Spiritcode

Walls and Gates of Safety

WALLS AND GATES OF SAFETY

The story continues of God’s people returning from the seventy years captivity in Babylon and the rebuilding the temple and now, the walls and the city gates of Jerusalem. This entire story is like a second Exodus of Israel coming out of captivity and entering into the Land, with this re-entering taking many long years like the first Exodus. This re-entry spanned the reigns of three kings in Babylon and Persia, with many delays and disruptions because of the enemies in the region.
Zerubbabel led the first wave of returning exiles out of Babylon and some years later there came the arrival of Ezra for the rebuilding of God’s Word into the peoples’ hearts.
The Temple had now been built, the sacrifices were now being offered, the Word of God had now been restored, but there were still no walls and gates of safety and security for God’s people and they were still open to enemy attack. 
So now God sends Nehemiah to return from Babylon to oversee the rebuilding the walls and gates of the city. This was the final work needed for the reset and rebuilding of God’s people as his witness to the nations. So we see again in this continuing story the parallels of Israel experiencing a reset after their world had come to a standstill and the Church today preparing to experience a reset just as our world has also come to a standstill in this global crisis we are living in today.

Just as God moved the hearts of world rulers and intervened sovereignly in history for his people under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Ezra, God now moves history for Nehemiah through the Persian King Artaxerxes to finish the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. He uses these unlikely allies to fulfil His promises of restoration for His people. 

It was the task of Nehemiah to see both the restoration of the walls and the rebuilding of the gates of those walls. 
Nehemiah 1:3 "Those who are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is still broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
The lack of walls around the exiles who had returned from captivity over those last few years meant that they were living an unprotected life in the sense that they were allowing alien and sometimes hostile influences from the outside world around them to bring confusion into their lives. 
It also meant that they allowed themselves to wander out into the surrounding regions where corrupt cultural values and practices caused many of them to be enticed into an ungodly lifestyle.
Nehemiah 2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision… The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build
Nehemiah returned and had to teach the people how to build and how to fight the enemy at the same time, and the enemy’s tactics were sometimes subtle and sometimes brutal. They were being discouraged, and their values being despised and mocked. Sanballat, who was one of the leading adversaries of Israel’s return and rebuilding was continually conspiring to hinder the work and spoke these words of derision to the work of Nehemia; 

Nehemiah 4:1-6. "What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they are doing?" he scoffed. "Do they think they can build the wall in a day if they offer enough sacrifices? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 4 Then I prayed, "Hear us, O Lord God, for we are being mocked…..for they have despised you in despising us who are building your wall…So we built the wall… for the people had a mind to work.

This same thing happens to God’s people today and God wants his people to maintain rule over their spiritual and natural lives, and to rebuild the walls and gates of safety and security around their souls and minds. God is giving us spiritual authority in these days I believe, through faith in His Word and the empowering presence of The Holy Spirit. We are challenged in the Scriptures to maintain this authority.
Proverbs 25:28 Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.
Notice in that prayer to God that Nehemiah called the wall ‘your wall’. The wall of faith that we build around us is God’s wall. 
They also had a challenging problem with all the broken down rubble left around from the old wall. 

Neh 4:10  Then some of the leaders began complaining that the workmen were becoming tired; and there was so much rubble to be removed that we could never get it done by ourselves. (TLB) 
This speaks to us of the brokenness and vulnerability that our lives have suffered, but that is where God shows his miracle working power to redeem all the things in our lives that have been broken down.
Satan tries to get us spiritually and emotionally fatigued by us walking around in our minds in the rubbish of our own past mistakes or failures. Our soul can become emotionally fragmented and our minds overcome with negativity and stress. These blows can turn healthy solid pieces of building blocks into rubble.

The spiritual building blocks that God builds into our lives make up the many diverse aspects of who we are, and the good news is that God takes all these experiences and turns them into fresh opportunities to look at the situation His way – The Holy Spirit is waiting to show us what God is saying to us in these experiences. He builds our wall – he surrounds us. Self destructive attitudes of fear can be changed into healthy attitudes of faith when they are placed in the safety of God’s walls of refuge.
Psalm 32:7 You are my place of refuge, You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Nehemiah took all the rubble and recycled it into building material, just as God does with our lives, and even the dust and dirt and gravel was mixed with clay to make mortar for the stones. God won’t waste a thing! God turns our weaknesses into our strengths – to bind our wall together and to strengthen his wall for our lives. Nehemiah and all the people finally completed the work and rebuilt the walls and the ten gates that had been destroyed and burnt down. The gates were where the elders of the city sat and made decisions for the government of the city. There is also an individual gatekeeping ministry that we each can exercise in our coming in and going out through the spiritual and natural gates of our lives in this world in which we live at his critical moment in time. Having walls and gates does not mean living a life cut off from the world. It does not mean exclusivity but it does mean selectivity. When we look at the name and the nature of the ten gates that were rebuilt we can see a spiritual application in them for finding wisdom as to what we convey through our spiritual gates into and out of our lives. We can also find we are given gatekeeping occasions for helping others in their gatekeeping management decisions. 
The ten gates were in order; The Sheep gate, the fish gate, the old gate, the valley gate, the refuse gate (garbage gate!) the fountain gate, the water gate, the horse gate, the east gate, and the gathering gate.

Let us look at an example of a few of these gates; Some speak for themselves and only need a brief mention.
The sheep gate speaks to us of always being open to the forgiveness and mercy of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world for our sins.
The fish gate speaks of the word of Jesus to his disciples to making us   ‘fishers of men’
The old gate speaks of the established ways of God that never change in guiding our paths
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,where the good way is; and walk in it,
The valley gate speaks of going through the valleys of grief and suffering in our lives.
The refuse gate - garbage gate. Remember what I said earlier Satan tries to get us spiritually and emotionally fatigued by us walking around in our minds in the rubbish of our own past mistakes or failures. Get rid of that at the garbage gate.
The fountain gate speaks of allowing the fountain of living water to spring up from our innermost being John 7:37 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive… This is the powerful flow of life of His Spirit
The water gate is the actual cleansing of our spirit from the water of his Word. 
Ephesians 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
The horse gate – This speaks of the power we have in spiritual warfare.
Zechariah 10:3 and will make them like the powerful horse in battle. 
Job 39.25 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;he does not turn back from the sword.
he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha! 

The east gate. In Ezekiel the east gate faced towards the direction of the mount of olives, looking for the coming of the Lord in the end time. This gate is sealed shut until he comes.
The gathering gate. This speaks of the calling together of the gathering of God’s people. We have experienced the Covid safety challenges to the keeping of this gate in these times in which we live. Nonetheless ‘unto him shall the gathering of the people be’ (Genesis 49:10)

Nehemiah 6:15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, knowing that this had been the work of God.
52 days is a very short time – but to see in Nehemiah chapter thee the names of all the people in there helping one another. I gave up counting them. We are to be like them, there with one another for on another. It is an attitude of being beside each other in prayer and care, in willingness to help in whatever way we can so that the same will be said of them, that just as in the verse we just read – All the nations round about them saw them rebuild the gates and knew that this was the work of God. It is our lives together here on earth revealing that there is a God in heaven.

 

The Temple and the Word

THE TEMPLE AND THE WORD 

This is the continuing story of God’s people under Zerubbabel returning home to rebuild the temple that was broken down. This story also includes the later arrival of Ezra upon the scene, returning with up to two thousand more exiles, to be part of the rebuilding, but not of the temple his time, but of the rebuilding of God’s Word into the peoples’ hearts.
There are parallels in this story of Israel experiencing a reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church today experiencing a reset as a witness for God in the Earth. Their world had come to a standstill just as the world we live in today is in crisis and has also come to a standstill. However there is no standing still in God’s purpose to rebuild and restore his people and to take them forward into his purposes.

 

God moved the hearts of secular world rulers (Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes moved history for Zerubbabel and Ezra and later Nehemiah) to allow, even encourage and help, the Jewish people to return home. He used these unlikely allies to fulfill His promises of restoration for His people. 
Proverbs 21:1 – “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

 

It was not only in the kings but in the officers, and the mostly indifferent bureaucracy where God moved men’s’ hearts for His purpose.
This is also a time for us to encounter unlikely sources of blessing. This is the wonder of God really working all things together for the good of those who are called by His name. These are times for a new kind of expectation of the unexpected. These are times to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and mercy.

Zerubbabel had now laid the foundation of the temple. But there was no temple and there was no real city, and there were no walls – and that meant they were open to enemy attack, and they had to learn how to deal with that. Stories of the glory of Solomon's temple began to breed discouragement that they could never rebuild this temple as glorious as that one. 
It was now time to rebuild the temple, and the prophets Zechariah and Haggai encouraged Zerubbabel to get on with the work. It took many years to complete the building because there was the continual harassment of the enemies, and as yet there were no walls.

It is God’s heart to see his people dwelling together in unity where his presence resides with them and within their hearts. This is God’s home, his temple made up of people, called ‘living stones’.

The prophet Haggai speaks firmly and soberly to the people about their priorities. They had been preoccupied with giving more meaning to their own personal affairs instead of the will of God as being central for the meaning of their individual and corporate lives. God’s life matters. Here’s what Haggai says;

Haggai 1: 7  Consider your ways says the Lord. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

That rebuke then becomes an encouragement to them that he desires to be with them and will be glorified in them, and that means that their lives will express His life among them in an even greater way than he has in their past history ‘The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former’. He wanted them to identify as His people, His Nation and not scattered in a foreign land with a foreign culture. They were coming home- their home and His home.
The following Scripture is a powerful encouragement for them then and for us now – It tells them that all nations will be shaken but they will be provided for…
Haggai 2:1 Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’

Haggai encourages Zerubbabel that God is with him in this work, just as The Holy Spirit is telling is that he is with us in this critical time – His Spirt is in our midst .God is bringing his people back into a rebuilding of their unity based upon the unity of the faith. The unity of the faith is simply the expression of the life of Christ being lived out individually and corporately wherever we are and whatever the cultural or traditional background we have.

There is a picture of the relational unity among us in the picture of the stones being cut to shpe for the temple.
The stones in the temple had to be shaped. The stabilising wall was made of stones that were cut out and shaped at the rock quarry and brought into place to fit together without any mortar in between, sometimes rubbing the rough edges off each other – just like us in managing our own relationships with each other. God has to do a lot of work upon us, taking us out of one huge rock structure as big as a mountain and fitting us together, so we come out of our rock Christ, and get shaped by the Holy Spirit to take our place next to each other in Christ. That is what God is preparing us for in these days. 

 

He then says ‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts’ so that the treasures of all nations shall come in. That is his message to all the world - that He is the possessor of the Heavens and the Earth, not the nations ruled by dictators who covet the wealth of other nations to wield more corrupt power in their oppression of millions upon millions of people. God is preparing a people who will express his  justice and mercy and blessing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            As I said before - Haggai Tells Zerubbabel that He will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and that He will shake all nations. So all of this work of rebuilding his people together to contain and to express his presence is being done in the midst of upheaval all over the world, and that is our experience at this very time. There is a special grace upon this coming together of a living temple. There is a grace for us to be in supportive prayer for one another and the healing of relationships. The Scripture said  He will fill this house with greater glory, the expression of the life of Jesus within. 

And now it is time for the rebuilding of the Word 
After a few years Ezra leads the second of three waves of returning exiles. Even though the temple was being restored and God was with his people it was time for them to be challenged by the Word that would bring personal growth to their lives, because by the time Ezra arrived, the people had again fallen into sin and allowed the values of the godless culture around them (not just the one back in Babylon) to influence their values and corrupt their consciences. Ezra preached God’s word and the people repented. There were close to two thousand people who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem for this mission. 
This next phase in the rebuilding of God’s people coming home was the inner rebuilding of their faith and faithfulness through his Word. This also speaks to us today, to live more deeply but simply in His Word to us. Paul told Timothy to study to sow himself approved, confident that he was correctly dissecting the Word of God (2 Timothy2.15)

Ezra 7:6 -10 Ezra was skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, and he succeeded for the hand of the Lord his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Ezra received favour from the Persian King’s officers and counsellors so that people of influence were willing to make a way for him to do what God has said, and God also put others who had a heart for God’s Word to be part of Ezra’s vision to see the Word of God renewed in peoples’ hearts. They were described as men of insight and faithfulness and discretion. Again we see God working on the hearts of those who do not know him, for His word to make its way to wherever God sends it  and to do its work and not return empty.

Ezra 7:28 Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

In Ezra’s words, he declared his faith in God’s protection over him and all that accompanied him.

Ezra 8:22 For I was embarrassed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who abandon him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days.

So this was a different kind of building that Ezra was asked by God to do. This was a time of the revival of the power of God’s word coming alive in the hearts of His people. This was a time of divine protection from the enemy, and it will be the same for us as we fight a good warfare.
This is a time for us to join ourselves in prayer for all who believe and trust in God, that he will revive the hearts of the humble, and the spirits of those who have been oppressed. pray first that he will revive our hearts with the grace and faith to be the Ezras who make way for God’s Word to flourish in His House, His Home. His temple of living stones – to declare His Word to our world.

 

Reset rebuild

RESET REBUILD

We shared last week about Israel returning home to Jerusalem after seventy years of being in bondage in Babylon, and now the 50,000 exiles are under the leadership of Zerubbabel who was in charge of the rebuilding of the temple which was destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar had demolished the city of Jerusalem . The first thing that they did was the rebuilding of the altar of sacrifice which launched them into a new future. I likened this reset for God’s people at that time to the reset we can prepare ourselves for at this moment in history Everything had come to a standstill for them –There are parallels in this story in Israel’s experiencing of a reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church’s experiencing of a coming reset of taking its place as a witness for God in the Earth today.

The next thing for Zerubbabel to do was to survey and lay down the foundation of the temple. There was not only no foundation and no temple there was no real city, and there were no walls – and that meant they were open to enemy attack, and they had to learn how to deal with that. Pressures that came from having to re-settle had drained their energies, and comparisons to stories of the glory of Solomon's temple began to breed discouragement that they could never rebuild this temple as glorious as that one, if at all.

Where do you start? It is hard to get started when there is discouragement. But they knew they had to just start. They were facing a time of enormous change but they had started with the right project – the altar of sacrifice, and then came the temple foundation, and after that there would be the temple.
It was going to be hard work, and that never changes because hard work will always be hard work, but what does change is our faith. That is based on knowing that God is with us and God is for us, no matter what comes against us. Zechariah who was a prophet of Judah at the time was directed by God to encourage and instruct Zerubbabel.

Zechariah 4:2-10 "This is God's message to Zerubbabel: `Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty-- you will succeed because of my Spirit, though you are few and weak.' 7 Therefore no mountain, however high, can stand before Zerubbabel! It will flatten out before you! You have laid the foundation of this Temple and you will finish building it with its capstone in its place shouting 'grace and thanksgiving' for God's mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone. (Then you will know these messages are from God, the Lord Almighty.)"… Another message that I received from the Lord said: 10 Do not despise this day of small beginnings, for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin, to see the plumbline in the hand of Zerubbabel.

FOUNDATIONS AND THE CORNERSTONES
In relation to architecture, a cornerstone is traditionally the first stone laid for the foundation of a structure, with all the other stones laid in reference to that. The cornerstone marks the geographical location by orienting a building in a specific line of direction.
I would like to read a Scripture from Isaiah is quoted in the Gospels and Epistles about Jesus being the cornerstone and foundation of the Church.
Isaiah 28:16 Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will be ready.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line;

THE FOUNDATION
The Church is God’s living temple today, the Body of Christ, and Jesus is the foundation upon which our lives, individually and corporately are being rebuilt and restored. When the church shares the common foundational apostolic and prophetic truth of growing up together into His life we begin to occupy that precious ground of truth and are called to build upon that foundation.
1Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Part of the reset of the Church is the rebuilding together upon that foundation of apostolic and prophetic truth that brings the unity that is called the ‘unity of the faith’.
Ephesians 4:13 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

The unity of the faith is not defined solely by articles of faith agreed upon by the different councils of the Church .These have been gifted to us through the centuries, because as true and substantial as these may be, they can tend to represent the ‘complete’ fund of the knowledge of God. I personally embrace these confessions of faith as part of sacred tradition, but I do not see them as exhausting the work of the Holy Spirit in leading us into ALL truth as he reveals Jesus to us through his word.
The unity of the faith is simply the expression of the life of Christ being lived out individually and corporately wherever we are and whatever ethnic or cultural background we have. There have been times in the past when there was the need for the reset of reformation throughout the history of the church because of misleading doctrines of man made errors of emphasis or self serving agendas. There are doctrines based on valid Scriptures that are not necessarily part of that foundation in the sense that for the time being they remain veiled or obscure, like what will be the lifestyle management structure of the millennium? Arguments and uncertainties abound about these Scriptures that bring division, not unity. I have a real certainty about the millennium – It is that whatever the millennium will be, it will be nothing like what I would have imagined.

There are foundational doctrines that become distorted because they are more about ‘my will be done’ rather than ‘thy will be done’. The doctrine of the power of Jesus for forgiveness and salvation itself becomes narrowed and limited to a predestined ‘elect’. Doctrines of healing become demands of healing from God just by quoting a verse of Scripture at him, whether or not the person actually gets healed. I see a prayer for healing get answered when I see a person actually healed. God does these things of course when he WILLS them to be done. I do not see these failed acts of misled zeal as always the craftiness in deceitful schemes mentioned in that verse from Ephesians above, but rather as an incomplete understanding of faith. People get possessed by an idea, and it can be a good idea, but it is not a God idea, and the idea ends up possessing them They become possessed by an idea that brings agonizing striving for it to succeed and just as agonizing justification for its many failures. An idea is incomplete when it it’s manifestation in reality is not completed, and so that person’s faith life is incomplete. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and shared this concern with them.
2Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from the simple and pure devotion to Christ.

THE CORNERSTONE AND THE PLUMBLINE
The plumb line touches the foundation spot on at the Cornerstone – Jesus. Everything becomes straight up and down when it comes from heaven to earth through Jesus and then touches us and goes back to Heaven through Jesus, without who we can do nothing, and through whom we can do all things. When the plumb line is dragged across to some point on the field of that foundation where one of those incomplete ideas of faith is energized by our urgency to see something supernatural happen that plumb line is not straight up and down anymore - there’s an angle.
The plumb line speaks of the vertical touching of Heaven and earth and about how that can be measured in our lives. We are part of both Heaven and earth through Jesus and The Holy Spirit. The plumb line plumbs the depth of our alignment with The Holy Spirit’s revelation of God’s Word to us, and our harmony and devotion to Jesus. So that is both about the knowing of God through his Word and in the living out of his life within us.
Not only do we need to ponder the wonder of receiving the life of Jesus into our lives, but more importantly to marvel at and deliberate upon the desire of Jesus to receive us into his life and to share with him in his loving and obedient life with The Father.
Deliberate on the simple truth of who God is through the revelation of what the Word (Logos) says that HE says about HIMSELF.
Jeremiah 9:24 I anyone wants to boast about anything let them boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and uprightness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

There are some things coming out of this that you can say to yourself about God;
ONE – You love me with an everlasting love. That teaches me to love.
TWO – Your justice means that I receive mercy and am accepted despite my shortcomings. Your justice also means that because you love me you will discipline me so that I can say ‘You are right (always) and I am wrong (mostly) – and that teaches me about repentance.
THREE – Your uprightness means that you will always guide me in the path of your wisdom and truth and provide your best for my life. That teaches me about faith and trust in your supernatural work on my behalf in the world of the unseen.

The Cornerstone (the foundation stone, or setting stone) is where the plumb line from Heaven touches the foundation on the earth. Jesus is the Cornerstone of the foundation where Heaven touches the earth. That is where the perpendicular measurement is spot on. Any other place on the foundation can be pushed out of alignment! The closer you get to Jesus the better the reading.
Many times in the Old Testament people placed a stone to mark a special place of orientation or remembrance of a work of God. Jacob placed his head upon an anointed stone and had the vision of a ladder reaching to Heaven. The anointed stone is the place where Heaven touches the earth.

God tells Zerubbabel that it is not by might or power or human strength but by the Spirit of God, that the work would be completed. He tells him to shout 'grace and thanksgiving' for God's mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone. Grace means that it is not our power but the empowering presence of The Holy Spirit which flattens out the mountains before us.
God tells Zerubbabel to ‘despise not the day of small beginnings for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin,’. So make a start to reset and rebuild through grace and thanksgiving and see the work begin. I remember sharing to people in church some time ago about deliberating upon the desire of Jesus to receive us into his life and to share with him in his loving and obedient life with The Father, to deliberate on the simple truth of who God is through the revelation of what the Word (Logos) says that HE says about HIMSELF – his Steadfast love and justice and uprightness etc. and to do it for ten or fifteen minutes at a time - no prayer requests, just deliberating on God – meditation if you like. I though maybe I’m putting too big a yoke on these dear people. Then I found myself saying – Look, try it for ten seconds whenever you can. I was incredibly blessed to get feedback from someone who said that this had been lifechanging for them. We start NOW. The reason we procrastinate is that we despise small beginnings and never make a start because there’s always something more important to do – well not this time.

(What reason do you have to not accept Jesus as your best friend?)

 

Sacrifice

SACRIFICE
After seventy years in Babylon God’s people Israel had been in bondage in a strange land. Everything had come to a standstill for them – an enforced seventy year Sabbath to give the land its rest. The Persian King Cyrus sends the exiles, fifty thousand of them, back to Jerusalem in 538 b.c. There are parallels in this story, in Israel’s experiencing of a return and reset of their place as God’s people in the Earth, and the Church’s experiencing of a coming return and reset of taking its place as a witness for God in the Earth today.
A man by the name of Zerubbabel was chosen then to lead the exiles back, and he was announced on their return to the Holy Land as the governor of Judah and sometimes referred to as ‘Prince of Judah’, as he was from the lineage of David.
Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation… The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord.

The seventy year standstill experience of the judgment upon Israel had led to a sense of disorientation and discontinuity, and a radical break with the past. In Babylon they were in virtual lockdown and they had lost all sense of a ‘future’, and now they were heading home - but there was no home. Their temple and their city had been left in ruins.

They couldn’t pick up from where they left off. There had to be a reset. Prior to their exile they were organized as the tribes of Israel, but now they were to be gathered in families and clans, and remnants of Benjamin and Judah, with the only full tribe left being the Levites, for the priesthood. This became the transition from the religion of Israel to that of Judaism.
The first major event for them on their return was when the time of the year came for them to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of the yearly gathering of all the people as families. As for the rebuilding, they didn’t start with building the temple, or city walls or gates. They started with the very core of what God was calling for from them - the re-building of the altar of sacrifice. Zerubbabel and his clan, and the priests, led in the rebuilding of the altar on the exact place where it had once stood, and they sacrificed burnt offerings upon it, and voluntary or free will offerings. The Bible says that the foundation of the temple was not yet laid. That was next and that had to wait.

Ezra 3:1 … Zerubbabel (of the lineage of David) and his clan, rebuilt the altar of the God of Israel and sacrificed burnt offerings upon it. The altar was rebuilt on its old site, and it was used immediately to sacrifice morning and evening burnt offerings to the Lord;
And they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles as prescribed in the laws of Moses, sacrificing the burnt offerings specified for each day of the feast… free will offerings of the people were also sacrificed… The foundation of the Temple was not yet laid.

 

I believe that our experience as the Church in the current worldwide pandemic of Covid 19 is a parallel in so many ways to the experience of God’s people back then in captivity. Life for them had suddenly come to a standstill leaving them for a long time without the same expectations and hopes and freedom and security of what used to be a normal life, plunging them into a sense of disorientation and discontinuity, and a radical break with the past – no temple worship - church for them. Today this sense of disorientation is invading the minds and hearts of people all over the world as it goes through the distress of this moment in history. Then it came time for Israel being called to a reset of their past because things would never be quite the same as they remembered and they would do a reset for their new future, and I believe we are also being faced with this same challenge. God was calling for them to return to the place where he has always met with his people – the altar of sacrifice. The first reset was to rebuild the Altar. That is what God is calling for from us. That is what our reset needs to be. The altar in our lives speaks of a life of sacrifice. A life of sacrifice speaks of a continual launching of the future into the will and purpose of God. Why?

A sacrifice involves giving up something now that will present to you something better in the future, whether it is spiritually, emotionally or materially. This is only done if you value what it is that you are sacrificing something for now. In the natural world if there were no sacrifice of time and effort and study or discipline there would be no advancement or betterment of self and character or any real life outcomes. There would be an empty future.
God calls for sacrifice for our sakes, so that we can reach the future that he has created us for. He offers them to us - the greater the sacrifice the greater the hopes and the more blessed future – but HE has to make the offer to us (missionary).

Prior to their exile they were organized as the tribes of Israel, but in their reset they were to be gathered in families. The observance of the Feast of tabernacles for them back then was the celebration of the togetherness that Israel enjoyed as God’s family in the earth, and in our reset it is our celebration of being one Body in Christ like never before, as his family under the Father.
They couldn’t pick up from where they left off. There had to be a reset.

Zerubbubel called for the offering of the burnt offerings and the free will offerings on that altar. There are many offerings, like the sin-offering, the peace offering. But the burnt offering and the free will offering had special meaning for them as it does for us today, in our time of reset.
The burnt offerings speak of total commitment of our future to The Lord, and the free will offering speaks of thanksgiving and appreciation of what we have in The Lord, even when we experience loss and disappointment and we can give God thanksgiving in that situation, that free will offering brings about the all things working supernaturally together for good for us in that situation. This heart of sacrifice has to start at an individual level before it becomes visible at a corporate level.

It is a harsh reality that pain and suffering define the world we live in. The person who wants to alleviate suffering for themselves and for those in their world make the sacrifices necessary to do this. They become part of the answer to the pain and suffering we see in people today, because being there for one another in their suffering is a sacrifice that grows bonds of love and trust and releases the supernatural power of Jesus as the fulfillment of that sacrifice ( look at your situation right now in being there as a living sacrifice for others),.. There would be less suffering in the world if there were more people who valued the virtue of self-sacrifice toward God and for one another.

The first mention of the burnt offering in the Bible was not in Moses time of the priestly sacrifices – it was when Abraham was called to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. He gave his future back to God and put it into God’s keeping, or guardianship, and he showed mighty faith by believing that God would provide the sacrifice and bring forth a spectacular future upon the earth of all the families of the earth being blessed. Abraham’s future (and ours) was the life of his son Isaac. Then Isaac heard the words of Abraham;
Genesis 22 – God will provide a lamb for the offering my son...God said now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
God also called upon himself to make the sacrifice of his only son and bring about the ultimate blessed future for all of us, and Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice to bring about this unsurpassable future for us to share with him here and now and for eternity. There was no other way. Paul wrote in Romans 12 for us to offer ourselves o God as a living sacrifice and When we say yes in faith to God regarding sacrifice he provides the sacrifice, his Son - and our future in God comes to pass his way. Our burnt offering for us is giving our future into God’s good will for us. Jesus is the completion of every task committed to him
2Timothy 2:12 which is why I am willing to suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed or disappointed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him until that Day.

We sacrifice when we put our hearts and minds and bodies into the appropriate hard yards that allow us to go forward in life. We persevere patiently through that slow work but then God does the quick work, the supernatural work that brings about his result, the best future. We say yes to the offering of sacrifice and just as with Abraham he says I have provided the lamb, that supernatural sacrifice of his Son, to complete the work of the sacrifice. We then rest in our faith and trust and hope in him, Jesus, and he takes us into our future, his future for us.

John 6:15-21 – Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He went back up again to the mountain by Himself alone, and when evening came he told the disciples to row to the other side ,(Matthew 14:25). His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
They did the hard yards and Jesus completed the journey. We are in the boat rowing at the moment and it is scary

If parents support a culture that lets their children have everything they want and does not train them in self-sacrifice and sharing and contributing and accountability they will find themselves living in a generation that demands their rights and protests against any form of discipline and community responsibility. This is what is happening now.

 

How the rest was won

HOW THE REST WAS WON
Exodus 17:7 the people of Israel had argued against God and provoked God by saying, "Is Jehovah going to take care of us or not?". And now the warriors of Amalek came to fight against the people of Israel at Rephidim, so Moses instructed Joshua to issue a call to arms to the Israelites, to fight the army of Amalek.

‘Tomorrow, ‘Moses told him, "I will stand at the top of the hill, with the staff of God in my hand!" So Joshua and his men went out to fight the army of Amalek. Meanwhile Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. And as long as Moses held up the staff in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning. Moses' arms finally became too tired to hold up the staff any longer; so Aaron and Hur rolled a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset. As a result, Joshua and his troops crushed the army of Amalek, putting them to the sword.

Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning ’Jehovah is my flag’).
"Raise the banner of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation."

So let’s look at the background story to the lead up to this battle that Israel had with Amalek.
Israel had been complaining continually that God was not looking after them and was no longer with them. There are ten major incidents spoken of where they provoked God concerning this complaint, and God acted from Heaven every time to either show himself as their savior and provider(crossing the red sea- feeding them with manna etc), or to bring judgment upon them for their rebellion and unbelief.

In this story the complaint that Yahweh was not with them and not caring for them came at the time of Israel’s first experience of warfare against another nation, the nation of Amalek. This was at a place called Rephidim. Rephidim means ‘The land of rest – hence the title of the sermon – How the rest was won…

Moses was told by God to take his staff and hold it up to God from on top of a mountain overlooking the battle of Rephidim.
This was the staff that God told first Moses to take up when he spoke to him at the burning bush. It proved to be symbol of the faith and authority that God was giving to Moses to show that God was with him and would do mighty works through him for the salvation and provision of his people. God said to Moses; ‘what is that in your hand Moses’ which meant ‘what is it that you have within your grasp - your God given ability to do with your life as God would have you to do. In this story what God says to Moses he is saying to all of us. God then told him to throw it to the ground, whereby the staff turned into a snake that chased Moses who fled from it through fear, then God told Moses to turn and take up the snake and it became the staff of authority again. God says the same to us. When Moses let go of the staff of his faith and authority in God he invited the serpent in - to come after him to overcome his faith. The snake - from the beginning, speaks of deception and temptation and sin. Fear took over instead of faith. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12 to cast aside the sin that so easily besets you, or ensnares you. It is called the besetting sin and it is driven by some kind of fear. Moses appears to have had a fear of injustice that trapped him into having to get justice done in his own emotional strength instead of having faith in God to work justice. Moses fell into this trap a number of times in the Bible. The first time was forty years earlier when he killed an Egyptian because of the injustice being done to his fellow Israelites as slaves of Pharaoh – this got him into a lot of trouble and he had to escape and stay in hiding for forty years in Midian, where God finally came to him at this time at the burning bush. He did it later by disobeying God striking the rock twice instead of simply speaking to it as God told him to – again another angry outburst because of the injustice of Israel’s murmuring against God. That cost Moses his entry into the promised land.

But he turned ie repent and picked up the snake by the tail and faith and authority returned.

Moses was instructed to use this staff of faith and authority to perform the supernatural works in Egypt in turning the rivers to blood and bringing the plagues and judgments upon Pharaoh before Israel were set free from Egypt. It was that staff of faith and authority that Moses held over the red sea and the staff that he used obediently (on that occasion) to bring forth life-giving water from a rock. And now it was the staff of faith and authority that would win the battle for Israel against Amalek at Rephidim.

THE BATTLE. Moses had instructed Joshua to lead Israel in the battle, and whenever Moses held up the staff Israel under Joshua would overcome Amalek, but when Moses lowered the staff of faith and authority because his arms became weary then Amalek would start overcoming Israel. Aaron and Hur supported Moses arms and allowed him to sit down so that the staff of faith and authority kept Joshua in a winning position. This is an illustration of the power of prayerful intercession from those who support one another in times of spiritual challenge and warfare. Aaron was Moses brother and Hur was the son of Caleb. These were men that were both faithful to the purposes of God, for his will to be done. We can uphold our brothers and sisters as an Aaron and a Hur and we can know that we are being upheld as a Moses by them also. I expect to be upheld by my brothers and sisters in this way, just as I expect of myself to be effective for my brothers and sisters in my upholding them.

JOSHUA – This is the first time Joshua is mentioned in the Bible, and he is seen as the one who leads God’s people in this battle and saves and overcomes for them. They would not have been skilled soldiers at this stage but it was the skilled leadership of Joshua and the faith of Moses in raising his staff to Heaven that released the supernatural victory through Joshua, or Yeshua, which means savior and which is the same name as Jesus. This is how our faith operates. We, like Moses, take hold of our authority of the faith that we lift up to God, for him to be with us and care for us and to provide for us and for those we pray for. and Jesus is released in our hearts and he goes into action on our behalf.

WHAT WAS THE CONFLICT ABOUT? -The battle was to win the territory of REPHIDIM.
‘The place of rest’. That speaks to us of winning the place of the rest of faith in our hearts, knowing that Jesus does the fighting for us. When Jesus goes into action on our behalf the power of Heaven subdues all things on the earth that would try to prevent God’s will from coming to pass. Our faith is that Jesus is at work on our behalf to bring about the father’s good will to us.

WHO WAS THE ENEMY COMING AGAINST GOD’S PEOPLE? – Amalek went into war against Israel. Israel was the nation that descended from Jacob, who wrestled with God and would not let him go and whose name was changed to Israel which means ‘power with God’. Amalek was the nation that descended from Esau, who was Jacob’s brother.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament (Hebrews 12) that Esau was not interested in the things of God, but in the things of the world. But Jacob valued the spiritual blessing of God and received that blessing instead of Esau, and this brought them into constant conflict. God is referred to in the Old Testament as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that speaks of the Trinity – Abraham the father, Isaac the Son, and Jacob speaks of the Holy Spirit.

THAT CONFLICT IS AT WORK WITH ALL OF US. We have the conflict of the Esau side of our nature that trusts in the things of the world and go after them, the Bible calls that the flesh - and we have the Jacob side of our nature that values the spiritual blessing and goes after that. The Bible tells us that our old nature of the flesh is always fighting against our new nature of the Spirit, and that Jacob side to us, the Spirit releases our Joshua, our Jesus going in to fight for us.
and here we have the battle plan that wins for us the place of rest in our hearts and our minds and in our souls – our Rephidim.

GOD WANTS US TO BE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THIS AT ALL TIMES.
Then the Lord instructed Moses, ’Write this into a permanent record, to be remembered forever, and announce to Joshua that I will utterly blot out every trace of Amalek.’ Moses built an altar there and called it ‘Jehovah-nissi’ (meaning God is my battle flag of victory’).
"Raise the flag of the Lord!" Moses said." For the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.
One day when we see The Lord face to face there will be no more sin and temptation and the Old creation will have passed away and the New Creation will have finally come. But until then we are in this battle of Rephidim every moment of our lives.

This is the living out of the Gospel, the working out of our salvation to be who God wants us to be where he wants us to be doing what he wants us to do.

You will either be taking hold of your faith, as the staff that God has placed in your hands to do his will in your life, or you will be being chased by the serpent who will confuse your mind and emotionally trouble your soul and weaken your will and seek to get you to miss the mark in your faithful decision making to take you forward in life. You will know when the serpent is after you in the way I just described it, and that is when you turn, with faith and courage and pick that cunning thing up and lay hold of your faith again. Remember also to uphold your brothers and sisters and to know that you are being upheld by them also, when the weakness and weariness of our humanity bears upon us. God bless you all Amen.

 

Blessing

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL INSIGHT INTO THE TRUE MEANING OF BLESSING

Revolution

REVOLUTION
This century has been marked by global sociological confusion, political corruption, individual loneliness and profound spiritual pain and a sickness of soul. The world is in a global crisis of a sickness of body because of a viral pandemic. There have been other global crises over the last century such as WW1 and the Spanish flu, WW2 and atomic warfare, and now this, which is baffling the entire world regarding preventing it, treating it and how long it has to go. The world has come to a standstill.

Despite our unlimited access to knowledge and technology there is a general discontent with the false or unrealized promises that have been offered to society, leaving many feeling empty and unfulfilled. There is also a general distrust of the structures of leadership and systems of government and law and order. There is a feeling in the air is that there is a revolution coming – but what kind of a revolution. A revolution is the overturning of one kind of order to establish or re-establish another kind of order. There is an intense revolutionary feel in the violent and even non violent protests in our streets, and even moreso in the US and in Europe and Asia. Protesters are being driven by emotions and attitudes of rebellion deeper than and sometimes unrelated to the actual causes they stand for. Some people just want to rebel.
This kind of disordered chaos has been experienced before many times in the earth and revolutions did happen. There have been many revolutions upon the earth –political, industrial, people power and religious – and scientific. But there was a quiet and orderly revolution that happened during the London plague of 1665 when a quarter of the population of London died. Isaac Newton was quarantined in isolation for one year (like and enforced Sabbath) and in that time discovered differential calculus and the laws of motion and gravity. There's a quote from Newton that came out of his experience - 'truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.' His science was a revolution in the world of science.

The next revolution may not be any of those. It may not start in the streets or cities, or in parliaments or halls of congress. It may not even start in the church. I believe it will start in Heaven – God wants to start his own revolution. It can hopefully then be taken up in the Church and then occur in all the other places. I want to read a Scripture about God starting his own revolution. The Scripture is about God starting his own revolution when Israel fell into moral and spiritual and social disorder, but it is also I believe about God’s revolution starting in our world, in our times, our prophetic Kairos times in the earth today.
Ezekiel 21:25. (To Israel) You say you have agreed to my Covenant, but I call you to remembrance of your iniquity so that that I may deal with you… O King Zedekiah, prince of Israel, your day of reckoning is here. remove the mitre and your jeweled crown,"the Lord God says."The old order changes. Now I will humble the exalted and exalt the humble. I will overturn, overturn, overturn the kingdom, so that even the new order that emerges will not succeed until the Man who has a right to it takes his rightful place and I will give it all to him
In that Scripture God intervened and sent a message to his people through the prophet Ezekiel that He would overturn, overturn, overturn (That means revolution). Israel had fallen into idolatry under a succession of careless wicked kings, and at a time when Babylon was ascending into power over the then known world under Nebuchadnezzar. Israel’s king was in league with Babylon and looked to Babylon for national security rather than to God. Even though Israel were doing the rituals of offering incense and sacrifices and while many individual people honoured God in these things, they had generally wandered off in their true allegiance to God under misguided leadership. Zedekiah was the King of Israel at the time of Ezkiel’s prophecy and was made king by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah started to switch allegiance to Egypt for political favour and this outraged Nebuchnezzar who decided to lay siege to Jerusalem and overthrow it. He took King Zedekiah and many thousands of the children of Israel to Babylon. He did this over a period of time and many even chose to stay behind in the desolated city. When Ezekiel was told (Ezekiel 21:18) to tell Israel that the king of Babylon would overthrow Jerusalem Israel scoffed and said that they were in covenant with God, but Israel had not obeyed the terms of their Covenant with God. Ezekiel told them that God would remove the mitre and the crown. The mitre stood for the priestly ministry and the crown stood for the Kingly ministry – the priests connected them to the heart of God and the King gave them authority under God. They had distanced themselves from their Covenant with God.
A Covenant is like a contract, a terms of agreement for a binding relationship. A contract like this has three things that make it binding and effective – The promise, the payment, and the signature, or seal of agreement concerning all the special terms. The promise to Israel was Gods provision and protection and care for their lives. The payment was their sacrifices and their obedience to the Commandments. The seal, in other words the signing off concerning all the special terms God had put in place for the contract was their observance to the Sabbaths (Exodus 31:1). They thought they were doing this, but they resisted one big item regarding the Sabbaths. They did many of them, like the weekly Sabbath which they were meticulous about, and the new moons and festivals which were ritualised, but the demonstration of faith that would prove that they trusted God for his provision, which was demonstrated openly by ceasing from farming one year in every seven. They were to gratefully celebrate their relationship with God and with one another as tribes and families and friends and rest in God by trusting Him to provide for them and keep them safe and secure. Israel had not obeyed these Sabbath Rest Years for 490 years. They had not trusted God nor honoured him as their security and safety and provision. The priests had not instituted it and the Kings had not ordered it. They had trusted the idols of the nations, in this case Babylon. They breached the contract so then God would not continue to honour his part. Their judgment was that they would be taken into captivity for seventy years into Babylon until the ‘land had received her rest’ (2Chronicles 36:21)
There are some striking parallels to the state of affairs between God and his people Israel and to those between God and his people in the earth today. In many places and at many times the State has influenced and dominated the material and moral nature of the Church, just as Ezekiel describes Babylon dominating and influencing Israel. It happened in the early days of Christendom when the Roman Empire was the head of the Church. Even after the Reformation in Europe the State still had great sway over the Church, and in recent times we have seen Russia and China give token authority to puppet Church structures, and in the Western Church today we see the worldly influences of materialism and immorality corrupting the institutional Church.
We see political correctness stifling the voice of the regular Church, which is supposed to be the pillar and ground of truth. The Church is meant to be the expression of The Holy Spirit of Jesus and the Father in the earth. The Church is in Covenant relationship with God, as Israel was in Ezekiel’s time, and just as God had to overturn in the day of Ezekiel, I believe God wants to overturn overturn overturn in the Church today -His Revolution, a three time overturn which I believe means Father Son and Holy Spirt activity. God wants to recommission His Church into its powerful partnership with Him in bringing care and compassion and justice to this world. He wants to imbue us with a deeper confidence and trust and peace that He is with us in every single area of our lives in the midst of uncertain times – the times of our enforced Sabbath.

If Israel had understood the terms of agreement of their Covenant with God they would have attached their signature to the contract – they would have honoured the Sabbath years of rest, trusting God for their provision, enjoying faithful fellowship with a good God and with one another. They would have ceased from hanging on with their anxious hands to the Babylonian influence they were trusting in.

I believe God is saying to the Church today ‘I will overturn overturn overturn’. The three ‘overturns’ that I said I believe to mean the work of The Father, The Son Jesus, and The Holy Spirit. This is His revolution to bless us and reorder our lives under the terms of his Covenant with us.
In his contract with us we have three things
ONE - the Promise - ‘His life given to our lives for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the care and provision of our lives as His beloved children’ That is the first overturn – the first work of renewing and strengthening our understanding of the goodness of the Father. GOD FOR US
TWO – The Payment – ALL DONE! Jesus has become the sacrifices and has made payment and given us His life for us to share. That is the second overturn – The second work of renewing and strengthening our understanding of the shared life of Jesus. GOD WITH US.
THREE – The signature and the seal. Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and after you believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

That is the third overturn – This is the third work - of renewing and strengthening our understanding of the empowering of the indwelling Holy Spirit. GOD IN US.
So how do we appropriate this signature or seal of The Holy Spirit? The verse above tells us – It is after we believe, fully believe in the empowering presence of Holy Spirit within us.
What is the result of this revolution for the Church. Look at the picture of Israel that we just spoke about

We have a better Covenant of GOD FOR US, GOD WITH US, AND GOD WITHIN US.
God wants to revolutionise His Church by having them enter into the REST OF FAITH, and ceasing from their anxiety and drivenness and allowing God to work through us into the hearts of those in our world around us. The Sabbath rest for Israel meant giving the land rest for one year. Their land was actual territory, real estate. Our land is another territory – the territory of our hearts. Their time of prescribed rest was one year. Our time frame for Sabbath rest is not just one day or one year, it is every moment of every day. We can exercise a continual rest in our hearts of faith and trust in God, and find rest for our souls. This becomes our seal of the Covenant, the ever present indwelling of The Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel told Israel that God would remove the mitre and the crown. The mitre stood for the priestly ministry and the crown stood for the kingly ministry – the priests connected them to the heart of God and the King gave them authority under God. They had distanced themselves from their Covenant with God.

God wants to revive our priestly ministry. This means to awaken our faithful hearts of prayer and caring compassion in connecting those people and those circumstances in our world around us to the good and gracious heart of The Father.

God also wants to revive our Kingly ministry. This means to awaken us to a deeper awareness of His authority working in us to overcome the powers of darkness and disorder and chaos in the world around us.
This is how God starts a revolution. To some it might seem like revival, to others it might seem like judgement. It may be called a ‘move of God’. It doesn’t matter what we call it – it is a revolution from heaven, and it puts things right.
That word from God was directed at God’s people, Israel, who were chosen to reveal God to the world. Today it is the church that has been chosen to reveal God to our world.

Philippians 2:15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

A kairos prophetic time

A KAIROS PROPHETIC TIME
Acts 17:26 ‘And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times (kairos) and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might search for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; For in him we live and move and have our being, for we are his offspring…For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

There are two words used for time in the Scriptures. One is chronos and the other is kairos. Chronos refers to the measured space of time that exists as a background clock time for everything that ever happens to us.
Kairos means the times of ultimate destiny for mankind and the world (eschatological time). Kairos is a prophetic passage of time that may last for a short or a long period of clock time.
Relative to the big plan of our lives they are really made up of a sequence of ‘kairos passages of time’ of God ordained events that have meaning and purpose for us as in the above verse (and has determined their pre-appointed times (kairos) and the boundaries of their dwellings).
We are currently living in a Kairos prophetic time in the global experience of the corona virus pandemic. Even though that has brought calamity and confusion to the entire planet, we are also in a prophetic Kairos time that is bringing the redeeming power of God to all nations.
The Bible speaks to us today of our Kairos prophetic moment in history.
Ephesians 5:16 ‘redeeming the time (kairos), because the days are evil.’

We are living in an ‘experience of ‘redeeming the time (Kairos) because the days are evil’. When the Scripture says ‘because the days are evil - ponerous’ it means that ‘The disorder of the time or the kairos in which we live is calamitous and morally culpable (humanity’ is greatly at fault for so much of what is going on – Corona – yes even the viral infection ). We can discern the nature of the evil of kairos time by the confusion and perplexity that we are experiencing because of the chaos and disorder of certain events of nature and human conflict. We are seeing this disorder and human conflict coming to pass

Redeeming the time means we can get back the will and purpose of God that has been lost or wasted so we can convert the challenge of this NOW passage of kairos time back into a powerful experience of the will and purpose of God. AS the Scripture I first read said regarding God’s pre-appointed times vs.27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might search for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; For in him we live and move and have our being ….We find him in a new way and we find one another in a new way –
There is one particular disorder of human conflict we are facing in this Kairos time…the racial tension that is being inflamed by the hurts that have been carried out in many nations by one race upon another. Man’s attempts to remedy this hurt by restructuring human systems and institutions are passionately sincere and emotionally confusing and not really effective.
The first thing to be understood also comes from that opening Scripture that said we are all of one blood. That has to be seen as a Kairos reality of God’s will and purpose for all of us as his offspring in the earth
Clock time history has struggle with this racial conflict since the Tower of Babel when the nations were dispersed and separated and their languages were confused. It took the Kairos moment of Pentecost to bring all nations together when the spiritual Body of Christ stood up on the earth and people of different nationalities heard of the mighty works of God being proclaimed ALL IN THEIR OWN TONGUES by the apostles in their new heavenly language of the Spirit. Kairos time had now become Holy Spirit in us time, and this Kairos truth can only be fully realized by the New Covenant reality spoken of by Paul in Galatians 3 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise… We can be not only of one blood but of one Spirit.

There are other Kairos prophetic passages of time Scriptures that show us what we can expect in this current Kairos time.

As we realize the prophetic warnings of shakings are occurring upon the earth we will also realize that The Holy Spirit is bringing about the hearts of people turning to The Lord. The Bible says that these things will bring about the times (Kairos) of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19 Now receive a change of heart and mind and have your past sins wiped out and turn to God. Then times (Kairos) of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord).

When the whole world is in a place of calamity and fear and conflict and confusion (IE the days are Evil) there will be one of two outcomes for people because many will stand at the crossroads. Their anxiety and confusion and fear will get worse or they will rise up and trust in God. No one can stay the same in those times. This is part of redeeming the Kairos. I have observed some people letting anger and confusion leave them in distress and I have observed others allowing faith and hope to move them into rest.

An Old Testament story that shows this is found in First Book of Kings ch.18. After Israel had suffered three and a half years of punishing drought through years of turning away from God to worship idols Elijah confronted them and called upon God to bring rain. Israel watched while the priests of Baal went through desperate wailing and slashing of themselves with knives to get their idols to answer their prayer for rain. Elijah said to Israel don’t halt between two opinions, If The Lord be God follow him and if Baal (the world ) then follow him. God heard Elijah’s prayer and sent the rain and a Nation turned to God.

Overcoming and growing through the suffering of mind and soul in trials of faith is a Kairos experience. The Bible says that through the times (Kairos) of sufferings in times of crisis he gives a special grace that restores and settles our soul and matures us into full growth.
When we set ourselves to diligently wait upon the Lord we can expect to experience God’s presence with us. We are not locked into the disordered tyranny of clock time, we are living in an eternal space of Kairos time where God activity happens more dramatically than the drama of disordered human emotion. The more darkness we see the more light we experience. We get from stress and rush to stillness and trust. That’s the bridge of faith.
1Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, after you have suffered for a little while (kairos) will restore and establish and mature you to full growth, ready for anything…’

Assurance that we can outlast the attacks of the enemy
Luke 4:13 ‘And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. (kairos)’
Jesus endured through spiritual warfare knowing that he (as would we) outlast the devil because he has limited ‘chronos’ within God’s ‘kairos’ and cannot out-endure us if we hang in with Jesus and trust him to see us through. Satan can only operate for a limited kairos because he does not have eternal life – we do

A powerful kind of prayer life can redeem or re-order the disorder we see about us. It is form of Kairos prayer – praying inn the Spirit with the kind of faith and hope that assures you that you are partners with Jesus and The Holy Spirit in their intercession for the will of God to be done within and beyond your world – what is happening in your life and circumstance and those you pray for.
Ephesians 6:18 Praying in the Spirit at all times (Kairos) and on every occasion, staying alert and persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
There are certain faith filled prayers that are not about long clock time sittings and gatherings which are effective for the prayer of being in one accord. A few seconds or minutes, or more, of a Kairos time of prayer is even more spiritually explosive. We can be exercised in this at any time anywhere, doing anything. Thank you Lord for this grace upon our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The high call of God

THE HIGH CALL OF GOD

Philippians 3:13 … I press toward the goal for the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus.

The High Call of God is actually translated as the Upward Call of God. The word for high is ano which means upward or above, or Heavenly. The word in the original Greek for ‘Call’ is klesis which means an invitation. That means that a Heavenly invitation is coming from above, from God, and our response to that invitation, our RSVP, is directed upward, back to God.

This Heavenly Invitation is not a status or rank that makes some people get a ‘High’ calling and some people get a ‘low’ calling. God does not send out low invitations, he only issues a heavenly invitation, to get to know him, personally and intimately, through Jesus.
Paul’s writes about his response to a personal invitation from God towards himself, to know him personally and intimately. (1Corinthians 1:31 – the glory trophy of knowing God – Jer 9.4)
Philippians 3:8-10 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.

So a heavenly call is not some future invitation for one day after we die that we accept our invitation to finally go to heaven. The heavenly invitation is for us to live a heavenly life on earth right now. `
This is for everybody. This is our response to life itself. The only ‘low’ invitation comes from the devil who wants us to stay pinned down in a response to a lower invitation of struggling in the shadows of our own strength. Why take the low road when you can take the high road and see life from a higher and deeper perspective of faith.

But who gets this heavenly invitation? The answer is clear in the Scriptures.
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some suppose, but is longsuffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should receive repentance.
Longsuffering is the process of withholding judgment by patiently giving someone the time and the many opportunities to get a change of mind (repentance) and receive and respond to the message (and the invitation)
That word perish is apollymi in Greek which is translated 22 times in the New Testament as ‘TO LOSE’. The Holy Spirit grieves the loss and waste of such an invitation.

Paul encourages us in this when he writes the letter to the Romans and says;
Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
God doesn’t want a planet full of ‘losers’.

An Old Testament illustration of the ministry of the ‘high call’ is found in Ezekiel. This is the story of the role of priests in the Old Testament, and only Levites could be invited into the Old Testament priesthood.
A priest was a go-between between God and man. This is still the case, except that now, through Jesus all of us are invited into the priesthood of all believers (1Peter 2:5).

Some of the Levites in the story in Ezekiel took the low road and were careless in their response to this privilege, going after idols and setting a bad example to the people, and finally God had to let them be the losers because of their choice. So God let them go their own way and stuck with the Zadok clan of priests who chose the high road.

Ezekiel 44.15 "But the Levitical priests who descend from Zadok, who faithfully took care of my Sanctuary when everyone else went off and left me, are going to come into my presence and serve me. They are going to carry out the priestly work of offering the devoted (heleb - the best part for dedication) sacrifices of worship - the Decree of God, the Master. They're the only ones permitted to enter my Sanctuary. They're the only ones to approach my table and serve me, accompanying me in my work.
" When they enter the gate complex of the inside courtyard, they are to dress in linen. No woolens are to be worn ... They're to wear a linen headpiece and linen underclothes… nothing that makes them sweat. When they go out into the outside courtyard where the people gather, they must first change out of the clothes they have been serving in, leaving them in the sacred rooms where they change into their everyday clothes…
23. "Their job is to teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is unholy, to show them how to discern between the godly and the ungodly way to do things.
" When there's a difference of opinion, these priests will arbitrate. They'll decide on the basis of my judgments, laws, and statutes.

You might wonder about the choice of a linen headpiece instead of wool. The natural reason given here is that wool causes sweat. There’s also a spiritual reason why God went to so much trouble in the detail of things like this. There are many things in the Old Testament that hide a message for us in the New Testament. The Bible says that fine linen represents the righteousness of people who believe God and want to live close to him (Revelation 19). Righteousness means having our heart in alignment with God. This linen headpiece speaks to us of having our mind upon God, and having a mind of peace and order, and not causing sweat or anxious striving.
When they go out to meet the people they change their religious clothes and wear everyday clothes– so they identify with the people.
They have been in the presence of God and so they are able to carry this presence and impart it in the way they speak and act amongst the people. That is the work of a priest, to bring God into peoples hearts. We are told we are a spiritual priesthood and we can do the same as these priests in a New Covenant way, and bring God into peoples hearts with simplicity and grace instead of religious performance.
These priests were given God’s wisdom in their counsel of people who asked for help and advice and prayer.
The final verse says ‘these priests will arbitrate. They will decide on the basis of my judgments, laws, and statutes’. For us that means being able to hear what The Holy Spirit is saying to different people in different situations. That is how the Holy Spirit arbitrates (not legislates) and applies God’s word personally and individually because he knows peoples’ hearts. Paul said that his ministry was not of the letter but of the Spirit because the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit does not apply the letter of God’s word and put peoples’ under the law, but he brings the ministry of the Spirit and revelation of God’s word into the here and now of peoples’ lives.
This was a type of the priestly ministry of Jesus as he spent time with his Father so that he would have his Father’s heart and mind on what to say to the people.
This is now our priestly ministry, This is the heavenly calling available to all of us if we care to respond to God’s invitation. We are here to issue this invitation to anyone with ears to hear it. Th world generally has not had ears to hear this because it has been hearing other invitations to a more self gratifying and enticing message for itself. It is only when God gets the worlds’ attention that it might have ears to hear.
So how much more do those who bear the message need to have ears to hear God at this time in an anxious, confused and despairing world.

The Zadok priests put God first and spent precious time with God each day before they got involved with the affairs of the people. As the Scripture from Ezekiel said They are going to carry out the priestly work of offering the devoted (heleb – oil, wine, grain, fat) sacrifices of worship - the Decree of God, the Master. They're the only ones permitted to enter my Sanctuary. They're the only ones to approach my table and serve me, accompanying me in my work.

Devotion is relational not transactional. People can pray fervently to get God to meet their personal needs and that is fine, but devotional is a kind of prayer that gives the best part to God – to God’s personal invitation of partnership with himself (accompanying me in my work). How long would these Zadok priests spend in God’s presence? All that we know is that it was a set time, but the effect stayed with them. However long we set to be with God will result in the effect of that staying with us (not a direct correlation), and what do we think and reflect upon in that time?
a) His love and mercy and devotion to us (this is where the highest comes to the lowest (Isaiah 57:15).
b) His supernatural work of goodwill towards us and on our behalf towards others. (prayer always happening Rom8:25)

We know that God gave those priests a life to live, a fruitful life, a busy life, but they wanted to give the first part, the best part to God, so that they could really live, as they would get his heart for the lives of the people in their world where he had placed them.
If there is a best, why not give yourself to that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Power love and an ordered mind

POWER LOVE AND AN ORDERED MIND
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear (deilia - timidity), but the spirit of power and of love and of an ordered mind.
That word deilia that means timidity occurs only once in the whole bible – it is not phobeo the word used for fear in very other Scripture in the New Testament.

Paul writes an emotional letter to his dear friend and ‘son in The Lord’ Timothy. He says to him ‘I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears. Timothy had been going through quite a bit of suffering in the Church at Ephesus and was feeling rejected and intimidated and a little bullied perhaps because of the rejection of the Gospel message that he had embraced through Paul and delivered to the Ephesian church. Paul commiserates with him and tells him of his own suffering as he was suffering in jail for the same reason – the rejection of his message of the Gospel of grace.
So he encourages Timothy that they can share together in the experience of this kind of suffering. They can turn the threats and mistreatment from others into a triumph of God’s Spirit of power and love working within. He affirms Timothy that he has a disciplined and ordered mind and that he can lay hold of the faith of how God was working through him with His power and His love and with Timothy’s ordered mind to reorder the confusion and disorder that was going on about him. Timothy was burdened but he was not giving up. Just because people need encouragement from someone does not mean that they are failing. It can mean that they are being encouraged to continue despite the pressure – to dig deep and tap into that spirit of power and love, with an ordered mind.

What is that power? - It is the power of God’s perfect love that casts out all fear.
Ephesians 3:16 That he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all those who believe what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses (hyperbole) knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to that power at work within us.

Paul compares this power to a seed being rooted and grounded in love, so that roots go down deeply and the shoots spring up sturdily. Jesus compared his Kingdom to a tiny seed that grows into a large tree. (Matthew 13:3)

What was the heart of God in creating the universe and then creating humanity to live within it?
Was it the power of Love?
He certainly demonstrated his creative might and design and wisdom and knowledge and variety of life forms and colour and beauty. But he was not merely an engineering mathematical creative genius - what he most demonstrated was his overflowing love – It only came from one place – God – and he wanted to share that great thing with us…the highest form of energy in the universe to bring forth nations of people in his own image that he could share his love and his life with as a family and have them respond gladly to his love and to desire to share it with one another. So - God is love, but in Him are also hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). He is also the sum of all truth and justice. These are all weighty messages that God wants to be proclaimed. There are many who give themselves to bringing messages of truth, and of justice and of knowledge and of wisdom and the world abounds with such messengers and this can be a great blessing for humanity. Life can function well with these messages and the wheels of life go round but it is only when they are grounded in God’s love that they can have the power to bring Kingdom transformation . An ordered mind puts these messages under the order of the message of God’s love. And whoever asks God to make them a messenger of his love will need more than just a message, or knowledge of the message, they must live the message, even in the midst of intimidation and injustice. Having a message of love is easier than being the message of love. I can give the message etc…That is why it is such a difficult message for man to believe in and respond to. It starts by asking God to convince you of his love for you despite the circumstances of your life. That becomes the reordering of your mind. We can say that we didn’t deserve the circumstances we’re in and think that God can’t love me otherwise he wouldn’t have let that happen. That is a disordered mind. The world and the people in it will not always give you what you deserve, but God will always give you his love which you can’t ever say you deserve because of an impressive performance. Having an ordered mind means to get in order of priority what it is that we are really seeking in life. To have the assurance that you are loved by God - no matter what - ranks the highest in value as far as having a life worth living for.

It is by experiencing the love of God that we can be empowered by that love. That power begins to radically change us first, and then the power of that love can radically change the world around us. This is where the Holy Spirit rushes in and fills our heart and empowers our faith. There must be a settled yes to God’s love for us so that we can love the humanity that he loved so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for. Then the power is unstoppable. Paul accepted that message (2Corinthians 5:14 The love of God imprisons me (existemi) orders my life) and he pleaded with Timothy to stand with him as a fellow messenger of that message and to release the Kingdom power of it. He said to Timothy ‘But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance…

What is the definition of power?
Power is the capacity to move something from a lower level of energy to a higher level of energy like moving a huge rock to get it rolling down a hill. In the very beginning the H.S moved upon the depths of darkness then that first creative Word of power, the Logos, who was with God and who was God changed darkness into light (the first material energy to exist) and created man from the dust of the earth and that power was the love of God. Our life working together with the life of Jesus within us changes the nature of our being. This is the faith that works through love. The faith that works through love causes things around us to move from a natural energy to a spiritual energy. fear becomes love - anxiety becomes peace, sickness becomes healing - sorrow becomes joy, tears turn to laughter.

This is the work of the KINGDOM and the power is unstoppable.

WHAT TO DO – HOW TO LOVE IN A WORLD THAT ISN’T FAIR.
Paul told Timothy not be intimidated and to call out the bullies. He did not say stop loving them. Would these people change? – not necessarily, but Timothy would change, and the power of the kingdom would be released, and order would come into the disorder, and truth would fasten itself into the hearts of those ready to listen and be transformed.
God does not want us to be intimidated – by anybody. So we have to call it out like Paul told Timothy to do because intimidation comes from a disordered mind and creates relational chaos. We ask God to give us the courage to do this, and we do it calmly and from an ordered mind. While God’s love still remains in the equation the power of the Kingdom of God is at work in anew orbit of faith activity for you. Paul told Timothy he would suffer and in his feeling of weakness the strength and power of God would uphold him and become his strength. The same goes for us. This is the power that brings justice and order in its time.

But Paul went to jail – That is a great example of productivity in trials (Ian Heard’s sermon). God tells Paul to write a letter to Timothy…

God’s love is more than just a warm fuzzy feeling, a sentimental journey. That sentiment abounds in the world and it is a real blessing but the power of the creative life changing love of the Kingdom of God has its roots in God’s desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the highest possible way. Jesus came to model this power of love in laying down his life for us.
You only know God’s Kingdom power when you are receiving God’s perfect love, being grounded in it and extending it out in goodwill to others.

I ask God continually to make his love real to me in my spirit. I assure myself of His Word that we just read concerning the length and breadth and depth and height of his love as being the truth of who he is and I seek to not waver in this. I ask him what it is that is blocking me from receiving that love. It is usually that I feel unworthy to receive it. It doesn’t have to be that I feel I have done wrong – it can be that I feel I have not done enough right. What this is doing is limiting the greatness of God’s love through a lack of faith and trust. It is a form of condemnation. The author of condemnation is the Accuser, which is translated as Satan in the Bible. John speaks to us about that kind of condemnation in 1John and says – If your heart condemns you God is greater than your heart. So we must not limit that greatness of God’s heart of love. An ordered mind is the result of seeing things as they really are in the Kingdom order of God.
So I’m talking about needing God’s love more than anything – but what about fearing God.
So we read earlier that Paul said that God has not given us the spirit of fear – but that word is not phobia fear fear – it is intimidation… Is there a fear that God does give us? Yes. Jeremiah 32. It is part of his new covenant… I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
This is the most wonderful fear we can have in our lives…To not want to depart from him or ever be separated… Yes we need to have the genuine and honest sense of respect and awe for the greatness and wonder of God over our lives- but this fear of not departing from God is the desire to be always in loving relationship with him.

When something is rooted and grounded in the right soil it will break through concrete, even if it is just blades of grass. The Kingdom power in a seed of love searches downward for grounding and upward for light and finds it - and the life of that seed is finally put on display with the form and colour and strength that God has designed for us to have – in our lives. Be God’s messenger of love.