Dangerous Words

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

These words from the Lord’s Prayer are part of our spiritual warfare. When Jesus gave us these two phrases as part of our daily prayer routine, He gave us two statements that fill the enemy with dread. Satan cannot stand it when God’s will is used to over-rule his own. He cannot bear it we bring God’s Kingdom to bear on a world that is Satan’s domain. As Ephesians 6: puts it, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Our real problem is that we cut the quotation short and we do not wrestle – at all.

Thy Kingdom Come is a declaration that we have had enough of this world’s ways; this world’s kingdoms; this world’s values. We have had enough of this world dominating everything we want and everything we do. It is a statement to God, asking Him to replace our worldly dreams with His Kingdom dreams. In short, very short, it is us giving God permission to do what He wants in our lives. Our problems with this start the moment God asks or tells us to do something for Him. The enemy immediately counters with a different suggestion or with outright rebellious thoughts.

This is when we should be wrestling with God for His Kingdom principles to reign in our lives and our part of the world. This is when “we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” This is when we enforce Christ’s victory at Calvary with all the authority He gave us at that time. His authority in us was not just for the time of the apostles, but it was for ALL time.

Thy Will Be Done – How many times have you heard folk say “If it be God’s will, then . . . “ It is God’s will for us to be saved and healed, for us to be conquerors; for us to prosper in His Kingdom. If it was only down to ‘if it be God’s will’, then why would we even bother with evangelism. If it be God’s will then it will happen – if not it won’t. If He has called them into the Kingdom, they will come – if not they won’t.

What nonsense!

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” That WHOEVER believes, and THE WORLD through Him might be saved. Again in Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, and Romans 10:13 “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” THREE times the Word of God says whosoever, anyone, every single person – how can we ever doubt that it is God’s will?

‘Thy Kingdom Come’ and ‘Thy will be done’ is declaring war on the prince of this world and taking back that which he has stolen.

Getting Older

Am I Getting Old?

It has been said that getting old is all in the mind, that we stay as young as we want to be. Of course, there is a truth in that, but it is also undeniable that the body ages and gets old too. Since I am, in many people’s view, old, then I have to say that many people used to retire and simply wait to die. There are several well known towns around Britain’s coast that are appropriately named “God’s waiting room”.

That doesn’t tie in with my experience, however. Since I retired, I have to say that I am so busy, I wonder when I ever found time to ‘work’. Oh, we’re not as hectic in our lifestyle as many younger folk who do work, but that is one of the joys of retirement – time is no longer the ruler of our universe in the way it used to be when the kids were small.

If I may quote my favourite scripture - Joshua 13:1 NKJV “Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.” The Message version is even more blunt – “You've had a good, long life, but there is a lot of land still to be taken.” This always strike me as amusing as, usually, older folk seem to bridle at being told that they are old – yet here is God telling Joshua just that. However, there is a very important caveat with which the Lord softens the blow. “You are old – BUT – there is still a lot of work to do.”

It is this realisation that colours our thinking nowadays. There is truly no retirement in God’s Kingdom, simply a slowing down. There really is so much still to do for Him that we can no more think about ‘retiring’ than we can consider ourselves of no further use to His Kingdom. And it’s not just ‘wise advice’ that we dispense nowadays – if ever we did that anyway. We are involved at an everyday working level.

There are people to meet and talk to; new Christians to encourage; older folk to help; and perhaps younger ones to advise. Life doesn’t stop at whatever age you think of as ‘retirement’. Rather, a whole new world opens up for us – a world for which life has prepared us for 60plus years.

That one word, “but” – you may be older and full of years but there are still countless and endless opportunities to serve the Lord and your fellow man as well.

Retirement?? It’s all in the mind. You’re never too old to serve God, your community, and your church.

Sound of Rain

The Sound of Rain

After Elijah had sorted out the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he took his servant to the summit and spoke to Ahab. 1 Kings 18:41-44 “Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’”

The present day church seems to have adopted much of this story to allegorise the coming of revival. Indeed, I have personally seen the ‘cloud as big as a man’s hand’ several times this year. I have seen this, and a ‘tsunami of Holy Spirit outpouring’ and the ‘Glory Cloud’ of God’s presence. All of this in the past 6 months and not just the once either. I have seen these things several times. I have felt the approaching outpouring that I and many others believe will happen this year.

In all of this though, I have not ‘heard the sound of rain’ – until today. It is a cloudless beautiful sunny Spring day outside – yet I hear the sound of rain. Pouring, cascading rain. Thundering and lightning and rain – huge great drops of rain, not hail – rain. Pure, wonderful rain of Holy Spirits love pouring all over us.

Move to Zechariah 47, to the temple. I see water beginning to trickle out from under the threshold of the temple. It runs down and moves away, getting wider and deeper as it moves, gradually becoming a stream then a river.

This is what is coming very soon to the UK.

Are we ready? Not a chance. Will we cope? Only with God’s help. But if we surrender this outpouring to Holy Spirit, then He will show us what to do – how to cope – how to reap the harvest. Only if we surrender it and don’t try to control it, limit it, or otherwise grieve Holy Spirit – that’s when a full harvest will come. And it will spread like wildfire too – but only to those places He chooses. Don’t let pride creep in if yours is one of the places because you will lose it. As fast as it came, so it will go.

I hear the sound of rain – get ready for the downpour.

Build Your Faith

Where is YOUR Faith?

We got a new book this morning. It was about John G Lake’s ministry and his teachings on healing. We had also recently heard a preacher talking about healing and, we got to start discussing not just Lake, but Smith Wigglesworth, who also had an amazing healing ministry. These men of God didn’t just teach and preach healing, they lived their ministry. They continually used their own faith and that of others to produce miracles the like of which have very rarely been seen since then. The preacher had also said that, men of great faith though they were, they are no longer with us and we can only copy their example, develop and use our own faith.

As we discussed this, the Lord asked me a question. He said this - “John G Lake and Smith Wigglesworth spent their lives sowing seeds of faith and then reaping what they sowed. They built their faith on that which they saw Me doing in people’s lives. They accepted and lived My Word. What are my people now doing to emulate these two of my servants. Does My Word not say that ‘greater things than these will you do’?”

Jesus, the Word tells us, healed the sick. He didn’t pray. He didn’t ask God to do people a favour. He did what He saw His Father do, and what He heard His Father say. He healed people and He told us that ‘greater than these shall you do’. Lake and Wigglesworth did very much the same thing – they put the trust and belief in His words, and they did whatever the Father told them to do.

John G Lake once said something that seems to me to be a little harsh. He said that if we have a spiritual problem we go directly to God, but if we have a health problem we go to a doctor. Then he asked how we dare do that? As Christians our first call in all things must be God. Horses for courses? Not a bit of it. God is the only course we need to follow.

Both Lake and Wigglesworth developed and nurtured their own faith. What about you? Where is your faith? What are you doing to nurture and develop your own faith? Not just for healing but for the whole of your life?

The Enemy Prowls Round

Watching

An incident occurred in the field outside our back door the other day. We are so blessed as to live adjacent to ancient fields mentioned in the Domesday Book – the record of the first census undertaken in 1086 and covering almost the whole of England and Wales. It was undertaken for and by William the Conqueror, king of England in 1066-1089. But I digress. The field.

There are four or five paddocks fenced out in the field behind the house and each paddock holds one or maybe two horses. The paddock immediately behind us also contains a one horned sheep whom I have named Billy, after Billy Strayhorn, the jazz musician. That same paddock also holds a largish black horse, a mare, with a tendency to being a bit spiteful – one of the reasons she is on her own. That she and Billy share the paddock is entirely down to Billy’s fleetness of foot in steering clear of trouble.

However, there is always some swift sidestepping and careful negotiation of the field when we appear with carrots and a queue of two appears pretty quickly along our garden fence. We always feed the mare first and, while she is diverted, we can ensure Billy gets his or her fair share. If in danger, Billy, being smaller and quicker, ducks under an inner fence into a small sanctuary area where the mare cannot reach him.

OK – all well and good until yesterday. It was a bright and sunny afternoon and Billy dropped his guard. He lay sunning himself, basking in the warm Spring sunshine. The mare wandered over towards him and, as Billy made no move – he must have been dozing – she quietly turned her back on him and lashed out with her rear hooves catching Billy a real hard kick in the head !! Poor old Billy looked a very sorry sight. His remaining horn was smashed and he was well bloodied. We called the owners and a vet soon arrived. Our anxiety over Billy was soon soothed as he was tended to and taken to a safer pen for a few days.

So what on earth has this to do with my usual blog posts?

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Another way of putting it is, “The enemy is always active to rob, steal, kill and destroy.” Billy got caught by his enemy. If we are not vigilant, we too may be caught by the enemy who, knowing our plans to brings lost souls into the Kingdom of God, seeks any way he can to rob and steal from us – even to destroy us if he can.

This is why we are called to be watchmen on the walls. We don’t only watch for the signs of the times and end times. We are also to watch for the enemy as he attacks us and tries to bring our brothers and sisters down. We are to use our authority in Christ to defeat him. The Word of God says, in James 4:7 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” If we are submitted to God then we can tell the enemy where to go - and he must go.

Don’t you feel better just knowing that?

I hope Billy is all right. We miss him.