Spiritcode

A New Order

A NEW ORDER notes
When God created the Universe he began with an order of material being or existence, and then created human life with a much higher order of life with moral responsibility for relationships and loving responses. We are going to look a the ongoing work of God in the reordering of that relational order of our lives to bring us closer and closer to him.
We start with God as Uncreated Being creating the material universe in the presence of his already created angelic spirit beings. The material universe was an order of created being which reflected his creative genius of design in observable Laws, such as the laws of mathematics and physics and chemistry, and the observable beauty of light and colour and the harmony of movement and sound and the forms of life and energy and growth. All of these laws and forms of the new order of created being were created out of emptiness and darkness and chaos and disorder. 
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

A new order – a new Law of life
When God created humanity, the being that was to reflect the image of his own nature and being, he recreated within that being his own order of life of love and trust. The first of these beings, Adam, broke the law of love and trust when he was deceived into a mistrust of God by another created spirit being, Lucifer, who had desecrated that law of love and trust through the darkness of his pride and deception. 

A new order – a new Law of life (and death)
Adam had allowed darkness into the being of humanity and a new order of human life came into being – the law of sin and death. Adam was no longer innocent, and his disobedience estranged him from the life of God - separation and death entered humanity from that time on. Nevertheless, God gave humanity a conscience concerning good and evil which was not perfect because it was self-centred, but people could still choose to honour God. Many offered sacrifices to God out of a good heart like Abel, while many others became corrupt and lived selfishly for themselves like Cain. 

A new order – a good conscience toward God.
Then came the time of Noah, and darkness had established a firm foothold in the human heart. God saw that the heart of mankind had become corrupt and the whole earth was filled with violence and estrangement from God. God observed all this corruption in the world and he said to Noah, who had a good conscience towards God “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth! God told Noah he would send a flood to cover the whole earth (Genesis 6:11) and he told Noah to build an ark, and God saved Noah and his family from the flood. After the rains and the flood had subsided Noah was told to send out a dove, representing God’s Spirit to fly freely out over the earth as a sign of the new order of humanity being given a fresh start. From the time of Noah a new order of mankind that descended from Noah began to live in the order of a good conscience toward God which guided them within the integrity of their own hearts. 

A new order – a new Law of life (the Law of Moses)
Then God told a man called Abraham that he would become the father of the Hebrew nation. And through Abraham there came forth the twelve tribes of Israel and they lived in the new order of God’s wisdom through the Law of Moses which was a new and higher order than the human conscience alone. They became the light of God and his Word in the midst of the darkness in the nations round about them. 

Once again, the order of darkness began to demand its place to rule in the midst of this new nation and they became like the nations around them. The order of darkness took the form of their wanting to be ruled by an earthly king rather than by God, because all the other ungodly nations were ruled by kings. The prophet Samuel spoke to God with a heavy heart about what the people had demanded, and God said to him ‘I am the one they are rejecting, not you—they don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. (1Samuel 8:5). So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said. ‘You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.” 
‘Even so, we still want a king,’ they said, ‘for we want to be like the nations around us.’
The attack of darkness upon the hearts of God’s people has now become set in the desire to want to be like the nations around them.
After the death of King Solomon two distinct kingdoms were established. The kingdom of the ten northern tribes settled in Samaria and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin settled in Jerusalem in the south. The northern kingdom afterwards made ungodly alliances with the other nations and fell into idolatry and were finally dispersed and mysteriously disappeared even though there were anointed prophets in both these kingdoms who faithfully set God’s Word and purpose before them and called them to repentance. 

Jeremiah was the prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, and he became grieved about their corruption and idolatry under their mostly, ungodly kings. God told Jeremiah that because of their disobedience they would go into captivity in Babylon, but at the same time he tells Jeremiah to buy a plot of land from his cousin in Ananoth near Jerusalem.
Jeremiah is perplexed by this directive from God that seems like a contradiction of purpose, but then he realizes that he is not just doing a favour for his cousin, but that this purchase signifies that the land transaction is a symbol of the promised return of Israel one day back to their land. Jeremiah understands God's plan and promise, and he designates his trusted scribe Baruch to settle the sale and keep the deeds in safety. 

A recurring theme of God’s reordering
Jeremiah 45:1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch (blessed one): … Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. And seek not great things for yourself, for I am bringing affliction upon all flesh, says the LORD. But I will give you life as a gift in all places that you may go.”

Baruch (whose name means ‘blessed one’) was protected and blessed with life. The southern kingdom was taken into Babylon and after seventy years they returned to Jerusalem and inherited all the land, but some years later darkness again prevailed and there was another falling away. God’s people received no more prophetic comfort or guidance for over four hundred years from the time of their final prophet Malachi until the time of John the Baptist who prepared the way for the Messiah Jesus.
Before that southern kingdom went into captivity God also promised a new order of life called The New Covenant (The Law of God’s wisdom written upon the heart - Jeremiah 31:31) that would be ordained upon God’s people at a future time.

A new order – a new Law of life (The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus)
God created that new order of life promised to Jeremiah in the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. God and humanity joining together in one Spirit, the greatest order of life for humanity to experience in the earth. This Gift of the Father, The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus through his Son Jesus, who put to death the old order of life, The Law of sin and death when Jesus died on the cross, then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, bringing us into that new order of the Spirit of Life through the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus sowed his life into death and reaped new life in resurrection so that we could inherit this new order of life in the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. 

Our global society has become so disordered in recent times that we seem to be seeing the replay of the theme that we saw in God’s word through Jeremiah to Baruch ‘Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. And seek not great things for yourself, for I am bringing affliction upon all flesh, says the LORD. But I will give you life as a gift in all places that you may go.

In the days in which we live there is the breaking down of things that God has built, and there is the pulling up of things he has planted. We are seeing the breaking down of once reliable democratic systems of government based on Godly morals, and the pulling up of deeply rooted traditions in a new cultural order that replaces the Godly foundations with shallow ideologies of special interest groups that are pitched one against the other. This causes disdain and resentment from zealots to be aimed against people who don’t always agree with the new order virtues or ideologies. Their demand often is. ’We want to do as we please and we would like a law framed for us to have the freedom to do it, and the power to punish anyone who wants to stop us or attempts to criticise us. We are also seeing violence and human suffering in the violent aggression of Russia against Ukraine and against the values of the freedom of western democracy. 
We also see personal affliction everywhere and the disruption of health and safety and the pressure on financial systems caused by the global pandemic and natural disasters like fires and floods. This is the time to pray for God’s reordering of his Kingdom values to challenge today’s disordered culture and bring his order of life once more into this world.

God also wants to restore the order of his new Law of life in his Church and is saying to the Church to ‘seek not great things for yourself ‘. He has had to tear down and pluck up what may have become worldly and superficial practices in the Church in recent times concerning celebrity leadership styles and the love of money. God says to us as he did to Baruch (the blessed one) I will give you life as a gift in all places that you may go. We receive his life that we may give it to his world, wherever we may go.

Paul writes about this experience of being given a new order of life and he shares it with all who desire to live with a true heart of a good conscience towards God. An order of life is a Law of life because it means to regulate how that life is lived to its highest order, so as I read the following Scripture from Romans Chapter 7 I am going to be using the word ‘order of life’ in the context of a ’ law of life’.
Romans 7:21 I delight in the law of God (order of God’s wisdom), in my inner being, but I see in my members (outer being) another law (order of life) waging war against the law (order of life) of my mind (in the knowledge of God) and making me captive to the law (order of life) of sin (independent self-interest) that dwells in my members (outer being). Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death (sense of miserable estrangement from God)? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself (my inner being joined with God’s Being) serve the law of God (order of God’s wisdom) with my mind (in the knowledge of God), but with my flesh (outer being) I serve the law (order if life) of sin (independent self-interest)…but there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus for the Law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the Law of sin and death…

Contending for the new order of life
The Law of sin and death still resides in our mortal being and it contends with the Spirit of Life in Christ in our spiritual being at every turn in our lives as darkness seeks to extinguish that light and that life, but it can be overcome by our faith because the Holy Spirit is always awakening us to the ongoing mission of God for mankind in the earth, which is for us to be transformed into the image and likeness of God in Jesus Christ. Our faith in God’s divine action upon the human heart and mind by the Holy Spirit empowers us with his grace to reorder the reasoning of our minds and to love mercy and to release his wisdom and justice into our personal world.  The Holy Spirit will empower us to make commitments and to control our actions and enable us to fulfill God's will for our lives.

 

Times of Refreshing in God’s Presence

TIMES OF REFRESHING OF GOD’S PRESENCE
Acts 3:19 Now change your mind and heart towards God and turn to him so he can cleanse away your sins and send you the appointed times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.

The appointed times (Kairos) of refreshing (anapsyxis; a recovery of breath, revival) from the presence of the Lord speak to us firstly about the sovereign outpourings of the Holy Spirit as seen throughout the history of the Church, and they also speak to us about our practice of personally abiding in the presence of the Holy Spirit through our faith. 

The sovereign outpourings of the Holy Spirit for the Church began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and they have continued in the many revivals in different times and in different places throughout history including those moves of God that have occurred in living memory over the last couple of generations. 
The personal times of refreshing for us is the practice of abiding by our faith in the presence of the Holy Spirit through a desire to draw close to God with a conscious focus of our mind and heart upon his nearness to us. This is beautifully typified in David’s remarkable Old Testament heart to heart experience in the Psalms where he yearns for the presence of God in his life. And even though David did not have the New Testament gift of the Holy Spirit as we do, his experience was prophetic of our abiding with Jesus and the Father through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Adam began life dwelling constantly in the presence of the Lord until he was tempted by darkness to put God out of his mind and act as if God was not there, or that God could not see him. He acted in an independent self-determination in his own self interest to foolishly take for himself what only God could give him, a mature knowledge of good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). He ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil and in disobeying God this way he took to himself a darkened and distorted interpretation of what was good and what was evil, because it was focussed upon a self-centeredness of life rather than a God centeredness. He lost his peace and his sense of oneness with God and then the hidden human flaw of hostility toward God (Romans 8:7) was exposed before God which shocked Adam to his core so that he ran and hid in his naked shame from God. Adam played hide and seek with God - God looked for him and called out to him asking him where he was. 
Genesis 3:9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
God has been calling out ‘where are you?’ to mankind from that time on and humanity still hides from the presence of a loving God, putting him out of their minds. He calls us to rethink and turn back again and embrace his presence. 

God’s heart for all mankind always was and still is that we should live in his presence. His presence always was and still is the reality of life for all of humanity, but man has learned to hide from that presence and to put God out of his mind. So while God is always present for us we can choose to not be present for him. That mindset of separation and isolation is the most tragic kind of suffering there is. Whatever kind of suffering we experience, and there are many, can be endured if we know we are in the presence of the Lord. Paul tells us to reckon yourselves alive to God (Romans 6:11). We are alive to God and his presence. To reckon a thing means to render an account of something as true and accurate and to live your life accordingly.

The suffering which seems more real and immediate is the kind that collides with our outer senses because of the vulnerability of our limited humanity when it is under stress. This kind of suffering can take up all our attention and cause anxiety and mental and emotional fatigue. The whole world has experienced that kind of suffering over the last two years of pandemic and now in the current threat of war because of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and also in the aftermath of deadly floods along our East Coast.

Why now? 
‘So that the appointed due seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord 
At the time of its greatest need for comfort and care the world is being shaken and shocked in every way. Now is a time for receiving the very thing that we were created for from the beginning – the presence of God with us in our inner being. 
God is with us in our times of collision with the sharp edges of a hard world. 
He lives for that closeness. It was because of his love for that closeness with us that he sent us Jesus, our  Emmanuel, ‘God with us’ to be your strength in that difficult thing you are facing now. You will be given the grace of the presence of God in that place of struggle. He will cover your weaknesses and vulnerability with his mercy and love. 

Psalm 139:3 You know everything about me Lord. You know what I am going to say even before I say it. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too great for me to understand! It’s all too wonderful for me.
I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

There was an appointed time (Kairos) when God heard the cry of his people who were under the yoke of slavery in Egypt and he delivered them out of bondage and said to Moses ‘my presence will go with you and I will give you rest’.
There was also an appointed time for God to send the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (all of humanity) to join us to the life of Jesus.
There have also been appointed times of the shaking of all things as in the Reformation and other moves of God so that God could expose what things needed to be reordered according to the way of his Kingdom (That includes the reordering of our own minds and will according to his will – what remains and what has to go).

My prayer is that at this time of God hearing the cry of his people and at this time of shaking that there would be a reordering of things according to the way of his Kingdom and that he will once more pour out his Holy Spirit on all flesh, and that he will say to us ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest’. My prayer is also that in the meantime we would draw near to God with the faith that we are indeed abiding in him and in his presence because his Holy Spirit is present with us awakening us to become present with him. Here is a prayer to be said many times a day.
I welcome your loving presence Lord, and your powerful work on my behalf in the world of the unseen

Exodus 33:12 My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest, for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name

Psalm 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;

Psalm 17: 6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words and wondrously show your steadfast love,

Psalm 17: 8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

Psalm 17: 15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he 
trusts in You.

Isaiah 54.10 My covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 55.6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them… and no one will take them out of my hand.

Isaiah 49.16 I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

Colossians 3:2 Your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Genesis 15:1 Do not be afraid; I am your shield and your very great reward. 

Jeremiah 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love. 

Matthew 28:20 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 

Ephesians 3:20 He is able to do far more abundantly than all that I ask or think, according to his power at work within me,

 

 

Never too Old

NEVER TOO OLD - The wisdom of God for a balanced life 

Proverbs 30:7-9 Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane (tapas – manipulate) the name of my God.
This powerful prayer is one that we are never too old or too young to pray. In this prayer we are praying for the wisdom for some of the wisest choices we can make for the rest of our lives. And while ever we are alive we can still say the phrase ‘before I die’. This prayer contains a twofold request on behalf of all of us to God. The first request has to do with being given a heart of truth in two special areas in our lives and the second request is being given the integrity to be content in all circumstances whether in times of scarcity or abundance.
When we pray about truth, we are asking for two different aspects of untruth to be removed from us, and these are falsehood and lying which have both been in humanity from the very beginning. 

Falsehood (shav) was the flaw that Satan exploited in the as yet untested mind and heart of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 
That word for falsehood shav in Hebrew is a strong negative word describing the deception that leaves one with a feeling of desolation and uselessness (Strong’s Concordance as. ???? shav; to make desolate). And because the heart is our active responder to life it will respond to whatever information the mind feeds it. The lie spoken by Satan and planted in the minds of Adam and Eve was the falsehood of being separated from the truth of God’s love and goodness towards them, and in their deception their human hearts could not trust that God wanted the best for them, and their souls were plunged into desolation. Darkness continues to feed our human heart through an independent mindset of separation that erodes our trust in a loving God and so we decide what we want as the best for our lives. 
That lie not only robs us of the truth of his loving heart of goodness and blessing towards us but make us live at a distance from God and even to hide from him like Adam and Eve did because of shame and guilt. And so we can end up living a false life with a false image of who we are rather than as the real person in the true image of who God created us to be in Jesus.  
So we pray for that falsehood to be removed and for us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, for a mindset of faith and trust in him. So he rescues us from the prison of our own falsehood - shava. Ask God to show you who he is to you, and for you, and who you truly are in his sight and he will reveal this to you.

The other aspect of untruth to be removed from us is lying (dabar) and that Hebrew word means do harm to another person by falsely judging or accusing or blaming them.
Adam blamed Eve for making him eat of the forbidden fruit -  The woman you gave to me, she made me eat it! Not only did he blame her, he blamed God, and did great harm not only to his relationship with God, but also to his relationship with Eve. That lying continues to feed the human heart to this day as an aspect of untruth that we can pray to have removed from us.

The Bible says that ‘life and death are in the power of the tongue’ (Proverbs 18:21) and this misuse of the power of the tongue in the destroying of another person’s name and reputation and honour maligns their essential being or nature. When we pray for God to remove this kind of lying from us we become peacemakers and bless not only our relationships with individuals but we can become part of the blessing and healing of entire communities.

The second request in our prayer is about having the integrity to be content with neither too much wealth nor too much scarcity. The prayer starts by saying ‘give me neither riches nor poverty; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” ‘or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.’
This first part of this request has to do with riches. The request is one of asking for the wisdom to approach life with God as one of always being in need while always being aware of not having greed. The Bible says You cannot serve two masters: God and money. For you will despise one and love the other or love the one and despise the other’. 
The Scripture also warns us not to determine to be rich to the point where we say we have no need of God and that our own hand can supply for us what we want from life. 
Deuteronomy 8:12 Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord. He fed you with manna in the wilderness so that you would become humble and so that your trust in him would grow, and he could do you good. He did it so that you would never feel that it was your own power and might that made you wealthy. Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to get wealth.

I believe that the best place to be coming from when we approach the Lord is from a place of need – ‘feed me with the food that is needful for me’ . When we come to God humbly in this way our need is the voice of our hope, but we also come to God with thanksgiving, for this is our voice of faith. The food that is needful for us speaks of any kind of means or supply. It can mean anything - finances, wisdom, or the abilities that he has put in our hands and in our hearts to do what he would have us do.  Knowing we are in need of him also keeps us close to him, not just because of the need, but because the closeness develops into a relationship where we get to know and trust him and to be patient and wait for him to give us the food or particular resource that he knows that we need. Any empowering from God to a person to get wealth is an act of his grace. This is a gift of an ability that is bestowed and not earned, and along with any empowering of any gift or ability comes the accountability towards God for that ability. It is his bestowal, not our entitlement and that bestowal requires our stewardship. 

Paul spoke about his empowerment in Christ to having both abundance and scarcity when he shared about learning to be content with whatever he had. 
Philippians 4:11 I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, in abundance or scarcity, whether it be a full stomach or hunger; for I can do all things that God asks me to through Christ who gives me the strength and power to do it.
While Paul had a godly approach to abundance and wealth, Paul also speaks about the ungodly approach to abundance and wealth and of a wrong desire to get rich as leading to many temptations.
1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
In our original prayer in the book of Proverbs we also saw the mention of an ungodly approach to abundance and wealth where it said. ‘feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD? 

This means that if the love of money drives us to get our own wealth, we become detached from God’s idea of what is needful for us and we deny him, saying ‘Who is the Lord?’ This not only means having our soul pierced with many sorrows, it also means not having faith to draw close to him which means that we don't get to learn to trust him or be patient and be taught of him, and in turn we don't get to know him or to see what he does, and we don’t get to give him thanks in all things. 

Just as there is an ungodly approach to wealth there is also an ungodly approach to poverty and scarcity which is highlighted in the second part of our prayer that says. ‘or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.’ This is seen in people who become envious and resentful of the wealth of others and steal and cheat without conscience.  This can also become an angry and emotional demand for justice as seen in some of today’s activist and destructive protest culture. 

Paul told us he was empowered to live through Christ in godly scarcity as well as in abundance (Philippians 4:11). He gave God thanks in times of abundance and scarcity. He knew that the supernatural work of God in demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit did not depend on money but nonetheless he gave thanks to God for his financial provision, and he honoured those who blessed him and supported him in this way. 

Philippians 4:10 How grateful I am and how I praise the Lord that you are helping me again. I know you have always been anxious to send what you could, but for a while you didn’t have the chance. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little… But even so, you have done right in helping me in my present difficulty. Paul finishes by saying. ‘And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’

Just as there is a godly grace of empowerment for us to get wealth, there is also a godly grace for us to experience scarcity, so that either way we might bestow and multiply grace and blessing to others. I want to underline once again that this attitude of faith towards God concerns more than just material possessions or money. It has to do with time and effort and the care and compassion that is given from each one of us to one another. This emphasises the point about the best place to be coming from as we approach the Lord - We come from that place of need – ‘feed me with the food that is needful for me’. We come from that place of need before God, and we can then go to a place of need in another person’s life with what he puts in our hands and in our hearts to do. In this way thanksgiving is multiplied and more grace is given to us all - Amen.

 

 

The Burning Bush

THE BURNING BUSH
One day God intervened supernaturally in the life of Moses, speaking to him from a burning bush that stayed alight until Moses received and understood God’s message to him.

Exodus 3:1 One day as Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, out at the edge of the desert near Horeb, the mountain of God, suddenly the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…
10. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you,
Moses then protests his unworthiness for the task, so we read on.
But Moses said, “They won’t believe me! They won’t do what I tell them to. They’ll say, ‘Jehovah never appeared to you!’” The Lord asked him. “What do you have there in your hand Moses?” And he replied, “A shepherd’s rod… (Exodus 4:1)

Moses was leading a very ordinary life looking after his father in law’s sheep, with a shepherd’s rod in his hand and God came into that ordinary life and said to Moses ‘What have you got in your hand?’ What he had in his hand was an ordinary part of his life as a shepherd, but it was to become something that God wanted to supernaturally empower. God had put that rod in his hand and created him to use it with skill and wisdom to be a good shepherd of his flocks. That rod was now to become the rod that parted the red sea. It also became the rod that caused water to flow supernaturally out of a rock so that God’s people could live and not die and drink from the rock and be refreshed. 
There were three forty-year stages in Moses’ one-hundred-and-twenty-year life. They were the three stages of nurture, development, and empowerment.

Stage 1 (nurture) – Moses grew up as a young man in the royal family of the Pharaoh after being rescued from the river as a baby by Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh allowed Moses’ mother to nurture his young life, so he grew up taught in the ways of God and also instructed in the ways of Egypt. He became an important figure in the court of Pharaoh but when at age forty, having experienced freedom and independence he saw that two of his fellow Hebrews were being beaten up by an Egyptian guard. He got into reaction about such an unjust system and he attacked and killed the guard and had to bury him in the sand. He had rashly taken justice into his own hands and made a serious error of judgment. His unwise reaction to the injustice being done to his own people did not make any changes to the injustice around him and ended up with the Hebrews telling him to stay out of their business as he only made things worse for them. So, Moses had to get away from Egypt or he would have been severely punished and perhaps even lost his own life. 

Stage 2 (development) – He then spent forty years in the desert as a shepherd. He was humbled by real life and learned to act responsibly and within the limitations of his own humanity. He hadn’t changed anything concerning justice for his people as yet, but God was changing something in him, through experiences that developed his character requiring him to learn self-control, wisdom and patience.

Stage 3 (empowerment) – The burning bush - He was ready for God to take the natural skills and virtues and mature attitudes he now had about his life and to take him on a supernatural journey where Moses allowed God to work his loving and just and merciful purpose through him. He now began to respond to and be involved in the changes that God desired to fulfill in him and in the world of the lives of those around him - two million Jews being delivered out of Egypt, out of the hand of Pharoah.

Each one of these three forty-year experiences in the life of Moses illustrates a different manifestation of the progressive work of the purpose of God for Moses’ life.
The number forty narrative in the Bible speaks to us of appointed times of challenge and change where God manifests the divine power of his life working for us and with us. These appointed times don’t have to be periods of forty years or forty anything as they were with Moses. 

Jesus also had three ‘number forty’ stages in his life. He had a forty-day experience in the trial of his faith in the wilderness when he fasted and overcame the temptations of the devil. That was his second ‘forty’ experience. He also had a time of forty days on earth manifesting his risen life after his resurrection. That was his third and final number forty experience. His first ‘number forty’ experience was the time of forty weeks in the womb of Mary which was the manifestation of his incarnation.

In outlining the three stages of nurture and development and empowerment, we see examples in the lives of Moses and Jesus, and we can see examples in our own lives as well. The stages can be summarized broadly as.

Stage one - Privilege and protection of the time of nurture.
Moses in the court of Pharoah for forty years. He was being reared in the two distinct cultures of the ways of Egypt and the ways of God, which ended with a crisis of violent conflict and a shameful parting of the ways.

Jesus in the womb of Mary for forty weeks. This was the joining of two different states of being, the human and the divine. It began with the glory of a new creation, and it is to last forever for mankind.

For ourselves this is our upbringing in the particular culture and circumstances of our parents, where in most cases we are sacrificially provided for in body and soul. However, this is not always the way it is and in some cases brings confusion and pain but by God’s grace this can be healed through our understanding of God the Father’s love for us. 

Stage two - Training and testing.
Moses for forty years in the desert as a shepherd being humbled and developed in character by God and under the guiding hand of his father-in-law Jethro. 

Jesus was tested for forty days in the desert where he suffered physically and emotionally and spiritually and overcame the temptations of the devil by listening only to the words of his Father. From that experience Jesus went forth in authority to finally pour out his life for us all.

For us there is the time of ‘making our own way’ in life where we go through the ups and downs and successes and failures, the pain and the joy and the griefs and the sufferings of the lessons of life that develop our character. By the grace of God, we endure, and we learn to lean upon God and to trust him in the yielding of our will to his will for our lives.

Stage three - Empowerment of God with us presence.
For Moses this was the burning bush experience. He learned to recognize what God had put in his hand and in his heart in order for him to be the deliverer of God’s love and wisdom to Israel for forty years in the wilderness.

For Jesus – He was to walk for forty days upon the earth to bear witness to his resurrection and after that to ascend to his Father from where he intercedes for us at all times and in all things. He empowers us by his grace to walk with him hand in hand with what the Father has placed in our hand for his will to be done in our lives. 

How this ‘forty’ narrative example is applied to our lives.
1Corinthians 10:1 For we must never forget, dear brothers, what happened to God’s people through Moses in the wilderness long ago. God guided them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them; and he brought them all safely through the waters of the Red Sea. All these things happened to them as examples—as object lessons to us.

God says to us ‘What is that in your hand? 
What he also says to us is that he has given us what is in our hand and what he has put in our hand is what he has also put in our heart. He tells us to take hold of that with a new dimension of faith that he is with us in the doing. He says. ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. You have found grace in my sight and I know you by name’.

How do we know what is in our hand?
This is not some major penetrating search – we just look around us in our world of those people closest to us and see what it is that God has given us to do to bring his love and care and blessing into their lives - what is the closest situation at hand that is calling for us to give ourselves to right now?
He is also making us mindful of the abilities and skills and experience gained in our work or career, and our roles as a parent or spouse or friend, or as a helper or an adviser. He makes us mindful of the opportunities that have moved us forward and challenged us in our growth of character as a person and that have also been used to fulfill us in our world of influence. All of that has been in your hand to do with as you have willed.

But then comes the burning bush experience for us as it did with Moses. God did something so miraculous that it took his attention from that moment of his normal everyday activity and brought him into an encounter with a supernatural God. Our burning bush is the supernatural fire of the Holy Spirit burning within a mortal human life that draws us into an encounter with the living God - We draw near to God and he draws near to us (James 4:8). God wants to bring to our attention that it is time for God to begin working supernaturally to empower those ordinary things in our life where faith  can now work in us in a new dimension of his grace and love and power.

The following train of thought came to me when meditating on this truth earlier in the week.
When I look around and see what is happening in this pretty ordinary life and see that nothing really special is happening then I remember to look somewhere else where there is a place where God is at work in the world of the unseen, and that is where everything is happening in his world of the Spirit. I then begin to rest in the fact that God is working at something in my world at this moment and that I have the privilege to be part of it. I don't know what it is that he's doing but that doesn’t matter because my faith tells me that it is for good. And by my being connected like that and appreciating what is really happening in that world for me and for those in my world I know that when he does tell me or show me what is happening and what it is that he wants to do with what is in my hand at least I will recognize it and see it by keeping in tune with it in my heart of faith for what he wants to achieve.

Look at your right hand and say to yourself ‘I am walking hand and hand with you Lord into a new future of faith and hope and love and meaning. And the burning bush will stay alight - Forever.

 

 

Outside the Gates

OUTSIDE THE GATES
There is a story in the Old Testament (2Kings 7) about how the unseen world of spiritual light and spiritual darkness operates. It is the story of Elisha and the four lepers of Samaria. This story demonstrates how limited the power of darkness is when it faces up to the power and purpose of God and his goodness. The spiritual world is an unseen world – the real world of God’s activity – the world dominated by light and God’s goodness and faith, and with faith we can withstand and overthrow the spiritual darkness in that unseen realm with its fear and deception.
The story begins with Israel under siege and with the Syrian army camped in the hills nearby and God’s people starving to death inside the walls of the city of Samaria, which had become the temporary capital of the Northern tribes of Israel. 

It was reported that people were paying fifty dollars for the head of a donkey to eat, and the king of Israel was blaming Elisha for causing this situation to come about. That was because Elisha had provoked the Syrian army the previous year when he had asked God to blind their eyes so he could trick them by leading them away from where they were headed, to a city called Dothan, and into the waiting hands of the King of Israel in Samaria, where they were ambushed and defeated. 
However, by this time the Syrian army had regrouped and now they were back, and the King of Israel was angry with Elisha and threatened to have him killed by his hatchet-man - his chief officer, and Elisha was aware of that plot.

2Kings 6:31 ‘May God kill me if I don’t execute Elisha this very day the king vowed. Elisha was in his house meeting with the elders of Israel and the king sent a message to summons him, and Elisha said to the elders ‘This murderer has sent his chief officer to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door, and keep him out, for the King will soon follow him’, but while Elisha was still saying this, the chief officer arrived followed by the king.

The King must have presumed that Elisha was praying with the men for God’s help.
2Kings 6:31-33 When the king entered the house he said. “Why should I expect any help from the Lord? The Lord has caused this mess,” 
2Kings 7:3-21 Elisha replied, “The Lord says that by this time tomorrow two gallons of flour or four gallons of barley grain will be sold in the markets of Samaria for a dollar!”
The chief officer objected, “That couldn’t happen if the Lord made windows in the sky!”
But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen, but you won’t be able to buy any of it!”

So the King is in two minds and he hesitates, and the plot fails, and the story continues.
Vs.3 Now there were four lepers sitting outside the city gates. “Why sit here until we die?” they asked each other. “We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we might as well go out and surrender to the Syrian army. If they let us live, so much the better; but if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” 
So that evening they went out to the camp of the Syrians, but there was no one there! (For the Lord had made the whole Syrian army hear the clatter of speeding chariots and a loud galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us,” they cried out. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents and horses, and donkeys.
When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. Finally they said to each other, “This isn’t right. This is wonderful news, but we aren’t sharing it with anyone! Even if we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us; come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”
So they went back to the city and told the watchmen what had happened—they had gone out to the Syrian camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a soul around. Then the watchmen shouted the news to those in the palace. The king got out of bed and told his officers, “I know what has happened. The Syrians know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields, thinking that we will be lured out of the city. Then they will attack us and make slaves of us and get in.”
One of his officers replied, ‘Why don’t we send out some scouts to see?’. 
So four chariot horses were found and the king sent out two charioteers to see where the Syrians had gone. They followed a trail of clothing and equipment all the way to the Jordan River—thrown away by the Syrians in their haste. 
The scouts returned and told the king, and the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So it was true that two gallons of flour and four gallons of barley were sold that day for one dollar, just as the Lord had said!
The king appointed his chief officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled and killed as the people rushed out. This is what Elisha had predicted on the previous day when the king came to arrest him, and the prophet had told the king that flour and barley would sell for so little on the following day.

From start to finish this was an outlandish scenario – almost like a stage play of a comedy of errors, with all kinds of characters with all kinds of strange ideas going through their heads, some plotting malice and death and destruction, with suspicion and confusion and panic. The King didn’t know what he believed or what to believe and the people were desperate. 
Just as it was God’s will to allow Syria to lay siege to Israel it was also God’s will to cause the nightmare panic of the Syrian army and their withdrawal from Samaria. The control of God over history and the power of God’s word in the shaping of history are common themes in the Old Testament.
We can affirm that God is also in control over the seemingly outlandish scenario of today’s global society of confusion and panic and suspicion and malice and opposition to God’s word of truth.

When I think of the strange assortment of characters depicted in this real-life drama of the siege upon Israel by the Syrian army I ask myself which of these characters I can most identify with. I find that curiously I identify most with the four lepers. 
(I had thought that maybe Elisha would be a good choice, but I believe that he represents the Holy Spirit with the Word of God to his people). The reason I chose the four lepers is that when I read or watch the news of the daily happenings and the erosion of values in current mainstream culture, I often feel like I’m outside the gates like they were, not able to and not wanting to share the frenzied confusion of a lifestyle that has become rudderless and cut off from love and truth and faith. I don’t want to let my soul die there, and like the four lepers I don’t want to sit around and wait for the enemy to come and destroy the city and everyone in it. Like the four lepers I want another option and to bring back good news about what God has done!

The four lepers took a risk when they walked boldly into the enemy camp, and the threat to them was what the enemy might do to them, but when they went in they saw with their own eyes that God had been at work because the word of God about the blessing and the relief of the famine in Samaria had been spoken by Elisha and was already in operation. Those lepers should have been the most desperate ones of all the people but if they had not taken this initiative and walked into the enemy camp no one would had moved in the entire city and they all would have starved, even though God’s word of blessing had already been spoken!

Just as the four lepers went into the enemy’s camp, we walk into the enemy’s camp when we venture into the territory of our mind. That is where the devil wants to blind our minds and to plant confusion and deception and fear. That is his greatest weapon, and even though darkness cannot defeat us we can defeat ourselves by believing he has more power than God. But when we walk boldly and confidently into that territory with a mind that is renewed by the Word of God we align ourselves with the authority of his Word and we resist the devil and the darkness has to flee, just like the Syrian army (James 4:7).  
And just as God’s word of blessing had been spoken over Israel by Elisha (Elisha means ‘God of Blessing’), the word of spiritual blessing has been spoken over us in Jesus and we are to trust that it is working in our lives, and it will come to pass in every situation. 

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm…
These are the inner spiritual blessings of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that bring wholeness to our souls by acting upon our minds and our emotions and our will. Through being made one in spirit with Jesus our minds are able to receive the wisdom of God in all situations, and our emotions can likewise receive his peace and joy. And through the softening  ofour hearts by his love we are moved to lovingly surrender our wills to the Father’s will for our lives in all situations. 

The threat to humanity by the devil is not the risk of what he can physically do to us. The threat is being blinded by unbelief to the goodness of God which can make us become fearful that the devil has the power to stop God from having our best interest at heart. The devil does not control my destiny – God does. 
This is about growing in the knowledge of God and having faith and trust in his personal and loving intentions for us. This kind of faith is the only way we can get to know God personally. We are not waiting for our so called ‘goodness’ to operate, but his goodness.
2 Cor 10:4 ‘For the weapons of our warfare do not operate through our human nature but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…’
We are not weakly struggling against a powerful dark force but firmly aligning ourselves with the powerful force of God. Let God arise and his enemies be scattered.

 

The Hunger of the Soul

THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL

In John Chapter four when Jesus sat by the well and asked a woman for a drink of water and then offered her the wellspring of everlasting life he gave her healing for the emotional thirst of her soul and an understanding of the Father’s love for her. She had entered a new life of hope and faith that was to last forever.
Then his disciples arrived with food for them all to share. 

John 4:27 The disciples were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why, or what they had been discussing.
Then the woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village and told everyone, "Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Christ?"  So the people came streaming from the village wanting to see him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat. "No," he said, "I have some food you know nothing about."
"Who brought it to him?" the disciples asked each other.
Then Jesus explained: "My food comes from doing the will of God who sent me, and from finishing his work. 

Just as Jesus had taught the woman at the well the difference between spiritual thirst and natural thirst Jesus was now about to teach his disciples the difference between spiritual hunger and natural hunger. He explained that his spiritual food was the energy that empowered his soul to live a life of surrendering his will to the will of his Father.
What Jesus was saying to them was this. ‘I don’t need any natural food right now, as I have just been nourished and energised by doing what the father wanted me to do here in this place, and there’s more here yet for all of us to do’.
Jesus knew that the crowds of Samaritans from the village were on their way and that he and his disciples would soon be ministering to them because of the woman’s testimony to them, and when Jesus saw the people running down the hill he said to the disciples.

Vs. 35 ‘Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields of human souls are ripening all around us and are white and ready now for reaping.’

Jesus told them that they didn’t have to wait the usual four months between the sowing and reaping seasons of the harvest but that a spiritual harvest was ready now for reaping. That’s like saying to people in these days ‘Don’t say only one hundred and twenty more shopping days till Christmas – your Christmas presents are waiting for you now.
When Jesus spoke about the fields already showing the white ripe harvest it has been commented that he was describing the stark visual image that the disciples saw happening in front of them at that very moment as the hordes of white robed Samaritans streamed from the village and ran down the hillside to meet Jesus.
Many Samaritan men even today on religious occasions wear what is called a Jallaba - a long white gown that has 22 buttons down the front.

Vs. 40 When they came out to see him at the well, they begged him to stay at their village; and he did, for two days, long enough for many of them to believe in him after hearing him. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe because we have heard him ourselves, not just because of what you told us. He is indeed the Saviour of the world."

This was a time when many people of the nation of Samaria received and believed in the hope of salvation from God himself through the man that they now acknowledged as ‘The Christ’. In their Aramaic version of the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) their word for Messiah was ‘taheb’, and we read in Deuteronomy that Moses had spoken to Israel about sending another prophet/saviour/taheb like himself at an appointed time. Moses said this just before he died and just before Israel crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 18:15-18 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet/taheb like me from among you, from your brothers, and it is to him you shall listen…

Moses was not talking about Joshua, Jeshua, but about Jesus, Jeshua – The Saviour of the world, and when Israel went into the promised land Joshua set up the tabernacle of Moses on mount Gerizim, and this makes the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritans from the village at Mount Gerizim that day a very significant fulfillment of prophecy for those Samaritans. 

The Samaritans had always held to this hope of salvation and the hope was made alive again when they met Jesus their Taheb (Christ/Messiah) and they acknowledged him as ‘saviour of the world ‘. They then spent two days hearing him speak to them face to face at the village at Gerazim. Their hope in his salvation had to remain as a hope in their hearts until later on when we read in the Book of Acts that Philip the deacon/evangelist went to Samaria to preach the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus to them and they saw the miraculous works of God through Philip that followed his preaching.

Acts 8:4 But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus! Philip, for instance, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about Christ… 9 A man named Simon had formerly been a sorcerer there for many years; he was a very influential, proud man because of the amazing things he could do--in fact, the Samaritan people often spoke of him as the Messiah… 13 Then Simon himself believed and was baptized and began following Philip wherever he went, and was amazed by the miracles Philip did. 14 When the apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent down Peter and John, and as soon as they arrived, they began praying for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come upon any of them. For they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw this--that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people's heads--he offered money to buy this power.
"Let me have this power too, “he exclaimed hungrily, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!"
This man Simon was severely rebuked by Peter, who discerned the pride and corruption in Simon’s hunger for the power of the Holy Spirit, and Peter told Simon that he could have no part in any of this for his heart was not right with God. 

When Jesus and the disciples met with the white robed Samaritans who had run down the hill and then spent time with them in that Samaritan village the disciples learned firsthand from Jesus the lesson of the spiritual food that was the energy that empowered the hungry soul to live a life of surrendering the will to the will of the Father. They were taught by Jesus at that time that the authority and power that they would receive on the day of Pentecost through the Holy Spirit would not come from a hunger for power, (as we saw with Simon the sorcerer) but from a hunger to do the will of the Father in the laying down of their lives for others. (Matthew 20:20).

In these days where mental and emotional fatigue is being felt by so many, the spiritual food that sustains our souls and releases the power of God in our lives comes by the readiness to surrender our will to the good will of God as well as the doing of his will. That readiness and that doing it comes about by keeping our mind not on our power (try and keep that out of the picture) but on God’s power which is always supernaturally at work for God’s greatest good as we faithfully serve God and sacrificially serve others in this way. 
God does not give us his supernatural power to achieve our own objectives but to achieve his, and some present-day practices of presuming the power to gain financial prosperity and personal miracles simply by claiming a Scripture verse can lead to errors that corrupt the integrity and character of leaders and congregations. This has sadly been the case in the Western Church and in some parts of Asia for many years. Jesus said ‘It is the Spirit that gives life - The words that I speak are spirit and they are life’. It has to be more than simply words we read. (John 6:63)

There are even misleading doctrines that teach that God has delegated all authority to us and that he needs us to pray for things before he is able to work them from Heaven. 
What God has given us is authority and power over the works of darkness and deception as we ‘do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God’ (Micah 6:8), and ‘become transformed by the renewing of our minds to know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ (Romans 12:2).

We can cry out to him in our suffering, press upon him in our times of need, plead to him in our appeal for justice, and we can be assured that in all these things he hears us. Why not then in all these things yield to him and say not my will but yours be done?
How much better is this than scrambling our minds with one anxious thought after another searching for answers, or conjuring up guesswork about the future with our imaginations?
How much better is this also than exerting our willpower to make decisions based on emotional reactions to circumstances rather than surrendering our will to the certainty that God’s wisdom will be forthcoming as we wait for his peace to settle our soul?
The greatest power that we are given access to is the power of God’s love to us and through us, back to God and on to other people.
There is no more worthwhile way to spend time with God than to engage with him in thanking him for his love. This is a response of faith to his continual active loving of us - and this faith pleases him and is our way of loving him back. When we engage with God in this way we are feeding the spiritual hunger with the food that satisfies and energises our souls.

The Thirst of the Soul

THE THIRST OF THE SOUL
John 4:1 When Jesus left Judea and returned to Cana in Galilee he had to go through Samaria on the way, and around noon as he approached the village of Sychar, he came to Jacob's Well, located on the parcel of ground Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jesus was tired from the long walk in the hot sun and sat wearily beside the well.

Jesus was travelling purposefully through Samaria on his way from Jerusalem to Cana which was unusual for a Jew because Jews always took the longer journey on the flat terrain along the western side of the Jordan river instead of going over the steep area of Mount Gerizim through Samaria. They did this because they always avoided associating with the Samaritans whom they regarded as gentiles. However, Jesus was being led by the Holy Spirit and waiting for whatever purpose his Father had in mind for him in Samaria.

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. He was alone at the time as his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised that a Jew would ask a ‘despised Samaritan’ for anything - usually they wouldn't even speak to them, and she remarked on this to Jesus.
He replied, "If only you understood what a gift God has for you, and who I am, you would ask me for some living water!"
"But you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water? And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? How can you offer better water than this which he and his sons and cattle enjoyed?"

Let us look at what is happening behind the words that are being spoken here. Jesus had asked the woman for a drink of water, much to her surprise, and she became defensive about being a ‘despised Samaritan’, but to her further surprise Jesus in return offered her the gift of living water. 
The woman backs away from his offer by commenting that he doesn’t have a rope or bucket and she questions him as to where he would get this living water that is supposedly better than what Jacob’s well has to offer, and she then needles Jesus about thinking he might be greater than their ancestor Jacob. Jesus calmly disregards her awkward reactions and begins to explain to her the difference between natural thirst and spiritual thirst, which leads to the further discussion of the difference between natural spring water and the supernatural living water (zao hydor) of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this natural water. "But the water I give them," he said, "becomes an everlasting spring within them, watering them forever with everlasting life."
At this stage the woman becomes curious about the living words of Jesus and the living water, and she wants to know more. 
"Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that water! Then I'll never be thirsty again and won't have to make this long journey to keep getting water."
Jesus had seen into the woman’s heart of unfulfillment and the emotional brokenness of her soul, which was the real thirst in her life.

"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. "But I'm not married," the woman replied.
"All too true!" Jesus said. "For you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now." 
"Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet”. 
      
She warily acknowledges that Jesus is a prophet and that he knows everything about her.
Jesus begins to speak to her wounded soul because of her history of emotional unfulfillment with men. She realizes for the first time in her life that she is hearing from the living God - through a man – a very different kind of a man to any she had ever known. 
However she stalls again, and diverts Jesus with a controversy about the Samaritans offering better worship than the Jews. 

Please tell me why it is that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?" 

After Israel entered into Canaan the Promised Land, Joshua erected the tabernacle of Moses on Mount Gerizim in Samaria and some of them, from the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim and Levi chose to settle there and adhere to the teaching of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. They did not follow Joshua and the rest of Israel into the times of the Kings and prophets and poetic psalms, where God set the vision for Israel of the coming of the Messiah and where God directed Solomon to build him a temple in Jerusalem. 

The Samaritans eventually became part of the diversity of nations that mixed among the separated northern tribes of Israel that had split off from the tribes of Judah. The northern tribes were involved in a complexity of political alliances involving Assyria and Persia and Egypt and Babylon and were finally dispersed among the various nations. However, the Samaritans remained and continued on in the land of Israel when Judah was taken into captivity in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. They believed that Samaritanism was the true religion of ancient Israel, and they preserved an Aramaic interpretation of the Torah. 
When Judah had fulfilled their seventy years of captivity in Babylon and God led them back to Jerusalem he instructed the prophet Ezra to reinstruct them in the Hebrew record of the Torah and to remain faithful to his teaching. The Samaritans believed that Ezra altered and amended the teaching of the Torah that was brought back by those returning from the seventy-year captivity and that Israel had lost its way, and this caused the lasting enmity between the Samaritans and Israel.

Jesus then redirects the conversation with her to the difference between external religious worship and the prophetic hidden truth of true worship, where the Holy Spirit joins us to the life of the Father through Jesus. This wasn’t yet a life experience for anyone other than Jesus.

Jesus said. "The time is coming, dear woman, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here on this mountain or in Jerusalem. For it's not where we worship that counts, but how we worship--is our worship spiritual and real?  For God is Spirit, and we must have the truth of the Holy Spirit with us to worship as we should. The Father desires this kind of worship from us. But you Samaritans know so little about the Father, worshiping without understanding, while we Jews know about him, for salvation comes to the world through the Jews” (Actually as the womb and the cradle forJesus the ultimate Jew).

The woman said, "Well, at least I know that the Messiah will come--the one they call the Christ--and when he does, he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus told her, "I am the Christ!"

This woman received heart to heart counselling from ‘the Christ ‘on that day - from the weary traveler Jesus the living God who did more than just tell her about her past pain and suffering, he created for her a new future with a new hope. When God reveals to us who he is and who we are with him beside us, we forget about everything else. God is at then work and our soul is comforted and at rest.

She had had her emotions confused and damaged through her instinctively seeking emotional comfort and fulfillment in the companionship of men. The Samaritan men that she had known had not provided this fulfillment for reasons of which we are not told, except to note that Jesus did not appear to remark about these things to judge her but to show her that she was important to God as a person and in spiritual need of an emotional healing to her soul. Jesus felt and understood the compassion and love that is ordained for his Father’s daughters, and he cared about the painful details that had emotionally drained her soul dry, and he was offering her a new hope which would give new meaning to her life. 
Deep in the heart of all human beings is the desire for fulfillment through kinship and oneness. Her pursuit of this good desire had failed not because of the desire but because of the desperate way she was pursuing it, and the men with whom she was pursuing it - six men but no husband – why?           
This desire for kinship and oneness is fundamental to humanity because it is born out of that same desire in the heart of God the Father who wants to fulfill each one of us as his child with his love and peace and care and protection. He wants us to place him above all others, and to entrust him with our lives.
True worship is the response of an adoring heart towards the One who is esteemed above all others, and in whom we desire to entrust our lives. And Jesus had spoken to her about this in his discussion with the woman. 
‘For God is Spirit, and we must have the truth of the Holy Spirit with us to worship as we should. Because The Father desires this kind of worship from us.’ 
Jesus was teaching her to respond to the desire of the Father for us to have that kind of trust in him, as it is his desire to fulfill us with his love and peace and care and protection.
She needed to know how the Father saw her in his eyes, and she needed to believe and trust in that, rather than in how she saw herself in her own eyes in her sad desolation. The Holy Spirit had been working to reveal Jesus to her and working together with Jesus for him to reveal the Father to her.

Just then his disciples arrived with the food. They were surprised to find him talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why, or what they had been discussing.
Then the woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village and told everyone, "Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Christ?" 
So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
She ran off leaving her past behind, as well as her water jar. That day she represented the first utterance of God to the Samaritans in all of history. She had been chosen by God to be given a foretaste of a prophetic message of something that he would later teach his disciples when he said he would send them the Holy Spirit, because he was going to his Father(John14)
After the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost the Apostles prayed continually to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit, and they taught us to do the same, and to believe that we keep on receiving. He is our well, our fountain of everlasting life, the comfort for our weary or wounded souls, and as we sit patiently and still by the well of life with him we drink of his Holy Spirit and are given new hope and joy. Let us continually ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit and let this love and peace and joy satisfy our thirsty souls.

Your Kingdom Come

YOUR KINGDOM COME

Romans 14: 16. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven is the realm of God’s authority and power and order which expresses the love and unity and agreement that exists between the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 
In this Scripture the word righteousness speaks of our alignment in heart and mind with the Kingdom of God in Heaven. People living this Kingdom life in the earth experience and display the love and peace and joy that reflects the nature of the Kingdom of God in Heaven. 

Paul wrote to the Church in Rome which had a great diversity of national and cultural and religious persuasions to encourage them to flow in the love and unity that reflected the nature of the Kingdom of God in Heaven. He warned them to not judge one another because of their cultural and circumstantial differences but to accept and honour the intentions of each other’s hearts to live for God and not to live just for themselves. 

Romans 14:1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't have the same opinion as you about serving God. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with— One person has faith to eat anything, while the weak in faith eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him, even when it seems that he is strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

He explained to them that God could handle these differences that came from the variety of religious persuasion and upbringing of each one because he sees what is in the heart toward himself and that is what he measures and accepts.
God does not endorse our personal opinions, but he validates our obedience and sincere intention to please and honour him in our conscience. Our conscience is continually being purified by faith as we desire to walk closer with him in all we think and do. As we
live with a heart of love for the truth of who God is and who we are we receive clearer revelation of the knowledge of God and his Word.
 
Paul told them that if a brother or sister is committed to following a certain religious exercise of practising something or abstaining from something that they were taught to observe and we cause them distress by flaunting our faith and telling them they should have the freedom to do what we do, we are not acting in love. And more than that – we are not reflecting God’s Kingdom of Heaven in the Earth.

Romans 14: 16. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ this way is pleasing God and not causing offence to their brothers and sisters. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Our humanity seems to be hardwired from an early stage in life to detect unfamiliar differences in people other than what we grew up with, and to be threatened by anything that falls too far away from under our kindred tree, and that is not unusual. 

That has been the cause of divisions and conflicts in this world throughout history, but the Church has been given the very Spirit of wisdom and grace to model the answer to this conflict and division everywhere, and that answer is our oneness in Christ. 
Paul encouraged the Church to grow in maturity and love and an openness of heart and mind to learn to accept and appreciate the blending of our circumstantial differences such as race and gender and status and culture because in God’s eyes. we are really all the same
1Corinthians 12:12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

We see the differences and contend with each other and judge one another, even for the slightest degrees of difference of opinion or practice. 
God sees and appreciates those differences in us, which he himself planned for us to have and to be expressed through his Spirit. 
Jesus lived through this human experience of being treated as an outsider and even an outcast and lived this judgement upon himself by others every day of his life till the day he died - on the cross– for us. 

Jesus knows each one of us intimately, Spirit to spirit, human to human. He understands
the unique potential and aspirations we each have, and the misunderstandings and the hurts we have all suffered because of our differences, and he understands completely. Jesus loves us through all of this and he told us that we are each loved by Father God as much as he was, as he said in the following prayer; 
 John 17:22  that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

This needs to be reinforced and sustained by the revelation of the truth that each one of us is accepted fully as we are, along with our differences and limited understanding, and half formed opinions, and the imperfect formation of our thinking by sincere but imperfect teaching of Biblical doctrines and practice. 

Otherwise, we are left with the fact that while God sees us as One in Christ, we see one another as outsiders, the way the apostle Peter saw the Gentiles as outsiders through his Jewish lens. Peter was reluctant to even enter the house of the Gentile Centurion Cornelius, let alone present the Gospel to him, but when he did enter and present the Gospel the Holy Spirit did the rest in very quick time, and Cornelius and his whole household entered the Kingdom (Acts 10:44).

So as we have just seen, learning the ‘one in Christ’ reality was a very difficult journey for the early Church, as it is for us today, but escaping that journey is not an option for God’s Kingdom to come ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matthew 6:10). 

This revelation of oneness together in God’s love has to start somewhere.
It can start simply by being willing to put other things aside in order to spend time seeking God’s grace to believe in the fulness of his love for us. 
I believe it must be the grace of God for if I try in my own strength to reason with myself about how much I deserve or don’t deserve that love I just go around in circles in my mind, but when I get the grace of God to believe it there also comes a peace which is above all understanding and reasoning.
I then stand against letting the devil rob me of the confidence I have of being loved by God and loving him back. We can then have confidence that his love and goodwill will flow out to others.
That is the beginning of love and oneness, the first fruits of God’s Kingdom on earth.

It may seem passive to be waiting on God in stillness, but submitting to God’s working in us this way is really an active response to God in faith.
In this stillness our intellect gets starved of its hungry appetite for more knowledge and it complains bitterly just as our body does when it is starved of food, but just as a bodily fast can bring wholesome results, a soul fast of our intellectual busyness yields unparalleled spiritual health and wholeness.
Our will yearns for decision making and action so that it can be in control of our circumstances and it feels starved also when the soul is put on this kind of fast. When we do this we yield control to God in surrendering to his loving reordering of our circumstances for his purposes for our lives. 

Jesus taught us to pray ‘Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’. 
We can enter into the heart of Jesus in this prayer for the Kingdom and hope to be a part of the answer to it in these days in which we live. We can allow his Kingdom power to be expressed in the reordering of our minds and the intentions of our hearts to accept his love and to love one another. This journey begins on earth but continues in eternity. Love never ends.

I have seen some grand moves of the Holy Spirit in my time, and my notion of the next move is that Holy Spirit would rain down and soften our hearts by his love and give us ears to hear one another and eyes to see one another and hearts that feel for one another as one in Christ, and so reflect the love and unity and agreement of his Kingdom in Heaven.
This flood of grace from Heaven could melt our hearts and bestow upon us a humble innocence that heals our souls. And then we might just get to take that healing power into a broken world. May your Kingdom come Lord and may that healing rain fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entering The Kingdom

ENTERING THE KINGDOM

Luke 4:42 Early the next morning Jesus departed from the people so he could be in a solitary place, but the crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them but to stay at Capernaum. But he replied, "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other places too, for that is why I was sent." Jesus kept talking about a Kingdom, and people wanted to know what this Kingdom was, especially the religious leaders and the Pharisees – Where was it? – When would it come? – What did it look like? 
Jesus’ answer to them was that His Kingdom was not in a geographical place, and you couldn’t plan its arrival with a calendar or describe its outward appearance as a visible organization. He said it was not an external system but an internal reality. He said it was in us and amongst us - something shared between us and God and us and one another.
Luke17:20,21 When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Jesus was underpinning that ‘within you’ life as he withdrew into the place of solitude with his Father as we saw in the opening Scripture and he would be fortified by his Father’s love which then flowed forth from him to the people. Jesus was telling them that he was bringing in a Kingdom that was not a place but rather a realm of God’s supernatural activity and order which was to operate here and now within those who had surrendered their authority to God’s authority and their will to God’ will. They would be people who have desired that their human nature be transformed by God’s nature of love and justice and mercy so that the power of that Kingdom within would not be corrupted like the power of the kingdoms of the world.

When Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested by the temple guards, he was tried by the Jewish High Priest and the council of elders and then handed over to Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea. When Pilate questioned Jesus about being King of the Jews he asked him why he had been tried by his own people and why they had brought him to a Roman Governor for trial. He asked Jesus what he had done, and why was he claiming he was their king.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting for me and not allowing me to even be put on trial. But my kingdom is not of this world.”-Jesus also added that if God had not willed for this to happen then Pilate would not have had any authority to put him on trial  (John 18:36 ff)

Jesus did not ever urge his disciples to protest against Roman authority or consider any hostility towards Roman rule. They were all convinced that the Kingdom would be an outward Kingdom ruled over by Jesus, and that the Roman Empire would be overthrown and that they would rule alongside of him with great power and authority.
But Jesus did not come to try and change the outward kingdom in which his disciples lived; he came to establish the kingdom that would live within them. He said to them once when he was given a Roman coin ‘whose face do you see on it?’ and they said to him ‘Caesars’ and he said to them ‘therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s’. That day Jesus established the principle of the separation between Church and State. Jesus went on to say that they could not behave like the Roman rulers, or their own religious leaders who use their authority and positions of power to dominate others to get what they want out of them. 
There was one occasion when the mother of James and John asked if her sons could sit next to Jesus on his throne, one on the right hand side and one on the left, when he established his Kingdom. It became clear by the reaction of the other disciples of anger and resentment at the two brothers that all of them were coveting some special place in the order of this new Kingdom that would be happening any time soon.
Matthew 20:24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.

He told them that what they were all wanting for themselves was not even his to give. He said that Father had given them all to him, and that Father alone gives place and position as he sees fit. He said that if they were to follow him then they must follow all the way. 
He told them that true authority was serving one another, not competing with one another, and that he had been sent to serve, not to be served, and to lay down his life for others. That day they learned a lot about God and a lot about themselves and a lot about the Kingdom. 

Jesus had to correct their tendency towards the power plays of political zealotry and activism, some of them more than others. Peter would not be slow in lopping off the ear of the temple guard when Jesus was being arrested on the night he was betrayed by Judas, and Judas was the most zealous political activist of all who was bitterly disappointed when he realized that Jesus had planned no imminent earthly Kingdom. Those two brothers James and John whose mother wanted a place for them on the left and the right-hand side of the throne of Jesus were also quite happy one day to ask Jesus to let them bring judgment upon the Samaritans, their political and religious opponents by hurling some fire from Heaven against their rejection of Jesus’ message. Jesus rebuked them and said ‘you don’t know what spirit you are of. (Luke 9:54).

Many Christians today have a similar zealous political activism to that of those disciples, and it is a common and understandable misunderstanding to have, because of the indignation that rises up in all of us when we see the corrupt power plays in the politics of this day. Jesus had to correct his disciples and prepare their hearts and minds to live in the power of a Kingdom within them rather than seek the power in an earthly kingdom around them. 

There are many Christians that believe that the Church will reorder every political and commercial and educational institution and every family and relational arrangement in the earth and bring it under God’s rule so that Jesus can return to a Kingdom of God on the earth that is ready and waiting for him to take up his rule. We can certainly have a transformative influence upon the political and civil landscape when called upon to speak or act in a way that honours God and shines light into darkness in a situation that God has ordained for us.
However, the Bible is clear that we cannot achieve a perfected earthly kingdom in this age where every kind of corrupted kingdom authority contests the Word and the ways of God to maintain its flawed and limited power base, and the Bible says we are not here to judge the world – that is for him (1Cprinthians 5:12). The Kingdom of God cannot be perfected until Jesus returns from Heaven to put down all rebellion in the earth and in the heavens.
1Corinthians 15:24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

And at that time, it will come to pass; ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9).

We finally take our place with him in a New Kingdom of a New Heaven and a New Earth. Until the time of his return, we live in an age where every kingdom on earth is being shaken. The only Kingdom that cannot be shaken is the Kingdom of God that is dwelling within us. (Hebrews 12:28) 

God’s Kingdom is the experience and the influence of a community of people that love God and love one another. The other world is the world of division, competition, self-advantage and independence from God. 

Jesus asks us to choose what world and what kingdom we will be active in.
Jesus asks us how much we care for him, and how much we care for one another.

God wants us to attract people to His Kingdom, and The Holy Spirit will take the love that we actively pour into being with God and with one another and he will draw people towards that love. We are creating a Kingdom community for people to come into, not encouraging anxious or pushy or demanding people with political agendas but growing people with a simple and meaningful walk of faith in God, not trying desperately to impress the world but seeking to care for a broken world that God wants to heal with his love.

The Holy Spirit is working within us to make us willing to do whatever The Father puts before us each day, in the big things and the little things.
If we provide the willingness, He will provide the grace and love and the power to do.
He will give us wisdom in ethical and moral decisions that change lives.
He will give us strength to be there for someone else and help carry their load.
He will comfort us in our affliction so that we can comfort others in theirs.
He will demonstrate to the world that the Kingdom is here and now and in those who have truly entered into it because of their love for one another. 
Then others can be brought in. 
Jesus came to bring in The Kingdom. He will come again to complete it.

 

Seeing and Not Seeing

SEEING AND NOT SEEING

This story shows us how differently we can live our lives if we see things as they truly are in the realm of the spirit and not shrouded by darkness, the darkness of the world. The story, from 2 Kings ch.6, starts off with the king of Syria trying to plot his misguided strategies of war against Israel. Every time he plans to ambush Israel’s army in a certain place, Elisha is told by God what is going on and he warns the king of Israel so that he is always ready for action.

2Kings 6:17 Once when the king of Syria was at war with Israel, he told his officers to mobilize their forces at such and such a place (naming the place). Immediately Elisha warned the king of Israel, "Don't go near such and such a place (naming the same place) for the Syrians are planning to mobilize their troops there!"
The king sent a scout to see if Elisha was right, and sure enough, he had saved him from disaster. This happened several times.
The king of Syria was puzzled. He called together his officers and demanded, "Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel about my plans?"
"It's not us, sir, “one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!"
"Go and find out where he is, and we'll send troops to seize him, “the king exclaimed.
And the report came back, “Elisha is at Dothan."
So one night the king of Syria sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city of Dothan. When the prophet's servant got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere.
"Oh no Master, what shall we do now? “he cried out to Elisha.
"Don't be afraid! “Elisha told him. for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them. “Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, open his eyes and let him see! “And the Lord opened the young man's eyes so that he could see horses and chariots of fire everywhere upon the mountain!
As the Syrian army advanced upon them, Elisha prayed, “Lord, please make them blind. “And he did.
Then Elisha went out and told them, “You’ve come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me and I will take you to the man you're looking for. “And he led them to Samaria!
As soon as they arrived Elisha prayed, “Lord, now open their eyes and let them see. “And the Lord did, and they discovered that they were in Samaria, the capital city of Israel! (at that time)
When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, “Shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"
"Of course not! “Elisha told him. “Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again."
So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their king. And after that the Syrian raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.

This story of Elisha defending Israel from the attacks of the Syrian army unveils the activity of God in the world of the unseen against the enemy of darkness. God opened the eyes of Elisha to this supernatural realm to show him that God was in command of the earthly activity and that he would guide Elisha step by step to fulfill his Heavenly purpose for his people.
The Bible tells us that we can be made aware of the tactics of our enemy the devil, and so prevent our minds and hearts from being emotionally overwhelmed by darkness and deception and fear. That understanding is of great encouragement to our faith especially in these present troubling times of global pandemic.

 2Cor2:11 so that we are not outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Darkness will try to introduce fear which is a spiritual power. Fear fires up peoples’ imaginations and brings confusion and incites suspicion and division and unforgiveness. The devil tries to hijack the emotions to disrupt a normally ordered soul where it can go into reaction and become suspicious and fearful rather than trusting in God and acting wisely.

There are some things about seeing and not seeing that are worth knowing.
Only God knows what is really going on in the realm of both the seen and the unseen.
The devil does not know the future (if he did why let Jesus die on the cross).
The devil cannot read our minds. (2chron ch.6)  
The devil can blind our minds by getting us into emotional reactions such as resentment, anxiety, fear, deception concerning half-truths and conspiracy theories, and harsh criticism of people who do not share the same opinions. 
These reactions do not help to solve the problem at hand, and they end up causing more emotional and mental and spiritual unrest than the problem itself.
What does help is adopting a new mindset of faith in God (repentance).
We can learn to consciously redirect our faith to the reality of God’s command over the situation and his supernatural work on our behalf in the world of the unseen. 

Just as the prophet told his servant that there was a greater army with them than there was against them. Elisha had to pray that God would open the eyes of his servant to see the work of God in the unseen realm.
The Bible tells us ‘Greater is he who is within you than he who is in the world (1John 4:4). 
He that is within us is Jesus working with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is our strength and he has overcome the darkness of the power of the world and only he can help us us to see what is happening as he sees it - in the unseen realm. God has not only allowed this global pandemic but he is using it to bring darkness and deception and corruption to the surface like never before in history. Everything will get to be seen for what it is as the Holy Spirit shines light upon the darkness and deception that is causing so much of the current chaos and disorder being seen in the world today. 
He that is in the world is Satan who brings darkness and chaos and disorder into this world to blind it to the reality of the supernatural work of God that he does on behalf of those who believe. 

We are being called to stand still and see the salvation of The Lord.
We can learn to quietly calm our souls and resist fear - and find faith.
We can learn to resist the ambush of our emotions and order our minds.
We can receive God’s love and wisdom into our hearts. (1John 4:18, 1Corinthians 1:30).

God’s love in our hearts will be seen through the practical caring or comforting response we can give to someone in distress in these present difficulties. It is also seen in our non combative response if we are personally criticised for our position on how we manage the current difficulties based on our faithfulness to God and to one another.

God’s wisdom in our heart will be seen through our personal responsibility in making decisions that support the well-being of others, especially those that are vulnerable. 

God blinded the eyes of Elisha’s enemies so that they went into confusion and lost their way and had to give up their misguided plans as a lost cause.
God opened the eyes of Elisha to what he was doing in the overall scheme of his purpose for Israel, and Elisha’s request was granted in opening the eyes of his friend who could not see what God was doing.
This empowerment of God’s grace to us of having our eyes opened by God to see what he is doing and what darkness is doing is being given to us in these days as we faithfully wait upon God and trust him to have his way with us and through us in these troubled times. As God opens our eyes he will give us the prayer of faith to see eyes being opened in those in our world that we bring before him. In quietness and confidence will be your strength.