Category Archives: Discipleship and witness

The world will know that we are Jesus’s disciples by our love; but Jesus didn’t tell us that this is how we make disciples. The New Testament model for making disciples is to glorify the Father by doing His works in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to show the world the Triune God in action.

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Holiness: You shall be perfect, Knowing God

The Mind of Christ: Approving What is Excellent.

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“But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16)

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Phil 2: 1-5)

It’s easy to allow these verses to be eclipsed by the famous passage that comes next, in which Paul lifts Christ as our pattern of “lowliness of mind,” of doing nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, of looking out for the interests of others. Love and Unity, writes Paul, will result If we have “this mind” in us; that to be like-minded is to have the mind of Christ, the mindset that took Jesus to the cross and brought Him glory. When we read this, our own witness to His light in our lives can seem like a flickering candle against the blazing sun of Calvary. But is this what Paul means?

The Starting Point
Let’s look at verses 1-2 again:

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

Paul wrote in Greek, not English. These are the words he used:

 “consolation“ is paraklēsis. It has the same root as the word paraklētos, which is the name that Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit in John 15:26 and is variously translated as the Helper, the Comforter, the Advocate, depending on which emphasis the translators of the different versions have given to the word. Basically “consolation” is everything that the Paraclete brings.

“Comfort” is paramythion. Whether this is translated as “comfort” or as “consolation” (not to be confused with the paraklēsis brought to us by the Holy Spirit), this has one meaning in Greek: it means “persuasive address.” This is about the impact on our lives by God’s love. Are we touched by it, or not?

“Fellowship”, as we may know, is koinonia. It means intimacy, communion, close fellowship, joint participation. It marked the lives of the early church communities, and we seek for it to be the same for our churches today.

Affection (splagchnon ) and mercy (oiktirmos)  are related: affection means “bowels” and is translated as such in the King James version. The “bowels“ were considered the seat of the tenderer emotions such as mercy, kindness and compassion that also characterise much of the fruit of the Spirit, and is the same word that Jesus uses for the place within us from which the living waters of the Spirit flow. Oiktirmos describes the emotions that flow from the splagchnon.

Basically verse one is saying “If there is actually is  any expression of the Holy Spirit in Christ… if love has any impact on you at all, if there is any mercy in your heart , then the very least you can do is be one mind, care about each other, set aside your own ambitions and pride, and have the same mindset as Jesus when He went to the Cross.” When we look at what Paul has actually said rather than what our translations have made of it, one thing is clear: true unity, the unity of the Spirit, is the starting point of our Christian walk, not the destination. Wow.

The way forward
Fortunately Paul gives the Philippians, and ourselves, a way forward as his letter unfolds, that enable us to ”press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ.” (Phil 3:14) It is not a series of ministry sessions or intense or prolonged Bible study; and it is not an expectation to spend an hour and a half from 5:30 every morning seeking the presence of God before going to work- although all of these may well have their place at times.  They start in Phil 1: 9-11:

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.“

The “things that are excellent” that our love will abound in when we let the mind of Christ fill our thinking are defined towards the end of the letter, in chapter 4:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:8-9)

Pressing out
In Pentecostal/charismatic circles we often talk about “pressing in” to the presence of God, and seeking His peace. The challenge to us in these verses is different, though. 1 John 1:5 tells us this: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,”  and Jesus tells his disciples: “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” (John 14:30) There is nothing in the mind of Christ that is not excellent. The challenge to us is also a promise: if we fill our minds with the sort of things that Christ has in His, and if we live our lives out of them as he (Paul) did, God’s presence, and His peace, will manifestly be with us.

This is how we “approve what is excellent.”  This is the filter for our lives. This is the place where we take our thoughts captive; where, along with pressing into God, we press out what isn’t of Him. It is how we “renew our minds,” and is central to seeing the fruit of the Spirit (“The fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ”) abound in our lives. When Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he is returning to a theme he had already expressed to the Romans three or four years earlier, when he wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

If we want to know the transformation that will result in us shining as lights to the world in this crooked and perverse generation, we start by filling our thinking with the light of Christ.

Discipleship and witness, Knowing God, Walking in the Spirit

Children of Light: the attributes of jasper.

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“For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as Children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8)

The New Self
Ephesians 4: 17-24 give us some clear principles of how to walk in the spirit as new creations:

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Paul sums this up in a single verse in the next chapter of this letter:

“For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as Children of light.“ (Ephesians 5:8)

Human thinking and the philosophy of the world tells us that what is natural grows and develops; it may become more complex and it may grow bigger, but in essence it remains the same: the genes of the baby are the genes of the adult. We might seek to improve the self, but we still keep the core.

The Bible gives us a different model: we “put off” the old self because everything that it grows in is based on desire and deception – “deceitful lusts” –  and we “put on” a new self entirely. The first principle of the Christian life is that this old self dies at the cross and is replaced by a God-given new spiritual self that is born from heaven, “created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” While our human brains cannot adequately conceptualize the spiritual realm that we belong to, God has given us some revelation of heavenly realities through the Apostle John, including a glimpse of the details of something in particular that that comes down from heaven: the construction of the new Jerusalem.

“The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.” (Revelation 21: 18-20)

These are not just building bricks, they are stones of a different order, whose purpose is not just construction, but the reflection of light. And we are told unambiguously what is the nature of the light that shines there:

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it.” (Rev 21:23-24)

Since we ourselves are “light in the Lord“, and our call is to “walk as Children of light,“ born from above and walking in the spirit that comes from above, and since “the nations of those who are saved” will also be walking in this light, then it makes sense to consider in a little depth the nature of the heavenly light that shines in the dimension of the spirit and which God has chosen us to reflect into the world.

Pure Light
It strikes me every time I read that description of the stones of the new Jerusalem that there are some notable gems missing: specifically diamonds and rubies – those that are probably the most highly prized on earth. In an attempt to understand more of the nature of those 12 foundation stones in the walls of the new Jerusalem, scientists took very thin slices of each of them, along with other precious stones not listed there, including diamonds and rubies, and shone pure light through them. To achieve “pure”  light they polarised it twice, the second time at a 90° angle to the first. The result was astonishing. When this pure light was shown through the 12 “heavenly” stones it refracted into brilliant colours all around, irrespective of the angle that it shone through. In scientific language, the heavenly stones have isotropic properties. Diamonds and rubies however are anisotropic: when the pure light was shone through them there was no refraction at all. It was black – which is why they have to be specially cut so that a prism is created.

Paramount among the heavenly stones is Jasper. It was the first foundation Stone of the wall of the city, the wall itself was constructed of Jasper, and in Revelation 4:3 we read that the One who sat on the throne – God Himself – was “like a jasper and a sardius stone and appearance.“ In the world, “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” But Jaspers?? When I was a boy, Jaspers were what were used to call wasps (don’t ask me why. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…)   The Lamb was the light that filled the new Jerusalem with glory and indescribable colour refracting from the wall made of a material that compared in beauty with the appearance of God Himself, and from the twelve isotropic gemstone settings of its foundations. The heavenly light that surrounds us where we are seated in spiritual realms turns the Kohinoor Diamond into a lump of coal.

Jesus said, “If … the light that is in you is darkness, then how great is that darkness!” (Matt 6:23)

The world’s values of success and prominence tempt us, whether in the church or out of it, to walk in the light of diamonds, but  to walk as children of heavenly light we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Not the diamonds of success but the Jaspers of heaven, revealing the light of God whose children we are.

The Light of the World
Jesus makes it clear that not only is He the light of the world, but so are we. (Matt 5:14) If our minds are filled with heavenly light, it will be revealed in our words and our deeds. David knew this when he prayed “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,” and in Philippians 4: 8 – 9 we read:

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

When we make it our focus to “meditate on these things,“ we are setting the foundations of our wall with God’s chosen gemstones. Furthermore, we are assured that if we do this, “The God of Peace will be with us.” If we are hungry for the presence of God, it seems that we begin with the renewal of our minds.  Paul writes to the Corinthians “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ,“ (1 Cor 11:1)  and in the above verses he tells us explicitly how to go about it. “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do.” The more heavenly stones that we set into the walls of our thinking, the more easily their light can reveal the ones that don’t belong. Not diamonds, but jaspers.

My own “finally brethren,” is this: being renewed in the spirit of our minds is not just about being right with God in our thinking, although of course this will be the case. But the takeaway has to be the sheer rainbow beauty and brilliance of the heavenly light that Jesus has given us to walk in. This is His glory, and is no less than He deserves. I think it is when we truly put on our new self and walk in the light of who we are in Christ that Isaiah 60:3  can start to become a reality in our lives:

“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

The material about the 12 foundations stones is from an In Depth Interview by David Aldous of GOD-TV (with David Pawson 2000) on The New Heaven and The New Earth. To watch the extract, click here: https://youtu.be/HFMrQUjp-Aw

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Knowing God

Heavenly Glory

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“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (John 12:24)

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crown gathered in the belief that their King was arriving. As the Pharisees themselves put it: “the world has gone after him.“ The story gives us a stark contrast between how the world sees kingship, and the kingship of heaven; earthly glory against heavenly glory. When Philip told Jesus that some Greeks wanted to speak to Him, Jesus explains what  heavenly glory means:

“But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:23-25)

True glory is the multiplication of life. Jesus was glorified when He gave His life on the cross so that it could shine across the world. He calls us to do the same: to lay down our lives so that His light can be released for others.

Jesus says: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour.” (John 12:26)

To serve Jesus we have to be where He is and not follow our own inclinations. This always seems like a tough call, but the blessing is that when we die to ourselves we step into resurrection life. It is only when we do this that His life in us can be released for others. The relevance of our status to the Kingdom of God is zero. A friend pointed out to me the other day (which other day depends on when you read this, of course) that Paul endured a beating and imprisonment before revealing that he was a Roman citizen – which would of course have spared him the suffering. But it was when he was in the prison that God was glorified.

We have all seen pictures and videos of crowds gathering at an evangelistic rally, and there is always a temptation for us to wave our palm fronds before the evangelist. And there is also a temptation for the evangelist to count the palm fronds as a measure of his success, and to glory in the brightness of the fire that the people flock to. But while the fire may be spectacular, the glory is not in the flames but in the life that they bring.

Talking of John the Baptist, Jesus said: “He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.” (John 5:35) The fact that the Jews “were content to rejoice ” in the light of John the Baptist didn’t make them followers of Jesus, and today people can warm themselves in the flames of a powerful ministry without letting it impact their lives, particularly when it shines across the internet; and it is tempting to desire that others will warm themselves in our flames as well. But we are neither performers nor applauding spectators: we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17: 7-10), and our job is to be close to Jesus and serve Him in all that He is doing so that only He gets the glory. We neither seek nor give applause. But if we lay down our own lives to serve and follow Jesus, the Father himself will honour us. When you walk in resurrection life, you don’t need palm fronds.

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith, The word of God, Walking in the Spirit

Word and Spirit: Faith-filled discipleship

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Dead and buried
John’s gospel comes in to land on Christ’s personal call to Peter, to you and to me: “Do you love me? Follow me.” In this final conversation that we are party to, Jesus revealed to Peter that his life on Earth would not end well; that he would follow Him all the way to the cross. And the same is true for us: we can’t follow Jesus, unless we die with him. Fortunately, for most of us that death has already been accomplished, and we are indeed not only dead, but  dead and buried: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”(Colossians 2:12) In fact Colossians 3: 3  goes on to tell us “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and Paul continues: “when Christ, who is our life appears, you also will appear with him in glory.“

At the same time Jesus declared that he came to give us “life in abundance,” (John 10:10), and Romans 8:11 tells us: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” So I died when I gave my life to Christ; my life is hidden with Him until He appears, yet this “hidden” life is still available to me in this mortal existence – indeed to “put on the new man” (Eph 4:24) is a fundamental principle of new testament Christianity. How can I “put on” this new life that I have been raise to with Christ, this resurrection life, if it is “hidden with Christ in God” and won’t appear until Jesus returns in glory? It would seem that there is something of a theological circle to square here.

His word carries His life
I think one key is in an earlier statement from Jesus in the gospel of John: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life “ (John 6:63) Our life is in the words He speaks to us. The very substance of God’s word is spirit and life. Whether it’s the written logos, quickened to us by the Holy Spirit as we read it, a prophetic word spoken over us, a rhema word spoken directly into our hearts, or whatever other medium God chooses to avail Himself of to speak to us, His word carries His life. Jesus circles back to this theme in the great image of the Vine, in John 15, where He makes it clear that one of the conditions of our fruitfulness is that His words abide in us:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (verses 7-8)

It is the words He speaks to us that are the vehicle of His abundant Life, and from His abundant life flows our fruitfulness, while the branches of the vine that don’t carry His word are “cast out and withered.” But there is another layer to this: talking of us and the Israelites, the writer to the Hebrews says: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Heb 4:2)  If we are going to “profit” from the words that we hear so that the Spirit and Life that is their substance becomes part of our lives, they need to be “mixed with faith.” We can believe that all of God’s promises are true; we can believe the entire “logos” word of the Bible; we can receive and agree with a prophetic “rhema” word over our lives; but unless we act on what we believe to be true we are still standing with the Israelites of old on the “start” square of the Kingdom game board. We need to throw the dice and move. If there is no action to take, we prepare ourselves to take action, so when God says “Go now” we aren’t saying “Hang on a minute – I need to pack my bags…”

The word mixed with faith
Scripture is most emphatic about the need to “mix the word with faith.” The writer to the Hebrews actually calls it “an evil heart of unbelief” if we don’t do so:

“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. “

Believing, in NT usage, is not about intellectual assent; it is about active trust. And to “mix the word with faith” doesn’t just refer to “stepping out in faith” for ministry, or giving, or other faith-filled acts: we also have to trust the word of God if we are going to “put on the new man” and put off the old “members“ of sin that dwell on the Earth. We have to trust the word of the Spirit to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. This means letting go of our old way doing things, our old mindsets, our old way of reacting to people and situations. They have to be dead and buried, and this takes active faith on a daily basis, because  “the deceitfulness of sin” will always rise up to try and protect the flesh. If we trust Jesus with our lives and remember to call on Him when trouble is on us, His peace will rule in our hearts and He will show us the way forward. If we try to protect ourselves with our emotions, then fear and anxiety will always have the upper hand. The flesh profits nothing.

Chalk on a blackboard
As we know, God speaks with a “still, small voice.” It is like chalk on a blackboard that rubs off easily. Whether He is saying “Be patient,” “Give that person £100,” or “Go and talk to that woman at the bus stop,” we need to act “today,” while the white writing is still there, because if we don’t the words will soon fade and only the black will remain; and instead of following the Living God we will “depart from Him” and our hearts become increasingly desensitised because we are not seeing Him work in our lives. It is sometimes said that faith is like a muscle: if we don’t exercise it, it will waste away; but the more we exercise it, the stronger it gets. Jesus revealed this principle when He said to His disciples:

“It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Matt 13:12)

Paul writes: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” (Col 3:16).  Richly is also translated as abundantly. Did you notice the word “abundance” again in the above scripture? If we want to really know abundant life and be fruitful disciples we need to act on what we have been given. It is of course Paul who squares the circle.  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)  The abundant life that we walk in when we respond in faith to the word of God isn’t actually our life at all, but it is Christ in us.

We have died, and our lives are hidden with Christ in God, but whenever we act in faith on the words that He gives us this life comes back to us from Heaven, we take another step in the supernatural, and Jesus is revealed.  Surely this is to die for?

Discipleship and witness, Knowing God, Living by Faith, Walking in the Spirit

Breakfast on the Beach: the King and His Kingdom

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“After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.”
(John 21: 1-6)

Anything eaten with bread
I don’t know how many times I have read this account since I first staggered into John’s gospel nearly 40 years ago, but it struck me this time that Jesus didn’t ask them the natural question that you put to fishermen, which is “Have you caught anything?” Instead He asked if they had got any food. I wondered why He addressed them in this way, so I looked up the Greek. The word He used is prosphagion, which is sometimes also translated as “meat,” but refers particularly to anything eaten with bread. Since the men were fishing, Jesus was obviously asking about fish, but what He was asking was “Do you have any fish to eat with bread?”

As we know, the answer was a big round zero. They had nothing that went with bread. When we look at this figuratively it becomes even richer in meaning, because whatever it is that our “fishing” entails, not only does its fruitfulness depend on whether or not we are being guided by the Holy Spirit, but it is incomplete without Jesus, the Bread.

The King and the Kingdom
The disciples had nothing, and Jesus, the Bread from Heaven, was there with everything. He had bread and fish to eat, and the fire it was cooking on. He could have just given his tired, hungry friends a breakfast to remember and they would have been filled and happy. But He wasn’t just meeting their needs, He was revealing Himself and demonstrating something of His Kingdom – the other side of the boat. Having given the disciples the “Life in abundance” that cannot be found outside of His Kingdom, He invited them to bring Him their catch. And just as their prosphagion – their food – was incomplete without Him, so His breakfast was incomplete without their catch. Jesus is Lord of a Kingdom: if we want to bring people to the King, we need to show them His Kingdom; and we cannot invite them to the Kingdom without introducing them to the King.

“As soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.” Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.” Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.” (vs 9-13)

Sharing the feast
So whatever “catch” the Lord sovereignly provides for us, He still asks us to bring it to Him, because “By Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16). As we move into a season where reliance on the Holy Spirit’s direction and provision is going to become increasingly necessary, it is paramount that we remember that He wants us to share the feast with Him. Paul writes: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Col 3:17) He hosts the breakfast, and He must have the glory, not just in name, but in the secret place of our hearts. Anyone can tag “in the name of Jesus” onto the end of a prayer or to cover an action, but the new testament “onama” means so much more than just a designation. Strong’s definition is “the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one’s rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.” We cannot genuinely operate in Jesus’s name if we want our own name in lights as well. If we do not stay in this place of humility we risk drawing attention to the gifts and not to the Giver, and then the Holy Spirit is grieved and will eventually withdraw. Revivals die and ministries burn out when the breakfast is no longer shared with the Lord.

Feeding Others
But the story doesn’t finish here, because immediately after breakfast, Jesus asks Peter to feed and tend His flock. The two aren’t separate. Jesus didn’t just appear on the beach to tell Peter to feed His flock; He demonstrated how to do it by feeding him first. And as it was with Peter, so it is with us: if we have a calling to feed others, we must be able to point them to the abundant life on the Kingdom side of the boat, and then we must invite them into His presence, where the fire of the Holy Spirit is burning.

Discipleship and witness, Knowing God

The Works of the Father (2)

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Just before Jesus died, he declared: “It is finished!“ (John 19:30)  The great work of salvation through His sacrificial death on the cross was accomplished. The veil was torn, and the way to the Father was open.

But this triumphant moment was not the first time that Jesus said that His work was finished. Just after He starts praying to the Father, (John 17:4) He says: “I have finished the work you have given me to do…“ The word teleioō that is used here, translated as completed, or finished, is the same word that He used at the moment of His death. But whatever “work” that the Son of God was referring to as He prayed to the Father, it could not have been the work of redemption, because His blood had not yet been shed. So what was it?

He gives us the answer himself. The full text of John 17:4 – 6 is this:

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

The work that Jesus finished before He went to the cross was to reveal the Father to the ones that the Father had given Him, and by demonstration of the Father’s works to show that He was the one whom the Father had sent…

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” (John 10: 37-38)

… so that, once sin had been atoned for and the Holy Spirit had been given, they could faithfully carry on the work of revealing the Father to others.

 “As the Father sent me, so I send you,” He said. (John 20:21) So now, 2000 years later, here we stand, being sent into all the world to make disciples, called to do the same work that Jesus did, in His name. No less than those first twelve were trained and equipped to carry on with His mission, our task is to reveal the Father to the ones He brings us. Jesus completed the work of revealing the Father because He knew Him intimately; He was, as He said more than once, one with Him. But this was His promise to us, and His prayer for us as well: “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.” (John 17:23)

In the Spirit we are one with the Father as we are one with Jesus. So how well to we know Him? Do we know what He is feeling? Can we see what He is seeing? Can we hear what He is saying? His thoughts aren’t our thoughts – so if we are going to follow Jesus by revealing Him, we need to spend time with Him and learn what His thoughts actually are. As we walk in the grace and forgiveness that Jesus purchased for us at that second, and greatest, moment of completion, let us remember the work that He spoke of at the time of the first one, and that He has passed on to us.

 By His Spirit the Father dwells within us, waiting to be manifested.

Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith, The word of God

Stained Glass Windows

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Seeing Jesus

When Philip and Andrew told Jesus about the Greeks who wanted to see him, His response was not “Okay, bring them to Me,” but a long discourse about what it means to see.

How did He respond?

“But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour.” (John 12: 23-26)

Jesus is not interested in being “seen” by people who want to satisfy their curiosity or whose academic interest is aroused. He is looking for disciples who will serve Him by doing what He asks, follow Him by walking in His ways, and fellowship with Him by being attentive to His whispered instructions. We see Him when we walk with Him; not when we gawp at Him. We can’t take those steps of obedience unless we die to our own will and say, “Lord, Let your will be done, ” but when we do, and we let our own grain of wheat fall to the ground, the eternal life in the Word of God bears fruit and we see growth and multiplication. It is when we truly see Jesus that our lives become fruitful.

Children of Light

The next question that Jesus didn’t answer was when they asked Him what He meant by the statement:

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (John 12: 31-32)

“What do you mean?” they say. But just as the Son of God is not interested in being looked at as an object of interest, he is never interested in explaining Himself just for the sake of it.  Every word that Jesus speaks is from the Father. (“Whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-40) What Jesus- and through Him, the Father – said to them, was:  “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.”

He is still talking about spiritual sight, and, as is so often the case, He is not just addressing the people standing around Him, but every soul down the centuries who would seek Him. He has come as Light into the world, and His strategy for spreading that Light, and ultimately filling the earth with the Father’s glory, is to multiply children of Light. Psalm 119:130 tells us that the entrance of His words gives light, but here He says that the light is only with us for a little while. God will always accomplish His word, but He will only accomplish it through us if we respond to it while we still have that light of His word burning in our hearts. Believing in the light isn’t just knowing it’s there, but it’s active faith. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17), and at the same time we are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only, (James 1:22). So If we don’t do what He says the light will eventually dim, and darkness will overtake us. The stark truth is that if the Light around us isn’t increasing it’s because we’re following or own inclinations, walking after the flesh and not after the Spirit. Whether these are worthy works of the flesh, or unworthy ones, is immaterial.

So we see Jesus when we lay down our lives in order to do what he says. The Greeks wanted to see Jesus for the sake of the spectacle. Jesus wants us to see Him by walking with Him in His light. When we are where He is, we see Him; and when we see Him we are walking as children of light.

Stained Glass Windows

We can see images of Jesus in stained glass windows all over the Western world, and we can look at Him mentally on a Sunday, like those Greeks probably wanted to; we can think how wonderful He is, then we can walk out of our church services without being changed. We associate stained glass windows with traditional church buildings, but we all have our stained glass windows: they can be the humanised images of Jesus that we can look at without letting them touch the way we live, or they can be the patterns of our particular brand of religion or our cherished church structures that remain unchanged when the cloud of God’s presence has moved on. We can be looking at a stained glass window whatever the state of our hearts.

One of the brightest lights of the modern church age was the one that shone at Azuza Street from 1906-1908, which spread round the world in the Pentecostal movement and which is still shining today. Led by a black preacher in a time of segregated churches, a constant in the miraculous manifestations of God’s power and presence during that revival was the unity and love between black, white, rich and poor, among the thousands who queued up to throng the benches in that simple building. Attendees at the time reported that the love that flowed between the people there was tangible. The unity commanded the blessing – and when God commands, what can oppose? However darkness did overtake the light at Azuza Street. Increasing numbers of church leaders preferred their stained glass windows to the move of the Holy Spirit, and turned their congregations away from attending. Why did people believe what they were told by men instead of believing the works of the Father that that had seen? I think it’s because a fault line had appeared in the unity among the people: the circulation of the “Apostolic Faith” publication that had come out of the revival had skyrocketed, and an argument arose as to who owned the rights to it. The unity was broken, the command of blessing was withdrawn, and darkness was allowed to overtake the light.

At the moment we all “see through a glass, darkly.” What Jesus wants is for us to walk in the light that is shining through the glass, and hasten the time when we will indeed see Him face to face.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7).

Discipleship and witness, Prophesy and the prophetic, Walking in the Spirit

The Dance

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The other morning I switched on the car radio and a piece of music came on that is a favourite of mine:  it was waltz no 2, from Jazz suite no, 2, written by the Russia composer Dimitri Shostakovitch in 1938. I felt the Lord say “Pay attention to this,” so I listened more thoughtfully than usual. It’s a lilting, melodious piece, with the melody repeated on different instruments. It was written in a harsh and chaotic time, when Russia was in the grip of Stalin’s harsh and brutal regime, yet it is peaceful and melodious. It leads the listener in a dance, even though the world around it was running and cowering in fear and deprivation when it was composed. The orchestra are in a building apart, intent on working together and following the cues of the conductor, while outside the building purpose and direction are either held in the iron grip of the dictator, or are the disassociated hopes and dreams of people trying to escape that grip.

Today the grip of another dictator is tightening around society. Subtly and deceitfully, Satan is taking control of life, in different ways and in different parts of the world, but all with the aim of strengthening his position against his hated enemy, Jesus Christ, and the army of His followers, before whom he knows he will one day fall. But separated from the screaming and the pounding of feet is a building, the Church of Jesus Christ, where those within are working together in peace and harmony as they follow the cues of their conductor, the King Himself, who leads them by His Spirit as they play His tune. I felt that the Lord spoke to me through this piece of music, saying something like this:

“You play my tune on your instrument. Now you, over there, play my tune on your different instrument. Now altogether, now in twos and threes, now individually, my tune on the different instruments you have been given. And the result is joy, and peace and harmony. Whatever is going on outside the door, there is peace and harmony as you stay in my presence. But you must concentrate on me, and as the noise around you gets louder, and it will, you  will need to concentrate harder. While you pay attention to me there is harmony, but if you start getting distracted by what you perceive the others in the orchestra to be doing you will lose the beat, you will play out of tune, there will be discord, and you will not only get left behind yourself, but you will cause others to fall out of step as well. So listen to me and follow me, your conductor, and I will lead you in my dance. Do not get left behind because you are listening to others and not to me. And as you dance those outside will see and wonder, and many will come and join in, because it is the victory dance that my Spirit is conducting in preparation for my return.

So watch out for my baton: I am not just in your churches, but in your market halls, your workplaces, your railway stations. There are many more who will come: watch out for them. When you obey me and play your instrument when and how I say, sometimes on your own, sometimes with others, the souls that I am calling will stop and listen, and they will come and join in the dance.”

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and manifests through us the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” (2 Cor 2:14)

Discipleship and witness, Holiness: You shall be perfect, Pursuing Love

The City on a Hill

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“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5: 14-16)

There is much in the New Testament about building. Jesus said He would build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The New Testament writers encourage us repeatedly to build. Jude wrote: “But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith” (Jude 1:20), Peter says that we “as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,” (1 Pe 2:5), and Paul picks up the same theme when he writes to the Ephesians  “in whom (Jesus)  the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” The Greek word used for building up and edifying are the same: oikodome. Speaking of our church gatherings, Paul writes “ Let all things be done for edification.” (1 Cor 14:26) but this doesn’t just apply to our church meetings: it applies to everything that we say to one another: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Eph 4:29) Every time we open our mouths, we are to release the Grace of God. In fact the whole of the Christian life has a single purpose, which is to “grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

So the Big Question is, how do we actually build this city set on a hill? What does it mean to actually be builders in God’s kingdom, to be a body that edifies itself (builds itself up) in love? I think the key is simple enough: we don’t build for ourselves, but for others. Jesus is clear about this: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Whatever we build for someone else is never going to be lost or spoilt through our own carnal failings, but remains our treasure forever – whatever happens to it in the recipient’s hands. Agape love has no vested interest in what it has given. It’s building a house for someone else to live in and walking away without being paid.

When Paul exhorts us to us to “let no corrupt word proceed from our mouth, only what is the necessary edification“ – in other words, only speak words that build other people up – he continues with these words: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” (Eph 4: 29-30). I think many of us read this and just take it that Paul has moved onto another subject. But I don’t think he has. I think what grieves the Holy Spirit is not our negative emotions in themselves, but the fact that their presence among us stops Him releasing the pure love of Jesus Christ that is expressed through the Holy Spirit’s ministry and which will build the City on the Hill. He is grieved because He loves us so much and yet we ourselves prevent Him from fully expressing His love within the very body whose purpose it is to reveal it. Nobody longs for revival more than Jesus.

So just as moth and rust corrupt any treasure that we lay up for ourselves on Earth, corrupt words will spoil God’s spiritual house and prevent it from being built through us.  When Paul writes “let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you, along with all malice” he pretty well covers the whole gamut of the rubbish that we can carry in our uncleansed hearts. But what is so encouraging here is the word that is often translated as “put away.” The Greek word literally means to be lifted up. He doesn’t say that we must somehow rid ourselves of everything that can corrupt our words. He isn’t standing over us with a pointing finger: he says that they have to be lifted off us, because we can’t just put them away by ourselves.

And this isn’t just in church meetings: it is all the time. If our words are corrupted by piqued egos, unsatisfied longings and  unforgiven bitterness during the week, we will not speak words that will edify others on a Sunday morning or whenever we meet. We might even say all the right things, but we can’t really impart grace if we aren’t full of grace ourselves; if we are just putting on a show. But in the grace of God all this rubbish can be lifted off us. As I said, we may not be able to get rid of it ourselves, but Jesus can lift it off us. Indeed, unless we do take it to the cross the Holy Spirit will continue to be grieved, because we are preventing Him from letting His love flow among us as much as He would like.  

The little church  at Azuza street where the Pentecostal movement was birthed  was characterised not so much by the amazing miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that took place there, but by the selfless love that filled the church and struck everybody who came in. The place was, metaphorically, full of houses that had been built for others. It was the home of Psalm 133 vs 1; “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity,” and because of this, the anointing flowed “like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard.” (Ps 133: 1 cont.) Where the Holy Spirit isn’t grieved, He builds. It is this Love that builds the church, and  that will shine the light out of the city on the Hill.

Discipleship and witness, Holiness: You shall be perfect

A Royal Priesthood: 1) The Hill of the Lord

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“Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?

I am currently re- reading my own book, Two Seconds to Midnight – not out of vanity, but because I felt God gave me that message and I want to be sure I am practising what I have preached. I have just finished the Chapter on our calling as a royal priesthood, and since it follows on well from the picture of the Narrow Way I am posting it here. It’s in two parts: this is the longer section.

Fire from the Lord

I think that one of the most shocking stories in the Bible is in Leviticus 10, when “fire went out from the Lord” and consumed Aaron’s two sons Nadab and Abihu because they offered the wrong type of fire to burn incense on His altar. Later, Moses told his dumbstruck brother that this was what the Lord meant when He said He would have the people recognise His holiness. Any reading of the Law pertaining to the priestly ministry in Leviticus yields a recurring theme, which can be summarised something like this: “I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt to be My own possession among all the nations on earth. You must be Holy because I am holy. If you obey My laws and don’t defile yourselves or My sanctuary, My presence among you will make you Holy. You must distinguish between the sacred and the profane and keep yourselves holy, because I am the Lord, the Holy One who is in your midst.”

Be holy, because I am holy

We don’t have to drill far down into the detail before we agree that the flesh cannot adhere to the external requirements of holiness that the Law demands; that the Day of Atonement and the release of the scapegoat is no substitute for the blood of the Lamb, and therefore we cannot know God’s presence in our midst without Jesus. But I think that we would be wise to remember our calling as disciples of Jesus, which is to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), “kings and priests unto God” (Revelation 1:6 KJV). We have a high calling, and the church will be recognised in these last days as a people “set apart unto God” among those of us who rise up to it. Although Jesus has fulfilled all the Law pertaining to Temple sacrifice on our behalf, God’s requirement of holiness hasn’t changed. God said to the Israelites, “Be holy, because I am holy” (see Leviticus 19:1-2), and Jesus repeated it under the New Covenant. The worldwide Pentecost that arose out of Azusa Street was rooted in the Holiness movement. Under the Law, nothing and nobody unclean could come near the Holy Place, but whoever and whatever was acceptable to God was made holy through contact with the altar and the sacred objects around it (Exodus 23 – 31). The priestly garments also had the power to transmit holiness (see Ezekiel 44:19).

Cut Flowers

So we come to the question: why was the Holy Spirit sent – whether at the first Pentecost, or any subsequent move of God, be it the Moravians, Azusa Street, the Hebrides Revival, or Toronto 1994? Yes, He comes to equip the church so that we receive the promised “power from on high” (Luke 24:49), without which we can accomplish nothing lasting. But the Holy Spirit also comes to make us holy, and to enable us to walk in holiness. Power from on high is not just power to work miracles in the world; it is power to walk in the holiness of the Spirit. To follow after a move of God without understanding that He requires His Temple to be a holy place is like cutting flowers off from their roots and placing them in a vase of water to be admired. They will last a few days, but they will surely die. While they remain rooted, they will produce seeds and multiply.

The Promise of Blessing

Our primary calling as priests is to serve the Lord in His holy Temple; and as kings it is to exercise His authority in whatever domain He has given us. There is an overlap here with the theme of provision: Just as the Aaronic priests received their portion from the offerings made by the people at the altar, so we too can expect God to provide for us as we minister to Him. But for our ministry to be acceptable, the requirement for holiness is no different from what it was in the days of the Tabernacle, for “I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Because we now live under grace we no longer die if we ignore the rules, and we can still be certain of our heavenly inheritance whatever mess we make of our earthly ministry. But Psalm 24:3-5 says:

“Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

God’s word wraps up a promise of material blessing (bread and fish*) in the assurance that our heavenly Father will always “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13). We cannot clean our own hands or purify our own hearts: the blood of Jesus is the only cleansing agent that will wash away our sin, and only the Holy Spirit can lift us into this holy place. He longs to bless us, and He wants to see us walk in His provision because we are His children. Therefore He will always give us the Holy Spirit when we ask, so that, transformed by His holiness, we can ascend the hill of the Lord, we can stand in His holy place, and we can receive the blessing of our portion as priests.

(*This refers back to the previous chapter in the book)