powerful words

“To This End…” my end for now but not the END.

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Which End Up?

My aim in this blog is to attempt to finish this series on “ to this end…”, I have attempted to outline some fundamental learning curves and have been experienced over the last 30+ years, it’s frightening to think it’s 40 years since I 1st began my journey into Christ.   I’ve had the privilege of serving the Father I hope in seeking 1st the kingdom of God while learning to trust him fully in all matters, living by the gospel for the last 28 years time just flies.

My prayer is that these few meanderings may have helped others on their journey to consider their own lives and perhaps moved towards God a little further.

Rather than making any introduction I will just dive into the last 4 Views I present

Failure to exercise judgment

Now before I commence I know for some to use the word judgment is a challenge as we are in a season of enjoying the grace of God yet we will need still to understand in our journey towards the Father.

What we know now & teach regarding judgment was unheard of, the theology of Grace was preached but I must admit we very really saw it exercised. When I first came before God I was presented by those around me at 16 a gospel of give up.  Now please hear me these where good people, loving people it was just the scene we had all been brought up in, the perceptions developed, they where people who put so much into me that was good as well.   I found quickly what I should, could not and must not do, what the gain, what was added to us was left to the imagination and I discovered it as i grasped the grace of God more fully.  I simply adopted the attitudes, opinions & prejudices of those I admired, believing they must be right.  My only form of judgment was to condemn those who didn’t agree or conform to my newly adopted prejudices.

It was not until I was baptised with the Spirit that I learnt to judge or ‘prove all things’ & thereafter recognize that I should learn from people’s strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

  • To be free of something we must pass & carry out sentence on it within ourselves, bring the grace of God alive in our lives.
  • Judgment not only delivers it protects our freedom – Grace and Mercy along with judgment are part of God we still have to face this.

Poor testimony in my family

Looking back I believe the reason much didn’t ‘go well’ for me in the early years of my Christian experience was because of my violation of the Word of God in not ‘honouring my parents’ adequately.   I future learned that it was not only my natural mum and dad but also those who are mothers and fathers spiritually to us all.   In a growing appreciation of a ‘culture of honour’ it is still necessary to learn the honour of all form weakest to strongest not just celebrity ministry.   Its is also necessary for honour of spiritual parents more and more that all will go well and our days be long.

I was thrilled with the fellowship I was getting outside but at home I became a restless & moody young man. At times when conscience would speak strongly to me about my relationship with the family, I would squash it’s views by my wrong understanding and interpretation of the scripture, “unless you hate your father and mother for my sake…”

After I was baptized with the Spirit, I realised the full extent of my loss in these respects, & sought as much as possible to in my relationship and fellowship with the family, which I am still learning.

  • Honouring parents is the first command with a promise. The law of first mention means that association of ideas is highly significant, e.g. worship & Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.

The wrong concept of God

From childhood the religious idea of God that I gained from parents, people and church, was warped. He was depicted as severe, easily offended and quick to punish. That before he would extend forgiveness he needed to have his wrath totally placated by punishing me.

This distorted mental image of God hindered my ability to fellowship with Him as Father. It continually undercut my ability to believe His promises since I was constantly disqualifying myself as unworthy. One day, reading the word I was struck by the response of Jesus to Philip – “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father”. I realised then that the only image of God I should hold is the revelation seen in the person of Christ. This changed my whole approach to fellowship with God.

  • A right knowledge of God’s nature is foundational to making a right response to His presence and power.
  • Your View of God determines how you live – free, joy, life all find their root here
  • The right image of God is received by a revelation of Christ in the Word.
  • The Word freed me from the God created in my imagination

Rationalisation of the Word of God

The most casual reading of scripture convinced me that the bible portrays a God of miracles and power.

It is this element of the supernatural that was a stumbling block in the teaching of the churches I first found myself in. They gave spiritual significance  to everything associated with the supernatural and made it merely symbolic of things to do with one’s character or behaviour.

e.g. Leprosy became symbolic of sin, therefore the healing of the lepers was indicating God’s desire to completely cleanse you from sin.

Opening the eyes of blind Bartimaeus represented God’s desire for us to have spiritual sight.

Consequently I slipped into the pitfall of believing my interpretations of the Word instead of the Word itself. Looking back I see my interpretations were undercutting my faith for like miracles. Obviously the more rational the interpretation the more acceptable to the mind. Nevertheless, not one of the interpretations I put on things ever fully satisfied me emotionally or spiritually, and it is very doubtful whether they truly settled in my mind.

  • I have come to see the Word is always true; my interpretation of it may or may not be.
  • I am not called to believe my interpretation but I am called to believe His Word.
  • The mind and soul must always submit to the word, not the word submit to the mind.

I want to emphasize that all these issues took place before I was baptized with the Spirit. Indeed, they resulted in such unhappiness and dryness that they were the reason why I began searching for more – even though I had no idea of what.

 

Whats in arrears

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I read this  it made me chuckle, “a lady in front of me in the queue at the bank had a rolled up fiver (£5) in one ear and a tenner (£10) in the other. When she got to the booth they told her she’s £15 in arrears (behind in payment)”, I hope the play on words is seen by those like me who have English as their second language.

In the light of the word play I wonder what is in your arrears or ears, as it’s should say?    What is in my ear, such a stupid sounding questions but profound in its application, in other words what is getting the most, or who is getting the most listening time from you and I.     What are we investing our listening towards there is so many noises and sounds everywhere which we work though in every day, there is so much accessibility to sound today.   I think we live in an era when silence is fought against.    One thing out of many Sandra and I love in Africa is the deafening, still silence, so still that it ministers to you, yes you did hear right, deafening silence, to stand where there is no sound pollution to rob, distract and overwhelm.

Our world seems to be filled with people who have become adverse to silence  with music in lifts, songs in bathrooms, ear buds full of music in people’s ears.    Sounds and noise every where we go, musac, however you say it, lift music, in-store music, music every where.    Even people who have the TV on in the background for noise with no one listening to it, no attention being paid to whats on, TV being for security and comfort that there is some one there rather than have a still silent house, as I said adverse to silence.

Are we polluted by sound or is there a sound producing in us, is this not the difference, when we are polluted we become unable to conduct life normally or distracted for any actions our thoughts filled with cluttered thoughts, distracted from every angle.    However there is a true pure sound, a sound that will produce an inner person, that brings about a purpose.   A sound of the creator that resonates inside us, calling us, making a clear sound in the midst of so much sound pollution, can we hear it?    Here is a different take on a well-known text on Jesus life, while Jesus challenge in the garden of Gethsemane, a fight of what sound would Jesus listen to, the inner thoughts of his own will against the pure sound of the Father, in the struggle of his mind the human sounds, the voice that said “No”, “there has to be a different way”, the voice in your head that says this is life threatening, too hard, go another way.   But a pure sound resonated inside Jesus he cleared the sound pollution become clear purposed “not my will but yours”.    That settled it the noise, the sounds became silent, its done now.      I know submitting to the will of God was and today is the challenge for us daily, however I know that when the purpose and will of God is before me noise, sound pollution of my mind speaks to prevent applying the will of the Father and I have to do a clean out of “whats in my eras“.

Where shall I turn to, whom shall I listen to?    So much information is available to make us all experts, I hear the challenges of some teachers and preachers today, discovering that as they teach, the people listening are more expert than they are, as they have the ability to research what is being said on iPad, iPhones and the like, right in front of the lectern, they can discover even more about the subject than the teacher/preacher does.   I even heard of one setting that invited twitter responses with questions as they taught, so they could deal with the questions in real-time, how exciting a use of modern technology, so to speak, it has become a realisation that people know more due to the accessibility of information.   Who will you listen to?

There was a day when we gathered to hear the superior knowledge, when the teacher at school or at the front, knew more than even mum and dad, when the child said “teacher said”, I recall saying it and hearing it from my own children.   Now with so much sound available, through podcasts, multiple teaching CD’s, books and the number of ‘Christian TV ‘ channels, who do you listen to?

In our world we live in if you do not define or outline the words you use, what you mean by every concept or biblical term, we all hear through gained filters of other people’s definitions and communication.   Try its use a term in a room covenant, authority, Kingdom of God, anointing.   To introduce simple words in conversion or teaching only to discover that even in a room with a few say a dozen people 12 different definitions and view of the same word or term are present.   The self-confessed expert has dominated our ears and we struggle to hear anything different.

More than ever it is necessary for us to help each other hear the sound of God, the voice of the Father, to enable us to say “what is in my ear”, so “What is in your ear?

It’s an time in the midst of so much sound, noise pollution, so much being said, so much teaching available that even contradicts.   How can be sure of whats truth any longer?    Neither cannot return to a day when one teacher had the monopoly of our ears, there is so much available today for us all, TV, podcast, books etc., etc.     Which can be and is a good thing as long as we instruct, teach more perfectly how each one of us can hear vice of God, helping us all to distinguish through our sentiments, emotions, insecurities, whats in vogue, whats the now word, even teaching us not to be subjective but how to know a God Sound.     The scriptures say “my sheep hear my voice” so you can hear God is dealing with the polluted sounds to get the pure sound.    Also realizing that revelation is not an individual event when it breaks in on our world but it is meant to be a corporate experience and corporate forming, so God Sounds are to be openly shared to become more perfect through each diverse life filter.    Find people who you know hear the Father and watch while listening so that they can help you here God Sounds.

So finally “Whats in your ears?”

 

Launched Words…

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I turned the pages of my electronic bible over, what a strange action, I am always amazed what these computers can do and sound like, I continued to read waiting and anticipating the Spirit of God to have gone deep within God looking for fresh insight to be brought into my daylight (1 Cor. 2:10).     With anticipation I read on knowing that when God revels it will have an implication for me, to make it part of my life, embracing it in every way.    Then it arrived as arrow in flight in pierced the clouded mind and thought patterns broke through into my being.   It read “He launches his promises earthward how swift and sure they come!” (Psalm 147:15), WOW, WOW! the Father launches, its trajectory set, its path calculated and course set, away it goes a promise of the Father.
I realised that the overcomer overcomes through the strength of God also by the living promises of God.     What about transforming what God has said into a pregnant promise, into words with power, into sentences that are God filled.   For is this not a promise from heaven a God filled sentence?    Not just words on a page, Biblical promises but launched, swift to arrive words, “for none of his words will return void” not sound bites to quote heave invested words!   Perhaps promises spoken long ago taken back into the face of God through my conversations with the Father, my prayer and returned as “Reverse Thunder” (Rev 16:17-21) with my words invested  into again with Gods substance  and creation is effected”
If promises have been launched towards Gods creation should we not consider what they are?    Making known what has been uttered what has been said towards creation, humanity you and me.   What has been promised as the ultimate intention of God, Gods purpose to bring about, this will of the Father we are to be given to beyond our own will.    Should we not have the duty to enquire, then we have a responsibility to make it known.
Launched promises God speaks – thank goodness God has words, this God of ours
God speakers words that work
God directs speaking words having a direction in them
Speaking must be twined to hearing, so let God speak and let us hear and take heed of promises
Promises launched in words that work!      A promise making God, a promise keeping Father an ever extending God via spoken words – literal God changing shape in us, around us by utterance, words and all within those words are God.
So where from here, take the book of words, of promise the scripture Spirit uttered words and collate promises spoken to all creation, to humanity, to the church of God, to you and me.   Begin to revel in the spoken promises, begin to consider that these are not thoughts, nice reading passages but fulfilling promises.   For though promises we will live gloriously, don’t just wait until they arrive or happen live in the glorious light of these words.

A Bridge its life, leadership & all that.

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Bridge building is an art!      I realised over the years how much of life is about building bridges, which we all have to do constantly.    If it’s the first meeting or one from a deeper relationship it’s still needs the ongoing art of bridge building.

I was trained as builder, a building surveyor, RICS was the professional qualifications we aimed for to achieve our skill.   I was trained  to have a grasp of many elements within the building industry, it was not about mastering one particular discipline, but being the coordinating point for many trades and professions within the industry.   I learned topography, out in cold and sunny days working a theodolite, walking across the landscape.   I studied quantities, working out the quantities and costs of erecting a structure.    I designed buildings architecturally, drew plans , drafted contracts, compiled specification, run multi-million pound construction contracts.   Even designed watery dams, and BRIDGES, working the stresses and strains, the forces that bridges have to carry.   Calculating the engineering of building concrete or steel even wooden bridges.    Building bridges,  the stresses and strains, the art involved in building these life long structures.

The stresses and strains of the art of bridge building I have realised  is a picture of ongoing life, that my life is involved in this complex engineer of bridge building with lives and relationships continuously.     We daily build these bridge or weaken them.   I recall being advised that I better make sure that the bridge of my relationship with others is strong enough to carry the load I wish to transport across it before I take the load up with people.     It’s of no use to end up saying “…well its the way I am, blunt…”, which might be true, when the bridge of relationship cannot any longer carry any kind of load.   Its better to take several trips across the bridge of this relationship with a lesser loads until you get it all across than rushing at it while smiling and looking back having got across only to realise when you get across that the bridge is so fragile now nothing can be carried across it!

The art of bridge building we have to learn to negotiate life and people as well as in our own lives.

I am not setting myself up as an expert, far from it, just a simple commentator on life and its challenges, I am learning, I hope to negotiate and being a bridge builder, perhaps a Biblical peace maker?

So we agree in the importance of connecting with those we work, live, partner with in life, ministry, vocation, profession, work with and meet in everyday life, particularly in this culture where new relationships can be intimidating, and 15-minute lunches are common. The following are some thoughts on how to best build a connecting bridge of partnership between yourself and another person

  1. Love people until they ask “why?” what about getting to the place that the actions of you loving people speaks so loudly that people “ultimately demand an explanation for why you do what you do.   
  2. Ask more questions than others do. Discover that asking questions is much more strategic than giving answers
  3. Spend lots of time listening. “Once you’ve asked a great question, listen. And listen more. And listen more,” O boy do we need help, O boy do I need help.
  4. Find points of connection and shared interests, Be intentional!  Make a point to discover the person’s interests, hobbies, and what truly motivates them. Then build on shared interests.
  5. Follow-up. How Important this is, as you never heard from some one will not mean thy have cut or are disinterested they are like you busy.   Come on be bigger and lest grow up.   Try this take the first step and reach out, then once you have done that, do it again.   I sadly heard a comment recently “…I tried contacting them, they did not come back so I forget about it, let it go…” Let us build  a bridge and try, try again, again!

The art of bridge building, we could build the longest, the highest, the most scenic, most significant bridge in regard to relationship that people have ever seen, let’s do it let’ s have a go, don’t give up build it.   I think a film several years ago called ‘Field of Dreams’ coined a phrase once “…if you build it they will come…” Build a Bridge.

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?