Manifesting the good stuff

The fruit of the Spirit is not circumstantial!

I woke up in the early hours with these words in my mind a little while ago. As I unpacked this statement, I saw it was both wonderful news, but at the same time quite a challenge.

The point is, if we have the Holy Spirit residing in us, then we have access to all His fruit, no matter what is going on in our lives or the world around us. We can have it all, in abundance! However, so often this is not our experience. We struggle with the absence of one or more aspects of the fruit and can feel like we just have to work harder to get there.

What if it is not about working harder?

What if it is more about asking the right questions?

If we are not experiencing the fruit of Holy Spirit, asking the question “Why not?” “What is blocking their flow in, through and out of us?” may be more helpful.

It is valuable to note that the fruit, as written in Galatians 5:22-23, is actually in the singular form.

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (or humility), self control.”

That means that they come together as a package - there is only one fruit, but there are different manifestations. From this perspective, I would like to share some thoughts on how we might deal with blockages we are experiencing with facets of this fruit.

To begin, if I am having difficulty receiving God’s love for me, I might ask the question, “Is there a lie I am believing about myself, God?” Or, “is there a lie I am believing about you, Lord?” “Is there something I need to repent of?” (Not because God withholds His love, but because these things become a barrier between us and Him.) (Later, in the podcast, there will be an opportunity to follow through on each of these areas.)

If I am having difficulty loving other people, asking the question, “Who do I need to forgive?” can open up the door to experiencing God’s love if I am prepared to go through the process of actually doing the work of forgiveness. This is not necessarily reconciliation, but it is about giving up my “right” for retribution, retaliation or vengeance.

In this time, I know that it can be very easy to lose our joy. In fact, this is one I have wrestled with for years. How can I be joyful when “x”, “y” and “z” are not how they should be? I believe there are two aspects to this. The first is to ask God what beliefs, expectations or even lies am I holding on to about my circumstances that are unhelpful? (i.e. I can only be happy when or if…) The second is to ask Him to show you His perspective on what is going on and what He is doing. Even in the last couple of days, I have caught a whiff of His excitement and joy about what He is up to that I believe is about to burst in on the scene. However, we won’t see it if we are focussed on the wrong things, if our vision is clouded or distorted.

A lack of peace can be related back to a lack in our trust in God, in who He is. A few years back, God showed me that rest and trust correlate - that is, where I do not experience rest is an indicator of an area where I don’t trust Him. I’m sure many of us can see numbers of ways in which we need to grow, need an “upgrade” in learning to trust and rest in Him in some area.

This all leads back to the shalom peace of God, which is about healing, wholeness, restitution and integrity to name a few. If these are all in alignment, then we are at rest, at peace. For those areas you become aware of where you are struggling to trust God, ask Him to show you what healing needs to occur so your heart can trust Him more, or ask Him to show you a glimpse of what He sees, or to give you a key to help you move into greater trust in Him around this issue.

As we move through the fruit manifestations from here, I would suggest the blockages really link back to these three areas, but most particularly love - how we give and receive love is all impacted by our beliefs about ourselves and others. Our impatience is often a lack of seeing the other through God’s loving eyes; unkindness maybe the same, or could relate to a measure, a judgement we also use on ourselves, which could expose our inability to love ourselves. We could make similar observations about the other areas. If we are struggling to manifest that part of the fruit, there is probably something unresolved in how we see ourselves and others that we need to bring to Father God for healing and transformation, as “we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next” (1 Cor 3:18, CJB).

The final facet listed is self-control. Recently, as I was asking God for part of the key to what keeps people stuck in unhealthy spaces when they have had healing and received freedom in many areas, He gave me the word “self-discipline”, which made sense. If we want to change, if we want the atmosphere around and within us to be different, we can’t just expect to keep doing the same things, thinking the same things, focussing on the same things and expecting different outcomes.

If we want to feel different, we have to exercise some self-discipline, some self-control over our thought life and what information and input we fill ourselves with. In a time when many of us have information overload, stepping back and giving ourselves space and time away from the world and all its struggles is vitally important to our emotional and spiritual well being. If we master this, then we will no longer be tossed around by our changing circumstances, but will be found secure, anchored in God. However, we can’t do it alone. We must partner with Holy Spirit. And sometimes, having an accountability partner, some one we give permission to pull us up when our conversation, thoughts or behaviour strays down unhelpful paths can give us that extra boost toward changing our habits.

If you would like to pray through some of these issues, you will find a segment toward the end of the podcast where you can do so. If you still find yourself stuck after that, you are welcome to connect with me via the contact page for information about some further prayer.

Please encourage us all by sharing in the comments anything God is shifting in your life through this process.

Backing track CALM - Deep Instrumental worship (No copyright music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzO5oe8hAaI

How's your heart health?

The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

This phrase from Luke 6:45 popped into my mind the other day. However, rather than it being about condemnation and judgement, I felt God showing me that it was an opportunity, a key to connect with God. I felt Him saying,

“Listen to what comes out of your mouth. It will give you an idea of what is going on in your heart. If there is anything that’s not great, it’s an indicator of something going on in your heart that needs attention. You now have the opportunity to bring that part of your heart to Me for healing and restoration.”

We all need to listen to what comes out of our mouth. Is it frustration and negativity? Bitterness? Annoyance and anger? Hurt, malice, discord, even hatred? James tells us, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing...this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring…can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” (James 3:9-12, NIV)

If we believe we have God’s Holy Spirit in us, what comes out of our mouths should reflect this. Galatians 5 gives us a great idea of what this looks like:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

How wonderful is our God that He gives us the opportunity for transformation, to become more like Him? However, how often do we not take this opportunity, instead resorting to our same old methods of self-protection and self-preservation?

Hebrews 3 repeatedly quotes a verse from Ps 95 - “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion…”

Why do we harden our hearts?

Again, I believe it is our self-protection. Right from our early years we experience hurt, disappointment, anger, frustration at some point. We learn that the world is not safe, that other people are not safe, and so, we find that if we want to feel safe (physically or emotionally), we have to do it for ourselves. Sometimes that is by lashing out ourselves, using our bodies, our voice or our words. Others learn it is safer to hide away. We might do a mixture of both. However we protect ourselves, it leads to walls around our hearts, or even callouses. We harden our hearts because we believe the lie that it will protect us from further pain.

Today is an opportunity. I believe that today, right now, where you are, God wants to bring healing to your heart, to take you to another level in freedom.

When we come to a place of worship, it is an interface, a place where we not only get to give God the praise and glory due to Him, but a place where He meets us. We cannot do this properly from a place where we are not prepared to be vulnerable, open and honest with Him. As scary as it can seem, when we lay all our pain, hurt and brokenness out on the table for Him to see, it is the place where healing, wholeness and freedom can come.

The invitation right now is for you to do this with God, either as I sing over you, or put on some quiet worship and spend your own time with Him. The reality is, we cannot fix ourselves. If you have stuff coming out of your mouth and heart that you know is unhelpful, unhealthy, that you know you want change in, now is the time. He can and He will – His desire is for your wholeness. After all, that’s why Jesus came, died and rose again – so you can be free.

This is a photo I took the other morning, where I saw what looked to me like a giant mouth in the sky. The words that came with it were, “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord”. Let our words, hearts and lives also reflect His glory more and more!

“The heavens declare the glory of the Lord”

(Backing track is from WORSHIP - DEEP INSTRUMENTAL WORSHIP - (NO COPYRIGHT MUSIC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fixZNIFIbs&t=305s)

I will give You my heart, Jesus, but I don’t want to…

Hearts have been on my radar more recently, popping into my vision in weird ways, as shown in these photos. They are reminding me of a time in my journey where I “foolishly” asked Jesus if there was anything He wanted me to bring to Him for healing. His response: “Would you bring Me your broken heart?” Seems fairly innocuous, doesn’t it? After all, the idea of “giving our hearts to Jesus” is fairly prevalent in Christian circles.

But I was shocked.

Shocked by the fact that He would need to ask, and even more shocked by the fact that I was really struggling with actually giving it to Him. Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but I didn’t want to! I was scared and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I was ready to trust Him with my heart. After all, it had taken a fair battering over the years and was only just getting some healing. I wasn’t ready to risk getting hurt again.

And yet…and yet…I had been learning that Jesus is trustworthy. He had brought such healing into my life, such transformation to the way I functioned and viewed the world. And so, with tears streaming down my face, with trembling and uncertainty, I pushed through and said, “Yes…Yes, I WILL give You my heart!”, with all the strength I could muster. It felt so right, but so hard at the same time. It wasn’t pain free or fear free. However, something shifted from that time. My shell of self-protection was dissolving. In its place, I was learning to live under the protection of the Most High. It is a position that doesn’t always “feel” safe, but in reality, no where else is safer.

So, in these images of hearts that have literally been in my path, I feel there is an invitation for anyone else who is in need of some heart healing:

For those who feel their heart is torn, left abandoned, lost and far from home;

For those whose heart has become dried out, brittle, prickly and hard;

For those whose heart seems half buried under the weight of sorrows, of the stones and dirt thrown at them, or just the burden of life…

Or anyone else who is struggling to trust again, struggling to even breathe, there is an invitation to bring your heart in whatever state you find it to the gentle Shepherd, the King of kings, the Healer. He is trustworthy and faithful and if you let Him, He will not only protect your heart - taking care of it as the precious jewel that it is to Him - but He will heal and restore you, too! All you have to do is say, “YES!”

**The song “O Come to the Altar”, by Elevation Worship has been going around my head alongside this post - it is quite powerful. (Click on the link to listen)

If this is something you don’t know how to do, want help with, or want to know more about, please feel free to message me below, via the contact page, or through Facebook.

He's never going to stop!

Relentless.

This is the word that came to mind as I stood out on the rocks at the edge of the ocean.

I have always loved going to the beach, but particularly ocean beaches. There is something innately attractive in the raw power of nature. Spending the weekend in an amazing house where all the windows looked straight out at the ocean in the middle of winter holds its own attractions – being cosy and warm (with the fire going), watching rain rush across the bay chased by bands of sunshine and the accompanying parade of rainbows is soothing to the soul and refreshing.

However, standing at the edge of the ocean on one of our long walks, with the pounding of the huge waves upon the rocks, I felt a little intimidated. You hear stories of people standing that little bit too close when a freak wave comes up and they are claimed by the powerful force of the ocean.

As I stood there, I felt God saying that this is His creation. Think about that for a moment. Dwell on it.

God created this powerful, relentless, cleansing, refreshing overwhelming force that is the ocean.

When we create something from our own imagination, it generally reflects something of ourselves; how we think; who we are. So it is with God. His creation, as we reflect on it, as we dwell on it, tells us much about Him.

The ocean often speaks of His power and might, but 

the power and might of the ocean is dwarfed by His power and might.

His power and might become inconceivable to me at this point. A bit like Job, when God tells Him all the things He created – who are you to question Me? We too are dwarfed by comparison, even with all our self-importance and belief in the significance of what we do or don’t do.

But in the midst of this reflection comes another thought, a reminder. God’s power is not about Him being a megalomaniac; it is not about control, coercion, or even competition.

His power is in His love.

The waves of the ocean this weekend have been relentless – even as one breaks, the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one just keep coming. We cannot think to hold them back or even influence them one iota. God’s love and the power of His love is even more sure. Whether we acknowledge it, are able to accept it, or even want it, His love toward us is relentless. What we do with it is up to us.

For some of us, we like to sit up in the house on the hill. We can watch from there, but the roar of the waves is heavily muted by the glass and the impact of the ocean is almost negligible to us, other than the enjoyment of watching it ebb and flow and the beauty of its raw power. But we don’t want it to change us or cause us any discomfort, so we stay where it is safe and comfortable.

For others, perhaps we like to get more up close and personal and a brisk walk along the beach is more our scene. We can hear and feel the pounding of the surf, smell the salt and the seaweed, connect with the impact the ocean has had on the environment, bringing beautiful gifts of shells and soft sand for us to enjoy the texture and colours. We can explore at the edges, rugged up against the chill and being careful not to get our feet wet.

Today I was reminded of my own tentativeness towards God’s raw power. Part of me was ready to dive in for a swim in that beautiful ocean, even though the water was only an icy 15 degrees or so and the wind chill was fierce. The idea of stripping off and feeling the refreshing, cleansing, invigorating power first hand was somehow very attractive. Standing on that rock watching the waves pound and their spray rise metres into the air, though, I felt that little finger of fear as well. If I fell, if I was washed in, would I too be pounded into the rocks? Would I be hurt, damaged, broken?

I think that we all have times when we hold back from God because we sense His power and the fear rises up that we may lose something of ourselves that we value or want to hold onto (like our dignity, or control!), or worse still, that we might feel pain and even find ourselves broken.

Looking back over the past couple of decades, there are a number of times where I see that I was in that powerful ocean, being taken places I had no control over, even feeling quite pounded and at a number of times, completely broken. While I can’t say that they were great times, there is a point at which I am glad I went through them. There is a point where I found that pushing into and past the pain brought me to a new place, a place where I have been remade, renewed, refreshed. And while I may have felt I lost my dignity at times, it has still been worth it.*

Even as I write, I am reminded of giving birth. My daughter was born after a long labour, in the end with the assistance of forceps. At the point of birth, there were around 10 other people in the room, all watching what was going on - talk about losing your dignity! However, all that fades into nothing with the new life that was birthed through that process. It is the same with us as we go through the process of letting go of our control and allowing the relentless power and force of God’s love overwhelm us again. What is birthed through those times is invaluable.

In ministry, we often work with people in the process of letting go of stuff that has been their protection and helped them feel in control. Moving through the process of forgiveness and release to the other side can be really scary and painful. There is no guarantee when you are in that place that it will be better on the other side. As much as I know it will and experience with so many others has shown this to be true for them also, I can’t prove it to you. You have to experience it for yourself.

Are you ready to stop and allow God’s relentless love overtake and overwhelm you?

*If you are interested to know more of my journey through this, why not check out my book, "Handing Back Control".