Tag Archives: walk in the light

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

Walking as Children of Light: Discovering God’s Will

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“Walk as Children of light, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:10)

I spent my working life in the world of education and dyslexia, and went to countless conferences where the title revolved round the notion of “putting theory into practice.“ Whether it is learning how to drive and doing our theory test first, or learning how to teach children with learning difficulties, our model is that: first we learn the principles, then we have an examination to get our qualification, then we apply them.

Not so the biblical model of Christian discipleship. We don’t need to get a qualification, because Jesus got it for us at the cross:  we start with the practice straight away, and as we go, we discover the enduring reality of the principles that God has given us.

Paul wrote letters to 6 different churches. They all had specific issues that he wanted to cover, but behind his instruction there was only one body of truth, and one passion for all of the churches (2 Cor 11:28), which was that they grow to maturity in Christ. So sometimes we find him saying the same thing to different churches but using different words. Our English translations of his words can sometimes obscure the meaning rather than clarify it. For example, Ephesians 5:10 in the translation I use (NKJV) says that we “find out” what is acceptable to the Lord by walking as Children of light, whereas in his letter to the Romans he tells him that they will “prove” God’s will if they renew their minds. The word translated as both “find out” and “prove” is Dokimazo, which means to test, to prove, to examine, to scrutinise to see if something is genuine. Here are both passages:

 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit  is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth)  finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. (Ephesians 5: 8-10)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

Because of how we tend to read the Bible, we will probably approach these scriptures independently and come to different conclusions about what they mean. But actually, they mean the same thing. We Dokimazo the Will of God by walking as Children of light, and we Dokimazo the good and perfect Will of God by renewing our minds,. How do we renew our minds? Not by studying for the qualification, but by walking as children of light, step by step.

Paul instructs the Ephesians as well as the Romans on the theme of renewing the mind, in chapter 4 21-24:

“…  the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

He explains here that we are “renewed in the spirit of our minds“ when we put on the new man, which he also tells us was “created according to God in all true righteousness and holiness.” The new man seeks the Kingdom and not the self, and so thinks differently. The use of the word “spirit” here refers to the motivating power; what drives our thinking. He expresses the idea in Romans 8:5: “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Being renewed in the spirit of our minds is what we do whenever we fix our eyes on Jesus. When we walk as children of light and find out what is acceptable to the Lord, we can’t produce anything except the fruit of the Spirit, which Paul says is in “all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” If we are children of light we are born of the light, what is in us is light, we walk in the light, what we emanate is light, and also that light can bring revelation, because “whatever makes manifest is light.” (Eph 5:13) Light, as the parenthesis in verse 9 explains, is “all goodness, righteousness and truth.” These are the elements of our new nature, which as we have already seen was “created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:24) Light is what comes out of us; it’s the fruit that we bear. We are all familiar with the different attributes of the fruit of the spirit that are listed in detail in Galatians 5:22-23: the verse in Ephesians summarises them well.

Aaron’s Rod
Numbers 17 gives us the story of Aaron’s rod, which budded, blossomed and fruited overnight to confirm Aaron’s appointment as high priest. We are a royal priesthood ourselves (1 Pe 2:9); “Kings and priests unto God” (Rev 1:6), so what applies to Aaron applies to us. So I think that the biblical model for the fruit of the Spirit is actually the supernatural fruiting of Aaron’s rod, rather than the natural development of earthly fruit that matures over time, which is how we tend to see it. If the Spirit is not confined to time, nor is His fruit; and to claim that self-control, for example, is taking its time to develop in my character is like anchoring the work of the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new, to the old man of flesh in the body of sin and death. If I am struggling with self-control it is because I am not seeking the Kingdom of God and I haven’t put on the new man in that situation. The same applies to love, peace, joy and the rest of the Galatians 5 list. To think otherwise seems like natural thinking; a good excuse for bad behaviour.

So we learn from Ephesians 5:9 that we manifest the fruit of the spirit by taking steps as Children of light, and in doing so we discover God‘s will for us. Our new nature is complete from the start: we “put it on“ just like we put on our clothes in the morning. It doesn’t develop gradually, any more than we start the day just wearing one sock and walking around naked until we’re ready to put on another one. Our new nature is “God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them.“ (Ephesians 2:10) It is raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places, Aaron’s rod waiting to blossom, ready for us to put on at every moment of the day, every day. Walking in the spirit isn’t just about encountering God in supernatural manifestations and impossible adventures of Faith, although it can be both of those; it is about choosing the new creation’s priestly garments in our daily life and our dealings with other people instead of the old man’s rags of selfishness and sin. Paul sums up the immediacy of this fruitfulness in Ephesians 5:14

“Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”

We will obviously fail, a lot, and mess up our new clothes; but when we do we repent, we receive forgiveness, we get up, and we start walking again. Because of God’s amazing grace, our new creation is as spotless again as it was the day it was born, and we will have been renewing our minds, putting on the new man, walking in the spirit, and bearing the fruit of righteousness at every step. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)  I don’t think the process of sanctification is about letting this fruit grow in us over time, because according to Ephesians 4:24 it’s all there from the start: I think it’s all about learning to walk for longer in the Light without falling over, as Jesus “sanctifies and cleanses us with the washing of water by the word.”  (Eoh 5:26) And as we walk into those works prepared beforehand we experience the divine appointments, supernatural moments and miraculous provision that we long for.

We often quote Jeremiah 29:11, that tells us that God knows the plans that he has for us. If we want to know what those plans are, we make up our minds to keep walking as children of light, and we will step into them.

Discipleship and witness, Knowing God, Walking in the Spirit

Children of Light: the attributes of jasper.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stained Glass Windows

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Seeing Jesus

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

How did He respond?

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

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

Children of Light

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

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

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

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

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

Stained Glass Windows

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

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

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

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

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

Buckle up the Belt of Truth

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When God spoke through his prophets to his old covenant people he repeated the same message many times and in many different ways: “Return to me or face the consequences!”

The same God speaks through his prophets today. He continues to say the same thing to different people in different ways. His heart of love for His people has not changed: He continues to say “Return to me!“  And the call hasn’t changed: He said to the first Adam “where are you?“ and today, although the context may be different, He still says to us, the brothers and sisters of the second Adam: “Where are you?“

He still is longing to walk with us in the garden of His promises, and many in His church are still nowhere to be seen. He has a plan and a purpose, and He will see that plan and  purpose fulfilled: His desire is that walk with him, close to him, yoked to him, so He can best fulfil that plan in all our lives.

The message that He is giving to many of his prophets today is clear: the vision is “written on tablets so that he may run who reads it!” (Hab 2:2) There is a great shaking coming on the world; and there will be much upheaval; but in and through this we will find safety under the shadow of his wings; we will be a light in the darkness as we walk in his light, and as His light arises on us so many will come out of the darkness to seek Him. There have been pictures of earthquakes, of storms, of avalanches; there have been words of the lion roaring, of light shining, of a strong tower standing, but the message is fundamentally Isaiah 60: 2-3, and ultimately the deepest symbolism of the Book of Revelation:

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you,
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.
And His glory will be seen upon you.

Nevertheless there is a new emphasis now, a new note that hasn’t been heard before. In summary, what I feel the Spirit is saying to the Church is this:

“Buckle up for a bumpy ride, because this really is about to happen soon. Buckle up the belt of Truth, because this is what will keep you safe. But pay attention, because it will be the new thing I am doing, and not the old thing that you have been doing. Listen to me and learn from me and you will tread the high places of the Earth in my presence. But if you refuse to listen you will seek me but you will not find me; you will see my light shining over the mountains but you will continue to stumble through the undergrowth of the valley that I want to lead you out of; and your heart will be in danger of growing bitter and critical towards those who are experiencing my glory.”

Our response.

Prophesy requires a response. When Agabus prophesied a famine, “ the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea” (See Acts 11: 28-30) So how do we do to prepare for what is coming? Here are a few suggestions.

Intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells us that His sheep hear His voice – but it’s only through the Holy Spirit that He speaks, whether this is directly into our hearts or via the Bible, so unless we are familiar with that voice we will not recognise it when it comes, and we will miss His directions. This doesn’t just mean spending a fixed period of time every day praying and reading the Bible; it means staying close to Him all day so that we can hear his whisper as we walk, that “voice behind us, saying this is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)

Openness to change.
God is doing “a new thing.” This doesn’t mean that it’s not in the Bible, because it is. It will either be prophesy that is now coming to fulfilment, or aspects of new testament church life and ministry that God is only now restoring to the church. We need to make sure that our openness to what God is doing today is is only shaped by what He did when He first established the church 2,000 years ago. and just not by what we, our fathers, or our Bible teachers saw God doing yesterday.

Practical love
Are we free and generous in our giving? As the financial systems of the world become more shaky, the best place to invest our money is in the Bank of Heaven, where “moth and rust do not corrupt, and thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt 6:19) As we shovel out, God shovels in – and His shovel is bigger than ours.

Holiness
Friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). Jesus is coming for a bride without spot or blemish. God judged idolatry and compromise among His Old Covenant people and He has not changed today. We all need to ask the Holy Spirit if we have any idols ourselves, and what we need to do for our “houses” to be an acceptable dwelling place for Him. We must recognise that Peter meant what he said when he wrote “Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”

None of these – or other principals of discipleship – are new ideas. I think that the “new thing” that God is doing today is to allow unprecedented erosion of the sandy foundations that the world’s civilisation is built upon, so that what is build on the Rock of Jesus Christ is the safe haven that can be seen by all, more clearly than ever before. His call to us today is to make sure we are in it and are not wandering around outside.

Christian Life, Discipleship and witness, Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

Entering the Land (2): Greater is He that is in you…(Teaching)

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“So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we  had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.” (Joshua 5:1)

The new generation of the children of Israel had been circumcised and were gathered between the Jordan and Jericho. As I wrote in the previous article we, the Church of Jesus Christ and the brothers of the second Adam, are the new generation who will enter the Land of Promise: the old generation, the children of the first Adam, cannot enter. And we live in a time when many prophetic voices are declaring that the Divine Nature will be manifested more powerfully than ever before when a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit equips us to live more fully in the good of the “great and precious promises” that we find in the Word (See 2 Peter1:4). So we too find ourselves between the Jordan and Jericho: we’re born again of the Spirit – we’re over the Jordan – and we know that there is a great advance ahead of us. But first we need to get past Jericho. What can we learn?

First of all, we need to remember that “greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) The darkness is scared of the light, because it knows the light is stronger. The devil knows that he is no match for the spiritual weapons of our warfare, which are “mighty for pulling down strongholds (2 Cor 10:5),” because of course he knows what they are. The question is, do we? I think one of the devil’s main strategies in our warfare is to make sure we don’t. Jesus cast demons out ‘with a word’ because they knew who Him. The demons that overpowered the sons of Sceva knew Jesus, and they knew who Paul was, but they obviously couldn’t see anything of Jesus in the sons of Sceva. Their words alone were not enough.

Over the years I have done my share of “spiritual warfare.” I think I’ve won a few battles, but I have also lost many; and I have come to the conclusion from reflecting on my own experience and applying what I understand from Scripture, that we spend a lot of time firing blanks when we think we are shooting down the enemy.  We can talk, pray and declare all night, but Paul says that we are to “stand” when we have “done all.” When we “stand” in prayer against the forces of darkness, have we “done all?” Are we actually wearing the armour of God, walking in faith, righteousness and truth, spreading the gospel and speaking God’s word, or have we just rushed into prayer mode while the armour of our spiritual selves is still shut away in a locker in our heavenly home? James says we need to be “doers of the word, not hearers only” (James 1:22). The two house builders of Jesus’s sand and rock parable have both heard His word, but only one of them keeps it.

The enemy knew who Paul was because he clearly didn’t just teach the church about the armour of God; he wore it himself, all the time. To put on the armour of God, stand in it, and to “do all” is to put on Christ and walk in the Spirit. The enemy looked at Paul, and doubtless at Peter and the other apostles after Pentecost, saw Jesus, and had to succumb to the victory of the cross. Paul didn’t give us a check-list for a quiet time procedure in Ephesians 6, he gave us a picture of what the weapons of our warfare look like when we let our spirits do the walking in our lives. If we are walking in the light before confronting the enemy, he will see us coming before we reach him: he will recognise Jesus in our faith (the shield), our righteousness (the breastplate), our thinking (the helmet), our words (the sword), and our footsteps (the shoes). He will still put up a fight, but will be defeated in the end. But if he doesn’t see them he won’t know who we are, and no amount of “praying against” him will make any difference: we will just be firing blanks.

We must remember that the same spiritual powers of darkness that were over  the “Kings of the Canaanites” are at work in today’s world. If they had had shut up Jericho for fear of the people of God, what weapons of warfare are they scared of finding in our possession today? The answer can be summed up in a single word: Christlikeness. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more like him we become, and the more likely we are to pull down the strongholds that stand between us and the promised land.

Living by Faith, Walking in the Spirit

Seated in Heavenly Places

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“In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them.” (Zechariah 12:8)

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises, that we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pe 1:3-4)

Who do you see in the mirror?


When speaking of the Word of God, the apostle James wrote: “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (James 1: 23-23) The question is, what kind of people are we, who have been born from above to “conform to the image of Christ” (Romans 8:29) Who do we see when we look in the mirror of the Word? We are the spiritual house of David that Jesus is building by the Holy Spirit (1 Pe 2:5). The prophet Zechariah doesn’t mince his words: he says that we will be “like God.” Peter says that through God’s “great and precious promises” we are “partakers of the divine nature.” Yet you don’t have to spend more than a few seconds with me to know that I am clearly not like God at all. What’s gone wrong?

Nothing, because you are seeing my flesh and not my spirit. I have already looked at our spiritual identities in “We shall be like Him,” and it seems to me that the evidence of Scripture is this: in the heavenly places where we are seated, we are like Him already, because we are already seated in the atmosphere of His glory, where nothing can dwell that is less than perfect.

Here are a few details of who we are in Christ that Scripture has sketched in for us:

“Those whom he justified he also glorified.”  (Romans 8 28-29)
“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them” (John 17:22)

We have come to “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” (Heb 12:23)

We are “crowned with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5)

We have places to walk in the courts of Heaven (Zech 3:7)

We can be “joyful in glory” and have the honour of “executing God’s written judgement” on the Nations (Psalm 149: 5-9).

We “Worship God in the Beauty of holiness” (Psalm 96:9)

All of these descriptions of the Saints – and there are plenty more – can only relate to our walk in the Spirit: since the flesh wars against the spirit nothing of our carnal nature can have any part in them. From the moment we are born again to the time when we join the Lord in Heaven we mature as Christians, “grow(ing) up  in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—” (Eph 5:15) as the Holy Spirit bears the fruit of Christ in our lives. But the question I am aiming at is this: is a baby Christian on Earth also a baby Christian in Heaven?

I think the answer has to be “No.” There is no passage of time in Heaven, where a year is as a thousand days, where the God who created time has reigned since before time began and where we are seated as His children together with His Son. If there is no duration in Heaven, there can also be no maturation: what we are in the Spirit is what we were created to be, as are the angels, the seraphim, the 24 elders and all the other members of the Heavenly host. I think we “grow up in all things into Him who is the head” (Eph 4:15) as, step by step, faith to faith, and obedient moment by obedient moment, we put to death our carnal natures and allow our spirits and not our flesh to do the walking.

Paul exhorts the Philippians to “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life.” (Phil 2: 14-16)

The “crooked and perverse generation” is the generation of the First Adam (See “away in a manger” for more on this). As we let the dead shell of that same carnal nature fall away, the light of Christ’s Spirit that is one with ours shines more and more strongly and brings His light into the darkness, while His Word executes His will on Earth. The process of maturing as Christians is becoming on Earth who we already are in Heaven, and in doing so becoming the answers to the Lord’s prayer: “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” The correct translation of the Greek tenses in Matthew 18:18 is this: “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Everything was finished at Calvary: as we grow in the Spirit we are always reaching into Heavenly places for a completed work.

Pauls prayer for the Ephesians was

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…” (Eph 1:17-20)

It is often said that Jesus is the “bridge” from earth to Heaven. The bridge from Heaven to Earth is the Holy Spirit: the baptism in the Holy Spirit gives us all we need of Heaven’s equipping for our earthly works – “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.” The more that we can see in the mirror of God’s word who we really are, the more the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened, and the greater will be the works (John 14:12) that we will do.

Be prepared; hold on., Discipleship and witness, Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

Are You a Believer?

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“I also asked about the ten horns on the fourth beast’s head and the little horn that came up afterward and destroyed three of the other horns. This horn had seemed greater than the others, and it had human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly. As I watched, this horn was waging war against God’s holy people and was defeating them, until the Ancient One—the Most High—came and judged in favor of his holy people. Then the time arrived for the holy people to take over the kingdom.” (Daniel 7: 20-22 NLT)

Are you a believer? Do you believe that the Lord made the Heavens and the Earth? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for your sins, was resurrected on the third day, is seated at the right hand of God and will return one day, possibly quite soon, to judge both the living and the dead? Do you believe that Man was created in the image of God and did not evolve from lizards? Do you believe that unborn children should not be murdered? That you and I were designed to have a lifelong relationship with a member of the opposite sex? And do you support a political party that, in the main at least, upholds these values?

If you do, you are in good company: you are in “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.” (Heb 12:23) We belong, not because we know better, but because we believe.

But when you speak of these things that you believe, are you mocked and vilified? Are you made to feel at times that you are simple-minded, ignorant and foolish when you even think them; that it really is time that you woke (pun intended) up to reality? If this is you, remember that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,  against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12) The voice that seeks to make you feel ashamed of what you believe is not the voice of the secular media, it’s not even the voice of the editor of that left-wing journal that claims to speak for freedom; it comes straight from the mouth of the prince of the power of the air whose servants they are, who “boasts arrogantly” against the Most High God and wages war against His people. The more arrogant the voice, the closer it comes to judgement.

And if you are a brother of sister in the USA right now, be encouraged, Child of God, for the Most High will, in His time, judge in favour of His holy people.

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.” (1 John 3:1)

Holiness: You shall be perfect

Walking in the Light

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

There are three elements to this verse:  walking in the light, fellowship, and being cleansed of all sin by the blood of Jesus. If we walk in the light we are walking with Jesus. Jesus said: “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11: 9-10) If we walk by the light that is in us we can see where we are going: our vision is clear. With clear vision, we can discern truth from error and good from evil, and we can  fulfil our priestly office which is to “teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.” (Ezekiel 44:23).

If we walk in the light, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we can ask the giver and source of the Light to shine on what we  face and reveal its source. We can expect answers to questions like “Is what I am thinking from God, from my own imagination, or is it a lie of the enemy designed to divert me from God’s purposes?” We can look at someone’s condition and expect to be able to determine whether it is natural or demonic. We will know if a “word” we have for someone actually is from the Holy Spirit, or just from our own desire to see that person encouraged. We can expect to receive words of knowledge in, or for, conversations with unbelievers. To walk in the light, as well as all that it means in terms of walking in love, is to be able to see clearly into the supernatural, spiritual realm. We are called to walk after the Spirit, but we need the light to walk by.

If we keep ourselves in the light, we will ensure that whatever sin the light reveals in our lives is brought to the cross and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The cleansing is a result of walking in the light. But it is also true that we couldn’t walk in the light without having first received that cleansing: the two are interdependent. However they both have one consequence, which is true “fellowship with one another.” This fellowship isn’t just coffee after church; this is the outworking of 1 Peter 1: 22 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit  in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” The fellowship of those who walk in the light is the fruit of the divine seed that we have been brought forth from;  the John 17 unity that glorifies the Father who sowed it.

David’s cry to the Lord was ever thus: ”Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Who is it that ascends the Hill of the Lord? “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” (Psalm 24:4) Who does Jesus say will be blessed because they will “see God?” Again, it’s the pure in heart. To be pure in heart is to be holy. The only way to walk in holiness is to walk in the Light, and the only way to keep walking in the Light is to allow that light to shine on anything in our lives that the blood of Jesus has to cleanse us from. If our hearts are pure our fellowship with one another is untainted and we can see clearly by the light of the Spirit. If sin comes into our relationships the light that we see by is dimmed and we need to go back to the Lord for our hearts to be cleansed.

I believe we are coming into the fulfilment of Isaiah 60 vs 1-3.

“Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.”

If we want the “Gentiles” to see our light, if we want kings to come to the brightness of our rising, we need to diligently walk in it ourselves. Psalm 119:130 says “The entrance of Your words gives light.” With the crystal-clear vision that is borne of a purified heart and unsullied relationships we can bring His words of light into any arena that He sends us to, including the courts of kings.