Spiritcode

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN 
The Lord’s Prayer says Our Father who is in heaven holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we say your Kingdom come, we are not talking about the afterlife but about God’s Kingdom being experienced here on earth. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Psalm 103:19 

The Kingdom of God rules over all other kingdoms on the earth and God desires that his rule and order in heaven is expressed in the earth. However, most people are living only under the rule of one of a multitude of different kinds of kingdoms in the earth, ranging from dictatorships through democracies and on to superstitious religious or tribal cultures. And most people only see an earthly kingdom in action and are not aware that a heavenly Kingdom even exists let alone its being in command of all that happens on earth. I believe we are living in days when God is opening peoples’ eyes to see his Heavenly Kingdom being displayed on earth.

A kingdom is a governmental rule of order presided over by a ruler. There are thousands of political kingdoms in the world and there is a multitude of ‘rules of order’ and different ways to protect and enforce that rule of order. 
Australia is a parliamentary democracy that is directly and indirectly under a Monarchy that has vowed to honour and serve God as the overarching rule.
America is a republic that has declared ‘In God we trust’ and that they are ‘A nation under God’. As to how faithfully those two governmental systems serve that Godly rule depends on the integrity and sincerity of the political leadership in maintaining those spiritual and cultural foundations. At the moment those foundations are being eroded, and God is holding everyone to account. 
If Australia became a republic, who would designate what would be the overarching rule and value that we upheld, and who would protect and enforce what that overarching rule and value would be from that time on for our lives, and who would appoint the leader? Maybe just leave it to the politicians? - think about that when there’s a referendum. But for us the Bible says ‘pray for rulers and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence’(1Timothy2).  
Our constant mindset of prayer remains as ‘Your Kingdom come’.
People today also create their own personal kingdoms of rule and order over whatever overarching ideologies they choose to embody, so there is a lot at play when it comes to discussing whose will gets done on earth as it is in Heaven.

In the Old Testament Israel saw much evidence of the rule of a Heavenly Kingdom in the earth through miraculous interventions of God in their life. Things were seen being done in Heaven that were also being done on the earth. 
Elisha saw into the heavens that God’s angels were defeating the Syrian army that were fighting against Israel at the place where Elisha and Gehazi were staying, so he said to his terrified servant Gehazi ‘Fear not: for greater are they that are with us than they that are against us. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray that you would open his eyes, that he may see. (2Kings 6:1) God opened Gehazi’s eyes to see the Heavenly battle.
Daniel was praying to God and saw the four winds of heaven in turmoil churning up the seas (Daniel 7). Daniel saw four great beasts that prophetically symbolise powerful earthly kingdoms that still exist today also disrupting the churning seas, and the seas symbolise the global population. And in the Book of Revelation chapter 13 this same vision of kingdom disorder and disruption gets prophetically amplified as something yet to occur globally in the nations of today’s world. There is much that needs to come to pass in history yet, but we could be seeing the beginnings of this unfolding before our eyes at this time. We are living in a time of the clashing of kingdoms. ‘All things are being shaken and the things that are man-made will be removed, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, and are given grace, by which we may serve God’ (Hebrews 12:27)

In the New Testament we need eyes of faith to ‘see’ the Kingdom of God. Jesus always saw the Kingdom of God and he also saw the kingdom of the earth and lived in both. He did not live a secular life that was separate from his spiritual life, but the Kingdom of God was his true reality. He saw what was done in heaven being done in the earth. He put God first and he did what he saw his Father do. One day Jesus said to the listening crowds “Truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son does also. 
For Jesus things happened twice – God did it in Heaven and Jesus did it on earth. God’s will was done on earth as it had been done in heaven. He teaches us that in the lord’s Prayer. 

The Father showed Jesus how Lazarus was to be raised from the dead when everyone was telling Jesus to come and heal him. The Father showed Jesus through the Holy Spirit the multitudes being fed with the miraculous loaves and fishes. Jesus saw the lame man take up his bed and walk at the pool of Bethesda and then spoke it into being.

How do we see the Kingdom of Heaven and live a life that expresses the Heavenly Kingdom of God in the earth? Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless one is born from above (anothen) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). 
When people ask when we will see the Kingdom of heaven being active in the earth the only answer is – when it starts to be seen in our lives – as the love and compassion and the justice and mercy and truth that is in Christ. If we ask for the Holy Spirit to become active in our lives we will be guided by the Holy Spirit to hear what God is saying to us and see with eyes of faith what he showing us to do. We will pray prayers of surrender to receive God’s answers and get his results rather than our demands for our own wishes. Paul says that the devil’s strategy is to blind people’s minds to see the things that God is doing from Heaven -The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the message of the glory of Christ (2Corinthians 4:6) But the Bible also says that ‘Greater is he who is within you than he who is in the world (1John 4:4). 
When we have faith in the work of the Kingdom of God in Heaven, we begin to understand the spiritual reality that God’s will in Heaven is waiting to happen on earth in our lives and that becomes our new reality for everything we aspire to. 
We may not see the spiritual battles going on in the heavens like Elisha, but we can often sense the spiritual oppression and know that there is an activity of darkness happening and we can have faith that God is at work in the world of the unseen to overcome that darkness and to shield us from it. We can trust that the Holy Spirit will bring his word alive to us as we read the Scriptures and that things will unfold in our lives that we realise only God could have arranged for us, and things on earth will start to become what is being done in heaven in front of our eyes. 

There are things happening on the world stage that reveal the disorder and disruption by ungodly religious and cultural and Marxist dictatorships that defy the rule of law and seek to demolish democratic principles that honour the God of the Bible. This is happening in the Middle East where Israel is being attacked from all sides, and it is happening in too many other democratic nations from within. Godly foundations are being eroded through weak national leaderships that grasp for worldly power through corrupt and deceitful means. We live in a nation that has been given the Gospel but it has become indifferent to it over the years in its preference for the ‘good life’. But the good life is fast becoming the not so good life, and the tide is turning on the failed social and political experiments of recent times. This coming year will be a defining year for our nation as we take hold of What Jesus has already won for this nation. God is raising up his Kingdom in this Great South land of the Holy Spirit and we can personally expect to receive his grace for his Kingdom to be on display in our lives. Israel had to possess Canaan the Land of Promise (Numbers 34) which measured 300,000 square miles which is 777,000 square kilometres of territory (300,000X2.59) but the land of Promise that God wants possessed today is the territory of people’s hearts to believe and ‘receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ (Gatatians 3:14). God has gone before us to ‘Go in and possess the land’. Your heart of faith and love can be a window for the hearts of others to see the Kingdom and a door for others to enter into the Kingdom.

The Journey of the Wise Men

The Journey of the Wise Men 

Ancient Babylon was home to the first civilization to study the stars, and some wise men called Magi, who were scholars and astronomers noticed something extraordinary in the heavens. For centuries, these wise men had studied the Jewish prophecies passed down during Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and those prophesies included the foretelling of a Messiah. When an unusually bright convergence of planets began to shine as an apparent brilliant star in the eastern sky, they interpreted it as the sign of a great ruler’s birth. Ancient astronomers didn’t distinguish planets from stars but interpreted them as ‘wandering stars’.

The Magi (and the Bible doesn’t say how many there were) then set out on a long journey westward, heading to where this bright star shone. The distance from Babylon to Jerusalem is about 1000 kilometres and it is estimated that it would have taken weeks to months to finally arrive. And the Gospel of Matthew says In the days of Herod the king, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it arose and have come to worship him (Matthew 2:1). Jesus was born when the star first arose, and their arrival in Jerusalem was quite some time later.
Their inquiries about the “new king of the Jews” reached the ears of Herod the Great, the local ruler, appointed by Rome, and he was deeply unsettled. Herod feared this child might threaten his dynasty, a potential Messiah heralding a kingdom that could upend his tenuous grip on power.

Summoning his religious advisors, Herod demanded answers. The scribes pointed to the ancient prophecy of Micah, which pinpointed Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah. With cunning pretence, Herod secretly met the Magi, urging them to locate the child (paidion) – a young child, not brephos – a babe – Luke 2), and report back so he could “worship” him too. Satisfied that his plan to eliminate this rival was foolproof, Herod congratulated himself on his deceit. 
The Wise Men continued their journey, guided by the radiant star, and Matthew writes And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: (Matthew 2:11). SO - the star rested over a house in Bethlehem (not out in a stable in a field, but in a kaluma, a guest room in the family home of Joseph - after the other guests had long left and where Mary and Joseph would have stayed on with the child Jesus for some time after the birth). Inside, the wise men found the child, Jesus, with Mary and Joseph. And they reverently knelt and worshipped him, presenting gifts of profound spiritual significance:
Gold symbolises God’s divine nature and kingship. (Exodus 25:10, Hebrews 9:4)
Frankincense, this incense represent prayer and spiritual devotion. (Psalm 141)
Myrrh foretells the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. (Mark 15:23).

That night, all their plans changed. Warned in a dream by an angel not to return to Herod, the Magi departed by another route. Meanwhile, the same angel appeared to Joseph, instructing him to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath.

Realizing the Magi had outwitted him, Herod erupted in a fury, and he ordered the massacre of all male children in Bethlehem under the age of two. This event is a remarkable replay of the story of Pharoah ordering the massacre of all male children at the time of the birth of Moses. Pharoah, like Herod feared for his own dynasty, and Moses became the deliverer/saviour of Israel and Jesus became the deliverer/saviour of the world.
But Herod’s reign of terror was short-lived and after his death, an angel appeared to Joseph again, instructing him to return to Israel. But learning that Herod’s son, Antipas, ruled Judea with more cruelty than his father, Joseph was wary, and being guided once more by the angel, he led his family to Galilee, settling in the quiet town of Nazareth. 

The birth of Jesus was written in the stars, and the Bible says that the stars speak forth the knowledge of God. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God and his splendour is written in the stars. Each day utters promise to the next day, and the night sky unveils knowledge to us all. Without a sound without a word and not a voice being heard - The world can hear its silent shout as everywhere his truth goes out. (Psalm 19:1-4) - The life of Jesus, the Word revealed in the skies

The journey of the Wise Men, steeped in prophecy and faith, speaks to us of the precision of how God’s plans unfold in our lives also, even in the midst of human schemes and suffering and our own mistakes and frailties. 
God wrote the narrative of the life of Jesus and he has written the narrative of our lives – David said in Psalm 139 ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! (Psalms 139:16)
There is a book about you with your name written on it and there are special events ordered by God on record that God has purposed for you. These special events are called ‘Kairos times’. There are two kinds of times in the Bible – the special eternal Kairos time event and Chronos time – clock time - with its seconds and minutes and hours and years of ordinary day to day time that passes away. 
Jesus lived in both Chronos time and Kairos time like all of us. Not everything in the everyday clock time life of Jesus needs to be in the Bible because it is not merely a history book but a book of revelation and faith and purpose and meaning concerning the eternal work of God. We have been reading about the eternal Kairos event of the birth of Jesus - and the visitation of the wise men when eternal light shone as a wandering star at his birth. And so it is with us - God’s book about us is not merely a history book of but a narrative of the eternal purpose and meaning that he has planned for our lives. 
I believe that we are living in a time when God is restoring his Kairos events for us that we may have lost or neglected throughout the Chronos minutes and years of our busy everyday lives. But God is restoring those years – not in clock time but in our awakenings to his Kairos purpose and meaning to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.
That is for all of us – all of humanity, and this signifies forgiveness and restoration of his eternal purposes for us. This is what brings a renewed connection with God and forgiveness and the healing of our souls.
We don’t get the Chronos years back, but we can miraculously get the Kairos events back. We can have ten years of lost eternal Kairos opportunities restored in a few Chronos weeks or months – and I’m seeing that happen in people right now. In fact the Apostle Paul saw one Kairos moment restore his entire past on the road to Damascus, and then he learned to manage living in both time frames in perfect harmony.
There is a bright star continually shining in the heavens for us to unveil a life of fulfilment in God. It is time to let God begin to rewrite our narrative and we will have so much to be thankful for. We can let God rewrite his eternal events back into our life when we interrupt our busy clock time and ask God to awaken us to the present moment Kairos experience of partnership with him, learning to infuse our natural time frame with God’s supernatural time frame of eternal purpose and meaning.

 

 

NEWBORN KING

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

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

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

Nearby, where shepherds were looking after their sheep upon the hills a huge shining star 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.” The angelic song about this new creation in the world was the magnificent sequel to their song of the first creation of the world as we read in the book of Job after God challenges Job and says ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? (Job 38:4,7,8).

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

A great light shone 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 that would come 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. Jesus had declared this mystery of the human/ Divine intersection of life and being when he prayed to the Father in front of the  disciples “I have given them the glory you gave me—the glorious unity of being one, as we are— I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. (John 17:22)
This Divine intersection of our being with God is how we get to ‘know God’. The Holy Spirit speaks into our spirit the mind and words of Jesus, and we ‘see and know’ Jesus in this way. Faith lets us speak to him as a person, person to person. 
1John 2:27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need to learn another person’s personal perception of God to know what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true.
This does not mean we disregard Scriptural teaching. This Scripture simply makes alive and real the personal and individual whisper of God into our spirit as the wisdom and understanding of the mind and heart of God that we need in any given situation and at any given time. That is what Jesus accomplished for us. That becomes the light to our path allowing us to express our unique and truest self in the best possible way. That is our faith.
Christmas waits to be truly celebrated within this understanding. Without Christmas there is no way we could ever have known God and become one with him. Amen

MESSAGE AND MESSENGERS

MESSAGE AND MESSENGERS 
Before the fall of Adam and Eve, God the Father's plan was already in motion to bring about a new creation of humanity in the earth combining God and humanity in his Son, Jesus. This was not an afterthought of God after the fall but a divine plan for union of human mortality and Divine immortality (John 11:26), giving humanity a path to oneness with God, and Jesus was fully aware of this from before time began, knowing that becoming human was the only way for humanity to experience the fullness of God's love, and he would become its most perfect expression.

For ages, the earth suffered under the weight of its brokenness. Humanity was lost, unable to heal itself. Suspicion and hostility toward Father God, sown by Lucifer, had led to a distorted view of God in the earth. Many saw Him as distant and judgmental, fostering a religion of fear and appeasement. But God had a greater answer-not a set of rituals or rules, but Himself. Jesus, as God and man, would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. He would step out of eternity and into time, exchanging pure Spirit existence for Divine within human existence.

In this grand mission, the Holy Spirit played an essential role. The Spirit would partner with Jesus, sharing every moment of His earthly life. This partnership ensured that the Holy Spirit, too, would intimately experience human existence. After Jesus completed His mission, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of revealing God's love and drawing humanity into communion with the Divine.

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

Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph and in the cultural context of Mary and Joseph, betrothal was a formal, legal agreement between families, often formalized with a written contract (ketubah) and the couple was considered legally married, so if there was a breach of honour to that contract, either party could initiate divorce proceedings. 
The betrothal period typically lasted about a year, and during this time, the bride remained in her parents' home, and the groom prepared a place for their future life together, often by building or preparing a home.

When Joseph discovered that Mary was going to have a child he was deeply troubled but he resolved to act with compassion, planning to quietly divorce her. However, an angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him that Mary's child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save His people from their sins. Joseph obeyed the angel's command, and he took Mary as his wife while refraining from consummating their marriage until Jesus was born.

Following Gabriel's announcement, Mary journeyed to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also experiencing a miraculous pregnancy. Elizabeth, though elderly and previously unable to conceive, was carrying John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for Jesus. When Mary greeted her cousin, Elizabeth's unborn child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (Luke 1:42). Mary responded with a song of praise, glorifying God for His faithfulness and mercy.

Elizabeth gave birth to her son, and her neighbours and relatives rejoiced with her. At the circumcision ceremony, it was assumed the child would be named Zechariah, after his father. However, Elizabeth insisted he be named John, and when questioned, Zechariah, who had been struck mute for doubting Gabriel's prophecy, wrote the name John on a clay tablet and  Immediately, his voice returned, and he praised God. This moment marked the end of a long silence, both for Zechariah and for the people of Israel. Zecharia being struck mute for a season of time was symbolic of Israel, who had not heard a prophetic voice for 400 years since the prophecy of Malachi. Malachi's prophesy came from the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament, and the final words of Malachi declared that God would send the prophet Elijah before the coming of the Messiah and that he would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts if the fathers to their children.

Zechariah, under the prophetic anointing of the Holy Spirit, prophesied over John, declaring, "You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins" (Luke 1:76-77). John's life and ministry would pave the way for the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah. When John the Baptist began his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus many in Israel believed that he was Elijah whom Malachi had prophesied about, and even Jesus said that John had come in the spirit of Elijah - This is the one about whom it is written: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you. (Matthew 11)
During that 400 year spiritual silence from the time of Malachi God's people had been waiting for a clear word, a new revelation of his presence among them, Emmanuel. This silence reflected the darkness and disorder of a world longing for hope and direction. With John's ministry and Jesus' baptism, this silence was fully broken for all the world to hear God and have his presence amongst them. 
And today, we find ourselves in a similar time of waiting through another season of relative silence from Heaven into a world that is rife with uncertainty, division, and spiritual disconnection. Many voices in this global culture clamour for attention yet rarely bring clarity or wisdom. 
But in the midst of this, God is stirring the hearts of His people, to hear his voice and to awaken others and turn their hearts back to him. Just as John's mission was to prepare the way for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is working in us who believe to bring light and hope to the world.

This preparation doesn't rely on loud proclamations or dramatic gestures but on God's people hearing his voice and responding with consistent acts of love and faith as he moves through our everyday lives inspiring us to reflect God's mercy and truth in our everyday interactions.
Zechariah's regained voice reminds us that God's word always comes at the appointed time. As we await a fresh movement of the Spirit, we can take comfort in knowing that God is never silent without purpose. In these moments of waiting, God prepares us to receive and share a deeper level of being in his presence amongst us, Emmanuel. When His voice breaks through, it will be with clarity, cutting through the confusion of the world.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Malachi prophesied before the 400 years of silence that God would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers to their children at the time of his first coming into the world - and in the days of his second coming into the world. Today this means that there will be a grace upon families that will become reunited in the love of God and one another, seen as simple yet powerful acts of kindness, and words of encouragement, and lives grounded in compassion that become beacons of hope. This is how the Holy Spirit works today, just as He did in the time of Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist. Jesus chose ordinary people and God accomplished extraordinary things, drawing the world closer to His heart.

As Zechariah declared, "The tender mercy of our God, by which the Daystar shall visit us from on high, will give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, guiding our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:78-79). This promise remains true for us today. In the midst of the darkness of today's world of chaos, the light of God's love is beginning to shine. As we choose to live in that love and its light, we will witness the hand of God bringing order out of chaos and bringing unity, hope, and peace to people in our own personal world.

 

PRINCE OF PEACE

PRINCE OF PEACE 
Isaiah prophesied around 720 BC about a time and a place where great light would confront great darkness (Isaiah 9:2). The great light that he writes about occurred with the birth of Jesus, the first Christmas around two thousand years ago, and the place was in the Middle east in a region called Galilee of the Gentiles, where the darkness of the tyranny of the Roman empire had overcome all the nations and cultures that opposed it. 
Isaiah 9:2 By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; And for those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death a light has shined upon them
Isaiah writes further about Jesus as that great light and the Prince of Peace…
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David forever more. The dedication of the LORD of hosts will do this.
In the time of Jesus, Galilee of the Gentiles was a place where idolatrous darkness opposed the one true religion called Judaism. And even Judaism opposed itself from within through doctrines of legalism and hypocrisy and pride, and this caused Jesus to tell them at that time that ‘they had missed their day of visitation (Luk 19:44). Galilee of the Gentiles was the battlefield of good against evil and of light against darkness, but it was to become the wellspring of life out of death. 
Jesus, the light of the world of the first Christmas lived in Galilee of the Gentiles, which was under the control of the Roman Empire. He grew up in the towns of Nazareth and Capernaum and announced his ministry in Nazareth at 30 years of age when he preached in the synagogue to the Jewish people of his own hometown and said,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted and to proclaim liberty for the captives (Luke 4). After saying this, the Jews whom he had grown up with were incensed with anger and wanted to push him over a cliff. 
He was the great light that shone among that region of darkness, but the nation of Israel remained blinded to that light. However, the Apostle Paul wrote that this blindness would be lifted in the end times before his return – blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25).

After three and a half years of his ministry Jesus would finally go to Jerusalem where he would die for all mankind and rise again from the dead, and to where he would  return at the end of the age. At that time he will overcome the final rebellious assault of great darkness against the power of his kingdom of great light. Isaiah’s prophecy would then find its fulfillment through Jesus the Prince of Peace whose Kingdom will never end Amen. 

And over two thousand years after the first Christmas, the world remains in great darkness, longing for a great light. Paradoxically, while Christmas is celebrated annually as a festive holiday, the miraculous significance of its great light is mostly misunderstood, along with the profound darkness that pervades a corrupt world. This darkness is also evident in the growing determination of many people to destroy Israel. The world is currently witnessing an increasing hatred of Jews which Jesus prophesied to his followers in Matthew when he said ‘and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake….and then will the end come…(Matthew 24:9f)’. This hatred is currently being fueled by certain sections of politics and the global media. At the same time, many Jewish rabbis and religious Orthodox Jews worldwide are fervently awaiting their promised Messiah.
A great light is poised to shine, signaling God’s loving desire of good will for all people. Israel, who did not receive him and who missed the day of his (first) visitation will finally be gathered together and brought into his great light, and we who have believed and yet not seen him will also be his signs of light and hope in today’s world as the Prince of Peace.
Peace, (Eirene in Greek), speaks of oneness, harmony, and togetherness, and just as different musical notes can create harmonious chords to be played in a symphony, we too can align our will with God’s will, and bring that same peace and harmony and goodwill into our relationships. This harmony is grounded in trusting that God is always working on our behalf in unseen ways. And that is the core essence of our faith. God is the composer and conductor of life’s grand symphony. He alone knows what lies ahead, orchestrating the course of history and the details of our individual lives. The choice is ours: will we invite Him to play in our band, or will we choose to play in His grand orchestra? ‘For we are his masterpiece (workmanship - poi??ma- production,), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand for us to walk in’. Ephesians 2:10

Jesus knew that his father God had prepared all the supernatural works for his Son to walk in and he declared this when he said ‘The Son can do nothing – only what he sees his Father doing… John 5:19J. Jesus saw what Father had already done. Jesus didn’t hurry to go and heal Lazarus – He saw what the father had done, and he raised Lazarus from the dead. It is the same with us if we look at that picture of being in harmony with God as like being part of his orchestra. The conductor knows the score – and Jesus followed his Father’s timing just as we are called to follow God’s timing as our Conductor in his orchestra. The Bible says that God makes everything beautiful in ITS time … whatever God does shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God does it, that men should be in awe of Him. That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been (Eccl. 3:11f). And our role is not to rush but to wait patiently, like an instrument resting through symphonic pauses. 
We pray Lord that we do not miss our day of visitation but be mindful that as our Emmanuel, our God with us, your day of visitation is an invitation for us to join you every day all day. Amen.
Paul O’Sullivan  - spiritcode.podbean.com  - pauloss@me.com

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 16 GOOD SAMARITAN

GOSPEL PARABLES 16 GOOD SAMARITAN
The background to this parable is yet another story about the Jewish Pharisees and legalists taking opportunity to appear righteous in front of Jesus for the sake of impressing the crowds. To do this they would pose theological questions to Jesus for which they believed they had a smart answer. A lawyer (an expert in Mosaic law) decided he would ask Jesus a question that he could himself answer brilliantly and then parry with Jesus to and fro, and so appear to be as wise if not wiser than Jesus. 

Luke 10:25 And then a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered back, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will have life.” But he wanted to justify himself (appear righteous) and said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” (pl??sion; a person that is near or close in a variety of ways). 
Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. (These people are distancing themselves – the opposite to becoming near and close as neighbours)
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Jesus had just told a story of a man who was found beaten and helpless and left for dead. When Jesus told them that a priest came by, the crowd’s hopes were raised, only to fall when he passed by without helping. Next, a Levite arrived, and the crowd’s hope rose once more, but he too distanced himself from the injured man, leaving the crowd wondering about who was next. The crowd might have expected a Jewish man to be the hero, and perhaps this story was about the privileged religious leaders of the day, but Jesus was not trying to make that statement, and in any case, many may have even excused the priests and Levites, knowing that priests and Levites were bound by special rules when it came to touching the dead. (Jesus was saying something else) - And the big surprise was that a despised Samaritan was the compassionate hero in the story and what he did highlighted the true meaning of mercy and loving our neighbour.

Jesus is not making a point that Samaritans are better people than Jews, or that all priests and Levites are hard hearted people. The shock element of who is who in this story is more about the fact that you can’t predict where and when true compassion is going to occur just by having preconceived ideas about a person’s role or status or tribal identity. The parable points out that genuine mercy and compassion is always seen when one person helps another person who is in a helpless or vulnerable or deprived situation by coming close rather than by distancing themselves. And the real issue here is that Jesus proclaims showing mercy as I would say the core relational value of the Kingdom of God. And this just happens to be the answer that the smart lawyer finally gives to Jesus about ‘who is my neighbour’. The Lawyer decisively said to Jesus ‘The one who showed him mercy.’

It is mercy that generates closeness and acceptance and mercy responds to the vulnerability that we all feel as limited human beings. This is also seen in God’s creation even by animals of all varieties in coming to the aid of a helpless young fledgling of a totally different and distinct species. God has woven his mercy into the world of all living creatures. A big goose mothering a baby cat and a cat playing with  a baby bird (and 100 more examples)

There is a lot of talk about mercy and compassion these days but sometimes it seems kind of shallow like a superficial compassion. It's more about looking merciful and virtuous than actually caring, and it's more about having the correct moral high ground than actually helping people. And that can actually lead to some needy people adopting a victim mentality where they start to see themselves as helpless and always needing to be rescued. This can be dangerous because if someone or some special identity group can convince people that they're helpless then they can control them. And in today’s global culture there are people in power that cultivate that kind of dependency to stay in control.

And in this parable Jesus upholds this powerful theme of mercy as the overarching core value of God’s love and compassion throughout the Bible. Mercy is not only a feeling of compassion – it is a healing energy that generates concern and care and closeness like no other demonstration of love and faith. But mercy loses its healing power when it is done out of obligation or duty or condescension or guilt – that is not how God works.
We see God’s powerful nature of mercy and compassion on display everywhere in the Bible and we see it emphasised in the writings of at least seven of the Old Testament prophets. And David in the Psalms passionately proclaims the enduring mercy of God about ninety times. 

God’s mercy is first seen in the Bible in the book of Exodus Chapter 25 where God commands Moses to construct a mercy seat to cover the Ark of the Covenant which contained the presence of God in the tabernacle and the temple. It was crafted from pure gold which represented the very nature of God, and it shows how God’s desire is to be intimately near to his people, not distant or removed but right at the centre of Israel’s life and worship. It is the place where God meets humanity, not with condemnation but with a desire to show grace. The mercy seat was flanked by two angelic beings called cherubim, with their wings spread over it and their faces turned toward it as though even the heavenly beings are in awe of God’s loving compassion expressed through His mercy and emphasizing the sacredness of this place.

The nature of God’s mercy is also that it does not ignore sin or negate justice because mercy gives people enough time to consider their attitudes and behaviour and change before the consequences of their behaviour overtake them. 
‘The Bible also says The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 2:22).
In the New Testament God’s mercy is seen in Hebrews chapter eight where God’s mercy is central to our understanding of how near and close God wants to be with us. The Old Covenant focused on adherence to the Law, and people having to do rituals of washings and sacrifices to come near to him. But in the New Covenant God writes the Commandments in our hearts and Jesus comes to dwell within us and give us his heart of obedience to the Father’s will in all things.
‘For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their unrighteousness (being out of alignment with me), and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:10)
God’s mercy draws us close to himself by pulling us out of our self-conscious mindset of imperfection and unworthiness which makes us feel at a distance from him. Our sense of helplessness can become a pathway towards God and not a pathway into isolation. 

We are called to be vessels of God’s mercy in a world that desperately needs it, and the Holy Spirit within us will always be prompting us to respond mercifully to others as he carries that compassion of the Father and Jesus to those around us. Jesus was ‘moved’ with compassion physically (plagchnizomai – in his inner body) when he saw the helplessness of the crowds around him. (Matthew 14:14).

The Bible says that mercy triumphs over judgement (James2:13) but it also says that people who show no mercy to others will receive judgement without mercy for their wrongdoing in the form of the unpleasant consequences of their wrongdoing. This is a sad reminder of how a person can unwittingly choke off the flow of God’s mercy even to their own self. The key to keeping the flow of God’s mercy open is to start by opening ourselves up to God’s mercy which endures forever. We make it something between God and ourselves and seek to live in his acceptance of us in our weakness and helplessness. That humble movement of our heart towards God is the truest expression of genuine faith that a person can have, and the Bible says that our hearts are purified by faith (Acts 10). From within that sea of God’s mercy we can look with eyes of mercy upon another person in their helplessness and that draws us into their need.

The prompting of the Holy Spirit to pray for someone in their struggles and their helplessness is an exercise of God’s mercy through us, where we can have faith that God is at work supernaturally to draw that person close to him and bring them his strength and comfort. Mercy often looks like patience in everyday interactions because it resists being triggered into resentment or anger. Listening before speaking can invite a person’s heart into God’s mercy simply because they are being heard. Being listened to and heard can often lead to a person being healed. Mercy flows from heaven when we choose to respond with kindness rather than harshness even when someone is being difficult or insensitive. Mercy can simply be believing the best about others, even when there is reason to assume the worst. Mercy means refraining from judgment or harsh criticism and rather seeking to understand someone’s vulnerability. That kind of mercy can allow a person to step out of the shadows of their own darkness and into God’s transforming light.

Paul OSullivan – spiritcode.podbean.com  -  pauloss@icloud.com

GOSPEL PARABLES 15 TWO SONS

GOSPEL PARABLES 15 TWO SONS 
Today I’m sharing the parable of the Two sons from the Gospel of Matthew (21:28).
The background to the parable of the Two Sons is that the Pharisees and Jewish leaders were strongly resisting what Jesus was saying and doing and questioning his authority, as they had with John the Baptist, so Jesus speaks this parable to them,

Matthew 21:28 “What do you think of this? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I prefer not to,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I will go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you, for the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed John for he came to you as an upright and Godly man and you did not believe him. And even when you saw that, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

The Godliness and anointing and spiritual authority of John the Baptist was at the centre of the argument that the Jewish leaders were really having about the authority of Jesus - before he spoke the parable of the Two Sons. 
What did the Jewish leaders see in John the Baptist that they did not want to believe? 
They did not want to see or believe that John the Baptist was from God because if they believed that then they would have to believe that Jesus was also from God. The whole crowd saw John the Baptist baptise Jesus and they all saw the dove of the Holy Spirit appear above the head of Jesus and they heard the voice from Heaven say, ‘this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. As well as that, the tax collectors and prostitutes received the baptism of John the Baptist, but the Jewish leaders had refused it.

Jesus is saying a lot here about choices and preferences and our willingness to believe in Jesus and trust him and do what he says, or we may resist and walk our own path of self-advantage. We may give a nod to doing what is right because it looks good but deep down resent that we are not fully in command of our own destiny and desires, and in this story the two sons are being weighed in the balance of either determining their own destinies or doing the will of their father. This Two Sons theme occurs in another three major stories in the Bible - the stories of the prodigal son, and Jacob and Esau, and Cain and Abel. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
In the Two Sons parable Jesus is comparing the responses of the tax collectors and prostitutes with the responses of the legalistic Pharisees and Jewish leaders, and the situation in this parable resembles the story of the prodigal son. In the Prodigal Son story the father wants to bless both the sons, but the prodigal son goes his own way then has a change of heart and discovers his heart of gratitude and love and honour for his father. The older son is self-righteous and resentful of the mercy shown to the wayward son, just as the Pharisees are resentful of the mercy Jesus shows to sinners.

In the story of the twins Jacob and Esau, the older twin Esau was entitled to the spiritual inheritance from their father Isaac, but Jacob deeply desired it for himself. And one day after Esau had been out hunting and was hungry he impetuously traded the valuable older son inheritance for a tempting bowl of Jacob’s lentil soup, and later on, Jacob deceived the blind Isaac into blessing him with the sought after inheritance instead of Esau by disguising himself as Esau. And although Jacob initially acted out of self-will, he later repented, and years later, on the eve of his meeting with Esau to make reconciliation, he had an encounter with God and wrestled with God and with his own inner conflicts, and after this encounter God granted Jacob the full blessing of the heavenly inheritance he sought.

The Two Sons parable is also a replay of the Cain and Abel story where Cain is also resentful of the approval that God gives to Abel, who offers a heartfelt sacrificial offering of the best of his flock to God, whereas Cain gives only what he is obliged to give - just like the empty hearted Pharisees. God accepts the offering of Abel but not that of the envious Cain, who murders his brother and is sentenced into exile, to wander as a lonely man with an inner emptiness and bitterness. Cain’s crime of killing Abel is also replayed in the killing of Jesus by the Jewish leaders and the shouts of ‘crucify him’ in front of Pontius Pilate. Cain’s fate of being exiled to wander the earth (Genesis 4:4) is the same as the self-righteous Pharisees who exiled themselves from a merciful and forgiving God. The Bible says that through his sacrificial offering Abel still speaks even though he died (Hebrews 11:4) and how much more through the sacrificial offering of his own life does Jesus still speak even now to all the world. 

The story of Jesus is the unique story of the Son who delighted to honour the will of his Father, and who never wavered or had to repent or regret any wrong attitudes, and Jesus stands in the midst of all of these Two Sons stories. Jesus becomes the answer of forgiveness and mercy and hope to us as a wayward humanity represented by the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the prodigal son and the unruly and deceitful Jacob. And if we go astray like lost sheep, he comes to find us.

Jesus through his patience and longsuffering also becomes the remedy to those like the self-righteous Jewish leaders or the entitled older brother of the prodigal son or the disinterested Esau, or the hapless Cain who all remained in their shadow of darkness. 
Jesus waits and peers towards the horizon to see their hearts humbled and softened and become willing to return. For a brief moment I let you go your own way, but with great compassion I will gather you… (Isaiah 54:7) 
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Jesus has embraced humanity within the length and depth and height of his love. We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus, the sons and daughters of the Father, and heirs together with him of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the Commandments because of his love for his Father and he lives within our hearts as the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus with a desire to do the Father’s will.  That means that we too can now fulfill his Commandments because they are now written on our new hearts of faith and love through the Holy Spirit that he has given to us. This redeeming love and mercy and forgiveness of God can be a great encouragement to us when we might have felt we have let God down, but then turn to him, safe within his love. This is also how we can encourage others who may have felt they have wandered too far away from God and feel there is no way back, for he has said. For a brief moment I let you go your own way, but with great compassion I will gather you.

Paul O’Sullivan – spiritcode.podbean.com  (pauloss@icloud.com)

GOSPEL PARABLES 14 A SERVANT MINDSET

GOSPEL PARABLES 14 A SERVANT MINDSET 

The background to this parable in Luke is Jesus answering his apostles when they asked him to increase their faith. He said to them ‘If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’ Luke 17:6 Having that kind of spiritual authority no doubt impressed them, and they would probably have then expected to hear a master class tutorial on gaining great faith. But in the next verse Jesus taught them a parable about having a servant mindset. 
Verse 7 Which one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep would say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was assigned to him? It’s the same with you, so when you have done all you were told to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

They would have had no problem agreeing with what Jesus said about servants. There weren’t any workplace relation issues in those days or fair-work conditions or overtime.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The point was that a servant worked until the day’s work was done, and certainly wouldn’t expect to sit down in scruffy work clothes and have a meal before the master of the house had eaten, as preparing the master’s meal was part of the day’s work anyway. And that meant having to wash and put on the right clothing and then having their own meal separately. 
They would have agreed about no thankyous or bonuses – work is work and serving is serving - so get used to it. And being an unworthy servant simply points to the relative status of master and servant. It does not mean being a worthless servant – because they get fired.  So what is the takeaway here in this parable?

There are a few stipulations that get special mention – know your place – Don’t expect privilege or applause and dress appropriately, and implicit in this is don’t grumble. And while these are fine qualities for a good employee the message just doesn’t send the soul heavenwards. In fact, there appears to be nothing inspiring about this parable at all.

But then Heaven lifts this mundane story into its highest glory and we see that Jesus is giving the apostles the key to unlocking the Kingdom power of God into the world - a master class of the dawning of a new kind of heavenly power that would reorder the nature of power – a power that was not our power over people but God’s power with people. And we see that Jesus is setting the stage here for the apostles to embrace a mindset of loving service as he himself had done. Jesus was answering their request to him to increase their faith. He was teaching them that having the kind of faith that released the power of the Kingdom of God did not mean that they possessed that power within themselves. They would become endued with God’s power at his will and timing as they embraced his servant nature mindset, and as they heard and obeyed his word in any given situation. The world did not know about this and still doesn’t and this has always been on offer to the Church and waiting to be fully embraced in these days of such neediness and destitution of the human soul.

God does not supernaturally empower people who lord themselves over other people or coerce them to do their own bidding. Our faith is the assurance that God is at work in the world of the unseen, and we see God’s power in action as we become partakers of his Divine servant nature. Jesus diligently taught them this a number of times. 
Matthew 20:25 Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Bible tells us in Philippians how Jesus lived within this faith and power when he writes ‘Have this mind(set) among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be clutched onto, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, (Philippians 2:5)

We can know God’s presence with us in many ways, in worship or prayer or meditation in his word, but in our serving that is born out of God’s love and faith and not born out of sheer duty or just to be impressive we can touch the empowering presence of God. 

Jesus graphically turned the tables on his apostles’ cultural perspective of masters and servants and status and self-importance when he expressed not only his servant nature but his devoted love to the apostles at the Last Supper.

John 13:3-9 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you will have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (Peter went into overkill as usual)

When he said to Peter ‘you will have no share with me’ he was saying that Peter could only share the Divine empowering and authority as he let the grace of the serving nature of Jesus flow through him to others. 
And Jesus has more to say to those who have valued that ‘share with him’ mindset. 
Jesus is waiting to come as the bridegroom to his own wedding feast and he wants to demonstrate his love and care and appreciation to all the faithful servants who are waiting for him. And he desires to lavish his warmest hospitality upon
his close and cherished guests and attendants. He says, 
Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like people who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. (Luke 12:35)

This servant mindset is always able to be conscious of considering two things at once. The first part is about us and what we are doing and the second part is about what God is doing.

The first part about us is being conscious that we are doing the best we can and accepting that our service will not be perfect but our heart of willingness to help and bless can be as perfectly selfless as we can manage. It is also about dealing with our human expectations of being appreciated or even thanked or wanting to feel affirmed. We can manage that mostly by focussing on the fact that we are doing this as unto the Lord and not only for people. Jesus said ‘when you do this you are doing it for me’ (Matthew 25:40)

That brings us to the second part about being conscious of what God is doing. 
God sees what we do as an act of love to himself and as an act of faith in him and now we see the answer to  the request that the apostles had for Jesus about increasing their faith.     
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit at these times that God is working through our faith in him to bring about his supernatural outcome of blessing upon the ones we are serving. We leave that result in God’s hands and in his timing. But the awareness of his love and closeness to us at these times brings an instant spiritual blessing to us.  And it is in this atmosphere of his loving attendance to us where God assures us of his creative reordering of all things in that place in our world to come into alignment with his will.
Thank you lord that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD – forever Amen..

Paul O’Sullivan – spiritcode.podbean.com – email - pauloss@icloud.com

 

GOSPEL PARABLES 13 THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND DOORKEEPERS

GOSPEL PARABLES 13 THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND DOORKEEPERS
We are continuing in the Parables today with the narrative of the shepherd and the sheep and we previously discussed the story of the shepherd who goes out to find the lost sheep and bring it back to the sheepfold. All the Gospel parables come from Matthew and Mark and Luke, however John does record this one and only parable of the Good shepherd which is not found in any of the other Gospels. In this parable Jesus tells us that as the Good shepherd he is the only door to the sheepfold. 

John 10:1-5 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the door, must surely be a thief and a robber! 

Jesus had said that he was ‘sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matthew 15:24). And in the first verse in this parable, he is describing the tragic story of how the sheep flock of the house of Israel had been taken into slavery and captivity many times by alien nations like Egypt and Babylon and Assyria, who climbed over or broke down the wall of the sheepfold and robbed and destroyed God’s flock. Jesus continues, 

But the one who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep, and the doorkeeper opens the door to him, and the sheep recognize the shepherd’s voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.

Jesus is talking here to a crowd of Jewish people, some of whom did hear his voice and believe while many others rejected his voice and chose to listen to the voice of legalism and tradition or political power instead of the words of life. But the people were unsure where Jesus was taking this story and they began to express their confusion, so Jesus had to take this story to its fulfillment and reveal himself to them as the Good Shepherd, not only of the house of Israel but of the whole earth. Reading on.

Vs.6-14 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the door of the sheep(fold) – for the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. Yes, I am the door. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to rob and to kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

In the first part of the parable the door is described as the door ‘to’ the sheep (eis) that the doorkeeper opens for the one true Shepherd, who is Jesus. But we have now just seen in the second part of the parable that Jesus describes himself as the door ‘of/for’ the sheep. Jesus has become our door to the Kingdom of God where we experience life in the family of God with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit and one another - Those who come in through me will be saved. 
Jesus continues.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
Jesus then proclaims the awesome prophetic purpose of this parable about the rest of humanity becoming his sheep. 
I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd -Israel will come back in.
There is one very important character mentioned in the beginning of this story that we must be careful not to overlook -  the doorkeeper. And there are some important doorkeepers in the Bible that need to be known and understood. A doorkeeper is one who gives Jesus access to the sheep as the Good Shepherd who is the door for the sheep into the Kingdom of God. There was a doorkeeper for Jesus from before the very beginning of time and the creation of the earth. And there have been doorkeepers as the door for Jesus right up to his death and resurrection and there have been doorkeepers right up to this present time. I want to list what I believe are seven doorkeepers that give access to the door of our Shepherd Jesus.

         The first doorkeeper was Father God who committed his Son to us before the foundation of the world and sent him into the earth for humanity. (Ephesians 1:3-4)
         The prophets were doorkeepers anointed by the Holy Spirit to open the ears of God’s people to the Messiah Jesus.  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27).
         Mary as the human mother of Jesus was the doorkeeper who carried him in her womb for humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 7:14)
         John the Baptist as the most anointed of all the prophets was the doorkeeper sent to prepare the way of the Lord and pronounce Jesus as ‘The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world’ where the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove upon Jesus at his baptism. (John 1:6-9,29)
         The Holy Spirit was the doorkeeper always within Jesus, who took him into the wilderness to be tempted after his baptism and then accompanied Jesus on the earth throughout his ministry. He was the doorkeeper that opened the eyes and ears of those who beheld Jesus as the Messiah then heard him speak and saw him die and witnessed his resurrection and his ascension into Heaven. (John 6:63)
         The Holy spirit who fell upon all of humanity at Pentecost (Acts 2:17) was the doorkeeper for every person that entered the world (John1:9) to reveal Jesus as the shepherd who lives for his sheep and who goes out looking for any lost sheep to carry them home.  ‘For you were like sheep going astray but have now returned to the Shepherd and keeper of your souls.’ (1Peter 2:25).

         The final doorkeepers are all those who carry the life of Jesus within them and are willing to lay down their souls for the life of Jesus to be seen in them, and the empowerment for us to do that is the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples before he returned to the Father in Heaven, how the Holy Spirit would operate in them to let their lives on earth bear witness to the fact that he was alive and active within them in the earth.
He said The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26). 
He also said when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth… He will testify of Me (martyre??) and you also will bear witness (martyre??). (John15.26). We saw in the parable we just read that ‘the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.’
There are two ways that the Holy Spirit in our lives acts as a doorkeeper Jesus. The first way is for us to keep the door open for people in our lives to find faith in Jesus. We can be consciously aware by our faith and our prayer that we can release the power of the Holy Spirit through our simple obedience to what he directs us to do and to say.
Paul spoke about the doorkeeper ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through his own life. 
He prayed for a door of utterance to be given to him that he might declare the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:2). He did not put confidence in his own natural ability to open doors to release the supernatural power of God for peoples’ lives. His own testimony of his ministry was For we also are (humanly) weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. The Holy Spirit does things behind the scenes.                                                                   Jesus spoke to his disciples about bearing witness to him and that now applies to us who believe in Jesus, and this means that the life we live is evidence that God lives through us and that we carry the reality of the life of God within us, not just concepts or opinions about God. 

The second way that the doorkeeper work of the Holy Spirit occurs is the hidden way he sovereignly works in every person’s heart in his unceasing desire to turn their hearts towards faith in God’s goodness and love. Jesus explained it this way ‘And when the Helper has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment’. (John 16:8). He reveals the darkness in every human heart and the corruption that is in the world, and he reveals what is upright and in alignment with God’s will in every human heart. The Holy Spirit becomes the light of judgement that divides between the light and darkness and he unveils the reward for what is good and the sentence upon what is evil.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
It is good to be aware that the Holy Spirit is the unceasing inner tugging upon the heart of every person on the planet regardless of their religious or cultural background. The soul of mankind opposes and resists this tugging on our conscience concerning God’s truth about who we are and who he is. This is because of our self-determined mindset of independence – our own self-serving idea of what is right and wrong, and good and evil.  The Holy Spirit had been the doorkeeper piercing the mind and heart of the apostle Paul to bring him to this encounter with Jesus where he entered through Jesus the door into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Our life of faith is our conscious awareness that the Holy Spirit is working in both of these ways in our own circumstances, and we can live in constant hope and expectation of seeing people being drawn to the Kingdom of God and entering through the door into eternal life.

GOSPEL PARABLES 12 THE ONE LOST SHEEP

GOSPEL PARABLES 12 THE ONE LOST SHEEP 
This story is about God’s determination to leave ninety-nine sheep to go and find the one sheep that has gone astray and become lost, and to bring it home. The parable is found in both Matthew and in Luke and while the story of the shepherd and the sheep are the same there is a different emphasis on the nature of the lost sheep in each account.
In Matthew the lost sheep is a little child who has gone astray and in Luke it is a sinner who has become lost.
Matthew 18:10 Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
Matthew 18:11 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Luke 15:1 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

Luke 15:4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

These two stories show us the unlimited scope of the ministry of Jesus in in his determination to search out and find every soul that has taken a wrong path for whatever reason and to carry them back on his shoulders to safety. It is not only the little children going astray who may be deprived to one degree or another of the foundational wisdom and nurture they need in their lives. It is the grown-up adult going astray who has made up his or her own mind about what they choose in serving their own desires, good or bad.

The one overarching principle of this determination of our good shepherd is that God also allows us to choose our own determined way even though we get lost. God has us set on his trajectory for our life and we veer off. And Jesus is determined to find us even if we are hiding from him, just as God found Adam who was determined to hide from him after he had sinned. 
The parable says that Jesus comes to seek and to save that which was lost. (Matthew 18:14).

He said in that parable it is not the will (Thelema) of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. The word perish is appolymai - to ruin, destroy, waste a life. The word used for ‘will’ in that verse is Thelema which means a ‘determined intention of the will’ 
Another word used for ‘will’ in the Bible is boloumai which means more of a heartfelt longing. The Bible tells us that God’s will touches both of these meanings because Peter writes about this heartfelt longing of the will of God in the same context of bringing peoples’ hearts back to his love. He writes ‘God is longsuffering toward us, not willing (boloumai – his heartfelt desire) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  (2Peter 3:9)

When Jesus puts that lost sheep on his shoulders to bring him back he is putting humanity on his shoulders to bring them back to the Father. God is confident in the power of his own determined love to have this to happen. That can overcome any and every dark and selfish thing that would try to obstruct God from accomplishing his good will for his beloved mankind. That is the overarching principle of God’s determined good will for us. 

God’s determined will is infinitely greater than our will. 
But how can God eliminate the obstacles of darkness that beguile us and lead us astray?

The first obstacle of darkness was Satan, the serpent, Lucifer, the devil because of his own deception and pride in the beginning. He was one of the highest created spiritual beings that beheld the face of God. And as a lesser spiritual being than God he was of necessity flawed and imperfect, and he sank to the depth of his flawed spiritual nature in his deception and pride. He then set about to destroy the good will design of God for his beloved humanity which Satan knew was also a lesser being than God, and even made a little lower than his own angelic self. He is allowed by God to exercise his own determined evil will upon mankind and tempt them to fall.
The second obstacle is the potential inner darkness of every human soul, because this vulnerability of humanity’s unformed character and desire for self-advantage and self-protection allowed mankind to fall.

James explains that second obstacle of our self serving humanity this way. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (mindset of separation from God). (James1:14).

God overcame the first obstacle of darkness by sending Jesus because Satan could not overcome the sinless nature of Jesus. But God still allowed Satan to tempt him. And it is through the overcoming power of Jesus that we are able to overcome darkness because Jesus has given us his life to live, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In another startling test case for humanity in the Old Testament God allowed Satan to tempt a man called Job and greatly afflict him. Satan asked God for permission to do the afflicting because he said that Job was only being righteous before God because he was so materially blessed. Satan was allowed to strip Job of his wealth and health and family – the lot. The Bible says Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Job was deemed to be the ‘greatest man in all the East’ having many children and great wealth and wisdom and influence. But Job aimed higher than his own self advantage or self-protection. He said ‘though he slay me I will yet serve him’. Job overcame the built in bias of hostility that the carnal human soul has toward God and he trusted in God’s wisdom and love and determined will to save him in the end, and by ‘in the end’ I mean Job’s statement during his ordeal when he said I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25)

The Bible says about Job. for the LORD had accepted Job. And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before and the Bible also says The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; (Job 42).
Job let go of something of himself to God that he could have clung on to. He could have become stuck in resentment as a victim of injustice. He could have listened to his wife who said, ‘curse God and die’.
Job sacrificially let go of many things in his adversity into the vault of God’s love and determined good will for him. Fsith came alive in him and he believed and received God’s blessing. His surrendered faith in God’s love and goodness and his letting go of his own determined will for God’s determined good will released an abundance of blessing even for his mean spirited friends because Job prayed for them. We can pray like that.

Another Old Testament man, Abraham, learned that faith was letting God’s will override his own determined will in times of adversity. He sacrificially let go of his only son Isaac and obediently offered him as a sacrifice back to God, trusting that God had a perfect solution to complete his perfect will in the earth through him. Abraham’s faith not only received his son back but received through Isaac the nation of Israel and ultimately the whole of humanity.

The Father is the model of sacrificial letting go in letting his Son Jesus go for us and receiving him back in glory, and bringing humanity with him. 
Jesus is the model of sacrificially letting go of his own human self-life in adversity in order for his Divine life to come alive in us. 
How do we let go in adversity? When adversity blocks us from getting what we want. That adversity seems to oppose what is best for us. An impetuous reaction to that adversity mentally and emotionally dispels our peace and we become conscious of confusion or disorder.
Suppose that we make a simple error of judgement and go too quickly through a stop sign because time is acting against us (consequences). Time is not the adversary nor is the stop sign– our impatience is. Consciously letting go of that impatience and trusting that God is always reordering all things according to his good will, then allows God to flood in with his peace. That letting go has now become an act of faith in God and we will see God’s perfect result supernaturally manifested in our life. Through faith and patience we inherit the promise (Hebrews 6:12)

There are many ways in which we can learn to let go of our own unconscious resistance to what God may have in mind in achieving his will instead of us clinging onto how we prefer to manage things. Our resistance may be our own fear and anxiety and because we expect something bad to happen, we allow fear and doubt to freeze us into inactivity. That is letting go of hope instead of letting go of fear. The Bible says that we have this hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, (Hebrews 6:19)
That means that in that frozen moment of fear we can anchor our soul by remembering that God is present with us and actively reordering all things together for our good in the world of the unseen, behind the veil. We cling to that anchor and find the freedom and courage in adversity to act with hope and expectation of God’s determined good will to come to pass. 
As the parable says it is not the will (Thelema) of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish - to ruin, destroy, or waste our life. Because of our faith in God’s determined good will for our lives we can receive from God his best for us in this life and in the next. Glory to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to his power that works in us. Amen.  
Paul O’Sullivan spiritcode.podbean.com