"And this is love; that we walk in obedience to his commands."

Why do we do what we do?

2 John 6 “And this is love; that we walk in obedience to his commands.”

1 John 5:3 “This is love for God, to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome for everyone born of God overcomes the world.

Jim and I have travelled down to Christchurch area for a time, why? Because the Lord was directing our feet in this direction. End of story. But why? What has He got for us here? What are we ‘doing’ here? Why spend the money to come down here when we don’t see the finances coming in that will be needed to cover the trip? All sorts of questions arise as we step out in faith but end up not being able to answer all the questions that arise from various directions, various people in their hearts and our own, and yet we come and we come simply in obedience not knowing the outcome but knowing who our Lord is and that He has good plans for us.

Recently the Lord gave me a dream and it led me to the story of Jonah and his refusal to go where the Lord told him to go and the consequences that happened because of disobedience and then finally repentance came and he went where God had originally called him to go. He didn’t go initially because of fear I believe and for many of us we don’t step out into what the Lord calls us to do because of some type of fear, but then because of that fear it cripples us in some form until we come to a place of repentance and trust in the Lord and finally do what He calls us to do. When we do, like Jonah, I believe we will see things we never dreamed of or believed for.

A few years back we believed we were to go to China and it was the ‘last’ money that Jim and I had as such and so it was a huge step and once again we didn’t know why we were to go but we went out of obedience and eventually we understood why we were to go and it grew us immensely in our faith in the Lord to the point that when the Lord called us to go to Africa for three months once again with no money coming in or knowing the country or what we were to do there, but because of seeing the provision in the previous trips, we had the faith rise up in us to step out again and we saw absolutely amazing things happen on that trip that we never dreamed of. God is faithful and is able to perform all that he says he will do, if we will only but ‘obey’ not knowing the outcome.

There was an old song that was sung “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus” and it is so true. We so often don’t know the outcome of faith, but faith requires an action on our part in order to see the promises come true. We have promises over this trip to Christchurch, and at this point we can’t see them but we are here by faith, not in what we can do, but knowing that our Lord is faithful and will do what He said He will do. I write this not only to encourage others but ourselves in the Lord as we need to be reminded of what the Lord has done in the past to help us keep going in Him, to keep believing in Him when we may not see it yet.

May the Lord richly bless each one of you as you step out in obedience and love for Jesus into what he calls you each one to do.

"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, ...

"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...

Kiwi Culture verses Kingdom Culture

The above is the title of a book that I have on my heart. Whether or not it ever makes it there we will see but in the process I want to put some thoughts down and see what it opens up. I grew up with phrases like "God helps those who help themselves" or "Too spiritually minded to be any earthly good". There are many many more that I am sure you know of - I would love to hear them so please blog me about them or Facebook me so I can add them. But phrases like that that we grew up with that actually have become a part of world view and things we base our lives on. Things of our culture that are so much a part of culture that we think is actually a part of the bible or at the very least is no big deal in God's eyes; like sarcasm. I have had to question some of these phrases - "where does it say in the bible God helps those who help themselves?" "What actually is sarcasm and does it build up and encourage people?" etc. Jim and I lived ...

The Dinah Sheets need changing.

Have you ever gone into a Hotel Room and smelling the smell of fresh clean sheets and a bed beautifully made? Or even hoping into your own bed after you have changed the sheets and have beautiful fresh pillowcases? Well this morning in a vision I saw a Hotel Room and the word that came from the Lord was - "The Dinah Sheets need changing" and knowing there was blood on the sheets and calling for a Hotel porter to come and bring new sheets. Dinah was Jacobs daughter and her story is told in Genesis 34. She was a virgin, pure, but then Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, took her and violated her. I encourage you to read the whole story and to see what takes place in retribution for her defilement. But the point that I believe the Lord is wanting to show me and to bring, is that once we were pure in Christ, but things have happened to us that defile us, make us ‘unclean’, where we are no longer ‘pure’ and the Lord would say to you this morning, “change ...

Our words create our worlds

Last week I had a vision and I saw fire coming up from the ground and water coming from the sky, it was chaos and people were running for their lives as disaster struck. I was asking the Lord about it as it felt like judgement coming and I was trying to reconcile judgement with my God that I know who loved the world so much that he sent his only son to die for us not to condemn the world but to save the world, and he said to me - Sarah "your words create your world." Everything God created was good and in Genesis we see God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth. And through Jesus, God has given us authority and dominion over the earth, the same authority he gave Jesus now lives in us to those who believe. And I realised that as a people we can reap what we sow in respect of our words. The power of the tongue is powerful, it either tears down or builds up, life and death is on the power of the tongue. In John 1:14 "The Word became flesh ...

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...

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