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...

Position yourself - a declogging of the coffee machine!

Something else that came this morning in regards to positioning yourself for the Lord. As I woke up this morning I had some lemon with hot water as as drink that cleanses my system and then I cleaned out my coffee machine with some white vinegar to get rid of all the bits that were clogging it up. When I did this I felt the Lord speaking to me that I need a bit of 'cleansing', a bit of 'unclogging' the things in me that have got a built up over time that need the Holy Spirit running through me to unclog those things, so that I am completely cleansed and available for Him to do what he wants to do through me. What are some of the things that are 'clogging up' the free flow of the Holy Spirit pouring out and through you that perhaps you might need some cleansing of? We are more than happy to cleanse our bodies by doing a detox but how about doing a detoxifying, if you like, of our souls so that we are positioned for all that the Lord wants to do in and t...

"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...

I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...

What do Kingdom finances look like?

I was asked by someone the other day what Kingdom finances looked like and I realised that this is an area that needs some discussion. This is my opinion of what Kingdom finances look like according to what the Lord has taught me over the years and to scriptures I have been shown, but I am not the be all and end all to thinking, so it is something you might want to check out for yourselves. The way of the world is to store up riches, to save for a rainy day, to have enough to protect themselves should something happen, that I have earned this and it is mine and therefore I can do what I want with it. The way of the Kingdom is a way of giving to the poor, giving to God's people in need and practicing hospitality, of not worrying about tomorrow, of trusting God for the future and His provision in that time of need when it arises, of everything is His (God's). I believe that if you see a need in front of you and you have something in which can help with that need, whatever it is,...

Arise & Shine, let your voice be heard

To speak or not to speak – this is the question? Or perhaps it should be ‘how to speak?’ We live in a world where the rights of man are rising, the voices of differences of opinion are growing stronger and louder. The justice of the world, right and wrong as seen through our own eyes, starting to arise. I n this nation of NZ where "tall poppy syndrome' has been an issue as the accepted norm of the past, people are breaking out, rising up and learning to use their voice. As rightly we ought as Christians. All good things to happen, all needed to happen. For the bride to stand, awaken and arise and to shine for righteousness and justice. To stand up for the poor and needy, to speak on behalf of those who can't. With anything new, you have the swings in the spectrums as we all learn how to walk in a new way. We say things more strongly than we ought, or perhaps we say things weaker where watering it down and don’t come across to effe...

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