THOUGHTS

Refreshing to Restore

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The Bible speaks of ‘seasons of refreshing’ and a ‘time of restoration’ two focuses, events that our world and society will be impacted by, these times are spoken of  in Acts 3:19 – 21

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,     

20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.     

21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”     

Within a season of Restoration is everything the prophets addressed which  included the reformation of society seen in picture forms in their writing –‘ swords into plough shares ‘.    It’s the fulfilment of promise spoken and written of throughout the scriptures.   We live in a time when the “season of Restoration”  is breaking in upon us, how exciting it is to live in this challenging world that Gods finger prints are all over it, bring a season of restoration.     Be careful in order we don’t get lost in times of refreshing only by camping around them and creating monuments while God has a greater purpose for us.   Enjoy the refreshing and be enlarged, instructed and empowered but our goal is to bring around and advance the season of Restoration being a people of Restoration.

The Message translation pens it thus “Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus. For the time being he must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be”.

Until order has come to our world, this is the task for which we were brought into the Kingdom of God, to restore order, Gods order.    We are those working for the restoration of the ‘image and likeness’ of the Father, to see restored back to our created world the image of God for this is the Kingdom of God established fully.    That Christ will fill everything, inside and outside.

O God Restore come and be established, times of refreshing we recognise that these times are in your process, they are necessary, this process means times of refreshing that will come and go, they will grow to a crescendo and pass away, they are supposed to.     “Times” plural that mean one comes and one goes and there will be more than one.   Yet there is a “time” to arrive a “season” to come that is sustaining and remaining that will herald and welcome that will come and not pass away a Time of Restoration, will be that which release the culmination of Gods plan and ultimate intention.   We have been invited to partner with the Father to be fully involved to be part of this heralding work.   Let us all get on Gods time seeing transformation and order coming to pass around us, in our individual lives that will then seen in community life.

You are the Ecclesia, what’s that?

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University Challenge is a competitive quiz on British TV, it sets University against University in question after question to filter though academic grasp.   The quiz master announces at the beginning of every question set, the competitions format is a question is asked which when answered correctly opens up another 3 or 4 questions for the winning team, and only they that win the first question have the right to gain these points.   This first question therefore serves as a gateway question to the further set of questions.     The first question, the gate way question is always preceded with “This is your starter for 10 (points)”, just in the same way here is your ‘here is a starter for …” well the ecclesia, the church this is just a starter, how could we answer “what is it” as the ecclesia is such a major expression, how can you determine what is meant to be fluid and full of growing life?     We could really fully explain in a few short words, but here is a starter in terms of eternity’s view.

The ecclesia is it?

  • A building on a corner and a reclusive grouping, huddled together in fear of the reality of living?
  • A gathering of the emotionally crippled, the mentally scarred, seeking to find a God that will give them something to live for?
  • Or a congregation of bruised & broken, poor & powerless, banded together in common pain, motivated to share their self-pitying lot in life?
  • Or is it again the air-conditioned luxury pad of the affluent, middle class meeting to thank the God that grants them wealth & power & disturbs them not?
  • Or is a group gathered in a home pad hoping to make friends?
  • Or a group of people from every culture enjoying each other and God in a large congregation or house setting?

The ECCLESIA, a people called out according to purpose, the church is the congregation of God on the earth.    It is the manifestation of God on the earth.      His body through which his life & power expresses itself.    A community where the Kingdom of God is manifest in full measure.    A people Declaring, Living, Loving, being the nature and demonstration of the Father to the world.      Jesus respond to the enquiry of “…show us the Father…”, from his disciples those whom he had called to be with him he said to them “…who ever has seen me has seen the Father…” and later in John 1:18 (NASB) we are told that Jesus “…came to explain the Father…”, so too this church, the ecclesia does exactly that, see the community, the church and see the Father, the church is an explanation of God expressed through a family!

Yes it has gathered into itself the flotsam & jetsam of life or perhaps better put the fringes of life have been transformed, conformed and formed into the body of Christ.    The maimed & bruised, the weak & the poor, the lost of all lands forged together to be the people of God expressing the triumph of Christ, becoming the life of God while being attractive to our world (Isa 2).

Yes it has also gathered together the rich & the powerful, who found themselves empty with all but want of Him.

In Christ’s church all are leveled by grace & faith.

We must be elevated to a new place to understand the church, in and thru, which God is not only bring creation to liberty and freedom (Romans 8) but also instructing angels, the supernatural in the love and working of the Father (Eph 3:1-11).

The one thing I CAN SAY is this, THE ECCLESIA IS A FAMILY AND NOT AN ORGANIZATION OR STRUCTURE OR MEETING OR WHAT WE DO, IT IS WHO WE ARE, THE FAMILY OF GOD.    In the Day we live in its more than ever a time we became a family, the family of God taking on all its familial language and proclamation it.    Being those that bring the implication of being a family to bear on the church, being relational, belonging to each, realizing the order is in terms of fathers, sisters, mothers and brothers who have the function of ministries.    Never becoming a structured organization only governed by laws, do’s and do not’s but an organic living church, living by grace, acknowledging that the ecclesia does need some structure it is that which serves the life, enables the living, flowing, organic order to flow and let the family ways, Gods family ways direct the functioning and being of the church!

Re discovering and capturing back to creation the image and likeness of the Father in the Son.

Changing Your View

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Changing your view: “We must pray the promise not the problem”.     We increase in faith as we boast in our hope, as we are a testimony of things to come. Heb 3:6

Faith must find it’s true measure; it has to be unlocked, unhitched from the wagon of healing, goodies & money and  given a wider and deeper application to our time & our lives, faith is bigger than the few issues mentioned above.   Unfortunately any one looking in on the church will think there are only a few things that are impacted by what we call faith, don’t get me wrong these issues, money, healing and provision will be reorder by our faith but there is so much more to unlock in our understanding when we consider faith.    So many themes, life factors are hijack to a narrow view of our understanding when there is much more to take hold of in Gods promises.   For example healing, when your sick it’s a blessing but when the promise of God to us is full health then healing  for the world around us let’s believe for health as a covenant people, prosperity finance only when prosperity is a fullness of life in peace, even blessing for me when we are to be blessed to be a blessing.    Rediscovering the truth of “living by faith” is a call for our hour, it is a call to live beyond the immediate, beyond my need, it is a way of life, living by faith is not when I look for income its a way of live continuity not just to get my need we are to live by faith not by events of faith only.

Faith must enrich us in every way and not simply adjust the material realm.     Indeed to be in the worst kind of poverty is to have all the material wealth you could ever wish for and yet be empty, unfulfilled, frustrated, and miserable, then, you are really poor.     Poverty is not a lack of resource but a people who are dependent on others for basic resources, our dependency should be on God not on resources.

In the same way that faith has to be unhinged so too Prophecy.   Prophecy must be seen bigger that just used in the realm of signs and authenticating a man or woman and their ministry, its time to find it’s true message to our time.    Prophecy does have a predictive aspect to it but much more we are to be a people who interoperate God to our world in our daily life, this is prophecy.     Prophecy gives the people of God a voice to interpret God’s onward creative acts in society and our world telling and interpreting.       Prophecy is to confront us with a plumb line of truth, enabling us, asking us, to build in the light of it, the prophecy that is, building according to a divine pattern and foundation, this requires our faith to be applied in our daily living.

Prophecy must be elevated in the ministry, to deliver us into our world, and the Kingdom of God into us.    Prophecy takes the taste of the age to come and increases the taste, allowing the breaking in of the Kingdom of God to enfold further in this world.

Faith and Prophecy are twinned, for many prophecy is shouting out things that come to mind, but our faith is tied to that which we utter and live.   Prophecy must be a life style as well as an utterance, the people of God, the church, will become the direct manifestation of prophecy just as the prophets of old, their lives, the way in which they lived was a gift, you could see the life’s message in their life style choice and the way they lived.

Faith and prophecy twinned, Romans 12:6 says “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith” as we are told to prophecy to the measure of our faith it becomes necessary to re-asses our place, that is, what we are involved with or  what we are doing, checking that it is in line, not only with the prophecy but also with my faith, living by faith every moment of every day.

Two basic questions:

Do we feel content to continue as we are?

Do we desperately want to break through into different realms?

These twins are necessary in order that the twins of mercy and goodness can follow us all the days of our lives…There is no release from the lower sphere of this material realm, of content existence, unless we have experienced the liberating prospect of the Spirit freeing us to rise as an eagle, to climb the air to the high altitudes of living.

Faith and Prophecy unlocks us to soar free, to live out our potential in the Grace of the Father.

Kingdom, Kingdom!

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“Your responses to life’s situations, your behaviour and actions are the result of your theology not of your intellect or emotions”.   We concluded with this last time I wrote going on to say that, we have come to a world that react rather than living out convictions from the foundation of life actually from the Christ, who is our foundation….to believe is to live out our belief, this has an impact on our view and should reflect what new birth is in reality.     If this cosmos rules in our life then it is questionable, if the other place the Kingdom has been either seen or entered, it will alter our way of life.

The word may have entered the mind, even been welcomed by the emotions even germinated thought through influence but we have to see that only when we have come to live by the Spirit (Romans 8 “…led by the Spirit are we not the sons of God…”)  birthed in us is a power greater than any other.   Christ has incarnate himself in us by the Spirit, that is Christ in you the hope of glory will now rule our direction, emotions, actions and decisions.     A power works with in transforming, forming and conforming us to Christ causing us to become those who are taking on board his interests, his cause as our first cause.   The company we keep, Money decisions, Homes we build , our families  all become expressions and demonstrations of the Kingdom of God, we are disciples of the Kingdom.    The Holy Spirit is so integral to the coming, the establishing of the Kingdom, the coming of the promise of Holy Spirit was a demonstration for early Christians that surely the Messiah had come and his Kingdom is here.   We can not have the Kingdom of God with out the Holy Spirit Romans 14 says it is not external things “…eating and drinking…” but that the “…Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit…” that is the Kingdom of God  in the Holy Spirit, as a great teacher Ern Baxter always stressed.

This is the reason we should not get excited about a kind of Christianity that marginalise the Holy Spirit.  How do we marginalise? through over planning, through not giving room for the Holy Spirit in direction and influence in lives.     Do not allow life  to become a system of lists that replaces any form of listening to the Spirits voice, actually not allowing us to learn the art of listening.   To give preeminence to the Holy Spirit means letting go of control and trusting another.    If we are not Holy Spirit directed we will end up making much of minors and little on major issues in our walk and Kingdom life.     Years ago it was getting lost on such issues, minor ones, such as “they had a drink of alcohol”, compliance to dress codes, attendance at all meetings, to show commitment, whilst at the same time allowing people’s attitudes  to stink, allowing un-forgiveness in hearts to remain, divisive conversation and gossip being the major issues we should have been dealing with.   The fight of the cosmic system that continues to try to ‘run’ the agent of the Kingdom of God in this world.

There is a  challenge in getting trapped into programs to ‘attract’ rather than being centers of Holy Spirit activity  where the kingdom of God is manifest, that is what is attractive.   Imprisoned by wrong expectations we have created in people’s hearts a faith of minimum cost and involvement whilst giving maximum rewards and benefits.

There is areal sense on the one hand of God working purpose and advance in some parts of the world, of people turning to Christ, yet we still have a church that has promoted a religion rather than the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven.   Many Christians have weekly round trip tickets from the Kingdom of God to the Kingdom of…???… Returning to spirituality on Sunday.

To advance the Kingdom of God is to serve God in our generation, it is to serve Gods purpose, God aims and objectives, taking up the Fathers interest and living according to Gods’ will rather than mine.

Actions

1        Bring our own lives in line with Divine rule (not a common term these days but how else should we say it?) letting a Godly order come in our lives

2        Determine for yourself all you have, and see it as totally available for the advance of the Kingdom of God – a son of the kingdom (see blog…???)

3         Recognise you are joined to the body of Christ, discover where you are to be planted by God with a people and function, be yourself there, not a title, but invest you into the lives around you.

4       Rule and overcome in your world (personal, circumstantial, Spirit, possessions…)

5         See your own life as extending its’ influence to the ends of the earth as Abraham’s seed

6         Deal with the enemies of progress in your life.

  1. Possessions – the materialistic chains of the Cosmos, it is not a problem having stuff,  it is a problem  when the stuff has you.
  1. Ambition – ungodly drives that conflict with the Kingdom of God
  2. Position – status,platforms of life you will seek to protect
  3. Relationships – when they bring other kingdoms to distract you
  4. Possessiveness – you are a steward and servant you don’t own any one

May you aim to see Gods order and God’s image and likeness restored to our world in fullness, the coming of the Kingdom of God.

 

Thoughts on a Kingdom

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“My Kingdom is not of this world”

“My kingdom is from another place”  John 18:36

“…not of this world…” in this day when more and more we are recognising  our responsibility of stewardship and transformation to our environment, our world;  when we are realising that our destiny does not wind up in an escape from this fallen world but in transforming this creation to Gods’ ultimate intention, that Christ will fill all in all.    There is a tension to hold to in “…not of this world…”  meaning we do not belong to this world,  the Kingdom of God finds its source – origin – its genesis – nature – authority – life – laws  and resources all find their root or origin outside of this cosmos.      As a matter of fact I tend to see that the Kingdom of God is the Christ and that God is the Kingdom.    The origin may not be in this cosmos but it is God breaking into our world.

The Kingdom of God cannot be understood by seeking parallels of kingdoms in this world, it is not worth examining kingdoms of old or even kingdoms that  still exist, as they are totally incompatible.    For this thought lies behind the theological mystery spoken to Nicodemus “…you must be born again…” this experience, encounter is not for salvation but  “…you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God”

Your responses to life’s situations, your behaviour and actions are the result of your theology not of your intellect or emotions.   The way you think and feel are shaped by your deepest convictions from your spirit – God.    At least this is how it should be, today I must admit I see many that are challenged to conduct themselves this way, they struggle to remain true to their convictions, to the established foundation of their lives.   Life can become so fickle and changeable as the commercial emotional living on the surface of life prevents convictional living.    Decisions are then made for the benefit of the immediate, self-gratifying rather than what belongs to people’s advance and betterment which is about maturing.  We have come to a world that react rather than living out convictions from the foundation of life actually from the Christ, who is our foundation.

This is why “if any is in Christ…new creation” the spiritual house, mankind is governed by the Spirit, as the agent of the Godhead, as God working with in us to bring us into the life way of the Kingdom of God.    This is the law written on our hearts by which we will reign in life.

To believe this is to live this – which is why the reality of many people’s claim to being born again is questionable.    If this cosmos rules in our life then it is questionable, if the other place Kingdom has been either seen or entered, it will alter our way of life.

I shall continue my ramble through the Kingdom thoughts the as I write in my next blog, I will continue this thought line from this point onward as we go forward, until next blog which will be soon a joyous reaching for the King.