Do you feel alone or discouraged today?

I was greatly encouraged this morning as I read 2 Timothy chapter 4. This chapter outlines some of Paul’s struggles and how people loved the world and followed their ways and in so doing caused much harm towards Paul and his ministry, but his hope remained in the Lord and His reward comes from Christ alone.

Verse 10 “Demas has forsaken me”

Verse 14 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm”

People can come and go out of your life. People can cause trouble, but we are called as Christians to endure hardship as it says in 2 Timothy 2:3

“Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a solider”.

2:10 “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’

We go through many things in life, many challenges and it is easy to look to man, to get discouraged by what you may see happening all around you, but through it all, I believe the Lord is wanting to teach us to trust in Him alone and look to Him alone. That we are here to please only Christ. The Lord is faithful and those times we feel we cannot take much more, he strengthens us and gives us grace for a new day.

4:17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”

Through Paul’s trials the message of the gospel spread to the Gentiles. Through the pressures that may happen around us, it forces out the message of the gospel that is in us to go in directions and ways that we never thought it would go. God uses everything for good and He is faithful and He will strengthen us and preserve us for Him. Keep your eyes on the prize which is Christ Jesus and wait for him to deliver you because He is faithful and will do what He said He would do!

"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...

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...

May Newsletter - Africa in June

23 May 2012 Dear friends and partners, Psalm 34:1-3 I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord; Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; Let us exalt His name together . This was in my journal this morning and was so appropriate for where things are at.! God’s timing is just amazing. In the last update Jim’s work was coming to an end but the Lord had spoken about Step Up & Step In – the mini conference we had earlier this month, which because of the Lords timing in less work for Jim enabled him to concentrate on preparation for the conference. The conference was such a blessing and everything the Lord had been teaching us over the years was released in the peace, rest and freedom then reigned over it. There is a more detailed description of the event on the blogsite (gloryreleaseministries.blogspot.com) along with photos, so have a look there if you ...

"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, ...

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 ha...

Bus crash in Botswana - Rejoice in the Lord always.

Well we had an interesting introduction to Botswana - yes a bus crash. It was amazing and most probably the worst accident I have been in to this day (but not bad I am sure to some of you out there) but thankfully the Lord looked after us and protected us. The front tyre of the bus blew out travelling about 120ks per hour and the bus tipped from side to side as it careered off the road into the bus. How it never hit cars and no one was killed we will never know apart from the protection of the Lord. We were flown all over the place but thankfully only came out with a few cuts and bruises. It was literally a miracle that we didn't roll. One girl was thrown out of the bus in a serious condition, others hurt in various ways but it could have been a whole lot worse. The Lord gave us peace and we went about praying for people and was blessed especially by one lady who felt the fire of God healing her so much so that she was laughing and crying all at the s...

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