soul and he gives us the responsibility to form and shape that soul with all the decisions and choices we make in life, both the good and the bad, Paul.

Paul O'Sullivan: Exactly.

That's profound. And I hope you all caught that because I don't know anybody else who's noticed that in the scripture. I've heard nobody else teach about the soul that way. And I think he's absolutely spot on. And that opened up a whole set of discoveries all based on the scriptures about how our souls get damaged and how healing can occur within the souls.

And if you want to know more, just go to YouTube and there's a whole series on there. The channel is called Uncreated and the series is Healing of the Soul and the Life-Giving Spirit. It goes into much more depth later on about helper parts and how these helper parts are created in our souls and originally for good reasons, but we carry them throughout life and their purpose is no longer serving us anymore. In fact, it can be detrimental to us. Paul talks about how that can happen.

Summary: Salvation as Healing

So just to summarize, salvation can be translated as healing.

You're receiving the end result of your faith. The salvation or healing of your souls.

Our soul is shaped by choices and experiences. In a fallen world, our soul becomes damaged and disordered. It needs healing and renewal.

The Holy Spirit is our healer. Salvation is not just a one-time event. It's an ongoing, effective process.

We all are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Salvation is the process of being reshaped into the perfect image of God, the risen Christ. We are being saved. Sometimes we might look back and say, "I was saved on that date." Well, you probably realized on that date you were justified, but we are being saved. More than rescue from sin, it's healing, transformation, union with God.

It is to be conformed to the image of His Son,

...to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

And the ultimate goal is to restore us to the purpose for which we were created, full communion with God,

...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.

That's our ultimate objective.

Application: Presence Prayer

And then how do we apply these principles? Well, you would have heard Paul talking about presence prayer. So he's done a couple of weeks here, I think, on presence prayer. And we will be doing a podcast to talk more about presence prayer and how to apply the healing of the soul. All right.

Closing Prayer

So why don't we just bow our heads in prayer and thank the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for gathering us together and for the truth of your word that reveals your heart for us. Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit to continue the work of transformation within us. Heal the places in our souls that are wounded and need reordering. Renew our minds so that we may walk in your ways. Unite us as one body filled with your Spirit, Lord, so that we may reflect your love and bring glory to your name. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

 

LOVE - THE BIG PICTURE

LOVE – THE BIG PICTURE
In this passage of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13 Peter Carblis speaks about the absolute concrete reality of God’s sacrificial love, agape, that reflects the very nature of God, as the Bible clearly says ‘God is love’ (1John 4:16). Peter takes each facet of this diamond of love and explains the various aspects of the nature of God’s love as they relate to our relationships with Him and with one another.

THE FORMER AND THE LATTER RAIN

THE FORMER AND THE LATER RAIN

Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim) during the 8th century B.C.  God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, a harlot, to symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. Hosea is the same Hebrew word as Joshua and Jesus. Hosea was the Old Testament prophet with the message for God’s People to inherit the land of promise, and Joshua succeeded Moses as the deliverer of Israel and took them across the Jordan into the land of promise. And Jesus takes humanity into a spiritual land of promise, not earthly territory but the soil of the heart.
God refers to Israel as his bride (Isaiah 62:5, Isaiah 54) and he also calls her unfaithful, as a harlot (Jeremiah 3:1). In Ephesians 5 Paul calls the Church the bride of Christ and he fears for the church going astray by being beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ. 
For I have divine jealousy for you. Betrothing you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11)
So we have this story of both Israel and the Church as being God’s beloved bride and who go through times of unfaithfulness to God and being made desolate - and finally turning back to God in their time of affliction to be revived and restored. 
God says to Israel after they have been stubbornly going astray that he is going to leave them to themselves to go their own way and that he will go and return to his place (Heaven) - and that In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. And that is what is happening in the earth and in the church today

Hosea 5:15 God says, I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense.
Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. And then they will say "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us but he will heal us; he has afflicted us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going from us is established as the morning, and He will come to us like the rain, like the former and latter rain to the earth.

There is no mention that Israel was ever revived and restored after two days during the prophecy of Hosea – It was a prophecy of future hope. He prophesied for 30 to 40 years and Israel never repented and at the end of his prophecy Israel were defeated by the Assyrians. So what does this mean that ‘after two days I will revive you’, and in the third day you will live in my presence? It means that we have to see these two days as prophetic periods of time that the Apostle Peter later writes about. 
Israel failed in their allegiance to the provisions and promises of God and still now the promise of full possession of their Promised Land awaits them. That promise is one of occupying their earthly territory in the Middle East. But the promise to the Church is to spiritually inherit and occupy the fullness of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. 
Let us look at the interpretation of this prophetic period of time spoken of by Peter.

2Peter 3:8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish (waste their lives), but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away (lyo – moved aside) with a roar, and the heavenly bodies (elemental particles) will be burned up and dissolved (a purifying fire), and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

If one day can be counted as a thousand years then 6 days would be six thousand years. The genealogies of the Bible show that it is now about six thousand years from the time of Adam. In fact I read in an archeological journal recently that civilisation in cities can only be traced back four thousand years, around the area of ancient Ur in the Chaldees, where Abraham lived and from where he was called to go out and prepare for the Hebrew people to possess the Land of Promise. That occurred in around 2000 years BC.
Christ appeared on the earth about 2000 years later. And now we are about 2000 years later at around 6000 years from Adam, according to Biblical genealogy. 
(Notice I used the word ‘about’ a few times – no exactness’ – how many people were in the upper room at Pentecost? The bible says about 120!)
And what does ‘living in His presence in the third day’ mean? That would describe the next one thousand years after the 6000 which would mean the seventh day - the one thousand years of rest – Six days of of work and one day of rest God at work redeeming humanity then a day of rest – the millennium

So if we apply the saying ‘I will go and return to my place and after 2 days I will return’ it echoes the words of Jesus 2000 years ago when he spoke to his disciples, because the last time that God said to his people that he would return and go to his place was when Jesus spoke to his disciples before his ascension into Heaven. 
John 14:2 I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also… the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
 
When God left Israel and returned to his place (Heaven) he was giving Israel time to consider their ways in their afflictions and to seek his face and return to him. And in due course in the latter days Israel will be revived and live in his presence. They will receive the healing of their souls from the former and latter rains of revival from the Holy Spirit. 
In Israel they had both the spiritual and the agricultural seasons of year. The agricultural season after Pentecost brought the dry months – empty years - and towards the end of that period would come the former rain softening the earth and then the latte rain bringing the harvest. For us spiritually today the former rain is the softening of the hearts of humanity with the water of God’s word along with being broken and churned up and softened through afflictions. That prepares us for the latter rains of spiritual revival for us to become the people that we really are.

The great and awesome day of the Lord is always getting closer no matter when we make our best-guess estimates – there is no exactness - but we're living in days when there are worse things happening in the world than ever before. We will see not only more darkness and tribulation in the earth than ever before, but I have an expectation to see more spiritual activity of the Holy Spirit than we have seen before, as in the past visitations of God since Pentecost, and I believe we're in the beginnings of that right now. Too many good words have been spoken and have fallen on deaf ears and hard hearts. But good seed has been sown and the grace of God and the works of God are going to become more manifest and that will open people’s eyes and give them ears that are ready to hear in these present times. And while the double portion of healing rains is softening the wounded hearts and ripening the seeds the fruit of the Spirit will speedily become evident in transformed hearts and minds.
The Bible says that Workers will still be harvesting when it is time to plough the fields again. They will still be trampling the grapes when it is time for a new crop. Sweet wine will drip from the mountains and pour from the hills (Amos 9:13).
As you walk your steady path of grace and truth and love you can expect God to overtake you and go ahead of you. We are living in the day of the former and the latter rains.

 

 

 

 

 

PRESENCE PRAYER - PRAYER CHANGES US

PRESENCE PRAYER - PRAYER CHANGES US 
Paul teaches us the lifechanging prayer of the transformation of our mind and heart. Philippians 4:6-7 which says ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’
 
The wonderful promise of this Prayer of Change is that God will guard and protect our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ in everything that is happening in our lives. That is what overcomes the anxiety of a busy mind and a fretful heart that burdens our souls, and that is what allows us to pray the prayer of faith with thanksgiving in any situation.
The Greek word for anxious is merimna?? which means to be overly troubled by too many concerns and needs at the one time (or all the time), whether these concerns are our own or for others we care for.

This Scripture is a gracious appeal from God’s Spirit to our spirit – and our spirit is made up of our mind and our heart. But to get through to our spirit God has to get past our soul, and it is our souls that get overcrowded with too many soulish thoughts of the mind and feelings of the heart that fight for priority to get attention. 
In Hebrews 4:12 The Bible speaks about the word (logos) of God’s creative design and purpose and that word (logos) is said to be like a sword that is able to divide between the soul and the spirit. And we need that logos word so that we can understand what is happening in our soul and in our spirit, because the anxiety is in the soul but the prayer of faith is in the spirit. 

Our communion of our spirit to God’s indwelling Spirit opens the way for God to speak truth into our minds and renew our minds in our spirit. The truth that comes from the spiritual renewal of our mind informs our heart with a faith that believes and trusts in God and in his good will and purpose for us in our prayer for our needs. 
What our mind receives is what our heart believes – that is a fridge hanging statement to keep us focussed on what God wants us to know and what he wants us to believe. 

That Scripture also gives us an example of that sword word piercing between joints and marrow. The outside of a joint bone is like the soul and the marrow on the inside is like spirit - the real life-giving substance of the bone. Prayer is not just about trying to fix the outside problems that we see about us but about how God reorders us on the inside for us to see his will and for us to receive what he is faithfully putting in place for us. 
Good marrow means strong bones – but even if a bone gets broken it will heal well if the marrow is good. 

Our souls can become overwhelmed by the outer chaos and disorder that we see around us in this world, but our spirit joined to God’s Spirit is strengthened by the truth and order and promise of the good things of God that he has in store for us. That Scripture ends by saying that that sword word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, so it helps us to know what is going on in our disturbed soul so that we can exercise faith in our spirit that can assure us that Jesus is dealing with these needs for us in a way that only he can, and in that way our souls can be at rest and rise above the anxiety. 
He tells us to bring these things to him with thanksgiving – thanksgiving for what? Thanksgiving that Jesus will intercede with the Father on our behalf according to God’s will for our lives. So that means he is reordering our prayer. God is at work to reorder our lives for the best outcome for our lives – his outcome – not what our stressed or demanding souls would force into action if we could have things our way and not his. That is the peace of being in agreement with God that surpasses all understanding.