P2687 The bible is huge -

it just keeps getting bigger!

The bible is constantly revealing more about our Lord and Saviour, and His Ways - it is like the universe, still expanding. Our corporate or personal experiences should never be used to negate what His book says, because we don’t know everything ... despite the way we sometimes present ourselves to this world! We can easily misunderstand what this book says, or we can accept someone else’s POV and take it as our own without even personally investing in it. It is folly to say “God doesn’t do that” or “He won’t do this,” based on the fact that He has not done whatever it is for us, personally. We dare not judge the scriptures by our own experiences. Our experiences are limited and He is a limitless God! 

We — as part of the whole body of Christ, must stop thinking that our little denomination contains the only people who know the truth, so what our church thinks and says, is the only way. Actually only liking a church because you agree with its theology can be a dangerous thing. We just limited God to whatever our church believes. That won’t lead to transformation … it could lead to all kinds of false expectation - some of it very unrealistic! We need honest uncharismatic leaders who simply walk with the Holy Spirit.

Just because Joe Bloggs goes to a little church on top of a hill in the country, and you or I go to a mega church that meets in the city - that doesn’t make our doctrine more right than Joe’s - or Joe more right than us. It’s great if our really big church has an evangelist, pastor, prophet and teacher and lots of functioning helpers etc!  Perhaps Joe’s church has a pastor who only comes once a month!! What does it matter, if he bows his knee to Christ and so do we? We are family. Personally, I think that as ‘the Lord looks on the heart’ then that’s where we should learn to look too! 

If we want to find a good leader then we need to find an honest man who admits he's not all that, and he’s not there yet … (wherever there is) … and that honest person continually shares his personal growing edges from the pulpit. Meanwhile it is daft to leave everything, including pressing in, to the pastor, or the prophet or someone-Who-knows Jesus better-than-I-do. Otherwise we are putting undue pressure on the top. Reaching the world belongs to all of us not just to the guy out in front. He’s the Leader. That means he is the one appointed to give us direction. He gives the Lord’s accent on things that God wants us to carefully look at, as a part of the whole body … and that includes Joe’s church!

We simply must stop seeing our own little corner of this world, and what we have learnt, as the whole answer. Jesus Christ is everyone’s Answer!! If Almighty God gave any of us His whole answer it would blow our minds! And then we would end up running about like headless chickens trying to make whatever He said happen ... when none of us can accomplish anything lasting. We have more resources than the generations that went before us, yet reaching the world still escapes us! While we are fragmented we are losing the incredible power of agreement. We need humble, respectful unity.

There is spiritual power available for any individual who has been trained by obedience, and learnt love while they are following Him. In the Bible, we have our best example of the power of an obedient man! During the temptation in the wilderness - Jesus told our enemy: “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” After resisting the enemy's temptations, Jesus went out into the world and lived out what He just said. How hard can it be? it ain’t rocket science, even fishermen eventually managed to listen and do!

The Lord Jesus lived minute by minute giving us an example to follow. If we insist on simply adhering to our denominational rules there is a strong possibility that even more generations will miss out on the POWER that flows through corporate obedience. This life isn’t just about giving the right answers, it’s about living out what we know, and what we are becoming, in our own small way. We are the Word of God that people can see, so everyone around us can know that Jesus Christ is real. We don’t follow religious rules, we follow the same Holy Spirit Christ Himself followed.

So every single day, individually, we personally go to God to get instructions for ourselves, for our own life. We read the book, pray over it, and then go out and do whatever the bible told us to do! And that’s why I think it is not good to shop around and join a church that preaches the kind of stuff we think we want to hear. Personal growth comes from being stretched and challenged. We need the person who is our leader to LEAD, let's forget the popularity contest.

In many churches today, we have allowed popularity and/or fear to rule us. Jesus did everything He did for ALL of us, so it is a crying shame for the body of Christ to be ruled by inactivity, social programs and fear of error. While we are back-slapping ourselves over all the programs we are running, we are missing the point. People don’t have to be taught to be obedient, obedience is normal for Christians. That’s what becoming a disciple of Jesus entails. 

This means we repent, quickly. We stop thinking we know it all and we are better than the church down the road who only have a congregation of fifty. We listen with our spiritual ears open so we can hear what the Spirit of God is saying to me, personally. We don't just listen for praise - we listen to diagnose why we are not effectual and fix stuff with the Holy Spirit's help. That’s where true humility starts. At the same time we refuse to pledge allegiance to anything or anyone other than Christ Himself. Plus we acknowledge that we don’t know everything and we could learn something from someone else’s church.

The bible is far bigger than we have allowed it to be. Our disobedience and lack of love is costing us generations. Let’s start by obeying Him as individuals to see where He leads us all, corporately.  Bye.👋

P2686 The way we see others …

makes all the difference!! 

For years I had quite strong expectations regarding the people who are close to me - people like family, friends and relatives …I hoped they would be nice to me because I had a broken-heart because of a difficult early life. That's what you call an unwise expectation!  I was very immature and quite dependant on other people's approval. My time recently has been spent growing UP!

I think I kind of expected other people to be nice to me because I was abused as a child. And those people who hurt me, were still in my life. Some of their personal faults and proclivities meant they actually formed my world-view in the first place!  But I've learnt over time, that unless Jesus is in charge we all remain the same, and sometimes ... we can get worse! Putting the key to our happiness in someone else's pocket is a very dumb idea.

This was kind of like a giant chip on my shoulder, but I didn’t know it was there, I thought how I felt was normal because of my greatly disrupted early life. I saw myself as broken and it was someone else’s fault, not mine, so I couldn’t help it. Meanwhile I totally ignored the fact that as an adult I now had the power to change! Everyone else seemed so normal, and it often looked to me like I was the odd man out. I did not make allowances for the fact that others are as broken, if not more so, than I am. We are all broken in different ways.

When we choose to view life through pain, sorrow and suffering, it can result in a distorted view. I was a very disappointed, broken-hearted, and sometimes angry child - now walking about in an adult body, with a warped view of others. Sadly that meant at that time I was making a choice to go round and round in a little whirlpool, instead of advancing up the river, under the Lord's loving Eye. Meanwhile, if these people happened to hurt me again, then that was often the final straw. That action meant that they would never change, they would never be nice to me! And despair joined the party.

I wish I could say that Christianity totally healed me from any of those thoughts and ideas, but it didn’t. It sort of kind of fed them, by telling me over and over that I was fine, God loved me, but I was definitely broken, it was not my fault and I desperately needed healing! I was one of those people who were never going to triumph in adversity purely because of my back ground. That meant that I chased healing up one hill and down the other, using pretty messed up faith. Unfortunately what I believed at that time actually cemented me into the very place I wanted to escape from!

That's when the Lord began to deal with me. He was gentle and kind, but firm and unrelenting. He made it clear that I could no longer go forward excusing my behaviour whilst I was holding other people to account for theirs!  I love these words from the bible  “…but God …” because HE is always the real reason we keep moving on. He is so patient, and many times I've clung tightly to the words in Matthew 12:20, that say this about Jesus: "He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally He will cause justice to be victorious."

I started to understand just how broken everyone else is. We all need healing, and the people I was interacting with didn’t know Him at all. That meant if I wanted to see real change then someone was going to have to co-operate with Him! He gave me this strategy: “What if you choose to see those people as human beings - not as someone who owes you something?” That meant viewing them as lost, broken, damaged human beings, just like me..

You know in all those years in the wilderness wandering around desperately looking for someone who could heal my broken heart, it never occurred to me that I had the power for change already …but I wasn’t using it. I could choose to forget the past and simply love the people I was avoiding or I disliked. He gave all of us that power at Calvary. He chose, and now I can too. So I did. I chose to believe Him and not how I felt. I let go of any expectations that the other people would EVER change and grabbed hold of His hand - because HE will never change. Now He's teaching me to love the unlovely, the people who persecuted me, and those who were supposed to love me but they didn’t or couldn't.

When I made that choice, it opened my eyes. I already knew lots of scriptures about forgiveness. The reality was I read them, and I prayed and I meant it. However, I got disappointed over and over again because forgiveness didn’t seem to help me with how I felt - and the other person did not change. It was then that  I saw that my forgiveness was conditional, it relied upon the other person changing.

Praise God my feelings eventually caught up with His reality. The way we see others, makes all the difference.  God  is gently teaching me His Way to love, how to look and see others the Way He sees them. If I don't expect things from others then I won't be disappointed if they lack the ability to love. I have to see everyone through His eyes and leave my expectations with Him. This life is about learning to love, even those people who don't love us. When we live that way - we are truly free.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.👋

P2685 It’s SO obvious!

I Corinthians 10:12-13: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

Often when I am writing this blog each day, the Lord has already given me a scripture, or He points me in a direction that He wants me to go. Sometimes hubby shares a verse with me that has spoken to him, and I read through those verses prayerfully. I am listening for the Lord’s smile. Yes! I know that sounds weird. How on earth can you listen for a smile? I have no idea, I just know it happens. Moo-ving on …

Today’s two verses are verses that have haunted me for years. I know all about temptation, because I have fallen into it - lots, and getting out again has proved to be very costly. I got myself into those messes but I expected the Lord to rescue me and get me out with no contribution from me! However, today I read this scripture again for the umpteenth time, and I saw that I’ve been mis-reading a portion of it. A very important bit I might add! Does that ever happen to you? You read away and think 'yes, yes, I know that bit, blah blah blah,' and you move onto something else. 

New thought especially for today: When we eat, we bite, then we chew. There’s a lot to be said for chewing, it helps your digestion! It’s the same thing with the Word. You sit at the table the Lord has already prepared for you, and tell your enemies to go take a hike - and you bite off a bit of the scripture and, hopefully, chew on it. Except for 50 years or so, I’m pretty sure I didn’t chew all that thoroughly on this scripture.

Let me enlighten you: It seems that I have always stopped reading at the words: “He will provide a way out …”  Retrospectively speaking that oversight was an extraordinarily dumb move! Six little words, that’s all I missed … but they are the whole point of this particular instruction. I have been in some deep dark holes and when I couldn’t find the way out, I started complaining at the Lord … (that’s never a good plan BTW )… that there was no way out, and what was He thinking about giving us that verse, when there WAS clearly …no easy let-off-the-hook way out! Sigh.

I should have kept reading! ← I’m just going to leave that there, because all temptation is common to man and somebody out there in blog land may need this particular thought too. The last six words change that whole instruction. Lemme repeat them for you… and me!  “… so that you can ENDURE IT.”  In other words, the way out, has a purpose!

The way out is NOT actually a WAY OUT, it’s the way IN … to gaining endurance. Sigh. I could’ve used that bit of info many MANY times in the last 50 Years. It would have saved me from myself. Instead of me looking for a ‘way out’ sign I should have been looking for a ‘way IN’ sign. How to stand firm in the face of temptation and gain endurance.

Instead I was busy looking for the exit sign. To be truthful, I’m pretty sure I actually saw just what I wanted to see. So here’s me literally and figuratively, on my face repenting! No wonder I fell flat on my face so many times, that's a good place to repent from! Those six words I’ve written above, make a huge difference. Paul is not just telling us that the Holy Spirit will fish us out of whatever temptation we fell in to, He’s saying He will help us to stand fast  - as we resist the temptation! And standing fast gives us endurance.

Here’s what endurance means in the dictionary: “The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress.The state or fact of persevering.” Hmmm. Like I said, I could have used that quality in my life lots of times - there were times when I was pretty quick to bail out on what the bible said, in favour of Brother-so-and-so who said much nicer and more palatable things … like: “God will give you what you want, here’s a bunch of verses to prove it.”

I can’t blame Brother-so-and-so. My faith is up to me, not him! So if I let him mislead me it’s my own fault. This is a good place to remind everyone that it is a great idea to check up on what anyone else tells you. The fact that you might like what they are saying is no guarantee that it is right! Faith is personal, and we are not baby penguins who get their food pre-digested from their parents. When we read the bible it means we are settling into some prayerful work.

Now I have read those six extra words I will never forget them, but I could have saved myself, and others … ‘Oh Lord, forgive me for messing up things for others!!’ Amen! I could have saved myself and other people a heap of sorrow and suffering, not to mention the fact that I was misreading the Lord so badly!! — when it was all so obvious. 😞

P2684 FIRE.🔥

Daniel 3 - An excerpt from the GN Version V21-25: “So they tied them up, fully dressed—shirts, robes, caps, and all—and threw them into the blazing furnace. Now because the king had given strict orders for the furnace to be made extremely hot, the flames burned up the guards who took the men to the furnace. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, still tied up, fell into the heart of the blazing fire. Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement. He asked his officials, “Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the blazing furnace?” They answered, “Yes, we did, Your Majesty.” “Then why do I see four men walking around in the fire?” he asked. “They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt—and the fourth one looks like an angel.…”

Just briefly to recap, these three men were thoroughly bound and thrown into an incredibly hot furnace, through no fault of their own, simply because they refused to bow down to a huge statue of the egotistical king. My point today has come from this story. Sin will tie us up and leave us bound. Our own sin, or even other people’s sins against us. However the fire of God comes to burn away everything that is holding us fast into the past. We need the fire of His love to burn away our bondages. 

This is why it is imperative that we forgive other people quickly. The longer we stew on our offences the deeper the roots of those offences drive themselves down into our hearts, minds and emotions. If we are not careful we can end up with a full grown tree that has a root of bitterness, plus all kinds of other junk. Îf you have ever pulled up some sort of a real tree you will know that they are very hard to get out of the ground once they are established!

However, His fire comes on our lives to burn off these bondages - even the ones we have willingly embraced. It doesn’t matter how we got into the furnace, He will get us out! He will not leave us there. Because the fire of His Love and passion for us is always upon us. But we will need to walk WITH Him through those flames.The hotter the fire the quicker and more productive our new found freedom is going to be. When those three men came out of that furnace, everyone’s life changed— for the better!

I want to remind us all of something Isaiah said. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”  Isaiah 43:2. I believe that Isaiah 43:2 is a visual example of what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego experienced. They were thrown into that fire and it was not their fault. However, SomeBody Else was in there with them, and in that place they were released from all captivity. The fire set them up with a new way to live.

At any given moment we can be thrown into some sort of ‘fire’ by life’s difficulties. Everything is fine, and then suddenly you are standing there watching your life disintegrate, with the fire’s intense heat all around you, and you don’t know where it came from and you don’t know why it has happened! That fire may have been sent by the enemy to destroy us, BUT God will use it to burn off all our bondages. However, our responses to any temptation to run away, can thwart the fire’s purpose. Always remember, God does not send these difficulties, He uses them to take us to a new and safer place, so we can stand in the blazing fire of adverse circumstances and not be afraid.

He promises to always be with us. That’s the first and only place you need to nail your faith to the wall. Not whether we will get out or not, not why we are in there, or even what we did to get in there, but the fact that He promised to be with us! We cannot come to harm when He is there with us. His rod and staff are there to comfort us. He’s setting the table in front of our enemies for a brand new feast. That cup He is holding for us to drink from, is overflowing with His goodness, His love, His compassion, and His deliverance. 

Drinking from His cup of suffering, and sorrow will always taste bitter initially, but as we yield to HIM, these things will do us good. BTW, yielding is not the same as giving up! The more we drink from His cup and share His suffering, the more we will understand what He has done for us, and what we have been given. We will benefit if we choose to stand in the fiery furnaces of this life WITH HIM by our side. His perfect love will throw out all fear. Pray for ‘endurance, until He accomplishes in your heart whatever He wants for His glory.’ 🙌

“Beloved friends, if life gets extremely difficult, with many tests, don’t be bewildered as though something strange were overwhelming you. Instead, continue to rejoice, for you, in a measure, have shared in the sufferings of the Anointed One so that you can share in the revelation of His glory and celebrate with even greater gladness!” 1 Peter 4:12-13.

P2683 We are here to be a blessing.

Our lives are God’s love gift to others. So today, here’s an extremely powerful way to see how surrendered we all are! Let’s say somebody has just deliberately hurt you or annoyed the life out of you - what is your immediate response? We are only as surrendered to the life of God within us, as we are in our weakest, crankiest, most vulnerable moments. Telling the Lord we surrender to Him isn’t worth a hill of beans, if that doesn’t have its roots firmly established in reality. The power to change this world around us grows, as we use His power to change ourselves, first.

What we say, sing about, or have carefully read about on the subject of surrender, is utterly pointless - if it doesn’t bear fruit that is seeable in our lives! God is looking for fruitfulness, not hot air or even wishful thinking. We can tell if we have any fruit or not when this life squishes us tightly, That’s when our true selves emerge. It is also when the fruit of the Spirit can appear and spread a blessing.

Jesus Christ showed humanity GRACE from the cross. He got that Grace the same way we get it. HE MADE CHOICES. He showed Grace to His captors when they came to arrest Him, and they nailed Him to the tree. If we want to let Grace flow out of us, like AIR, then we need to continually take it in by faith and keep releasing it. That means we don’t excuse ourselves when we react to someone else, instead we choose to repent. So we let that grace flow out of us, towards others who probably don't deserve it. His Grace is THAT powerful. It will transform us while it reaches out to others. This life is not about acquiring graces, it is about becoming His GRACE to others.

We can daily facilitate our own walk with Him, simply by valuing Grace, staying humble, and participating in repentance. If we continually pay attention to our feelings, instead of acting on the Word of God, we are choosing to empower a place inside us that needs to die. It is not that we are not ‘allowed’ to have feelings - rather, those feelings don’t need to run our responses or our lives. We actively make a choice to stop empowering the things that don’t produce His life in us. However, if we are being real with ourselves we probably already know the kind of things that make us stumble. They are often the things we excuse and we say: “Well, that’s not all that bad!” 

The greatest Grace of God, Love, includes self-control. For the sap of the vine to flow into the fruit of the vine and grow wonderful grapes, the branch must stay attached. When I choose my way instead of His way I am restricting the flow of His sap. That branch has no destiny of its own, its entire destiny is tied up IN the Vine. If we want to abide in His love, then we must to learn to operate daily using the Grace He has given us. It's endless! We don't need to consult our feelings to see if we have grace, we simply step out and act appropriately toward the other person using our faith. We submit to Grace, come under Grace and then release what we already have.

“Since we are approaching the end of all things, be intentional, purposeful, and self-controlled so that you can be given to prayer. Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.… … For to Him belong the power and the glory forever throughout all ages! Amen.” 1 Peter 4:7-8, 10-11 TPT.

Christians have been saved to serve others. We are going to need loads of humility to do that. This means we choose to progressively, and intentionally, learn to live as Christ Himself lived. He lived entirely for His Father’s purposes, not just what suited Him. He didn’t pretend - He simply was that Person. However, we haven’t been redeemed to be Jesus clones either, stringently following a bunch of rules. Rather we are to be voluntary imitators of Christ. Choosing to lay down our lives like He did..

His Grace has given us gifts that we are to use for the benefit of others. They are not to call attention to ourselves or raise up some sort of following. When we actively, continually forgive those who trespass against us, we will learn humility. At the same time we are extending His love canopy over them as we share what we already have. We are here, right here, right now, to be a blessing to this world, just like He was. 👋

P2682 Easy Peasy... NOT!

“For the Scriptures tell us: Whoever wants to embrace true life and find beauty in each day must stop speaking evil, hurtful words and never deceive in what they say. Always turn from what is wrong and cultivate what is good; eagerly pursue peace in every relationship, making it your prize.” 1 Peter 3:10-11 TPT.

Monitoring our words is so powerful and special, when we fail to do it, we can prevent ourselves from finding beauty in each new day!  I bumbled along saying whatever came into my head for years. I was being true to myself - a common theme nowadays - but I was in the wrong spirit, because I was not yet walking in a renewed mind. Jesus Himself talked about that kind of thing in Luke 9:55. The disciples were unhappy because the Samaritans did not welcome the Lord into their village. They wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume this village, like Elijah did and the Lord Jesus rebuked them for saying and thinking like that.

To be honest, it seems to me that the disciples did not fully understand the working of the Holy Spirit. He came to facilitate our new birth, not to exterminate us! Watching what we say means we will always need His full-time help. Today I want to share the little bits I’ve learnt so far as I’ve been walking along with Him. To start with, the Holy Spirit always gives me a warning nudge. What I mean by that is that He knows what I want to say, and He will speak to my heart and say: “Don’t say that,” before I've opened my mouth. 

You see it is much too easy to think I’m a big girl now, I can judge and choose my own words and I don’t actually need a filter. But the truth is ... I need a full-time filter BIG time! The whole thing about our words is that they are intimately personal. They come from our own private thoughts. The Lord knows my heart and He knows that other person’s heart as well, and He knows what will hurt, and what will heal. He also knows what will send me off into a tangent, or what will build up my faith, as well as theirs. Knowing someone’s heart means knowing their motivation, and inclinations - our God is brilliant at that!

He knows when I feel inclined to bad mouth the other person or try to put them in their place, because I happen to think it is called for.  So unless my mind is renewed, I am sunk … I will actually need to make quality choices to participate in His renewal. In other words - unless what I think, is the way that I act, not just something I say I believe or agree with - I can, and probably will misspeak. That realisation is a ‘woe is me’ moment. The best thing to do after woe is me is to repent … fast! Repent to the Lord, the other person and to anybody else within ear-shot.

We must never forget that our words are powerful. We can speak life or death to someone else, whether they are present or not. That same voice we've been given that can raise the dead and heal the sick, needs oversight!  I have struggled with a number of relationships over the years, and I have found that if I give in to self-pity, grumbling or criticism, whether those things are justified or not … I’m definitely going to end up saying something stupid that I will regret. 

It is better to remain silent rather than say something that cements the other person into a role you have created in your own mind, whether they mean to treat you badly or not. We have the power to speak life, this means we need to pull our focus back onto what is “good, right and profitable.” The bible tells us to “let our minds dwell on these things.” So when we let fly and say something unkind etc. — guess what our minds have been doing??  Yeah, I don’t like that idea either.

We have to choose to live this way now, and it cannot be a religious thing, it is a reliance thing. It's a choice we make for the Lord and the other person. If you can’t trust yourself to say something good, then saying nothing at all, is a truly great idea. However, we are not meant to lie, so how do we say good things about people who have deliberately and sometimes maliciously treated us badly? Glad you asked that question - because I have an answer! We ask the Lord what He wants us to do or say in that moment. We choose to lay aside our own judgment, anger, and hurt, because when we do that, we are also avoiding being judged ourselves. So we either keep schtum or we choose our words carefully with Him helping us.

Just to make things clear, this can be a very difficult thing to do when you are someone who finds out what they think when they say it out loud! I’m an external processor, and telling me to watch what I say is like sending me to the Paris Olympics to enter a relay race. Not happening! BUT … I have a Helper Who knows exactly what I am going to say before I say it so I am learning to rely upon His judgment not my own. I’m happy to do that because the bible says: “lean not on your own understanding …” Win win. Easy peasy ... with His help. Bye. 👋