You will be hated by everyone

You will be hated by everyone - oh yay!

I am reading some 'meaty' scriptures this morning from Matt 10

v16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard, you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. ....v22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." v26 "So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.
v32 "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my father in heaven."

For many I believe we have this image that in Christ and in His love and showing his love to all around that it is just going to be wonderful. But what I have found, and perhaps this is just my experience, but the more I have gone deeper in the Lord, in His love, the more I have been persecuted, hated by people I come in contact with, spiritual challenged at every corner, threatened with all sorts of things.

For me, the more I love on Jesus, the more I get opposition, people walking away from me, and I wonder, ponder and question with the Lord about what I am doing that people have walked away? And what I am learning is that there is a clash of Kingdoms. Light exposes the darkness. Often times it leaves me feeling hurt, rejected, not wanted, questioning, but what the Lord is showing me is the overwhelming pure love of God, the unconditional love of God, the forgiving nature of God, the freedom found in God can be too much for people at times.

In the quiet He is there

And so when reading these scriptures this morning, I am reminded once again, "It's okay Sarah, what is happening is part of what it is being a Christian. This is the walk of those who follow me, what you are going through is to be expected and a part of life. I am teaching you how to be shrewd, I am teaching you how to forgive and to love those who persecute you, I am teaching you not to be afraid".

So I share some of my encouragements from the Lord this morning.
Have a great day!

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

“I am ruined for the ordinary” A statement that can possibly be to some, come from a place of judgement, or it can be from a place of there is more in the Kingdom of God that I am yet to experience or understand, revelation that I have tasted of something that actually shows me that I have not tasted of anything yet. A place where there is such a contentment and joy in what I have seen and longed to see and yet a revelation that there is way more "beyond what I think, ask and imagine" (Eph 3:20) and one that spurs me on to seek and discover all the fullness that could be ours in the Kingdom of God. When we as Christians see other Christians going places or experiencing things that we don’t understand or perhaps we have not yet moved in, we can either become jealous of that person and judge and bring them down to our level, exclude them from our lives or we can choose to be excited by what is happening and be encouraged and spurred on in the Lord for the more than ca...

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

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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...

Perhaps a change of perspective might be needed

This morning I had a dream and in the dream I saw I was shifting a nest of blackbirds as they were in a bad place that was going to get destroyed shortly, but as I went to shift them, the Father of the babies came and tried to attack me. I wasn't going to hurt them, just shift them so they wouldn't get damaged. Of course the Father was just trying to protect what was his and thought I was bringing harm to his family, but actually my intent was to help them. Often we can have the wrong mindset about a situation as illustrated by this picture. Both had the intent of heart to help and protect, but because of the mindset of how we see things, often our reactions comes from our point of view without even taking the time to understand why another is doing what they are doing. 2 Cor 2:10 "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them." We often find ourselves fighting with those w...

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 natur...

Burn the Ships - No turning back!

The other day Jim and I were given a word that we had 'burnt the ships' and I feel it is a word in season for the body of Christ in that we must be a people who 'burn the ships', 'no turning back' in our thinking, moving forward into the promises of God by faith, do not doubt, but step in trusting that God will do what he says he will do. http://travisrobertson.com/leadership/burn-ships-succeed-die/ If God has been saying as a body to step into the land he has promised, then why are we not? Are we afraid of making the 'wrong decision'. Afraid we will get it wrong? Whatever the reason's as to why we are not moving and perhaps sitting in indecision we need to speak the truth to. For example, for us as a ministry recently we have been looking at our need of office buildings and so to step in by faith into leasing a building without the finances on hand but knowing that God is saying expansion, enlargement, people are coming etc and needing to p...

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