Tag Archives: faith

Without faith we cannot please God. And faith comes from God: we cannot conjure it up.

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare, Walking in the Spirit

The Peach

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“ We do not know what we should pray for as we ought…” (Rom 8:26)

Sometimes our prayers can be like a peach: we look at a situation – whether we are praying for ourselves or for someone else – and we pray. We see the peach, we take a bite, and we wait for the Lord’s answer. Nothing changes. We pray again, taking another bite. Third bite: ask and keep on asking; knock and keep on knocking. But the door still doesn’t open to us. We keep praying, trusting God’s faithfulness, until we have devoured all the peach. God still hasn’t answered, and we are left holding a damp red peach stone. So we stop praying, believing that our prayers weren’t in God’s will, and we throw away the peach stone.

But what we’ve done is throw away the answer to our prayers. We have prayed for what we have seen – the flesh of the peach- but that doesn’t mean we have prayed for what God sees. In fact Isaiah tells us:

“He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears”. (Isaiah 11: 3)

The starting place for God’s creative acts is not in what is seen, but what is unseen:

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” (Heb 11:3)

The life that the peach carries is not in the flesh, and not even in the stone: it is in the kernel that is hidden inside the stone. Paul writes:

“I shall pray with my spirit, and I shall pray also with my understanding.” (1 Cor 14:15)

The New Living Translation renders this as “I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand,” which I  think is how it is generally understood. The Greek word used for understanding is “nous” – the word for human intellect and reason. In fact we use it in English colloquially, in phrases like – “anyone with a bit of nous can see that…”  But I think we can see it another way as well. I think it could also mean that we look at a situation and pray about it with our “nous,” but we also pray in the Spirit about the same situation. The two are connected.  In other words, we understand that, for example, the marriage of a certain couple in leadership is in trouble, so we start to pray about it according to what we know and can see, which is praying about it with our understanding; but when we start to pray in the Spirit we receive revelation about how God wants us to pray, our understanding is then enlightened, and we are then praying according to the will of God:

“The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom 8: 26-27)

Let’s remember that when we have prayed through all that we can see, including all the scriptures that we understand to be relevant to the need, we may have devoured the flesh with our understanding, but that is just the beginning of the prayer: it is only by the Holy Spirit that we see the kernel hidden inside the stone, where God’s answer is waiting to bring forth Life.

Be prepared; hold on., Living by Faith, Prophesy and the prophetic

A Trumpet Call to Build the Ark and get on Board

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In these end-time days of financial shaking, God is building an Ark of resources to provide for His people. The poem below was given by Holy Spirit to Andrew Baker at a prophetic gathering four or five years ago, and he has just sent it out to his contacts again as it is a word for these days. Andrew is a prophet who ministers in the financial realm whom a small number of readers here will know, but who doesn’t have, or seek, a public profile. I was at the meeting when he brought this word: it was entirely impromptu and unprepared. If, like me, you believe it to be a trumpet call from Heaven to all of us, ask the Lord what He wants you to do with it.

The Call to Build the Ark and Get on Board

 In these end-time days of financial shaking, God is building an Ark of resources to provide for His people. The poem below was given by Holy Spirit to Andrew Baker at a prophetic gathering some years ago, and he has just sent it out to his contacts again as it is a word for these days.

This is the day of new things and new things it shall be
Whoever grasps these new things shall walk in victory
Put down your human thinking and listen well to Me
For these are things that are written in Bible prophecy

There is coming a confrontation, so you ought to be ready
A shaking of the nations from their financial stability
A rising of the evil one to take My things for his own
He’s calling in his harvest that evil men have sown

Finance and business he’ll take over while men just stand and stare
And soon he will just take control, and no one will seem to care
The same spirit which rules Babylon, Antichrist it will be
Is now standing in the arena very comfortably

Men of God just stand in fear as they see the scene is so
Fearful of losing what they have but what to do they just don’t know
A trumpet call from heaven says, “Line up, get in your place!”
For I have something to say to you if you will seek My face

Instead of fear there must come a change and faith must begin to rise
For I am God, and all false power can look to their demise
Who would dare to stand against Me, do you think to Me it never mattered?
For now, it’s time for Me to rise and let My enemies be scattered.

So now man’s kingdom I will shake and fall it surely will
First to the Antichrist himself and then comes the Great Until
You have waited for this day and soon you will see it with your eyes
When the saints will say in one accord “God has now answered our cries”

So, while the financial systems fall to the plans of the evil one
My people shall be provided for because I’m the All Sufficient One
The ark shall be built with those who look with faith for My secure plan
Seeing and obeying My purposes and not fearing devil or man

It shall be built from heaven, and it shall be a safe place
While the spirit that’s from Babylon rises to show his face
Then men will run to the ark and their finances will combine
And they will catch My holy plan for harvest at the end time

So, soon I’ll call you to your part and understanding I will give
Get on board the ark I’m making, and you will surely live
I’m God and no demon’s plan will take Me by surprise
So, listen to My instructions, that is, if you are wise

While many men are shaking, their lives just full of fear
Join with what I’m doing; Come on over here!
This financial plan that I’ve arranged will take back what is Mine
The only way this can be done is by a plan that is divine

The Ark I’ll build and just the same as in the days of old
Some will help Noah and get it done and others will mock and scold
Remember when the waters came it was too late to decide
So it is now, yes now’s the time to line up by My side

Finally, I tell you that your instructions will come soon
A trumpet call from heaven, playing a divine tune
You’ll know it’s Me, simply respond, “Yes, your call we will hear”
And I’ll show you your part in the ark with words loud and clear

So now rejoice for it is time for the divine plan to unfold
It will require a people of faith as in the days of old
A land to take, an ark to build, there is much work ahead
As you take your place I will arise, and we will build what I have said

Living by Faith, Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

The Prayer of Faith

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“The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)

When the heavens are made of brass

I often wonder, as I’m sure you do, why so many prayers just don’t seem to be answered. We can, and do, find all sorts of ways to justify the lack of change in our circumstances, or in the circumstances of those we prayed for even when we spent a long time on our knees (or however, you pray – I hardly ever actually get onto my knees . Perhaps I should do more often…) But the fact is it often doesn’t appear that heaven is manifesting on earth, or the Kingdom of God is coming  as a result of our prayers. Sometimes it is a matter of timing, and there are many powerful testimonies of long period of time elapsing before the prayer and the answer: years, and even decades. God dwells outside of time, and we know that His timing is always perfect, and our timing very often leads to disappointment and frustration. And sometimes there’s a battle to be fought in the heavenlies, such as we see at work in the book of Daniel and the opposition of the “Prince of Persia“ to Daniel’s prayers being answered. These are not the situations I am talking about. And I’m not talking about the times when we console ourselves with the thought that the answer is “No,” or that it comes gradually. I am referring to those specific needs that arise within a specified timeframe, outside of which they cease to exist, and yet where God does not appear to do anything. I’m talking about the times when the heavens seem to be “made of brass.“

Yet we know they aren’t, we know our God of Love does not ignore his children, and we know that He is faithful. As Smith Wigglesworth famously put it, our God loves to answer our prayers more than we love to ask. James 5: 16 tells us “the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.“ If this is what the Bible says, it must be true. So if our prayers don’t seem to avail anything (let alone much) it must be either because they aren’t effective and fervent, or because we aren’t righteous. And since we are “the righteousness of God in Christ,” (2 Cor 5:21) that can’t be the issue; so it has to be to do with whether or not our prayers are effective and fervent.

The Electric Current

Actually it all comes down to one word, because the phrase “effective fervent” (This is the new King James translation: NIV says “powerful and effective.”) is only one word in Greek, which is energeo, meaning operative, putting forth power. Our word energy – think of an electric current – obviously comes from it. If we want to know why some of our prayers don’t “avail much,“ I think we need to ask ourselves what it means for a prayer to have energeo.

We can get some light on this by seeing where else it’s used. In Ephesians 4:16, Paul says that the body (the Church) grows in Christ according to the “effective working“ by which every part does it share. It’s the same word: “effective working” is what enables all the joints in the body to work together and grow in love.  And here’s what struck me: energeo is what enables every part – that is each member of the body – to do its share. The word for share  is metros. Effective working is something that is meted out to each one of us, so that we can function in the power of the Spirit and the life of Christ can flow in His body. What do we all have a share (metros) of?  

 Paul writes: “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3. My underlining.)

What God measures out to us is faith. I think that this is the key to energeo. A prayer isn’t “fervent and effective” because we have spent hours in crying out to God fervently, or because we have used words that we think are effective because other people have used them effectively: a prayer has energeo when we know that we know that God has given us the answer. Not because of our theology, and not even because it’s written in the Bible, but because He has told us personally. We might still have to cry out for hours to see that answer manifest, but we cry out in faith because the powers of darkness may need to be cleared out of the way, not in desperation because we think we need to get God’s attention. The full context of  James 5:16 is this:

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5: 14-16)

The effective fervent prayer is the prayer of faith. Churches that apply James 5: 14-16 to prayer for healing tend to focus on the oil and the eldership, and hope that these two will carry the faith. But 2 out of 3 won’t work. In the time of James, the elders of a church will have been people who knew what it was to pray with energeo, and so it was safe to assume that their prayers would be answered, and the body of Christ built up in love (Ephesians 4:16) as a result. Unfortunately that is not necessarily the case today. Without energeo, the elders and the oil avail nothing.

Seeing and Hearing

We all know Hebrews 11:1 “ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The evidence of things that are seen is what our eyes have witnessed. When we say “I saw it with my own eyes,” it is not my eyes or the thing that I saw which are the evidence, but the fact that I saw it. My sense of that reality tells me and tells others that it exists. In the same way, faith is the sense by which our spirit experiences the unseen dimension. We also know that “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God.”  (Rom 10:17) How do we hear the word of God? From the Good Shepherd, whose voice we hear, and whom we have decided to follow. (John 10:27) We can’t follow Him, unless we’re close to Him, so being close to Him must be our first priority. And when we are close to Him our sense of faith is sharpened, and it is in His proximity that we can hear His voice, sometimes through and always agreeing with the word of God.  Biblical hope is not a wish; it’s a destination. When we hear Him speak and our spiritual sense of faith perceives the substance of the answered prayer that we are hoping for, we have that Mark 11:22  mover of  mountains; the faith of God.

“So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” (Mark 11:22-23. The Greek translated “in God” is actually the genitive case “of God.”)

Faith is always a gift of God: we can’t draw it out of our own thinking, our own understanding. Jesus tells us that faith as a grain of mustard seed is enough to uproot and move a tree. The Bible is a whole sack full of seeds in lots of different packets – seeds for healing, seeds for provision, for victory and so on. I believe we can only see which seeds to sow when the Holy Spirit shows us the life that they contain. We need to see the mustard tree in the Spirit and not just read about it on the packet, and that can only come from God, and not by leaning on our understanding – even if it’s our understanding of the Bible. When God has shown us the tree inside the seed and we have evidence of it with our spiritual sense of faith, that is the faith of God that Jesus tells us will move mountains.

So it is in that place of mustard seed faith, granted by the Holy Spirit through a word from the Shepherd, that we can pray the effective fervent prayers that avail much. We are so often like people going into a dark room and groping around to we find the light switch. There can be a lot of hidden wires carrying electricity (energeo) in the cavity of a wall, but there is only one switch that activates their power. The power is there: it’s been given to us. The entire circuit is the gift of God’s grace, and Jesus flipped the mains to a permanent “ON” at Calvary. But in the dark rooms where we can find ourselves we need to learn to seek and find the switches, instead of just tapping at the blank wall blindly and wondering why the light doesn’t come on.

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?

Holiness: You shall be perfect, Knowing God, Walking in the Spirit

Power Stations

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Christmas is always a very busy time in the church calendar, and January is usually when church leaders look back over those Christmas activities and evaluate them. Or at least, one would hope that is the case. But what do we evaluate our activities (Christmas and otherwise) against? In the business world, we look for a return on investment, and in our Father’s business it is no different. Jesus talks about it in the parable of the talents: the master expected a return on His investment. Jesus invested everything in us when He went to the cross, and the Father who sent him is looking for fruit that endures (John 15:16) as His return. Jesus fell to the ground and died to seed a vine that would bear fruit. It follows that whatever activities we do in the name of Jesus (and Colossians 3:17 exhorts us to do everything in His name) should be directed toward His purpose, which is to bear fruit; to give our Master a return on His investment; to see the Kingdom of God extended on Earth.

As far as I can see, the Bible only defines Christ’s purpose in three ways. Jesus himself talked consistently of two of them, which was to reveal the Father and His Kingdom, and John adds a third strand, which was to destroy the works of the evil one (1 John 3:8). These are most famously and succinctly summed up in the best known of all quotes from the New Testament, John 3:16: God sent His only begotten son into the world, that (i.e. with the purpose of) we should not perish (the work of the evil one) but have everlasting life (in the Kingdom Of God). Jesus also defines everlasting life as knowing the Father (John 17:3). John 3:16 really is the church’s mission statement.

So we have a clear lens through which to view the activities in which we invest time, manpower and money. To what extent are they in keeping with Jesus’s mission statement for His church? Are they, directly or indirectly, manifesting the Father? Are they preaching the Kingdom, taking it by force (Matthew 11:12) and destroying the works of the evil one in doing so? Are they equipping others for this work (Eph 4:12)? If they are, then we’re on mission; if not, we need to focus on what is, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16)

As we well know, the only way we can do the work of the Kingdom is in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to give life and that in abundance (John 10 :10) – everlasting Life. Being vessels for abundant life is always the goal of our mission. We are called to be power stations, individually, and as churches, generating that abundant life, bringing the everlasting energia of the Kingdom of God into this world; bringing Heaven to Earth. Our Father, the vine dresser, is looking for fruit that endures on His vine; He prunes the dead wood, and throws it in the fire. Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit, and with fire (Matt 3:11). Jesus said “I’ve come to set the Earth on fire; how I wish it were already kindled!“ (Luke 12:49). We can only guess at what Jesus was thinking here, but I believe He was looking beyond the cross to the day of Pentecost, when the tongues of fire came and set the kindling wood of His first church alight. Fire burns the fruitless branches of the vine, and it also brings holiness. In a power station, it is the source of the energy. We can’t have the power without the fire. We can achieve nothing for the Kingdom of God, unless it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, and along with the power of the Holy Spirit comes the fire that sooner or later burns up whatever is not of Him.

So let us always that check that the branches in our part of the vine are bearing the fruit of abundant life, and allow the pruning and the fire if they are barren.

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.

Holiness: You shall be perfect, The word of God

The Washing of Water by the Word (www.)

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“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”  (John, 17:19).

There is so much in His verse that one could write a whole book on it, let alone just a blog post. We think of sanctification in terms of the gradual process of the Holy Spirit working in our lives and purifying our characters, so that we become more like Jesus, more “saintly.” But that isn’t the way our Lord uses the term here: he couldn’t become more saintly than He was, or more like Jesus than he already was. The word used in the Greek is hagiazō, which is also translated as “consecrate.” What Jesus did here, as He did throughout His ministry, was to consecrate Himself to the Father’s will. Although most translations use “sanctify” here, the RSV uses the word “consecrate,”

“And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

God‘s word is truth, and the Father’s will for Jesus was already expressed in the prophetic words of the Messianic scriptures. As He faced the cross, Jesus consecrated himself to the truth. The desires and impulses of His flesh were completely eradicated by His commitment to the Father.

Sanctified by the truth
Jesus sanctified himself for our sakes “that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” It’s easy to miss the word “also” here. But what it tells us is clear: His desire for His disciples was that we would have the same commitment as Him, and He committed Himself to the cross to make it possible (“that they also…”). He never intended discipleship to be a part-time post.

When Jesus faced Pilate a short while later, He said “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18: 37), and Pilate famously asked “What is truth?” and turned away, assuming that the question had no answer. And as we know all too well, in the world system where Pilate had authority, truth is considered to be relative. But absolute truth does exist: Jesus Christ is Lord, His blood cleanses us from all our sin, God is our Father, He is Love, Love never fails. The doors to the Kingdom of Heaven, where Love rules and everlasting life awaits, are open to us through Jesus, its king. When the truth of the Kingdom of God reigns in our hearts we can die to self as Jesus did, knowing that self will always fail. We can consecrate ourselves to the truth in full assurance of faith, turning away from lusts and the lies of doubt, fear and pride that bring corruption. We will know the truth, and the truth will set us free.

The washing of water
Under the law, consecration was to be set apart from all impurities. As disciples of Jesus, we have been taken out of the world (John 17:16); we have already been consecrated. Jesus said to Peter, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” (John 13:10) This is picked up later by Paul: when he is drawing the parallel between the love of a husband for His wife and the love of Christ for the church, he says this:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5: 25-27)

When the disciples believed in Jesus, they were taken out of the world, and made clean by the perfect word that they had accepted. They weren’t clean because they had been marinating in the Holy Spirit for three years, but because they believed what Jesus had told them. When Paul writes “to the saints who are in Ephesus” (Eph 1:1), he was writing to all the believers there – all the consecrated ones – not just those who might be considered saintly. By washing their feet and commanding them to follow His example, Jesus was demonstrating to His disciples that their task now was to remain clean by continuing to believe His words, and by holding each other accountable for doing so. Paul’s revelation was not a new teaching, but a reminder of the lesson that Jesus gave in John 13.  “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26)

No less than those first disciples, we, the bride of Christ, were already made clean when we were taken out of the world by the word that we believed. To remain clean is a question of decision and determination to be bound to the word and the will of God. As we stay in tune with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, He will keep reminding us of the Truth. We don’t have to wait for sanctification to happen: we can sanctify ourselves as Jesus did every day of our lives, and the truth will set us free.

Be prepared; hold on., Christian Life, Living by Faith, Walking in the Spirit

The Bike Ride: Pictures of discipleship

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The Lord has shown me a picture of a bicycle on a number of occasions; the last one being three days ago. I’ve been thinking about the relevance of the idea of riding a bicycle to our walk as disciples, and the more I have considered it the more aspects I have seen. I am going to try and draw the threads together here over a few posts, because I believe that the Holy Spirit will quicken specific aspects of them  to different individuals. As you read it ask Him to speak to you.

Keep Moving

You can’t sit still on a bicycle: if you do you will fall off. We are encouraged to “press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14). Our faith is dynamic, not static. The Holy Spirit moves, and He wants us to move with Him. Now more than ever God is uprooting and tearing down old strongholds and old ways in the world and in the Church, because He is clearing the ground to build His Kingdom. Ephesians 5:16 encourages us to “redeem the time, because the days are evil.” We don’t achieve this by being static, but by engaging with God’s purpose for us, like the chain engages with the cogs to move the cycle forward as we put our weight on the pedal.  There are times when we doubt this purpose, and so we stop moving. The next thing we know, the faith that was so solid yesterday feels like quicksand today. But the doubt that floored us did not actually arise because the truth of what we believe is in any way questionable, but because the evil one chose that moment to send a fiery dart into our heart. We need to remember and believe the words that God has spoken to us in the past, because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29). If we just get on our bikes and start cycling again in these “quicksand moments,” despite the cloud that has descended, we will find that the path becomes solid again and the way clear once more. The shield of faith will extinguish the fiery dart.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Cor 15:58)

We are seated

Even though we are moving, we are seated – in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Because we are seated, we are at rest – even though we are moving. Jesus tells us that if we take His yoke upon us, we will find rest for our souls. If we have lost our rest and our peace has left us, the chances are that we have left our seats as well. All authority proceeds from His throne, and we are partakers of that authority. He has given us His name, and He has given us His peace. If we can just remember that we are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), anxiety, impatience, stress and many other negative states of mind have nowhere to settle.

(He) raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Eph 2:6)

Stay focussed

On a bicycle one has to stay focussed and concentrate on the task of staying on the road. If we have a lot of interests and responsibilities it is easy to get distracted, and the next thing we know we are, spiritually, lying on the ground along with our bicycle, and no longer wanting to cycle. But this doesn’t mean that we shirk our responsibilities or (as long as they are healthy ones!) give up our interests: God has put us where we are, and in addition He is the creator and sustainer of all things, therefore there is not a moment when we cannot find Him, and nothing in which we cannot serve and worship Him. The secret to staying on our bikes is in Proverbs 3 vs 6: to actually seek and acknowledge Him in everything we do. If we share everything with Him, as the friend that we are cycling with,  He will direct our paths, according to the rest of Proverbs 3:6. And if God is directing our paths we are not going to fall off our bikes.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct  your paths. (Prov 3:6)

Next time: uphill, downhill.

Holiness: You shall be perfect, Living by Faith

The Faith of Ezra

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“I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.” (Ezra 8: 22-23)

Ezra and a remnant of the Israelites had been released from captivity by Ataxerxes, the King of Persia, to go and worship the Lord in the temple that had been rebuilt during the reign of Darius. Before they set out on their perilous journey, Ezra had gathered them at the river to fast and pray. However they weren’t going empty-handed: in the care of the priests and Levites was “six hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver articles weighing one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold, twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and two vessels of fine polished bronze, precious as gold.” One talent weighed roughly 50kg; about the weight of one adult. So along with the men, women and children were another 100 people in solid gold, and 750 more people in solid silver, plus the other precious objects, presumably transported by donkey or ox-cart, all on a journey of around 2000 kilometres.

Ezra was a priest and a scribe. He knew the word of God. And not only did he know the Word, but he believed it without compromise, trusting God and not the armies of men for protection for all those people in his care, and all the wealth that they were carrying on this long and perilous journey. He believed what he declared, and walked in it. But also he didn’t walk in presumption, but under his leadership they prayed earnestly, they humbled themselves, and they fasted; and “the gracious hand of God was upon them” to deliver them safely to Jerusalem.

For us, as we journey on the road towards Jerusalem – the New One – how much of the word of God do we believe and walk in? At the time of writing we live in a climate of virus-induced fear, exaggerated by the negative words of headline-hunting media, reinforced by the sinister image of the face mask that robs the wearer of his or her smile, and by the deprivation of warm human contact through social distancing measures. As believers we are certain that God is at work through all this, because Romans 8: 28 tells us that “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.” However the fact remains that the virus and its ravages are the work of “the enemy on the road.” Yes, we have to comply with the law and its anti-virus measures, because the Bible tells us that as well. But do we give into the enemy of fear when we put the mask over our smile or imprison ourselves in our “social bubbles,” or do we believe that “God is my protection” and “No plague shall come near my dwelling?”

Our response to the enemy of fear in the context of coronavirus is just one aspect of many ways in which we can be selective in our faith. For example, the Bible is clear in both the old and new testaments that God detests same-sex relationships (For example. Leviticus 18:22, and 20:13; Romans : 24-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10.) Do we ignore that part of the word because it’s uncomfortable and hard to swallow, like a chewy bit of gristle that we leave on the side of the plate? There are no details given, but it isn’t hard to guess what some of the “detestable practices” of the surrounding pagan nations were that the Israelites, and many of their kings, found so attractive and which led to their downfall. A liberal gospel is not the gospel of Salvation. The narrow gate is like the restrictors found now at the top of airport and underground escalators: we can’t take all our baggage through, no matter how much we might want it with us.

Healing, deliverance, the critical importance of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, God’s promises of provision in times of hardship – how often is this food left on the side of the plate? Demons are another bit of gristle. They are a very real part of the unseen realm, but it is so easy leave them to carry on their activities instead of learning how to deal with them effectively.  And what does the Word tell us about division, backbiting and criticism, for example – what we might call the sins of the tongue rather than the sins of the flesh. Do we leave that as well? Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He gave Himself totally for our salvation. He is also the Living Word, and He is alive in us. If we want all that He has to give us, we need all of Him, not just the tasty bits, and we need to give ourselves totally to Him. We need the faith of Ezra in every aspect of our lives.

Living by Faith

Ask, and it shall be given.

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At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” (1 Kings 3:5)

We all know how Solomon responded to this. Even if you have never read any of the Bible you will have heard of the wisdom of that God gave to Solomon because it is what he asked for, and you will have heard of the great wealth and power that God also gave him because he didn’t ask for them. I sometimes used to wish that God would appear to me like that, and I would think about what my answer would be if He did, and all the amazing things He would give me that I hadn’t asked for. Have you?

The point is: God has said the same thing to us. Jesus said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened… If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matt 7:7-8, 11)

Luke renders this slightly differently. He says (Luke 11:13)”… how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him”

Paul writes (Romans 8:32) “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

This is not God appearing to us in a dream in a specific time and place; these are words that are written in Heaven for every child of God for all time, for us to appropriate by faith and make our own. The only question is: what is God exhorting us to ask for? Is it “good things,” “all things,” or “the Holy Spirit?” We need to know what to ask for.

I understand it like this. “Good things” have to be God’s things. Since Jesus said that only God is good (Luke 18:19), this has to mean that Jesus would not call anything “good” that does not come from Heaven, where God dwells. Everything that is good exists in the realm of the Spirit. As James 1:17 tells us: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” Whatever we receive from the Father of lights comes to us through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, so when the Bible says that God will “Give the Holy Spirit” to those who come to the Father with requests, I think it simply means something like: “the entire storehouse of Heaven is available through Him; what exactly are you looking for?”

Scripture shows that there is no doubt that Jesus wants us to ask for “good gifts” from the Father:

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Matt 18:19)

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matt 21:22)

 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13)

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16)

“and whatever we ask we receive from him, becausewe keep his commandmentsand do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:22)

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5: 14-15)

There are clearly some conditions; nevertheless that is a lot of encouragement to ask! God is emphatic about it. When we pray in the name of Jesus and our prayers are answered, “the Father is glorified in the Son.” Jesus tells us that it is “The Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.”  (Luke 12:32) Our call as disciples is to carry on the work of the Master and see His kingdom come. We can’t build the Kingdom of God for Jesus: He has to do it Himself, by His Spirit; and He won’t do it unless we ask Him. He appointed us to bear fruit by asking the Father to give us the Kingdom. In the Spirit it is all ours already, as we are seated in heavenly places with Jesus the King. But on Earth we need to pray it into being: every time a prayer is answered we bear lasting fruit, the Father and the Son are glorified, and that is another bit of the Kingdom that has come on Earth as it is in Heaven.

So what are the conditions? Really, they can be summed up in two statements: we have to ask in faith, actually believing that we have received what we have asked for; and we have to be walking in His will. If there is sin or disobedience in our lives the heavens will be brass. If God has told you to do something, do it. You’ll just be walking through cobwebs in your spiritual life until you do. James also gives us a useful clue: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4: 3) If our motivation is worldly or carnal, we are wasting our time. Such things do not come into the domain of “good gifts,” however good we may think they are.

What if we feel that we have fulfilled the conditions, we are praying in the Spirit and not in the flesh, we are seeking God’s kingdom and not the fulfilment of our own desires, and we are still not seeing answers? There may be reasons, often to do with the timing of other situations in the bigger picture, that only God knows about; but there is one common one that we can do something about ourselves, and it’s this: we are giving up too easily, and are not being fervent enough. We have to remember that we are in a battle. There is opposition. Daniel waited 21 days for the answers he was seeking while a battle with the demon prince of Persia was being played out in the spirit realm. Maybe we need to fast. Maybe we’re just not on our knees for long enough. Maybe we should actually try getting onto our knees instead of praying on the sofa. Maybe we just need to ask God what the problem is. But as Smith Wigglesworth put it, the fact is that God wants to answer far more that we want to ask.

When Jesus posed the unsettling question “Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when He returns?” (Luke 18:8) it is preceded by the story of the unjust judge and the persistent widow. It would seem that faith, in this context, is knowing that God will eventually answer if we just keep banging on the door. The tense of the verbs in the “Ask, seek and knock” verse is the present continuous: ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking. . When Bible teacher Andrew Wommack held prayer meetings at the start of his ministry they used to keep praying, sometimes through the night and often doing battle with the enemy, until they saw breakthrough; because they believed that God had the “good and perfect gift” for them. It’s the fervent effective prayer of a righteous man that avails much. (James 5:16).

A final point. David just asked for one thing:

One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)

I think Jesus may have been alluding to this when He said (Luke 10:42) “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Jesus made it clear throughout His teachings that if we seek first the Kingdom of God, “all these things” – the things that “the pagans” ask for, from the world and the flesh – will be given to us. If we give to others, God will give to us. Whatever we “forsake” on earth for the Kingdom’s sake will be given back to us, multiplied a hundredfold. (With persecutions!) This is not to say that God doesn’t care about our material needs. He does, and we can remind Him of His promise that “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. …” (Phil 4:19). In fact we are explicitly taught to ask for our daily bread, and not just to assume it will be on the table. By asking for it, we are recognising that everything we have comes from Him: it’s an acknowledgement of His provision, and as such can even be considered part of our worship.

To put all this together, I suggest the following:

1) Like David, we hunger above all for God’s presence. Apart from anything else, this is the only place where real faith is stirred.

2) We recognise that God is our provider, we trust Him to supply our needs and we remind Him of His promises over our lives. I put this before the next point because it means what we can take our personal “stuff” to the cross and leave it there, while we get on with the business of number 3 below.

3) We get on our knees, physically or metaphorically, and realise that God is saying the same to us as He said to Solomon all those years ago.

So what are we asking for? Is it a good and perfect gift that will increase the Kingdom of God on the earth? Do we really believe it is there for us? Are we in a right place with God, or does something need dealing with so that we ourselves are walking in His Kingdom ways? Is our priority, above all else, to know the presence of God? If the answer to all of these is yes, then we keep asking until it “comes down from the Father of lights.” And if it’s taking its time, that may simply be because we are in a battle, and we need to “endure to the end.”

God is saying to us all, “Ask! What shall I give you?” And we aren’t dreaming.