The people of God had been exiled for 128 years and have all but lost their identity.  Ezra appears and by teaching the law and engaging the people in worship, he is used by the Lord to restore Israel’s identity to them, paving the way for Nehemia to come on the scene and restore the walls around Jerusalem.

It came about because God inspired Cyrus, the king of Persia, to make a proclamation that led to the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem, the return of some of the exiled leaders, along with the priests and Levites and the financial support of the exiles who did not want to return by means of Freewil-Offerings, silver, gold, animals and tools.  King Cyrus also turned over all the vessels and utensils from the Temple that king Nebuchadnezzar looted to put in the temples of the Babylonian gods.

As soon as the exiles arrived in Jerusalem they started on the project by setting the Altar back on its foundations and by offering the prescribed sacrifices to the Lord and by celebrating the Festival of the Booths, as prescribed.

Very soon the old enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the temple was being rebuild and they wanted to get in on the action.  The leaders refused their help and as a result the enemies started to harass the builders, breaking down morale and even hiring propagandists to drain their resolve.  This sad state of affairs continued for many years and under the rule of Artaxerxes an order was issued to halt all rebuilding of Jerusalem until he ordered otherwise.

Meanwhile the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were preaching to the Jews, reminding them of the mandate to rebuild the temple.  The Lord orchestrated another victory…King Darius, now ruling in Babylon found the proclamation made by King Cyrus and ordered the rebuilding of the temple.  The costs would be covered by the Royal bank, from taxes gathered and whatever was required for worship, being it animals or grains and salt or anointing oil, it was to be supplied daily.

The people were celebrating and rejoicing!  God came through again!

Then Ezra appears on the scene, from Babylon, a scholar well-versed in the Revelation of Moses.  Ezra had committed himself to studying the Word of God, to live it and to teach Israel to live its truths and ways.  Ezra was authorized by King Artaxerxes to exercise the Godly wisdom he was given, to appoint magistrates and judges and to teach anyone who were not familiar with the teaching of his God and was generously provided for to accomplish this task.

Ezra assembles the family heads who were going with him at the river Ahava.  This is when he noticed they were all laymen and priests, but that there were no Levites.  Ezra sent for Levites to join them, as he refused to go without the temple workers.

²¹ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions. ²² For I was ashamed to request troops and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had told the king, “The hand of our God is favourable toward all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who abandon (turn away from) Him.” ²³ So we fasted and sought [help from] our God concerning this [matter], and He heard our plea.           Ezra 8:21 – 23 AMP

As I was reading the book of Ezra, the history fascinated me, but I also saw the deep prophetic relevance it has for us today.  In many cases, the temple of the Lord (us) has been broken down and desecrated.  We have been looted and robbed and our precious things have been set in the temples of the enemy.  As the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were preaching then, we too have prophetic voices calling out to us now, to remind us who we are and what we are called for.

There are the Ezras among us, calling us to mobilised, to rebuild but they refuse to go without the holy men, they refuse to live by the law of the land and they too, live to teach the Word of God…will you be an Ezra? Will you heed the voice of Ezra calling to you to submit to the Word of God?

Before we can move, we too need to pause at Ahava, to fast and pray.

In the ancient Hebrew language, Ahava means love.  Not love as we understand it…an emotion, a sentiment or something we receive.  No, Ahava is love as an action, especially the action of obedience.  The root word, Ahav means to give true love, the kind of love that is more concerned about giving than receiving, that devotes itself and spends time…

Giving is a vehicle of love…for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  Before we can start the massive task of rebuilding the broken down temples we see all around us, we need to pause and pray for the Lord to change our hearts…for the ahava of God to take up residence in our hearts, so that we are empowered to love and give, and give and love.

The late Brennon Manning said that he was convinced that when we stand before Jesus one day, He will ask only one question of us…”did you learn to love?”  Some people are very difficult to love and the harder they are to love, the more they need it.  We need grace and mercy in order to do this, we are so inadequate but Jesus is more than able.  Let us start by engaging our will, that amazing gift we have been given…the right to choose.

Pray with me.

Lord Jesus, You are enough for every need…I know it, I believe it and I declare it over my heart.  I confess, Lord, that there are people I find extremely difficult to love, but I know that You are love, You reside in me and You work through me.  Please change my heart, remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh and love the unlovable through me while You do this work in me, because I choose to love.  Lord, create opportunities for me to extend ahava – the love that gives without expecting to receive, the love that seeks to bless and prosper without needing to be acknowledged or repaid, the way You have loved me first, the love that seeks to obey the Father in everything I do.  Amen.

I remember praying with a couple of much older ladies some years ago.  The theme of our prayers was a cry for intimacy…with the Lord and with each other.  I have to admit I had but a vague idea of what it actually meant and to be very frank, as a person who struggled with severe trust issues, baring my soul to anyone, including God, was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.  They tried very hard to help me contextualise the idea but it was a concept that eluded me for a long time.  If I couldn’t even figure out how to navigate real relationship with people I could see and touch, how much harder to be intimate with a Person whose thoughts are so much higher than my thoughts.

Through the years I have heard some witty and cute sayings as people tried to explain the idea of intimacy.  It’s been described to me as “into-me-you-see”, calling for transparency and as “into-messy”, calling on me to get comfortable with the mess that defines the human experience.  I have heard it described as familiarity, knowing and being known and I’ve been witness to many desperate prayers, born out of a deep longing to be closer to the Lord.

This morning, however I came across a quote by Dr. Kelly Flanagan, a clinical psychologist, shared by a friend on Facebook.   May I take a moment to thank the Lord for social media…how privileged are we to have access to so much wisdom and encouragement from people we will never have the opportunity to learn from otherwise…but before I digress too much, back to the quote…

 “True intimacy is not the absence of privacy or the absence of boundaries or the absence of a separate self—in fact, we need to have our own spaces and limits and identity. True intimacy is the absence of secrets.”

 The quality of your belonging will be inversely correlated with the size of your secrets. The more secrets you harbour about who you are, what you’ve done, why you’ve done it, how you’re wounded, and so on, the more difficult it will be to cultivate authentic connection and love.”

So much of what is ailing true intimacy between people and between us and the Father, I believe is The Fear of Being Found Out.  How many times did the Lord have to ask a child “where are you?” or “what are you doing here?”.  Adam and Eve, Elijah, Nicky…

We’re still terrified of being found wanting, so we hide our shame, not under scratchy fig leaves, but behind religiosity, with denial or busyness, by spiritualising our issues or by medicating our pain and shame away.  But God knows everything anyway, I hear you say.  He knows my heart anyway…

All true, but somewhat counterproductive, if true intimacy with the Lord is what we really desire.

As I am writing this, a picture comes to mind.  I see a patient consulting with a physician.  The doctor’s trained eye has already picked up certain visual clues, but he still needs the patient to explain all of the symptoms.  The Lord has already seen what’s wrong, but He needs us to recognise the truth, that there’s a disease that’s eating at us that needs healing.  For people who have been so conditioned to play nice, it’s incredibly difficult to look someone in the eye and say “I am really mad at you” or “you have really hurt me”.  How much more when the Person who has angered you is the God of the Universe.  So we do what we do best.  We minimise, we justify, we spiritualise, we gaslight.  We use words like “disappointed” or “frustrated” or “upset”, rather than the ugly words like “angry” or “offended” etc.

What every heart longs for, even if we lack the language to describe it, is authentic connection and unconditional love.  We crave it in our intimate relationships, we desire it in our church communities and we long for it in our relationship with the Lord.  It is an innate ability for the human soul to sense in-authenticity and any time we sense a secret is being kept, we feel the need for caution.  How much more when we are the keeper of the secret?

Through the years I have learned that my relationship with the Lord can only be meaningful and sincere when I am able to sit with Him and confess that a choice He has made for me does not have my approval, that I am angry and offended, that His timing sucks or that He did not meet my expectation in a certain area.  The Lord has never been offended by my emotions, but He is never pleased with, or honoured by my attempts to hide them.

James 5:16 reads:

¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].  (AMP)

This scripture sums it up for me.  The Lord doesn’t call us into intimacy with Himself, or each other, for the sake of having a good time or merely getting along.  He does it so that we can find healing and restoration for ourselves, for our communities and for the body of Christ with one single purpose in mind…that we would go into all the world (or our local neighbourhood), making disciples, teaching the commands of Christ, baptising them…

We can only be effective and accomplish this high calling when we are covered in prayer by people who know our strengths and our weaknesses and when operate in the power and glory of the Lord.

As I wind this up, I guess what I want to accomplish is to challenge you to let your guard down with the Father, and maybe later, with each other.  Make a cup of tea, curl up in a chair somewhere and pour out your heart to Him.  Tell Him about the disappointments, the pain, the uncertainties.  If this isn’t something you have ever done before, be gracious to yourself but start somewhere and trust Holy Spirit to lead you on from there.

Father, our heart’s desire is to know You more and to have an authentic, deep, loving relationship with You, with Jesus, with Holy Spirit, with our brothers and sisters and with ourselves.  I ask for grace and mercy to confront what we need to confront, to let Jesus heal what needs to be healed and to confess what has been concealed in our hearts for far too long.  It’s Your goodness that drew us to You, it’s Your mercy that saved us through Jesus and it’s Your faithfulness that will keep us.  Amen.

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him]
Will gain new strength and renew their power;
They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun];
They will run and not become weary,
They will walk and not grow tired.

Isaiah 40:31 AMP

For some time now, I have been meditating on the waiting…what does it look like to wait on the Lord and what happens when we wait on the Lord?  I learned many things, the most profound being that waiting on the Lord is not an action, but a posture…I can wait on Him while I am getting on with other things.  Waiting on the Lord can be sitting quietly, in a designated spot, waiting for Him to speak but it can also be turning your heart toward Him in the midst of doing your grocery shop or walking the dog.  Waiting on the Lord is an expectation that He will speak, born out of a deep trust that He does indeed want to communicate with me, it’s hoping in Him, believing that He wants to reveal Himself to me.  So I wait as I quietly sit in my favourite chair, in my chapel and I wait as I drive around, singing to Him.  Also I wait as I walk around the mall, expecting Him to speak to me about what He sees and I wait as I lay down to sleep expecting Him to invade my dreams with revelation.  In this waiting, lingering in His glorious presence I am transformed, healed and delivered.

Then this morning, before I woke up I received a prophetic dream from the Father and it seemed unrelated to the place of waiting, but as I meditated on it, I realised that what I saw in the dream is the product of waiting…from the wait something glorious is birthed.

I was at a wedding and it was taking place in a garden.  I was standing behind the bride, on a lush green manicured lawn, under a very wide, green shady tree. It was a glorious, sunny day and the bride was wearing a simple white slip dress, elegant but very understated.  Around her waist was a brown leather belt and she wore flat shoes.  Her hair was sleeked back into a shiny ponytail and the atmosphere around her was calm, serene, casual, unpretentious and warm.  She asked me to tie a wishbone-shaped eucalyptus branch to her ponytail – her only decoration – but when I did, I realised it wasn’t suitable and I removed it.  I started to look around for something else with which I could decorate her hair and noticed decorations in the tree.  I took down a little ornamental bird, a tiny decorative bird cage and some small sprigs of eucalyptus leaves, which I placed on a table before I called her over to place the objects in her hair – the final preparation before she walked down the aisle.

Upon waking I immediately knew the Lord was speaking to me about the Australian bride, hence the eucalyptus and the different symbols in the dream spoke of her position, her appearance and her calling or destiny.

In the place of waiting, surrendering to Him, she will unite with Him in agreement (the wedding) and the green grass and wide trees speak of a place of comfort and wealth, prosperity and blessing, protection, wisdom, fruitfulness and peace of mind.  In His presence the storm in us becomes still even when it’s raging outside of us.  Our needs are fully met and we are blessed so that we can bless.  The bride is prepared and ready to be glorified as Christ’s beloved and her sleeked back hair speaks of her obedience, her authority and of being clothed in His glory as she moves and breaths inside of His will.  She is clothed in righteousness, clothed with Christ and with kindness and she is spiritually prepared for the job at hand.  The white garment signifies that she is righteous, favoured, pure and ready to receive the answers to her prayers.

The belt around her waist signifies that she is honest and trustworthy, ready to serve and protect and to enter into spiritual warfare.  As she clings to God, He is glorified in the works of her hands.  She is able to work with confidence, she is equipped and called to do some of the most difficult tasks for the Lord, and with an pure, repentant heart she prophesies in all humility and love.

She is wearing shoes that enable her to run, she is ready, equipped and prepared for every good work…she will bring emotional, physical and spiritual healing and God’s blessing with her.  The promises the Lord made to her will come to pass, her shame and sin is covered and she will have an urgency about her, as she understands her life is fleeting and she has to reflect the beauty of the Lord while she still has time.

In the place of glory, represented by her hair, she will receive special messages, prophetic revelation, freedom and purpose (the bird) as she lingers in the presence.  The bird cage is empty, signifying her freedom but also acts as a reminder and warning to stay free and to watch out for the traps set by the enemy to silence her prophetic voice.

I wondered why I wasn’t shown her face and Holy Spirit cleared that up for me.  He said “her face is your face”…each one of us, as we look into her face, will see our own face.  She is me, you…we are her.

I pray that this word will bless and encourage you as you wait expectantly on the Lord to do what only He can do.

The Lord alone is our radiant hope and we trust in him with all our hearts.
His wrap-around presence will strengthen us. As we trust, we rejoice with an uncontained joy flowing from Yahweh!
Let your love and steadfast kindness overshadow us
continually, for we trust and we wait upon you!                                                                                     Psalm 33: 20 – 22  TPT

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”                         Dr. Seuss

 The world, with all its issues, problems, brokenness and pain is a messy place and one finds it difficult to get through a day without hearing of yet another calamity.  Bad news travels fast…if you want something to despair about, there’s a smorgasbord to choose from.  People are destroying the world and each other through negligence, greed and devilish acts.  Nature seems to be fighting back by shaking, burning and heaping one disaster upon another.  Nation battles nation and the most bloody wars are fought inside what should be the safest places…bedrooms and mothers’ wombs.  I for one, look around and often feel impotent.  What can one person do?

If you feel remotely like this, let me introduce you to a man who made a difference by starting all by himself.  Meet Ezra, the prophet whose calling converged with Nehemiah’s to restore the people of Israel after they have been decimated by the superpower Babylon.

Ezra started by restoring the temple of the Lord.  He used worship and the written Word of the Lord to bring restoration to nation that had all but lost their identity.  Under Ezra’s leadership the place of worship was restored.  Priests, Levites and the worshippers were called on to restore the Altar and offer burnt offerings on it in the morning and in the evening, after which they started to lay the foundations of the temple.  As the foundations were being laid, the priests stood dressed in their robes, trumpets in hand.  The Levites carried cymbals and they praised the Lord as the foundation went down.  What an incredible picture!

Of course, no story worth telling is without its villains and Ezra’s is no exception.  Letters were written, gossip was spread and false accusations were flying around in an attempt to frustrate the work.  Eventually the work is done and we can skip forward to chapter 9, where we read that the leaders came to tell Ezra that the people have not been obedient and haven’t kept themselves separate from the neighbouring people as the Lord had commanded.  Even the priests and Levites were guilty of transgressing the Lord’s command.  This was the charge brought to Ezra: “They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”  (V2 NIV)

I will let Ezra pick up the story from here.

“³ When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

⁵ Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God ⁶ and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

⁸ “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.⁹ Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands ¹¹ you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other.”

Here I notice a key for our predicament.  One man who is deeply grieved, mourns and weeps for the sin he identifies himself with.  He prays in the first person, although he is not guilty.  He repents vicariously and agrees with the Lord that they are guilty.

One man, one woman who gets gripped by Holy Spirit and starts to weep and mourn and repent for their city, for their nation can set in motion the greatest revival and restoration we have ever seen.

 Let’s return to Ezra, for the whole story is not yet told.

Now while Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and laying himself face down before the house of God, a very large group from Israel, of men, women, and children, gathered to him, for the people wept bitterly. ² Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. ³ Therefore let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all the [foreign] wives and their children, in accordance with the advice of my lord and of those who tremble [in reverent obedience] at the commandment of our God; and let it be done in accordance with the Law. ⁴ Stand up, for it is your duty, and we will be with you. Be brave and act.”  ⁵ Then Ezra stood and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, take an oath that they would act in accordance with this proposal; so they took the oath. ⁶ Then Ezra got up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib [and spent the night there]. He did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the [former] exiles’ faithlessness. (Chapter 10: 1-8 AMP)

Here’s the second key…one man’s grief over sin, his repentance and his prayer and fasting inspired a large group of people to be convicted of their sin and caused them to be restored.  Not only do they come into agreement with Ezra but in the highlighted part of the quoted scripture we see that they encourage him to be brave and stand firm.

How does that apply to us?  Dream with me for a moment.  Imagine a man or woman gripped with the spirit of intercession, giving themselves to fasting and praying day and night on behalf of people who have all but forgotten the precepts of the Lord…

Imagine a church mourning over the brokenness of their city, travailing and seeking mercy for the souls in it…

Imagine a pastor who stands before the Lord on behalf of a church who has forgotten their covenant with Jesus…

Imagine.

“I am only one but still I am one.  I cannot do everything, but still I can do something”.                           Edward Everett

While on a ministry trip to Vanuatu in 2013, I preached a sermon that dealt with our identity and recently I was reminded of it when my pastor brought up Isaiah 5 and the story of a vineyard…I revisited the sermon and felt prompted by Holy Spirit to share it here.  Enjoy!

It seems to be a question that plagues mankind often.  We are constantly bombarded with the question:  Who are you?  The Holy Spirit is whispering to us daily “Who are you?”  and the Adversary is always asking us…”who do you think you are?”

People go on journeys to “find themselves”, wear clothes, hairstyles and jewellery to express who they think they are. We choose things to suit our personalities, we all work so hard to be “someone”, yet very few people ever get to a place where they happy to be a “nobody”. You ask children today what they want to be when they grow up and they mostly want to be rich and famous.  We pay counsellors to tell us who we are; we choose to surround ourselves with people whom we hope will help us discover our identity…that which makes us unique.

We wear ourselves out, but we neglect to look to our Maker, the One with the blueprint. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 21a the Lord says “Yet I have planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.” (NKJV)

I grew up in wine country and I’ve heard the term “noble vine” but I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, so I did some research. For a vine to be classified a noble vine, it has to have perfect balance and harmony, to be superior and distinguished, not only possessing the right credentials but also having an impressive stature of its own – to be of perfect structure, high quality and breeding. The term also applies to great wines at any stage of its development.

I was wondering why seed quality is so important? I read up about that too. Seed is alive and can change over time and in various conditions. A seed of good quality is critical in the establishment of a uniform plant; it is the first and most crucial step in producing a successful crop. Because seed is alive you have to handle it correctly to keep it alive and thus you protect your investment.

What does this mean for us? It tells us that God, by His own hand, has planted us on the earth, “plants” with perfect balance, able to express ourselves in harmony with each other, that we are superior and distinguished, that we do not only have the right credentials, breeding and quality, but that we have all of these at any and every stage of our development as Christians. We are filled with immense potential!

1 Peter 1:23 tells us “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.” (NIV)

God expects a harvest, therefore He has “cultivated” us from incorruptible seed, seed of the highest quality, able to produce uniform plants and He is more than able to preserve our viability as we navigate our way toward our final destination, spiritual maturity and an eternity with our King. A seed of greatness lies in each one of us, we have the DNA of God himself residing in our DNA. We have greatness in obscurity, because we have been born of imperishable seed, through Jesus Christ.

In the book of Genesis, chapter 3 verse 22, we see that God says something very profound about Adam and Eve – and mankind as a whole.     And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

At the fall we became like the God-head – not gods – but we have the capacity to “know”.  We can discern between good and evil, we can know the will of the Father, we can know the presence of Holy Spirit, and we can recognize the voice of Jesus.  Like Jesus, we can live out our lives in holiness, being transformed into His image.  We are capable, because we have the incorruptible seed in us.  Like Jesus lived in human form, sinless and set apart, we have the capacity.  Why then do we see all the pain and suffering caused by sin all around us?

Even inside the church sin is rampant.  We fight and argue, we do not love one another, there is stealing, divorce, drunkenness, adultery, fornication, abortion, murder and every vile sin as much in the church as in the world.  It is sometimes hard to discern Christians because their fruit is as rotten as the fruit of the world.  What is going on?

I believe part B of Jeremiah 2: 21 have the answer.  Let me read the whole verse this time.  “Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?”

Through the prophet Jeremiah, Gods says to the children of Israel and to us that we have forgotten who we are.  We have turned from a noble vine into a degenerate plant – a weed.  It happens to us when we forget who we are and when we hear the voice of the enemy asking us “who do you think you are?” we don’t know the correct response.

So what is it that we have to believe?

There are some many lies that make up the foundation of what we believe.  Religion tells us that we are right with God is we dress a certain way, if we speak a certain way, if we have certain sorts of friends, if we give a certain amount.  It goes on and on.  We make God into our image and we embrace a gospel that is not the true gospel.  Father God never intended for us to stick to a set of rules.  That’s why he gave us the law.  He knew we would never be able to keep the law and he had every intention for us to fail when we tried, because when we fail we have nowhere to turn, but to Jesus.  God made us to be in a love-relationship with Him.

And Jesus is the answer to the question of what we are to believe.  In John 14:8, 9 we see a question about the Father. Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

 We need to consider what we truly believe about the Father, about ourselves and about our position as sons.

Jesus tells us that the Father

• Is good
• Is an ever-present help when we are in trouble
• Concerned about us
• Will never leave or forsake us
• Wants to heal our diseases
• Wants us to be with Him forever
• Makes a way for us to come into His presence
• Cannot lie

When we believe that the Father is good, we will trust Him.  When we believe the Father does not lie, we will be secure in His love.  When we believe the Father wants His children to be healthy and whole, we will have confidence to pray for the sick.  If we truly believe that the Father will never leave us and help us when we are in trouble, fear will not be our master.

We need to examine what we believe about ourselves, for the truth is this:

• We are children of the most high God. Made in His image (Gen 1:27)
• His offspring (Acts 17:28)
• Fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139: 14)
• Loved, as Jesus is loved (John 17:23)
• Ones who have the same authority and ability Jesus has (John 14:12: Very truly I tell   you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.)

I can go on for a long time…quoting scripture after scripture.  The Bible is full of promises and descriptions of who we are and what we are called to.  But if we do not read the Word, if we do not believe what it says, we cannot embrace our true identity.

When we believe that God does not lie and the voice of the enemy comes and asks us “who do you think you are” we will be confident when we say “My Father’s son, or my Father’s daughter”.  When Satan speaks through our friends, or enemies asking us “who do you think you are” to pray for the sick, to study the Word, to preach, to teach, to rebuke…we can boldly say “called of God, sons and daughters, beloved”.  We have passed from slaves or servants to sons and daughters.

Consider what the Word says about our position.  We are

• Co-heirs with Christ
• A royal priesthood
• With kingdom authority to tread on snakes and scorpions
• Seated in heavenly places
• Called, equipped and commissioned
• Authorised to heal
• Holding the keys of the kingdom, to lock and unlock

When we understand our position in Christ, we take heart, we become courageous and we take our rightful places as conquerors.  We can become a great force for good in our communities, towns, cities and our nations, as we have always destined to be.

Happy and blessed 2018!

I started my year with some light reading…just kidding, I am re-reading Oswald Chambers’ devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” and as before, I am in awe at his ability to pack so much into such short messages.  Today’s message is called “What my obedience to God costs other people” and the highlighted scripture is Luke 23: 26 When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in [to the city] from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.

Oswald Chambers goes on to make this profound statement:  “If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the profound sting comes in.  If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it’s a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal.    If we obey God it will mean that other people’s plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it, ‘You call this Christianity?’  We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.”

Going back to the scripture from Luke 23…I have never considered Simon’s perspective until this morning.  If it was me I would have been terrified.  I would be asking myself whether I would be able to carry the weight of the cross, and if I wasn’t, was I going to be beaten too?  I would consider people’s opinion of me.  They might be asking themselves why was I chosen for this task?  They might wonder what the soldiers knew that they didn’t.  Would this impact my business?  Would anyone want to trade with me after this?  What would my friends say?  Might there be one of Jesus’ disciples who would rather be chosen and see it as an honour and resent me?  In all honesty, I would have been grossed out by the gore on the wood…how would I get the blood stains out of my best outfit?

Jesus was obedient, regardless of the consequence to Simon, His disciples, His mother and every other person who had no choice but to stand by and watch in horror.  For our sake He disregarded their pain, horror, bewilderment and feelings of helplessness.  He did not for one second consider making their lives easier, easing the pain that His obedience brought on them but He kept His eyes focused on the consequence for not obeying the Father…the loss of His Bride.  Jesus could prevent their suffering but He allowed the cost to Him, and them.

I don’t know what the Lord has for us this year, but I know that whatever it is, it will ask of us radical obedience and with radical obedience consequence will follow for those around us.  Once we have set our heart on following Jesus and obeying the Father, it will be a joy to us but it might not be to our nearest and dearest.  Their pain and bewilderment could be the very thing the enemy use to distract and derail us, when we refuse to be the one to bring suffering to our dear ones.

Oswald has some encouragement for the awful predicament we’ll find ourselves in when this happens.  He says “We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be a grief to our Lord.  Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience.  We have simply to obey and leave the consequences with Him.”

 For which one of you, when he wants to build a watchtower [for his guards], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it?  Luke 14:28 (AMP)

As we embark on the adventure that 2018 is going to be, let us set our hearts on obedience at any cost and trust the Lord to minister to those who feel hurt by our choice.

I have a confession to make…I have just not been inspired to write a Christmas message.  There are many thoughts rattling around in my head and for a number of weeks now, I have felt like the person bringing the message on Sunday morning have been reading my mind.  A common theme has been Joshua’s command to be strong and very courageous.  Another common theme has been that our personal breakthrough is crucial for someone else’s breakthrough…that we are merely a small link in a chain of events that might bring great freedom, deliverance and breakthrough for someone else.  Prophetic words have been spoken – it’s our time to take the land promised to us.

Then, yesterday morning, before church I read Judges and something becomes very clear.  There are dire consequences for disobedience to the Lord, for the disobedient party, but also for the ones waiting and watching.  Read with me…

Now the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and led you to the land which I swore [to give] to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you, ² and as for you, you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this that you have done? ³ So I also said, ‘I will not drive your enemies out before you; but they will be like thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’” ⁴ When the Angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people raised their voices and wept. ⁵ So they named that place Bochim (weepers); and there they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁶ And when Joshua had sent the people away, the [tribes of the] Israelites went each to his inheritance, to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ⁹ And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ Also, all [the people of] that generation were gathered to their fathers [in death]; and another generation arose after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.

¹¹ Then the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped and served the Baals, ¹² and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed down to them, and offended and provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ So they abandoned the Lord and served Baal [the pagan god of the Canaanites] and the Ashtaroth. ¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands (power) of plunderers who robbed them; and He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer stand [in opposition] before their enemies.                                                                  Judges 2: 1 – 14

Let’s go back to Judges, chapter 1 for some context.  The tribes had an explicit command from the Lord to take the territories assigned to them, to wipe out the inhabitants and to burn everything to do with the pagan idol worship.  Yet the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Asher, Naphtali and Dan did not obey the Lord’s command.  Instead they allowed the inhabitants of the land to remain and they put them to forced labour.

This seemed like a good idea…free labour.  I can imagine how daunting the task  to start  producing crops if all you ever knew was a nomadic existence with the Lord providing every meal.  To suddenly be fully responsible for feeding yourself and your family must have seemed like an impossibly difficult task. Yet, within one generation the Lord’s exploits were forgotten and the next generation had embraced the pagans’ idol worship.

This brings me to the point I want to make.  Are we able to be strong and very courageous and to go after those things the Lord expected us to eradicate but which we have kept around because it’s still serving us?  Are we able to celebrate the victorious Jesus, the Deliverer, the Overcomer, instead of baby Jesus and to give Him the greatest birthday present – our complete and total surrender and obedience.

I would like to extend an invitation to you.  Please join me during this Christmas season by taking some time out between the festivities and family celebrations to sit with Jesus and to give Him the gift of your undivided attention, so that He is able to speak to you about the things you keep around to serve you, but which are in fact enslaving you.  Remember, you are doing it for yourself, for the next generation and for all those who are waiting for you.

May the joy and peace of the Lord be an everlasting gift to you and yours.  From all of us here at Ignite, shalom.  Have a wonderful Christmas.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”                                                                                   C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We have settled into our new home very nicely, thank you.  We are exploring the city and surrounds, finding quaint little shops, cute cafes, dusty bookshops filled with hidden treasure and eclectic markets that sing to my soul.  We have settled into a fellowship, we found a new GP, a butcher that we like and we can even boast with new driver’s licences and number plates…the joy of moving interstate.

What we haven’t found yet is a replacement for The Spudshed.  The Spudshed?  Not to worry if you haven’t a clue what I am talking about.  No-one outside of Perth has either and that is the root of our problem.  How do you explain to someone who has never experienced the joy of going to one store, that is not a supermarket, and finding not only your baked goods and meat, but also local produce fresh from the farm. Where you can touch the veggies and sniff (I do, sorry) the passion fruit, inhaling the tropical scent of our childhood, bringing it home in a basket without having to contend with layers of plastic wrap and a mountain of Styrofoam.

The Spudsped is like a great tv commercial…but that’s not all…there is nuts and dried fruit, spices, grocery items, baked goods, and random things that baffle the mind! A real plethora of items to delight someone who hates to go from shop, to shop, to shop, not even mentioning the ordeal of having to visit the supermarket.  I was definitely born in the wrong era.

We have traversed the city and country-side, trying to find an equivalent, but alas, I am still singing the blues.  Every time I discover a new market that seems promising (thanks Google!), I walk away feeling conned.  All promise, but no joy!

I love the quote by CS Lewis at the top of the page.  He so eloquently words what my heart feels more often than not.  The Spudshed is an accurate picture of the Father’s presence– the one place you go where every need is met.  In His presence is fullness of joy, in His presence is freedom and His love covers us completely.

There are many things, many distractions, that promise much but delivers very little.  Money, fame, education, sex, drugs, friendships…all of these promise to bring us fulfilment, wholeness, healing, but the promises are as empty as the consequences are dire.  How often do we settle for spiritual food, neatly packaged in plastic wrap, beautifully presented on a Styrofoam platter, when we should be craving the opportunity to touch heaven, to feel, to smell and to taste Truth and Love…and remember where we were before we became souls.  Our spirit man remembers and yearns and we the feel the deep hunger and discontent in the deep of us.

For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.                           Hebrews 13:14

 Therefore, we must choose to lay down everything at the feet of Jesus…all our wisdom and knowledge, our ministries, our plans and burdens, every single thing that tethers us to this world.  We surrender and allow the Lord to untangle us, so that we can be knit to Him alone.

So then, we must cling in faith to all we know to be true.  For we have a magnificent King-Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose into the heavenly realm for us, and now sympathises with us in our frailty.  He understands humanity, for as a Man, our magnificent King-Priest was tempted in every way just as we are, and conquered sin.  So now we come freely and boldly to where love is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.      Hebrews 4:14 -16  TPT

You Make Me Brave

I stand before You now
The greatness of your renown
I have heard the majesty and wonder of you

King of Heaven, in humility, I bow

As Your love, in wave after wave
Crashes over me, crashes over me

For You are for us
You are not against us
Champion of Heaven
You made a way for all to enter in

I have heard You calling my name
I have heard the song of love that You sing
So I will let You draw me out beyond the shore
Into Your grace
Into Your grace

As Your love, in wave after wave
Crashes over me, crashes over me
For You are for us
You are not against us
Champion of Heaven
You made a way for all to enter in

You make me brave
You make me brave
You call me out beyond the shore into the waves
You make me brave

I believe people fall into two very distinct categories…those who wake up and say “Awesome, I have to go to the mall today!” and those who would rather have a root canal without pain relief.  I fall into the latter, for sure!
It’s even more traumatic when I have to go to the mall during school holidays…the noise does my head in.  Usually I rush around, get things done and scamper home.  But not today.  I lingered, I sipped on an almond milk chai latte, all by myself, while observing the poor mummas, at the end of their rope, trying to explain to a boisterous toddler why jumping on the café seats isn’t a good idea.

It got me thinking about bravery.  Not the kind that we celebrate, especially now, in the light of recent events that unfolded in America, as stories of bravery flood social media.  Also not the kind of bravery that last all of the 20 seconds that it takes to run into a burning house to save a child, or jump into a raging ocean to rescue a swimmer.  Those are all commendable and should definitely be celebrated – heroes are few and far between, but I am thinking about a different, altogether unseen, rarely celebrated and undervalued kind of brave.

I am thinking about the kind of brave that Jesus displayed during the time He walked the earth…the gut-wrenching brave it requires to forgive the unforgivable, to endure humiliation, abandonment, betrayal, excruciating physical pain and emotional anguish that causes you to sweat blood.

So I want to salute you, brave young mum doing the best that you can despite your own brokenness, your own anxieties and your own sense of failure.  I know you are tired sweetheart, but this too shall pass and you are doing a great job.  You were handpicked for that little one, you have everything that he/she needs and you are not alone.  That diagnosis, those words from the frustrated teacher, those looks from a disapproving audience…it does not matter.  Hang in there, you do not know who you are raising, but Abba Father knows and he put that precious child in your arms because YOU are His gift to that child.

And you, hurting spouse, who just found out the depth of the betrayal from the person you trusted most, will receive grace for brave.  Jesus knows betrayal well and He will forgive through you, until you can do it for yourself.  I know it will take a special brave to get up every morning, but you will.  Every time you wonder whether a person can die from a broken heart, you’ll hear Holy Spirit whisper “Yes, Jesus did”, but you won’t.  If you can stay brave enough, for long enough, you will heal, you will forgive, you will trust again…but until then, I honour you for being willing to try, even if just for today.

And my friend, staggering out the doctor’s office with a death warrant signed, sealed and delivered, or you who knows your illness won’t kill you, but will make you suffer unimaginable pain, for you grieving loss of whatever kind, for you having to confess your hidden sin or your addiction to those you love most, fearing rejection, and for you who have been caught out, who is now wearing a cloak of shame…hear my applause.  You are going to do the hard thing, you are going to dig deep and find  buried treasure…enough brave to get you through the day.  You are going to hang onto the brave, for the day, for the hour, for the moment, but you are not going to give up.

I want to honour you, every one of you unsung, unseen, forgotten brave souls.  You are doing a great job and you are working on an incredible testimony. I don’t know your name, I don’t know your story, I can only imagine your pain but I know this I (we, you) can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  (Phil.4: 13)

This morning, as I was laying in bed, I was reminded of an incident that happened many years ago.  I was a newlywed and my grandparents  travelled 500 km to visit for the weekend. I was SO excited.  I prepared their room, I planned menus, I shopped and of course, I cleaned.  On the Saturday evening I brought out special treats I prepared, especially for the barbeque we were going to have, but something went terribly wrong that evening.  I watched my hard work, together with my expectation of getting my grandma’s high praises, go up in smoke…literally. What came off the grill resembled shrivelled-up pieces of charcoal and I was livid!  My disappointment spilled out of my mouth in a torrent of angry words directed at my husband.  Grandma didn’t say a word (not then, anyway) but sitting at the table she ate those chunks of coal as if they were the choicest pieces of meat from the most upmarket restaurant.

Later, in the kitchen, while doing the dishes she lovingly corrected me and taught me a valuable lesson about preserving relationship, at the cost of being right or having the last word or getting your way.  Sadly, that lesson went way over my head for many years, as it usually is with seed.  You plant it and many times you are not around to see the fruit.  Grandma hasn’t been with us for a long time, she didn’t have a change to hear me say she was right, but I guess she didn’t need to…she knew all along.

Right now Australia is in turmoil of the same-sex marriage debate, and how grateful I would be if that were the only issue dividing the body of Christ right now.  Sadly, the members of my family are fighting over doctrine, theology, social issues and even over petty personality clashes.  Families are divided, churches split up and why?  Because everyone is so determined to have their say, have their way and make their point…we would rather be right than stay friends.

Don’t get me wrong, I am by now means advocating that we never speak the truth, that we do not set and enforce boundaries, that we turn a blind eye to sin or that we give in to sloppy living, but where is the love?  In Mark 8:15 we read:  Jesus repeatedly ordered them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

What was Jesus talking about?  The yeast of the Pharisees is the spirit of religion, the spirit that loves the law and shuns the law of love and the yeast or leaven of Herod is the political spirit, the spirit that will not back down, that will not be argued with, that has to prove itself right, by any means possible.

Juxtaposed to that is the Seven Spirits of God, fully contained in Holy Spirit and resting on Jesus (see Isaiah 11:2) – the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of power, the Spirit of Knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.  These are all available to us and we need to make a choice…do we allow the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod to permeate our lives, or do we walk in the same spirit Jesus walked in?

Paul is such an inspiration and example to us.  He understood his freedom in Christ and knew how to use it wisely.  He can speak for himself…

”¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”  (1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23 NIV)

He also had something to say about our freedom…²³ “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. ²⁴ No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.  (1 Corinthians 10: 23, 24 NIV)

As the people of God, we have been mandated to bring a message of reconciliation and restoration.  When we speak truth or bring correction, we need to bring it in such a way that the person on the receiving end does not feel slimed, but is restored to be who God created them to be.  We should speak once and listen  twice…and listen with our hearts…a tall order, because we will need a greater measure of humility than ever and we will need to swallow a lot of pride.

I can only speak for myself here, but when I leave a room, I want people to feel like they have been in the presence of Jesus.  I want to leave behind a beautiful aroma, not a religious, offensive stench that makes people gag.  I fail often, but I keep the dream alive…come Holy Spirit, search us.  We need Your help here!