Other Thoughts

Who, what did any one say anything?

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GOD SPEAKS, from Genesis to Revelation BIBLE STUDY:   From Scripture’s beginning to its end, the message is clear: God speaks. The Bible opens with “and God said” (Gen. 1:3) and closes with, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches” (Rev. 22:16).

Yet we can become so familiar with the words God said that we never stop to ask, How did God speak? Did people hear Him audibly? See Him? Somehow “know” that something in their hearts was from Him? Looking at scriptural examples of when and how God spoke can give us insights into how we continue to hear Him today.

Ways God Spoke

When we look at biblical passages to discover how God spoke, we find the following categories.

a. “God said.” Sometimes, we don’t see an indication of how God spoke, just that He did. We’re only told “God said” (Gen. 6:13) or “the word of the Lord came” (1 K. 16:1) or “the Lord appeared” (Gen. 26:2).

b. Face to face. In Gen. 3:8–9, we get a hint of one way God communicated—face to face—when we read that Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”

c. Audible voice. Some people didn’t see God, but they did hear an audible voice (e.g., 2 Pet. 1:16–18). Often this audible voice was accompanied by a physical phenomenon such as a light, storm, cloud, or fire.

d. Angel. God often sent angels as messengers. In fact, the Hebrew and Greek words translated in English as angel mean “messenger,” “representative,” or “envoy.” (Note: In some passages, such as Judges 13, the name “the angel of the Lord” might refer to a physical appearance of God Himself.)

e. Dream or vision. Often people heard God, or talked with Him or with angels, in dreams or visions. God also showed people pictures or scenes in dreams (Daniel 7). Sometimes the person who had the dream or vision needed help interpreting the message he had just received (Daniel 2).

f. The Holy Spirit coming upon or moving in a human. Another form of communication occurred when the Holy Spirit “came upon” a man or woman, and the person began to speak out, prophesy, praise God, or speak in tongues (1 Sam. 10:9–11). At other times, God or the Holy Spirit moved “inside” a human’s mind or heart (Ezra 1:5).

g. Message or prophesy through other humans. Just as God sent angels as His messengers, He also sent messages through other people (1 K. 12:22–24). Sometimes the messenger is identified as a prophet or prophetess (e.g., Moses and his sister, Miriam, in Ex. 15:20 and Dt. 34:10) and the message as a prophecy or oracle.

h. Urim and Thummim/casting lots. We also see God answering people’s questions through the Urim and Thummim and the casting of lots. We know little about the Urim and Thummim, only that they were physical objects (see Ex. 28:30). We’re also not told the mechanism people used to “cast lots.” An interesting variation occurs in Josh. 7:14, where, after God speaks clearly and directly to Joshua about sin in the camp, He stops short of revealing the troublemaker. Instead, the guilty man is “taken” through an unspecified process of identification.

For the following passages, record whom God spoke to and check the appropriate column to indicate the method He used. (Match the categories to the descriptions above.) Sometimes you’ll see multiple methods in the same passage.

Though this list seems long, it’s only a brief overview. Because we had to draw the line somewhere, we’ve mostly drawn from the Old and New Testament historical books, skipping the Old Testament prophetic books entirely.

WAYS GOD SPOKE

a. “God said”

b. Face to face

c. Audible voice

d. Angel

e. Dream or vision

f. Holy Spirit came upon or moved

g. Human messenger

h. Urim and Thummim/casting lots

 

WHO RECEIVED THE MESSAGE?

HOW DID GOD SPEAK?

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS
a b c d e f g h
Gen. 3:8–9                    
Gen. 4:6                    
Gen. 15:1                    
Gen. 18:1–2                    
Gen. 20:3                    
Gen. 21:17                    
Gen. 25:21–23                    
Gen. 32:24–30                    
Gen. 35:9                    
Gen. 41:15–16, 25                    
Gen. 46:2                    
Ex. 3:2–4                    
Ex. 33:7–11                    
Num. 11:24–29                    
Num. 22:9–35                    
Num. 27:21                    
Dt. 5:22                    
Josh. 1:1–2                    
Josh. 5:13–15                    
Josh. 18:8–10                    
Jdg. 2:1–5                    
Jdg. 4:4–6                    
Jdg. 6:6–11                    
Jdg. 7:9–14                    
Jdg. 13:24–25                    
1 Sam. 2:27                    
1 Sam. 3:1–15                    
1 Sam. 19:19–24                    
2 Sam. 23:1–2                    
1 K. 3:5                    
1 K. 20:35–43                    
1 K. 22:1–28                    
2 K. 20:1–5                    
2 K. 22:10–15                    
1 Chron. 21:8–11                    
1 Chron. 28:11–12                    
2 Chron. 21:12                    
2 Chron. 35:20–22                    
Ezra 1:1                    
Neh. 2:11–12                    
Job 38:1                    
Mt. 1:18–20                    
Mt. 2:19–22                    
Mt. 3:16–17                    
Mt. 4:1                    
Lk. 1:11–13                    
Lk. 1:26–27                    
Lk. 1:41–42                    
Lk. 1:67                    
Lk. 2:25–35                    
Lk. 2:36–38                    
Lk. 9:28–36                    
Lk. 10:21                    
Lk. 24:1–8                    
Jn. 1:14                    
Acts 1:10–11                    
Acts 1:24–26                    
Acts 2:1–4                    
Acts 4:5–13                    
Acts 7:55–56                    
Acts 8:26, 29                    
Acts 9:1–7                    
Acts 9:10                    
Acts 10:3–7                    
Acts 10:9–16, 19                    
Acts 11:27–28                    
Acts 13:1–2                    
Acts 13:9–10                    
Acts 16:9                    
Acts 18:9                    
Acts 19:6–7                    
Acts 21:10–11                    
Acts 23:11                    
Acts 27:21–26                    
Ro. 8:16                    
2 Cor. 12:1–2                    
2 Cor. 12:8–9                    
Heb. 1:1–2                    
2 Pet. 1:20–21                    
Rev. 1:1, 9–11                    
Rev. 22:8–11                    

WRAP IT UP

After you’ve finished looking up the passages, here are some questions to consider.

• What observations struck you as you looked up these passages?

• Did anything surprise you or challenge assumptions you held about how God speaks?

• Did you see any differences between how God spoke in the Old Testament and how He spoke in the New Testament?

• Did you sense God saying anything to you personally as you read these passages?

• Is anything you read likely to change your own conversations with God? If so, how?

• Write a summary statement of what you most want to remember from this study.

GOD STILL SPEAKS!   How is that effecting me?

From your WHY’s to where next.

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The last time I wrote my blog it was a little tongue in cheek regarding our parenting experience suggesting it is a common experience to every parent. The child’s propensity to ask the eternal question of “why”, “why” o for  a respite from “why’s” some times, this question  has had parents thinking for all time. I began in this way only to present to you the question that we should not lose or perhaps better said, an attitude we should not lose that of asking questions to stay as a continual learner and a growing learner.

Before anyone contacts me and takes up the issues of Questions & Questioning, I am not asking you to become a “Questioning person”. There is a hugely different approach to having a learning attitude, to becoming a person who is constantly learning, thriving on gleaning new insights and experiences, different to someone who is just plainly questioning everything.

We live in a world, certainly in the UK with cynicism all around, at present it is at its height, I am finding more and more as we live in a world of growing loss of TRUST.  Why, with the great erosion of trust in old institutions,  corners of our society that have always been there such as banks, health services, church denominations and every other institution, it produces a person to ask “…who can we trust?   It is fundamentally producing a greater questioning and unfortunately it is reproducing  a growing lack of trust in our society with the possibility of creating even bigger cynics?

Questioning constantly unfortunately brings about destructive elements,  it can bring momentum to a full-stop, bind and prevent initiatives even before they are  out of the starting blocks. Questioning could keep you second-guessing, wondering and grasping for a way forward, it makes you wonder sometimes if anything is acceptable. Be careful of questioning, it can even be the means for some people to take control or to establish higher ground and  win control or dictate an environment just by continually questioning every one and everything, meet people like this?

Developing a learning way of life on the other hand is a must, discover a way of asking questions without being questioning. Questions must be formed, must be asked in an attitude of learning in-oder to progress. In the light of this I will continue in listing questions, adding to the 3 already asked in my last blog, I trust they become not only an interesting reading but points of learning for each one of us.

Do I empower and take people to a higher place?

Here is a wonderful line “my success is determined by the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap”, that is, do I  sow seeds into others to empower them, seeds that will continue and produce a harvest in their lives? Can I make my life’s aim to add value to others so that others might add value to an ever-expanding circle of more people. One of the challenges for all who are influencers/leaders is to add value to people and steer away from adding value to themselves. The servant leadership style of Jesus certainly added value to other people. In Eph 4:11 cf. we are told that the living ministries of the body of Christ, the church, should be equipping others, that is adding value to others rather than amassing to themselves. In the history of movements in our world one of the greatest orators of one movement  in regard to issues of colour and race was Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Who said it well “life’s most important urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”

  • This question provokes my understanding and my given-ness to mission

Do I stop and think?

Take time to think, one of the greatest lacks I’m told in all industry and in regard to developing any initiative is the lack of thinking that is done. Everything is action, doing, its pragmatic to really advance we need thinking along side doing.  This is not a day-dreaming exercise I am highlighting it is taking time to think, to consider the plan to work a way through. I read once  “a minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk”, its taking time to think. Thinking will help you and I to live life more purposefully, to take hold of life that sometimes just constantly comes at you and not allow those circumstances to dictate, not allowing the expectation of others to determine, or allowing status quo to dominate having you to conform. Take up the pen of your own life and author your own life, write on the page of heart and motive how by first clearing your diary and taking time to think.

  • This question provokes influencing/leadership

Who do I give my time to?

You cannot deny that the crowd you run with, the people you associate with will have a major influence on your perception, and of course your actions.   People can even trace back their achievements or failures to the crowd they run with, that is the people they connect to.   This is not an exercise on who to blame but we can certain trace failures and achievements to the relationships we have in our lives. Therefore make deliberate choices with who you spend your time with, be selected with whom you join to on your journey of life especially if you have influence or direct and lead anything. Choose companions that are those with a commitment to personal growth, those with potential for the now and future, people who will pour themselves out from others and carry a healthy attitude.   Making a difference will always come down to the choice of relationships as its “…as every joint supplies…” growth occurs scripture says.

  •  This is a question of relationship

Do I know your strength and therefore stay in your strength area?

I’ve had so many people pass comment about working on their weaknesses while they take no notice or even disregard their strengths, this has become part of management training even working on your weaknesses. However effective people are diligently in developing their strengths. To be effective each one of us have to learn to partner with others, the reason for your weakness is to find other people to walk with.   Learn to ask for assistance to delegate so that you can focus on that which only what you can offer to every environment. Its enabling you to offer your uniqueness while allowing others to offer their uniqueness to you. It’s not necessary for anyone of us to do all the work and certainly not to have an all-knowing attitude, it’s such a disappointment to find people who think they know it all our goal must be in staying effective while staying in our strength area then need others around us to add their strengths!

  • This question brings to mind how effective I am

Am I caring for today?

The secret of achieving anything is determining what is required today, the daily schedule “I chose” the everyday focus I have.  Realizing if i do not focus on today my time will be lost and will flitter away. Most people have heard or have been taught about writing a to-do list which is good and necessary,  however I think  a more powerful list which needs a an understanding is a simply action of writing a “not-to-do list”. A list that keeps you away from the little things that drain your time, your thinking and energy. This is not a blog to outline a “not-to-do list” may be it should appear in another blog but for now its sufficient just to pass comment. Asking this question are my daily routines, habits of life steering me towards a goal or simply filtering away my time. Psalm 90 tells us to “…number our days…”, the writer of the Psalm firstly encourages to realize the time is fleeting followed by its time to be serious about making each day count.

  • This is an achieving and

Do I develop others?

“The ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds up a people who can sustain an advance the goal they set when they are not around. True leadership strives to create successors who will go beyond them”

Lorin Woolfe

  • This makes you consider legacy

Am I investing myself?

In traveling several continents involving in different organizations, church families etc., wherever people are throw together with a purpose to achieve I have noted common characteristics in life-long learners.    I believe this final question is hugely important and will be the foundation to all the others, it’s a question on personal growth. Listed is a simple list of my findings asking a question of each of us to look inside ourselves and make an investment to your own growth and learning.

Life-long learners are:

  • People who possess a teachable attitude
  • People investing in growth orientated resources and relationships
  • People capture what they learn by applying the knowledge gained
  • People who are reflective
  • People who turn experience into insight
  • People who pass on to others
  • People who are willing to choose to leave their comfort zone
  • People who develop personal growth

Finally develop the art of questions and help others to ask questions of themselves and their environment with an aim to find a learning attitude, enlarging this attitude, developing and being inspired through your learning attitude.

“You Won…”

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We recently directed some guests of ours from overseas to Kings Cross station London as they wanted to see platform 9 ¾, I wondered what they wanted, 9 ¾ never heard of such a platform, cannot be really?  I had no idea what they were talking about, never heard of it, thought they are not from UK.    However I found out that they knew better than me, the platform was made famous through Harry Potter’s book, you go to the platform quite simply to get your photo opportunity… just in case you wish to see it take the Underground to Kings Cross / St. Pancras, (two main line stations that share the same Underground Station).        Follow the signs into Kings Cross Station when you get to the surface walk along Platform 8 (it’s totally free access).     When you see a sign directing you left to Platforms 9 to 11 keep going on along Platform 8 and the Platform 9 3/4 photo opportunity is a few yards further along on your left. There is normally a conspicuous sign on the platform pointing to the small alcove and out of the wall projects half a baggage trolley.   You have arrived at your destination.

I had no idea of how to get there or how to help others arrive there then the thought came to me, it is a real challenge for us all to answer the question   “where are we going and how can we help each other get there?”.    It is a timely question in the hour we live, with so many changes in society, politics and the economic world , in the business world and in the world of faith, the church change is coming at us as a fast speeding train, whether we want it or not.    Where is it taking us and how can we help each other get  there?

It  is a day for the prophetic people of God to come to the out from under the covers, a day in the midst of much noise and debate, to take hold of the word of God.     Gods’ words when uttered in the past created, they also sustained people who took them up.    These spoken words gave direction and knowledge to those who listen and heard them, those who listened  did not find themselves with out understanding.

Clearly we are in a day of discovering a deeper trust of the Father a new listening and obedience that will lead us into freedom and to the land of promise.    We have to grasp the idea that we are on journey,  that in itself  will empower, challenge and  mature all who embark.

Today as people of God in the west, we find ourselves so much part of societies thinking at large, that it has invaded the church and they way we think, becoming consumers in every way.   Seeking ever-increasing experiences for our emotions, listening to the word of God to consume that which we believe that will give us a quick advance, an edge on life or even fix?    Making decisions on that which we can get hold of immediately, the NOW rules us.    Yet the Journey men and women of old, the pictures of lives of people between the covers of the scriptures walked a journey, not a quick dash with immediate consumer gratification.    Consider the lesson of one of these journey men, Abraham, here is a man who had promise upon promise spoken to him, of peoples, fathering, sons, nation and land, God promises to bless all nations through Abraham, yet Abraham received none of these in his day, but  even 1000’s of years on the promises are still coming to pass.

Even more than that Abraham had a 644 Kilometer journey, once he was willing to entertain the promise.   A 644 Kilometer journey and a 4000+ year, time frame, to get the promises.   Now that is a challenge once he become obedient to the promise words of God it was a long haul walk and a massive time frame to content with.    Now don’t get me wrong on the journey there where evidences, victories of the promise but its fullness took walking on investing time, he become wealthy in his day, he had influence and did finally get a true son of promise, but certainly one son does not constitute a nation!   Once Abraham believed and entered the journey it was counted as righteousness to him, that is keeping in right line with the journey, and keeping it foundational to life’s actions and decisions.   The words of God are living, but how living are they ?  They require movement, obedience, a change of vicinity, a change of surroundings, a departure and a step in front of you.    Actually the words of promise to us all are to bring about sons of God who are led by the Spirit, to bring maturity in light of eternal promise.

I think its time to discover not only the joy of the immediate but the eternal will of the Father, knowing that we have been called to an eternal purpose, to depart from the tent of  the immediate and become the tent of meeting for our life and then our world around us.     We are, the people of God, the ecclesia, the church are to be the place where people will meet the love of God along with a people who are a prophetic journeying people.

Let me encourage you to find others people who will also ask the question, where is all this taking us?  where are we going and how can I help you get there rather than making sure I can get there.

Traveling in a plane has its challenges, but no more for me than the initial film or safety demonstration, we are all shown, there is one difficult line there to listen  to, it goes something like this …make sure your mask when it drops from the roof goes on you first before you see to children or others… that is so against the journey of prophetic people,  firstly seeing to ourselves before others, so that we can all arrive together.    Many years ago  we were taught to play croquet by a great Godly man called Arthur Wallis some 15 or so of us, in a retreat centre in Sheffield.   As we came to the end of our game and our instruction Arthur being the master crossed the line, won the game and a shout of “…you have won Arthur…” went up from all,  with this he turned and said “…no I only cross the line when all my brothers cross…” and with that he fell with his head at the foot of an old wooden cross in the gardens becoming one of the host of witnesses who now continues to cheer on this seen world to ultimate intention of the Father.   What a line to enter eternity with, to depart this expression of life with, what a way to live, asking more how can I help you get to the destination of the will of God rather than consuming, to get there myself.

So find journey men and women, young people, children sojourners who are pursuing the will of the Father in eternal promise and plan and seek to help each other fulfill the prophetic purpose of God.

It Starts Here.

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I recently listened a quote attributed to Nelson Mandela in the film ‘Invictus‘.   An enjoyable film with some really good thoughts and many one liners, worth watching and mulling over.
The quote “The Rainbow Nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here…Forgiveness starts here too”.    Too long and too many times we expect every one else to do the changing, this  quote brings home to me the responsibility for a nation, a people group, it  is not with the politician, or its business people or its educators but it starts RIGHT HERE,   that is,  in my heart, the new nation will not happen unless we as individual contribute to the advance and take responsibility beyond ourselves.
This is not an appeal for individualism but for a together understanding, that it is each one playing their part corporately that will bring about change and transformation.    It is in the process of forgiveness we find true humanity and responsibility and bring advance and change.
Well what more do I need to say it is a time when the church the ‘ecclesia’ of God, the lovers of the Christ, realise that we too need to take responsibility.     It is  a baptism of WE, and an experience of Together, a move from me myself and I to  “We”.      We have been born to become sons of God, into sonship,  we are to learn to live from inheritance rather than just live and draw on the grace of God, gaining an understanding of how the Father distributes and uses his stuff, as we mature we can be entrusted with inheritance, being the extension of the Father, doing what he would do?   The trouble is, in grace people get healed, delivered  and raised from the dead but Jesus lived his 30 years not simply from grace but from a sonship inheritance position.     Rather than us seeing our world from our own personal feelings we should begin to see  it from a corporate perspective, as this serves the Christ.      The Father has always only had one son in view, and will only always have the one son in view.    The people of God are to be the image and likeness of the Father and display the practices of the Father, as I have outlined in other writings the “…explain the Father…” as Christ came and did rather than us having our own trip and encounter, we are here to explain the father and encounter  him in the explanation.    Anything less than this is simply just about my trip in God, which means my next encounter needs to be a bigger buzz or greater impact than the last one to keep me in and believing God is there?   Gods’ purpose is much more, we have been invited  into an authentic relationship, to be his explanation,  authentically in our world.
The people of God seem to fallout and divide over experience, with irretrievable break downs, yet we are to be the model of reconciliation, being firstly reconciled to the Father then displaying and becoming that attitude in our world.   We are to develop an attitude of forgiveness, not just forgiving by numbers, first if my brother has anything against me, go to him, secondly and thirdly….  Forgiveness is seen as lives touch each other without needing to rely on a system of actions, but when a disposition of forgiveness, that explains the Father is displayed, “…forgive them Father they know not…” was Christs’ ultimate cry before he was crucified.      We are to be the LOVE of the Father in our world, not only being loved by the Father but we are to be the exact love in our world, so that the world might know….
In the film Nelson Mandela when asked about who his family was, says  “My family is very large. 42 million”.    Let us be baptised into a corporate experience that takes away individuality and allows us to be ourselves while also realising my family is ……millions?
Baptise us O God into a WE understanding and life style, a RECONCILIATION experience and life style,  a disposition of FORGIVENESS  “…it starts here…”   YOU, not one of us is an island or self-made, we are so interwoven into each other, a collage of many, it is supposed to be that way.   Self made is from another place,  it is certainly  not God and Christ Centred,  God is never singular,  yet our world tries to make the single the individual higher, God is always in more than one, God is never alone!

Leadership – discovering again its SERVANT nature.

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There are so many Leadership styles along with books urging us to discover style would be the best to lead making your mark amongst people and society.    We some times get confused how we who are followers of Christ should reflect the Christ in our work.    Jesus said in John 1:18 (NASB) “…came to explain the Father.” he has invited us to continue what he started, explaining the Father.    I have repeatedly stated and asked the challenging question of my self “do I  explain the Father” as I live my life, do we explain him.

My interaction with people, my work ethic, my conduct, character, the way I live life, are people gaining an explanation?     You and I have to admit we will through word and deed explain something of to others, I wonder what.     I wonder how I conduct myself in a supermarket line, the way I drive the car, my conduct towards those older, younger, or of any difference to me, what do I explain?   Do people walking away from me depart with an explanation of God or is it something else?

We have been called through our own temperament, they way we are cut our character and life not be like the leadership style in our own way but one that explains what God if like.   Leadership is clearly to be rediscover, is in urgent need to be seen as a SERVANT style, one that pours out for others, one that is more interested in establishing an inheritance for the next generation that building for our selves, that serves the society around giving away to build and establish through a servant leadership.   Let us rediscover in world govern by business, getting more and more, amassing wealth, gaining control a servant leadership that flows from being a son of God rather than endorsing an orphan spirit of protection of me and mine, working to make secure my provision rather than trusting the Father and being a Servant Leader.    the people of God would be different in itself if we could driver our delve storm celebrities to servant ministries and taking that model to our world.    Sometime we are so caught on making a mark we have forgotten the desired Christ like style to do so and fall to become “Christian X-factor” leaders rather than poured out Servant Leaders, Christ will triumph and we will become the Servant Bride- a Challenge to be different but explaining God!

‘Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.’

J. Donald Walters

‘You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.’

Anthony J D’Angelo

‘Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.’

St. Augustine

‘Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.’

Winston Churchill

‘But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave.’

Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”( Matt 20:27, 28)

Jesus the Christ

Good read to consider further – Leadership, Greatness & Servanthood Phillip Greenslade