It has been a little while since I have written. There has been some personal health trials I have passed through. I think through my contacts with those who are in ministry full time as a vocation is a sense of demand for trust in God as there is a sense of crisis in the world. This has inspired me to search God for answers as it seems that there are sectors of global society who care to keep us in the sense of permanent crisis, so that the changes that will be imposed will be imposed as a solution for a crisis, for which survival is no longer a choice in the type of solution presented.

Today…

Faith is about the now, today is about opportunity for it to become the Day of the Lord.

It presupposes that today we will hear from Him. However “today” can be termed in various dimensions, for which we need to discern in prayer, as promises in the Word sometimes use “today” or “in that day” to mean a season, to mean a time, which is not always immediate. We can detect in global tendencies today, some things which have been seen 2000 years ago. In some situations we wait for years, then suddenly it clicks into place in our reality, and we are surprised and astonished. It is imperative that today we position ourselves. There are demands right now, pressures brought to bear, that demand we trust Him. Why are we trusting? What is our destination? What is our knowledge of His Personal Covenant to us? The whole issue we have dealt with in all these messages is about Passover. It is about movement, about transition. Nothing in this life is trustworthy, it seems that change is around us each moment. It demands upon us to build in our spirit, our soul, our body, the pillars of God, which Passover brings more and more visible. Passover is about God using us to execute His will upon the ungodly, the wickedness that has been sown in the land. It was not just about having a land, nor a house, it is as much as God expelling the enemy from the land.

Today…we must settle in our minds what our vision and destination is clearly. That way our covenantal foundation is firm. Jesus said all could pass away but His Word never. Paul said that 3 would remain, faith, hope and love. We need to identify the elements that are eternal. Paul deals with this issue in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4. He says that this light affliction is temporary in comparison to the weight of eternal glory. The focus must be on the glory. Even more so in Hebrews 12, exhorts us to be focussed firmly on Jesus. This will have to be a new commitment in our hearts to this exercise, to keep Jesus firmly in our vision. We place job, home and car, as elements that bring stability. They are passing realities. Especially right now, when landlords are cashing in, selling up and evicting tenants, and people with mortgages are now no longer able to pay them, due to rising prices in every sector.

The picture above shows a foundation. And whilst we have TODAY we must build that foundation. Consider the context of Zechariah 4, where the foundation of the temple is laid, before many enemies. Yet the declaration of “Grace be unto it” speaks to Jesus the chief cornerstone. The house is only as strong as its foundations. This is where I started when I started to write “12 Foundations of the Church” last year.

If you hear His Voice…

His Voice is the most precious commodity and privilege in a time of great confusion and error

The “if” is very very conditional. How do we hear? Can we guarantee we shall hear? Can we be secure beyond the noise of crisis in our families, in many levels, we shall hear? Yes we can, if we do these things I shall indicate here. I must add that I am learning, so I am not teaching as though I have arrived. By no means! The first thing is we must have a passion for His Word and His Ways. His Word shows us His ways. His Word is given authority through the true teaching and true shepherding from the Church. We need to pray that God places true teachers in His Church, who can open our understanding to the times we are living in, keep us walking together in fellowship to promote that Koinonia that we see in Acts 2 and 4. The Holy Spirit promoted community, sharing, equality of life, and unity. The second thing is a knowledge that beyond the covenant we have accessed with God in Jesus, we have a personal covenant that governs our walk before Him. What I have grown more conscious of is that God moves in a collective and moves generationally. This means that the priority is not so much first on the individual as much as the collective first. That way once this is ascertained then the individual easily discerns the Will of God. So in that context the covenants lead us onto the Will of God, which accompanies us through all life.

David shows us his model of davidic life in Psalm 23, presenting God being the Pastor, who gives us guidance and provision in security. There are valleys, shadows we must pass, but His Crook, will be with us…guiding and instructing. At the end, God will present a table before us, as we transition into our eternal state. It seems that the world’s standard of priorities has come into the Church, that sustaining the family, is the 1st pursuit, and can sometimes condition how our commitment to Koinonia is viewed. God wants us to engage in sustaining families, if it be first before God, then our due diligence where God has placed us. We have looked at Psalm 23 in traditional ways, even attributing the valley of the shadow of death, being applicable to funerals, yet this Psalm is a Old Testament model which Jesus takes us onto in the New Covenant, through all the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5 to 7. Then thirdly we must be secure we shall get to the fulness of our calling in Him.

I have a few experiences which I neared death, over the last 20 or so years. In each case I saw the hand of God. One comes to mind, from 2013, when our daughter was in hospital, due to kidney issues, which culminated with a transplant. On a journey of 2 hours I had to make to hospital to speak to a Consultant, I had put the car into service, to pass government requirements. What I did not know was that the front wheel on the passenger side was not tightened up. The next day on the motorway, 2nd August it was, was full of holiday traffic, and all of a sudden the wheel was vibrating and at 70mph was very dangerous, and it came off and sped down the side of the highway. The motorway emptied miraculously. I was able to get it to the side of the highway. A lady coming behind saw all this, pulled over saying how miraculous this was. I have so many stories of God’s protection and provision. Just to say that all these memories strengthen my trust in Him.

He is going to speak in our days, and bring signs and wonders. These signs will be like Jesus getting finance from a fish, or walking on a stormy sea. Or commanding the storms of life to abate.

Israel depended on the cloud by day and the fire by night, how much more the Lord will guide us to our eternal estate! We need to understand the purpose. Israel did not, in Exodus they said yes, to being a collective priesthood, then in chapter 19 seeing the mountain covered in fire and lightening, backing away and reneging on their commitment. There are coming times when fire and judgments will come upon the earth, because Jesus is demonstrating that His Kingdom is mighty and the kingdoms of this world are built on shaky sand. We are part of the Kingdom that never is shaken, and we must build that trust in our hearts. It comes by hearing the Voice. It comes in our spirit, via our brothers, via His Church.

Harden not your hearts…

When it is time to let go, move on, go through, we follow His lead

The Israelites were presented with an opportunity….the whole of Jericho feared them, having heard of the Red Sea being parted and the Egyptians dying as the sea came back together. Yet because they had not connected Abraham’s promise with their lives, that God was fulfilling His Promise to Abraham, and making an eternal promise to Israel. For many they complained for lack of food, lack of water, for God’s judgment on Korah, complained about who was holy. They understood little because they were not diligent in understanding God’s ways in their deliverances. The same ones who danced over floating bodies in the sea, were the same not many days, complained for thirst in the desert. And sometimes our lives are like this, deserts and oases. We have hard seasons, and sudden victories. We need to seek God for what is His Promise, not to Abraham, but to Jesus. We are guaranteed a place in the eternal Canaan, where our entry is not to expel, but to embrace angels and our departed ones who went before us!

And why do we have hard hearts? Because says Hebrews 3 and 4, we have disobedient hearts. We are presented opportunities by God and we refuse to transition. I sense that our transition is not always seeing Jesus as a Saviour, but as a King, who executes Judgments upon the enemies of the Cross. This alteration will alter how we see His Word, how we pray. Acts 4 is a classic example. The apostles are told not to preach Jesus, yet in going back to the gathering of the Church, they asked for boldness to continue. The Holy Spirit shook the place, and filled them all, and many miracles were done. Tough times are ahead where persecution will come, we cannot continue with the bless me prayers, the blessing words, there needs to be a determination and a militant vision to what we are, and what we are doing.

In Keeping with the 2nd Passover, of Jesus, the Cross, His Resurrection, we see in John 21, when the disciples returned fishing, they caught nothing, yet when Jesus appears, so their nets become full. They exhausted themselves all night in their own natural effort, yet when Jesus appears, so the nets are full, and they are fed. In these unstable times, the 2nd Passover, which our salvation is rooted, so our provision and protection is guaranteed in Jesus.

The most remarkable thing we read in Numbers 14 is that God forgives the people but excludes them as well. They are sent right back to the very beginning, where they had played tamborines, and danced because of the victory of the Red Sea, they were back there, knowing they had failed. Surely, we never want to go back to where we were when we started in the faith! Surely we do not want to go back knowing we shall never walk in the promises we once received. We need to ask ourselves what hard hearts look like, they are critical of leaders, complaining of everything, murmurers. Surely today is the day we stop being critical, complaining and murmuring about everyone and everything!

We will pass over if we are obedient, and follow every word and directive He brings. He is saying that TODAY, it may be the day He speaks, and if He does, what will our heart condition be like? This will depend if we transition and move into the fulness of Passover.

Maranatha!