Spiritcode

Citizens of Heaven

CITIZENS OF HEAVEN
When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi they had been living under Roman rule for a couple of generations. They had a proud cultural and philosophical heritage and a fierce sense of citizenship going back to the first Greek culture in Athens five centuries before which was the first ever democracy, and all the citizens of Athens had the opportunity to vote. They had a proud cultural and philosophical heritage that aspired for excellence in diverse areas of life. The two prominent ideological philosophies were the Stoics and the Epicureans.  The Stoics cared about virtuous behaviour and living according to principles of discipline, while Epicureans were connoisseurs of good food and good wine and cared about avoiding pain and seeking comfort and pleasure.

Philippi was the most significant Roman colony in Europe, the gateway city that joined Europe to the Middle East, and it was the first European city where Paul preached the gospel and established a church. It was also the place where in March 44bc the senators of Rome under Brutus and Cassius assassinated Julius Caesar to try and preserve the Roman Republic. They killed Caesar but the new idea of a republic also died and went nowhere. It has been called ‘The suicide of a Republic’. Paul was a Greek scholar and understood their philosophy and culture and their politics and he was mindful of the importance of the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship, being himself a Roman citizen.
He had heard that dissension had come amongst the church at Philippi and he writes to them to appeal to their better selves to live at one with each other. So when he writes to them he focusses on the whole citizenship issue and powerfully points them to their ultimate Citizenship, their newly won Citizenship of Heaven. 

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, Our way of life reflects the atmosphere of heaven, where we live in constant hope and expectation of the supernatural redeeming work of Jesus, 21. Who will finally take our weak mortality and change it to be like his mighty immortality, using the power that only he has, to subdue all things to himself. Philippians 4: 8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things

‘These things’ that we are asked to meditate upon are down to earth qualities of intentional behavioural and attitudinal conduct, within the capacity of every human being made in God’s image. Paul knew that the Philippians esteemed these qualities as a mark of being an exemplary Greek Citizen also, so he was urging them to acknowledge and appreciate the potential of these qualities in one another, and be inspired to want to live them for themselves, not just as part of their Greek heritage but as spiritually transformed Citizens of Heaven. 
In his letter to them Paul encourages the Philippians to consider one another in this way. He urges two of them who were his helpers in his ministry when he was there to patch up their differences and start to agree with each other. In another place he says; if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. (Philippians 2:2)
 
Meditate – logizomai – focus the mind – allow the meaning of each one of these words means not just a definition of the word but the personal meaning us, to be imprinted on our soul.

True/truth  – alethes - The basic reality that defines you. Certain limiting life conditions may be true circumstantially but they are not the real truth of the inward person of the heart (Joni Erikson free and not trapped). There can also be distorted negative personal thoughts about ourselves and our circumstances through things that other people have emotionally put upon us in our vulnerability, that are not the truth of who we are, and these can create in our soul a painful and severely limited sense of who we really are. But the truth of who we are in Christ is there in our spiritual DNA – we just have to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the reality of that true self that abides in the Father’s unconditional love.

Noble - semnos – character. Noble – That is our character, he highest values that characterize us and what we aspire to – yes that’s me, that is what I set for myself. Meditate on these things, what do we give ourselves to. And that will draw us into being the best we hope to be. Nobility is true stature, inward stature.
The virtue of this kind of nobility is that in itself it is a far more effective influence of what you would like people to hear and understand and perhaps agree with you on. It’s better than just pushing strong opinions in an argument till you win an argument. People in politics who want more power and influence often scrap and fight and disparage one another, but nobility outclasses this kind of one-upmanship and ranks number one as the most persuasive and convincing influence of all. 

Just - dikaios – Balanced like the scales of justice – justice and mercy. It results in what is upright and fair. Those who practice this are counted as being trustworthy to judge fairly, not putting a spin on things for one’s own advantage because of some kind of prejudice, and not fearing injustice, but knowing that it is God who finally justifies. Jesus knew where true justice was, in the hands of his Father
1 Peter 2.23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of a just God. 

Pure - hagnos- innocent motivation.  What awakens a child like wonder and even awe of good things the beauty of the creation around us. The Bible says ‘blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God…’ This awakens an innocence and purity in us that cleanses our souls. It brings a childlike acceptance of life that doesn’t mind not knowing everything, or not being in control of everything. It is not naiveite but a simplicity that is not dominated by other peoples’ opinions as strong as they might be.
PSALM 131 God, I'm not trying to rule the roost, I don't want to be king of the mountain.
I haven't meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.
I've kept my feet on the ground, I've cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother's arms. Wait Israel, for God. 
We can live like that as a way of being, expecting God’s goodness to bless an innocent motivation from a pure heart.

Lovely (prosphiles)– To move towards and friendship. What creates a friendly atmosphere. What brings about a warm attachment, a sense of an attractive atmosphere that draws someone closer rather than make them feel unwelcome. It could be the kind of words that uo say or the tone of voice or a kindly look upon the face. What draws someone into the circle of your life in an appropriate and fitting way.

Good report – euphemos (eu=good, phemos=shines forth) - What is positive and worth sharing – the good report. The can-do attitude.

A good report and a bad report can have the same facts but a different can-do attitude. The facts of the matter concerning Israel’s decision to not enter the promised land at Kadesh Barnea when they were a few weeks into their exodus from Egypt, and God told them to enter in resulted in a bad report and a good report, a can’t do and a can do attitude. Moses sent twelve spies in to give the people a report of the land they all agreed that it was a delightful and magnificent looking countryside, there was an abundant produce of grapes and fruit that they all carried back and showed the others, and that the land flowed with milk and honey and one more thing, there were giants in the land. Ten of the spies emphasized the giants in the land and said “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land. But Joshua and Caleb said “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 
Think of how you come across and meditate upon this. Take up the challenge of what God would have you do that is facing you. Through him you can do all those things. It is then really God that does the work, and that is a work of faith.

Virtue – aretes. The good decisions that create good character - Good values create good decisions and these make good habits and these create good character. We can have good intentions but to have virtue we have to follow through and make good decisions. Find the wisdom, have the intention, find the motivation then follow through with decisive action – that is virtue and that too is a work of faith.

Praiseworthy – epainos - Anything worthy of God’s commendation, not just impressive in the eyes of man. We are doing these good things for God – It is through and for him and of him.
It is God that then says well done good and faithful servant! 

These are what you meditate upon. That is what heals the emotional pain that the soul suffers, especially when the moral and ethical climate of attitudes and behavior in society degenerates into people disparaging and belittling each other and putting one another down and fomenting resentment and revenge in hurtful angry speech. This seems to be the age in which we are live right now. Have these virtues disappeared in our society? No they are there, sown into our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit, even breathed into humanity from the beginning, but it just means that they have to be sought for from within ourselves

Change does not come quickly – There must be patient steady effort. This transformation means sitting with the pain of life in God’s presence and allowing him to subdue the negative self consciousness and hopelessness, and awaken our positive God consciousness and be made whole. That becomes our reality.

Meditation on these things allows a transformation into our truer self as God pouring himself into our spiritual povertywith his richness of being. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’. 

We can learn to make our own hearts a place of peace and integrity. We can let our own pain and suffering be healed and become part of his healing wherever we are. The Bible shows us how to do this. It is nothing new, but it cannot be neglected. 
What we can do is give up all hope of a better past, that’s gone, and take hold of a new hope that opens up a better future.

 

Extraordinary Gifts

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; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These peculiar gifts have a spiritual message for us today who understand what it means to live a life shared with God. Gold speaks to us of the nature of God. Frankincense speaks to us of prayer and worship. Myrrh speaks to us of the suffering of grief and loss.

For Jesus these were not just fancy Christmas presents to be put away as keepsakes and forgotten about. Rather, these were for Jesus, symbols of the realities of an ever present consciousness of sharing his life with an ever-present God every level of experience. We will take the gifts one by one and apply them to how to live an every-day life in the conscious awareness of sharing life with God.

GOLD  Gold speaks to us of the nature of God on display in a human life. Why? In the hierarchy of the attributes of grandeur and majesty and radiance of material things in the earth gold is ranked number one. In the same hierarchy of attributes of a heavenly being worthy of worship and awe and respect there is the idea of a god. The bible says that people who make idols makes them out of gold and silver (Psalm 115) with gold as the first choice. When the people of Israel came out of slavery in Egypt and began their trek though the wilderness they came to Mount Sinai and Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God and was up there for six weeks, a very long time. They became impatient and worried that if Moses had gone then maybe his God was gone too. They wanted a god they could visibly relate to so they made a golden calf, their chief idol deity of Egypt and began to worship it. It was a wooden calf plated with gold. For that they were severely judged and punished by God. Then some weeks later God commanded Moses to make a tabernacle, a tent of worship where he people would gather daily and worship and make sacrifices. The central item of worship was the ark of the Covenant to represent the presence of the living God that was with them. 

Exodus 25:10 … Make an ark of acacia wood… and overlay it with pure gold, inside and out…

This ark travelled with them on their wilderness journey and was carried on the shoulders the priests with poles, made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. This was not a wooden calf covered with gold, it was a piece of acacia wood, a gnarled and twisted species of timber, difficult to work, and overlaid with pure gold. The acacia wood represents the distorted nature of humanity, grown out of the soil, and overlaid with the glorious nature of God, speaking of their defects and failings mercifully forgiven and covered with the perfect and unflawed nature of God – God with us. He gave them something to see with their own eyes, but this was a shadow of things to come, and prophetically signifies Jesus, who took our distorted human nature becoming one of us and yet displaying the radiant and glorious nature of God. He became the fulfillment of what Israel had been seeing as the ark for all that time. This remained a mystery until Jesus came.

It says in Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.  And Jesus said ‘if you have seen me you have seen the Father’. Jesus knew this gift of gold as an ongoing reality in his life. This also is prophetic of what God had in store for us, after Jesus died and rose again and sent the Holy Spirit to join us as one Spirit with him. So in the New Testament we are the twisted acacia wood on the outside and Jesus is the pure gold that dwells within us, so how do we get to be the gold on the outside, as Jesus was In the New Testament? The Holy Spirit draws that radiant nature of God through us so that as we live closer and closer with God in your heart that nature will start to shine on the outside, even though we still have that old dead acacia wood there but we choose to let Jesus do the living within us and the shining through us… we live by faith (It is no longer I that live…).  The gold appears through the trials of our faith. God is looking at us as the finished product, and we are the potential of what we can be, and what we shall be, through our growth in faith 1Peter 1:7 The tested genuineness of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire… (also 1Peter 4:12 – the fiery trials)

INCENSE - Prayer  We see in the Bible that Incense speaks of worship and prayer. Psalm 141.1 O Lord, I call upon you. Accept my prayer as incense offered to you… Frankincense has a sweet perfumed aroma and speaks to us of sweet prayer ascending from a true heart and pleasant to God.  Revelation 8:4 The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s people ascended up to God from the altar. Incense was an offering, a sacrifice to God, so prayer is actually an act of giving towards God rather than an act of taking from him. True prayer to God comes from a surrendered heart. What we offer as a sacrifice is our yielded will to God – not my will but your will be done.

This is a sweet aroma to God. God wants us to bring our prayer requests to him, with thanksgiving but with a yielded heart. This releases the faith in us that knows with assurance that God is powerfully working all things together for his good will to be done and gratefully received in our lives.  MYRRH –

The presence of God restoring lost hope because of grief and loss in our lives.  Myrrh is symbolic of death and of grief and of loss. We see in the Scripture that Jesus was offered myrrh mixed with wine when he was on the cross but he refused to drink it.  Mark 15:23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh… He knew he was going to die and that myrrh was symbolic of his death but for the joy that was set before him he endured the suffering of the cross, so he rejected the symbol of death and his heart of faith and hope was his resurrection. Accepting the reality of suffering and loss has meaning for our life when we know that God suffers with us and his presence through the Holy Spirit restores lost hope that comes through our grief and loss. We don’t always get back the very things that we have lost. What we have really lost is hope – we cannot live without hope.. The grief that all the followers and friends and family of Jesus suffered when he died on the cross was almost inconsolable. But that inconsolable grief turned into the most resounding of victorious joy at his resurrection. So the greatest human tragedy became the greatest human and divine celebration. The greatest paradox of all time.

Somewhere in between his unparalleled experience of grief and death and his exuberant joy and resurrection is the story of our life of griefs and sorrows and lost hope that can become the story of the restoration of new life and new hope and a new future. Jesus was buried, and his body anointed with myrrh (John 19), and included in his burial was all of our sin and failure and fear, all of our griefs and loss. He suffered and died and was buried for all of our disappointments and resentments and bitterness, all of our doom and gloom and depression. He wants to teach us how to bury these things and as we let them go that becomes his precious gift of myrrh to our lives. The continual burial of all of these things in our lives waits for the continual command of ‘arise’ and go forward in a new and risen life.  This is our powerful pathway of growth designed by God to give us a future and a hope that cannot be extinguished.

God wants to grow us as well as to console us.

Isaiah 61:3 To console those who mourn; To give us a crown of beauty upon our heads instead of ashes upon our heads, the oil of joy for mourning, and the spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness…

He wants us to appreciate and to share with him in the treasure of all these precious gifts, the gold, the incense and the myrrh.

The Ten Commandments Episode 1 Overview

Relationship is the key value in the whole theme of the commandments, because God wants us to be fulfilled in life through relationships, both with Himself, and with one another. We find then that the first four commandments deal with our relationship with God, and that the next six deal with our relationships with one another. That is why the New Covenant had a promise that the law would be written in our hearts by The Holy Spirit, a person, who can indwell us and make alive the spirit of the law, and the standards of God's wisdom for our relationships. This can now be done on the powerful basis of love and grace, instead of legalism.

God has designed the Commandments as a sequence of steps where success in any one commandment leads to an understanding of the next. Obedience to the first commandment gives understanding of the second commandment, and in the same way, failure in say, the sixth commandment means a lack of understanding in the fifth. The fifth commandment says ‘Honour your father and your mother’, and the sixth says ‘You shall not kill’. So how are these related?

If we look at the personal relationships Involved, we see that commandment number five, honouring our parents, speaks about the very first relationship we experience as human beings, a relationships with authority. In this relationship we are being taught, in a very natural way, to trust another person for the needs in our life. In a perfect world, with perfect people this trust would grow and grow, but we don't live in a perfect world. Have you ever seen children get angry? That is because they’re frustrated at not getting what they want, even from parents that they trust and that loves them, and so we all fail in the fifth Commandment.

The reason that this relates to the sixth commandment is found in the statement that Jesus made in the sermon on the mount, when He said 'In the law it says thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you, be not angry with your brother without cause. Put in simple terms - anger kills. Anger kills relationships and it kills people. So by experiencing frustrations in not getting our own way as children in an imperfect world under the authority of imperfect parents, we carry this mistrust and independence into our lateral relationships and display the anger, moodiness or aggression, which kill relationships, and so we fail in the sixth Commandment. 

Here we see another Divine design. That is, that the growth pattern of the ten commandments is not like going up a stairway, it is a circular spiral that takes us all the way around to commandment number ten, and then leads us right onto commandment number one again. In a positive sense, that upward path is an upward spiral, and spiritual growth is taking place. This growth will always take place if a person is willing to honestly admit where they are failing and go back one step and correct the response to the previous commandment, and then leap forward in revelation and faith. And of course the downward path is in fact a downward spira.l 

The evidence of the circular nature of the progression of the commandments is seen graphically when we get to commandment number ten and find that the next progression is to commandment number one.
This can be explained by the fact that the nature of the problem in commandment number ten, which is the commandment against covetousness, is that of idolatry and discontent. Those persons who are not content with what they have, live their lives out of coveting what someone else has, and so, the source of their fulfilment is what others have. This is a form of idolatry and is called such in the Bible (Colossians. 3:5). And there we have the circle completed. The answer to this covetousness and idolatry of course, is found in commandment number one, where we acknowledge God alone as our fulfilment. This is why commandment number ten, and commandment number two (on either side of commandment number one), both deal with idolatry.

At any point of failure at some level of experience, we need to go back to the previous commandment, and let The Holy Spirit reveal truth to us in this way.. This also affords a most effective chart of diagnosis for the serious counsellor who wants to see a life transformed by the truth and power of The Holy Spirit

 

An era of peace

AN ERA OF PEACE 
A prophet called Micah made an amazing prophecy that foretold the birthplace of Jesus over seven hundred years before Jesus was born. This verse also tells us that he would be our peace.

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 disorder to remain 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.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph had to bring Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated. The prescribed time for dedication and purification was forty days 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 peace that had come upon all of humanity. 

Joseph and Mary just stood there, marvelling at what was being said about Jesus.
Then Simeon blessed them all and said to Mary about her son Jesus;
‘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. This challenges us to either respond to or reject the truth of his virgin birth, his life, death and resurrection. This truth is the challenge that provokes opposition and denial in the human heart, where all of our inner conflicts between light and darkness are deliberated and judged, bringing every human heart into 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. But who wants it?

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 also bore witness to her that this was the promised Saviour and that the Messiah had finally arrived. She began thanking God and proclaiming this truth to everyone in Jerusalem.
She too had now entered that era of peace that had come upon the world.
The word for peace in the bible is Eirene. This word actually means ‘oneness’ which in its fullest sense means oneness and harmony with God. That is why we say ‘He is our peace’

Meanwhile, a group of highly esteemed Wise Men called Magi set out from Babylon in the East. Babylon was the first civilization in the East to study and interpret the movement of the stars and planets as far back as 700 BC. Planets in those times were also referred to as stars and sometimes as wandering stars. There were many such Magi, astrologers and astronomers who served the kings of Babylon. 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, where there was a cross assimilation of both cultures, and the impact of such an inspirational prophetic hero as Daniel 
They would have also studied 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. 
These Wise Men would have been observing the charts of the heavens and calculated the timing of a convergence of two great planets that would have shone as an exceedingly bright star for some weeks in the eastern night sky, and which would have shone at its brightest as that great light that shone at the birth of Jesus. 

They had followed this great light to the region of the special birth and had been asking questions around Jerusalem. They were asking about the birth of the new king of Israel and his whereabouts, and their presence in the city and the line of questioning and discussion they were having with the local people came to the ears of the local ruler, Herod. 

Herod had been appointed by Caesar Augustus to oversee several local regions, including the region of Jerusalem. Herod was a local tribal king who acted as an intermediary to Caesar, and he worked with the proconsuls and the military leadership. 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 heard that Israel had a record in their Scriptures of such an event heralding the birth of a Messiah or a new king to rule over them. It was rumoured that this special child would begin a new kingdom in the earth, and Herod did not quite know what this meant, but he didn’t want that sort of competition. He had his own dynasty to create.

Driven by his urgency to know all that he could about this child, he called for a conference with the priests and leaders and pressed them concerning the predicted time and place of this special birth. Certain scribes and teachers knew from the Scriptures the Bethlehem region of the child’s birth, as we first read in Micah 5:2, and   that a great star would appear at that time. Armed with this knowledge Herod secretly summonsed the Wise Men to his palace and told them the 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, telling them that he too wanted to worship this new king. Afterwards he congratulated himself. They were no match for his cunning and had promised to report back to him. All he needed to know was where to send his garrison of soldiers so that the child could be killed.

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; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 
These peculiar gifts have a spiritual message for us today who understand what it means to live a life shared with God.
Gold speaks to us of the nature of God on display in a human life. 
Frankincense speaks to us of sweet prayer ascending from a true heart. 
Myrrh speaks to us of accepting the necessary reality of suffering, and its meaning for our life, 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, so Joseph took Mary and the young child and departed for Egypt that night. 

Then Herod, when he realized that he had been out-manoeuvred by the wise men, became infuriated and he 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; ‘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. (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:18)

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 the son of Herod, 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 yet another prophesy was fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene’ (Matthew 2:23). They settled there as a family for many years, where Jesus grew from a child into an adult. 

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 fact he had had no intention of dishonouring either of his sonships, either to his earthly family or his heavenly Father. Here, however, in the 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, as with everything else he did for us, knowing we would grapple with this earthly and heavenly fatherhood quandary in our own lives, and would graciously come be made whole in God the Father’s unconditional love. 
So he went home with them and was subject to them. Jesus continued to grow 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. 

 

God with us

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.

 

Prophetic Pause

PROPHETIC PAUSE 
We are looking at the message of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It is a prophecy about preparing the way for Messiah to come to his Temple people, and turning their hearts back to God as their loving Father. It is a message for us in these days, as his people, his Temple.

Malachi was the last prophet to speak in the Old Testament. He was speaking to the people who had returned from their seventy year exile in Babylon. They went into bondage in Babylon after their temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the king of Babylon. When they came back to Jerusalem they spent quite a few years rebuilding the temple under Zerubbabel their priestly ruler. Then twelve years after they had completed the temple Malachi prophesied that The Messiah would return to their temple. Here is the key verse; 

Malachi 3:1 I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me. And the Lord (Messiah) whom you seek will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight is coming, says the Lord. (So this verse mentions two messengers…)

You would have thought that now was the time for something wonderful to happen, but nothing wonderful happened – everything stopped and came to a standstill until the time came for God to act. Malachi was actually prophesying about the time of the appearance of John the Baptist, four hundred years later, the messenger (the Elijah) who would proclaim the ministry of Jesus the Messiah, who was the messenger of the New Covenant (mentioned above).
During that silence of four hundred years after the final word from Malachi, there were no prophets and no revelation of God’s word or priestly instruction in the ways of God. This four hundred year time of silence is called a prophetic pause. 
There was another four hundred years of silence, another prophetic pause, at the time of Israel being taken in bondage as slaves in Egypt, after the time that Abraham was told his descendants would inherit the Promised land, the whole land of Canaan. For four hundred years there were no prophets and no revelation of God’s word or priestly instruction in the ways of God, until the Word of God came to Moses, to let my people go’. 

a prophetic pause like this speaks of preparing the way of The Lord in a time of uncertainty and ambiguity, with an expectation for something new and different to happen – a waiting time.

Background of the birth of John the Baptist (The next thing to happen)
After the four hundred years of silence from the book of Malachi it was time for John the Baptist to be born and to become the messenger (Elijah) that Malachi was talking about, who would prepare the way of the Lord, Jesus the Messiah! Zacharias the priest was told that his wife Elizabeth was going to have a child. the Angel Gabriel appeared to him to give him the news that Elizabeth was going to give birth. The Angel said; …Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John… and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God… he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah (John the Baptist), to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Lord; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. These words are from Luke 1:13-16, but they are taken straight out of the prophecy of Malachi and are in fact from the last words in the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament. But Elizabeth was barren and was well past child bearing age, being 60 years old, and Zacharias did not believe what the Angel told him, so Gabriel said to Zacharias;
‘you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time’
So here we have a double emphasis upon the significance of the time of silence when Zacharias is struck dumb, a prophetic pause of a time of further preparation before the time to speak would come. The words of the Angel were a repeat of the message of Malachi but the unveiling of them was nothing like anyone expected (For John to be born and live in the wilderness and prophesy of Jesus), and many rejected or ignored the truth of the message. I believe we are in a global prophetic pause in this current time of global catastrophe. But the prophetic pause is always full of the purpose of God. I believe that the prophetic pause we are experiencing today holds the promise of worldwide Holy Spirit activity and the unveiling of that will be like nothing anyone would have expected.

We can tend to expect God to speak to his people the same way time after time or to do his sovereign acts the same way time after time. But God will not be locked into our expectations or predictions as to how he will speak or what he will do. There have been many moves of the Holy Spirit on the earth and they all came with different settings and circumstances and activities from the preceding moves of God. Some were times of weeping and repentance, some were times of healing and miracles, some were times of teaching and revelation, and some were times of refreshing and release.

An example of God varying his method and manner of speaking to a prophet was after Elijah had seen God do a mighty miracle of bringing rain upon the drought that God had brought upon the nation of Israel. Elijah challenged the bad king Ahab to have his prophets of Baal and Ashtaroth to erect altars on the top of Mt. Carmel and ask their gods to end the drought, while Elijah would set up his altar to Yahweh and call upon him - It was a competition. The prophets of Baal did all kinds of weird rituals but nothing happened. Then it was Elijah’s turn and when he called upon God there was lightning and thunder and a deluge of rain. Elijah won, God won, and a nation repented and turned back to God. Ahab’s wife Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah, so Elijah ran and hid in a cave waiting for God to speak to him again for direction. He heard mighty thunder and saw lightning flash and thought that this was God speaking to him, but the Bible says that God was not in the storm, and God was not in the lightning like before. He then had to wait and listen for the still small voice to tell him of the new thing that God had planned to do. God did things totally differently from before.

We appear to be living in a time of prophetic pause, a time of silence, a time of uncertainty and ambiguity, waiting for the Word of the Lord to come and bring new direction to God’s people (Is the Church like Zacharias waiting for the time to speak a clear word), perhaps unlike anything we have heard or seen before.

This is a time of reordering God’s people to hear from God. 
In 1Corinthians 14 Paul speaks about there being many kinds of voices in the world and they are all trying to declare or proclaim something. He also says that if the trumpet (the voice of proclamation) sounds an uncertain or indistinct sound, the people will not know how to go into battle. This means that the people will not be ready, or prepared.

We are in a time when God is preparing us and reordering many things in the earth and in his Church (Malachi said God would first visit his temple, his Church).
In the Church we are hearing many earnest and sincere voices proclaiming with great zeal what God might be saying at the moment, and there are different perceptions and opinions and discernments as to what is being proclaimed and predicted, and accountability comes with prophesy and prediction.
But just as Zacharias had to wait, and more-so just like Elijah had to wait and hear the Word of the Lord in a new way, as a still small voice after the storm and the lightning, this may be a time when we need to be still and hear and see what Jesus has to say and do, not only through what the Holy Spirit whispers to us personally, but also through what Jesus, the head of the Church, does sovereignly in the earth, and in his church - something perhaps unlike what we have seen before in previous moves of the Holy Spirit. There are many on their knees at this moment calling upon the name of the Lord.  
Hebrews 1.1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world…

God is preparing the hearts of all those who seek him with true hearts to be fully assured in faith that he alone has authority over all that is happening upon the earth and in the heavens at this time.

There are parallels to the Church in the message of Malachi in this strange time in which we live, in a time of standstill and disorientation. The Church today appears to have all it could need in the form of resources such as churches and worship and leaders and helpers and programs and marketing, but is God calling for something more? I cannot predict what it would be but what I would hope for is the presence of God in our midst, melting our hearts rather than just the presence of all the sincere and impressive human ability and performance and Bible knowledge in our midst, exciting our senses. Is there something deeper that God wants to do for his children
From the first verse of the book of Malachi we see that God’s purpose was to assure his people that he still loved them and was keeping his Covenant with them, and the theme of the last verse of the book is also of the love between God as our Father and us as his children. 
Malachi 4:6 I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives… His preaching will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers… 

 

Getting your bearing

GETTING YOUR BEARINGS. 
To be able to go in a direction that will make us sure that we reach the goal or destination we are meant to arrive at in life we need to know the answer to three questions; Who am I? What is happening to me? And What am I meant to do?
We need to know who we are so that we can understand what is happening to us, and we need to know what is happening to us so that we can know what we are meant to do.

Who am I?   In other words –How do you see yourself? If you weren’t sure you could look in a mirror and see your reflection! You see an image. But to know who we are in our inner self we have to get in touch with the self image we have of ourselves – reflected back to us by the ideas of other people that have shaped us and formed us.… we don’t do self-analysis as child – work out how to maximise our potential for a great future. We take on board what we are told we are – the positive - approved, encouraged, loved unconditionally -  or negative - criticised, discouraged or ignored, and we end up with a positive or negative self image, mostly a muddle of both. Some people cope with the negative feedback better than others and hurt feelings and woundedness is experienced by everybody and that can stay with us -  BUT God has made provision through The Holy Spirit for us to be healed from all the pain of that harm we do to one another in our lives.
The one big and amazing truth that sets us free from that confusion and pain is the understanding of the wonder of  what God’s idea is of who we are - created in God’s image and likeness.
Genesis 1:26…Let us make man and woman in our own image (selem) and likeness (demut)…
Genesis 1:27… And God made man and woman in his own image…
The complete plan of God for humanity was to become not just the image, shadow, but to also become the likeness, substance, reality.
Three times in the New Testament it is said that the Old testament Law and Commandments were a shadow of the things to come, because the Substance, or reality was of Christ. (Colossians 8, Hebrews 8, Hebrews 10)

In the Old Testament God gave Israel the Law and the Commandments and these things were  a shadow of  his love and wisdom and goodness and mercy to them that allowed them to pursue and find a knowledge of God and to aspire to live in and as the shadow of the nature of God. Many had a heart to pursue this knowledge of God and many did not. Those that did were blessed and those who did not brought sorrow and grief into their own souls. David saw himself as the apple of God’s eye – a very positive self image from a very merciful and forgiving God. He had that heart after God.

When Jesus came he planted into humanity the greater and even more amazing idea of who we were – not just made in the image of God, but being transformed into the likeness of God. In Jesus, God had joined himself to his own creation in one person, born from above by the Holy Spirit. And we became born of that seed also when Jesus planted himself as that seed into the earth after He died on the cross and rose again. And that seed brought forth us, as the fruit of a new creation upon the earth – not just the image but the likeness of God. 2Cor 5.17 says that; In Christ we are a new creation…and that we are joined in one Spirit with The Lord (1Corinthians 6:17), chosen in him before the foundation of the world, designated beforehand to be placed as sons and daughters in his family through Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 1:4) So that we can say; Galatians 2:20… It is no longer I that live, but Christ is living in me… THAT IS WHO HE SAYS WE ARE!

What is happening to me?
There is the good and the bad that happens to us, that this world brings into our natural lives.
AND
There is an absolute and ultimate good that happens to us as God brings His love into our spiritual lives that transforms us into that person that God created us to be.
I am being loved by God. His delight is to love us with all of his heart. Would God want to do anything else, other than to love us as his children? Anything you could think of would have to contain his love, because God is love, and that includes God’s discipline of us as his children, and allowing us to suffer through hurtful and contentious things done to us by others. The Bible says that Jesus had to suffer the contradiction of peoples’ sinful nature against himself. His love and grace is sufficient for us in all these things

That changes our perspective of what is good or bad in all the things that the world brings into our natural lives. We are living in a confused and conflicted global culture in this present time that delights to deal out spiteful and vindictive punishment, person to person, group to group exacting revenge upon each other and some wanting even to cancel out those that do not agree with their ideology. God is using ALL these things to work together for His good – his perfect strategic plan and good will for our lives.
John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment,
But living within the delight of God’s love for us can lift us far above that kind of chaos. We can return love for hate and not fear. 

What am I meant to do?  

I am simply asked to pass this love on to others.

1John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

What about other things that are required of us to do that are part of living for God and with God in this life, like serving God through serving others, and living a sacrificial life instead of putting oneself first, and being obedient to God’s commands? Obeying his Commandment to love him and to love one another as he has loved us, fulfils all of our obedience to him.
All of these things are fulfilled in our living out of a life of faith that works through love. Paul tells us that this is all that really matters.
What about Jesus saying that we will be his witnesses in the earth. Being a witness means living a life that has God on display in our lives. That means his love in action in our lives.
When Jesus was being questioned by the crowd about who he was l the people who he was he said that he could bear witness of who he was and that he knew where he had come from and where he was going (John 8:14) Jesus had his bearings, and he gives us our bearings, so that we can know who we are, what is happening to us, and what to do in all situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ of the Cosmos

CHRIST OF THE COSMOS
I’ve been sharing what is happening on the ground in society these troubled times and also what is happening regarding the spiritual darkness in the heavens. Now I want to talk about the God of the heavens and the earth, the God of the Bible, Christ of the Cosmos.

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16. For through him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 
17. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 
18. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn (prototokos) from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 
19. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 
20. and through him to reconcile to himself all things together whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
21 And you who were once hostile are now being reconciled (re-ordered) into oneness with Him and are made innocent in his eyes if you remain in the faith because of this message which has been proclaimed to all creation. 

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16. For through him all things were created, in heaven and on earth,

Jesus is the Image of the invisible God, the outward manifestation of the unseen nature and essence of God in all love and wisdom and power and beauty.
Before Jesus came as a person in that image into the earth, he first of all had to create that earth within a Universe.
Jesus is called the Firstborn over all creation. The word for ‘firstborn’ is ‘prototokos’ which means the ‘first time seed bearer’ - the first DNA – The beginning of a new order of being. This means that Uncreated being (Invisible and Unseen Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) introduced created being for the first time (Protos) through Jesus, the Logos – the Seed Word.
Created material being began as an explosion of light – let there be light.
Everything created by that Word had a destiny, because the Word (Logos) contains within it the design for its perfect completion. This creation is not there yet.

16 … visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities…
So Angels were created as beings of spiritual light and then there began a creation of a material Universe 
Job 38: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Ezek 28:12 You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; your clothing was bejeweled with every precious stone--ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald--all in beautiful settings of finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I appointed you to be the anointed Guardian Angel. You had access to the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire.
"`You were perfect in all you did from the day you were created until that time when wrong was found in you. Your great wealth filled you with internal turmoil, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out of the mountain of God like a common sinner. I destroyed you, O Guardian Angel, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was filled with pride

16b all things were created through him and for him. 17. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 
The Universe came into being, through Jesus as the divine agent of creation, and for Jesus as the Lord over it, and this Universe was totally contained in Jesus as the domain of his activity. He is the sustainer of the universe and the unifying principle of its life and form, and that apart from his continuous sustaining activity everything would disintegrate (vs.17 above). This was FOR Jesus so that he could fulfil the plan of the Father to have a family of humanity to share his very being for all eternity.
Jesus began his journey into this material creation the moment he said ‘let there be light’. He was made manifest, prophetically proclaimed as Messiah, yet symbolically hidden throughout the Old Testament, as the Rock that gave forth living water in the wilderness, the manna, the Lord of Hosts that greeted Joshua etc. But this symbolic manifestation had to be hidden in that age. 
1Corinthians 2:7. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the archons of this aeion understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (See also Luke 24 Emmaus)
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as One, were not prompted by any need to become more fulfilled. God as Trinity always was and was always fulfilled in all things in Themselves. 
We can say that The idea of creation was a divine act of an outpouring of their shared love and inclusion. They wanted a family of human beings, spirit soul and body, made in their image and likeness  ‘male and female made He them’.

18. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn (prototokos) from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 

Jesus then became the firstborn from the dead – (prototokos) the first-time seed bearer of a new kind of life and being on the earth – the resurrection and the life). Jesus became the giver of new life, a new creation 
1Corinthians 15:45 “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
To give this life to us he had to die. He died willingly, a sacrifice of love, the ultimate expression of love, setting for us a pattern of a sacrificial life and love between us. To do this he to not only live it but to find a way to sow it so that we could live it on any given day. He could then become joined to us, as the head of his body, the church.
John 10:17 The Father loves me because I lay down my life voluntarily that I may have it back again. No one can take my life without my consent - For I have the right and power to lay it down when I want to and also the right and power to take it again. For the Father has given me this right.
John 12:24 , truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

20. and through him to reconcile to himself all things together whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
This would mean the return of cosmic peace, as it was even from before the beginning.

Jesus has to bring everything in the universe together to be in harmony with him and his perfect relational order (reconciled). No more thorns and thistles that were part of the curse upon the earth from when Adam fell, or earthquakes, tsunamis etc. This all happens all the time, everything collides, the laws of physics of a natural world. But the earth groans under all of this and is waiting for the next age. A new heaven and a new earth.
Romans 8:19 For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day when God will resurrect his children. For on that day thorns and thistles, sin, death, and decay--the things that overcame the world at God's command--will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom which God's children enjoy.

21 And you who were once hostile are now being reconciles (re-ordered) into oneness with Him and are being made innocent in his eyes if you remain in the faith because of this message which has been proclaimed to all creation.
The hostility between God and man was only on our part. Jesus did not have to change any notion of hostility of the Father’s heart towards us. He came to change the hostility in the heart of humanity towards God, and is still doing that through the Holy Spirit.
The Father wanted a family and a family home. Jesus built the home and then became the home by being born from above by the Spirit. He was in the Father in him while he lived upon the earth with the Holy Spirit. He then rose from the dead and Holy spirit went with him. He then sent the Holy Spirit to come and be with us. And now the Holy Spirit makes humanity the home for Father Son and Holy Spirit to dwell in (John 14:3,23 – We will come and make our home with him).
All of this is for all of humanity but it only has meaning on a day to day basis, here and now, for those to whom this message (which has been proclaimed) is listened to, understood, and taken hold of by faith and lived in with hope.
The Holy Spirit now seeks to fashion us into our uniqueness as a person joined to himself as One Spirit, so that we feel at home with Father’s idea of who we are in his eyes from the beginning. So let us turn our eyes upon Jesus – let the things of earth grow strangely dim – in the light of his glory and grace.

 

 

Image makers

IMAGE MAKERS 

How do we become who we are - how do we see ourselves as that person that we think we are. That is an image – that is an idea in our head – where did it come from?
A person does not make up an image all by themselves. The image we have of who we are is an already formed idea of what gets reflected back to us through our life that we accept and act out from. 

The image of who we are comes originally from God’s idea of who we are, Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…

Then came the devil’s idea – his idea of who we are was fist proclaimed by Satan when he said to Adam and Eve ‘God has told you not to eat of that tree because he knows that when you do you will become like Him and God does not want you to have that experience.’ So they believed him, and rebelled against God and were deceived into believing that it was too tempting to throw that short cut of being like God away. They had accepted the idea of darkness which was the actual image that the devil had of himself who also wanted to be like God and that image was now being imprinted onto them. 
They accepted the idea of who they were as being somebody separated from God competing with God for their own autonomy as an independent person apart from God. 

This idea of being able to fashion their own idea and way of being like God which was a lie was sown into the hearts and minds of humanity and made its permanent imprint upon this world. This became the mindset of the human race that in wanting to be so much like God that they made themselves to be their own God, an then made themselves into that image 1John 5:19 ..whole world lies in darkness…

TOWER OF BABEL

That grew to a point that they were not just individuals who had their own individual idea but there grew upon the earth an entire population of people who had one idea and language and under the leadership of a man, Nimrod, who said let us make a city and build a tower that will reach to heaven, and that became the first collective human idea, an identity of humanity that had enormous power in the earth. 
The tower of heaven reaching heaven is not only man’s idea of being independent and making himself like God but being able to build the city of God and to create your own utopia, your own heaven on earth. That became the lie that as cultures developed became imprinted upon the people that developed that culture.

God realized that if all of mankind had one idea in common and pursued that into the fulness of its darkness and deception humanity would eventually destroy itself by giving itself to the devil and become the expression of that darkness.
To save them God decided to bring confusion into their language to communicate to one another and he scattered them on the face of the earth and they all became different cultures in different places in their behaviour, language morality and values. 

So that is three big ideas of the making of the image of humanity upon the earth- God’s idea, the’ devil’s idea and the collective culture’s idea, with spiritual powers of darkness influencing them.

And then there is a fourth idea which is of our own invention and imagination, our voice to ourselves which comes about because of all the different ideas that have had an influence upon us and reflect back to us the image telling us what they want us to be.
This is always the way. 
A person does not begin in their formative years , say from 3 to 7, to sit and analyse what kind of person they are and who they plan to be what they want to pursue as a career and to adopt certain values that they aspire to.
It starts with parents who believe what this little person should be like, what they should think and believe and how they should behave and what they should value, and this is different from culture to culture – a self image is being formed. 
The childhood experience can e positive or negative, helpful or harmful, harsh, provoking the child into reaction ( Ephesians 6:4).As a child grow beyond age 7)
A child then also gets influenced by the peer group and decides to form in their mind how they want to behave in that group in order to belong. That group image begins to define them. This goes on into adulthood in the formation of self-image. No matter how radical or weird or extreme that brand of thought and behaviour is. That doesn’t matter because that’s where they feel at home and where they belong. That is their tribe, whether religious, political, cultural or ideological, or weirdly personal.
So four image making ideas have come into that life.

BUT there is a way that we can respond to the best idea of who we are - God’s idea, and that is found in the Bible. In the Old Testament we can say for the sake of clarity and brevity that that is reflected in the core values of the ten Commandments which reflect back to a person the picture of God’ wisdom and care for relationships, His wisdom and integrity, so that if people as individuals embrace these core values they will be a community of people that not only survive but they will flourish and be the best kind of community that they can be.
In the NT those very same values of love and truth, honesty, productivity in relationships, caring for and honouring one another are imprinted on us by the Holy Spirit.  
When Jesus died for us and rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit, who lived a human life in and with Jesus he made way for us now to be in that same empowering relationship with the Holy Spirit.

So there are two things happening within every human being today – there is still that instinct to form your own image of who you want to be in the current day world in which you live that is reflecting its values back to you saying ‘this is how you are going to make it in this world. This is what the Bible calls being conformed to this world. 

However to summarise so far - God is the primary image maker. In the Old Testament the Commandments were the primary model of the image of God because they reflected the nature of the wisdom and the ways of God. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit works upon our hearts to transform us into the image of Christ. 
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
The renewal of the mind takes place when a person accepts the truth of who they were created to be and allows God to do that transforming work.

Then comes the question - What is that world out there?

Just as the Tower of Babel was a community of people with one mind and one language, That tried to build their own heaven, there is in the world today a new progressive collective identity that has a lot of other group identities arrayed within it that is seeking to build its own idea of heaven on earth. They see themselves as an enlightened empowered group of individuals with the freedom to do what they want to do and behave how they want to behave and have want they want to have, and they are being told mostly by one another who they should be what they should think and how they should talk and what they should believe and what rights they should demand in order to be an acceptable member of contemporary new order of society (the internet makes it possible to get all that information in minutes or seconds). This collective identity is based on not having to conform to Biblical and traditional core values and their restraints - and it means fighting for the freedom and autonomy to set up a new set of values, virtues, and entitlements, to be committed to and championed as a social construct – an ideological political system – a new utopia, a repeat of the tower of Babel.

This clashes head on with a conservative traditional value system based on biblical Judao-Christian values – two value systems. But both of these value systems are falling short of producing an expression of an intact and effective ordered human family in these times. Just as Israel in the Old Testament Israel couldn’t obey the Commandments and Christians don’t live perfect lives. There is a lot of veering off the mark. But at least God’s core values remain as the pillar and ground of truth and are there for people to come back to when they fail, and they fail consistently through the self serving human attitudes that we all have in common no matter what our values are. God is dealing with this state of affairs right now this very moment. This is a recurring theme in the Bible.

At one stage of Israel’s history they were taken captive by a man called Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, which was the most powerful and glorious city in the world (Babel/Babylon – the same word - confusion). Israel were placed in bondage under the religion and culture of that place. At one point the king decided to build a huge statue of gold, almost as tall as a ten storey building (Daniel 3:.
He made a decree that at any time when his chosen music was played everyone had to bow down and worship that image. If they did not bow down to the image they would be thrown into a fiery furnace. There were three young Jewish men who had been given high honour in the political and administrative courts of Babylon, and they had been given the Babylonian names of Meshach, Shadrack and Abednego. It was reported to the king by some other Babylonian court leaders that these three men had refused to bow down to the image. They were called before the king who was furious with them and told them to recant, but they said that their God was able to deliver them from the fire and even if He didn’t, they were prepared to serve Him to the death.
So the furnace was heated up seven times hotter than usual and the king had some of his toughest senior military leaders throw the men into the furnace. However the soldiers were burned to a crisp trying to cast the men into the fire, and when the king stood to inspect the destruction of the three Jewish men he was astonished;
Daniel 3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered “True, O king.” He said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like the son of God.”
Nebuchadnezzar then proclaimed to the entire Nation that anyone who speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.
He then declared;’ It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

It says in the Bible that the fourth person with those men in the fire was like the Son of God – That was Jesus with them in the fiery trial.
A true Witness is seen in God’s people today through the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, even as we go through the fiery trials of faith in these days that purify our hearts. 
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses… (Not just talking about God but having God on display in our lives…)
This work of becoming the expression of our true selves in Christ involves going through the trials of faith to trust God’s love and mercy and truth to us in the transformational process (1Peter 4.12… don’t think it strange when the fiery trials come… Peter also says this is the goal of your faith 1Peter 1:9.). Holy Spirit is reflecting back to you who you are, joined to the Lord as one Spirit. We recognize our shortcomings and obtain mercy and find grace to help.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           All of this is happening in real time now no matter what we see happening in the midst of all the emotional confusion and deception and conflict and rage going on in what we see around us. We are being preserved in the midst of fiery trials being made into the image of God, and he will be seen there with us, that is the witness of his presence with us finding meaning and purpose in all that happens.
It takes place when you are still, knowing that He s God, and as you behold Him in this way the Bible says (2Corinthans 3:18) you are being transformed into His image by the Spirit of The Lord

 

 

Unseen Army

UNSEEN ARMY
2Kings 7:1 There is a story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elisha and how the unseen world of spiritual light and spiritual darkness operates. It is the story of Elisha and the four lepers of Samaria. This is a story of the limited power of darkness when it faces up to the unlimited 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 faith, and alas, darkness inhabits this realm also but with faith we learn to withstand it and overcome.
The king od Israel was ruling over a fortress city in the high region of Samaria. The city was put under siege by the king of Syria, and because there was a great famine in the region, the people of the city were starving, and the Syians had cut off any food supply lines that might have existed from down in the more fertile region of the Jordan. It got to the point that after a time even a donkey's head sold for fifty dollars and a cup of dove's dung brought three dollars! This angered the king and he was trying to find someone to blame for all of this disaster.
Elisha was sitting at home, the elders sitting with him. The king had made up his mind that Elisha the prophet must be to blame because he had not organized God to come to the rescue, and he finally decided to blame God as well. He had already dispatched his attendant to take Elisha’s head off, but before the man arrived Elisha told his friends he knew what the King was planning and said shut the door and lock it. While he was giving his instructions, the king showed up with his attendant, making charges against God; ‘This trouble we’re in has been sent from GOD! And what's next? I'm fed up with GOD! The Syrian army is outside and the people inside the walls are starving to death and paying exorbitant amounts of money for something to eat, a donkey's head is selling for fifty dollars and a cup of dove's dung costs three dollars!
Then Elisha brings a word from God to the king. ‘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!"
But the king’s attendant tells everyone not to believe it ‘Do you think God is going to open trapdoors in Heaven and pour food though them? 

Meanwhile four lepers who are sitting just outside the gates wondering what their fate might be. ‘Well. what are we sitting here for, just waiting to die "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 face the challenge – we’ll present ourselves to the Syrian army, and they might even feed us and let us live, if so then 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! 

To understand what was really going on here we have to look at the previous chapter and see what had happened to the previous king of Syria with regards to Elisha a year åor two beforehand. That king had been marauding the outposts of Israel whenever Israel sent an army to protect the people, but Elisha knew from God what the Syrian king was up to so he warned the king of Israel every time so that they escaped attack. When the Syrian king found this out he sent his army out to capture Elisha who was not living in the fortress city at that time but in another area of Samaria called Dothan. When the Syrian army surrounded Dothan to take Elisha, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, woke up one morning to see Dothan surrounded by the Syrian army and collapsed in panic, but Elisha prayed for God to open Gehazi’s eyes to see the Unseen Army of the Lord arrayed against the Syrian army, and said to him ‘greater are they that are with us than they that are with them’ and the servant calmed down. Then Elisha prayed for God to put blindness upon the Syrians so that they were groping around in the dark, then he walked and asked the commander of the army who he was looking for, and when the commander told him, Elisha said Oh, he doesn’t live here any more but I’ll lead you to where he lives, and he led them all to the fortified city of the king of Israel (the one in our current story). When they all arrived he prayed to God for the eyes of the Syrians to be opened, and they found they were in the hands of the king of Israel, who wanted to take them all into captivity, but Elisha told the kings to give them a good feed and send them home (he obviously knew there were better things to come).

So getting back to the four lepers finding the Syrian camp deserted the Bible tells us (2Kings 7:6) that God had made the whole Syrian army hear sounds of a host of  a great army approaching and the clatter of speeding chariots and a loud galloping of horses. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us," they cried out. 7. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else. 8 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.  9 Finally they said to each other, "This isn't right. This is wonderful news, and 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."

10 So they went back to the city and told the attendant 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. 11 Then the attendant shouted the news to those in the palace.
12 The king got out of bed (trying to guess what had happened – and guessing wrongly!) 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." 13 One of his officers cautiously replied, "We'd better send out scouts first to see. Let two charioteers of take chariots out with our four remaining horses and if something happens to them all it won't be any greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us!" 
14 So the king sent out two charioteers to see where the Syrians had gone. 15 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, 16 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!

All the players in this story had an opinion about what was going on, and they had a reaction to it or a response in it. Some were panicking, some had given up all hope, some were weighing it all up, and like the king, suspicious and getting it wrong, some decided to act with due diligence and caution like the officer who suggested to do a scout patrol. What were they seeing? Did they see that God was at work with the Angel Armies – greater are they that are for us than they that are against us …. 
These are the things we ask ourselves when there is a crisis – are we being driven by fear or are we being inspired by faith, or guided by wisdom with ears to hear…

The four lepers had to make a choice. They could sit around in despondency and wait to die or they could face the challenge of facing the enemy, so they went into the enemy camp and saw with their own eyes that God had been at work. God had not only supernaturally defeated the enemy but he had poured out his provision for his people. If they had not taken this initiative no one would had moved in the entire city and they all would have starved, despite the fact that they had the word of blessing from the prophet. Elisha had done his part - he had shared the Word of the Lord.

We have the word of blessing, the good news of God’s goodness to us through Jesus. We have to move on that and take initiative against the bluff of the devil. All Satan has in his armory are the weapons of darkness and deception. Satan has no creative power. He is a deceiver and a confuser. The battle between light and darkness is not hanging in the balance. The battle has been won. God is not in a defensive position against darkness – He has defeated it. Darkness can only work on us, and the Bible says that when we align ourselves with God and his authority and resist the devil the darkness HAS to flee (James 4:7). His target is our minds and our hearts where he wants to plant confusion and deception and fear (2Cor. 4:3). We have to take the initiative and withstand him.

The Bible says the whole world lies in darkness, and we have all experienced that. But if we have the truth the darkness cannot harm us. Satan likes to put himself on display but when his bluff is called he has to back down. We are to walk into the darkness bravely and confidently.
The four lepers walked boldly into the enemy camp, and we are to do the same. The risk for us is NOT in being harmed by the enemy – the risk for us is in NOT putting our trust in God that his goodness will come to us. That is not a good path for us to go down.
The word of God about the blessing and the relief of the famine had been spoken by Elisha and was already in operation. The name ELISHA means ‘God of Blessing’. The word of spiritual blessing has been spoken over us in Jesus (Eph 1:3) and we are to trust that it is working in our lives and it will come to pass in every situation. 

We accept that the current adverse or confusing situation is being used for God’s greater purpose and we give thanks in purposeful prayer. That is so that we can be strengthened in our faith in times of sometimes painful uncertainty, rather than going in to negative resistance like Israel’s king did and look for who to blame (He blamed God and God’s messenger or like many people do we just blame the devil!). No, instead we accept that God is at work in the Unseen, with his Unseen Army, even when the uncertain situation discomforts us. This strengthens our faith. Paul said he did not run aimlessly or fight to beat the air but his commitment to spiritual fitness was by taking on reality with hope and faith.
That will always lead to our finally seeing the supernatural effect of his working in our lives and in those we bring before him in our prayer. We realise that the battle is ongoing until God’s a victory is apparent for all to see. 

Ephesians 6:12 tells us to throw down the spiritual powers. Then it tells is what armor to put on. Truth, peace, faith, love, which will overcome anything the devil throws at our We are not feebly struggling against a powerful dark force but aligning ourselves with a powerful God force – and throwing down the darkness..
We assume our place of authority with Jesus ABOVE the powers of darkness.
We declare that we are serving the purpose of God in our generation.

2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds