What is the Gospel?   What are we to say?   Are we do do anything ? Jesus said in John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom God has sent.”  What response do we have to this statement and its even in red…

Our world is filled with ways to gain and programmes to bring advance, Facebook repeated “if you do this” success, money, fame, position.   Unfortunately have we created the same expectancy to provide these programs & ways of achievements within the people of God.   It looks as if we more and more we do all we can to draw people by systems, designed programme, attempting to do Gods work?

Behaviours are adjusted, programmes to align our actions, disciplines to bring people to what we think  is spiritual, mechanisms, systems and structures to do what only God can and will do.

Our gospel given freely, invested with power and Holy Spirit dynamic to avoid us in produce or ending up with only understanding, better marriages, children, moral status along with good attendance.     Pragmatism has been driving our outreach or outflow rather that the power of the gospel and the Christ.   Sometimes the numbers game makes us hunt for a product, a programme, a process that will reward us with a better rate of conversion.   Yet I am sure you agree only Jesus can do all this, we can gather numbers but only Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ can bring about spiritual birth.

To put more faith in my program, my church ways, than the Christ, is it not legalism, or religion, a religion that so distances God when I can only gain my Christ likeness through the programme, ’new birth’?

My appeal today is to centre again on Jesus and the Power of the Holy Spirit , the Power of the Gospel.    Any other gospel cannot be the gospel, it therefore must be another we uphold.     Let us hold on to Christ, for we will lose too much otherwise, the danger of losing everything that is important – Jesus.  Paul wrote “I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.  And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.    You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace”.
Christ being the central importance not our legal or religious patterns, our church advance, our programmes to gain but Christ.   To lose Christ is to put aside faith working as an expression of love.    If this gospel of love, this gospel of grace is insufficient and we need our behaviour changing programs our legating patterns we have a meaningless expression.

What is the Gospel?   What is the real thing?   What is Gods’ mandate and purpose?

I encourage you to let your imaginations soar on what the goodness, the love that is only possible by God.    The writer to Romans said that “nothing can separate us from the love of God”, this is  only seen as we allow our imagination of  God to go beyond our experience to date of love amongst people, as we God beyond a “church” devise that is only gathered and built through human ways.

It was not so long ago we sat with a scholarly bible teacher who spoke to us of ‘dumbing down’ a divine pattern of relationship – covenant to friendship in an attempt to fit into todays vocabulary and world.     I wonder if we are aware that perhaps that we are doing the same in regards to love?   Could it be that the love preached, sung about is so reduced that is not attractive any longer, that there are more loving communities around, more groups that show the gospel via love in unconditional sharing but have not been born of the Spirit.    That the unconditional love shown to you and me by our God, the love that is fully accepting has been filters that when it flows from us it might even repel?

I am a simpleton I believe what Christ has done is more than enough to transform people in every way, Christ is all.       This Gospel of Love, this Gospel of Transformation, this Gospel of UNON with God is the only way forward, a faith full of love.

Recently I found God asking me a question regarding the statement of Genesis 1 “Let there be Light”, if language had not been created at that time what and how did God say anything, it certainly was not english or hebrew, then I recalled God has spoken in the Son (Hebrews 1) and that Jesus said he was the “light of the world” , “Let there be light” the language of God of Genesis 1 is Chirst  and the vocabulary being love.

This Love makes faith, my Christain ways are nothing if its void of love. Therefore are the communities we being to, a belong we must, motivated and moved working out all things in love.    O God do not let our doings, our proclamations, our whys and reason of being lack this vocabulary of the language of Christ LOVE.    Love will bring about a fresh discovery of all we are in authenticity, being spiritual through love and not nearly actuation a set of rules of a great moral standard never mind how helpful this might be its authentic love lives.     With out love fully expressed is a love that is so dreadful, a love freely given a love ready to forgive before any action is done against you, a love that is poured out and and poured out again when we think we have nothing remaining, love that is fully accepting never mind the condition.   This is a Gospel and Christianity fully imbibed with Christ, the light an love of “Let there be”.

Here are some interesting insights that might be applicable to the moment you and I are living in, with the placings wherein God has set us. Take your imagination and visit Samuel’s young life, having been left by his mother in the service of his God and learning what it is to be 1st given to God whilst being skilled in an environment less than suitable for a young child. Having been trained to hear God amongst a priesthood had forgotten or chosen to forget how to hear God. Young Samuel is experiencing quite a challenging environment as he seeks to faithfully serve God in the between time the zone of moving form to another time.

He had to deal with:

The perplexing paradox of Eli
Incredible patience of God with the corrupt priesthood
Everything in Samuel’s Heart responded to Eli’s righteous exhortations, whereas nothing in him corresponded to Hophni or Phinehas’s lifestyle
The challenge of maintaining sensitivity to the voice of God
His deepening pain over what he was hearing from God and yet what he saw
The growing awareness that God would not allow the situation forever
The inner grief knowing that God would remove Eli as well as his sons
He did not try to do God’s job for him but held to the function God had given him to do, that is he surveyed, just like on the Lord in the temple
There is no reference to Samuel’s involvement in the loss of the Ark of the Lord to the Philistines, nor its return to Israel. The opening words showed he was ready for the moment; he recognised a signal from heaven to initiate a dramatic change in the nation “…if you are really serious…” 1 Sam. 7:3 (NLB)
Despite the spiritual darkness of his time, being trained as it was to a failing Eli, yet Samuel’s heart burned with passion and for God.
He kept faith in the covenant promises, the covenant purpose of God for the generation in which he lived and breathed

He was sustained by a continuing prophetic revelation of God which kept the little flame burning in his heart “the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed himself…by the word of the Lord. Thus the word of Samuel came to all” 1 Sam. 3:21-4:1

Now the Lord not had a word for Samuel, if Samuel did not have a word Israel would not have been provide a word.

When the prophetic word comes:

It provokes change in attitude
It focuses the purpose of God so that you do not fall victim to forces that would love you to deviate from the Divine Purpose
It carries with it the wisdom essential to your establishing the gains already made, while propelling you forward to secure new gains, this is wonderfully pictured in Nehemiah when he is urging the people have sword and trowel in hand. A picture that showed to protect themselves what had been accomplished while working out what they were building.
It comes with passion and conviction as it is known as God speaking
In our day let us cultivate, create and be the sustainers of the prophetic passion, let us be those that work with what God has spoken, let us be those that take up the ultimate purpose and will of the father and make this ours. Let us avoid Christianity deteriorating into a competitive scramble by small-minded people trying to get more and more people to rally to a cause as opposed to working in harmony to the advance of the kingdom, disciplining the people, pursuing being united with God and keeping peace in the community of God, the church in the bonds of peace.

I wonder if there is any one on the planet that has not heard of Nelson Mandela, if you had not known much of him and where near world media along with following the recent events in South Africa, the cerebration of his life and the “world funeral”. He was a man who became a principled man, willing to allow his own desires and emotions to be adjusted by the principles he held, willing to live and die for an ideal. Through this he has impacted millions of people across our world. One value he encouraged and by all accounts practised diligently each day while imprisoned on Robbin Island and continued following his release, which actually explains something about him. He longed that ever man and woman would self examine for 15 mins each day, considering how they forgave, how they spoke to others, how they loved, etc., a self-examination people in order that our world would be a better place.

Now how deka this impact me… If we are to serve effectively we must sharpen, develop, hone our skills and ourselves, it really is a desperate requirement for you and me.

Look at yourself – your mental abilities, emotional responses, character qualities, attitudes and skills. determine to sharpen every aspect to become productive in either redeeming or influencing mankind.

Hone your emotions to respond adequately to the working of God in your human experiences. Be a thanks-giver, not just a thanks feeler. Train emotions so that when God is excited you are too, when God is at rest you are at rest.

Develop your powers of discernment. learn to differentiate between the important and the unimportant, the open door and the close door, the door to push and the door to stop pushing.

Hone your mind by reading, study, learning and questioning. Surround yourself with sharp-thinking people. Get with sharp people, because sharp people will keep you sharp. Sharp people will not agree with you all the time. If you only love the people who are agreeing with you, it is only yourself you are loving. Get with people who get you thinking ‘that is a good thought’, and that it did not come from you. Get with people who can add to you. You share the best revelation and they top it…

i can learn from people who see more than me. Get with sharp people. Don’t get with those that are gossiping, backbiting or pulling down, or even tell you they or you can do better that those around. Don’t get with miseries and especially meanes, not with pessimists, get with faithful men and women, those who talk faith and know what it is to be involved with the Work of faith, those who stir faith who loves people, loves God, is reaching towards people. that is where we want to go Hebrews 10:24, 25

Know when to switch off the computer, TV, Xbox… Keep sharp by praying in the Holy Spirit. Abide in the word of God, dig deep in the word, see things that you have not seen before, buy a markable bible, mark, mark, mark until the word is sharp in you John 8:31, John 14:23, John 15:7, Col 3:16

Perform good works. Good works are full of faith and love. Look for opportunities to do good Hebrews 10:24, Ephesians 2:10

Link up with apostles, prophets and let them know your fields of expertise Ephesians 4:11-13, Ephesians 2:19,20

Next whatever you are in already, if you are convinced that is where you should be as a sphere of influence, next step is then to establish yourself in it, succeed in it and excel. Do not settle for mediocrity 1 Cor. 10:31.

Speak confidently to yourself saying I believe God has placed me here, I will establish myself, hone my skills until I excel and gain the high ground of influence. In order that we become a people on the cutting edge to our life and story. A radical people. A people deeply conscious of our heritage and our destiny. A people bent on discipling the nations. A people ready to meet the challenge of our times and change the world, we are not born to journey through a trackless wilderness in life. We are to follow the Spirits directions the steps of a journey of faith towards the destiny of the Father as we do the will of God. We are intended to impact our age and world en route…

When we read the opening passage of Ephesians we really find an apostle that has been empowered and inspired, one has to ask I wonder what he is taking for that? In the days of challenge we have to look at what it is that keeps people running. What is it that has resurrected this once murderer of the family of God? or certainly one that engineered the taking of the church? Through Paul’s writing we have a glimpse of who he is and what he sees along with his feelings and revelations. Guidelines of that which is gotten hold of him. I would say we would do well to consider and focus our attention on what Paul focused on.

A fundamental change has taken place in our thinking that enables us to get onto the same understanding as Paul. I remember as a young Christian when we were taught about the rapture, the decline of the testimony of God and the great darkness of this world. But today it is settled, this world all of it is God’s world. God created everything, everything that happens God is to be found, Father, Son and Spirit, God in everything creation, humanity.

You cannot read Paul’s outline on Ephesians 1 without realising that it is a plan, a plan from the eternal but it was set in place long before creation. It included “ a lamb slain before the foundation of the world” amongst other things. You could say this is the secret behind all things, it is that which governs the movement of world, a movement towards the culmination of God’s plan. In this plan God is fully involved and God has designated One to bring about this plan. The description of Acts 17:31, ” God has fixed a day in which God will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” clearly paints the picture that this One is the horizon of all things, the reference point, the culmination, the source and the beginning of all Gods’ aims. The word “…appointed…” in this passage is ‘horizio’ where we get our word for horizon from. This Christ has now fulfilled all the Father had in mind.

My appeal for every one of us is that we come out from the doldrums of self and come into to the great wide open spaces of the plan of God. Over the years we’ve all been challenged by an understanding of the gospel of God, moving us from a declining view of the church, to beginning to understand the Triumph of Christ. I believe that along with the triumph of Christ, the celebration of God is brought into clarity, many need this message of the plan of God. In motion, but not out of time, it is not late or early but is being the fulfilled and being fulfilled. Many are struggling with daily challenges, health issues and financial strain but the scripture is clear it has been finished, this plan of God is complete, we have the joy of bringing it to life today so that all of creation is impacted.

This day each one of us is being retrained through perseverance, a term that has been around for many years and one that was used much in the old Pentecostal setting where I came to Christ, that is, we are learning to travail. This means I fix the nature of the Father Son and Spirit, I set in my mind the call of God and become unwavering, as I persevere.

Christ, the Son has stepped forward and has worked out the eternal purpose. Paul is captured, his preface taken away, his words he feels are lacking, his life’s goal and ambition, the course has been set, to the point that he compares beatings, points of near dying as “light afflictions”, he is overwhelmed in awe of what has happened as he tries to outline in the first chapter of Ephesians. The work is finished and the plan on course it captured Paul, it should capture you and me, and maintain our advance and journey. This Ephesians 1 is Paul’s attempt to wake us up!

As we read through the scriptures especially the Old Testament we cannot but see that there were men and women such as Samuel and others like him who were before him and his successors were at the forefront of the purpose of God for their moment, they brought to a nation the flaming message of God’s word. They spoke to kings, rulers, governors and decision-makers who in turn attempt to put pressure these men and women to change their tone or to change their message, in essence to change their words, their prophesying. But these men and women had settled something they were first and foremost servants of the most high, and despite all the pressures they remained so true to their first cause. Individuals who are there to turn their gathered nations or people groups hearts and intentions towards God, they spoke and brought to all that they could hear God.

We are surrounded today with political electioneering whether it be on a local level, on a national level or even an international level. Electioneering shows politicians of all shapes and sizes seeking to discover through opinion polls what the people want them to say on single issues. Unfortunately when this is discovered we find opinions changing, adjustments of emphasis and repositioning all to gain position in accordance to what they discovered, this shows little of a convictional lifestyle. It will not be so with prophets, or the purpose, for they know the heart of God, the will of the Father, Son and Spirit. They are not politicians but prophets.

They themselves are the vehicle, the message they carry moulds and informs their lives, their whole action of life is painted by the message they carry, it is the school of the spirit in their lives shaping and forming and moulding them to be prophets.

A prophet has to become secure in their inner self so they find themselves never measuring themselves by people’s response to their word. The fulfilling release they have is knowing that they had been the voice of God in their time. The response to the word is an issue between the people and their God, the prophet is the deliverer, what they know is the word of God, which is living to them.

O God raise in our midst passionate prophets that bring to each of us your living, uncomplicated but life-giving word.