Whose house are we building?

This morning I was reading in 2 Samuel 7 and it is where David’s heart is to build a place for the ark of God to rest in rather than a tent. “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent”. He recognises something that is not right and sets about to put God in his proper place of honour.

A few years ago we were managing a sheep and beef farm and the Lord spoke to us out of the book of Haggai 1, verse 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin.” This scripture changed the complete direction of where we were heading.

We were Christians, we were going to church, fully involved in Church, leading a cell group, on the church council, leading worship, doing Sunday School etc. at the time but then God challenged us with the book of Haggai and we realised that we were in fact building our own house even though we were doing God things as well. Our heart was to make money so that we could have enough to buy our own farm and work it while we were young. And then the Lord showed us, why did we have to own our own farm, we were caretakers of everything he gave us so why did we need to have our own farm, why not be content with managing?

And so step by step the Lord has led us away from farming and into building his house, the church, but first we needed a radical wake up call as to the direction we were heading. After surrendering our plans and purposes to the Lords and his desires for our lives rather than our own, we have had such a journey that we would not have changed. We did not even realise the direction we were heading it was so ingrained in us from childhood that this was what you did. But in allowing God to show us our hearts at the core and be changed by it, we have had such a fulfilled life and the promises of God are way more than we can imagine.

In surrendering not only our desires for faming but also our plans towards our child and the direction of her life, I was blessed & encouraged too this morning in 2 Sam 7 – because David set about to build and honour the Lord and make His name great, God promised to make David’s name great, but not only that he promises that his children will succeed him and that God would establish his kingdom. “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom”. I realise this promise is for David but I too believe that because I am building the house of the Lord and his covenant with me, that our daughter has an inheritance that the Lord will give her, not perhaps as the world sees an inheritance, but a spiritual inheritance that will far outweigh anything of the earth and that encouraged me greatly that the Lord will take care of her and his hand will be upon her.

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

Now is the time for the power of God

This morning I was woken with a picture of electricity in one room that seemed to go out but then there was electricity in another room that should not have had electricity as there was no connection and yet it was full of electricity. I felt it was a picture of the power of God of supernatural things taking place that you could not explain. That there had been a little of it in the past to that seemed to go out but now it is about to increase. Then the scripture Isaiah 41 was loud and clear in my heart. So I got up and read Isaiah 41 and it is all about those who worship idols and those who put their trust in the Lord who will be protected. He encourages his faithful ones to trust in him, with an assurance that he would take their part against their enemies, making them victorious over them, and bring a about a good change of affairs in their circumstances. In praying into this is what I believe this is what the Lord said to me. "What you have seen a little o

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

There is an army rising up!

Are you struggling in your family? Are you struggling with people in the body of Christ? Keep going in love and you will see the breakthroughs you long for. Over the past few months the Lord has been showing me some scenes where the enemy has been trying to attack and destroy families, and so I believe it is a time where we need to be alert of the devils schemes and counter attack with the truth and the love of God. Three areas we ourselves as a ministry are currently contenting for breakthrough in are: 1. the unity of the body of Christ, 2. for whole families to come to Christ 3. for mental health issues to be overcome .... and so of course the enemy wants to come and try and destroy in whatever way He can within churches, within families, in individuals and so I/we need to be alert to the schemes of the enemy. Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." One vision I share with you I had before Christmas. I had this vision

Its upside down but right way up.???

I am excited. A few weeks ago I had this picture where I saw houses being turned upside-down and being rebuilt from the inside, but everything inside the house was upside-down. This may not sound very encouraging but I was greatly encouraged because it was a good thing. Although things seemed upside down it was actually the right way up. And as I write this I remember something Bill Johnson talked about at one of the Manifest Presence conferences a couple of years ago and correct order of apostolic government and how it was a different model than that of the world where things are dominated from the top down, but instead this model was a model of servanthood serving, an upside-down model compared to that of the world. And like Jesus rode a donkey and yet He was king, not lording over people as the world does, but coming from a position of humility and love for others. And so this excites me that 'the church' as a whole and as individuals is coming into, I believe the cor

Yokes of slavery?

Pondering this morning how easily we put 'yokes' of slavery or burdens upon people in our thinking, in our demands, in our expectations and yet it is a two way giving and receiving that happens - we can place a yoke upon someone but they have to pick it up in order to receive it. We put yokes of bondages on people when we expect them to do a certain thing, behave a certain way, when we judge them in our hearts, when we decide what is right or wrong and start walking out of 'law'. It is so easy to do with one another without even realising what we are doing. Yet on the other side we as individuals have to learn to walk in a place of freedom and like the scripture says in Gal 5 "don't let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery". People can put things upon us, but in Christ we are set free, we are not subject any longer to yokes of slavery unless we allow it, unless we receive it. So individually we all have a part to play - as a people t

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