Matt 5 - 7 The Beatitudes & The battle belongs to the Lord!!!

I so love reading the Beatitudes. My most favourite part of the bible I think, one in which when things are coming at me I just love to read and feel immersed by his word that gives me life and direction. Sometimes even get Jim to read it over me, just brings peace.

Anyway I want to share this as something the Lord has been showing me this week is that we most get hurt by the people we respect and honour the most. The words that those people bring can hurt right deep in our soul and it can damage quite badly.

God has been taking us on a journey that many people don't understand, have not experienced and perhaps don't want to. God sometimes calls us to do/say things that we don't understand and can't work out in our heads, but after being obedient to him, see why and see how powerful it was. But in the process people judge us, judge our motives, judge our heart. People often misunderstand us. For me that has been one of the hardest and most hurtful things of my journey - being misunderstood by the people I love. But the Lord is teaching me that I am to 'dance to the audience of one', that I need to hide in the shelter of his wing, that he protects me no matter what people think, say or do, I have to come to that place that I trust in him alone and not in man. Paul writes "I care very little if I am judged by you or any human court (1 Cor 4:3-4) indeed, I do not even judge my-self. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." We need to come into a place where it is the Lord who judges our heart and we are innocent or guilty to him and in that, need to change depending on what he says.

But as I say it has been one of the hardest things for me as the arrows of the enemy come at me.
In the Beatitudes Matt 5:11 says, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
I have to keep trusting in him, keep checking my heart that my conscience is clear, keep looking at Jesus and the words of his that bring life, that bring encouragement and like that above to know that I am blessed in his Kingdom, that great is my reward in heaven. Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

I believe we are in a time where we are called to stand and be the people of God he has called us to be. In so doing we are going to be persecuted, misunderstood, judged but knowing that GREAT IS OUR REWARD IN HEAVEN!!! Thank you Lord and when we learn and come into a place that those words no longer hold power, we are free in another area of our life! Words only hold the power that we give them. Saying that, I don't have it all together all the time, but less and less am I feeling the effects of the wounds at the hand of my brother.: Feel free to pray for me in this.:) Thank you Jesus!

Song:
In heavenly armour we'll enter the land
The battle belongs to the Lord
No weapon that's fashioned against us will stand
The battle belongs to the Lord

And we sing glory, honour
Power and strength to the Lord
We sing glory, honour
power and strength to the Lord.

When the power of darkness comes in like a flood
the battle belongs to the Lord
He's raised up a standard, the power of his blood
the battle belongs to the Lord

When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear
the battle belongs to the Lord
Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near
the battle belongs to the Lord!

6 legged sheep???

In the weekend I saw a vision of a sheep that had six legs. And what I believe the Lord is saying, there are many sheep, (followers of Christ), but they are trusting in their own strength and not in mine. When we trust in our own strength and abilities we forfeit the grace that can be ours, the enabling that comes from stepping out in faith in the impossible, the testimonies that give God the glory rather than the expectation of what should be because we have put our hand to something. God is the God of the impossible and in order for the miracles, the testimonies, we need to be a people that step out in what we can't do and allow God to come in and do the impossible. That may simply be asking the Lord to help you to forgive someone that has hurt you so much, to getting on a plane with no finances because the Lord has asked you to, to continue to stay in a job/church/marriage/relationship you don't want to because that is where God has placed you, to praying for a

Sleeping while driving?

How many of you have ever driven a car and you become so sleepy that you either need to pull over and sleep or you will crash or you continue to drive only to find yourself swerving to avoid a car that comes upon you or even worse find yourself in a crash. The other day I had a vision where I was preaching and the whole back row in the gathering of men were asleep while I was preaching. And today I had another vision of driving a car while so sleepy that it was going to cause an accident. This is what is like for many in our spiritual walk in the Lord, we are going around in our lives spiritually asleep and if we continue to do so will have a serious crash at some point not only causing damage to yourself but to other people who you may not even know. Men particularly I challenge you to take a look at your lives to see whether you are hearing from the Lord, whether you are responding truthfully to the Holy Spirit and living as He would ask you to live or whether

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter

Prophetic pictures: Burnt Flesh, Big Fish, Expansion, Signs and Wonders

A couple of weeks ago I have had several visions which I believe is a prophetic picture of what God is currently doing and what He is about to do. Fi rstly, I saw ahead on the highway a huge explosion with black smoke billowing up and as I came to it I saw people had been burnt and I could smell the smell of burnt flesh. Our God is consuming fire (Heb 12:29). His love is in the fire. Something the Lord has been talking to us about is the fall of the acts of the flesh, the strength of man. This vision I saw was a representation that of the fire of Gods love is coming and going to burn away the things of the flesh, the things that were not of the Lo rd, the things that may have been good in their time but today is a new day. Perhaps the familiar things we are so used to that we don't even know it's there. The way we might speak, the way we might act, the way we might respond that are familiar with us but aren't necessarily of the Kingdom nature we have in Christ.

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap

Do you feel small and insignificant today? Well be encouraged!

Reading Psalm 68 and verses 24-27 struck me ……Verse 27 “There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them…. What struck me this morning in the great assembly of Israel, in the great congregation, the Little tribe of Benjamin led them. It hit me how it was a little tribe that led the great congregation. Straight away I got other pictures that came to mind, that of a small tug boat that leads a huge ship safely into harbour, and of the story of the Lion and Mouse where the lion was caught in ropes but the mouse ate the lions ropes around him, setting him free. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the wise” You may feel you are little, you may feel you are small and what effect could you have, but like that of Gideon with only a small number of warriors, came up again defeated thousands in the Lord. Like David in the eyes of Goliath and yet David overcame Goliath. Like yeast in a loaf of bread and how it infiltrates everything, so too can the little thi

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