Obey

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻

P 2115 A word for thought.

/ DVH

 Many times in Christianity’s history, churches have prayerfully and sincerely slipped into the flow of what the Holy Spirit is actually doing and saying. We call that revival. I have seen a number of these revivals in my lifetime and they have fascinated me … because they rise… and then they eventually fade and disappear. I have a  theory about it to share with you this New Year’s day. 

The Holy Spirit loves the unity that is created by Him in these unfortunately, all-too-brief moments of heaven on earth. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit live in perfect unity in eternity and They love to see us live that way too. Sadly, I think that that is the place where we need to be more interested in loving and pleasing Him, than in the supernatural stuff that is happening. If we are not careful we can focus so much on the miracles etc. at those times, than we do on the One Who is touching us!  Man’s personal agendas creep in.

Sadly, there are many needy people in this world, and it is easy to become enamoured with signs and wonders and start to try to benefit from His Presence. Things like the Lord blessing the flock, as well as the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. When these times of revival and refreshing occur maybe we need to carefully listen to what God wants to DO with what He created, when He brought this group of particular people together in the first place! He has a purpose for the fire that fell on them. It seems to me, that the leaders get so busy trying to spread what He is doing, they cannot see that they are trying to organise Him. And I don’t think we know we are doing it! 

Many wonderful people of God have been given a Grace to even know how to work together at those times. But that is still His Grace in action. We can only give away to each other what He gives us, in the first place. We are receivers first .. distribution happens almost as a secondary benefit – a bi-product … not the main event. On many occasions in church history the Lord Himself brought those sticks, and branches (the people) together to create His revival fire. 

At the same time, satan loves to create situations that cause the unity we have in His Presence to be eroded, broken, or displaced, and one by one those people that lived to love Him and each other, walk or drift away. Maybe they simply want to take the fire of His Spirit elsewhere. We need to remember … the Holy Spirit is the WIND. We cannot micromanage the WIND. You simply go along with where He is blowing! Persecution brought about the disciples’ dispersement in Acts.

At the same time, human beings also seem to be very fond of duplicating existing models that seem to be working. So they use this church’s model or that denominational theory to try to get God to do stuff. Their motivation is to bless people. But the root of God’s Vine is Christ Jesus – not us. Sadly perhaps we have not realised that revival happens in the first place without human help. Just because WE prayed, however we did it, that does not mean that is why revival is here. The thing is at those times of fire and blessing, it looks to me like the leaders try to take control of His fire – that’s when He will take His hands off – because He honours our choices, even when they are NOT GOOD.

And this leader goes over here to start another church – like that person had that fire in the first place! What do we have that was not given to us? Pretty soon, the lives that provided the kindling for that particular blaze – start to become separated. They try to repeat the pattern they thought brought heaven to earth in the first place. We forget that Father God takes the initiative, that’s what Christ’s coming shows us. We respond – GRATEFULLY. We are not the fire starters … HE IS. This is where I’ve seen many people come to a fork in the road. I truly believe it is possible to have two perfectly-right, God-kissed things in front of you… however, we need to know which one does HE value the most? 

It seems to me that we need to show the Holy Spirit far more honour and constantly look to His wisdom and guidance. He loves for us to pause and carefully wait for Him, and not run on ahead. I personally think pausing is extremely  powerful because He values US dying to self, our ambition, our hopes and dreams, above everything else. A  revival is a display of His love and passion for us. However, He is God, He can say more than one thing at once. We pray “Lord send the fire, please send revival” – because we want to see lives changed and souls saved. I think we need ONE aim – our singular aim needs to be to obey, please and follow Him in any season. Everything else, including signs and wonders, is secondary to that aim.

Jesus Himself did all kinds of unusual things in men’s eyes. Sometimes He told the people who were healed to tell no-one. At other times He disappeared whilst the fire of healing and change was burning brightly. WHY??? Why did He do what He did? I dunno, but I have a theory! However, we need to find out by leaning heavily on the Holy Spirit’s wisdom. Personally I think He did those things because His primary aim was to obey and please His Father. Our Heavenly Father HAS LONG RANGE PLANS – we dare not run ahead of them.

I don’t think God cares if we have Mega churches or not – what He is looking for is a people who will take the time to listen to Him, love each other and follow Him in through all kinds of circumstances. It seems to me that He loves people who esteem His approval over everything else. The hallmark of people like this is best expressed by a man who had his head chopped off! John the Baptist said … in the middle of a booming ministry (!!) … “He must increase and I must decrease.” And then he died.

People who value the Holy Spirit like this, lack human ambition, and I am blessed to know them. They would rather someone else’s ministry prosper, because they feel the heartbeat of God on what the other people are doing. Revival does not capture God – HE CAPTURES US!! The Lord is looking for a people who want what He wants no matter what it costs them. These are my thoughts at the beginning of this New Year.  May the God of all hope be praised and glorified among us even more in 2023. 👋🏻