Let us return

At the end of the day, when we realize that God is in ultimate control, we have two choices.  The one choice is to be separated from Him forever or to return to the Lord.

Today we struggle because we feel that we have been actually torn in two and how can a loving God allow that to happen to us.  We can arrive at two conclusions - on the one hand there is no God so it does matter anyway.  The other hand, He may have allowed the tearing to happen, then again He is the only one who can heal the tear.

If He has actually wounded or allowed the wound to take place in our life, then it makes sense that He can bind us up together again too.

We return to Him because it is better to live in His kindness than to be separated from Him.  It is better to trust Him, even though we may not know Him.  It is better to press on getting to know Him than to live without Him.  Without a shadow of a doubt, He will respond to us as surely as the sun rises each morning.

So let’s not wait too long to come back to Him.  The longer we wait, the longer the pain and the further from Him we travel.  Let’s put aside our desire for only the external benefits that come from worshipping Him, lets simply just return, seriously.

Matt Redman – Come Let Us Return to the Lord

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Do you feel strengthened and helped?

I find it amazing that the OT is filled with the wonder and amazement of God directly involved with His people and yet we somehow have difficulty understanding the movement of God or at least our NT world is quite different.

Sure we have Jesus who came, actually, who was sent by God to share the good news, and when He left, the Holy Spirit has remained behind and He has some very specific tasks to accomplish.

What about the angels that were so often described in some of the spiritual battles of the OT – have they disappeared in our NT world?

As a young child I remember stories vividly described by missionaries around the world – they saw angels involved and their lives were spared because of the presence of God’s messengers.  Maybe I am just not in the right circles anymore, because the missionaries today talk about microeconomics, building churches that look like mosques, creating orphanages and hospitals, water/food/medicine being of prime importance and evangelism that includes a normal attendance at church conferences of thousands upon thousands of people.  I just do not hear about angels anymore.

But my OT stories thrill me as do my NT stories and I know that angels play a key part in my life.  I believe that they are fighting a war that I cannot see, that there are adverse influences bearing on me from all around and that there is an angel that stands with me.  Can I prove it?

No, but I know it.

I know I have been strengthened.  I know that there is someone on my side confirming.  I know that I am being both served and defended and that certain affairs of mine have been taken care of.  These things happen by design and not by chance.

If evil spirits wish to do me harm then it just makes sense that angels come and direct and change those evil intentions.  They enable me to freely, with full liberty and encouragement, move along the narrow path and stay true to my calling – regardless of the doubts and hesitations that might creep into my mind or the objections that come across my path.  So wherever there is a movement or an influence by an evil spirit, their adversary is an angel of God.

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Learning the will of God

Praying can be quite a powerful experience when you understand the will of God in a certain situation.

For example, if you know that God wants to and is willing to heal someone, your prayers are a force to be reckoned with – full of confidence, hope, passion and you know that you know that the will of God is to heal.

If you know that God wants to bring certain people into the kingdom of God through an event, your prayers go out weeks in advance, everyone knows they play one role at that event, to bring glory to God so that He might receive glory from our lives and that His Word does not return void but goes out and changes hearts and lives.

Basically, it is when we do not know the will of God that our prayer life is rather limp.  When it comes to healing we say, “Lord, if it is your will, then heal.  If not, give us strength and peace to go through this experience.”

The event that is not grounded as something that God will use, drains the participants, exhausts resources and sees little results as the hope is only on a superficial scale that God will even show up.

How do we learn what the will of God is so that we can have prayer lives filled with conviction, promise, hope, power, confidence, expectation?

I believe there are two prime sources.

The Word of God reveals the character and desire of God.

If there is any confusion as to the timing or method, then we spend all night, or get up very early in the morning, and spend the time with the Father as Jesus did.  He received His instructions for the day from His Father and there was no doubt in His mind what His task was and wasn’t for the day ahead.

As in anything we are learning, it takes a dedication and a commitment.  As you desire to learn, God creates opportunities to go forward and experience.  As you study His Word, you can see where He wants to move and where He wants to be glorified.  Then come the instructions and then comes the prayer life energized because you now know the will of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdQl1DuilMw&feature=colike

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How dare I come and ask for God’s help?

Think about it…I do my own thing, God is like second or third place in my life…I end up in some sort of trouble…then I turn to God for help…BEFORE taking the time to confess my sins to Him and get straight in my relationship with Him.

So I am technically counting on His mercy and love to look over the fact that He is not my number 1 God and now that I have gone to my other god’s in my life and they can’t help me, I am coming to Him to step in.

Do I ever get upset when He doesn’t.

Funny how that works…actually, how that doesn’t work.

I am realizing this truth today as I reflect on a prayer life that consists very little on confession, a lot on worship and a lot on asking.  Problem is my life is not matching my lips when it comes to worship.

Still, what I want to do, I do, regardless whether I know it offends God or not.  How I spend my money is my choice, how I spend my vacation is my choice, where I live is my choice, who are in my relationship community is my choice, which church I attend is my choice etc.

How many gods I actually have that come before my relationship with God?  At the moment, it looks like there are quite a few.

However, in the midst of my failure, confession and that means no asking because God already knows what we need, allows the power of the Holy Spirit to move in my life and set things straight.

How dare I ask for help, when all He is looking for is having a right relationship with me, spending time with me in the living room of my heart.  May my first task each day is to set the record straight between us both and yield to His leading and guiding.  Whenever I fall off that path, may my heart know its time to come clean and restore my relationship with my God.

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Don’t leave out one word

I know that I have sweetened my words quite a bit when it comes to my place of employment and the associates I work with.  Do the same thing with my family.  I do that because I still have to live with them – that is 8 hours at work and then another 8 hours at home and if I want to sleep with my wife as opposed to the couch, another 8 hours there.

Thus the world of dysfunction begins with being passive aggressive, depression, denial, hear no evil-see no evil-speak no evil etc.

I think we do the same thing to God.  I think we always hear Him saying. “I love you,” and I believe He does, but I also thinks He challenges us and calls us out on things but we stop listening after the “I love you.”

The scary part is that most of us are going to church at least once a week and think we are all right – just take a look at the letters written to the seven churches in Revelation and we know that it really is possible to mess our relationship up with God.

If I am going to be of any use to God, I think I need to hear/read God’s Word and apply all of it in my life, not just the portions that make me swoon in my love relationship with Him.

We do the same thing these days in church while we worship.  For those old enough to remember the hymns that used to be sung, they were really convicting – talked a lot about prayer, sin, confession, repentance and holding the line in our commitment to God.  Not today, we all raise our hands up in the air, tell Jesus how much we love Him, sway a bit and bend our knees as we worship with adoration – but I digress with another partial rant.

So, Lord, as I hear you and read your Word, may I have the courage to not leave out the uncomfortable stuff.  May I be brave enough to come before you and get the truth of where we stand in our relationship and to do what You are asking me to do.  Lord, if I do and find that I can, may you also lead me with wisdom to share these same truths with others, not to judge, but in love, to ask others to follow You with the same mission of transparency and honesty.  Lord, as my relationship with You is healed, may my relationship with others be healed also.  Amen.

God inhabits eternity

Imagine no time, no real past. present or future in the sense that the future is already known.

What does it take for one to live in such a place with Him?

I mean for eternity…

Why am I consumed in my quest for power and money and why does death scare me?

Death probably scares me because it will separate me from my power and money and put me out of my sense of denial that there is even a God.

My quest for things that do no matter in light of eternity make the things that do matter small and trivial.  I am sure that a contrite and humble heart is what is required to live with God.  Can a humble and contrite heart help me in the here and now?

What miracle takes place in my heart when I turn to God, repent of the wrong direction in my life, and decide to follow Him – will He give me new courage?

Will He fight for me, will He heal me, lead and comfort me, and will He help me when I am grieving.  Will He show me my sin so that I can confess and make things right, will He give me peace, peace beyond my own understanding?

God, who inhabits eternity, here is my heart, as contrite and humble as I can give, forgive me and let me follow you.  I trust you to do all these things for me because You said You would – take my life today and make it Yours. Amen.

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God gives us desires

I am pretty sure that we can’t even tell the difference between our desires and God‘s desires.

It looks like our idea, sounds like our idea, comes from a passion that we have – so tell me again, how is this a desire that is planted in my heart by God?

That’s still my main point – I do not know.  But I do know that God moves the hearts of people to accomplish what He wants done.  There are too many examples of this in the Bible to mention – never minding the fulfillment of over 350 prophecies in the OT about the life of Christ and how impossible it would have been for Him to fulfill them on His own.  God had to direct lives in order for the prophecies to come true.

I believe that each of us have a purpose in life that God has called us to and I believe that God instills in us His desires to accomplish those purposes.  I think it is one of the reasons we need to worship and glorify Him in all that we do – for what we do, is what He has called us to do.

It goes without saying that the desires you had before you met Christ, will still be the same desires you will have now that you have decided to be a follower of Christ.  That is why so many people who do great things, especially leaders that we recognize, need to understand that those good things were done because God wanted them done.  Once they recognize that they are not really in control and that God is orchestrating His plan through them, they are humbled.

I think that is one of the reasons Einstein is thought, by many, to be a Christian.  I do not think he was, but I do believe that he knew that God had imparted to him many wonderful things and most of all the desire to understand how the world worked.  He communicated that often and thanked God for the opportunity to serve in this manner.

May I suggest that we thank God for the many areas that we serve.  I believe we serve in them because God gave us the desire to do so, to accomplish something He needs done – and He chose you and I to do it.

Let us thank Him each day for that great opportunity, thank Him for calling us to a special task, thank Him for allowing us to be an important part of His plan and thank Him for caring.  May we have the graciousness to see His handiwork in those around us and let them know from time to time when you see what God is doing through their lives.

 

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Ignoring God’s message

First of all, how easy is it these day to ignore those people who always hear from God and who end up not getting it right?  It almost embarrassing and you hope at times that these people who are pontificating are rookies trying to come across as heros.

So what happens when we ignore a message from someone who is not even a follower of Christ?

I mean, I am set up both ways to possibly miss something really important by making a mistaken assumption that either the message from the follower is flawed or the message from the non-follower could not be part of God’s larger plan for my life.

It is true – I need to be really humble when it comes to listening.  If I miss God’s point because of my false assumption, it could really cost me.

I need to come back to a naive stance and that is any message from God can come in unexpected ways.

Lord, don’t let my prejudice or false assumptions blind me from Your message.

 

Be strong, be brave and do not be afraid

This is a great motivational line for you today, but you and I know that we need more.

Part of being strong and brave and courageous is what we do in preparation for the days when these characteristic traits are required – they do not come naturally, nor to they come because you listened to some motivational speakers.

There is a plan that you are working through already in your life.  A plan that first of all understands that in this world you will be attacked because of who you are – a child of God.  A plan that robs you of the things that you want and desire in order to fill your world with the things that God wants you to have and trust that He will give you the desires of your heart.  A plan to find those weak spots in your character and strengthen them, weak spots in your armour and develop them, adding to them, creating new opportunities for the Holy Spirit to gift you with other strengths.  A plan to mentor and support others so that you are surrounded by others who are like-minded in their desire to be strong, brave and courageous.

Basically, when the time is called upon to be strong, brave and courageous, may you see with eyes of faith, may you realize that what is opposing you, no matter what the difference in number may be, those numbers mean nothing because the Lord is on your side.  Victory is not by might or power, its by the Spirit of God.

Our confidence lies on where we stand with God and where others around us stand with Him.

http://youtu.be/OgR7UDeABSE

Decide to repair and recondition

There is a more popular word used these days – renewal.

How does one come to the place where they see the need, or have the desire, or realize that it time to seek some sort of action in this direction?

Normally we are given some motivational speech by our minister, or small group leader and for some of our older friends in the church, our Sunday School teacher.

What if the call came from the Holy Spirit himself?

What if He pointed out some things and called you on them – encouraging you to grow past them, see what the world looks like on the other side of the fence when you are walking closer to the walk that God has called you too.

It can’t be done until you straighten some things out.  It might be a change in how we read our Bible, how we pray, the time we give to exercise, obedience, practicing the fruits of the Spirit and declining, staying away from, leaving behind the things that put us askew, leaving us feeling off track.

Journaling might help, an alarm clock could be necessary, changing the amount of time we sleep, or work, or play might work – whatever it takes to shake off the dust and rust in our spiritual lives and get tuned up.

For each of us its different.  My theme this year is in the title of this blog.  My call was to take the leadership that God entitled me to take.  I have been practicing all year trying to make sure I lead and was a model for those who followed.  I made sure to find other leaders who I could follow, others who had accepted God’s call to lead.

That lead me to try “praying always,” reading my Bible every morning, journaling, taking courses on missions, and sharing with everyone I meet during the day some significant point I learned.  By sharing, I do not mean preaching, but inserting my learning into a story, a prayer, a thought, a blessing towards someone else.

I think though that if we do not decide that such a refurbishment is necessary, it might not happen.