Acts 1:12-26, what a passage when people’s’ worlds turn up side down then a promise “…wait until…” what did they expect?    they had become quite aware of the unexpected by now.   Who is going to come?   Is this what we are waiting for the “…promise…”.   O the topsy-turvy times of following Jesus.      These two things seem to go together, wait and promise, wait and promise, can you hear them it’s on its way, but all you can shout is WHEN?

The Kingdom Increases with indisputable evidence. 

Mark 16:20 ( Message Translation)

And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.

Can we come to a place today, where we are confident to know that the master is working right with us, that he is along side our work and declaration.     That he awaits the words we speak in order that he might work right alongside us.

Authentic ministry is when the master works alongside you.

Can we simply step into the confidence of this, with the immediate walking of a faith that says,  ‘I speak’, ‘he works’ then the  ‘validation’ and ‘evidence ‘are the products.

Validation confirms that we are about the Father Business.

What a powerful experience  for all involved….“…the Master working right with them…” O Lord that this would become our daily experience.      Our work and ministry would become the working together of my words alongside my Lords validation, what a privileged position.   God  has  planned for interaction, becoming one with his people,as they preach, He will be right there working with them.    In this, the minister also becomes the sign sent from God and validated by him.

Isaiah 18:18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has givenme are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

In these verses we read that we will become the children of signs and wonders, these children will be signs and wonders in themselves and will also be given to seeing signs and wonders around them.      Is What we read in Marks gospel and in our lives today the re contextualising of this passage that “…Master working right with them…” causes them to be a sign and wonder?

Jesus has now taken up more fully his heavenly priesthood in the order of Melchizedek, his ministry continues in another realm, as High Priest and Advocate for His people (Hebrews 7–10; 1 John 2:1–3).

He is now seated at the right hand of God ,the “right hand of God” being the place of honor and authority (Ps. 110:1; 1 Peter 3:22).

One of His heavenly ministries is that of enabling His people to do His will

Hebrews 13:20–21 May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead, Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! Oh, yes, yes, yes.

We read here of the wonderful active working together of the Father and the Son.

• He put us together
• He provides all we need with the goal of pleasure to the Father
• He makes us into something, transforms us into people who give the Father “most pleasure”

How amazing, the single sightedness of this, it is not just to bring down the devil so to speak or to bring in the Kingdom, although the kingdom is our message, but to put us together, give us all we need and make us into the people who bring him pleasure – the sole aim of man is to bring pleasure to the Father.

How can we not bring pleasure to him as he puts us together, he provides for us and he makes us, nothing of our work and labour, it is only his making of us.

The signs authenticated their message. This task of proclaiming the gospel and spreading the kingdom is still our life and ministry, carrying on today through disciples empowered by the risen Lord, with their message being validated through the Godhead.

Hebrews 2:4(The Message Translation) “All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit.”

With God standing alongside us  to validate our message with indisputable evidences, who can excuse any failure to become the man or woman God intends us to be?

Reach out today and live in that Sign and Wonder understanding.

Right or Wrong

What side will you take?

Which one shall I chose?

Who will you stand with?

Life is full of choices they bombard us every day for attention from large challenges to small incidental choices that make up the day, tea or coffee, is it toast or biscuits, this way or that way some times choices of opposites and some times so slightly different that it can be complicated.    Choices of benefits to you personally, choices that benefit the whole wider community, choices that cost you but are for the greater good.  O my word life is full of them!

We also know that from the onset of Gods dealings with humanity, in the account of early Genesis, that he also offers choices.    Looking at the story of Adam the Father seeks to mature his sons by bringing before them choices, so that we can learn what it is to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14).   Adam is given a choice of trees to eat from and directed in his choice yet he made the very opposite choice. Since the beginning God has brought moral choices to you and I as a process of our maturing as his sons.     We are even told in Hebrews 5:8 that Jesus who had grown in favour with men also and “learned obedience through suffering” even the Christ had choices set before him, through his overcoming choice He brought to you and I the entry to a face to face relationship with the Father.

Yet within the pages of the bible there are choices offered and some times a different answer is presented and necessary.    When you read the opening chapter of the book of Joshua I suggest one these necessary different answer is being presented.   But let me commence by starting with offering to you a new “beginning” to this familiar account of the battle of Jericho.    We all consider the story commencing in chapter six with God telling the Israelites to walk around Jericho for seven days before the walls “came tumbling down.”    Showing us that there is a time for a “shout of faith” on one day and the long walk of 6 days of “silent faith”, we all like the shout but what about the silent faith, that’s for another article.   Let me suggest to you that the actual story beginnings  at the end of chapter five.   In Joshua 5:13 we are introduced to a simple setting that is often missed, Joshua is “near the city”, he is not at a safe distance but the picture opens up in a risky place for an enemy commander to be.     What he was doing there?      He is not at a safe distance he has found himself near his enemy and as he draws near he is about to encounter the realm beyond the moment.   Is it not often when we feel the imminent danger the nearness of threat that an encounter is on the way?     Was he on a reconnaissance mission?    Was he studying the city walls, trying to come up with a plan of attack?

Suddenly, Joshua is interrupted when he looks up and sees a man in front of him not any man but one with “drawn sword“.  Battle ready and Joshua His battle instincts triggered, Joshua walks forward with a challenge: “Are you for us or our adversaries?”

How does the man answer? “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”     “Neither”

Joshua’s as many of us was clear in his mind he saw two options for us or from them, but that “neither” blew his for and against, friend-or-foe sides out of the water.      The passage reveals that it is not just a man but God who was in front of Joshua— and God isn’t bound by “option A or option B” thinking.    As the story unfolds we find a strange picture being described as a shoe less commander near the enemy in the middle of holiness as God outlines His plan.

Do you like me often get lost in your mind on what comes before us with “this or that” which is “right or wrong” and the whole moment is summed up with making my choice.  we move from circumstance to people also become either “friends or foes”. I can only choose between ‘option 1 or 2’, ‘door 1 or door 2’.      Sometimes we even come knocking at God, trying to get Him to tell me which option He’s going to identify with.      Joshua’s story reminds me that God may be replying to my “This or that? questions with, “Neither.”      What does that mean to me, just maybe, perhaps it is better I recognize His presence, take off my shoes, and stand still for a while on holy ground.      Not to get religious, but the very place where your foot is standing now, in every day moment is holy ground, this is constantly the ground of God, and therefore holy ground.    Has not heaven come to earth in you, heaven has come to reside in you, to remain in his temple, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the residence of Christ, you are always standing on holy ground.    Then avoid making somewhere outside of you as holy and disqualifying yourself, thinking too little of yourself, God has chosen to make his residency in this human life, is this not part of salvation?   Heaven has come to earth inside you.    Otherwise we will live always chasing heaven and never arriving.    Realize heaven has taken up residence in you “Christ in us the hope of glory”.     This encounter is to prevent us getting lost in the debate of sides “whose side are you on”, but more bout getting a third perspective, so that He your heavenly Father can outline a perspective we would have never considered otherwise.

“Neither” is often the Fathers view when we offer our predicament, or situation, friend or foe arguments, which way is it this or that and the answer is “neither” let me show you my option.      Listen for your “Neither” to have heavens option