Spiritcode

JESUS AND ISRAEL

On the day of the Resurrection the Bible says. that Jesus rose and left his tomb ‘while it was still dark’ (John 20:1), and women with anointing spices visited the tomb as it began to dawn (Matthew 28:1). As I speak it is now 3.30 am in the Middles East on Sunday where Christians will shortly be celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. And on this same day many religious Jews will also be celebrating the ‘Feast of Sheaves’, which is the prophetic Jewish feast that remarkably symbolises The Resurrection of Jesus. 
There is no one Gospel sequential narrative of how things happened on Resurrection Sunday, but I am joining the dots scripturally using four Gospels and five Epistles plus Old Testament Scriptures to join the Jewish feast of Sheaves to the Christian faith reality of Resurrection on this defining day for both religions. 
My question is – What is the prophetic symbolism of Sheaves concerning Jesus as being the First Fruits of the Resurrection?

After Jesus dies on the cross he first descended to the lower parts of the earth, both to hades or the place of the grave and to Paradise (Luke 16:19) where Abraham was, and he also said to the robber on the cross ‘this day you will be with me in paradise. 
Ephesians 4:8 “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive… He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
Jesus proclaims the leading captivity captive in the book of Revelation. 
Fear not; I am the first and the last: -- I am he that lives and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation1:17,18)

When he descended Jesus set many faithful captives free from their captivity of time, till heaven came to get them, 
1Peter 3:18 He died once for the sins of all sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God. But though his body died, his spirit lived on, and it was in the spirit that he visited the spirits in prison preaching to them 

The Bible mentions a company of people rising from their graves when Jesus rose, and they briefly appeared to people who would recognise them from their earthly life.
Matthew 27:52 And when the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. Many bodies of the saints who had died were raised up and came out of the tombs after his resurrection, and they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  

These people represent stalks of the sheaf of what Israel called the ‘Feast of Sheaves’ – the offering of the sheaf of the First Fruits of the promised harvest. After the very brief visit to earth in their new recognizable forms, these upward travellers would regroup with Jesus and resume their journey – from the earth to the sky.

This is a remarkable fulfillment of what happens in Jerusalem on our Resurrection Sunday. Jesus is called the First Fruits of the Resurrection - as the first to rise from the dead into everlasting life. He represents the main stalk of the sheaf, but he took other stalks of grain with him to represent the promise of resurrection life for all of humanity in Christ. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order and Christ the First Fruits  (1 Corinthians 15:20),

JESUS AND ISRAEL

THE JEWISH FEAST OF FRUITS
Leviticus 23.9 When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first Fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD.

Those other members of the ‘sheaf offering’ left their graves to visit friends when Jesus had united himself again to the wounded shell of his shrouded body in the tomb and left the headpiece and shroud lying separated from one another (John 20:7). 
The women who had prepared oils and spices to anoint the body of Jesus arrived and were astonished to see that the stone had been moved and the guards had fled. They peered inside the tomb and were met by two angels sitting in the place where Jesus had been laying.

‘Are you looking for Jesus?’ One angel said. ‘He has come back to life as he said he would. Go and tell the disciples that he will be coming to see them, and that they are to wait for him in Galilee.’

The women ran to tell the disciples, but Mary Magdalene held back, walking through the garden, still confused and weeping. She almost collided with Jesus who was also walking in the garden, and she apologized, not recognizing him, thinking he was the gardener. And he called her by her name and said, ‘It’s alright Mary, it is me. ’She ran towards him, but Jesus held up his hand and said, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father. but go to my brethren, and tell them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her. (John 20:17)
Jesus then ascended and offered his blood to the Father in the early hours of that day - to return later in the day in another form (heteros morphe) as stated in Mark 16:12. He then met two disciples travelling to Emmaus. 

Towards evening after walking to Emmaus with the two disciples Jesus went to meet with the other disciples who had not gone to Galilee as Jesus had instructed Mary Magdalene to tell them to do. They were instead hiding in fear in Jerusalem. And when Jesus walked through a closed door and greeted them, they thought they had seen a ghost, but Jesus said. I am not a ghost because a ghost does not have flesh and bones - he did not say blood - because he had spilled his blood at Calvary and it had been spiritually presented to the Father in Heaven already, and he had returned to earth still bearing the marks of the wounds to his hands and feet and side from the cross. But what he did say was ‘touch me’. He was now able to say ‘touch me’ - not as when he met Mary and said touch me not, because he had just ascended to the Father, and he had also instructed Mary to tell them that.

Luke 24.37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

Jesus was fulfilling the symbolic prophetic Feast of the First Fruits and the waving of the sheaves that we read about earlier. 
Leviticus 23.9 And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD. 

Jesus had ascended as the Lamb without blemish, untouched by the world (the ‘touch me not’ to Mary), to fulfill the offering of his blood to his Father in Heaven. Jesus had just marked the end of blood sacrifice for sin for all time by sprinkling his blood on the earth at Golgotha for the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world and now the spiritual presentation was made in heaven. 
The record of that spotless presentation is beautifully stated in Hebrews.
Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as High Priest of the better things to come … Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

The Old Testament meaning of ‘life is in the blood’ (Leviticus 17:11) has been radically changed into ‘life is in the Spirit’. Sin once demanded a blood sacrifice of death which had to be repeated daily and that was called the ‘Law of sin and death’. But Paul wrote,
The Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2)

After Jesus met with his disciples that day, he would spend forty days on earth as a witness to his resurrection and at the end of those forty days he would finally ascend into Heaven, from where he would begin his new mission upon the earth to save the souls of mankind through the Holy Spirit. 
We are part of that mission on the earth now of Jesus from Heaven, and I pray Lord that today at this moment in Jerusalem that religious Jews celebrating the Feast of the Sheaves of the First Fruits may get a revelation that the resurrected Jesus, their Messiah, is the fulfillment of their Feast. Give us the grace to be the demonstration of your love and power in the earth today which is crippled by unlove and corrupted power. Amen.

 

NOT FORSAKEN

NOT FORSAKEN  

This coming week is a critical week regarding the Middle East conflict between the USA and Iran and Israel. And this week we are entering Holy Week in the approach to Easter for Christians, and Passover for Israel – a defining time for the spiritual reality of Christianity and the religion of Judaism (but not for Islam). For our Christian faith Easter focuses on the death of Jesus at Calvary and his Resurrection and the spiritual fulfillment fifty days afterwards of the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For Israel Passover is about the supernatural deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and their Covenant of possessing the Promised Land. The future implications of Christianity and Judaism sharing these significant events at this critical time in history will one day become clear and evident, but only one day and no one knows when (The peace talks between USA and Iran have been put off till next week, the day after Passover ?!). There’s a lot to think and to pray about as the sword of the Word that Jesus brings is testing all things. Today we’re looking at the Easter event of the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary and the nature of human forsakenness.

Forsakenness is the most desolate feeling a person can have, from feeling abandoned, rejected, betrayed, deserted or estranged. It was what Adam and Eve felt when they believed Satan’s lie that separated their minds and hearts from God’s love, plunging humanity into separation and feeling forsaken in our unbelief. The truth is that God had not forsaken them (Hebrews 13:5). But forsakenness was what Jesus felt from many, many people throughout his ministry. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:3)
Jesus was derided by his brothers in his own family (John 7:3-5) and threatened by the people of his own hometown of Nazareth (Luke 4:29), and by the leaders of Israel, and by the Samaritans. He was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, arrested by the Jewish guards, then forsaken and deserted by his own disciples at Gethsemane, then rejected by the people of Israel when they chose Barabbas, then mocked and scourged by Herod’s soldiers, then brutally marched up to Calvary to be crucified by the Romans.

As Jesus hung on the cross that day his innocent being, spirit soul and body, suffered the full impact of Satan’s hostility as all hell's hateful fury hit him, and as every vile thing ever done by countless millions of crippled hearts down through the ages and for the times to come assailed him. As he was about to die thunder cracked and the earth began to shake. He continued to rally his strength, but a certain missile of horror careened into him with more deadly impact than anything before. 
Mark 15:33 Now when the sixth hour had come (noonday), there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour (3pm) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.

Jesus then began to live out the prophetic fulfilment of the first verse of Psalm 22 written by David (but originally spoken in eternity before the foundation of the world by Jesus the logos). ‘My God My God why have you forsaken me?  But as we probe the words in that psalm we see this prophetic statement of Jesus change from hopelessness through hope to grateful victory.
Psalm 22:7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” Then vs.16 - The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. he gathers more hope and in vs,21 he says – You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. Jesus is actually declaring absolute victory.

Jesus never departed from his Father in spirit, and that loving connection strengthened his blameless soul at all times. And then he says ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit  That was for us - that upward path from feeling forsaken in our cross experiences to the healing and salvation of our soul. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all points just as we are, so he was tempted to feel forsaken here just like we would be in our humanity. Jesus knew he had not been forsaken by his Father, but in his humanity, he had experienced forsakenness for a moment, so that we in our human weakness need never feel forsaken by God, for he has said I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

Jesus faced every temptation and triumphed—not by escaping pain, but by holding fast to the Word of truth. His journey shows us how to move from feelings of forsakenness and abandonment to faith in a loving God in our journey of the healing of our soul. We are not alone. Jesus in his last moments cried out “Father into your hands I now commit my Spirit.” Then in one last gasp he shouted loudly for all about him to hear. “It is finished! “And he and we were placed securely in The Father's loving hands.

Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. The Resurrection is next Sunday
At the moment of his death the cosmos convulsed (Mark 15 at the ninth hour - 3pm). 
And at that moment there were priests in the temple about to sacrifice the Passover lamb. Sacrifices were offered on that day from between 2pm and 5pm. 
Exodus 12:3 On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household... you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. (so the Lamb was kept for four days before sacrificing it)
When their knives would have pierced the sacrificial animal the true Lamb of God offered himself on Calvary as the final sacrifice for all sin. The temple shook and the great veil in the temple proper which separated the place of God’s presence in the holy place from the rest of the temple was torn from top to bottom. 

When that temple veil was torn it signified that Christ as both man and God had done away with the separation of mankind from God in the temple of our bodies. He also put an end to all Covenant Temple sacrifice for religious Israel, and that is very significant for the days in which Israel now live. He had gone ahead for all of us so that we could now have faith to come confidently through the veil of unbelief into the holy place of his abiding presence. We can now find a new hope as the anchor of our souls, and receive the power of his life within us to do what is right and pleasing to God. 

The moment Jesus died the cosmic law of sin and death was being overturned to make way for a new cosmic law to come into effect - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That cosmic law did not exist in Eden with Adam and Eve. It would occur only after Jesus rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit to give us the risen life of Jesus within, and a new heart like his own. Our hearts can now be fulfilled with a new desire that freely chooses to fulfill the desires of God’s heart – that is how grace works in us. There are many people worldwide feeling forsakenness and confusion in these times and the times to come, and wherever we are we can be used of God to bring grace and truth to comfort those in need. Thank you, Jesus, for overturning the law of sin and death, and for giving to us the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. May we enter through that torn veil and live that life through the power and love of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Paul O’Sullivan – pauloss@me.com

 

WARS AND TERRITORY

WARS AND TERRITORY

Throughout history, most wars have been fought over territory—taking it, defending it, or reclaiming it. When territory is won, a flag is planted, signalling a new political or ideological rule.
But beneath the battles over territory there are always deeper forces at work—political power, culture, religion, and economic interests. Often the land is destroyed rather than possessed, yet the struggle for control continues.

The growing tensions in the Middle East, particularly around Iran and involving many nations, could increasingly take on the appearance of a religious war with the banners of Islam and Judaism with Christianity somewhere in the middle. But in reality, the vast majority of people in these faiths do not want war. Religious wars are rarely about pure theology—they are usually about historical grievances, territorial identity, and political power. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace but a sword and his sword is exposing and testing every political power structure and religious identity. 
Pray that Western powers operate with justice and integrity as well as force in the conflict and not end up facing a lose–lose situation. And as for religion the question becomes how will followers of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity live out their belief systems when those beliefs are tested

THE CHRISTIAN BATTLEFIELD
For Christians, the battle is not over geographical territory but many are becoming divisively contentious over this. Christianity does not seek to control land. It seeks to win the territory of the human heart.

My question is What is the real territorial battle of God’s people today?

Our struggle is not against people or nations. Our battle is against territorial spiritual principalities and powers of darkness that influence the hearts and minds of humanity in every culture and society. (Ephesians 6:12)
Paul said that we all once followed the prince of the power of the air…but now we have been made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2)
Our real conflict is a spiritual battle for the human heart.

IN OUR DISCUSSION GROUPS re THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS Paul saw something powerful happening in that church. He thanked God for two things: Their faith and love for one another in Christ. For Paul, these two signs meant that believers were participating in the life of Jesus.

When the gospel came to Ephesus something dramatic happened.
Acts 19:18 After Paul preached in Ephesus God performed extraordinary miracles through him and many who practiced sorcery confessed their sins, gathered their expensive magic books/scrolls, and burned them publicly and the value of these books was estimated at 50,000 pieces of silver. (twenty million dollars today)

The Spiritual territory had changed hands.

 

ISRAEL AND THE LAND OF PROMISE
The Bible makes it clear in 2 Thessalonians and in the Book of Revelation that Israel will be occupying Jerusalem in the final battle of Armageddon when the corrupt lawless world leaders oppose the victorious return of Jesus territorially in Jerusalem. But as to what happens between now and then and despite the myriads of prophetic Scriptures, we will have to wait and see.

And in the Old Testament God did promise actual land to Israel. The promise began with Abraham. God said: “To your offspring I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7- 13:14).  
Later the promise to Abraham expanded and the boundaries were defined. 
‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.’ Genesis 15:18. 
Then came ‘boots on the ground’ territorial warfare.
Under Moses God rold Israel not to worship the idols of the surrounding nations. Deuteronomy 9:4–5 It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.”
This was not Israel’s superiority, but God’s judgment on idolatry and injustice. 

Eventually the promise was fulfilled. Scripture records:
Joshua 21:43–45: Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side… Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”

The land became the place where Israel lived out Old Covenant life with God.
But the New Covenant life relationship with God is no longer tied to geographical territory but to territory of the human heart.
The Bible tells us that the old covenant has become obsolete. 
Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete

A WORD ABOUT ISLAM
Islam does not appear to have the same strict covenant structure of land occupancy found in the Bible as in Judaism. And I do not understand Islamic covenant structure fully, even though I have studied it and corresponded with Muslims on my teaching. They have responded to my recent podcast on the Mystery of Christ and the religious Muslims I have had contact with are of the spiritually devotional sect of Sufism who practice and teach on finding inner peace. Thay have treated me with kindness and are eager to maintain dialogue. (Write to me if you want details). I pray that the Spirit of God touches their hearts and peoples’ hearts everywhere, because the truth that Jesus brings is for everyone.

THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL
The New Testament describes Israel as a mystery.
Romans 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles (nations) has come in. And then all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they are hostile with regard to you but concerning my calling upon them they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

Paul uses several images:
Religious Israel as an olive tree and national Israel as the fig tree
Spiritual Israel as Christ the true vine with Christian believers as the branches.

God’s covenant purposes all ultimately converge in Christ in the New or Eternal Covenant which transcends time or territory.

The promise to Abraham ultimately expanded far beyond the land of Canaan. Jesus revealed this in the Sermon on the Mount: (Mattthew 5)
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” He was talking about the Kingdom promise of our inheritance in Christ through faith - his Kingdom world to come, which was not of this world.
Paul says in Romans 4:13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”
And more than that - What began as a promise about land becomes a promise about a whole Renewed Creation (Romans 8:21).

Peter writes of a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
(2 Peter 3:13) Revelation also speaks of the new heaven and a new earth.

ABRAHAM THE PILGRIM
Interestingly, Abraham himself never possessed the territorial land of Israel.
Stephen when he was being martyred in front of Paul said Abraham did not even own a foot of ground. (Acts 7:5)
He lived there as a sojourner. Why?
Because Abraham was looking beyond the land to something greater, and Paul then wrote about Abraham that he was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. He desired a better country—a heavenly one.

Hebrews 11:9–10 By faith Abraham went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land…For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God…They desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” 
The promise was always bigger than Canaan and the Middle East.
Abraham became a pattern of faith - living as a pilgrim, trusting in a spiritual but tangible inheritance - and looking beyond immediate possession.

THE REAL TERRITORY
When Paul thanked the Ephesian believers for their faith and love, he recognized that the flag of God’s New Creation Territory had already been planted in their hearts and they were conquering that territory in the hearts of the people in Ephesus, and they were winning.
This how we measure up as Christians in the world, no matter what the turmoil and confusion of the world’s values and power struggles impose upon us. 

Our identity is not defined by political systems, national borders, or religious conflicts.

It is defined by participation in the life of Christ.

We may see religion fighting against religion in the days ahead, but religion alone doesn’t have Godly power without the centrality of Christ.
It may have political and commercial and territorial power, but it fails the need of the human heart to have love and faith and power in the Holy Spirit.

War is about territory and Jesus has won the decisive war against darkness to gain the territory of the human heart. Onward Christian soldiers.

Paul OSullivan  pauloss@icloud.com

 

 

I DID NOT COME TO BRING PEACE BUT A SWORD

I DID NOT COME TO BRING PEACE BUT A SWORD 

Matthew 10:34 Do not think (nomidzo – assume) that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household… He who loves them more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life (psyche – soul) will lose it, and he who loses his life (soul) for My sake will find it.

There appear to be two paradoxes here.
One is that Jesus the ‘prince of Peace‘ comes with a sword
The other is that if we try to save our soul, we lose it.

In the first paradox there are two kinds of peace and two kinds of sword.
In the second paradox there are two kinds of soul – the self-serving soul and the self-surrendered soul. In the middle is – take up your cross and follow me

The two kinds of peace. 
The peace of the world of wrong allegiances. (Peace-eirene- to be at one with).
The true peace of our allegiance to Jesus and being at one with him and each other.

The two swords.
The first is the more external sword of truth that divides between our right and wrong religious, social, and political allegiances.
The second sword is the word of truth that divides between soul and spirit in our inner lives as seen in Hebrews 4:12. I will come to that later.

But Jesus here in Matthew is directly quoting Micah Chapter 7, where the people were forming wrong allegiances with ungodly nations and taking on a false identity and not their Godly identity as his people. He is talking about the first kind of peace and the first kind of sword, that involved both religious and political allegiance.
Paul spoke about the religious Jews who resisted the sword of the word of truth about the Kingdom of God that Jesus brought to them. Romans 2:23. You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonour God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (nations) because of you,”  
They misunderstood the Kingdom of God as being external and of political power and not of the inner spiritual power of God in Christ.

But Jesus doesn’t bring division – he brings a sword of truth – allegiances bring division.
The same thing is happening even in Christianity on a global scale today where that sword is out there in the public square – in social interaction, social media, and the internet. There have never been so many identity-driven allegiances competing with such hostility regarding cultural ideology and political power. The cross represents the death of any socially protected identity agendas. 
AND 
Politicians and the media and other influencers have redefined antisemitism in so many ways in the US that more and more evangelical Christians there are becoming divided concerning alliance or non-alliance to the State of Israel, but they don’t seem to fully understand what they are divided over despite the many prophetic Scriptures that deal with Israel. This is especially relevant in the current conflict between The US and Iran on this very day, that profoundly implicates Israel, and these lines of division are growing and the hostile division deeply concerns me BUT that’s what the sword is about… 

Only the sword that Jesus brings will shed light and truth on all of that in due time – God has the last Word. The problem with Christians having so many irons in the fire in this, is that there is more heat than light. We should be the bearers of light rather than heat. So stay in prayer. It is more volatile in America and Europe than in Australia, but the same principles apply here in the general global and domestic issues – and our voter polls are scattering in all directions like never before.

But Scripture tells us how to respond as both citizens and Christians in two Godly ways. 
The first way is that we are urged to pray for our leaders. 
1 Timothy 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

The other way is the perfect way of loving our neighbour. In the parable of the good Samaritan Jesus admonishes the Jewish people about not having love or even care for their Samaritan neighbours because of their religious and political tribalism. Jesus also said But love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. So be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 7:35).

Even if I left the discussion there, we would have some worthwhile aspirations to faithfully attend to with a sense of purpose and reality. But it cannot be left there. The sword goes deeper than political, social, and family allegiances.

THE SECOND SWORD AND THE SECOND PEACE SINCE JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN

There is the second sword that Jesus brought – not just about the outward world of earthly Kingdoms but the sword that divides our inner spiritual world between our soul and our spirit. Without this second inner work we cannot attend faithfully to those other instructions about praying for leaders and loving our neighbours.

The second sword is the logos word of God that divides between our soul and our spirit.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

That refers to the final words of the opening Scripture that Jesus uses to summarise his statement regarding coming with a sword.
He who finds his life (psyche – the soul formed by survival strategies) will lose it, and he who loses his life (the soul formed by survival strategies) for My sake will find it (They find the soul formed by a spiritual renewal of the mind and heart in Christ).

Now the paradox makes sense. The healing and salvation of the soul requires the second sword of re-allegiance. The sword exposes what in the soul is not aligned with the Spirit. 
And that sword brings the second Peace (Eirene – at one with) our oneness with God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit

To become brothers and sisters living at peace with another in the Church, the Body of Christ, that second sword should cut within us before divisions try to cut between us.  
Ephesians 4:1 I beseech you to 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.

Paul wrote a message to the church at Rome about how to live in the bonds of peace with an amazing freedom of an uncompromising faith. But this freedom came with loving acceptance of people who had different ideas about how to honour God in the way that they served him. Some observed legalistic religious rules that narrowed their freedom in serving God. Paul said that the criteria we were to abide by was the other person’s sincere heart to honour God in how they served or worshipped him.

Romans 14:1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord… 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 
10 Why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13let us stop judging on one another. And also do not put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 15 If your brother or sister stumbles because of what you do you are no longer acting in love. 

The apostle John declared that this would be the true sign or witness that God was living 
within us through Jesus and he Holy Spirit. 
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

 

THE SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

I’m reading from the discussion group session two weeks ago from Ephesians 1:11
Ephesians 1:11. In him we have obtained an inheritance (kleroo-share of possession), having been predestined according to the purpose (prothesis-set plan) of him who works all things according to the counsel (boul??- deliberate decision) of his will (thel??ma – what he delights to do). 12. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory, (People who live it first then share it with others, for them to also believe so that their lives too will bring glory to God, not themselves) 
Paul goes on to say…
13. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 
14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We had discussed earlier (in Ephesians 1:3) that the Father predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself. And here in verse 11 today we see Jesus obtaining for us another predestined blessing from the Father - his inheritance, his dominion over all things, which he shares fully with us.

I have two major questions for discussion regarding today’s reading.
1. What is the predestined Inheritance?
2. What are the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our receiving the inheritance?

The predestined inheritance 

For those who believe, the Inheritance is sharing in the dominion over all things that Jesus has inherited from the Father, both on the personal level and the utmost level of all things in the heavens and on the earth. It is important to realise that that includes our authority over all the powers of darkness. That has huge significance and consequence for our walk of faith.
Furthermore, this inheritance is a legal and binding declaration. We will come to that shortly…Now we come to the second question.

The roles of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
There is a pattern of the work of the Trinity in this first chapter of Ephesians in the bestowing of all of these spiritual blessings that we receive. The Father is the origin of every blessing and the one who adopted us into his family, and Jesus is the beloved Son, in and through whom the blessings are shared with us. Jesus brought us in as being as accepted as he is in God’s family, and Jesus is also the one who obtains for us the Inheritance, his inheritance that we now share with him. 
The Holy Spirit, is the one who stamps his seal upon all our ‘Spiritual blessings’. (Ephesians 1: 3,14). He is the one who seals God's Covenant bond with us, as the guarantee and guarantor, giving us a foretaste of the fulfillment of all that God has in store for us 

As mentioned earlier, the inheritance is a legal and binding declaration.
In the terms of a Covenant of agreement between two parties, there is a contractual arrangement where one person makes a promise of something of value to the other person for a certain cost or sacrifice. They agree on those terms and the transaction occurs. However, another essential ingredient to the terms of agreement is that the Covenant is sealed with a unique seal or personal signature that guarantees full possession of the promise with binding power.

In the Old Testament (Covenant) the promise made by God to Israel his  Holy Nation included their deliverance from slavery to the Egyptians and ongoing deliverance and protection from any enemies that oppose them. It also included God’s countless  miracle material blessings and favour, and finally, occupation of the Promised Land. 

The sacrifice or cost to Israel was their obedience to the Law and Commandments and the sacrificial offerings offered by the priests.) The seal of the Old Covenant of Moses as the Sabbath rest (It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel Exodus 31). It was obeyed on a weekly basis on the seventh day but it was disobeyed totally in the failure to observe the Sabbath rest of one year in every seven years (Leviticus Ch.25), and this was the Sabbath of consequence that God judged Israel for. They disobeyed it for 490years since the reign of Saul and it had the drastic consequence of Israel being defeated in battle and taken into bondage in Babylon for seventy years (490÷7=70) Israel failed to sign off on the seal of that Sabbath rest of faith and failed to pay the Covenant cost or sacrifice of obedience to the law. 

Our sabbath rest is now the rest of faith.

Note that the Scriptures make it clear that the legal Covenantal sign of the Sabbath and obedience to the Law no longer apply to the terms of our new Covenant relationship with God as his Holy Nation through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel (Exodus 31). The Bible says that we are to obey the spiritual rest of faith, and enter into the rest of the finished work of Christ – Every Day - (Hebrews 4:1,8) Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it…There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his own works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience

In the New Covenant the Promise is summed up in the promises of all the spiritual blessings that we see here in Ephesians and also elsewhere, as in the gift of reconciliation and mercy and forgiveness and the Law being written on our New hearts. (2Corinthians 5, Romans 5, Hebrews 8 and 10, ++). 

The sacrifice or cost of those promises has been fully paid by Jesus Christ in his sinless death upon the cross and his resurrection and ascension. The sign or seal of the New Covenant is the receiving of the Holy Spirit of Promise by someone who believes, as we read in verses 13 and 14. All of this is not just as a blessing to us but also through us to glorify God.
13. In him also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Jesus said in Acts…
Acts 1: 4 Wait for my Father’s promised gift, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:8 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The Book of Acts also tells the story of Paul arriving at Ephesus and finding people there who claimed to be disciples and believers. Something prompted Paul to `question them concerning their spirituality, and he said ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they replied No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 

Tongues is not the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit by faith, but simply ONEsign, like prophecy, along with other faith assurances ranging from quiet serenity to joyful exuberance. In the mid-seventies I was once sharing about the Baptism of the holy Spirit and a few of us would then pray for people to receive it, and many people spoke in tongues upon receiving it as that had also been mentioned. I prayed for one man who was a strong Christian and loved God’s Word, and when I prayed, he did not speak in tongues but began to joyously laugh and I felt a witness in my spirit that he had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the deacon standing next to me said that the man had not received the Holy Spirit because he didn’t speak in tongues and he was taught that tongues was the evidence. I had to disagree, saying that the Bible did not say that tongues was the evidence, but that it was just a sign (1Corinthians 14:22). There are many signs and this fellow’s joyous laughter was a sure sign - and he laughed from that day on whenever we were gathered together in worship or whenever he was touched by the Holy Spirit. Some of you will remember him. Now and again someone would say I should have told him to stop laughing but I never did – it was real.

The activity of the Holy Spirit of promise is a seal of the promises of the New Covenant for a believer. However Jesus taught about another prior activity of the Holy Spirit for unbelievers, which was the Holy Spirit of conviction, which works in every person who comes into the world. Jesus taught the disciples that when he left them he would send the Holy Spirit into the world (not just the church) John 16:8.But if I go, I will send The New Helper (The Holy Spirit). And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Conviction of sin is the truth about the sin of unbelief – guilt doesn’t convict or change people, conviction does, and righteousness is about the grace to becoming aligned with God’s will (righteousness), otherwise it’s self-righteousness –

 and the truth of Satan being judged is about having freedom from the bondage of darkness and the overcoming of Satan – as that is the other spirit that is at work in the world (Ephesians Ch.2). The Bible says that the people loved hiding and covering up in darkness more than coming into the light (who has never been there? John 3:19). However, the Bible also says that where sin abounds grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20).

So no matter how darkness may abound in these days, the more we can abound in the grace and truth that the Holy Spirit works in us through the Gospel of the love and goodness of God towards. One person working in the simplicity of that grace and truth will affect everything and everyone in their sphere of the world around them. That is the Holy Spirit’s work.

 

THE MYSTERY

THE MYSTERY
I’m reading the first two verses from our discussion group Scripture reading last week.
Ephesians 1:9-10 making known to us the mystery (Mysterion – not just hidden but unuttered [mu??] or not spoken until its prepared or set time) of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10. A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (also expounded in Colossians 1.15-21)

Some scholars think Paul wrote Ephesians and not Colossians and some think he wrote Colossians and not Ephesians. However, Paul’s account of the ‘mystery’ and the Plan in both epistles is identical.

3 questions 
1. What is the mystery? The ‘Mystery made known’ is the life of Jesus living and speaking God’s will in us and through us. 

2. What is the Plan to unite all things in Christ? The plan of uniting every created thing in Christ is God joining himself to his own creation through Jesus. Jesus entered into to our humanity and we enter into his divinity. Heaven and earth are joined together forever in him

3. What is the Gospel? Ephesians 3:3 by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already [CH.1]... that the Nations (Ethnos-all ethnic groups, cultures, mankind) should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ - through the gospel. THAT IS THE GOSPEL.

THE MYSTERY
Paul’s revelation of this mystery which is the life of Jesus living and speaking God’s will in us and through us by the Holy Spirit was spoken to the Ephesians and the Colossians and then written in 62 AD as his epistles to them from prison in Rome. 

Colossians 1:26-29 the mystery (mysterion) which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints - To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles (or Nations ‘Ethnos’ - all ethnic groups, cultures, mankind) which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

THE PLAN
What is the plan of uniting all of creation together in Christ? 
The love between Father Son and Holy Spirit in Heaven before the time of creation was perfect and complete and They agreed together in all things in perfect truth (1John 5:7KJV). And that love and truth was compelled of itself (2 Corinthians 5:14) to overflow into the lives of all created beings to bless them. Firstly, the angels were created as pure spirit beings, spiritually higher than our physically limited humanity, (Hebrews 2:7). And no created being, angelic or human, possessed God’s perfect capacity of this divine love and truth. But angels could come before the face of God and communicate and hear God speak, and that is why one imperfect angel called Lucifer fell in his pride and deception, and also why he tempted imperfect Adam and Eve to fall. The angels would have heard God say ‘Let us make man in our own image and let them have dominion over every living creature and over all the earth… So God created man in His own image… male and female He created them.’ (Genesis 1:26,27). 

The angels saw and celebrated the material creation from beginning to end (Job 38:4) and for Lucifer, this privileged dominion over everything in creation being given to these puny humans was too much for his pride and ego to accept, and he was outraged – No! That’s my inheritance! And he took many other angels into his rebellion

And the Bible records God’s verdict upon his unjust claims.
Isaiah 14:1-15 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,To the lowest depths of the Pit. 
(5 I wills + 5 Your will be done wounds of Jesus on the cross)

And so Lucifer decided in his darkness and deception to prevent puny mortals from laying claim to their just inheritance. He provoked these lesser beings - Adam and Eve into a presumptuous rebellion against a perfect God, tempting them to disobey God and inciting them to resent God for not allowing them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - believing that God was selfishly afraid that they would become like God if they did. So they ate the fruit and they took the darkness and deception into their souls, and from then on, our human souls were destined to live out from our discontented vulnerability, and to defend ourselves and justify ourselves and war against ourselves and other people. Human relationships drastically damaged

But God had foreseen all of this, and he had planned a perfect plan before creation even began. He had decided to join himself as God, pure Spirit being, to his creation, by coming as Jesus the Son of the Father to live within puny vulnerable human form upon the earth. The Bible calls this astounding truth Reconciliation, which is translated from the Greek word katalasso, a “mutual transformation” of God and humanity into an entirely New Creation. And God took the first step to reconcile humanity in this cosmic merging of Being through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, overcoming the distrust and separation and hostility in us to God that was caused by sin. 

Paul is the only one who explains Reconciliation in this way in verses like 2 Corinthians 5:18-2 ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And Romans 5:10 about Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives us grace and faith to accept and live in that reconciliation, enabling us to overcome sin and a self-centered mindset. The Holy Spirit infuses divine love and truth into our hearts and minds, and giving us the gift of a New Heart and a renewed mind to know the truth of who God is and who we are. This is our salvation – the healing of our soul, and this is what God desires for all of us.
God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Timothy 2:4).

 

 

THE GOSPEL
The Gospel is the Plan of that mystery being declared to all the world as The Good News, as we read earlier in Ephesians 3. 
Paul never preached the bad news The bad news often shared as being the gospel. IE. if you repent from your sins and ask God for forgiveness you won’t go to hell. 

I went to a church growth conference in Seoul Korea in the 1990’s at Yonggi Cho’s church. There were 700 of us pastors attending his 500,000 strong church. Cho was a former Buddhist and a very disciplined man of great influence in South Korea. He told us that many Christian authors including Peter Wagner and others you would know had interviewed him to write their books on church growth. He said they asked how it started and he’d tell them ’I prayed to God ’ and they would write that down. Then they’d say, ‘what then?’ and he’d say ‘I taught the people in small groups to study the word carefully and obey it’ This was all written down.

Then he said ‘the authors have sold a lot of books, writing down the principles and enlarging each principle, but they are not going to give you church growth because even though the principles are good that wasn't the way the church growth happened. What happened was God touched my life. God had given me some signs and wonders in my ministry especially in the villages, so I often preached out there and many people came to my meetings. They knew my discipline and zeal and I wanted to see them getting to know God. But something had to change in me for me to reach their hearts. 
Cho told us what happened. He said he went out one day to a village and saw people on the side of the road and he said ‘are you coming to the meeting tonight?’ They lifted their weary heads up and said no Pastor Cho, we are miserable enough - And when you preach you make it worse for us because we feel so condemned. You are so strict and holy, and you tell us what sinners we are, and we feel too unworthy to get close to God. Cho then told us – that was when he realised he was preaching the bad news of what they must do to be worthy – he was preaching discipline and zeal, and not God’s goodness and grace. God changed him that day and everything else changed for him and for Seoul Korea.’

So the mystery of his will is to lovingly unfold to us his plan to join us to his divine life – and that is the gospel. Once we know it and believe it we cannot unbelieve it, because when we pursue that truth with our full heart and all our mind it pursues us into every corner of our lives.

As we now partake of our communion – the communion of the Body of Christ, remember how Paul admonished the Corinthian church because of internal factional disputing and judging of one another which finally created 36,000 denominations. Paul said they were holding their communion services in an unworthy manner. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged Rather than judge one another judge ourselves. (1Corinthians 13:30) We can be discerning of doubtful doctrinal emphases but not judge harshly. We can pray for more love and agreement and mercy, and pray for the Gospel of reconciliation, ‘Christ in us the hope of glory’, be preached in all the world for a witness. Amen.

PREDESTINATION AND GRACE AND FAITH

TRANSCRIPT
What I'm calling today's word is predestination and grace and faith. I'Il read from Ephesians chapter one, verses five to eight,
which is the passage we read in our discussion groups a couple of weeks ago. Starting from verse five, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure or good purpose, Eudokia, of his will, according to the riches of his grace, which is made abundant toward us in all wisdom and understanding.
So recently in our group discussions, we began to discuss and explore the extravagance of God's love, and his powerful promises to us of what I've just read. Predestination and grace, and being adopted to belong to his family, partakers of his life through Jesus, partakers of the nature of God. The first chapter of Ephesians is a mighty trumpet blast of what God has done through Jesus Christ, and through the work of his unlimited atonement for humanity, never limit the atonement
work of God, for everybody.
If one died, all were dead. So I've got three questions today.
What is predestination?
Well, the short answer is, it's God's purpose for our life. What is grace? The divine energy that accomplishes our predestination.
What about faith? Predestination and grace only become our reality when we believe. So I've answered the three questions.
We can go home now. But really, I want to look at these three questions in greater depth. So we'll look at these three questions.
Predestination is purpose driven. It is God's foreordained plan for a person's life or role. It is not a statement about going to heaven or hell, as the Calvinists much later mistakenly interpreted.
You've got to search the scriptures to see this, and it's very clear. Through Christ's atoning work, when Jesus brought his divinity into all of humanity, we are also brought into adoption, becoming part of his family. We're then
transformed into Christ's likeness to become co-labours with
him in his work in the world.
There's our journey. Right smack in the middle of it is the grace of God. We try that journey on our own without the grace of God, and we can become very good citizens with a good conscience doing the best we can, but we need God's grace to be able to walk in his will for our lives, empowered by his life.
Grace is the divine energy that accomplishes this divine purpose, making this gospel of good news, that's what the gospel is, possible. That is then believed upon by us. And this displays God's wisdom and strategic brilliance.
And that was the last verse that we read when we did the discussion group. God thought that through and gave it to us.
He wants to express who he is through us.
That's his desire. So we'll look at the grace. The plan of being predestined is energized by grace from God's side.
All comes from him. The word grace is cardis, which means a gift. It's not primarily about emotionally feeling favored.
It is God's favor, but we don't often feel very favored going through tough times. But God's grace is still available. If it weren't, we wouldn't be able to go through them with him and being empowered by his Spirit in faith.
It's God's powerful and operative transforming presence that enables the purpose of our predestination to be achieved.
What does grace do? Is it like electricity?
No, it is a force. Is it just emotion? No, grace creates a relational bond in our hearts.
The Bible says, a new heart I will give you, in Ezekiel 36. That's the power of grace. It changes the disposition of our hearts.
We desire to do for God and with God. That's his gift, that's his covenant. And that works the transformative change of the new desires that God has willed for us.
Look at things relationally, then you're looking at God and what he does, why he does it, and how we can respond. But without faith, if we don't respond by faith and say, I believe that, that grace is there laying idle and fruitless. It's in vain.
Don't just think of it as something that may be available. He said, approach the throne of grace, receiving mercy, so that you'll find grace in times of need. We need the mercy because we don't do it very expertly.
We bumble our way through. And God says, I don't care how much you bumble your way through. I'm not looking at your human performance index.
I'm looking at your heart. Dispose to me, doing the best you can, and this grace is available. But tell yourself that I'm being merciful to you because you're not very merciful to yourself.
You're a bit hard on yourself. I've forgiven your sins, you know that. But you're worried about your performance, don't.
The work of atonement is operating on about eight and a half billion people on the planet right now. But the problem is that a scarce number of people, including many churchgoers, don't know that or believe it. That work can only become a reality for people who will hear it and believe it and respond to it by faith.
And today, we'll look at how we can respond to it by faith. Paul was saved from wasting his pre-destined future when he was struck down on the road to Damascus. He was pretty proud of his performance up till then, as a religious man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
But then, he was struck down by the Lord Jesus, and he believed, he was baptized, and he received the power of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 1, Paul writes in verse 17, and here's the predestination part. It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and invited me through his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him amongst the Gentiles, or the nations, the unbelievers.
Paul knew that this was given by God's grace, but not only given by God's grace, it was to be lived through God's grace.
Paul said, his grace towards me was not in vain. Wasn't futile, but it can lie wasted.
I've already said, the scripture actually, confidently enter, come to the throne of grace. So we can see that all of this is God's doing. If that's God's doing, what is our belief?
It is our doing. It's believing everything that God is doing, and believing that what he's doing is true, and real, and personal for each one of us. It's always doing, the doing.
Now, my faith, my personal level, sometimes involves getting out of my own way, and to stop worrying that I'm not fulfilling God's predestined purpose in the ordinary, daily doing of what I'm doing. Do I have enough faith and grace? Am I actually doing just exactly what you want me to do, Lord?
I better try and think through this harder. God says, my goodness, I wake up then. I wake up to myself and decide to trust that God knows what He's done.
He knows what He's done for me, and what He is now doing for me, and He just wants me to trust Him in that I'm doing for you, in all the things that are happening. And when I trust God, simply, come to my senses, faith floods in. Not faith that I'm going to get what I want, but faith that God can now get what He wants.
The moment we start telling ourselves that we don't have enough faith, we stop having faith. It's a bad conversation.
Our soul's outward, disordered mindset of what is real has taken over from our God-ordained spiritual reality, what He's ordained.
Now, let me explain how God's ordered spiritual reality can turn into a disordered soul reality. That's very important to me. Everything that is spirit desires to be expressed in some outward way.
Spirit cannot just exist, isolated, doing nothing. Spirit wants expression, no matter what kind of spirit it is. And you can name hundreds of them.
The human spirit, a spirit of fear, God's spirit, a political spirit, a religious spirit. They all want expression in some way, and they manifest themselves through whoever's available to give way to that spirit. But we have our predestined spirit in us.
God, as a pure spirit being, lovingly desired to express himself through us. God as spirit wants far more to express who he is than any other spirit would. He is spirit.
The Holy Spirit yearns jealously for us. Let us be manifested, expressed through you. So God desired to do that, to express himself through humanity.
And that occurred perfectly through the life of Jesus. That was the one, the only one. That happened perfectly.
And the atonement of Jesus on the cross allows that expression of the life of Jesus through us by the Holy Spirit in us. That's how it happens. God's predestined purpose for us in Christ is our reality.
That's what God and God's spirit wants to express through us.
His purpose for us, him, with us, in that. It is our I am reality.
God said, I am who I am. In Exodus chapter three, Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. John eight, Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God.
1 Corinthians 15. Now, this is the key. We can become the expression of who God wants us to be, by the grace of God, if we believe it.
We are who we are by the grace of God. God is the source of our true I am spiritual being. He created it before the foundation of the world.
But what do we do with that spiritual reality? Well, the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 15, that we generate a soul, genomai. We create a soul, a faulty expression of our spiritual being, which becomes flawed and damaged throughout our lives because of survival mechanisms that we create, starting from a young age.
That's our doing. Our spirit wants to express itself. We are spirit, soul, and body.
And we express, through our soul, an I Am that has had to react to everything that's going on around us. We learn, from a young age, to strategise, to defend, or to advance ourselves, through the difficult circumstances of our lives. We create another I Am in our souls.
And that becomes the I Am that other people see. They see that as who we are. Oh, there's that cranky person again.
There's that angry one. There's that difficult one. There's that one that seems to be always feeling shameful and guilty all the time.
Why do they do that? So that soul becomes the expression of who we are, to other people, and absolutely to ourselves, with all the reactions and hard to get on with behaviours that we wish we didn't have as well. The reactive strategies have become the soul's unhelpful helpers in times of difficulty and stress.
So we have to discover the true I am, whose source is God's reality for us. That's the journey of the soul. 1 Corinthians 2, 11 tells us, gives us the clue on how to go on this journey.
And I'll be doing this in the course later this month, the healing salvation of the soul. It says this, For what man knows the things or the parts, the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him. And even so, no one knows the things of God, except the spirit of God.
So we can get to know, because our spirit, Bible says in Proverbs, the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord that searches out all the inward parts. We can allow the Holy Spirit to help us search out and find out, what did I dump into my soul when I got into reaction at that time, when I was a little one, or when I was a teenager, or what I'm doing even now?
The Holy Spirit says, I'm gonna help you to stop trying to use your unhelpful helpers to help yourself.
We can be guided by the Holy Spirit who becomes the new helper. That Jesus promised, he said in John 14, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Jesus didn't have to make and create helpers.
He had the Holy Spirit full on, all the time, in the grace of God. He was the perfect expression of God in humanity, and he's saying to us, I'm giving you my life, and I'm going to get you back from that disordered soul into being able to express who you are, predestined to be in your spirit, by my grace. So the healing of the soul course, I'll be starting in our mid-week meetings, is based on this spiritual understanding of how to find our true I am, in a non-threatening way.
We don't go in there and say, oh, what a terrible sin. And we find a helper that we've created, and it's a helper that says, you're not matching up. You could do better than this.
It's called the, you can do better helper. You ever found one of them? Well, the you can do better helper is not a sin, but it does cause us to miss the mark, because we'll make errors of judgment, and we will start getting into things that become just us reacting, and our self-help, whatever other helper it could be, our anger helper, that will be the thing that wants to run things.
But there's the try harder helper. Just look at that for a sec.
We've all got one of them, but I've seen a try harder helper, when I was sharing with a person, I've seen that try harder helper cause that person to feel, when it was revealed that that's it, they felt, oh, well, that's a sinful helper.
I am angry, I'm gonna get rid of that. I say, no, no, no. That try harder helper has got you to where you are now, for your sake, trying to help you to get through the sense that you couldn't do things properly.
It was trying to help you get over the fear of failure. Don't get angry at it. It was doing the best it could.
You made it, you created it. But don't get angry, just say, you can move over now. I've got another helper.
You see, this course that I'm doing is not threatening. Oh, you'd better repent from that help. No, acknowledge it and say, thank you, bye.
And there's a process. We find the true I am. We get to know the things of the strategic helper parts in our soul.
We ask for wisdom from the Holy Spirit as our new helper that Jesus promised us. God's reality of who we are, not our concept of self that is lesser and smaller because of the awful things that have happened to us, the things that we wanted that haven't happened to us, all because of what? Certain people, our own mistakes, disappointing circumstances?
Well, suffering is part of life. But unnecessary suffering happens when we make these things that happened define who we are. They're not you, they've happened to you.
And that's, it's not God's purpose for your life to be defined by the things that happened to you, it's God's purpose for your life to be with him in the things that happened to you. So, the happenings, let's see these happenings as outside of us, and our soul reacting to them. But, what's inside of us?
That's the, who is inside of us? God is inside of us. The things are outside of us.
1 John 4, 4. Greater is he that is in you, than that which is in the world. So, I spoke about finding wisdom.
What wisdom do we need to get in order to understand our true reality? The fact that greater is he that is in you, than that which is in the world. Well, James tells us.
James 1, 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reprimanding, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith.
I tell people, you're gonna get the wisdom you need as you diligently apply yourself to what we're doing here. It will come, God will speak. I'm thinking, am I bold enough to say that?
I am, because I see it happen all the time, because the Bible says do it. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Well here we are, the two mindsets. The mindset of the soul, or the mindset of the spirit.
Spiritually minded is life and peace. Carnally minded is death.
Bible says the carnal mind cannot please God.
It's hostile to God. Humanity. But the spiritual mind is in harmony with God.
And James here says, you're double-minded and you'll become unstable. Now double-minded is a good phrase because it's speaking about having a spiritual mind and a soul mind, the two I ams. But look, I want to open that word up to you.
Double-minded in the Greek doesn't have the word mind in it.
I still think it's a great phrase because the mind is in the soul.
And there is a mind in the spirit.
The mind that knows Jesus is in the spirit. The mind that bumbles around out here is in the soul. We'll talk about that later.
But the Greek word for double-minded is di-psychos. That means double-souled. It's soul.
It's a soul problem. It means a double-souled person. A soul in conflict with itself.
With a mind that is in conflict with the mind of the spirit. I continually see the Holy Spirit giving wisdom to people about their true being as they do the healing of the soul process. It's the grace of God doing that, and our faith receiving it, and believing it, and living it out.
So, what about faith? What is the goal of our faith? And here's a key scripture, 1 Peter 1.9, receiving the end.
The word there in Greek is telos, the purpose, the end of our faith. The salvation and healing of your soul. That's what your faith is for.
To get your soul back in shape, in alignment with your spiritual destiny. That's what the course is for. So, when I'm sitting in the presence of God, I want to come back, shake myself, wake myself up, and say, soul, move over.
I want to hear what God is saying about me, to be the l am that I know you say 1 am. And I bring scriptures to mind. I do a whole lots of, well, there are a whole lots of things I don't do.
I don't try and analyse myself. I just think about what God is doing and how great He is and He's wonderful at time. That's what I do.
But I bring scriptures to mind. I thank God I'm in His presence, even if I don't feel anything. I thank God that He's doing a mighty work in me and I don't even feel it's happening.
I can feel actually quite at odds with myself, but my spirit is saying, wake up, God's at work, give this time, be still, know that I'm God. You don't have to feel it. All right, thank you, Lord.
But here's some scriptures that I bring to mind, and I'll just leave it with this. Paul says in Ephesians 3.20, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. That's the power of the Holy Spirit.
Take out the book of Philippians and have a look in Philippians chapter one, chapter two, and chapter three. In Philippians chapter one, you'll find this. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
He's doing the work. Philippians 2.13. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do what is his highest purpose for your life.
His good purpose. I mean, oh my Lord, you're at work in this, and I've been trying to do all the work. And he says, I told you, be still, know this.
And third, in Philippians chapter three, verse 21, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. You know, when I'm sitting there, I can feel restless, agitated. This is a waste of time.
And time goes by, and I start feeling subdued. I think I'm doing a pretty good job here of calming myself. I'm supposed to say, that's not you.
I'm subduing that restless heart of yours, that anxious, fidgety mind that wants to analyze. Give me some more time. Okay, Lord, thank you.
Ill be still and know you're God, and I'll leave the rest to God.
So, thank you, Lord. Help us to learn to let go of outward happenings, to let you happen within us at all times.
Amen.

 

 

STANDING ON HOLY GROUND

I CANNOT DO ALL THINGS

 

I CANNOT DO ALL THINGS
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through (en – in) Christ who strengthens me. 
That is a wonderful Scripture but what does ‘all things’ mean and what does ‘through’ mean? To get the full meaning of all this I need to mention something a little irregular in the English interpretation of that text. The correct English word for ‘through’ in that Scripture is ‘in’. The Bible uses the English word ‘through’ 119 times in Paul’s epistles, and the Greek word for through is always dia except in that one text here where the word en is used, and en means in, not through, so my reading of this would  be ‘I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.
This brings home the point that Christ is the one doing the ‘all things’ that he wants to happen and I’m being strengthened in doing it with him. Am I being too pedantic, isn’t me doing it through Christ okay? think it through, because with Paul this is all about being IN Christ – IN Christ is relational, being part of God’s life, but doing things through Christ puts us in charge and not God, like us doing something through a lawyer - it is utilitarian and non-relational. You’ve seen sportsmen on TV signalling to Heaven that they are going to win this match through God – that seems a little presumptuous. But saying ‘I can do all things IN Christ’ puts God in charge, as he does the things with and through us as the earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power is of God and not of us and it’s a proclamation of yielded faith by us. What I’m saying is never going to change the way this verse is written or even said, probably even by me. But if I’m going to do something by faith I want to understand what I am really proclaiming and why.

Paul says in Galatians - it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in the Son of God by faith, (Galatians 2:20). Being in Christ was Paul’s revelation, his message – Christ in you the hope of glory – his glory. (Colossians 1:27) – Christ in us and us in him. Paul said that he wanted to be found in him (Philippians 3:9)

I mentioned in my last talk that Moses was hidden in the cleft of a rock and only saw the glory of God after it had passed by because God had said you cannot see My face and live. (Exodus 33:17).  Paul says that rock was Christ. He said the rock that followed Israel through their journey in the wilderness was Christ (1Corinthians 10:4). Moses being hidden in the cleft of rock is us being hidden in Christ. The Bible says your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). God was prophesying to us that ‘In Christ you will see the work I have done and you will know that it was me that has done it from heaven and not just you on earth, and somehow, we have done it together!! 

Previously I also shared the story of God being with Paul in that shipwreck at Malta. No one was lost as Paul had prophesied to them ‘An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me…not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed (Acts 27:23). The people of Malta then lit a fire for them because it was cold and raining, and as Paul gathered firewood, a viper bit his hand and the islanders expected him to die, assuming some kind of divine justice, but Paul simply shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. They then think he is a god. Then Publius the magistrate of Malta hosts them generously and Paul heals his father who has a raging fever and the rest of the sick on the island came and were healed. 
Malta wasn’t Paul’s idea. God went to Malta and Paul was IN Christ seeing God at work through himself as the clay vessel. The Holy Spirit and Paul did it together! Even Jesus said Truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father do. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise”. 
I have two more questions today.
The first question is - What does it mean to be ‘in Christ’?’
The second question is how I can ‘do all things through (in) Christ who strengthens me’

There is a clue to understanding what being IN Christ means in what Paul said in that shipwreck incident at Malta. He says ‘An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me.” (Acts 27:2). Paul knew he belonged to God IN Christ.
The way we know that that we are IN something is by knowing that we belong, like being in a family or a friendship or a group or a church community. We are accepted and we can be ourselves there and share the care there, as a part of it.

The Bible says that Jesus died for all of mankind because we all belong to him. Paul said We are held in (synech??) by Christ's love for us. We are certain that if one died for all, then all of us have died. (2 Corinthians 5:14).  
That means that because of what Jesus has done we all belong right from the start even if we do not know it or believe it - we are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6.), forgiven in Christ and belonging to him. He didn’t ask for our permission he just did it. and we challenge people to believe it – that’s the Gospel.

Paul spoke of this as an eternal reality in God’s destiny for humanity when he spoke to the Athenians about their unknown God in Acts 17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times (Kairos) and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might search for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…

When a person knows that they belong their hearts can open up to hearing and understanding and believing and finding new hope for their lives. So then belonging and believing lead to uprightness in behaving - belong believe behave – instead of ‘if you behave and truly believe what we believe we will tell you if you belong’. 

The second question was how can I ‘do all things through (in) Christ who strengthens me’
This requires that I ask myself three things when considering what lays ahead for me – a) what do I expect will happen? – then when something happens comes b) what actually happened? – then comes c) where was I surprised? 
I find that concerning point a) I overate my self expectations, and b) what actually happens confirms point a, then c) I am surprised at how much more God does than I could ever have expected. It is God that takes us into things IN Christ, not us that takes Christ into all that we plan. There are shipwrecks and Malta experiences. We do our upmost and we see God do his highest.
I will illustrate with a story.
I went to a pastors conference in the late 90’s with my old friend the late Hal Oxley. We had visited Toronto Canada and then visited the revival meetings in Pensacola and finally attended a pastors’ conference in Houston Texas in the Lakewood church now run by Joel Osteen but then run by Joel’s father John Osteen who was a very gifted and anointed man, with a healing and evangelical ministry and much wisdom and integrity. Hal had been a friend of John Osteen for some years. There were over two thousand pastors and leaders there and Hal received a warm welcome. He was also a storehouse of wisdom and experience and had conducted similar leadership events in Melbourne with a Q and A session at the end. Hal was the pioneer of the Christian School movement on the East Coast of Australia, and I visited his school before starting Northern Beaches Christian School – here in this actual building in 1981. 

At the end of John Osteens conference there was also a question-and-answer session which Osteen conducted single handedly, and Hal was riveted by the complex questions of the pastors, and I knew he would have answered their questions excellently. The questions dealt with problems of administration and church programs including youth groups and home groups and financial management questions and some weird legalistic ones about tithing and church discipline. John Osteen would quietly listen and pause and speak his wisdom and Hal and I were impressed. But we began to notice that time after time especially with the tougher complex questions John Osteen would give the same answer, over and over again. He would say ‘Do the best you can and trust the holy Ghost’ (he didn’t say Holy Spirit). All the while Hal was writing comments on his ever-present note cards and showing them to me – comments like Vision statement needed here, or delegated authority essential etc. And I would nod, thinking this is going to be quite some conversation later. 

Then right at the end one pastor said he wanted to start a Christian school, and his question was ‘what is the first thing I should do if I wanted to start a Christian school in Alabama?’ I looked at Hal and he leaned over to me and said ‘I’d love to answer this one, and I thought just what a blessing that would be. I said to him ‘what would you say?’ and Hal looked at me and said with a grin ‘do the best you can and trust the Holy Ghost’. I got the giggles, and we both had to hold ourselves in check and not explode laughing.

But that answer was strikingly enough the simple truth of faith for all those difficult challenges. Think of some major decisions you’ve made lately doing the best you could – and the ones coming up. We belong to someone who belongs to us and who gets things done perfectly with us in the midst of our imperfection. God says to us – ‘In Christ you will see what I have done, and you will know that it was me and not just you, but somehow we did it together!!’ So do the best you can and trust the Holy Ghost and watch as God brings his will to pass in your life. He will do the things, and we will give him the glory. 
When you are in thr midst of something, doing it the best you can and you have an outcome in mind, and something goes wrong and the challenge seems too great. I’ve found that the thig to do is to capture that moment and realise that that moment of challenge, of difficulty of self-consciousness – that moment belongs to God. He hasn’t dumped you in it and said ‘you sort this out’, no he’s in that and when you sort that out, however well or not you sort it out, God is there sorting it out for you in the world of the unseen, wanting you to know that and be conscious of that and believe that. You may not see an instant miracle happen but as you believe that God is at work it gets you out of your self consciousness and the moment belongs to God even though you may feel that this is still a real challenge for you. It is only afterwards that you realise that you don’t have to be the master of that occasion. You’ve been brought into it and God is in it and your faith is there. Then afterward God will say, ‘see, we did that together’ – we say who me? And od says ‘well done good and faithful servant’ – amen
Paul OSullivan – pauloss@icloud.com

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