Spiritcode

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.

 

An era of Hope and Peace

AN ERA OF HOPE AND PEACE 
Forty days after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph had to bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem at that prescribed time for dedication and purification according to Jewish Law. 
A man named Simeon was also in the Temple, The Holy Spirit having prompted him to go to the Temple that day. The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen Jesus, God's anointed King, which was Simeon’s lifelong prayer, forever waiting and expecting the Messiah to come soon. And so when Mary and Joseph arrived to present the baby Jesus to the Lord in obedience to the law, The Spirit bore witness to Simeon that his prayer had been answered, and he greeted them, taking the child in his arms and began praising God.
‘Lord’ he said, I have seen him as you promised me I would. I have seen the Saviour you have given to the world. He is the Light that will shine upon the nations, and he will be the glory of your people Israel! now I can die in peace. (Luke 2:29)
On that day this prophetic man Simeon took his place in entering the era of new hope and peace that had come upon all of humanity. 

Joseph and Mary stood there, marvelling at what was being said about Jesus.
Then Simeon blessed them all and said to Mary about her blessed child;
‘This one is assigned for the fall and rise of many in Israel and as a sign that will be opposed and denied by multitudes in all the earth, so that the thoughts of their hearts might be revealed. 
This momentous prophesy declares Jesus as the one who stands at the centre of the scales of every life, where we weigh the major decisions of our lives. This challenges us to either respond to or reject the truth of his virgin birth, his perfect life, his voluntary sacrificial death and his glorious resurrection. These truths are the challenges that provoke opposition and denial in the human heart, where all inner conflicts between light and darkness are deliberated and judged, bringing every human heart to account. 
Jesus now stands in the middle of every decision we make, to give us his wisdom and truth. This is ours if we let him into our heart - and it is on offer for all of mankind, and sadly ignored.

A woman named Anna was also there in the Temple that day, a prophetess of the Jewish tribe of Asher, and was eighty four years old. She lived a cloistered life in the Temple, dwelling there night and day, worshiping God in praying and often fasting.
She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and The Spirit gave witness to her spirit that this was the promised Saviour and that the Messiah had finally arrived. She began thanking God and proclaiming this truth of hope to everyone in Jerusalem. She too had now entered the era of hope and peace that had come into the world.

Meanwhile, a group of highly esteemed Wise Men called Magi set out from Babylon in the East, and they were asking about the birth of the new king of Israel and his whereabouts. Babylon was the first civilization in the East from 700 BC to study and interpret the movement of the stars and planets (wandering stars).
They would study any unusual or momentous activity of a night star in the heavens, as this was often interpreted by astrologers to be the sign of the birth of a great ruler. They had been following an exceptionally bright star for some weeks in the eastern night sky to the region of the special birth and had been asking questions around Jerusalem.

These men also knew the writings of the Jewish scrolls and would have had knowledge of the prophesies concerning the Messiah and the predicted whereabouts of his birth. This was because of the influence of the Jewish religion during the seventy years internment of Israel in Babylon, and the impact of such an inspirational prophetic hero as Daniel, and many scribes and teachers knew from the Scriptures the Bethlehem region of the child’s birth;
Micah 5:2, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!" God will abandon his people to their enemies until she who is to give birth has her son; then at last his fellow countrymen--the exile remnants of Israel--will rejoin their brethren in their own land.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and his people shall be secure, for he will be greatly honoured all around the world. He will be our Peace

The presence of these men in Jerusalem and the line of questioning and discussion they were having with the local people came to the ears of the local ruler, Herod The Great, who had been appointed by Caesar Augustus to rule the Jews of Judea and Jerusalem. Herod was a local tribal king who acted as an intermediary to Caesar, and he had become extremely agitated about the news of this supposed special child whose birth had been predicted, and he was threatened by it. He didn’t want that sort of competition. He had his own dynasty to create.
Herod summonsed the Wise Men to his palace and told them there were vague reports about the general whereabouts of the region where they might find news of the child. He asked them to come back and inform him of the child’s exact location, deceitfully telling them that he too wanted to worship this new king. 
After their meeting with Herod the Wise Men followed the star which remained bright in the sky and were guided to the house where Joseph and Mary and the child Jesus were still staying. When the men were invited to see the child they went down on their knees and worshipped him. They then presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These peculiar gifts have a spiritual message for us today who seek to understand what it means to live a life shared with God.
Gold speaks of the nature of God on display through the Holy Spirit in a human life. 
Frankincense speaks to us of prayer and praise arising out of a true heart. 
Myrrh speaks to us of the necessary reality of suffering, and its meaning for our life, as we give thanks to God in all things, because without that there is no spiritual growth.

That same night Gabriel gave a message to the Wise Men in a dream warning them not to report back to Herod, so the men departed and returned to their homeland another way. After their departure the Angel also appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, and to stay there until he brought further word. He warned him that Herod was seeking the young child to destroy him. Herod had commanded a garrison of soldiers to go out and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its surrounding districts, from two years old and under. This tragic event was prophesied by Jeremiah; 
Jeremiah 31:15, In Rama a voice of weeping was heard and lamentation and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, unable to be comforted because of her loss. 
So Joseph took Mary and the young child and departed for Egypt that night. 
Herod died soon after this, and Gabriel spoke to Joseph in another dream that it was now safe to leave Egypt, fulfilling another prophecy which was spoken through the prophet Hosea; ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’ (Hosea 11:1). 
However, when Joseph learned that Herod Antipas the son of Herod The Great, who now ruled in his father’s place, was as treacherous and murderous as his father, he was afraid to go back to the area, but Gabriel appeared to Joseph again in a dream and told him to go to a quiet lakeside village in Galilee where they would be safe. So they came and settled in a city called Nazareth, and another prophesy was fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’ (Matthew 2:23). They settled there as a family, where Jesus grew from a child into an adult. 
Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.
The word ‘grew’ in that Scripture is the word ‘prokopto’ in the original language, and it is a military term which means ‘moving forward blow-by-blow’. The life of Jesus was a continual blow-by-blow journey of overcoming the self-centred nature of all of humanity from the time of Adam. Jesus bent back the crooked independent disposition of the Adam that still distorts the human heart in each one of us. He straightened out that bent and crooked nature and he straightens it out in us too and grows us as we walk into each blow-by-blow experience of our lives empowered by his enabling grace to call upon his strength in our constant experience of weakness.

During this growing up time in the life of Jesus there is an account of one special incident when Jesus was twelve years old. His parents took him to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, which they did every year. The feast was always very crowded and lasted for seven full days and there was a lot of activity and celebration of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, and they travelled to and from the feast in a caravan of hundreds of people, pitching tents and camping on the journey. 
When they were on the journey home, and one day out from Jerusalem Mary and Joseph noticed that they had not seen Jesus for the whole day, and they supposed that he was mingling with relatives and friends in the crowd, but when they asked around it was clear that he was not with the caravan, and when they couldn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him. It was only after three days of searching and making inquiries that they finally found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers of the Law, discussing deep questions with them and astounding everyone with the depth of his questions and the wisdom of his answers. However, his parents were perplexed, not knowing what to think, and his mother asked him in her distress why he had done that to them. Mary told him that she and his father had been frantic, searching for him everywhere.
Jesus asked them why they felt they had to search for him and why they didn’t realize that he would be here in his Father’s house, sharing in his Father’s work. But they didn't understand what he meant. It could have appeared to be insubordination, which was puzzling and very uncharacteristic of him, to not respect his sonship in their family.

But Jesus had not betrayed his sonship. In this encounter with his distressed parents, this maturing child was wisely coming to grips with the complexity of the relationship between his identity as Son of God and as a son in the family of Joseph. He did this for us too, knowing we would grapple with this earthly and heavenly fatherhood quandary in our own lives, and would be made whole in Father’s unconditional love. So he went home with them and was subject to them. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and was admired and respected by all the people in that place. 

Through the birth of this child divine life had been embedded into human life. This had never happened before, this new form of life, God and man together, a new creation. Because of this new creation a new connection between man and God would be possible. Through what this man would accomplish in his short journey in the earth, the bond of oneness (peace) which he would experience with his Heavenly Father would become available to all of us, to grow and mature together as sons and daughters in his family. And through this man a new hope would sit in the hearts of those who found the peace of that bond of oneness through their faith. The Bible says that faith is the basis of hoping – the assurance of the unseen activity of God. That hope blesses you because you can now live a life knowing that someone is personally thinking about you continually, working life out for you far better than you can for yourself. That is a living hope that lasts forever.

 

 

 

The Christmas Story God with Us

THE CHRISTMAS STORY GOD WITH US

The appointed time finally came to heal the earth. It was twisted and torn and it could not heal itself. There were many religions apart from Judaism, and all the rituals, the pomp and ceremony, had only allowed that gap between God and man to remain. God was about to give humanity the perfect answer, not a religion, but Himself. The Divine Being, Jesus God, was to make his transition from eternity into time, from heaven to earth, from pure Spirit existence to human flesh existence.

Father had always planned that a new species was to be born into the earth. He had planned for his son to begin this new species of being, a Spirit species, a Spiritual species in the earth. Humanity has been known as ‘Homo Sapiens’ (Mankind +knowledge) – one who has knowledge and knows. But I believe that this new species that came into being at this time is ‘homo Divinicus’ (Mankind +God) – God with us.
Now was the time for Jesus to go to earth as The Father’s Son, to become the pain of what human life had become, and to walk the path of its sorrow and its lost hope, and to lift human life into a place of shared friendship with The Three in One. Jesus knew and had agreed before the beginning of time that this was to be the plan. He knew that it was the only way for the love of God to be known by humanity. Jesus knew that he would become the expression of that love in the most perfect way.
Holy Spirit was to become a partner with Jesus in the completion of this glorious plan. It was not just Jesus God who would inhabit the earth, but Holy Spirit would also become a person of this planet by sharing every moment of life with Jesus, and in that way, he too would experience human life.

Father would send a divine seed of life from heaven, and He had chosen a young woman called Mary to receive that seed, which was to contain the full genetic potency of their love and goodness and truth. He sent an angel to announce this amazing news to Mary.
Gabriel entered the place where Mary slept. She awoke startled and afraid and sat upright, staring at the heavenly being. Gabriel motioned her to be still and stood quietly in her small room.
Mary was told she had been chosen amongst all women on the earth to give birth to a child who was to be 'God the Son' and that she was to call him Jesus. She answered back that it was impossible and that she never been with a man. Gabriel told her that the birth of this Child will not have anything to do with Joseph, her betrothed, and that The Holy Spirit would shine his life over her and divine life from heaven would come alive in her womb, even though she was a virgin. He told her that this was the will of Father God, and of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit, that they had chosen her to be the mother of this special child who would be the liberator of all mankind. Mary humbly surrendered her being to the magnificent will of God.

Meanwhile Gabriel visited Joseph in a dream also and told him that Mary had been chosen by God to give birth to a son, who would be ‘God The Son’. This was to be a divine work of The Holy Spirit who would cause a holy life to ignite within her being, and that this was the fulfilment of a prophecy in the Scriptures with which Joseph was familiar ‘A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and his name will mean ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14).
Joseph awoke suddenly, and faith filled his heart, and he declared loudly to himself that there would be no shame, and that Mary would become his wife immediately - they would have this wonderful child and he would care for him as his earthly father.

In due course Gabriel put it into the heart of Caesar Augustus to do a census and register every person in the known world. Everyone had to go to their place of birth to be registered, so Joseph had to take Mary back to Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. Micah 5:2. "O Bethlehem, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!" God will allow the conflict and chaos until she who is to give birth has her son. And he shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord… and  he will be greatly honoured throughout the world. He will be our Peace.
Joseph and Mary were sent to the right place at the right time for the birth of Jesus, fulfilling the seven hundred year old prophesy of his birthplace.

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

Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star having reached its zenith was lighting up the entire night sky. The shepherds looked up in wonder at this light and suddenly the lights of shining angels dazzled them and they became terrified and ran and huddled together. The Angel Gabriel appeared above them, sent to tell them of the birth of Jesus. He told them not to be afraid, and that he had great and marvellous news for them, for all the world to hear. He told them that they would find a child, the newborn king of the universe, God the Saviour, wrapped in simple clothing in a nearby stable. Suddenly Gabriel was joined by a multitude of angels as the brilliant night sky resounded with their voices singing, and they listened enraptured at the magnificent words. “The glory of God is being seen in the heavens, and his love and goodness is creating a new era of peace for all mankind.” Their singing of this new creation was the magnificent sequel to their song of the first creation – ‘When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:4,7,8).
When the singing had stopped and the angels had left they were guided to the place where this extraordinary and singular event was taking place in the earth. These simple shepherds became the emissaries to the world of the birth of this king of kings, this child, and all who heard them were astounded and amazed.

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

God with us means more than just alongside us. It means he is within and through our being, and more than that, we are within and through his being. This is how we get to ‘know God’. Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit the mind and words of Jesus, and we ‘see and know’ Jesus in this way. Faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. 
1John 2:27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
This does not mean we disregard Scriptural teaching. This Scripture simply makes alive and real the personal and individual whisper of God into our spirit as the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need, in any given situation and at any given time. That becomes the light to our path allowing us to express our unique and truest self in the best possible way. That is our faith.
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated. Without Christmas there is no way we could ever have known God and become one with him.

 

Peace on Earth

PEACE ON EARTH
Luke 2:8 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly angels praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, Peace on earth, goodwill toward men!” 

THE SIGN – life and growth
A newborn baby, born from above (John 3:8) safely wrapped and cradled, ready for life and growth. God in Heaven could now be seen on earth in human form. It was the beginning of the plan of God to join his life to humanity and to live his life through those who believe in him.
Jesus would live a life of struggle and challenge conquering evil and adversity as a forerunner on behalf of us who were to follow him. His eternal oneness with his Father gave the human spirit for the first time a new perspective of ‘aboveness’ – called transcendence which is not just a consciousness of being born from above but also a conscious experience of living from above.  He would die and rise again and send his Holy Spirit for his ‘born from above’ life to dwell in us. It is from this living from above life in people that peace on earth and goodwill toward men can occur. 

When we look at the Old Testament prophecy of Christmas (Isaiah 8:22-9:1) we see a world that was in great darkness waiting for a great light. 
The background to this prophecy was something that was happening in real time for Israel as Assyria was about to attack them from the north, but Israel and their king could not accept God’s ways and his plans for them, and so they were left without hope.  
Isaiah 8: 22. People will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness. Chapter 9:1 Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. There will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory. 
Those who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and His government and its peace will never end.

This prophecy would find its future fulfillment through Jesus the King of Kings that has fought and won the battle for our souls. The Christmas story for us is also a story of our spiritual victory through Jesus as a reality in our hearts and minds, as it conquers all darkness and fear in us and governs our hearts with peace.
Over two thousand years on from that first Christmas we still see a world that is in great darkness waiting for a great light. The odd paradox is that the world celebrates Christmas each year while not understanding the miraculous significance of that great light.
The events of great darkness that happen around about us become the signs that a caring God who wants only the best for his people is waiting to act on behalf of his people. And his people are also his signs of hope in today’s world, and when you exhibit that kind of hope people will want to know why (1Peter 3:15). 

OUTER DARKNESS AND INNER DARKNESS.
Outer darkness is the manifestation of disorder and corruption and violence that is seen in the world where groups and individuals contend with each other in power struggles to dominate and do harm to others. This is being seen at present in the media and in politics and in personal relationships.
Inner darkness is described in the Bible as the work of Satan who is called the ‘god of this world’ who uses deception to blind our minds to receiving the revelation of a loving and forgiving God in Jesus Christ.  
The Christmas story is a message of God’s intervention of his great light into the lives of his people who are in times of earth-shattering distress and darkness. 
That great light shines into the outer darkness and into the inner darkness so that we can see things as they truly are. At the present time God is bringing many things to the surface that have been hidden but are now being exposed so that they can be justly dealt with.

We saw in the prophetic Scripture from Isaiah that Jesus would be called the Prince of Peace and that the government would be upon his shoulders. 
Jesus is showing himself in this way at this time in the world as he reorders our lives even in the midst of upheaval and loss and gives us his peace. Only he knows what things lay ahead as he determines the course of each day of our lives for us and we become drawn into his perfect will for us. 
John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And Jesus spoke of two different kinds of peace, the peace of God and the peace of the world.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
The peace of the world is not an inner lasting peace, but it is more like a short-term relief that a person feels because they have trust in their own skills and experience and financial reserves to control the circumstances in their world. These resources are effective against many threats and obstacles and hazards, but when the threats and obstacles and hazards overcome their resources their peace is gone. 
The peace of the world is also the one-upmanship of having the upper hand against rival opposition when it comes against us. This is seen blatantly in the fragile peace of global politics and national security with its treaties and strategic alliances that are negotiated instead of having to stand alone.
The peace that God gives us is not fragile and short-lived like the peace of the world.
We never stand alone, as we trust in the alliance of ‘God with us’ in all things so that we never have to just depend upon our own resources in order to feel safe and secure. 
Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust only in him, and he will act.
God is always acting on our behalf in the world of the unseen. That is the essence of faith.
That is the source of our peace.

We are not saved from facing the struggles and the adversity, but we are saved from having our souls being defeated and made to feel hopeless. That is what being saved is. He has overcome the world’s power to crush our souls. We are given grace to receive his peace and to administer that peace and good will to others, to be the Gospel of peace in a broken world. You were created to be ‘good news’ in different ways and at different times to different people by the grace that God has already made ready for you to step into.

Isaiah 26:12 – Lord, You will establish peace for us, For You have also done all our works in us (done = ordained – devised a plan). In other words, God has ordained, before the day starts for you, those times and places where God will meet you in your challenge and you will receive his peace and pass it on and it will be displayed in you as the good news of peace, the Gospel of peace, of the God of peace. Amen

Decrease and Increase

The father of John the Baptist, the priest Zechariah gave this prophecy regarding the ministry of his newborn son, John.
Luke 1:76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall shine from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  

John the Baptist lived within the awe of this promise of his destiny - preparing the way for the Messiah. He had drawn crowds out to where he had been living out in the desert regions on a diet of locusts and wild honey where the people listened to his preaching declaring that the Messiah was coming and that everybody had to repent.  Then at the appointed time the Holy Spirit prompted him to make his way to Jerusalem to preach about the Kingdom of Heaven and repentance of sins, and he and his disciples began baptizing people in the Jordan River. 
Then on a certain day the Pharisees began questioning John about who he was because there were rumors abounding that he was the Christ or perhaps Elijah. All John would say was that he was one who was like a voice crying in the wilderness ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’ 
And the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me’ (John 1:29).
Then John goes on to say, ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:32)

And then the time came in John’s ministry where he knew he had to decrease and make way for Jesus to increase. When John baptized Jesus in the Jordan river and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove upon him, an entirely new ministry of the Spirit started on the earth as Jesus went out into the wilderness in the power of the Spirit to be tested by the devil. In the plan of God to bring in the new wine of the Spirit the old had to pass away, so John had to pass away, literally. 
John was arrested and taken into the custody of Herod at the time that Jesus went out in the Spirit into the wilderness. 
When Jesus began to move out into his anointed ministry John started to become uncertain about many things as he languished in prison.  He began to doubt whether Jesus was truly the Messiah, and he began to become concerned about his own future. We don’t know if John even comprehended the fact that Jesus would be resurrected from the dead even though at Jesus’ baptism he had said ’Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’. The prophet John was told only what the Holy Spirit needed him to know.
Matthew 11: 2 John the Baptist, who was now in prison, heard about all the miracles the Messiah was doing, so he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you really the one we are waiting for, or shall we keep on looking?"
Jesus told them," Go back to John and tell him about the miracles you've seen me do-- the blind people being healed and the deaf who hear…and tell him about my preaching the Good News to the poor. Then give him this message, `Blessed are those who are not offended in me.'" 
Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1 the words that were prophetic of his ministry as the Messiah, and these were words that John the prophet would have known very well. It is significant that Jesus did not mention the second half of that prophecy from Isaiah 61:1 which says ‘to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; And John was offended that Jesus had not set him free from prison.

John was disappointed and he began to lose trust in Jesus because he was offended! He would have had all kinds of ideas about how the kingdom of God would be ushered in, but those ideas had to be surrendered and die because he had only received a partial revelation of how the Kingdom would operate. Just like the disciples and anyone else who was waiting for Messiah to come, the expectation of Jesus the Messiah was that he would set up a powerful earthly Kingdom which he would reign over upon a throne in Jerusalem. John had to accept the yet unknown bigger plan for the kingdom of God, that Jesus would reign within us - even though John was the one chosen by God to go about telling people that ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’. John could have imagined himself as the prophet in the courts of the new King – who knows? 
His disciples went back and told him about their conversation with Jesus, John began to understand that he was not the one to live alongside Jesus but to simply prepare the way for him, he realized that he now should decrease while Jesus increased.
And John’s reaction was, John 3:26 “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom (the Best Man), who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John’s personal vision was dethroned. He remained the friend of the bridegroom but made way for the ‘alongside life’ of the bridegroom and his bride – the new Kingdom model of love and unity.
That was a beautiful picture of Jesus and his bride that the Holy Spirit finally gave to 
John that emphasized the ‘two being made one’. That speaks of us as New Creation beings, made one in the Spirit in our ‘alongside life’ with Jesus. 

Then Herod had John beheaded at the request of the daughter of Herodias because Herod was deeply offended at John because John had publicly rebuked him over his 
illegal marriage to Herodias, his brother’s ex-wife.

John was a prophet and both his life, and his death were prophetic for all who would be born into a new life with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. It would mean the decrease of self-life within us and the increase of the Jesus life within us in our new ‘God with us’ life. This ‘newness of life’ was destined for each individual who entered by faith into that new Kingdom life which was to come upon the earth after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Everything was about to pass away, and all things were to become new.
We will go back to the time when Jesus told John’s disciples to tell John to not be offended in him. When John's disciples had gone, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds.
Matthew 11: “When you went out into the barren wilderness to see John, what did you expect him to be like? Grass blowing in the wind, or were you expecting to see a man dressed as a prince in a palace? Or a prophet of God? Yes, and he is more than just a prophet. For John is the man mentioned in the Scriptures--a messenger to precede me, to announce my coming, and prepare the way for people to receive me. 
"Truly, of all men ever born, none shines more brightly than John the Baptist. And yet, even the lesser lights in the Kingdom of Heaven will be greater than he is!”
After his praise of the powerful prophetic ministry of John, Jesus made the further astounding remark of the greater spiritual stature of every New Testament spiritual believer who enters the ‘KINGDOM WITHIN’ life. That life was to be greater than the spiritual stature of John for whom that Kingdom life was not available at that time. For while John had the most powerful anointing of any man in the earth besides Jesus, he was not joined in one Spirit to Jesus as would be those who would receive the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, and that includes us. 

John had come to realize that as far as he and Jesus were concerned, he was just the ‘best man’ and that it is between the bridegroom, Jesus, and his bride, who are all those who live with him in oneness of Spirit. We now as his bride allow the Holy Spirit to take us on an alongside journey with him and at one with him in all that he does in our lives. Our life is now one of total trust in the one that walks alongside us. 

John had to change his expectations because he had a misplaced expectation of Jesus that caused his own offence. People get offended with someone when that person does not live up to their expectations, to do for them what they want. And so will we have to change our expectations. It is no longer what we expect God should do for us, no matter how fervent the prayer is, nor is it us including Jesus in what we are doing, but it is Jesus including us in what he is doing. This becomes our new and absolute mindset of how to walk by faith, and this is what he expects of us. This becomes our repentance.

There might be an initial time of confusion for us as the full reality of a life with God begins to assume it’s real meaning for us, because that life challenges the autonomy and independence of our big plan for our own lives, even in our plan or vision of how we will serve God. We must surrender the old us and allow our ideas of our future to die in the same way that John had to decrease and even die to his plan for his future. We now make way for the new work of The Holy Spirit to take us on in our walk alongside Jesus in a heart-to-heart relationship of surrendered partnership. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as a comforter, and the word ‘comforter’ is ‘paracletos’ which means ‘one who comes alongside’. This ‘alongside walk’ is the operation of the love of God that we yield to. It is now an ‘alongside’ life, and certain things in us must decrease so the expression of Jesus in us can increase.

God is not playing hard to get in this relational encounter - we are! And what excuse are we left with if we have been told the truth of his ongoing love and forgiveness for us? Is it that we are not interested or is it that we just cannot believe it or trust it to be true? The biggest error is in our being too busy and concerned about our own plans and opinions instead of becoming still and drawing near.

If we take a step back and look at our past hopes and disappointments, we might wonder why we may sometimes have feelings of being deprived, or that God has forgotten us and wonder why we have become disheartened. We have all had expectations that have not come to pass, and these may have been sincere intentions that were meant for good, but they were simply misplaced, or even mistimed. God honours our efforts to achieve those things we believe to be right for us just as he paid honour and tribute to his cousin John the Baptist.

But just like John, it is when we realize that what we pushed for, was not what God wished for, because he had something different and better. It is then that we realise that he resisted our efforts and outcomes just as we unwittingly resisted his grace to bring us alongside his blessed will for us.  We also realise that many times we walked alone and did not walk alongside him. Paul said ‘I do not frustrate (athete?? -ignore or resist) the grace of God’. Paul did not make the error of letting busyness or self-concern hinder his becoming still and drawing near.

Now look at the smaller view and see what has happened today and yesterday in our efforts and how we may have neglected to be still and enquire and wait and trust the one that walks alongside us – because that is where miracles are and that is where they abound. His good will catches up with us in the end as we learn through failures and honest mindful retrospection to stop and return to being alongside him. Even though we are often uncertain in our steps forward because of our human frailty, we can be getting it right in his eyes as long as we are giving him thanks in every situation for; In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you…’. 
Our attitude of faithful trust is that he is at work supernaturally in the world of the unseen to bring all things together for our good, despite our faltering steps. He can bring everything together in a very short time, and nothing is lost. The past is redeemed by our present moment faith for his work being done. He waits for us every moment to return to that NOW place of faith.