Encouragement through the trial

Reading Hebrews 11 verse 24 jumped out at me this morning. "By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward."
And as I read this I thought of 2 Cor 4:17 "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."

Moses had everything at his feet, wealth, popularity, etc, yet he gave it all up and walked the path of God. Imagine how hard that must have been choosing rather to suffer affliction at the hand of his own family.

I have had several dreams lately of people coming under persecution and being killed for their faith, some walking away from their faith. One this morning was where a group of people were walking this path and all these rocks were falling down around them and it made me think of people being 'stoned' by others, perhaps with their judgements etc.

When trial comes it is easy to fall away, to question, to point the finger, to whatever, but I want to encourage you as it says in Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus too like Moses on the cross suffered the shame that was not his, yet He too did it for something greater than himself. Let these stories of faith be encouragement for you as you walk through whatever may be the trial for you, whatever your family may say against you, whatever people may stone you with in their judgements towards you, knowing that others too have walked a similar path and their stories can help us continue to walk ours. Many blessings this Christmas/New Year.

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...

The lie of a lack of spiritual fathers and mothers

My ponderings this morning. I believe we have a generation (of which I am a part of) at the moment who believe that there were not the spiritual mothers and fathers who taught them in the things of the spirit; of the way they should go etc. I believe to some extent there is truth, we don’t seem to have seen the ‘spiritual hero’s’ that we want to follow in our daily worlds around us. But I also believe that our generation or those who don’t believe there have been the spiritual parents, actually need to repent for not honouring the ones that the Lord has put in their lives and in which we have not received them as such and honoured what they inputted into our lives. There have always been people around us sowing into our lives, sowing truth, sowing help and hope, but because it has not come the way we expect it, we have not honoured what those people have brought. Sometimes too those people sow into our lives with truth that we don’t want to hear and so we walk away from those ...

"And now these three remain: faith. hope and love." 1 Cor 13:13

Two pictures things the Lord has given me over the last 10 days. Firstly; Prior to going to Christchurch I had this vision where I saw this massive tree falling to the ground and taking out people around them as it fell. Then this morning I was reading in Matt 3:10 and it reminded me of that vision I saw. Matt 3:10 says “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” It’s a powerful word of warning that if we are living supposedly Godly lives and yet are not living lives that produce fruit in keeping with repentance, the fruit of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, etc, the fruit of the spirit that is found in Gal 6, then I believe we will see people who are big people to those around them, people who are leaders etc. fall and cause damage. Secondly; Something that startled me yesterday as I was sleeping, I woke up to the sound of a clanging symbol....

The baby's been handed over

Several weeks ago the Lord shifted us out of the 'home office' into the 'market place' and in the process a spiritual shift happened - one of letting the 'baby' go, a releasing and handing over the batten, so to speak to others. In this process the nests that WE ALL have been in have been stirred up, shaken about, and pushed out, to fly in ways that perhaps we were too afraid to do previously. The amazing thing with God is that He knows the timing of all of this and where each one of us is at and what we can handle. Yes there has been a fluttering of wings in panic. Yes, we have had a few weeks of challenge as authority and structures get changed and challenged, frustrations coming to the fore, but love helps us overcome, love helps us to forgive, love helps us to see the good and not the dirt, love helps us remember our own failings and yet forgiveness and grace that the Lord has for me, that I can give to others, remembering it's the glory of G...

The power of the words we speak - what do we actually believe?

This morning I am reminded so powerfully by the Lord of the power of my words and the authority that they carry. God is so gracious to us but he brought such a breakthrough for me in this this morning and the dreams and visions he has placed on our lives. This past weekend we have been in Whangarei and something that Eric Johnson spoke about was the blind-spot in our lives. Like when driving in our car there is a blind-spot that we can't see and others can see it. We, all of us, have blind spots in our lives and we need to be asking the Lord what those blind spots are so we can walk in the fullness of everything he has for us. Well I was asking the Lord what my blind-spot was and he was gracious to me and showed me the power of the words that I speak. I have known in my head the power of the words, but this past week twice it has been confirmed by others and that when we speak we either curse or bless but the reality of that is dropping from my head i...

If you cause some damage, take responsibility and fix it.

How many of you have gone into the supermarket and come out and found your car damaged due to somebody else and they have just driven off and not left a message or anything? How did that make you feel? Last night I had a dream and I saw a parked car and someone had damaged it and walked off without leaving a note or anything and so when the owner went to get the car, they found it had damage done to it, that someone had to pay for. It wasn’t a big deal as the bulk of it would be covered by insurance but there was still the excess that someone had to pay for. And that somebody was now the owner and yet it wasn’t the owners fault. The person who had caused it wasn’t owning up to what they had done or taken their responsibility to repair the damage. How many of us damage other peoples ministries/churches/individuals (as cars often represent those things in dreams) and walk off without so much as a note of apology that you ha...

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