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...

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...

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,...

Whats in the garage?

The garage, a place of storage, a place of dealing with things later when time allows, a place often of mess. That's whats in our garage anyway. I woke up out of my sleep last night with this 'there's something in the garage'. So at midnight I woke up Jim and got him out checking out the garage and I found the cars had been left unlocked outside with the windows down, the water heater in the prayer room (one of our garages) was still on from the prayer time that morning, milk on the bench and so thankful that I was woken to check things out. But after this I then had another dream and in this dream we were quests at someone's home invited for dinner but in this home after dinner the host was so concerned about her home and the particular way her curtain was hung it was really fascinating. She was so wrapped up in her house and how things should be done that she failed to notice her husband sitting on the chair waiting to talk to her and in the end he got up ...

Let's not be a 'passerby' this Christmas

If you were to see a car accident happen would you stop and help the people in the car or would you drive by believing that others will help them and keep going to where you were headed? This morning I was woken by a request by the pastor in India where we visited three years ago requesting help for the orphanage and daily needs as they were struggling and I thought of the dream I had this morning about a car accident that had happened and those that walked by. For many of us every day things have happened to the people around us that need our help in some way. The Lord took me to James 2:5 "Listen my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor..... v14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a br...

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