Spiritcode

Life onboard the Ark

LIFE ON BOARD THE ARK
This is really part two of last week’s Make yourself an Ark. We saw then that the ark had three levels, which we saw represented the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit. That means being in relationship with God in faith and and prayer through a time of global life changing crisis. I want to look at more of the detail of the structure and design of the Ark.
Genesis 6:9 Make yourself an ark … The length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above (a hatch), and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

So the structure of the Ark has lower, second and upper decks and the dimensions of those levels, 300 cubits long, and 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. These dimensions speak to us of the divine nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their provision for us in these earth shattering times.

But first let us look at modern research into the extraordinary nature of the design of the Ark. Noah’s Ark was the focus of a major 1993 scientific study at the world-class ship research centre KRISO, in Daejeon, South Korea. They compared twelve hulls of different proportions to discover which design was most practical. No hull shape was found to significantly outperform the biblical design.
The research team found that the proportions of Noah’s Ark carefully balanced what are called the conflicting demands of; stability (resistance to capsizing), core strength, and seakeeping (a comfortable ride). In fact, the Ark has the same proportions as a modern cargo ship. The study also confirmed that the Ark could handle waves as high as 30 metres.

So the details of the design for function and materials for the building of the Ark are remarkable in their spiritual application for our lives in our relationship to God as seen in the symbolism of the dimensions of the ark and even the three aspects of balance – Stability, the 300 base of the Father, the centre core strength speaking of Jesus the 30 (the age of maturity for Jesus when he began his ministry). And the comfortable ride because of the wind catching trim on the upper deck – the 50 of Holy Spirit (the word for 50 in the Bible is Pente, as in Pentecost)-The researchers deduced that the top deck had a trim blade that could catch and hold the prevailing winds that allowed glide to occur. The Bible says that the Ark moved upon the waters and that God caused a wind to blow (Genesis 8:2)

For God to ascribe such precise measurements to achieve such an elegant and functional design of naval architecture and then for those measurements to match the defining characteristics of each of the three persons of the Trinity is an extravagant truth that can only reflect God’s divine purpose and meaning in our lives. They highlight how Father, Son and Holy Spirit protect and nurture our lives through times of crisis and prepare us for a new emerging life of spiritual growth and stature, and they speak of divine protection against all odds when we are battling against uncertainty and the unknown.

I’m now going to start with the work of the Father, 300, and then Jesus, 30, and finally the Holy Spirit, 50.

The number three hundred defines the work and person of the Father. That 300 code speaks of our defence against impossible odds. there is the account of Enoch in Genesis 5 where it tells us that Enoch walked with God for 300 years and he ‘was not’ because God took him – he did not see death. That is some kind of overcoming – against the odds - the overcoming of death itself through a close walk with God.

The next application of the number 300 as our defence against impossible odds is when God commands a man called Gideon, an ordinary man in a very ordinary family without military rank or reputation, to lead Israel in battle against the feared Midianites who were coming to attack them with an army of 135,000 soldiers. God made Gideon shrink his army from 32,000 to 300 to demonstrate that he was their supernatural defence against those impossible odds. (Judges chapter 7)
God had to do a lot of convincing with Gideon that it was all about God’s grace and power and not Gideon’s impoverished estimation of his own stature or strength. And also concerning Israel that it was not their own prowess or power that would defeat the enemy. So, Gideon was hiding from the approaching Midianite armies and told to lead Israel into battle to defeat them.
Judges 6:11 Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours (just previously proclaimed), and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
And then the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
God devised a radical process of drastically winnowing down Gideon’s army of 32,000. First, God said;
“The people who are with you are too many, for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, otherwise Israel will claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me. So then twenty-two thousand of the people had to go home, and ten thousand remained. That was still too many so the 10,000 was then reduced to 300. That is a special number – not quite invincible but definitely unshakable and unconquerable. This 300 number is the basis of your life in the Ark experience. It might take a lot of winnowing out of things within us like doubt and despair or even pride to get us into a 300 kind of unshakeable attitude of trust in God, but Father is saying ‘Surely I will be with you’. What attitudes is God winnowing out of us as humanity in this crisis? God is committed to doing the impossible to have us respond to his mercy and love and forgiveness – to overcome the contradiction of our indifference and ignorance of who he is. He enters into the pain and fear and alienation this world has created between humanity and him and makes himself known, to draw us to himself.

The number thirty defines the work and person of Jesus. The Bible says ‘when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age’…(Luke). Jesus came into the midst of our limitations. He did not come to remove them but to give us his unlimited risen self in the midst of them. He endured the cross resisting the fear that made him sweat drops of blood. The Bible tells us that Jesus was made perfect (mature) by willingly going through suffering. He went through the affliction of life and took the cup of suffering in the Garden of Gesthemane from his Father. In other word he accepted the buffeting of life - didn’t demand special privilege like our culture trains us to do (even some aspects of our Christian culture). He gave thanks to his father. He made himself of no reputation and let go of all human entitlements.
As we learn to live consciously with him we can ‘lose’ our me-self, and gain our true self. We learn to live for something higher than our own privilages we live for God’ entitlement over us.
Being made intensely aware of our human limitations brings about a reaction - Our reaction to a crisis of losing our entitlement to certain things is the human experience of inner suffering ,a disorientating sense of loss. The degree to which we can accept and endure the reality of this loss is the degree to which true character is formed – the number 30 - that marks the person who is a living Yes to God, and who now begins to make courageous decisions . So then by faith we can endure by meeting these limitations with acceptance and not resistance. This brings hope – an expectation of God’s goodness and we can give thanks to God. We begin to know who we are and to live in the potential of who we were designed to be in Christ.

And finally the number 50 defines The Holy Spirit – Always at work in the world of the unseen in everyone on earth. The Holy Spirit is God in action in the earth at this critical moment in time, continuing the work of Jesus from when he was God in action in the earth 2000 years ago.
So lets look at the sending of the dove out from the Ark into the world in the time of the flood. The dove went out from the Ark twice! The first time the dove was sent out by Noah he came back with the olive branch of peace, the anointing of peace, and the second time the dove was sent out it stayed out in the world. That was those times
In our times Holy Spirit has also been sent out twice into the world. The first time he was sent into the world as the Spirit of indwelling for Jesus to be born into the earth. Then Jesus went back to the Father with the indwelling Spirit. Then Holy Spirit was sent from Heaven the second time at Pentecost out into the world and like Noah’s dove he is still out here NOW with us.
The Bible says ‘He will convince THE WORLD about sin and righteousness and judgment’ … What does that mean and how are we convinced of sin?
Sin means ‘missing the mark’ not just a list of bad behaviours, and there are endless lists which people like to categorize - but it means much more than that – It is missing the goal and aim and purpose of life itself, which is to come to know God and share life together with him in oneness of Spirit – the Bible is very clear about this as the aim of God for our lives. Paul tells us we are to be joined to The Lord in one Spirit. If we don’t have a great goal we will never achieve a great goal. If we have great goal and don’t know how to aim at it we will miss the mark and fail the goal.

The good news (gospel) is that The father has set the great goal and Jesus has achieved it for us and Holy Spirit is making it real for us in our everyday lives. We need to be made aware (convinced) that we are missing the mark of life itself (The Holy Spirit convincing the world of sin)so that we can experience a major change of mind about the meaning of life itself (that is what the bible means when it says repentance) and we can then align our minds and hearts with the mind and heart and will of God (that is what the bible means when it says righteousness) and then we can live with a sense of accountability and responsibility regarding the consequences of hitting or missing the mark (that is what the bible means by judgment). Many people are not even aware that they have a spirit. Our spirit is our essential ‘I am’ created by God, but most people think of their I am’ as being what is going on in their minds at the time, I am this because I’m good at doing that (The enlightenment revelation of who we are - I think therefore I am – the motto of humanistic philosophy in the 1700’s) but the problem with that is that what you think and more important who do you think you are depends on your own imagination and is mostly based on what other people have made you believe who and what you should be and should do. Everybody tries tried to work that one out, sorting out all the labels they’ve been given, or given themselves (which you cant do – you miss the mark on that all the time). That is because only God knows who you are because he created you and he wants to tell you. That is the ongoing lifelong work of The Holy Spirit. He is there to reveal who Jesus is and what he has done for you and to guide you and lead you through life and to make you know that you are at peace (at one) with him.
Holy Spirit is doing that now in everyone on the planet. It is always NOW, in fact that is all the world has at the moment.. We need to learn to live in that now activity of the Holy Spirit’s now - otherwise we live in the yesterdays of our past regrets or the tomorrows of our future uncertainties. Those things attach themselves emotionally to our mind as imaginations. So we move away from the mind’s imaginations and bring our thoughts into who God says we are. That is entering into our rest of faith, where we hear God. So know that his presence is with you always and that your life can be lived in his strength. Your life is unique to God and he has aimed you like an arrow in his bow and sent you forth to hit the mark of being the you he designed for you to be from eternity.

 

Make yourself an Ark

MAKE YOURSELF AN ARK

There are some remarkable similarities between the event of Noahs ark in the time of the flood to this time of the novel (brand new) corona virus and the global pandemic that has us all shut in. novel new like the flood – never been seen before
Genesis 6:14…Make yourself an ark…18… and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. And you shall take for yourself all kinds of food, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” Noah did according to all that God commanded him.

Noah’s ark is a story of people being saved from worldwide disaster, a flood that lasted for many months (5) and finished off the life and culture of that world at the time, in order to bring a new world into being, a new kind of life and culture. It was the end to former things and a beginning of new things - The global gamechanger – You could say that the flood was even the novel climate change gamechanger.

We are in the midst of a global event where certain emerging new ways of life and culture now perceived as temporary game-changing things will become permanent realities in many many aspects of our routine lives – working from home, banking and finance, education, even church.
As far as global game-changing is concerned there is an amazing spiritcode message – the number 120 – it is hidden in a comment that God makes as he speaks to Noah about the ark, when he looked at the things going on in the earth and decided he was going to stop things happening the way they were and prepare the world for a new way for life to happen

Genesis 6:4 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not contend with man forever, for his heart is totally self centred: so his days shall be 120 years.
That number 120 is not talking about what the span of human life is going to be. It is talking about how long Noah has to prepare an ark before the game-changing event occurs that marks the end of things being done man’s way and beginning to be done God’s way- the end of former things and a beginning of new things.
Building an ark is now the biggest and greatest project in our lives – but we need to know what it means…

This is the first specific mention of the number 120 in the Bible and it always signifies a situation of the old passing away and the new emerging. There are two very significant further mentions of the 120 code

The next was about Moses who was 120 years old when he died (Deuteronomy 34:7) - and his end-of-life age pointed forward to the rule of life under the Law coming to an end and a new rule of life would emerge in due course. The game-changing message here is that the new thing would be life under the rule of the Spirit of God.

The next was in Acts 1:15 - There were 120 Jewish disciples living under the Jewish Law in an upper room of prayer when the world at that time as they prayed, was visited with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and humanity was now able to live a life guided by the Spirit of God and not just their own understanding. We are living in a number 120 moment in the earth today. New things are going to come to pass we will be doing things in a new way that we haven’t done before. It’s no good my trying to guess what they will be but they will be done God’s way and not our way and we will experience a time of letting go – letting go of the old and embracing the new living way that is waiting for us to walk in.

The ark was a place of safety in a time of disaster and destruction – a flood - a global crisis, and the ark was where you had to go and had to be to preserve your life. So what kind of life are we talking about preserving in our current situation? We are all doing the best we can to observe the life-saving protocols of the lockdown shut in life in our homes for as long as we have to. It is in us as human beings want to preserve that and everything that goes with it – the outward form of things. But there are some outward forms of things we are learning to have to let go of and that is hard and often sad and perplexing to see them pass away. That is causing much grief and sense of loss and we are finding ourselves coming closer together even in our social distancing through our faith and our love for one another. That brings me to the inner life and THAT is where we can build the real ark and preserve the things that do not pass away but are eternal. Letting go of outward things that pass can keep alive the inner things that last. So Noah’s ark has lessons for us in finding the wisdom for safeguarding both inner and outer things in our lives. We might lose some things of our outer life in this crisis that help us to gain the inner things. Some things in our lives may have to die to so that other things might live.

How does this MAKE FOR YOURSELF AN ARK compare to the current corona virus disaster that we are experiencing at this moment?
Noah was told to prepare for something that he had never seen before – rain. There is no mention of rain on the earth till this time.
Genesis 2:5 For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth…but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground… So how could Noah prepare to survive and overcome something that he didn’t know even existed How do we prepare for something today that we didn’t know existed?
We can hear Noah saying to God after he was commanded to build an ark‘ Lord could you tell me what an ark does?– I honestly don’t think we need one’. God was not going to teach him about what a flood was or how to predict rain. And we can hear God replying ‘This is not the time for me to teach you about weather forecasts Noah – just build an ark’.
Covid 19 is called ‘the novel’ – the new corona virus – no vaccine – so no defence – no treatment so no cure as such at this time except for protocols of lockdown. so what do you do? You build an ark.
That is what you are on the earth for now – at this time.
There are outward things you are I are doing now that are different to what they were – and difficult -if we are taking the good advice from the authorised experts who are responsible and caring, and not only the facebook posts. So we listen carefully in that respect and try to get it right.

How do we let go of things that pass? Well mostly they just cease to be and will not be there so the only thing we cling to is the emotional attachment we have to wanting to have them still there or to get them back. Some we will and some maybe not or maybe different. That is the meaning of spirit code120.
Many people in this time of crisis don’t have their work and occupation or interaction with others that was their everyday life, at least not in the same way. Our hearts go out to each other in these things and we feel for one another, all over the world in our common sense of loss and grief. All of us no longer have the freedom of movement and travel to and fro and gathering together but yet we stay close.
So let’s move from the letting go of outward things that pass and get to keeping alive the inner things that last. That’s our real ark.

So how do we build an ark?
This is the building of the inner place of refuge. The ark had three levels Gen 6:16 This speaks of the Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit. He was told to build three levels – upper, middle, and lower. A huge Cruise ship. I’ve never been on a cruise ship but this is the kind of cruise ship that I want to be in at this time and I believe many of us have been seeking to travel our sea of life with God as father son and Holy spirit and to have this as our refuge.
The upper level represents the Holy Spirit, as the Bible speaks of the dove being sent out across the waters from a window in the upper deck to see if there was dry land, and the dove returned with an olive branch – the branch of inner stillness and peace. That dove was finally set free by Noah to fly through the skies. He is our freedom, gentle but powerful and the giver of truth and love.
The middle level represents Jesus who joins us with the Father. Jesus is there in us and as us – in everything – he’s been there in danger and in crisis and he always had the Holy Spirit to lead him and guide him and he always had the Father, in whose arms of love he could rest. Jesus is your Noahs ark experience in this calamity He is your strength in your weakness. And The Father cradles us all from underneath as his children.
I mentioned last week about our human need at this time to know what to do... What do I do next what do I not do OR What is happening – God is happening. God happens to us as the three in one, Father Son and Holy Spirit. There is one Scripture that sums it all up regarding building an ark and living the ark experience, and it speaks to us about The Holy Spirit who helps us to know what to pray for in a time like this because we don’t even know what to ask.
Romans 8:25 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought to, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts (that’s Jesus)knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He(that’s Jesus) makes intercession for the saints (that’s us) according to the will of God (That’s the Father- and Father always answers Jesus’ prayer).
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (invited to share with him in the unfolding purpose he has for our lives).
You have the Holy Spirit to touch your feelings and pray your prayer, and you have Jesus to take that to the Father so that your prayer is answered in the most powerful and caring way in a supernatural dimension that is above all of our attempts to know or to understand the unknowable and the incomprehensibility of the things which are beyond our control. This is your ark – God knows the thing you need, your health and material provision, your hope in times of anxiety, your fear of the unknown – he knows these things and he is quick to answer and to give you faith. You are his children.
So be conscious that this process is going on all the time and we can become part of this four way prayer meeting simply by knowing and believing that it is there and muttering our thankyous to God every time fear or anxiety try to wrestle this reality away from us. Make for yourselves an ark.

Be still and know that I am God

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD PSALM 46
I’m speaking today of the great need for all of us in this current crisis of the global coronavirus pandemic to know what to do... What do I do next what do I not do OR What is happening – God is happening AND God is telling us what he wants us to do – he is saying Be still etc. He is telling us what the big question is that we should ask him – WHO ARE YOU LORD?

God’s purpose is for people to KNOW HIM. When we say ‘Who are you Lord?’ he wants to tell us Who He is. Many people are more concerned with ‘What is going to happen to me’. I believe that MANY THAT ARE HEARING THIS understand and many have accepted this challenge of being still before God as a way of life. When we say we have sought to do this faithfully as a way of life in the day to day happenings of our yesterday life we can live in the hope of living this way as the absolute priority in the new TODAY of the current crisis in the Earth. We are living out an enforced Sabbath rest of FAITH! The Sabbath of the OT was God’s way of demonstrating to Israel that when they rested and trusted him they would see him miraculous work and provision for them. God will order the externals in his own miraculous way for you but you must order the internals for yourself, including the receiving of the wisdom to manage the externals that he is ordering.

Many Christians get to know the concept of God and then try the rest of their lives wanting to know what is going to happen to them. The New Covenant is not designed to tell people what is going to happen to them – it is designed to show them WHO is going to happen to them. What my or anyone else’s opinion is about what you need to know about God must only serve to move each and every one of us to exercise the faith to ask The Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus in each individual life (John 2:27).
Heb 8:10. His covt says all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins ?and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”?

The reason things went wrong for Israel in the Old Testament is that they went to Idols to find out what was going to happen to them and the false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. The true prophets spent their time warning them and encouraging them to live in obedience to God’s covenantal terms of agreement. The same problem can happen in the New Testament when people get the wrong slant on what God’s covenant promises and terms of agreement are really about.

So how are we going to get to know God?
We get to know God IN the things that happen to us – both the good and the bad – when we say ‘Who are you Lord?’ rather than ‘What is going to happen to me Lord’.

From the very beginning of his ministry Paul knew he would go through trial and tribulation but he never worried about that. His main objective in life was to get to know the person of Jesus in an intimate way.
When he had his first encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and he fell to the ground his first words were ‘Who are You LORD?’ That one sentence means a lot. It says ‘I want to get to know you and you are in charge.’ He was then told that he would suffer for this man Jesus and he accepted that wholeheartedly.

Paul believed fully in prophecy but prophecy meant more to Paul about WHO Jesus was rather than Paul having to know what was going to happen to him, whether good or bad in human terms. He would get to know more who Jesus was in the midst of All of these things.
The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 19:10).
This because the work of The Holy Spirit is to bear witness to the person and the reality of who Jesus is and what he has done and what he is doing in joining us to himself and The Father and The Spirit. His passion is to become known and loved by us as he loves us and knows us. This kind of prophecy encourages and comforts and builds us up, causing us to grow in the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 14:3)

God will reveal his will and purpose through prophecy, but it will confirm things to our spirit that are from God, rather than predict a strange or unknown event of the future.
If we could trust as fully as we can in the pre-ordained purpose and the pre-ordained walk that God has for us (Eph. 2:10) we could rest in that and accept the adverse and the positive aspects of whatever happens. In that rest we would be focused more on knowing who Jesus is rather than what was going to happen to us. In any case, whatever happens to us there is always the opportunity to get to know Jesus more fully in it.

Phil 3:7 ‘But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…

When Paul suffered persecution and imprisonment he felt he could identify with the suffering of Jesus, and that The Holy Spirit would show more about how Jesus felt when he suffered on the earth. He called this the ‘fellowship of his suffering’.
He also knew he would share the feelings of victory and joy that Jesus experienced in his resurrection. Paul wants us to share this same partnership of getting to know Jesus by hanging onto the hope that Jesus will bring victory out of every seeming defeat, no matter how difficult it may seem when we are going through it. This experience of final victory is that of actually sharing a deep joy with Jesus because that is the emotional experience of having a victory.

It is natural for us to want to know what is going to happen to us and to feel secure in that knowledge of the future – but a greater experience of faith in God through The Holy Spirit is waiting there for us... That is, that God wants to share with us every experience we go through.

In any experience of sharing life with someone else there is an unfolding to us of who that person really is. Little by little the deeper things of the heart and character become known. It is not like reading a book about them because it happens only in the happening and not in the knowledge of some facts about which can give us a theory of what we want them to do or to be for us. Jesus is far above anything we can ask or think.

We get to realize that God is deeply compassionate and profoundly tender and infinitely patient and he waits for us to learn while he never stops unfolding who he is. We learn to trust that he is the only one that knows the end from the beginning and that our extreme efforts to have to know WHAT is going to happen rather than WHO is going through the happening with us causes us to be looking the other way. He planned for us to be fulfilled in life this way, by getting to know him as we experience life conscious of him being with us. He is also fulfilled in this.
GOD WILL HAVE QUESTIONs FOR US TOO...
When Adam went his own way into the darkness and independence of self focused experimentation, God pursued him and said ‘Where are you – where is my friend that used to want to walk with me every day?’ God is still looking for that friendship.
God said to Elijah when he ran away in fear for his life from the cruel King Ahab and Jezebel What are you doing here… Our perfect answer becomes the perfect question ‘Who are you LORD?’ Then God shows us. His directive in getting us to know him is not a dominating commandment. It is an overture of a person who is saying I want us to get to know one another. That is God’s desire – to have fellowship with us. When this desire is mutual you have something absolutely exquisite in terms of a relationship. This is perfect love we are talking about here. When Paul said ‘That I might know him, and the fellowship of his suffering, he was not just looking for suffering, he was looking for an intimate fellowship with the feelings and emotions both good and bad of the person he wanted to know more than anything else,

He is the same yesterday today and forever, consistent in his compassion and guidance and discipline.
How can we be consistent same yesterday and tomorrow?
We do many things the same each day because they are worth doing and they are important - or we wouldn’t do them! They can be done better day by day in love and compassion and character and integrity and in hope and in faith.

 

 

Quietness Confidence Strength

Isaiah 30:15 For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you would have none of this.
No, you say. We will get our help from Egypt (the world). They will give us swift horses for riding to battle.
But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountaintops. Yet the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.

Quietness – Be still and know. The ‘me’ self that lives the ‘never enough’ life with a sense of being unfulfilled, separate from what life is meant to be, is not at rest and is chronically anxious. The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of humanity, but God is present, in the centre of our being.
Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Hebrews 12:1) (2Corinthians 10:4)

Confidence – Body, Soul, and Spirit.
A confident person is one who knows what they are aiming at and is motivated to trust that as having the highest meaning and purpose for their life. This becomes the inner strength that moves within them to overcome all obstacles.
Pull out of rat race (Egypt), be still and know your purpose (Quietness), commit to action (Confidence).

Body – Two opposing neurological behaviour systems.
Cortisol/adrenalin hormone sequence – the rat race reaction - is activated when your goals and aims and expectations are uncertain or out of reach - anxiety and stress and resentment kick in.
Dopamine, a hormonal neurotransmitter – the confidence reaction, is activated when you know you’re on track with the thing that you aspire to - the motivational component of reward-motivated behaviour. It helps with the buoyancy in the struggle to overcome the obstacles of staying on track. The advantage of this human wiring system can be used for good or bad purposes.

Soul – Aim at the right thing… Philippians 3:14 Press toward the goal for God’s highest invitation to you…
The mind must comprehend the conviction of truth that it believes in. The emotions then buoyantly and courageously rise to a hope and expectation of victory and success. Get into the place of quietness and confidence and encourage your best self. Then the will becomes determined in its action. (no confidence in the flesh Phil 3:3)( Heb 10:36 reward)

Spirit – The Spirit of God MOVES us forward (a MOVE of God!). Being led is more than just following.
Romans 8:14 For all who are led (ago - Moved) by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God, and share his Kingdom purpose and resources. Greater is he that is within us than he that is in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope for healing rain

The upside down theology of Christianity- down is up and up is down – We lose ourselves in order to find ourselves; admit we are wrong so we can be declared right; are strongest when we’re weakest;.
this one is We rejoice in suffering instead of learning to just get over it or learning to put up with it. There’s a secret here, a mystery, a hidden treasure as usual which declares the reality of a life lived with God. It’s the story of the gospel again in one of its 10,000 reasons.

Suffering produces endurance
Romans 5:2 but we rejoice (buoyant) in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance (seeing the potential - pain/gain Hebrews 12:2), and endurance produces character (‘dokime’ trustworthy, genuine, tried and true - sine-cere - without wax), and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame (make us feel worthless and helpless), because God's love has been poured into our hearts (a cloudburst after the drought Joel 2:28) through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (The healing rain)

What is suffering?
In this life we live with suffering and limitations. They belong to our limited being as distinct from God who is an unlimited being. Suffering is the human experience of our reaction to our limitations – Can’t have what we want, do what we want, be what we want or know who we really are. This is actually our reaction to losing our entitlement to certain things (the current global crisis).
This disorientates us and leads to an identity crisis – what I thought was mine now isn’t mine. Who is the ‘me’ that says it’s mine (Babies - and kids in kindy). Losing the true ‘me’ brings about shame (makes me somehow feel worthless or helpless or hopeless.

Endurance forms Character.
If I cannot accept and endure the reality of this loss or deprivation that is due to limitations character is not formed.
Jesus came into the midst of our limitations. He did not come to remove them but he has given us his unlimited risen self in the midst of them. (Hebrews 12:2-4 He endured the cross despising the shame, resisting unto blood). As we learn to live consciously with him we can ‘lose’ our me-self and find our true self (Matthew 16:25). limitations are now met and endured with acceptance (1Thessalonians 5:13). This opens the way for grace to become buoyant in trials (rejoicing).

This character (sincerity, inner strength) creates a new hope
This hope is an expectation of God’s goodness and love. We then experience the love of God poured out upon us. We are not disoriented, or made to feel ashamed (worthless, helpless or hopeless). We are made to feel worthwhile! (Joel 2:27)

This Hope fills our real self with God’s love
We begin to know who we are and to live in the potential of who we were designed to be in Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love not the world - by faith

 

Now our world is just a mere ‘Global Village’. A somewhat fragmented world is becoming...through media technologies like the internet enabling such things as transnational commerce on a level never before achieved ...through the migration and interconnection of nationalities and the sharing of the thoughts and ideas of multiple
cultures...through the vision for the future to see a single globalized marketplace.....these are the hallmarks of a global village.....Though it is seen as something quite new and modern....I think the world has had something similar to this is the past...but without the technology

The Tower of Babel. After the flood God had commanded Noah and his family to fill the earth. Eventually the inhabitants of the earth venture out together....all speaking the same language.....found a nice spot to live and said...."Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Gen 11:4) Instead of filling the earth, as God wanted, they wanted to be in one place. They wanted to build a tower to reach to the heavens to “make a name” for themselves. The Tower of Babel was a symbol of human pride and rebellion towards the will of God.
1 John 2:15 (First part says) Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.....

Let’s remember - God ordained that the earth should be cared for
Genesis 2: 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
I want to distinguish between the world that we are to care for and the world we must not love The Bible describes the world in four basic ways..

1 The earth. Just the earth created by God. cultivate it and keep it.
2 Sometimes the world can mean the current age. You could say we live in a different world to the stone age or bronze age, middle ages, dark ages....we live in a different age....a different world
3 The population of the world....as a collective...we might say 31% of the world is Christian...or 24% of the world is Muslim..
4 It speaks of the world also as being ‘the structure and order of society’

This is what I want us to look at more closely in relation to “love not the world” ‘the structure and order of society’.

There is a theological meaning of the world developed by Paul the Apostle and the disciple John.
Theologically...Kosmos...views human society as an; Interwoven system...Created by a web of sinful human desires...Illusionary beliefs (false ideas)And misdirected passions....It is seen as a place that operates on principles contrary to those of God...
Eph:6:12 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.....1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one....the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The Devil. Satan.....1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Paul the apostle understood the flesh. In his teachings Paul lets us know human beings are fatally flawed by sin...Sin has infected our human capacities. Our emotions, desires, intellect and our will are all corrupt...That is why

Paul could write; Rom7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
1John 2:16 ........These things are not from the Father....but of the world
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.

1 John 2:15 Also goes on to say....If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.....we need to get the love of the Father into us......It seems to me the opposite of loving the world........is loving the Father...You could say.....love not the world....love the Father instead

ROMANS 12:1-2 Our life is to be lived presenting ourselves to God...To make giving our lives to God our Spiritual worship...And do not be conformed to this world... We need to be renewed by God.....
How do we love God on a daily basis? How to we live out loving God?...Loving God and not loving the world...It’s complex, complicated, so much to learn and discern....Trial and error, sin and success, highs and lows...What can we do each day to love God first? And we are all individuals....various spiritual gifts, spiritual calling, stage of life, theological understanding ...How we each approach loving the Father and not loving the world maybe different for each of us...no magic formula.

2 Peter 1:4-9 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Precious and magnificent promises....By them....partakers of the divine nature....Escape the corruption in the world....So I wonder how we can stay on track to love the Father and not Love the World .....without exhausting ourselves with a long list of do’s and don’ts.....Here’s what I think is simple yet powerful...Each day say Yes to God and No to the world
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual IQ

1Corinthians 2:13 We are not using the words that human wisdom teaches but those which the Holy Spirit teaches, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

Intelligence is a knowing of a particular kind. Do you have any intelligence concerning the cause of a certain matter?
We have ways of measuring wisdom for different areas of our lives. One is called our IQ or Intelligence Quotient, which measures our intellectual intelligence - how competent we are to associate different things together, shapes, numbers, words, concepts, problem solving. There is also much emphasis today in measuring our emotional intelligence, our EQ - how effectively do we respond emotionally to life – calm responses or frustrated reactions? AND we also have an SQ, a spiritual intelligence - how we respond spiritually to life and resonate and flow with the gift of God’s Spirit living within us through Jesus (spiritual things with spiritual).
I can have a high strategic intelligence and not have an emotional intelligence awareness because I allow frustration and annoyance and resentment to rule instead of peace and calm. I can also have emotional intelligence but not have spiritual intelligence, not living in spiritual resonance or harmony with God’s Spirit within, not being grateful to God in all things, and indifferent to the needs of others. So finding emotional peace and calm is not just for making me an island of peace isolated from the needs around me.

These are all valid measures for different areas of effectiveness or success in our lives. So it is good to be aware of them all. And to do the work needed in each area.

What does the Bible say about natural wisdom and intelligence? – The parable of the unjust steward.
Luke 16:8 …Children of this world wiser than the children of light… Doesn’t mean Christians should learn how to cheat better in the rat race. But in the natural wisdom of the rat race the smart rats win. In the world of market place strategies those who have the clues and intelligently get down to the business of mapping their territory will be successful. What about us in our spiritual territory?

What are the virtues of natural wisdom? IQ
Confidence, intelligence, conscientiousness, discipline and stewardship.
The attitude is one of confidence.

What does the Bible say about emotional intelligence and wisdom? EQ
Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all devious talk; stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path . Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

What are the virtues of emotional wisdom?
The attitude is one of caution and calm and consistency – not ups and downs but steady as she goes.

What is spiritual intelligence and wisdom?
Is it how much we read the Bible, or pray, or exercise spiritual gifts?
It is more than all of that. The Pharisees read the Bible and prayed. The Christians in Corinth excelled in spiritual gifts but the competition between them in the exercise of spiritual gifts was not spiritual.

2Corinthians 10:12 In comparing themselves with themselves they are not wise (spiritually unintelligent)
1Corinthians 3:1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your natural desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your natural desires? Aren’t you living like people of the world?

How do we blend these all these spheres of intelligent KNOWING in our daily lives and how do they affect us personally and help us to bless one another? We can be a blessing to people in our world.
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ… vs.8 he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life… That is Spiritual Intelligence talk!
There is only one simple thing to do – be still and know. Intelligence is a knowing that you and God are doing his will together!
Have the faith of God Galatians 2:20. … no longer I that live…he is not a spectator in your life neither are you in his. It is not that God can’t do his will without us – He busts into our life (Philippians 2:6 - Saul Damascus) He just wants to do his will with us. An unlimited God wants to include limited us because that is his way of life since Jesus. That is his intelligent plan.
Jesus sowed the seed of his life so that his risen life would be the harvest in our lives. Paul sowed his life in prayer for others for this risen life to become real in them. (Galatians 4:19)

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ…
This is a powerful activity of the cross in our lives. In fact being anchored by faith in this spiritual understanding prospers our efforts in the other spheres. We become more productive and successful in our emotional and relational world and in our worldly plans.

There are choices we make in life that have a spiritual effect on ourselves and upon others and which also affect the spiritual environment around us.
There are certain simple but critical choices that we are confronted with in life at any given time which result in us being in harmony with God’s Spirit or not. Something in our responses and reactions resonates either with the nature of God or with the nature of our frustrated humanity or the nature of darkness. letting his love flow to us and through us to others, letting go of our doubts and limitations and letting God’s faith find us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Him and us

Hebrews 2:6. Someone wrote in Scripture the words, ‘What is man that you pay so much attention to him, or the son of man, that you would come and be with him?’ (the name Jesus used for himself 81 times)

7. You created him of a lower spiritual order than angels, and yet now you have given him a crown of glory and honor and placed him in authority over everything that is yours.

8. He is in command of everything. There is nothing that exists outside the scope of his dominion (Psalm 8:4-6).
But when we look at the apparent disorder of things it does not seem that everything is conforming to this rule (under His dominion)

9. But we are able to see Jesus*, created of a lower spiritual order than angels, so that he could suffer and die as a man - and through the grace of God, to digest the poison of fearful death for all of humanity and then receive his crown of glory and honor. * We can only see Jesus now by faith.

10. It was the most noble* and upright thing for him to do, the one to whom everything belongs, and through whom everything was created. It was so that he could bring the family of his human brothers and sisters into the same place of position and standing that he has himself. The pioneer of a whole new and perfect way of living had to voluntarily live the paradox of human suffering.
*nobility – the high state of character that is owed respect because of virtue

11. The one who is devoted to doing this for us, and those for whom it is being done, are all part of the same family of mankind, so he is happy to call us his brothers and sisters.

12. He said to his Father ‘I will talk about who you really are to my brothers and sisters. In church I will be singing praise to you along with the rest of them.’ (Psalm 22:2)
This is the ever-present response to God in all circumstances.

13. He also said ‘I will trust Father God totally’. He also said ‘Look at me and the huge family of brothers and sisters Father has given me.’ (Isaiah 8:17,18)

14. That family of brothers and sisters had always shared a flesh and blood existence of mortality, so he took on the same mortal existence. That way he used death victoriously, destroying the one that uses death to hold power over us – the devil.

15. He set us free from that fearful prison of mortal existence – the torment of being afraid to die.

16. He did not choose to take upon himself the being of angels. He took upon himself the lineage of Abraham. (1John 4:3 – antichrist)

17. He placed himself under the full obligation of being no different to his human brothers and sisters, so that he could feel compassion for us and be the most faithful kind of high priest that represented us to God and God to us. He absorbed the sum total of the sin and weakness of all of humanity.

18. The fact that he has gone through the pain of life and all its trials means that he is able to show us he fully understands how we feel when the pain of our trials happens to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A still small voice

Shakings bring forth the eternal that can’t be shaken. Courage comes and the chapter closes and a new chapter awaits. What is next? Comfort and renewed strength now happen and the course is set for a new way forward.
Elijah was a man that experienced the same human emotions as us. He felt the frailty of his limited humanity after the shakings of the battle with the prophets of Baal. Elijah has just brought a nation to repentance, defeated prophets of Baal and God sent rain. Even though he had won the battle he was left shaken in his soul and body. He has a panic attack because he hears that Ahab and Jezebel are after him so he runs away and wants to die – under a tree. He had shown courage and now he needed comfort. He is supernaturally fed by an angel before he journeys to the top of Mt. Sinai, a trek oåf forty days and nights where he hears God. He keeps hearing God but all God does is ask him the same question ‘What are you doing here Elijah?’
1 Kings 19:7 Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a still small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
And the voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
He replied again, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.” Then the Lord told him, “Go back the same way you came, and travel to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram. Then anoint Jehu grandson of Nimshi to be king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat to follow you as my prophet
After Jesus went through wilderness temptation for forty days and nights he stood on the top of a mountain and received comfort from the angels he began his ministry and went back to his home town and declared his vision mandate. This not always about courage, but how to sit and wait recover and rest and wait for the future word - not look to the past performances. After the shakings there needs to be the stillness that receives the still small voice of the new thing that God wants us to hear. Elijah had seen The Lord in the wind and the fire and the earthquake on Mount Carmel and he expected to see God in those things again. He was hanging onto past experience to find the future, but God wanted to speak something new into the present stillness. Forget the past, surrender the future, and be present to the now. God will show the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courage and hope

Paul was encouraging and warning the Hebrew Christians who had been undergoing great affliction and persecution not to give up on trusting in God to show himself strong on their behalf. Courage (heart) is putting your heart into the truth that you believe in.
1. Hebrews 2:1-4 – In one ear and out the other (flow by - drift away)
2. Hebrews 3:7–4:13 – hardening of heart and not entering the rest
3. Hebrews 5:11–6:20 – not hearing deeply enough – milk and not meat.
4. Hebrews10: 33 – Casting away your confidence.
5. Hebrews12:15-29 – falling short of grace and despising their inheritance like Esau.

Hebrews 10:33. Some of you were on center stage (theatrizo) with insults and threats being hurled at you, and some of you stood firmly with others who were getting that kind of treatment.
34. You certainly felt for me when I was chained up and treated like that. You didn’t seem to care how you were treated or what was taken from you. You knew you had greater and abiding heavenly treasures.
35. So don’t lose that confident expectation of God that you lived in and spoke with, because it generates a great and mighty reward.
36. But you have to see things through, so that having trusted God to the full, you will be rewarded to the full.
37. He will arrive for you on time, and will not be late.
38. If you know you are his you live by faith and trust in him, but if you lack the courage to trust him you won’t be pleasing his heart.
39. But we are not like those who lose courage and walk away from him, and waste everything worth living for. We are those who trust and believe and experience a powerful and ongoing conversion of our hearts and minds.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the reality of your hope and expectation of God’s goodness to be at work for your tomorrows. It is also the assurance of his work on your behalf for today, in the world of the unseen.

COURAGE (requires confidence in a purpose and reality that is bigger than yourself)
Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage (heart -coeur) and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

God shows himself strong by strengthening our heart not always by changing the circumstances from the outside but by bringing a strengthening of faith inside. I will take this perfection process on board completely and let go of everything else. 

FAITH AND HOPE
Our hope is the expectation of God’s goodness to be at work for our tomorrows. This is the basis for our faith, and is ours to experience continually and in all circumstances.