Being a witness is more about BEING who I am rather than DOING things to prove who I am. In Matthew 4:1-4 the devil’s basic temptation to Jesus was, “If you are the Son of God, prove it!” Jesus had already knew His Father and knew He was His Son and He had heard Him say, “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”.

Being a witness for Christ should not be a heavy burden that causes us to feel condemned unless we are trying to “witness” to everyone and convert everyone we see and meet. Unless what we do is motivated by genuine love and care, it can easily come across as insincere and manipulative.

Being a witness is not about telling everyone that we are a Christian and then trying to live perfectly to prove it. It isn’t doing something for them and then saying, “I did that because I’m a Christian and because Jesus loves you”. The continual effort to have a great “Christian” attitude and speak “God glorifying words” not only places a heavy burden on us but often causes people to think we are weird.

What would happen if at work we were the most normal, well-adjusted people in the place?

What if we were really interested in other people’s stories and demonstrated genuine “love, joy, peace…”?

What would happen if we were the ones who were most easy to approach in our workplace or extended family and the ones who were least likely to judge them?

Being a witness it is about growing in the knowledge that Jesus is our genuine friend, that the Spirit of God lives within us and that the Father loves us unconditionally. The happiest and most well-adjusted kids are those who know their parents love them. “Perfect” kids are often the result of an unhealthy fear of their parents and a desire to win the approval of those who they want so desperately to please. The Bible is very clear about how much God loved us “while we were still sinners”. He knows that an abundance of His grace is needed for us to “reign in life”.

Of course He wants to do amazing works of grace through us; but it is clear that He firstly wants us and needs us to experience His amazing works of grace (free unmerited favour and power) in our own lives. Salvation is about Him; not about us. It is all about Him shining through us and not about us trying to act like Him and speak like Him. Happy kids, who know they are loved and are accepted by their parents and regularly experience it, don’t have to be told to go out an act like they are happy and well-loved children.

The greatest witnesses for Christ are likewise those who know God’s goodness and love and quite naturally reflect it in their words and actions – without trying.

Eva Cassidy, Gary Moore and C S Lewis

I am sad that I only discovered the purity and beautiful of Eva Cassidy’s voice and the amazing and soulful guitar-playing of Gary Moore after they had died. I didn’t know either of them but I have been blessed by their gifts. I regret that they are no longer with us, but I am very thankful that they were here for a while. I have been especially interested to read the multitude of RIP messages that nearly all reflected thankfulness for their gifts and often a hope that they will continue to be heard in heaven.

It started me thinking about the preciousness of a life and the preciousness of the gifts that God gives to us; and that they are perhaps another witness of the wonder and the brilliance of God. We only had Eva and Gary here on earth for a very short time. For you it may be Van Gough, Rembrandt, Chopin, Whitney or Michael that takes your breath way and takes you beyond yourself. Of course people abuse their lives and gifts; but somehow in spite of that, perhaps if we listen and look carefully, we can see beyond the imperfect life and the sometimes misused gifts and “see” the heavenly.

If I had a thousand years to practice my guitar I am sure that I couldn’t play like Gary Moore. We may well debate about how well he used his gifts and spent his life but I can truthfully say that there have been moments when listening to both Eva and Gary that something took place that transcended the “normal” and took me to a place when I could only be thankful to God for these gifts He gave to us.
CS Lewis spoke of how he was “surprised by joy” as he experienced a particular aspect of beauty within nature. He spoke of it being fleeting and too quickly gone; but of how the glory of that special moment helped to lead Him to a knowledge of God. Could it be that there are many such moments and brief encounters that have the capacity to reveal to us their Divine origin?
Some people writing about Gary Moore after his death could only compare him with others, list his faults and see his failures; but I think they may have missed out on seeing his gift; and even more importantly missed out on seeing that he had been given a gift from God.

When God calls His people out of any captivity, He always leads them into the liberty of relationship with His Spirit and His Son. He never calls them into a better earthly system of captivity. Only Jesus can actually set people free from captivity and He is always  inviting people to join Him to fly into freedom. Can’t we see that better meetings, better preachers, better music and better programs, even if they are about Jesus, are not the way to reach this fallen world? There is only one way. His name is Jesus. He is “the way” and there will never be another way. When the world sees simple people living in genuine union with Him and each other, then they will know He has sent His Son and that we are are real deal.

The church is not about a man-made building. It is about God’s people being a building inhabited by His Spirit. Excellent as they are, attending church meetings, reading the Bible and giving tithes can never take the place of an open-hearted personal relationship with God. Only He can bring life to our meetings, prayer-times, Bible reading and giving. When we become a Christian we don’t join an institution. We are joined to a Person.

God wants to see His children dancing in His kingdom with Him – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It will be those who “dance” with Him; it will be those who “dream” with Him; it will be those who “sing” with Him; it will be those who “eat” with Him; and who will “hear” Him that will reach past the walls of people’s defensiveness and into their hearts. It will be Him in us and Him through us that will break through.

God sees His Son building a church that tramples on the works of the devil, breaks down his strongholds and sets the captives free. It gathers in fields, in prisons, in homes, in caves, in temples, on rubbish tips, in hospitals, in businesses and deserts. It gathers in two and threes, in small groups and large groups, in tens, in hundreds and even thousands. It gathers in one Spirit and looks past the ugliness and problems of people who are still being transformed; and looks to the unchanging Lord who never disappoints. It is not moved by the size of the building, the numbers in the pews, the fame of the pastor, the excellence of the choir or the money in the offering. It is only moved by the Spirit of God.

Only when people are strongly rooted in God and His grace and love, will they be able to unite together and become a large expansive habitation for His Spirit to spread His wings and fly and do wonders through simple men and women. Of course having genuine unity within the body of Christ, without Christ, is as impossible as flying is for normal people. When this miracle of unity happens, the searchers for truth and the sceptics and unbelievers in this world will fall down and declare that God has come to earth; and that He is living in people.

While the church continues to concentrate so much on making its programs and its presentation better; but lessens its concentration on God’s Son and His kingdom, it will never reach through the darkness of this world to the hungry hearts of lost people. Lost, sinful, nasty, cynical, critical, angry, aggressive, unlovely people cannot be unconditionally loved by people’s human love. We might try for a while but it will soon become obvious that only God can really love those people.

Only as the church sets aside the things that only touch the mind and emotions, will it be able to touch the hearts of broken-hearted people. To God it is simple. It is to trust in HIM. His way is a simple way. It is the way of grace. It is the way of the humble child who believes that if God
is there to catch Him he can jump off the roof and “fly”.

To be continued…

This is part one of a prophetic word I received form the Lord. It refers to the church, especially in the West. However it is increasingly applicable to the church in developing nations, where God is doing great things, but unfortunately there is an infection being transferred by the church in the West. Much of it is based on a vision of an eagle’s nest where the Eagle is disturbing the nest to encourage the little eagles to leave their comfort zones and fulfil their greater purpose – to fly.

Part 1

How many people reading this message have dreamed of flying? Some young boys have so desired so much to fly like superman or soar like an eagle that they have jumped off the roof – with disastrous results. The truth is that unless there is a supernatural miracle or we travel on a plane, people can’t fly.

When we look at the ministry of Jesus, we don’t read that He flew, apart from when He ascended into heaven, but He raised the dead, healed
the sick and He walked on water. I am sure that if He had wanted to fly; it would not have been a problem.

For many years, as a young Christian I dreamt of healing the sick and doing the things that Jesus did and that I saw a select few of His followers do. Many years later I have discovered that I can also heal the sick; and that any Christian can do the same if He will step out and do it. The reason that I can now do this is because I have learnt to trust that God will be there to do the supernatural part. It is like “stepping-off the roof” to fly and knowing that it will only happen if Jesus is there to catch you and lift you up above the “laws of nature”.

Recently I felt that the Lord spoke these words into my heart. “I am looking for those who will fly. These are the ones who know that only Jesus can fly but that they have been invited to fly with Him.” God looks for people who will centre their affections on His Son and who will not allow anything or anyone else to lead them away from Him and His purposes for His church. He is looking for those who will take a risk and step out and “fly”;  and yet they know that they can only fly with JESUS; because only Jesus can fly.

God looks for people who will centre on His Son, have a desire to know Him and what He has done for them. These are people who centre their life and their faith and their theology on His work on the cross. This is the rock that cannot be moved; all else is sinking sand. Only these ones are not tossed to and fro by different doctrines or people’s opinions and people’s failures. Even a church split, a fallen pastor
or cruel, unfair criticism cannot move them.

To be continued…

I see the church entering into a period of transition. We are definitely a church in transition. I see that we and many congregations like us have been caught in a system that we call “church”. We have been part of something that is increasingly being run like a business organisation. It is often rigid and unproductive, rather than part of something that is organic, flexible and genuinely fruitful.

As I have said on many occasions, change is challenging but it is necessary if there is going to be any growth. We are one of many churches in many nations that are being shaken by God. I am not exaggerating and I am not alone when I say the western church is pretty sick and God is doing something about it. He loves it and He knows what great potential it has when it is healthy. Unfortunately there are also many churches in developing nations, where revival has broken out, that are catching this sickness from the west.

We have known that there was something wrong for years; but only now are the effects of the sickness so acute that we are willing to do something about it. Perhaps we are now ready to recognise that the works-based, performance-driven, keenly-competitive, numbers-counting, self-centred, consumeristic spirit of this world has entered the church and is gradually killing it. Perhaps because we have seen the growth of some very large churches in our cities with thousands of people attending each Sunday, we have been deceived into thinking all will be fine if we just “do church better”. However, even some of the pastors of the mega-churches are starting to realise that their high-powered, professionally run churches are failing to reach the vast majority of people around them and also failing to produce real disciples of Christ.

Whenever the Lord is about to take us into something new, He prepares us for what is coming. Part of the preparation always seems to involve testing. Before a new type of aeroplane or car is released to the public it is rigorously and intensely tested. Lives depend on it! And the name and future of the company depends on it!

Our faith is tested in the wilderness and during the attacks launched against us by the enemy. Another part of the preparation involves the receiving of vision. God starts to show us things about the “promised land” into which we are going. We start to see how things ought to be or could be. We don’t get the whole picture but we do get enough to wet our appetite and encourage us to keep on going, even while we are still in the wilderness or under attack.

I have found that in the most trying of times we will be tempted by the devil who aims to make us bitter, to end up critical, to quit on the journey and to run from God.  God however desires that we choose to run to God and enter into a union with Him that provides a “rest for our souls” that only He can give. Whether it was Moses on the back-side of the desert or Jesus in the wilderness, something was happening that was preparing them for the next thing God wanted to do. Moses was made ready to lead His people out of Egypt and Jesus was ready save the world from sin and the devil.

God is going to have a glorious church that will arise and shine and will reflect His character and His love and glory. Could it be that God is shaking, cleansing and transforming His church at this time to reveal the church that He is building? If He is, I for one want to be part of what He is doing, rather than a casual observer and critic. I want to be prepared and ready for what’s up ahead. I would far rather be on the field of battle, living by faith, taking risks and making a fool of myself , than being part of an audience cheering or jeering from the safety of the stands. How about you?

Seeing the Truth through the Cross

Three more important concepts to understand when searching for the truth about God and His Word is to bring it “through the cross”, see it “in the light of the revelation of Jesus Christ” and to include the Lord in our search. To see something “through the cross” is to recognise that some things are changed because of the cross. For example, before Jesus went to the cross and “became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21) we stood before God with our own righteousness and we fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). After the cross our faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross enables us to stand before the Father with “the righteousness of God…” himself. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Seeing the Truth in Jesus

To see the truth through the revelation of Jesus Christ is to recognise that the character and ways of God are best seen in the life and through the words of Jesus. In Hebrews1:1-3 we read how God in these days speaks through Jesus in a way that is far clearer than how He spoke through the prophets of old. Jesus is always going to be the best picture of what God is like! John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.) full of grace and truth.”

Seeing the Truth with Jesus

In my search for truth I have found that it is really helpful to be “in a conversation with God” while studying in the Scripture. The actual inclusion of Him with comments like “What are you saying here Lord? I don’t get it. Any help would be appreciated…” I find to be especially helpful. Another helpful hint is to change your Bible commentary or Study Bible or translation.

Different backgrounds, temperaments and personalities can cause us to have different attitudes to studying the Bible and searching for further revelation. Some may exalt intellectual knowledge too highly but some demean it and then risk floundering in ignorance. Dangerous ignorance isn’t not knowing something; but thinking you know something that actually isn’t true. These are the doctrine police who go about trying to convince people about their fallible opinion. Peter admitted he didn’t understand all of what Paul said and warned about people who twisted these and other scriptures.

2 Peter 3:16 “As also in all his (Paul’s) epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”

We can have a conversation with nearly anyone if we don’t feel compelled to prove we are right and they are wrong. It has been said that “Spiritual maturity is moving from confident arrogance to thoughtful uncertainty”. Sometimes it is our responsibility to reveal what we believe to be truth, but when we do, to do so with confidence and with humility rather than with dogmatic arrogance. Let the Holy Spirit convict and reveal the truth. He is an expert at that!

The Challenge We Face

I believe in today’s secular-humanistic world there is a tremendous challenge to the body of Christ to hold fast to the Word of God and to present its truths with clarity, confidence, humility and understanding. We need to be clear about the major purpose of the Bible and the major truths the Bible teaches. Confidence comes from personal study and reflection rather than solely from the study of others. Humility comes from realizing that although we may know the TRUTH (Jesus) we are still learners who always need the Holy Spirit to reveal any
truth. Understanding comes from listening to what the Lord is saying, listening to what others have found and being willing to seek help from others when we don’t have the answers.

In these days we need men and women who firstly, know the TRUTH (Jesus) and walk with Him; secondly, they seek sincerely and honestly for the truth that is revealed in God’s Word; and thirdly, are able and willing to share the truth they have discovered confidently, humbly and lovingly with others.

The Search for the Truth

When I was a young man I remember having a keen desire to know the truth. I asked myself many questions like, “Why do I exist? Is there a God? What happens after we die? How can we know the truth?” This search eventually brought me in contact with people who confidently declared that the Bible is the truth. They explained how the Bible could be proven to be true. They spoke about the amazing fulfilment of Bible prophecies and how when we believed what it promised we could receive answers to our prayers. I was hooked because of the weight of evidence that demonstrated the supernatural nature of the Bible. I could not deny the changed lives that I saw or my own personal experiences.

But after a while I hit a hurdle. I discovered that the Christians I was connected to disagreed strongly with other Christians concerning the truth. I started to see that the “truth” was setting Christians against one another. Using Bible verses both sides proved how they were correct and the others were in error. I even found that some of our “truths” separated us from our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I discovered that while the truth could liberate a person as Jesus said in John 8:32, it could also bind people and bring them into bondage. I went through a great deal of mental torment and frustration as I struggled to determine what was actually the truth. Since those days I have learnt some things that have really helped me to remain a vigilant searcher for truth without becoming too anxious when I couldn’t find it and too dogmatic when I thought I had it.

Important Discoveries

I discovered first and fore-mostly that the truth is not a doctrine but a PERSON. Jesus clearly declared in John 14:6 that He was “the truth”. If we know Him we know the truth; if we have Him we have the truth. What a relief this was! But I still was left with some confusion about various important Biblical doctrines. I then discovered that the Holy Spirit, the One who inspired the Scriptures, also reveals them to us (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:10; 1 Peter1:12; John 14:26; John 16:13).

Throughout the ages God reveals truth to the church and as we walk on with Him He reveals truth to us personally. This is sometimes called “progressive truth”. As we are ready, open and able to receive it, it is revealed. In around 1520 Martin Luther had “salvation by grace through faith” revealed to him and it changed the church and millions who have believed it since that time.

God doesn’t change but our perception of Him does change. In a similar way God’s Word doesn’t change but our perception and understanding of His Word does change. There are some matters that that may be very clear to the majority of the church now, but go back a hundred years and those same things were not at all clear to the church. An example of this is Divine Healing and the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit which were hidden to most of the church up until the early part of the 1900’s

If we believe “the knowledge of the truth sets us free” we should be curious to seek the truth. It is also important that we have intellectual integrity when seeking for the truth. This means we approach the Word honestly and openly and as free as possible from preconceived ideas. It can be intellectually dishonest to search for verses to support our preferred conclusions. Rather we should seek to interpret the Scriptures in its proper context within the chapter, book and the revelation of the complete Word of God. (To be continued…)

I read this article and was amazed to see how in tune it is with what I have been thinking during the last few weeks. From what the Lord has been showing me, it will be only those who are standing on a solid foundation that will continue to stand in the coming days.

We have copies of “Solid Foundations” at the office. If you would like a copy please let us know. Even if you have done the course in the past it may be helpful for you to go through the teaching again. As Rick Joyner explains in the article it is important to fortify our foundations constantly.

Meat and Manna – Rick Joyner – January 2012

As we are now walking through increasingly intense and troubling times, it is more important than ever that we fortify our foundations. As a professional pilot, I was in continuous training to keep my skills sharp, and 90% of this training was fortifying the foundations. If my fundamentals were strong, they helped me to do the most important thing in dealing with an emergency in the air—fly the airplane. You have to keep flying the plane while dealing with the problems. Likewise, there are fundamentals in life that we must keep doing regardless of what else comes at us. This is why the most successful people in every field are those who do the basics best and devote themselves to constantly practicing them. This is why I unashamedly repeat certain truths and teachings throughout my writing and speaking and why I read the Bible every day.

There is the “meat of the word,” which is the illumination of the deeper truths. Every believer should be weaned from just milk so that they can eat this more solid spiritual food. We get this through our own in-depth studies, such things as going to conferences, maybe taking courses, reading books, or listening to the teachings of others on the subjects we’re pursuing. Every strong and advancing believer will have such studies going almost constantly, sinking their roots deeper and deeper into the Word and knowing the Lord’s ways.

Then we have what I call “the manna” of the Word. This is the lighter, daily Word we receive from the Lord. This can come from systematically reading a chapter or two of the Bible or a devotional. It may not be new revelation to us, but it will sustain us.

I once heard a pastor say that his wife had prepared him thousands of meals during their many years of marriage, and only a handful were so outstanding that he still remembered them, but all the rest kept him alive! It is the same with the manna that should be our daily diet. It’s not meant to be deep, or even new to us, but it sustains us in our Christian life.

In Exodus 16:4 we read, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.’” That is remarkable. This one thing and primary factor will determine if the people will walk in the ways of the Lord or not. Will we too get up first thing every morning to gather something fresh from heaven for that day?

If we value the Word of the Lord enough to get up a few minutes early to start our days by seeking something fresh from Him, it can be one of the things that most radically changes our lives. You’ll find that if you begin your day with Him like this that you will be much better able to abide in Him all day. We will be more prone to take our thoughts captive, making them obedient to Him rather than wasting so much of our life in vain imaginations, frustrations, etc. This really could determine whether we walk in the ways of the Lord in a very practical, daily way.

In Deuteronomy 8:16-17 we read, “In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power
and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’” Here He adds that He gave them manna to humble them. We should all have humility as one of our chief pursuits because “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble” (see James 4:6 NKJV). God’s grace is more valuable than any other treasure we could have on this earth. One of the ways that the Lord provided to keep Israel humble was manna! How did this keep them humble?

It is the same with us. By getting up first thing each day to seek fresh manna from heaven we are acknowledging that we cannot make it through the day without Him and His Word. Because of this, the simple devotion to get up each day to do this could be one of the biggest conduits of His grace into our lives.

As Jesus related in His teaching, He is the Manna that comes down out of heaven. It is not just hearing the words of the Lord that we’re seeking, but it is hearing the Word, Himself. It is a personal touch from Him each day that we should be more addicted to than a junky is for his next fix. This is an addiction that does not put us in bondage but truly sets us free to be what He created us to be.

CONNECTIONS – Richard K.

Over the last forty years I have met many thousands of people. Most of them were passing acquaintances but some of them have been far more important than that. I often think of the many hundreds who have been connected to me through the congregations of which I have been a part. These are people who for a period of time I walked with in close, meaningful and at  times even challenging fellowship. I can think of Africans, Fijians and Burmese who have been gifts from God to me. Colour and langauge barriers faded away and a level of friendship developed.

Does God connect us? Are there such things as God-connections? There are people all over the world that I feel connected to in some way. They may not attend my church or be part of my denomination but we are connected. Whenever we meet it is good. I can think of people who were part of my school days, my very earliest Christian experience, part of the churches I have been in or members of churches I have pastored. It is like we were related – at least for a while. We don’t connect to everyone we meet but we do connect to some and I think that it is important that we recognise and appreciate those connections. They may not be close friends and we may not see each other often but when we do we appreciate that God connected us for at least a season. We lift one another, encourage one another and can receive from one another.  I have been pleased to re-connect with some of these on Facebook. I am sure that like me you re-connect at weddings, funerals, 21sts and 5oths and when you do you are glad.

“…the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working of every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love…” Ephesians 4:16

I also wonder if God wants us to be ready for connections He sets up for us – when it is purely to help some-one in trouble, heal a sick person or bring some spiritual gift to those around us. We may never meet them again but it may change their life.

What do you reckon?