A New Government

The last few of years have seen a heightened degree of interest at a global level around many national elections aligned with increasing disillusion with the establishment. Last weekend, here in Australia it was our turn.

Although it may appear that we just changed horses, and many feel quite concerned about the outcome, a couple of days before the election I felt that peace beyond understanding creep over me. Exploring what this meant I sensed God saying that the outcome of the voting was largely inconsequential in comparison to what He is doing.

Musing over this alongside my observations of various groups lobbying for this right and that, or for laws to be changed or repealed, I have questioned my involvement and the importance of our activity in these arenas. My journey through these thoughts has taken a few twists and turns, however and I have landed with a quite different perspective. Rather than trying to change our earthly governments directly, I see the concept of what it means for us, as Christians, to rule and reign with Jesus here on earth as being far more important.

I have long felt that simply changing laws to be more in line with “Christian values” only delays the inevitable as society has continued on its merry, progressive way, leaving behind faith and the fear of the Lord as outdated and irrelevant. The law tries to transform from the outside in, but to my mind, what is far more necessary and effective for the transformation of our society is the transformation of our hearts. Indeed, with transformed hearts, laws mostly become irrelevant. As Paul said, in Romans 8:10, “Love does not do harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fullness of the law.” And hence, my sense that who is governing is irrelevant in many aspects.

The point is, as I have discussed previously, while we operate out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong or judgement, we can never truly love each other. It will always come back to self interest, to blame and to death and destruction. For all our Christian faith,

if we have not learned to live out of the law of love, we will never be world changers.

Returning to the idea of governance, I felt a really deep revelation over the weekend that I believe is quintessential to the way ahead. It is a totally different way of fighting, but oh so much more profitable, so much more bang for our buck. In this past season/era, we have done so much of our fighting in the natural realm, which is only really like a bandaid on a shark bite at best to what ails our world - so often completely ineffective.

So how do we fight differently?

Many Christians I know can quite easily quote Ephesians 6:12:

“For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

However, in the main, we give every appearance of constantly viewing other people as our enemy, and we behave accordingly. We fight people. We can’t see past the behaviour to the person underneath whom Jesus loves so much He died for them. And He commands us to do likewise.

Love God, love your neighbour as yourself – it is that simple and that hard!

Working out what that love actually looks like probably needs to be on a case-by-case basis, but a good rule of thumb is that our response is patient, is kind, does not does not envy; or parade itself, is not arrogant; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It never fails. (1 Corinthians 13, NKJV)

The real clincher for me, though, was realising how we are to rule and reign in this new era. As I have contemplated this for some months now, and seeing God bringing down old structures and ways, I have wondered what the new might look like. Last weekend, I feel I was handed a key.

It is about our dominion over the spiritual realm. However, there is many a caution here. We cannot and must not even try to do this in our own strength or without walking closely with Holy Spirit in the how and when. Equally, though, there are some very easy and clear indicators of what it looks like.

First, there is a sequence to the level of our authority. The primary and most important area of authority we have is one that every person on the planet has, no matter their spiritual state:

Authority over self.

This is so important because if we haven’t learned to take authority here, our authority in other realms can easily be skewed or twisted and cause more damage than good. The enemy of our souls looks for these areas in our life and uses them to his advantage. Having the right order within our BE-ing is equally important: our spirit needs to take command over our soul and flesh/body. My flesh and soul will demand loudly what they want and need for their appeasement, but this is usually out of sync with the law of love, because they tend to put self ahead of others.

The second area of authority is our homes and relationships, especially in relationships such as with our children. We get to say what operates in those arenas without doubt. The only times that this won’t work is when we haven’t taken authority in our own person over the same issue. For example, I can’t expect to take authority over anger, or shame, or condemnation in my home if I don’t take authority over the way I deal with anger, shame or condemnation in myself.

From there, we move out into our community and beyond as we grow in spiritual stature.

But what does it look like? Simply casting out demons is not the answer (remember the idea of cleaning the house and seven worse spirits coming in?) and besides, it can be very dangerous if we fight above the authority God has given us personally.

There is a very simple measure, though, which is extremely powerful. It starts with the fruit of the spirit. As we manifest the fruit of Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – these have the power to overcome many other spiritual manifestations.

At times it will require us to lay down our lives, if not physically, definitely emotionally and spiritually. However, as we do, as we cease to respond to negative behaviour and situations in kind, but in the opposite spirit, we first learn to carry the victory of Jesus Christ in ourself, and then on into our communities and beyond. As we respond in Godly ways, we actually start to change the atmosphere around us and rather than increasing the negativity around us, will start to cleanse and bless it for Kingdom of God change.

A great insight into this comes from Roy Godwin (The Grace Outpouring), who has practiced this with amazing results in his local community by simply blessing his community with every good thing. At first, this is very confronting. In our minds, we believe that “bad people” don’t deserve blessing; they deserve punishment. Just like I did or do – I’m not perfect yet! And yet Scripture tells us that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance, (Romans 2:4). Not His wrath. So why do we keep looking to wrath and punishment as the answer? It is not our job to judge or meet out judgement or punishment. Our investment in ourselves is far too comprehensive to do it with any measure of justice, let alone the fact that this type of judgement is not what God has meted out to us.

Changing the spiritual atmosphere in our world may seem like a daunting or even impossible task. However, I am seeing more and more clearly that we are only required to step out into this in the degree Holy Spirit asks us to at the time we are asked. Sometimes it might be as simple and helping or encouraging someone in the street. Sometimes it might be singing or humming worship and praise as we go about our daily activities in the world. Other times it might be something more overt, praying for someone, or some activity. Personally, I use the sound of sirens – ambulance or other – as a prompt to pray and speak out life over whatever is going on, be that an accident, illness or other. The challenge is not how much we do, but to start, to do something. It may be a little awkward or uncomfortable at first, but as we learn to operate under Holy Spirit’s guidance, we find that those promptings yield fruit, which further encourages us to take the next step and the next step.

So here is the challenge: What is the next step the Lord is asking you to take in ruling and reigning for the Kingdom of God? Ask Holy Spirit to show you, and then simply step out. I’d love to hear your experiences!

(And if you have questions about what any of this looks like, please ask!)

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.” (Is 9:6-7 NIVUK)

If you want to investigate more on this theme, you can purchase a copy of “Untruth: Exploring Truth in a Post-Truth World” on my home page.

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

No going back: A message for the Church (Part 1)

As I have been watching churches scramble to bring some sense of normalcy and connection into their congregations at this time, when everything seems to have been tipped upside down, I am reminded of a dream I had just over two years ago.

It was quite a graphic and disturbing dream and everything was in full colour. In the dream, I was in something like an observation room overlooking a surgical theatre. All was pristine white, and there was a very large man lying on a gurney or operating table. Even as I looked, I realised he was fat because he was pregnant, and indeed, was in the process of birthing. It disturbed me and I was thinking, “That’s unnatural, but I guess it is to be expected these days”.

As I watched, there were three or four other men around him, all in white coats (like doctors), and as I wondered how he could physically give birth, they started to cut him open. They were behind him, and started cutting up along his spine starting at his buttocks and then, to my further horror, started peeling off his skin. He was screaming out in pain, and as I watched in revulsion the men were saying, it’s ok, he’ll be all right as we have another skin to replace this one with. At this point, there was another man standing in with them, watching, and I understood that they were going to give his skin to the original man. At this point, the dream was disturbing me so much I woke up.

Creative Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wings_Laparoscopic_operating_theatre.jpg

Reflecting and praying into what this dream means, I have sensed is that it is a message about the Church. There are several points that stand out to me.

Over the last few decades, as many branches of the Church have struggled with decline in numbers, various groups have investigated what needs to change to remain relevant or in touch with the general population, to bring people back in or keep them from leaving. To this end,

there have been numerous attempts to “birth” something new.

While not all of this has been negative, in a number of circumstances, all we have really been doing is changing the outward appearance (the “skin”) without actually changing the fact that underneath we are still operating out of “man’s” flesh or the ways of the world. In short, I believe we have often been trying to birth the things of man, rather than things of the spirit. It reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the new wine in old wineskins, except this is trying to put new wineskins on old wine. However, I believe the old ways of doing things will no longer work; they are causing too much pain  - it is time for the Church to come into a new season of the Spirit in every way.

It’s time for NEW wine in NEW wineskins!

I see that this way of operating, looking to ideas of human origin has invaded many branches of the Church, whether traditional, charismatic, Pentecostal or otherwise alternative. Wherever we are tangled up in the difference between what we “should do” and how to “be” the people of God we will continue to struggle. This is both at a personal and corporate level, although in many scenarios, what some leadership carry can infect the congregation adversely as well.

To me, the underlying issue is whether our mode of operation is from the perspective of the knowledge of good and evil (i.e. “this is right, this is wrong”, “do this to be a “good Christian”, to have the “favour of God””) or whether we are truly connecting people with the life source, allowing Holy Spirit to be their Guide and Counsellor, helping people to be connected first to God and then to each other, so that each person’s identity is firmly in relationship with God, rather than looking constantly to church leaders to know how we must behave and whether or not we are on the “right path”.

Over the last few years, it has become very clear that we are moving into a new era. The era of the Church being the primary focus in relation to our faith is quite abruptly over, I believe. With COVID-19 and the lockdowns, we have been catapulted out of the comfortable nest of “church-life” into the air, to living out “Kingdom life”. This is not to say that Church is over, but I certainly believe it is being stripped of all that needs to go. We are being released from all those things that have tied us to the ground and prevented us soaring as we are meant to.

The KINGDOM ERA has begun!

Part of another dream I had a couple of months back also relates in here. In the dream, I was hanging out washing (just doing normal life), and as I did, I became aware of a swirling mist coming down through the trees. (We live in the mountains, with tall forest around us.) Just as I was wondering if it was actually mist or whether it was smoke from someone burning off (either of which was going to disrupt what I was doing!), I smelt the smoke, but also started hearing the crackling of burning green leaves. Things then happened very rapidly, with the crackling getting louder and louder and then the very large (20+m) pittosporum trees across the road from us suddenly bursting into flame. Even as I called 000, emergency services, I got a text on my phone stating, “we are aware of an incident in your area”. Straight after this, I got a call from a firefighter (I could see him in uniform – whoever said dreams had to be practical!), asking what was going on. As I looked back to the trees, I realised that the fire had already gone out. All that was left was blackened branches against the sky, with one central branch still burning.

As I explored the meaning of this dream, which again, I felt was about the Church, I feel the important part for this discussion is about the leaves. As I was looking into the significance of the type of trees burning (which didn’t really turn up much for me), what I was aware of is the fact that they are very prolifically leafy, which has its benefits. However, it reminded me that when trees produce a great deal of leaves, this can inhibit their ability to produce fruit. In fact, leafiness, to an extent, can be inversely proportional to fruitfulness.

The message to the Church as I see it is that much of what we have been doing has been producing leaves not fruit. God, in His gracious mercy, is giving us the opportunity for radical change. In this time of inability to continue with “business as usual”, we have a unique opportunity to really dig deep and reassess what is important for the Church, the Body perhaps especially down to how we are structured. As restrictions pare us back to the bare bones, will we continue to desperately scramble to work out how we can continue with “business as usual”, or are we ready to go on the Holy Spirit ride of our lives for something completely new?

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Is 43:19

As others have observed, the time for “cookie cutter” or “church franchising” is over. It is time to stop looking to what has worked elsewhere and simply adding it to our own model and hoping for the same results.

We have to look to God alone for our unique way forward.

To help us move ahead and find the new that God for us, the questions below are a starting point:

“What is God’s vision for our village/town/region?”

“What has God placed in our area is unique or particular to us in our role to enlarge and release the Kingdom of God where we are?” 

“What is already going on that doesn’t match up with that vision?”

“What are the gifts and abilities God has already placed in our community to bring about this vision, that illuminate our role in this?”

“How can we work with the other communities of God in our area to bring about this vision?”

When your tank is running dry

It’s only just past 10 in the morning, and already I have found myself looking up at the sky many times today. What started out as blue skies has gradually been covered with ever darkening clouds. The wind is strong from the north and the temperature was already over 25°C at 8am. The humidity is well up and I am dripping. But what I am hoping for still hasn’t arrived. What has been promised by the weather bureau so many times may just pass us by again.

RAIN!

As we near the official end of summer, we are feeling the effects of very minimal rain over the last two months. The grass is a dry grey-brown and some plants are looking very much worse for wear. Even the weeds are dying! Being reliant on our rain tanks, we have had to pay for water to be trucked in.

Please let it rain today!

Perhaps you can relate to this - those feelings of disappointment about hopes that seem to never materialise and maybe you even feel as though disappointment has been a recurring theme in your life?

Back at Christmas, I was reminded anew of this struggle between hope and delivery.

In many ways, Christmas can be fraught with unmet hopes and disappointments. However, this year I was reminded of the depth and reality of hopes actually being met at that first Christmas.

In the lead up to Christmas, I experienced a number of disappointments. So I was really not feeling very celebratory at all and trying desperately to find some meaning in all the festivities. 

Finally, on the morning of Christmas Eve in church I had my own little epiphany. I am not sure why - I am not aware of anything especially different being said, and the Christmas carols we sang were not unusual. But somewhere in the midst of the singing, I found myself reflecting "this really did happen". Jesus really was born to real people who experienced those things we are told about. Mary really had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, Joseph really had those struggles and those dreams. The shepherds really had an angelic encounter. Anna and Simeon were real people who finally saw their hopes birthed in Jesus. It really all happened. 

Don't get me wrong. I hadn't been having a faith crisis or anything. This was simply a new level of 'knowing'. It was as though it almost became my own memory. Think of the Israelites, who told their stories over and over and other cultures where stories of the past are told - it becomes part of their cultural memory. It wasn't just a story that happened to someone else at some other time. It happened to their family.

It's a bit like the ownership we start to take of our ancestors when we find out more about them. Even if we never knew them, their story becomes part of our DNA. I have been sensing this particularly with members of my family tree who were involved in Christian ministry or mission - there is a greater level of affinity. (Although, I am not sure what this says about a large proportion of Australian people who would like to find they had convicts in their ancestry!)

Back to my own journey, this experience was not simply an anomaly or blip along the way. It tied in well with another insight I sensed from God around the same time.

This was to do with hope. I was reminded again of my own story and the realisation there are two ways to hope in God.

One is the belief that it is all about our ability. The belief that if we can cling tightly enough to God, we will get to the places and circumstances He has for us; we will be ok. But we have to do the work to cling to Him, to press further into Him. I recall the picture He gave me some time ago of how I had been when my first marriage ended, where I was like a little child being taught to float in the pool. Even as I was told, "lay back and relax, I've got you, I won't let go", I was clinging so tightly that I wasn't even in the water! My fear of the unknown, the future was preventing me trusting that God had it all under control.

What I sensed Him reminding me was that hope is not all about us. It is not even about our ability to hope.

Hope is about rest.

If we hope in God, it is not vain hope. It is hope at rest. We know He is good, we know He is able.

The alternative to hope is hopelessness, which can lead to despair. When we make hope all about our workings, then when those things we would like to see come about don't, we quickly fall into feeling powerless in our ability to do anything. Which, really, is the whole point of faith and prayer. It is the recognition that we are powerless to make God do anything, to change many circumstances we find ourselves in. 

As I was doing my Lenten readings the other day, I didn’t get past the first few words of one of the Scriptures. As I read it, I just wanted to stop there and soak deeply in what God showed me. It was so freeing! The reading was from Isaiah 9:6-7

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders…Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”

It is Jesus who shoulders the responsibility of the governments and the governance of every aspect of our world, human as well as all the physical, chemical and biological laws and so on. 
So often, we feel as though we have to do something to change the world, we despair of where it is all heading and live in fear of the future. This reminded me that Jesus knows and has already done something about it. 

We are not the answer. He is. 

We can work hard at all sorts of solutions, but unless He is in the midst of them, unless they are His ideas, they will be temporary fixes at best. True transformation – of individuals, of communities, of our world – only comes through encounter with the risen Christ, encounter with the Kingdom of Heaven. 

For me, this has become a resounding hope. I can look around at what is going on in our world: millions of refugees; another mass shooting; the effect of pornography, drugs and a permissive culture on our young people – on it goes, and find it easy to despair and wonder how it can change. However, two words keep resounding in my mind: 

“BUT GOD…” 

It doesn’t matter how big the problem or need, God is way bigger and He can change everything in an instant. We just have to connect with that close relative of hope, and TRUST His impeccable timing and His perfect ways to bring it all about!

Meanwhile, I’m off to hang the washing out.

"And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!" 

(Romans 5:5, Passion)