Good Ideas

Ideas

How many times have you said, “Well, it seemed a good idea at the time.”?  Your brilliant idea didn’t work out the way it was supposed to and you were left, quite frankly, with egg all over your face. I know – we’ve all done it at least once, frequently more often. Been there, seen it, done it, worn out the tee shirt. Oh well – back to the drawing board.

Hang on a minute. What if God was behind it and you just made a small but significant mistake – like timing? So often I think we hear from God and rush headlong into whatever He is calling us to do. Trouble is that we often hear the first bit and are so taken with it that we stop listening to the next bit and miss out on whatever He had for us.

So often we see in scripture the stories of Gods man of the moment who only gets it half right and the consequences are sometimes pretty dire. Like Moses when he struck the rock three times – he was only supposed to strike it once – it cost him his entry into the Promised Land. Or when Elisha told King Joash to strike the ground and he did so three times when he should have done so at least six times – it cost him his kingdom in the end.

I suppose the moral of these events, and their consequences, is that we should always enquire further to ensure we have the full instruction. If God says to do something, we should ask how many times? Or if he says to give something, we should ask how much? The answers we receive may well test our trust and faithfulness. There are many stories of good folk who have worked hard for something, often for years, only to have the Lord tell them to give it away. When they did so the Lord blessed them mightily, but when they ‘refused’, He took all the anointing and enjoyment away from them for a while.

Maybe the price we pay is not as devastating as it was for the historical characters from the Bible, but nevertheless, the cost is high. This is the test of our faithfulness, our integrity, our humility, or just our pride.

I wonder how you and I might fare in such circumstances?

I am not ashamed

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ

Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,”

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ - I am also not ashamed to admit lifting some key phrases from my Pastors message for 2013 this week.

·        There is no plan B – plan A is still on course. God sent Jesus once to die for our sins once and to provide us with the way of Salvation once. That was and still is plan A. He has no intention of starting over because Jesus did it once and there is no need for plan B to try to do it again. If plan A doesn’t work for you – see the next bullet point.

·        Everybody wants to go to heaven but no-one wants to talk about hell. Everybody thinks they will get to heaven because they have been a good boy or girl. That is tantamount and about the same credibility level as believing in Santa Claus. If heaven is so real, why is there such an anathema of talking about hell? Is hell so unthinkable? If so, how come so many people have no idea that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and that no-one comes to the Father except through Him, Jesus?

·        Mission is an extension of the welfare state. This simple statement is at once so good and yet so sad. It is good in that the church is stepping in to try to ensure that no-one ‘falls between the cracks’ between state care offerings. It is so sad in that the church has become a necessary part of the state system but without the heavy handed state bureaucracy. That the church is being the church rather than just talking about it is wonderful. That we have to have a state system because the church hasn’t been doing enough speaks volumes about the society we have become and the expectations the people have laid upon the church which have all but drowned her efforts.

·        Preaching is a collection of sound bites because no longer are very many preachers prepared to condemn sin – any sin – lest they offend someone. Ear-tickling is almost “de rigueur” among those who preach a lesser gospel. Snappy little catch phrases is all the worldly church can handle. Truth is not just at a premium – it is mostly absent from the plethora of meaningless but ‘theologically sound’ words tumbling from most pulpits each week.

·        Worship is more entertainment these days because the demands of the world have encroached so far upon the demands of God for His church that we now have to entertain people rather than worship God. Entertain them to get them in – titillate them with an easy watered down gospel – get them saved without repentance and boast to the world how successful your programs have been. Where is the turning away from sin? OR the discipleship training?

·        This is a landmark moment for the world and the church. As the world demands and legislates more and more against Christianity, so the church cowers lower and lower in submission to the world but in denial and rebellion against our God.

No – despite media vilification of all things Christian - I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. It is time for the Gospel to be demonstrated with power and with Holy Spirit unction. It is time to look out rather than looking in. It is time to present the Gospel as Jesus wanted it presented – in actions as well as words.

It is time to realise there is no plan B and that we have to live with plan A. It is time to teach people the difference between heaven and hell and then to tell them how to get to one whilst avoiding the other. It is time to make our missions real and an extension of the welfare state rather than a prop for the welfare state and one that fails both state and biblical tests. It is time to make our preaching bite and bite hard. Time to preach the real and full Gospel of Jesus Christ – repentance – ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven – all the real Gospel. It is time to worship in Spirit and in Truth – forget the entertainment factor. It can be entertaining but its purpose is to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is time to reach that landmark decision to define our faith by being the church and not just going there.

Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.”

Time to Seek the Lord

Time to Seek the Lord

'It is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you' Hosea10:12

The Word of God has many wonderful promises and many are as much for today as when they were first spoken. This is one of them. This is as good a Rhema Word for today’s church as any other throughout the pages of scripture. It says, as do the vast majority of promises, IF . . . . THEN. IF you take the time to seek the Lord, THEN He will come and rain righteousness upon you.

To put this into today’s context, if we were to seek the Lord today, and press in to seek His face and not His hand, then He will pour out His bowls of righteousness on us making us His presence and His aroma for the entire world to sit up and take notice. A little poetic licence perhaps but that’s how I see it.

We have become a generation of “Gimme, gimme” pray-ers. We have become the generation that seeks His hand first before anything else. Our faith is at such a low ebb that it is as if we need the reassurance of His giving to us to convince us of His continuing love for us. Instead of, in faith, seeking His presence and His face, knowing His love for us, we seem to timidly seek His hand, hoping He might just notice us and favour us.

Yet this scripture flies in the face of our faithless timidity calling us to simply seek His face. Jesus even confirmed it when saying that we should seek ‘first the Kingdom of God’ – and all the things we seek, (righteously), will be given to us.

But there is something more to all of this and that is a comment about righteousness. It may even be God’s own definition and that is to stand humbly in before Him, carrying first the aroma of His presence, and secondly carrying the total desire and commitment in our hearts to be His ambassadors to a fallen world. There can be no arrogance about us; no pride in our own righteousness; no air of right-ness (I am right you are wrong). Humility must be His seal upon us or we will come across to the world as hypocritical and bigoted as everyone else who claims to be the sole arbiters of correct, even Biblical Christianity.

So, if we humbly seek His face, then He will honour our seeking and pour out His righteousness upon us. Then, we will be properly ready and prepared for His use in reaching a fallen world.

Let the harvest begin.

Wounded Healers

Wounded Healers

William Pollock wrote something on Facebook this week. Something that has stirred my spirit and reminded me of the coming struggles against an enemy who really doesn’t want a revival.

“A new breed of weapon has emerged - " the Wounded Healer". Who are these people? They are not the prissy version of the Body of Christ. They have messed up and then gotten back up -  Trampled and left for dead - they have no image to protect or ego to wound. They are the most dangerous people that Satan will ever face. They are the Peter at Pentecost. Only a soul handed another chance after denying the Lord three times will understand the inner FIRE of a wounded healer. The wounded healer has no preaching pedigree - but a song that sets captives free. Daniel 11:35 - this is a word for you, my friend. Your attack is not to destroy you, but to refine you. Your destiny is yet for an appointed time! The door that God holds open - stays open!”

Our ministry is to the wounded and the backslidden, the hurt and those who have temporarily lost hope. This word almost knocked me off my feet. This was a confirmation to me and it registered very strongly in my spirit.

 I looked up Daniel 11:35 “Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.” So who are these people Daniel calls “some of the wise”? Clearly there is no sociological commonality in wisdom for it is given to rich and poor, high and low, powerful and insignificant, young and old – anyone, anywhere basically can be classified as “wise”. Yet the Bible talks of the foolish being used to confound the wise. Perhaps this is the outworking of it that some of the wise will stumble?

But back to the ‘wounded healers’. I believe God is about to use many of those who have been wounded in the past but who are now healed; those who have messed up, often quite badly, but who have got back up, been forgiven and healed, and who are now on fire for God. These are they with no ego left to be crushed; no pride left to be broken. Those with nothing but their Lord and Saviour to hold fast on to. Like Peter, they have denied Christ many times over but are fired up in their freedom of having been totally forgiven.

These wounded healers will become both the backbone and the advanced guard of revival. They will face unafraid the worlds criticism, persecution, and hatred, just as their predecessors did 2000 years ago. They will burn with missionary zeal for their Lord and Saviour.

What Hope?

What Hope?

In conversations with people, how often have you found there seems to be no hope in them for their own, nor anyone else’s, future? It’s not something that is necessarily spoken, more an attitude of life. Yet there seems to be no hope, optimism by any other name, for the future. The popular theme appears to be “same old same old”, meaning nothing new, just the same things that we’ve always done with no expectation of change at all. In fact, the expectation is for the worse rather than for the better.

In fact, just recently, I was asked, “So what makes you so cheerful and optimistic about everything, then?” It was not so much the question itself, more the virtual incredulity that anyone could be an optimist any more. In the “old days”, it used to be the “haves” and the “have nots.” It really has now come down to the “hopers” and the “no-hopers”. Never before has there been more reality and meaning in the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

The world has lost hope. Hope for better things; hope for more; hope for peace; hope for the future. The ordinary man in the street, without Christ in his life, has lost all hope for the future. Most are scared of the way the world is turning at the moment. They are scared for their children, and they are scared that there will be nothing for themselves or their families in the future. People have lost all hope in politics – as if there ever was hope in that quarter – and they have lost hope in ever finding incorruptible politicians.

Never before has there been a better moment to declare that, “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Never before has there been such a need for us to demonstrate the power of God by His Holy Spirit. Never before has there been such an opportunity to preach the Gospel with signs and wonders following.

It is time for us to reach outside our sanctified, hallowed walls into a place beyond our comfort zones where we have to live our hope; live our faith; and live the Gospel. We need to BE the church and show the hope and love of God to all those around us. We are the church – the church is no longer some beautiful but dusty old building. We are the Bride of Christ and we need to assume our roles as priests and kings in our communities.

The fields are white unto harvest – will you labour with me?