for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you
The current moral or immoral revolution we are experiencing broke out in the sixties. It was the supposed liberation of repressed sexuality or morality into a more inclusive society that more or less made space for anyone to try anything they desired. Where the church had globally held moral authority for 2000 years, Jezebel showed her ugly head and started to corrupt society and put into place a short, medium and long term plan.
Continue reading “Jezebel and the moral revolution”
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we praise, Jesus sits in the gateway to the temple (He is seated in the praises of His people). If we take the analogy of a gateway ( metaphorically our mouths as life and death are at the power of the tongue) this is the place of authority and access but also the place where business is conducted, declarations are made, oaths are taken and generally where things are “administered”.
The gateway is also a vector of expression, it is the place where we are “seen in public” as it were, where what we are in private is seen by all. With us humans this can be verbal, musical, artistic, mathematical, intellectual expressions but also actions or movement, work ethic, excellence kindness, love, joy, encouragement etc. Any godly expression that humans are capable of can be used to demonstrate the character of the King and thus of His kingdom.
Continue reading “Jesus stands in the gateway”
Christ was never decapitated, he was crucified. His head was never separated from His body so can we justify loving His body less than His head?
God wants to draw the body together in a totally new way in the coming year, we need to be in love with each other in a passionate and profound way.
We cannot say “I love Jesus” and hate ANY part of His body.
The premise for fire is always sacrifice. I have often asked for the fire of God to fall but without understanding the need for a sacrifice to be “offered”. So the first question is; “what is sacrifice?”.
Sacrifice can take many forms, in the old testament it was an animal, grain, bread, oil, drink or money but whatever the sacrifice, it always cost something, it was never free. We see God reprimanding Israel for offering lame lambs or “damaged goods” that they would not dare offer their own human governors. So cost reflects the value that we place on something but also the value we place on the person we are making the offering to. Sacrificing to God is honouring Him for who he is.
Continue reading “Fire and Sacrifice”
So, here we go. Why do we need to forgive? Why should we forgive someone who cheated, slandered, stole or wronged us in any one of a million different ways.
Often we did nothing to deserve it, it seems gratuitous from our perspective and may well be; so why should I, who was wronged, forgive the person who afflicted me with their messed up attitude to life?
Basically a choice has been given to us.
Every community has an authority or authorities, whether it be a family, a town, a church, a nation, a business or a sports club. Authorities have been put in place by God to be gateways, points of entry and exit if you will, to their respective communities.
Gateways protect entrances from unwanted or hostile influences and allow friendly or desired influences in. They also largely represent what comes out of a community to the outside world. Continue reading “Authority and gateways”
How are we to love the unlovable of society? It’s one thing to love a common criminal for example a thief or a brawler, but what about the worst of the worst? What about the ones, often judged to be worthy of death by many, such as the rapist, the “school shooters” or paedophile? Continue reading “Loving a monster”
I got to thinking about rainbows the other day and it was as if the Lord spoke to me clearly. Rainbows are a symbol of God’s promise to Noah never to destroy the earth again with a flood and are more generally thought of as symbolising God’s promises.
God’s promises are revealed when the Word and the Spirit come into conjunction and the hearer is correctly positioned, then a “Rhema” word is revealed. A Rhema word is The word of God revealed by the Spirit of God for a decisive moment, it often carries power to bring breakthrough and change. (there are many, many theologians who will explain this way better than me; Wikipedia definition). Continue reading “Rainbows”
Justice is an interesting subject and I believe key to understanding God’s view and purpose for the earth and everything in it.
The notion of justice as we understand it on earth entails dispensation of punishment relating to a crime or sin. With God things are similar in the Old Testament but change substantially with the arrival of Jesus Christ. Jesus is all about getting what someone infinitely better that me deserves. I don’t get what I deserve, I get what Christ deserves (we were made co-inheritors in Christ). Continue reading “The justice of God”
The bible makes many analogies between blessing and agriculture, these include watering where rain is a symbol of blessing or growing, where blessing is increased through diligence and care.
The Word also mentions preparing the ground and this is probably the most important step in receiving and maintaining a blessing. If we compare what a sower does the picture is clear. The ground is weeded, fertilised and enriched, tilled and sometimes trenched to retain water, before it receives the grain. If the ground is not properly prepared then we get what happened in the parable of the sower where the ground is either dry or full of weeds or has no depth of soil to receive the seed. Rain runs straight through unprepared ground.