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.

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

God’s “New Normal:” The Floodplain of the Jordan.

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“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?” (Jer 12:5)

In 1987 Rick Joyner received the visions from which he wrote “The Harvest”, which was a revelation of an end-time revival of epic proportions – the same outpouring, probably, that was seen in the twentieth century by Smith Wigglesworth and others – in a context of equally epic unrest and socio-political breakdown. When he wrote it he said he wondered if he would even see it in his lifetime; now things are accelerating so quickly in the spiritual realm, while at the same time fault lines are opening up on the Earth- not least in the USA- that he is wondering if they will happen before the year is out.

Whatever credence one gives to the various voices that can be heard on the current prophetic stage, there is no doubt that the battle in Heaven is intensifying as every day brings us closer to the final one. Is the Tribulation just round the corner? No one knows. A recent prophecy from Wendy Alec says that it isn’t yet, but we are experiencing the beginning of the tremblings. Where does The Harvest fit in on this time scale? Do we even need to know? There will be a great harvest; there will be tribulation: how they fit together is God’s business. What we need to know is this: Jesus is calling His church into a place of intimacy where we can hear His voice more clearly, both to advance his purposes and to receive His provision and protection in the specific circumstances that lie ahead.

He is leading the church up a new path, like a mountain track. The old routines no longer apply; he is doing something new and we need to be able to adapt to it. Opposition to God’s purposes will be stronger: whereas we are used to running against men, we will be running against horses. The time of “The Land of Peace” is over, with its easy routines of meetings and ministry times: we are heading into the floodplains of the Jordan where the tide of revival will be sweeping souls into the Kingdom from every direction and in many unlikely contexts.

If we are open to the Holy Spirit we can expect, even now, to find that He is leading us into new things in our lives. Not just Zoom instead of meetings, not just online shopping instead of the supermarket, but new experiences in our walk with God and in our relationships that bring us closer to him. A phrase that has come out of the coronavirus culture is the “New Normal.” God is leading us into a new normal as well, where the culture and the power of the Kingdom of Heaven will prevail. The changes that some of us are experiencing are the beginnings of that shift, the fingerprints of His hand on our lives.

God’s new normal will be a different dimension, a time of the “Greater things;” of Resurrection life. He wants to use us in miraculous ways to demonstrate the kingdom of God to others, and he wants us to have faith for his miraculous ways to bring his kingdom provision to us. This is the environment of the mountain path. And along with intimacy, power, and faith, comes holiness. None of this can be achieved without a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit.

There is a challenge here for leaders. Just as Ezekiel had his responsibilities as a prophet clearly spelt out (Ezekiel three), our responsibility as leaders is to ensure that everyone in the church is hearing what God is saying. Not everybody will respond, and those who don’t will miss God’s best. But if the cloud is going up the mountain, then everyone has to know. And the challenge for leaders is this: we cannot show people how to follow the cloud unless we are doing it ourselves.

Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith

The Purpose of the Commandment

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“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” (Rev. 12:11)

The task of the Ephesians 4 ministries, of which the ministry of the prophet is one, is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4: 12-13) That is actually quite a big ask. It’s one thing to run around on the walls of the city waving flags that say “Thus saith the Lord,” but it is something else entirely to enable people to respond to what the Lord saith.

In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul wrote “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.” (1 Tim 1: 5) This commandment was the “charge” that Paul had instructed Timothy to lay upon the elders of the church at Ephesus that they should not stray from the “sound doctrine” (1Tim 1:10; Titus 1:9) outlined in verse five above. The purpose of the commandment is love. If I have been out in my car and am driving home, the purpose of everything I do is to get me home. Turn here, brake there, indicate now, stop at these lights – many different actions, but all one purpose: to get me home. I can wave lots of flags – and there are plenty of them on this website – but the ultimate purpose of them all has to be to help and encourage the body of Christ to grow in love “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

So according to 1 Tim 1:5, love comes from three sources: a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Each of these sources is in itself God-given. To start with the first one, I know for a fact that my heart, outside of Christ, is far from pure. It is addled with sin and self-interest. But also “I know Him in whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1: 12), and His heart is not only pure, but it overflows with love for me; so much so that when I am walking in the knowledge (the experience, not just the theory) of that love I can love others with it. It’s only the Cross, and the blood that He shed for me there, that can bring me into the place of relationship with Him where His love is “poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit that is given to us.” To lead others into a love that make sense of all the flags I am waving, I need to lead them into an experience of the Holy Spirit that makes His love an empirical reality. Jesus said: “Freely you have received; freely give.” (Matt. 10:8) We cannot give what we haven’t received.

Love comes from a good conscience. Again in the first letter to Timothy (1 Tim 4:2) Paul writes of those who “speak lies with hypocrisy” whose “consciences are seared with a hot iron.” These are people whose consciences have become totally insensitive to conviction of sin, for whom truth and integrity have no meaning or value. A good conscience is the opposite: open to conviction by the Holy Spirit, a good conscience is the reflection of the heart of someone who runs to Jesus whenever sinful thoughts or actions creep into their lives, whose speech is always in sincerity and truth. 1 John 1:7 says “if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” It is the blood of Jesus that keeps us in the light, so we can love (“have fellowship with”) one another.

When Jesus first saw Nathaniel approaching, he said:  “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” (John 1: 47) In the Spirit Jesus had already seen Nathaniel “under the fig tree” and knew his heart. The Father’s vision for His people was – and still is – that they would represent His ways on Earth, and although we can only guess at what Jesus meant, it would seem logical to assume that the transparency inherent in being without deceit, also translated as “guile,” is a prerequisite to effectively representing and demonstrating the love of God on Earth. The name Nathaniel means “Gift of God.” The transparency of a clear conscience can only be ours through the Cross, as a gift of God’s grace.

Finally, love comes from a sincere faith. Sincere means without hypocrisy; without pretence. Sincere faith is faith that is lived, not just faith that is theorised about.  I have written in The Mind of Christ about Peter stepping out of the boat, but another good example of faith at work can be found in Jeremiah 32 vs 1-23. Jeremiah has been imprisoned by King Zedekiah for prophesying God’s judgement on his sins and the sins of Judah. Jerusalem itself is already under siege: destruction and exile to Babylon are imminent. In this context Jeremiah receives a word from the Lord to buy his cousin’s field at Anathoth, which was a priests’ city about three miles from Jerusalem. He obeys the Lord, signs the deeds for the field in the presence of witnesses, weighs out good silver for it, then buries the deeds in a pottery jar to preserve it as a testimony to God’s faithfulness, in anticipation of the day when his prophesy of Jerusalem’s ultimate and glorious restoration would be fulfilled. Jeremiah didn’t just stand up in the storm of imprisonment and destruction and say “God is going to restore Jerusalem:” he demonstrated his faith that God would do as He said.

Those of us who teach and/or prophesy the word of God have a responsibility to demonstrate in our lives that we believe it. We have to be prepared to buy the field; to start walking impossible steps on the waves. We have to have a testimony: without one, our faith is just a theory.  Paul said to the Corinthians “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1). It’s not enough to say “Step out of the boat!” We have to step out of the boat ourselves and say “Follow me!” In doing so we are also demonstrating that we do not love our lives unto death, because if any sinking is going to happen, we will be the first under the water. However if we stay afloat, we are able to reach out a hand to others in the name of the One that we are standing next to and lift them out of the waves.

In “the Mind of Christ” I also wrote how the “effective working” in Ephesians 4: 16 – “the effective working by which every part does its share, (that) causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” – exclusively means the use of supernatural power. The power that God makes available to us is analysed in detail for us in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and is commonly referred to as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The growth of the Body which fulfils the vision and purpose of Jesus, the head, happens when all of us are open to, and operate, in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

If we want to know where to aim for, it’s helpful to remember what Jesus calls effective working. It is what He tells the disciples to do with what they have freely received: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8) The gifts of the Spirit that He is telling them to use are italicized below: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Cor 12: 7-11) As Paul writes to the Philippians, we may not have already attained, but we press on towards the goal. John Wimber, an icon in the ministry of healing, said that he must have prayed for a thousand people before the first one was actually healed…

Confidence to operate in the supernatural is best achieved in small groups, down to twos and threes. One of our School of Prophesy members suggests that those who are not confident in using the gifts connect with those who are, and who can help that gift to grow. She says “Growth in the use of gifts helps us to hear from the Lord – we connect in like interconnecting wires attached to the main body.” This seems entirely scriptural to me, as it is a practical application of the principle of discipleship and will contribute to “the effective working by which every part does its share.”

Revelation 12:11 says that the saints overcame the enemy “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” We find in this verse the three foundations of sound doctrine that are expressed in I Tim 5: our conscience is cleansed by the blood of the Lamb so that we are transparent to the Truth; the word of our testimony tells of those acts of faith in the name of Jesus where we have walked in the supernatural ourselves, and we love from a pure heart that is void of self-interest. If we want to help others to overcome, we need to be doing it ourselves.

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

Following the Light

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Adele brought this encouragement for the church on Sunday:

“We have to stand up and say that God is working in our lives; that we can trust our loving God and that He will get us through all the difficult times we have had to go through. He is our light through the darkness.”

While we were singing “Cornerstone,” just before Graham shared this, I had the following from the Lord, which confirms what Adele shared:

“You see clouds in the sky, but I am the light you see them by. You say the clouds block out the sun, but they will bring the rain that this dry land needs.”

Again and again, God is encouraging the church not to look down, but to look up. 1 Thessalonians 5 vs 4-5 says this:

“You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

As the darkness around us thickens, the light will get stronger. The message the Holy Spirit gave to two people through “The Tall Building” encourages us to look out of the window and be aware of what is doing; in other words to “watch and be sober.” If you haven’t read this, I encourage you to do so, particularly as Wildwood Church itself has been spoken of prophetically as a tall building that is a light on a hill.

Like the Pillar of Fire that led the Israelites through the desert, the Light is leading us to new places. As children of Light we need to be alert to what He is doing. I have heard it said that the journey from Egypt was only a twelve day trek: it was the Israelites’ refusal to accept God’s leading that cost them forty years and a lost generation. Let us take this opportunity to trust and respond to the Holy Spirit, who is the Pillar of Fire that is leading us now just as He was back then, and let’s take hold of the Promised Land ourselves: we don’t want the Lord to have to wait another forty years for a church that will follow Him.

Because He will do: He has all the time in the world. And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to spend much longer in this wilderness. The way out of the darkness is to follow the Light as closely as possible.

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

Our most Powerful Weapon

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If we know the New Testament at all, we will know – even if we can’t quote it verbatim –  that “ the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts”, (2 Cor 10: 4-5) What we might not be quite so sure about is what the weapons of our warfare are. Some things are clear: Psalm 149 tells us that the high praises of God in our mouths and the two-edged sword in our hands will bind the enemy kings and nobles “in fetters of iron,” (vs. 6-9) so that gives us some guidance on dealing with the “principalities and powers in heavenly places” that Ephesians 6 vs 12 tells us we are struggling with. The gospels tell us specifically that we will be able to cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did this “with a word,” so we should expect, as His disciples with His power and the authority of His name, to be able to do the same. But more often than not, the most intense battles we face are not in situations where we can launch into high praise or begin calling out the demonic: they are in our marriages and families, and those with whom we have the closest relationships.

Jesus tells us explicitly how to deal with conflict in Matthew 5: 39. He famously says “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” This command has become embedded in Christian doctrine as one that promotes non-violence and non-resistance and a decision to forsake vengeance for the sake of pursuing love for one’s enemy. “The other cheek” is not commonly seen as a “weapon of our warfare…mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” Yet that is precisely what it is. Jesus didn’t just come to Earth in order to build an alternative Kingdom of love and peace, where we all turn away from violence in the hope that others will see our example and come over to us from the dark side: He came to “destroy the works of the evil one,” so that the strongholds he has built in our lives will crumble, the knit together threads of anger and fear will unravel, and the roots of bitterness exposed and completely pulled out. The other cheek is a weapon “mighty in God” that we turn against the enemy.

Romans 12: 20-21 picks up the theme from the sermon on the Mount, but this time the act of loving one’s enemy is actually defined as an act of warfare: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” We are not called to just ignore evil, but to meet it head-on and overcome it. The burning coals certainly imply shame and remorse, and may also be taken to suggest purification and judgement. But more than these, heaping burning coals on someone’s head strikes me as a powerful and effective act of warfare: that enemy is not going to show his face again.

To bring this back to that “other cheek:” what actually happens when we turn it? Here’s an illustration. Terry and Jean have been married 25 years and are about to celebrate their silver wedding. They both are Christians with leadership roles in church. Terry loves his wife and loves the Lord, but he has a very defensive side to his nature, particularly when accused of something that he either didn’t do, didn’t mean to do, or had a very good reason for doing. So Terry also loves his own reputation, and for 25 years he has run to shore up his reputation when Jean has been hurt by something he has done, rather than simply address the specific problem and ensure that he isn’t going to hurt Jean again. While Terry’s focus is on strengthening his own defensive shell, he is not really thinking about how deeply the wounds run that his bickering comments inflict on his wife. She feels increasingly alone and unloved; he feels increasingly frustrated and misunderstood. A problem arises concerning their silver wedding celebration plans. Jean is hurt and angry; Terry feels unjustly blamed. The enemy is rubbing his hands: can he give Terry another cast-iron reason for justifying himself and pulling down his wife? Can he make Jean feel so despondent about their relationship that she finally gives up, not just on their wedding anniversary but on their marriage itself?

The enemy nudges the argument nicely along the well-worn “You always…!” and “Well, you did…!” tracks. But what’s happening? Terry has walked away and gone into his den to sit down. He has his eyes shut. Danger! Is he praying? And now he is opening his Bible… the demon assigned to prowl around their marriage turns his attention to Jean, but she has put on some worship music, so he won’t be able to sow any negatives into her mind for a while…

Terry is pouring his heart out to the Lord. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in many different ways, but just imagine this as a dialogue between Terry and Jesus:

“Lord, why do I always end up here? Why will she never admit that she is wrong to accuse me of being thoughtless like that, and that I could never have known that they have changed the menu? Nothing I say is ever any good, and it’s always my fault! And it isn’t – in fact it hardly ever is!”

“You’re right, Terry.”

“Sorry, Lord?”

“You’re right. Nothing you say is ever any good. Actually you’ve only got one option.”

“What’s that, Lord?”

“Love your wife.”

“Yes, I do! But…”

“No buts. It’s not about you and what she thinks of you: it’s about the fact that she’s hurting.”

“But it’s like she’s just slapped me in the face!”

“Exactly. So turn the other cheek. This is just one slap. But if you face this slap and are prepared to let her slap you again I’ll tell you what will happen: the barrier of self-defence that you have put up all your life will crumble away, and you will see Jean for who she is and respond to what she is feeling. She will see that you care about her more than you care about yourself, and your marriage will have new life.”

At that moment Terry sees a single shining tear on Jesus’s cheek. Reflected in it are streaks of red; faint reflections of His shed blood, then Jesus disappears. The tear remains, suspended. He sees that tear and that blood shed for him; he sees the dirty footprint trail of self-justification and cries of “it’s not fair!” winding through his life from as far back as he can remember, then the tear falls on the footprints and they all burn up like a fuse and are no more. When Terry goes in to apologise to Jean it isn’t just for tonight’s argument, but for every excuse he has ever made since they first met.

Jesus turned the other cheek at the cross and brought salvation to mankind. The spiritual overcame the carnal forever. When Jesus asks us to do the same it is not in a passive attempt at emulating godly behaviour, but in an active expression of His victorious Spirit that demolished the very stronghold of death itself. When we use this most powerful weapon we can demolish strongholds that bitter arguments have built up over decades. Christian marriages are always in the devil’s sights for some of his most virulent attacks, but Jesus has given us one act that will undo many years of his most careful work.

Discipleship and witness, Walking in the Spirit

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit

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On Sunday the teaching in the “discipleship” series at Wildwood Church was on the need for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave me “The Time of Unlocking“ the previous Wednesday evening. It specifically mentions gifts and ministries, which of course can only come from the Holy Spirit. The whole sense of the message was that God was “unlocking” a new outpouring of His Holy Spirit, which would be evident in many ways.

Jake (Jacob) sent me the message about the escalator a few days beforehand, the day after I read a devotional about Jacob’s ladder. The escalator takes us up, in the power of God. What we receive in heavenly places we then bring down to earth. Jake’s escalator is Jacob’s ladder for the 21st century; Jacob’s ladder on steroids. It’s the Holy Spirit within us who takes us up the escalator and gives us what Jesus is asking us to bring to down to Earth. God’s words to me, to Jake, and through the message to Wildwood Church (and no doubt many other churches)  on Sunday are all connected: we cannot be effective disciples without the power of the Holy Spirit, and we have to consciously ask Jesus for this baptism, or drenching, in the Holy Spirit, rather than just assume that we have received it. We need to press the button for the stairs to become an escalator. (See the escalator post.)

Three voices independently bringing messages that are connected is not a coincidence, it’s actually one voice: it’s the voice of the Lord. As we keep hearing through many prophetic voices, we are in a new season; and God wants His people equipped. We need to become familiar with the supernatural in our own lives. This isn’t just because revival cannot happen without it; it’s because the world is going to fail us increasingly, so unless we can tap into the supernatural resources of God’s Kingdom we will be struggling. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want that for us.

If you don’t know whether or not you’ve been baptised in the Holy Spirit, then you probably haven’t been. You know if you’ve been baptised in water; you will know if you’ve been baptised in the Spirit. For many people it is evidenced by speaking in tongues, but for everyone the main thing is that it is experiential. The spiritual dimension becomes a personal reality. And as Paul wrote (Ephesians 5:18) – as if we haven’t heard it enough times already – having received it once we need to keep on being filled if we are to keep walking in a fresh experience of God.

So there are three distinct stages to becoming an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. One is repentance and turning to Christ – what used to be called “repentance unto faith.” The second is baptism in water. Again, this is not a “bolt-on” to our faith: it is foundational. Colossians 2:12 says we are “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead:” it’s hard to know the fulness of resurrection life without first passing through burial with Christ. And the third is baptism in the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they all happen together, but you know that they have all happened. All three are essential. All three are foundational to us being “filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19) for which Jesus went to the cross. He did not die in anguish for us to receive anything less.

A couple of nights ago Jake had a dream which he has shared with me, which I am including here because I think it is also part of this message. Jake called the dream “Picky Eaters.” In the dream, God had served a generous meal to His people, but some of them were leaving food on the side of their plates. The Lord said “I have served this meal up to my people to make them strong in Me, but some of them are being picky eaters. They pick and choose what they want to eat, but the meal is the full gospel. They cannot discard part of it and still expect to grow strong.”

I want to emphasise again that this is the meal that was paid for on the cross. How can we be picky when such a great price was paid? But if you are uncertain about biblical foundations for the baptism in the Holy Spirit – whether or not it is actually on the plate – you can find more in the article The Name of the Father.

Discipleship and witness, Holiness: You shall be perfect, Walking in the Spirit

The Chain: Linked to the Body

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“”I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23)

The focus of Jesus’s ministry was always to glorify the Father, and to demonstrate that He was the Son whom the Father had sent, because He loved it so much, to bring eternal life to all who accepted Him. His master plan – His only plan – was to build His church to destroy the works of the enemy and reveal the love of the Father that He poured out into the hearts of His children by the power of the Holy Spirit. The church is the chain that makes the wheels of the bike go round: unless we are linked in with other believers our discipleship is not going to progress.

Paul prays: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3: 15-17) The pre-requisite to knowing the love of Christ and being filed with all the fullness of God is being “rooted and grounded in love.” The arena in which we fulfll the command to love one another and keep pedalling forward (as I wrote earlier in this series) is the local church, where Jesus is Lord, the Father is glorified, and the life of the Holy Spirit flows; where believers pray for one another, serve one another, minister to one and other and are accountable to one another.

If there were a  prize for the most-quoted verse of scripture, Matthew 18:20 would probably be in contention for runner -up: (the winner, of course, being John 3:16.) “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Jesus “in the midst” is the essence of church. I think if we all took discipleship a lot more seriously Jesus would probably be a lot more evident in the midst than He often is, but that’s not for this chapter. I think what is important here is for us always for us to remember where we are headed as we cycle up the mountain:

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.” (Eph 1: 7-10)

God is gathering us together in Christ, and His vehicle is the church. “He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph 1:22-23) This is the goal of our discipleship, and it’s why we cannot follow Jesus on our own. It’s why Jesus prayed “May they all be one as you and I are one” (John 17:21). And it’s why we cannot  be walking in the Spirit if we “bite and devour one another” (Galatians 5:15)

Because the heart of God breaks at division in His church. Revival will sweep the nations when brothers and sisters in Christ set aside petty doctrinal and stylistic differences and gather round the standard of our Saviour to destroy the works of the devil in His name. But when one ministry denounces or criticises another, they are allowing those very works of the devil into their own ranks. For what is more important: what we think we know about what God thinks, or whether we obey His commandment to love one another? Whether we criticise and condemn one another, or whether we  are “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you?” (Ephesians 4:32)

The Lord needs His chain to be well-oiled. Jesus is always there, ready to pour the oil of the Holy Spirit onto each one of His links.  We need to be connected to one another with links that are supple and yielding. Without the oil of His anointing we become rusty and rigid, set in our ways, insensitive to one another and out of touch with the three cogs on the crankshaft – the  Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is for each one of us to keep seeking the Lord so that we remain well-oiled individually in order for the corporate chain of the life of the Body to function smoothly. Again, as I wrote above, it is not for one link to assess whether another is functioning as it should, or even whether or not it should be there. We are nothing on our own: it is only through our connections to those three cogs and to one another that we have purpose. Paul writes this to the Galatians:

“If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.” (Gal 6: 3-5)

Jesus says to the church at Sardis: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.” (Rev 3: 1-2). The “things that remain” are Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these is Love. (1 Cor 13:13). These three are the gold, silver, and precious stones that remain from our works after the wood, hay and stubble have been consumed in the fire. (1 Cor 3:12) We are alive in Christ to the degree that we are linked to one another in Love, and the body of these connections is the Church of Christ. To be disciples we must be in the chain, and we must be vigilant to overcome any thoughts and attitudes that would tempt us to break our connections.

Be prepared; hold on., Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith, Walking in the Spirit

Hold on at all times: the handlebars

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“Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” (2 Peter 1: 5-7)

We have all seen cyclists – usually young men or boys – cycle along without holding the handlebars. I remember when I was a boy and first learnt the skill. I also remember that, as a rule, it was only a skill I employed when I knew other people were watching…  But there are two circumstances that every cyclist riding “no hands” has in common: this particular skill can only be accomplished on as smooth terrain, generally a road or another paved surface; and it is not something that can realistically be attempted when cycling uphill. As Christians, we have left the paved surface of the road, and are heading up the mountain on a dirt track. If there is one thing we need to do, it is to keep hold of the handlebars.

There are many exhortations in the New Testament, whether from Jesus, Paul or any of the other writers, to persevere in our faith. Perhaps the most frequently quoted is from Pauls’ letter to the Philippians:

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3: 13-14)

The word translated as “diligence” in the introductory passage is spoude, which means earnestness, eagerness, being full-on, not just in the desire to accomplish something but in the energy and persistence applied to carrying it out. Elsewhere Peter writes “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” (2 Pe 3:14) Paul exhorts Timothy to be diligent in pursuing godliness “so that (his) progress may be seen by all,” (1 Tim 4:15), and to the Galatians he writes “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9). References to being committed and wholehearted are set like precious stones throughout Proverbs. The rewards held out by the Lord to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation are all for those who “endure.” And these references only scratch the surface of what is a very deep-veined theme running through the whole of Scripture. Diligence is the name written on our handlebars: if we don’t hold on, we will fall off.

At this point there might appear to be a tension between the fundamental truth that we are saved by Grace (the Cross of Christ) and not by works (staying on the bike) However there isn’t one. The bike itself is a gift from God. The desire to ride it and to stay on is a gift from God, just as faith itself is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8; 2 Peter 1:1). And Psalm 37:24 tells us: “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with His hand,” so even our ability to stay on the bike is by the Grace of God. The very words that are given to us by the Holy Spirit encouraging us to be diligent and to endure also give us the desire and the ability to carry them out. I think it can reasonably be said that those who to fall away are the ones who never really got on the bike in the first place – who confessed with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, but never really believed it in their hearts. (Romans 10: 9) So if you, like me, are picking your bike off the ground and getting on again for the fiftieth time this week, don’t beat yourself up over it and call yourself a failure. The good news is, you never were a success in the first place! All of that glory belongs to the Lord. The fact that you are getting on your bike again is proof that you are, by the grace of God, being diligent.

So, holding onto the handlebars, we press on towards the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We carry on pedalling along the mountain track. Sometimes there are downhill stretches and easier sections, but the call is upward and the overall direction of the track is always to take us ultimately “further up and further in,” as Aslan says in the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia. And this leads us to the other essential function of the handelbars: they are what gives the bike direction. We don’t just hold on “with all diligence” in order to stay on the bike; we hold on to stay on the path. And we always look forward: looking back brings disaster. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, we steer along His track to  the top of the mountain.

Being born again isn’t about boarding a train in this life and stepping onto Heaven’s platform in the next one: it’s about the slow process of growing to maturity in Christ as we consistently reveal to the watching world that He is the one who is keeping us on track. The higher up and further in we go, the closer to Him we get and the more like Him we become, so that “Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” (Isaiah 2:3)

The Mountain of God is the Mountain of His presence, where Love rules and His Glory dwells. It’s where He met with Moses and gave the Old Covenant to His people, and it’s where He meets with us to lead us forward by His Spirit today. There is one simple test that will tell us if we are on our bikes or completely off track, and it’s the question I referred to in the chapter on the pedals: are we learning to love? Jesus has individualised lessons for each one of us, and they will all be somewhere along the route that Peter maps out in the scripture that opens this section. But learn them we must if we are to progress up the mountain, because

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

This is where our direction must be set. We can keep moving, with both wheels on the ground, our feet on the pedals and our hands close to the brakes, gripping the handlebars tightly. But whenever we hurt or destroy we’ve lost our way.

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Living by Faith, Prophesy and the prophetic, Walking in the Spirit

Free Downloads

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Apart from my books “Wheat in the Winepress,” and “Two Seconds to Midnight,” everything on this site is free. There are no “donate” buttons anywhere. Thirty-odd years ago I asked the Lord to give me a business that would support my ministry calling, and He has done just that. I would of course love you to buy my books, not because I want your money, but because I think they will bless and encourage you and I believe they are words for these times.

So if you do download anything from here, there will be no follow-up, no pestering, nothing. Just, hopefully, a bit of blessing for you. I’ll be adding to the titles every so often. Just click on the title below and it will take you to another page: click again on the link you find there and it will take you to the pdf for you to download. (There’s probably a better way of doing this, but I don’t know what it is!)

Serving to Soaring (12 pages)

A Beginner’s Guide to Prophesy (3 Pages)

The Prophetic Ministry

Blowing the Trumpet

The Bike Ride: Pictures of Discipleship

Spirit Without Limit

Seated in Heavenly Places

Is everything just chance, or is there a plan?

The Pillars of Evangelism

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Walking in the Spirit

Sunday 13th Sept: discipleship

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It’s great to have a “live stream” of the prophetic in our Sunday meetings again, even though we aren’t physically together. As I write this, I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Corinthians ; “For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.” (1 Cor 5:3). We use the phrase “with you in spirit” a lot, so much so that it has basically lost its meaning. I think it’s time that we rediscovered the spiritual power of these words. Our born again spirits really are in the same place, seated in Heavenly places in Christ.

There were two prophetic words this morning.

Jake had the following scripture
“Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13)

He felt the Lord saying “There is a battle coming, but I want you to know that I have given you everything you need to be more than conquerors, so that you will be standing strong at the end.”

The Lord spoke to me during the worship.
Anne and I were sitting on the sofa watching the meeting on my laptop. I was quite happy; the laptop was adequate for the job. But as we were watching, Anne was sorting out the connection between the wi-fi and the TV, so that we could enjoy the meeting on a bigger screen and with better volume. As she was putting in the password, I felt the Lord say to me: “Are you content with just the laptop, or do you want more?”

God want us to press in for the big screen. He wants us to move onto a new level in our relationship with Him, and not to be content with what we have at the moment.  His desire is for us to have Him on that big fixed screen and stay connected all the time, not to fold up our laptops and switch them off when we feel like it.

Discipleship is not a part-time activity. As Rob’s message that followed emphasised, it is an all-in, full time call.

Discipleship and witness, Walking in the Spirit

Soaring like Eagles

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“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40 v 31

We need to understand the eagle to get a more complete picture of what the Lord is saying through this passage.

The eagle is the fastest animal created, soaring at speeds of 140 miles per hour and in excess of 200 miles per hour when it spots prey. It also flies at a height of between 23000 feet to 36000 feet, sometimes for days without a single flap of its wings, and even can fly through a hurricane. Eagles actually love the challenge of a storm . When other birds will try to flee, the eagle will fly into it, using the wind of the storm to rise higher in a matter of seconds, just  soaring  unaltered from its path but at a greater height. The eagle’s wings are so aerodynamic that air flows over them causing very little turbulence. I believe that as we wait upon the lord He prunes and trims our wings to be more aerodynamic, so that we may soar on the thermals and fly into the storms when they come.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15 v1-8)

Eagles are very efficient birds, which is how God wants us to be:  soaring on his thermals in the Spirit. So just like He prunes us to make us fruitful, the Lord will also prune and trim our wings to be ever more aerodynamic, soaring and remaining steady through the storms of life. Another amazing fact about the eagle that if it loses a feather either on one side – on land or soaring – it instantly loses the same feather on the other side to keep it in balance. I believe when the Holy Spirit prunes us He does the same thing, keeping us balanced so we can continue soaring with Him.

Eagles are famous for their vision: we talk about having “eagle eyes.” The eagle flies well above the ground so it can one see what is going on. What we are called to do as a church and as members of His body is to wait on the Lord so we can soar above the troubles of life, even flying into the storms, appearing almost motionless as we keep an eye out for anyone caught in the enemy’s snare on the ground.  When we see someone in trouble we can dive down to rescue them as quickly as possible, carrying them with us up to the safety of the skies to be restored by the Lord .

Thanks and credits

Here I wish to give credit to Adele and Phoebe for letting me take picture of Phoebe having her feet being washed for the cover and chapter 1 pictures.

Thank you to Graham Russell for taking the photograph of Pete their dog.

A big thank you to Bob  Hext for mentoring me and  for reviewing materials that I have written and am writing.

All thanks and Praise goes to the Our Lord for gifting me and  guiding me.