Archive for the ‘Hearing from God’ Category

Good or Bad Decisions.

Saturday, March 6th, 2010
  • Do Good and Evil Have the Same Face?

Good or BadOur Sunday reading was the Genesis account of Abram and Sarai, and I was totally struck by the aptness of the story toward this point: We can act in our own understanding (As Abram and Sarai conspired to produce their son Ishmael from Hagar the serving woman) or we can act on God’s understanding, (as the renamed couple later did when Isaac was miraculously born to 90 year old Sarah and Abraham).

  • Two Decisions, Two World-Changing Consequences

From Ishmael sprang the 12 Princes that became the Arab nations, the prophet Muhammad (Mohammed or Muhammed), and the whole of Islam.  From Isaac came down the 12 tribes of Israel, Moses the OT prophet and law-giver, and the line of King David which led to Jesus Christ, and to the whole of Christendom today.

  • Islam vs Christendom

Present world conflict consists largely in the Jihad, or holy war that Islam appears to want to impose on Christendom: The ongoing Taliban conflicts in Afghanistan; the never-ending Palestinian battle; the September 11 outrage and its endless aftermath of copycat terrorism and skirmishes with Al Qaeda. These are the visible outworking of that fundamental conflict.  Hardline Muslim clerics  preach endless messages themed around “death to Christians”; and the saying, “that the only good Christian is a dead Christian”, is usually attributed to the followers of  Islam.

  • Good Thoughts or Bad?

It is apparent to me that if we act in our own understanding we run the risk of making decisions with possible far-reaching and terrible consequences – likewise if we act on God’s understanding, we court the possibility of doing acts that can have equally far-reaching consequences, but they will be the outworking of God’s love in the world, as we obey.

  • 4000 Years on…..

Abram’s own decision, the one that produced Ishmael, taken 4000 years ago, is continuing to have a major impact on the world events of  today.  This is a very clear illustration of the promise God later made to Moses that the sins of the fathers would be visited on the later generations.  It is a chilling reminder that we are called to bear the consequences of ALL we decide to do; and it is a timely reminder to be very sure that what we do do, is in direct response to the will of our Loving Heavenly Father!

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Which Version of the Bible Should I Buy?

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

which-versionWhich version of the Bible should I buy? This is pretty much the same question as is dealt with in the previous post, “Which version of the Bible should I Use?”  It is almost the same as which version of the Bible is the best.

  • Be Comfortable with it

Given that the Bibel is the inspired word of God, and as Timothy says; “….all scripture is God-breathed; and is useful for correction, instruction…” etc; then it doesn’t matter which version you use, so long as you are comfortable with the language in it.  What is important is that you use a version that has English (or whatever language) usage that doesn’t confuse you with old fashioned, or obscure terms.

  • The Best Bible is the nearest one!

Buy a version that uses language you understand.  It is that simple! To be blunt: the “best” Bible is the nearest one! What does matter is that you use it, and of course it is important that you use it prayerfully, so that the Holy Spirit of God can minister to you while you read and thereby enrich your understanding.

  • ‘Hear’ God Talking

One preference that matters with me, is using the same version as my local fellowship.  I believe that this matters, because people will more easily recognize quotations, if they all come from the same version.  Identifying scripture passages as ‘coming from the Bible’  is helpful because we can ‘hear God’ talking to us if we have identified a given passage as being from the Bible.

So if you ask yourself which version of the Bible is right for me? You can be assured that that it is an easily answered question.  Just pick one you like the look of and start in and use it!

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Which Version of the Bible?

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Version of The BibleWhich Version of the Bible should I use?  This question comes up from time to time, and there are as many different answers as there are different versions of the Holy Bible.

  • King James Bible version

Some will argue that the original King James Bible version is more accurate, and some will argue that the King James Bible  language is so out of date as to be almost impossible to understand. Americans tend to stick to the ASV(American Standard Version) which names God as “Jehovah”, rather than the slightly confusing “Lord”, so prolific in other translations.  It contains some archaic word forms, but is still much easier to understand than the old KJV.

  • Bible online

I tend to use the online Bible today because it is so easy to copy and paste anything I want to refer to later on. Having the Bible online is so good when it comes to searching for some text you can’t quite remember where to find.  I used to have a disk with a lot of different translations and versions, but it took up a bit of space, and didn’t always work properly.  Today there are many sites offering the Bible “online”, and it is faster to click their icon on my desktop, and start right in browsing.

  • Bible Commentarty, School, Lessons and Studies

Bible study with the  World Wide Web is so easy when you can use any Bible commentary you fancy, attend Bible school, and do any Bible studies, take any Bible lessons  you want – all on line, and all FREE!

  • All Scripture is God-breathed

However, to get back to the original question: “Which Version of the Bible should I use?” Here is the answer.  It is quite irrelevant which version you use, provided you allow the Holy Spirit of God to illumine the Word as you read.  Our God is perfectly able to make you understand what He means, regardless of your reading ability, or what version you use. As the Word says in 2 Timothy 3:16; “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…..”  If you take that on board, then it follows that however you may be sampling His Word, IT WILL WORK!

  • The Secret Revealed!!

So this it what you do…. “then grab your Bible [any Bible], and head for your quiet place and just ‘wait on Him‘; and His Truth will be revealed to you. By all means buy a Bible version or Bible translation that you are comfortable with, but don’t worry about whether it is ‘accurate’ or not – the only thing for you to be concerned about is your own understanding of what you are reading therein. If you are being ‘helped’ by the Holy Spirit of God as you read, your understanding will be perfect!

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How Do You Seek First The Kingdom Of Heaven

Thursday, September 17th, 2009
  • Seek First The KingdomSeek First The Kingdom

This was the question asked here this morning; “How do you seek first the kingdom of heaven?”  It’s an easy thing to say; “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God“; but not so easy to understand, and harder still to put into practice!  It is a companion verse to Psalm 1: Verse 2, that says;”But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night“.

  • Simple Dialog with God

My understanding of this text is based on this assumption: That I can, and do, have constant dialog with God [How Do I Pray] as I perform my daily routines. This being so, it is not so hard to consult with God about everything I do. Prayer, which is no more than conversation with God, need not always be formal, but can be frequent simple [mental] communion with Him, and in this way, it is quite easy to get His guidance on anything we might feel led to do, and as we do it, we will indeed “seek first His Kingdom“.

  • Developing Mind Patterns.

If we cultivate the habit of constantly referring everything we do to Him, then it will become a habit  of mind, a behavioural pattern that will shape our lives and eventually fulfill the two texts above that speak about seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven, and meditating on His law both by day and by night.

  • The Payoff

Why bother, you might ask?. I’m so glad you asked this question, because it goes to the root of our entire Christian motivation. Check out Psalm 1 “1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” where in Verse 3 it describes the life style of a person who does this – Wow! This is some promise, where you are guaranteed that everything you do will prosper!  And again in the other scripture from Matthew 6: “25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. where the promise is that all these things [food, clothing, etc] will be added unto us. Wow again!

  • Hallelujah Country

It is perfectly splendid to have everything you do prospering and to have “all these things” added unto you;” but the real pay-off, the “double whammy”, comes in the side effect of your obedience, the fact that you will be living in near perfect obedience, and thereby living a wholly fulfilled Christian live. Hallelujah!

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How to find Spiritual Excellence

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
  • How to Define Spiritual Excellence

How to Find Spiritual Excellence

Knowing how to find spiritual excellence is a great comfort, because there is a reassurance therin that gives us the confidence to keep on. We need some form of reassurance to bolster our faith, else we feel we are just whistling in the dark, and sometimes lack the courage to go on along our chosen path.

  • How to Define a Job Well Done

I had considerable dialog with a friend about what constitutes spiritual excellence, starting from the point that we well knew what constituted excellence in our daily round of work. The ‘Job Well Done’;  the ‘satisfied client’; the feeling of accomplishment at the end of each task.  The challenge was to transfer those criteria across to the spiritual realm and come up with a blue-print for ‘spiritual excellence’.

  • We Need to know BEFORE Judgment Day

Of course, we could just wait till the ‘end of the film’, then read the ‘credits’, but somehow that didn’t satisfy us, we needed to define some standard that we could apply to our everyday spiritual walk.  We need  to KNOW that we are in His will and that what we are doing is meeting approval within the ‘throne room’.

  • OK Lord, I Did It Your Way

So the answer we devised was this: Spiritual Excellence consists in being able to go to bed each night, and at ‘sign-off’ time, to be able to say; “OK Lord, today I did everything you asked!“  What more is to say? You can’t do better than that!

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How to Know Preaching is from the Spirit

Saturday, May 9th, 2009
  • How to Recognize The Spirit.Recognize The Spirit

This is How to Know Preaching is from the Spirit – when you hear conviction ringing out from the words of the preacher, and when you are riveted to the edge of your seat by the RELEVANCE and FRESHNESS of what you are hearing you know you are hearing from God.

  • God is Never Boring

The eternal, one true God who created the universe and everything in it, is capable of infinite variety.  Consider the magnificent sky-scapes, freshly painted minute by minute while you gaze in awe! With every resource of creation at His fingertips, He doesn’t need to repeat himself. So it follows, that if a preacher is led by the Spirit of God he will be given suitably fresh material to use. A spirit led preacher will be talking about things that have happened to him, or are happening in the NOW; not using anecdotes from the life of some other missionary to the middle of darkest Africa last century.

  • The Kingdom of Heaven is HERE AND NOW.

When you are ‘born again’ you are birthed as a brand new spiritual being into the the Kingdom of Heaven – therefore you must be living in that place RIGHT NOW. It follows therefore, that a spirit led preacher MUST be preaching from conviction gained from his present and past experience, and must be sharing from that. So, such a preacher has to be basing his testimony on what he believes right now – testimony gained from living the Christian life and interacting with God and his fellows. A rule of thumb – any preacher who starts off like this; “A funny [or interesting, or significant,] thing happened to me this week…….”; is most likely to be led by The Holy Spirit, simply because the  Spirit of God will have purposefully put such an experience into that preachers week, just for this purpose; and if he goes on to share a ‘Kingdom’ experience, you may then be quite sure. Any preacher who builds his narrative around someone Else’s experience is selling you second hand goods!

  • This is How You Recognize The Spirit

John said, in his [1 John 4:2-3]2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.. first epistle, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;” so it follows that a spirit led preacher must be preaching about the ‘crucified’, ‘resurrected’, ‘ascended’ Christ.

  • God Knew You Were Going to Go to Church

- and for that reason, some part of the address will speak to you! There will be parts of the message that will minister directly to you. We are each in a different ‘place’ and various words will react differently on each of us, but a spirit led message will contain something especially for you. This is part of the ‘daily bread’ that God provides and it is part of the assurance we have that He loves us and provides for ALL our needs.

  • The Compelling Word of God

God is totally consistent, so any Holy Spirit led preaching must accord with what He has already said in His recorded Word – the Bible - Ergo,  preaching must be based on and agree with the Bible – so the authority for what a preacher is testifying must rest in God’s Word; and because it is Bible based it is both authoritative and credible – and that is how to know preaching is from the Spirit!

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How do I Pray

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
  • How Should I Pray

The answer to, “How do I Pray”,

Talk AND Listen

Talk AND Listen

is quite simply this: Prayer is dialog with God [whether Father Son or Holy Spirit]. By definition, dialog is two way, one party talks and the other party listens, then the roles change! It is a conversation. If only one person talks, that is a monologue. If you never stop and listen, you will surely never learn anything!

  • Our Role

What is our role? It is easy to answer most questions if we use the analogies given in the Bible. In this context the Bible talks about God as our father, and we can easily relate to that image of a child talking to a loved father. We can share our joys, our worries, and our needs, just as we would with a temporal parent.

  • Prayer Language

Our God designed and built us, so He understands what we say, in whatever language or idiom we may use.  Using ‘traditional’ thee, thy, and thou type language is silly – God well knows that we love, respect and revere Him – so we need only to talk naturally, using words we are comfortable with and that we understand.

  • What to Ask

He also knows, to the last molecule, what we need to keep us running on all cylinders, so we don’t need to ask for things for ourselves – He is a loving father and will always  provide what is best for us.  I have found that He always supplies my needs in a better way than I would have dared to ask for! You wouldn’t ASK for breakfast at home – it is naturally provided – but you should say, “thank you”, afterward!

  • Who to ask for

We can always pray for others, whether it be thanks for them or petitions for them. I try not to ‘tell God what to do’ – like I just ask for blessing for a person in need, but never specify what that blessing would be. Our perception of another persons need must always be from incomplete and partial knowledge. We seek His wisdom, just as in finding out How to Preach.

  • Dialog with God

Remember that prayer is dialog with God and you will have no problem knowing how do I pray!

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How Do You Know You are Hearing From God

Monday, January 19th, 2009
  • How Do You Know it is God You Are Hearing?

hearing from god
Read on to find out “how do you know you are hearing from God”

  • Test the Word you are getting.

Our God is unchanging, everlasting, immutable and omnipotent; and it follows from that that we can apply some tests to whatever ‘word’ we are getting to prove that it really is ‘hearing from God‘ – for instance:

  • Is it Consistent?

God does not contradict Himself, so whatever you are hearing MUST conform to scripture. You can’t be hearing from God if what you are hearing is against His word. Take adultery for instance.  It doesn’t matter how “good” you might feel about it, or how much ‘peace’ you have, God will never be telling you to do something that is against his commandments.

  • Are you at Peace?

Our God is a God of peace and love. The wisdom of Heaven is pure and peace loving, so you must be at peace in your spirit about what you are hearing. [James 3: 17.] But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace -loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.. If you are getting feelings of agitation or distress, then it is NOT from God, but from the other place….

  • Agreement by Your Peers

You need the agreement of your spiritual brothers that what you are saying is ‘from God’. Whenever I hear something that makes me feel uneasy in my spirit, I am sure that it is not from Heaven, but from the other Kingdom, and you will get agreement from other spiritually led brothers and sisters if what you are saying is indeed from God.

  • Effective Love

I think the most important and telling sentence ever written is this: “God is Love”.  This says it all, and if what you are proposing will damage or distress others, then it is very unlikely to be the will of God.

  • The Source:

The best quarantee you might have that what you want to say is from Him, is to ‘prove’ the source – use this same method to source any ‘Word’ you need or get as if you were going to preach it; I.E., seek the Holy Spirit of God and listen to that “still small voice”.

  • Confirmation

Our Heavenly Father is very gracious, and when we are obedient He will reward us accordingly.  You will know when you have ‘got it right’ because everything will just drop into place and you will have a warm feeling inside! Conversely, if you were following your own prompting then it will be difficult and you will not feel good about what you are attempting.

  • Apply ALL the tests

So do apply all the tests to answer your question; “How do you know you are hearing from God”.

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