Tag Archives: jesus

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Knowing God

Heavenly Glory

Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knowing God, Living by Faith, Walking in the Spirit

The Multitudes Are Coming

2 Comments

“After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.” (John 6: 1-3)

When Jesus saw the multitude coming, what did He do? He went up the mountain and sat there with His disciples. If there is one theme that has common to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches through His prophets today, it is that the multitudes are coming. There will be a revival such as the world has never seen before. Smith Wigglesworth prophesied it in 1947; Rick Joyner had seen it when he published The Harvest in 1997; Jarrod Cooper saw it in 1996 and wrote about it in Days of Wonder. Many less well-known prophets all around the world have had visions and words about this coming revival.

The multitudes are coming. Are we ready? As Smith Wigglesworth wrote (his prophesy is published in many places online), the prophesied glory will be nothing like the world has known. The glory of God has flickered briefly throughout the ages, but the new wine has always burst the old wineskin. In the past there was still hope in the world systems. There have always been signs of decay, but the grass was green, the water flowed, economies grew, and families looked forward: the future held promise. But today is different. The environment that seemed strong enough to bear the weight of its increasing population is now as fragile as wet paper, the debt-ridden international economy has about the strength of a cobweb, the most powerful nation in the world is governed by a senile old man, and moral confusion is so rife not even the basic polarities of gender are no longer a certainty in a child’s world. The multitude are coming, because promise has gone from the world.

Where do we go? Do we shore up our Church systems to prepare ourselves (or maybe, in some cases, to hide…)? Do we run to meet them in missionary fervour? Do we build great platforms from which we can address the crowds? No. We go up the mountain and we sit down with Jesus. We wait in His presence, and while we are waiting, we renew our strength and learn what it is to rise up on Eagles wings, because when the multitudes arrive He will give us our instructions, and one thing that we can be certain of is this: whatever He tells us to do it will not be what we expect, and it will be nothing that can be bought from the world, any more than the disciples could have bought enough bread from the local villages. Nobody will minister to the crowds from a platform built by human hands.

Jesus is bringing a revelation of His glory to the Church. He is God, through whom the worlds were made; whereas “all the glory of man is as the flowers of the grass,” (Ps 103:15) and even the nations are “like a drop in a bucket, and are reckoned as dust on the scales.” (Isaiah 40:15) God will provide for the multitudes out of His glory, in the presence of which our greatest achievements are less than dust. All we can bring to Jesus is our faith and our thankful love, and our desire for His presence above all things.  He told the disciples to make the people sit down, even though they had still had nothing in their hands to give them, and they obeyed in faith.  Then He gave thanks for the loaves and fishes, and handed them to His disciples to feed the crowd.

Up on the mountain, Jesus is fashioning a new wineskin that will not burst. The multitude will be fed by the insignificant in the hands of the glorious, distributed by the obedient.

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare, Walking in the Spirit

The Peach

Leave a comment

“ 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

1 Comment

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

3 Comments

“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

3 Comments

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

Leave a comment

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.

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

In the coming storm: hold on, rejoice, and follow!

1 Comment

The message for 2024 from Andrew Baker, who heads up the Eagles prophetic ministry.

I, Andrew, was asking the Lord for a word from His heart for the coming year. Sometimes I receive a “Thus says the Lord” word, but this time I was clearly led to some scriptures, already in a set order. Here is what the Lord showed me.

Philippians 3:13-14 is a well-known passage; “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching towards those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Most prophets are warning us of the change of season and that this new time will bring many things on the earth that we have not seen or experienced before. Indeed, we do not need to be a prophet, or even a believer, to see that these things are already coming upon us. I have no intention of listing such things here, as that is not what the Lord seems to be centring on today. We are aware of the present issues on the earth but many more that we have not thought of will touch the nations in the coming days. These will include certain nations taking a deliberate path in order to bankrupt the West.

God is moving His people who will, by faith, believe Him, into a completely different scene. It will be like the old circular stage at big West End Theatres in London. There was one scene showing (on the front of the circular stage, facing the audience at that time) and then, the button was pushed and the whole stage revolved 180 degrees and what was hidden behind the curtains (another scene, standing on the back half of the circular stage), suddenly arrived for the audience to see. It was a new scene completely, with new props, new view and new furniture and equipment on it. The only thing that would remain the same was the cast, of course, they simply moved from one scene to the next. So it will be in this new year and the season we are now moving into. The stage of the whole world is revolving, and we are starting to see what the new one will look like (from human perspective, not so very good). However, the Lord is not only saying that the world will change but that our world, as believers, will change just as much. The Lord says get ready to move into a scene and set that you have never seen or walked on before. Everything will be different except for the cast.

Hold On

As believers, I see that Lord telling us to hold onto, inside, the solid things of Jesus and the word; these things will be so, so important to us in this new world. However, all other things around you will change and you will need this new equipment, positioning and all that makes up this new scene, in order to function and have victory for souls and resources in this world that is changing for the worse in these latter days.

The Lord is saying to us all today that He foretold many of these things about a changing world in His Word, centuries, even millennia ago. Such is His ability to see ahead because He does not live in time but rather created it, and is before, during and after time; using it and yet outside and master of it. The Lord wants to remind us that when He walked the earth, He spoke clearly of these difficult times that would come in the last days. There is no doubt that the nations of the earth will be in the centre of all kinds of troubles, and we are seeing the beginnings of that right now.  However, as His message today adds in Philippians chapter four, these matters should not concern us or cause us fear. These things are coming on the earth but believers are taught and shown how to walk through these days in joy and victory, being led by the Spirit and seeing God’s hand upon those who will listen and walk in the way He leads.

Rejoice in the Lord

Philippians 4:4-9 says: “Rejoice in the Lord always”. Let’s take a moment with this. In the middle of even his own catastrophe Paul says rejoice, laugh and have lots of heavenly joy! This is a message, at the time, from a man who was in the deep dungeon with the rats, probably chained to the floor! I mention this because we may say that this message of joy cannot be shared with someone in a war zone, or someone who has just lost a loved one, someone in deep debt or who is suffering a terminal illness. I believe we would be wrong. I believe that we can heed the words and exhortation of Paul because he was in such dire straits himself at the time and had been many times before. Paul was experienced in listening to the Lord and following His divine advice, which is often so much different from human counsel. Yes, this is a word for us all for the coming year, as the world sinks to lower levels of evil but the Lord wants to carry His people through, round, over and past it all.

Remember Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is your strength”, and Jesus who prayed that we would have His joy fulfilled in ourselves (John 17:13), that our joy may be full (John 16:24) and that His joy may remain in us (John 15:11). Yes, this Jesus was described in Luke 10:21 as having outbursts of joy too: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said…”. Jesus knew what was ahead of Him but He concentrated on things above and the joy that was set before Him. Throughout these coming days, joy will be such a weapon and such a defence shield, along with our faith, that we had better start operating in this wonderful gift right now.

Many have been the days when the Lord just made me smile and then laugh and then continue to be filled with joy. It usually happens when I am becoming too serious. Today, sit quietly in the middle of the storm and allow the Lord to cause you to laugh, as He does. He is God, He can do or change anything. His thoughts are way above ours; His ability makes men’s wars and ‘threats’ look like a young child having a tantrum. God is on the throne. Paul knew this in this passage from Philippians, and we need to remind ourselves of just who the Lord is now.

Psalm 2 is relevant in this context. Verses 1-2 and 4 say this : “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed…He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision.”The Lord saw their hearts and ways back then, and He still sees now. Men’s hearts have not changed and neither has the devil’s desires and lies. Jesus has had the victory, and so all this stuff may appear terrifying to mere humans, but when viewed from the Lord’s balcony, it is futile, even to the destroying of the entire planet as we know it, because the Lord simply can makes us another when necessary!! We need to see things through His eternal eyes, not through our temporary ones.

We need to learn to relax in Him, trust His guidance and follow His leadings. Whilst we do this, we need to laugh a lot and give out a message of faith and hope that the Lord will always be on hand to bless, help and support those who are His and to help them rescue others from the stormy seas and bring them to eternal safety too.

Be Anxious for Nothing

Back to our passage. Verse 6 tells us: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” After telling us to meditate on good things (instead of the troubles) we can settle our concerns and receive the peace of God in our anxious hearts. In another passage the Lord talks about things coming on the earth that will cause men’s hearts to fail with fear (Luke 21:25-26). This message in these verses is not for the believer! It is about those who do not know God! For us believers, when the fire gets hotter, the divine help, closeness, covering and grace get stronger.

We should know and understand what is happening around us, yes, don’t put your head in the sand, but the issue for us is to keep our eyes and meditation on the things of the Lord and our ears open to His direction. I am not saying that there are not among us some who are called to understand the things happening on the earth; neither am I saying that we should all stop doing everything and just sit around; I am certainly not saying that you should not continue with your call, mission, business, ministry and life’s work, but I am saying that our apostle Paul knew plenty of troubles but kept His eyes and ears on the things above. He knew which was temporary and which was eternal. He knew which would get him through the mess and what thoughts would bring confusion and possibly even his downfall. Eyes and ears on the Lord, follow His leadings very sensitively, and as you think upon the Lord and who He is, be filled with joy, laughter and faith that will lift you above the mess and help you through to the other side, along with enabling you to be a useful person to God to help others though too.

So let us see that this kind of joy will remove our anxiety. Be at peace and know that He is here in our midst, living inside of us and prepared to walk together with us and bring to the table all His abilities and attributes. This way we shall find personal victory, success in prayer for others and a way to complete the call and mission on our lives. We will also find the enabling us to steer clear of many problems before even reaching them on our walk and knowing His heart of love to melt us and help us in our own lives and relationships, too.

Luke tells us over and over again in chapter 12: “do not worry”, “do not have an anxious mind”, “do not fear”. He is not telling us to do something we cannot do. He knows that the Holy Spirit within will help us and settle our hearts when we keep our eyes on him. Isaiah 25:3 says: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts you.” I know that I may have sent articles with some of these verses in before, but I have learned that the Lord wants us to constantly remind ourselves of truth. That is one reason why he asked us to break bread and take wine regularly, too.

So, as we rejoice, relax in Him, put our thoughts and eyes on Him, so His peace will flood in and bring us to the place where all things begin to disappear in the face of His glory and grace. Do you think you can’t do this? Well, read verse 13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Enough said!

Raise up the Josephs

The final verse the Lord was pointing out to me was Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Whilst dark days may be ahead for the world, and much lack and many shortages may be their lot, yet the Lord will not only help and bless His people but will take care of every need we have if we follow His ways and directions.

Many of you have heard the testimony of Carole and me – of God’s provision over the years. We must all now learn to walk with the Lord by faith in His ability to make a way and to provide in famine. Even if the fields are dust and there is no rain, the Lord can still cause 100 fold to come forth as we follow His instructions. We look not just for our own provision, but we need to be helping raise up the Josephs that we are being called to help bring onto the world stage at all levels. It is Joseph time now. This will be the year to begin the season of the impossible being possible, of miracles of provision of all types and of gathering the harvest of souls and resources that we, as Eagles, have played our part of prophesying for the last 14 years or so.

It is now time to look forwards and not back to the ways things were accomplished before. Keep the Lord, His word, prayer, praise and worship and His ways central to our lives as we learn a better way to live by faith in Him and walking in the God dimension. Don’t be anxious but rejoice in the Lord always and know that God will fill you with peace even with war around you and will provide for you, as you are led by His Spirit. Forward into 2024 with these things in mind Eagles.

Come out from the Hidden Place

Over many years we have all been learning to have faith in God at a higher level. Now the Lord is telling us that we must start to teach and move in this way on a wider way and to a wider audience. It is time to start coming out from the hidden place we had previously been told by the Lord to operate and spend much of our time in, and to help bring the word of the Lord to all who will listen, as the winds of change blow over this world. We need to show people that God is real and that He is the One to trust.

I believe that the Lord will entrust us all with helping many people into the ark of provision that He is building in these days and, as a result, will see many new converts won. This is the season for the world to see the Lord bring wave after wave of His love over the people. As the devil tries to resist the last days plans of the Lord, we need to be a part of the army of believers who will usher in the harvest, be supportive of His ancient people and prepare the way for the return of the Lord. Father envisages nations being turned around. Jesus is preparing His return. The Holy Spirit knows all the plans of man and devils for the coming days yet is 10 steps ahead. Eagles, many are the plans of men, but the purposes of God will prevail!

With calmness and the stillness of His presence inside us, and the fire of His power surging through us at the same time, it is now time to follow His leading like never before. This is not a year for our own plans, but a time to be led to cooperate with the plans of the Lord. This will be a year and season of the miraculous. Have a wonderful New Year, Eagles, as we play our part in drawing in the harvest of souls and resources for the Kingdom of God. May you have great joy and blessings as we all seek, together and as individuals, to be a blessing to Him and those He puts across our paths. Amen!

Love, power and blessings to you all in Christ Jesus,

Andrew and Carole Baker

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

Breakfast on the Beach: the King and His Kingdom

1 Comment

“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.