Chickens

P 3049 We are not Headless chickens.

/ DVH

Eons ago, I knew a little boy whose family had chickens. They had them for the free eggs, but they also occasionally ate them as well. The father despatched one of the birds from time to time and the mother prepared them for food. One day when the little fellow was accidentally outside in their yard, his father chopped off a chicken’s head. The chicken ran about minus its head splattering blood everywhere. The little fellow was extremely distressed, he kept shouting at his father: “Put its head back on Daddy, put its head back on.” Poor kid, I bet he didn’t forget that gory scene for a very long while!

Sometimes in the body of Christ we try to go it alone. We work so hard for Jesus we forget to consult with Him (our HEAD) about what He wants us to do. Or even talk to others because we’ve forgotten we are merely a part of His Body not the whole thing! We need to utilise the bible for our growth, not just to prove a point against someone else. If I am working toward doing something and I am not sure of the way ahead, I ask the Lord for at least 3 verses, and then I ask for outside confirmation, PLUS His peace. Remember, He’s GOD He can do anything! And the Holy Spirit does not mind caution.

It is unfortunate that any one of us can twist the bible to say many things that support our POV. Be aware, and be warned against running on ahead or off on a tangent, without your church family. Watch out for gossip or judgment. “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”James 3:6. 

The bible clearly says this about consulting with the Lord. He is the Head of His body. Colossians 1:18:“And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything HE might be preeminent.” And Ephesians 1:22-23 says: “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”

We desperately need His Mind guiding us, teaching us, and convicting us of fleshly attitudes. When we ignore the renewal of our mind, we are just like those chickens, running on instincts, behaving in a mindless fashion! The bible says this in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” In other words if He doesn’t strengthen me I can’t do it!

So if you find yourself running out of strength, or feeling lost, then have a quick spiritual check-up! We are always going to need to know what is on the Lord’s mind. If I don’t know how to proceed, then I stop until the way ahead becomes clear again and I dive into His word until He speaks to me through it. 

“For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But WE have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. 1 Corinthians 2:16. Because of what the Lord did, He is not only our Head. WE can have His mind between us – collectively – that means you AND me. I may have a thought, and you could too, but when we put those thoughts together, prayerfully, we begin to access His mind.  Unfortunately, people like to avoid this bit, because human beings enjoy thinking they alone are right and someone else is wrong. We truly need each other because otherwise, pride – which goes right before a fall – can tip us off His Way. 

There is no room for ambition in the Body of Christ. As a matter of fact, if you need a faith boost or help for something that the Lord has asked you to do for Him, and other members agree with it, I will give you my back to give you a leg up! I don’t care about my reputation, My Saviour made Himself of no reputation for my sake, so it is incredibly easy for me to allow you to flourish, because I am benefitting the Body. And at the same time I am obeying the Head.

I think this attitude is why many wonderful godly men and women have fallen on the rocks of discouragement, and deception. The mind of Christ is a collective noun. Not a singular one. We have the mind of Christ. Not just me, and not just you. And definitely not pastor-everybody-knows-their name! ALL of us together. Obviously taking that world-wide can present major problems! But in our local church setting, I often find it is good to ask somebody else to pray with me. There are times my theology needs challenging. I can be selfish, plus I am not the whole body! Our harmony is under threat when we run about majoring on our differences.

We are not headless chickens.We are His Body and corporately we have the Mind of Christ. He is our Head, loving us, guiding us, and teaching us, leading us.  Hallelujah! 🙌 Bye.

P 2985 Learning to soar.

/ DVH

Anything that talks about soaring above the difficult things in this life will grab my attention. So today I want to read Paul’s idea of soaring above the cares of this world —- from Galatians 5:16-18 TPT. “Let me emphasise this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder Him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your self-life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. But when you yield to the life of the Spirit, you will no longer be living under the law, but soaring above it!”

Eagles soar. Have you ever noticed that chickens are always looking down, kicking up dust, looking for worms, scratching and pecking …  But eagles!! They fly higher and higher above this world’s activities, enjoying the warmer air that helps them fly. They see this world from a different vantage point.

I think this is part of Paul’s point today. We can face this life one of two ways. After the dust of trouble and strife has settled, we can choose to mount up on eagle’s wings. Thank you Isaiah 40! Or we can go on scratching about in this world’s ideas and clever trends, and miss seeing the vastness and incredible plans of God Himself. But we will need to choose to rise up and see what’s going on from His point of view. 

Sometimes, I end up being a chicken! Life can seem like one ghastly event is followed rapidly by another and then another — and I end up thinking “If I could only just get a moment to catch my breath!’  But the waves of life’s difficulties keep coming … and coming … and coming! Suddenly you have the horrid thought that you may be stuck in an endless sea of trouble, and it seems like you’ve been there for months! In the end I asked the Lord “Jesus, what is going on?”

Yeah! Have you ever had one of those moments when you wish you hadn’t even thought to ask a question…because you were pretty sure the answer was not going to be all that great?? I hear ya! This is what the Lord said to me, and I have to be honest – because I promised I would be honest on this blog …I was not over-the-moon thrilled with His answer. He talked to me about pruning. You know that stuff you have to do when you have a garden and the rose bush is heading for another state and your trees are hanging over into your neighbour’s yard? “I’m pruning you,” He said.

That’s when I realised I’d asked a question that I didn’t really want an answer to because I had already decided what kind of answer I would like! Which is an incredibly dumb idea. What I really wanted to say was: “Lemme outta here, I’m drowning. I need a happier times fix!” Eventually I sat and read the book. So far I’ve read John 15 about six times because it talks about pruning. Spiritual pruning didn’t sound all that much fun. The first thing I noticed is that if a branch in my life is fruitless … then a-pruning He will go! That pretty much emphasised the fact that being fruitful is extremely important to the Lord, even though I believe being fruitless can happen to all of us..

The secret to being fruitful is to stay in Him and His ways. This is what came up for me, as I was meditating on it. Remaining in Him, means I live this life aware of what I have been given by Him, but it is not just a happy thought I visit every now and then. Everything I am now, comes from that place of grateful recollection of Him saving me, plus everything He died to give me. I need to live my life, my very ordinary life, aware of the incredible exchange Jesus Himself provided for me. His eternal life for my death to self. His righteousness for my sinfulness. His perfect love for my own natural human affection …His peace for my irritability etc.

At the same time, I will have to actively cultivate and deliberately let what He says in His book remain in me – in my life and my thoughts. So now His Word becomes my reference point for everyone I relate to, everything that happens to me, and everything I do. It becomes my new conscious-thought pattern. Which sounds remarkably like “renew your mind” to me! The Lord cannot be an add-on —. He, and His life in me, are to be my focus. Living like this will lift me up above life’s difficulties and give me an eagle’s view instead!

We all want to be productive for His kingdom. We may be daily growing in knowledge, but if we are not bearing fruit, then we will eventually need to be pruned. Not because He is mad at us, but because pruning produces … fruit! Maybe we have all lived in the natural for so long, we’ve turned into chickens and the things of His kingdom seem hard to scratch out and find. We will have everything we need for whatever comes our way, if we let Him teach us how to soar, and cutting off the old dead wood is a good start. Bye. 👋