Choices

A Necessary Focus

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Focus

In all our travels I have gained a sense of what the Holy Spirit is highlighting in various places, in saying this, I am fully aware that it is impossible to say ‘the thing’ ‘the one thing’ that people often want to hear of what God is saying, as I believe just as we are introduced to God speaking in the book of Revelation he is shown to be speaking seven different things to seven different churches in one region, therefore it is impossible to say the one thing he is saying,  but we can have some grasp of the constants, truth or focus that is being spoken or seen in many places across our globe. Seeing what is presented in many places, I think we should pay attention to this as “things are confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses”.

Sandra and I travel to the USA, Africa, India, Sri Lanka as well as in the UK and I would have to say that in all the noise of debate regarding the various aspects of truth that come and go, alongside the things we make the ‘fashionable sayings of Jesus’ as I call them, if there are such things, yet the church does appear to have its fashions, also the cyclic experiences and insights that come around every decade or so, there is, I believe, in our small world a sense of God’s focus on the one message that Christ carried and proclaimed.

I believe that until we grasp hold of this central message of Christ we will be confronted constantly by the Holy Spirit, until we embrace it in every possible way, through confession, teaching, and practice the central message of the kingdom of God will be spoken out constantly in the heavens.

In the opening chapters of the book of Hebrews we are told that God has spoken in these last days, making these words important for the last days, our days, and he has “spoken in his Son”, his Son, the Christ of God being the King that brings his kingship which means the Kingdom of God is on the front burner in the last days along with all the related details and implications.

Therefore it is imperative that we teach, preach, and practice everything possible to bring about the domain of God, “Heaven coming to Earth”.   We are encouraged to pray “your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” but it is not enough to pray, we must pray and work until our world is one with Christ, which is kingship and rule. To some degree the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the same thing, is still to come to Earth, but on the other hand, heaven has already come in those who have welcomed Christ into their lives and they have to extend the kingdom rule of God. It’s about bring the implications of the Kingdom to bear in the cosmos first in our lives.

My aim in writing is to lay out the reasons why I proclaim the Kingdom of God, I trust this will have two implications, firstly it would clarify my mind and secondly I trust it will be of benefit for those who read.    My appeal is that we once again strongly announce, herald and preach the Kingdom of God with open hearts, not as those who have heard it before,or done it in the past. Got the tee-shirt, rode the ride, but with new eyes looking and listening again, before we all get lost in a sea of a ‘church only message’ or ‘church gospel’ which is around us all, but step up to re state the ONLY message of our Christ, the Kingdom of God.  Once again the message is required to be announced to empower, advance and deliver the people of God and our world.  Here are my reasons I trust that you will join and agree with me:

-The Kingdom of God reconnects us to the purpose, the why of all creation and the activity of God our Father. It confronts  us with a narrative of Scripture rather than getting lost in our fashions, fads, “now words”  but keeps is rooted in the ultimate purpose of God giving the reasons the cross, the ecclesia, the call of God in bringing everything under the rulership of Christ (Ephesians 1)

-The only message of Christ – the Kingdom of God gives Christ his proper place as King of Kings, the proclaim of the Kingdom and the rulership of God. To separate the gospel from the Kingdom is to take the Christ out of our message. ( BOY DO I WANT TO SHOUT THIS FORM THE ROOF TOPS)  In separating the Gospel from the king to only introduce people to a gospel that deals with an escape into the next life. To have a message without the kingdom is to deny the prophecies that speak of Jesus as the ruler of nations (Genesis 49:10, Psalm 2:9-11, 110:1-3, Isaiah 9:6, 7 Daniel 2, 4, 7). It is to bring a covenant with the father made with creation into practice.

-This sole message is the connection to the original mandate spoken to all humanity through Adam in Genesis 1:28, this passage must be seen as the starting point of the kingdom mandate, that of Christ proclaimed with the church continuing its proclamation.

NOW THAT IS JUST THREE REASON FOR YOU TO FIRST THINK THROUGH MORE TO FOLLOW I HAVE A GOOD LIST FOR YOU TO CONSIDER!    
WATCH THIS SPACE!

Let GO – part 2

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We began in PART 1 by looking at the art of Letting Go and considering the challenge us all but actually realising that it is a skill we need to learn “Letting Go”, some statements I made where:

“Letting Go helps me to make the most of now and enables me to move on with people, it is not about what I have to get right,  but more about can I let go to move upward”.

“The way we let go of the now determines our ability to take hold of what is coming around the corner.        There are questions that would help us learn and let go, I would like to  share a few thoughts that are produced by each.  The questions that would serve us all well to ask each other and more than that ask ourselves.
  • “Is there a fine line between control and influence?   And how do you know the difference”

One of the challenges of Letting Go is the issues of “control” we focused on and which we will continue with to conclude the though

Becoming an influence

Now that we have established that control is in actuality a personal agenda or a set of expectations packaged at the expense of others, what then is influence?        It is certainly not asking or seeing people taking on situations via delegation, but when they are not getting it  or not doing things your way,  interrupting them  by taking the reigns away from them.        This Is the behaviour of a control freak rather than that of an influence.

Influencers understand the importance of not robbing others of their experience which in turn allows them to grow.  Trying to control every little aspect of life and the life of others does not work for any one.

Control robs you of the chance to truly live, to be truly alive, to be truly passionate, have you ever felt I wish I could be as passionate as others with God?  Do you find you excuse yourself from apathy or lack of lustre due to time, our environment and situation keeping you so busy, keeping a handle on your selves that you convince yourself that you are not  like that, but in truth it is control that has robbed you the freedom to be fully passionate in who you are..

We are not designers we are not to be Chief Executives or CEO’s of the universe overextending ourselves with the minute details of others lives this was not in the original plan.

Becoming an influence requires a commitment to maintain healthy boundaries with ourselves and with those we love

Try this, be honest with your self

•                Identify key responses and behaviours within your day life that stem from control rather than influence

•                Each time you are tempted to ‘control’, ask yourself ‘What am I afraid of loosing?

•                What personal agenda am I trying so desperately to preserve?

•                Actively manage what your life could be like if you would allow others the opportunity to own truly their own growth process and master their personal learning curves

•                Commit to becoming an influence and exchange your stress, needless worry and fear with peace and joy

Let Go life will flow better!

Setting things Right

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What do you see?

Psalm 97: 6 (Message)        The heavens announce that he’ll set everything right, And everyone will see it happen—glorious!

  • Announcing heavens
  • Set right
  • Non-restricted seeing

All to do with my heavenly Father, he is glorious.

The NASB translations says it like this “…The heavens declareHis righteousnessand all the people’s have seen His glory…”

A heavens that speak to us is our wonderful gift, a declaring, an announcing heavens, lets listen to what it declares, the coming of “…Let your kingdom come…” the arrival of a King arriving to “…set everything right…”       The order, and rule, the right way up, as it is in heaven, is being declared through and by the heavens, lets listen!   Letting the eternal sound catch our inner person grooming us drawing us to look beyond the moment to see what is still to arriving in God’s economy.

“Setting everything right” is this not the same as your kingdom come, you and I have been brought into asking, praying, for what the heavens and Christ are declaring, the work of a unified voice of all creation people and heavens.   The Fathers order coming, the house of God arriving in all creation, the Kings way a highway through all of cosmos which includes my ‘little’ world.    At the school gate, in the office during classroom time, at home with the toddlers, on the road as I drive, you see it around you as you live it.    Making the far country where my abode is to be that my life is, the far country of the Kingdom of God that has arrived and is still arriving this order everything set right that is the Fathers house.

This setting in order that the Psalmist speaks of is not to be a hidden thing or in a removed place secluded small with drawn place but a place where the seeing is non-restrictive a place that “…everyone will see it happen…”

“And every one will see it happen-glorious” or “And all the people’s, have seen His glory” can this be the glory that is Christ given that is in the process of being reveled, the same that Paul writes to the Ephesus church about in the book of Ephesians that the church is to be “…the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places…” (Eph 3:10) followed by “…to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen…” (Eph 3:21).   The reveling of the church, the called out ones that are the carriers of Gods glory that will fill the earth “…as the waters cover the sea…”?

The called out people of God are the display of His Glory, we are introduced and believe in Christ that is a gift giver to the church, in John 17 we note that he gives to the church two things, one being His Word and the other, wait for it this is mind bending, see now he has given, past tense, to the church……His glory.     Not something to be hunted for or chased after but lived in light of, now read these two scriptures before you stamp all over me:

John 17: 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was…”

V 22 “…The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”

The glory to make an open display of in the whole fabric of creation – every one will see it happen-glorious.

One of our Western challenges, or where ever there is the hold of consumerism in the culture we live in, that has subtle impact upon all of us in relation to our desire for God our chase of the Holy Spirit which I believe we need to be careful and wise with.   If we do not we will find our journey towards maturity and desire for the Father being put off course.

Firstly let me say, of course the people of God are to deepen their intimacy with the Father realizing that he has made the way possible and it is not us that creates the possibility or means but its his grace that has done it all.   Every blockage has been removed, every meandering pathway has been straightened, every chasm has been crossed by the Father.  In essence there is no reason but for our own self that we cannot be deeply intimate with the Father.    The work has been “…finished…” it is open to us to first enjoy and be one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The onward chase or search for God must not come from our way of society, from our cultural paradigm.    The society we live in places demands on us daily see it or not its there.   A demand from leadership at the top of every organization, we are expected to increase our results against our expanding changing forms of evaluation, just look at our schooling system let alone the business world.   It’s the promise of unlimited progress with the need of continuous improvement (Japanese concept – kaizen).    Most of our world is competitive, we like to win and beat the competition.    We must not bring this into the world of the Father.

Our world holds up individual liberties as a high goal along with the pursuit of happiness and consumer mentality but this way of life has produced a cycle that has been so below our radar.    In the retail world we see first “customer satisfaction”  as being a high goal and so it should, but here is the subtlety, in order to bring satisfaction we have first have to produce dissatisfaction with where we are, what we are, along with what we have gained.   Paul tells us that had learned to be content with little/nothing and much, I would suggest that contentment was not based on what was still to come but on what has been given and what is available now.

We see our commitments at point of purchase only lasting until the next unit is developed and made available, when the next model or style or fashion comes on the market dissatisfaction moves in.   This has a way of pushing its way into our relationship and pursuit of God which me must become fully aware of, other wise we are wanting more due to societies ability to subtly produce discontentment’s and we want more.

Of course we are to be intimate and enjoy God, for he has made a way.   It’s an overflow and growing of our love that manifests in our desire to be continuously conscious of the Christ and the Father as there is never a moment where he is not present in his fullness.  Which should have an effect on how we live NOW.   Not because I need more as what I have is not enough due to consumer dissatisfaction

Be careful that my cry for more flows from my love and not from this invasion of the society we live in that has a subtle way of producing discontent with a promise of contentment “when I”, “if I”

The psalmist here brings an encouragement to join the declaration throughout the fabric of creation “set things right” we are to declare “Your Kingdom Come” make this place the setting of your environment o Lord as we bring your Kingdom in daily life we declare we show the heavens the glory of the Lord.

The heavens and the called out people of God  announce he will set all things right,  a unified voice, purpose and work come about in setting things right with an invading Kingdom that is arriving at every hand

Announcing heavens

Set right

Non-restricted seeing

Procrastination – great use of words!

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Miss You

procrastination is the assassination of your motivation;

 when God gives a revelation of what He wants to do in our lives, we get filled with inspiration and pledge to do things beyond imagination;

 but then comes a hesitation and with it the evaporation of that determination  allowing procrastination to become the assassination of your motivation;

 to the student procrastination means the deterioration of your education;

 in the workplace it can lead to the termination of your occupation which means the elimination of your compensation;

 procrastinate on changing your all and you’ll see the disintegration of your transportation;

 if it’s home repairs it’ll be the dilapidation of your habitation;

 procrastinate on spending time with your children and you’ll experience the alienation of some cherished family relations ……

 but the worst procrastination of all, is when we procrastinate on the things of God which may lead to the expiration of God’s offer of salvation;

 …. so do don’t procrastinate, initiate and …. “Redeem the Time”

(Rick Grubbs)

“Neither…”

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“Neither”

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