Filling the Void

23 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, God's Blessings, Inspiration, Jesus, Religion, Seeking God

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Filling the voidWith all the thousands of religions in the world today; each with its’ own unique and differing belief system; it would be careless of us not to at the very least consider why this situation has evolved in the way that it has.

From the dawn of time, humankind has been searching for something, searching to fill a void that it would seem on the surface anyway, cannot be filled. But what is that void and why are we so desperate to fill it? Purpose, meaning, hope, are just some of the concepts in life we try to understand. Learning how to apply them to our lives on a personal level, a constant challenge! But what is the yearning we have, to fill our lives with something we don’t have; forever seeking something we don’t seem able to find?

New religions and cults continue to emerge, each seeking to find something new that gives meaning to life. Something for the believer to hold on to and to get them through this life; and on to the next. For me there is only one explanation, and that is the one that was there from the very beginning, has endured, remaining constant amid the birth and death of so many religions and theories.

To work out what we are searching for, we need to understand who we are and why we are here. Yes, those questions just keep on popping up, but the answers remain elusive to many. The book of Genesis gives us the simplest and yet the only true answer to these questions.

Genesis 1:26-28
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

We were created to look like God and to be like Him; in His image and in His likeness! We know we were created to have power over the earth, to look after all things in it and to subdue it. We were created to live in a position of power and not weakness. We received the blessings of God in our lives, as He told us to be fruitful and to multiply… and He gave us the earth. To a certain extent we do those things; though not very well!

So, what then is missing from our lives why does the world keep trying to worship anything and everything. People are creating gods to worship for their finances, their happiness, the weather, the sun god, the moon god; you name it and it exists. Animals have been idolised and turned into gods over the very beings that God created to have power over them. Some of the most heinous, outrageous and evil acts in society were carried out to appease a god, or an idol or the belief that it would secure someone’s place in heaven.

What is the world searching for? Well, God created us as His children, to be in a parent child relationship with us. That is why He says He is our Father; because He is! He loves us and wants us to love Him, in much the same way a parent loves a child and wants that child to love them. He wants us to communicate with Him and share our lives with Him.

In the world, when there is a breakdown in that most important relationship that shapes the rest of our lives, it has a de-stabilising effect not only in the immediate family but also in the broader society.  Its’ impact is far reaching. Children need to be taught, nurtured and guided by a parent and without it the child grows up feeling unloved, and seeking for that love in one form or another. The place in the heart where that love should have resided was left empty, void, and cries out to be filled… with something!

In this way too, a breakdown in our relationship with our Father leaves a void which cannot be filled by anyone or anything else. His love is unparalleled and once you experience that love, you will not be satisfied with a substitute; as all else pales in comparison. If you have never experienced that love then there will be an inner urge to go searching for it, although you don’t really know what ‘IT’ is… and that is the position the world is in. Constantly searching for the Father’s love in all the wrong places and substituting it with whatever they find that seems to makes sense to them.

When we walked away from God’s love and chose a different path, we impacted our world so much so, that we could not and still cannot fix it.  We turned it upside down, back to front and inside out creating a huge void; where God used to be. But when God reached out to us and gave us a second chance through His Son Jesus Christ; we were able to fill that void with His love once again. However for those who still do not know God’s love; their search continues.

Be Blessed!

 

 

 

 

Be a Game Changer

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Spiritual Training, Spiritual Warfare

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Game Changer2

Your world was upside down without God; but now it is turned the right way up!  Make no mistake, Satan does not like this, he is mad and angry, actually he always is.

Let us remind ourselves of what we are dealing with here.  He challenges God at every turn, he knows there is no forgiveness for him so he hates the fact that there is forgiveness for us.  He will seek to destroy you at every turn as told to us in the following scripture:

John 10:10
The thief (Satan) comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:

This is Satan’s purpose, to steal your salvation, to kill you and to destroy your life, and not just yours, but he will target your family and friends all at the same time.  He will try to use you to harm someone and then destroy you afterwards if you let him.  It is all a game to him, so when he brings his game to you, you need to be a game changer.  You need strategy, spiritual weapons, endurance and there is only one way you can be victorious over him and that is through Jesus Christ.  There is power in the name of Jesus and everything you do must be in His name.  God gave Him this name because of the power in it.

Philippians 2:9-11
Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  

Satan and all his demons have to bow to the name of Jesus.  Whilst we acknowledge what he is capable of we do not fear him.  All Satan had to do in heaven was to look beautiful, worship God and be a leader over the angels under him, and he couldn’t even do that!  He could not fulfil his purpose and he does not want you to fulfil yours, so do not fear a failure and a continuous one at that.  He does not know what you are thinking unless you vocalise it, he cannot take your life because he did not create you and God will not allow it (however he can convince you to do it or convince some else to do it,) he has tactics.

He cannot create, because he is a created being, in a word he is ‘limited’ in what he can do to you.  His strategy is to remind you of your past sins, keep throwing the same temptations back at you and sometimes throw you some curve balls when you least expect it.  So you need to know the game.  The only way you will know the game is through studying the bible and prayer.

When someone hurt you, Satan will convince you through thoughts to seek revenge and to hurt them.  Our natural logic and the sin nature will want to seek to get even also.  He will use unwitting friends, family and acquaintances to convince you that what you are doing is right.  This is his game plan, but don’t play it with him, change the game.  Do it God’s way and love those who hurt you, the enemy will hate it, but there is nothing he can do about it because you have the power of the Holy Spirit protecting you and he cannot take on the Holy Spirit, he cannot win; but this is not to say he won’t keep trying.

Take advice and counsel from wise men and women of God and more importantly be led by the Holy Spirit.  To be a game changer you need to focus on Jesus, the Word of God; to turn Satan’s games on him.

Be blessed!

 

Walking with God!

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Inspiration, Jesus, Love, Spiritual Training, The Gospel

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 Jesus footsteps2

For the best part of three and a half years twelve men walked with God, literally and in every sense of the word; on this earth. They lived with Him, ate with Him, prayed with Him, laughed with Him, cried with Him, worked miracles with Him… do I need to go on?

What an awesome, awesome honour! When I meditate on this it is very humbling that our God, came down out of heaven, to work with us and for us. He could have brought the mighty angels with Him; He could have done so many other things to fix us, but He chose to include us in His plan. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, He WASHED the feet of His disciples and after He rose from death, He COOKED for them… fish on the beach! People of God it doesn’t get any better than that.

Let’s take that in for a moment… then reflect on ourselves. When was the last time we did something that special for someone, whether we know them well or not? It is so easy to go through life focusing on ourselves and not putting anyone else first. Everything Jesus did was for others; for us. The level at which He humbled Himself for us, means that surely we can humble ourselves for each other. Remember we were created in His image and in His likeness; so it is possible to be like Him and indeed we should be.

Love started us on this journey and love will bring us through.  Often when relationships fail in life, you will hear people say ‘Love was not enough,’ and this belief is expressed in films and books again and again.  Whilst this statement is true to some extent it is not the whole story.  The truth is, “Our love is not enough but God’s love is more than enough and perfectly able to cope with anything we experience in life.”  We need to practice God’s unfailing, unconditional, unfathomable transcendent love.  Through it all things can be accomplished.

He was and still is our example of how to show real unconditional love to each other.  Being a trained Complementary Therapist; I enjoy helping people to look after their tired and overworked bodies; and of all the treatments I have done my most favourite is looking after peoples’ feet. Those poor little members do so much to bear us up, becoming sore and swollen after a long days’ work, yet often we treat them so poorly. Many will tell you they are disgusted with their feet, refuse to look at them or show them to anyone and absolutely refuse to let anyone else look after them.

This happens all too often in life. We can be dismissive, refuse to show love to others, embarrassed by each other, will not give unless we receive; yet no one is able to repay Jesus for the things He did and continues to do for us. Could we wash the feet of a tired brethren, show unparalleled hospitality to strangers and loved ones, without ever expecting some kind of repayment? He knew we couldn’t repay Him yet He did it anyway… To walk with God we must first walk in His footsteps, because now it is a Spiritual Walk!

Recommended Reading
The Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

 Stay Blessed!

The Default Position

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, God, God's Plan, Heaven, Jesus

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Default positionThere is so much confusion in the world today, with Christianity right up there at the top of the list. Many people don’t realise they are in a certain position in life and that they need to make a choice to get out of it. I call it the ‘default position.’

In the day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, they inherited the knowledge and all that it had to offer, they lost the will to do the right thing and this became inherent in mankind.  They had the Knowledge but not through experience of that knowledge.  The curse of sin, not individual sin, but the sin of the world was that we, ‘man-kind’ gave away our birth-right and the right to all that God had for us.

Our birth-right was to have dominion over all the earth and the life in it from a position of holiness because we knew no sin.  Holiness was our default position.  When we gave up our birth-right to that holiness we also turned the natural order upside down and the world also ‘fell,’ it was no longer a perfect world.   An imperfect ruler cannot rule over a perfect world; one way or another they will corrupt it.  So our default position was now a sinful one in a fallen world and no longer holiness in a perfect world.  For this reason, Jesus had to come to give us our birth-right back.

Our peaceful, beautiful world became beset with one disaster after another. Jesus did not come to fix this world or to patch us up to continue living in it, He came to make all things new, a new people and a new world, as told to us in the following scripture.

Revelation 21:5
And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.  And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

In this world as we know it, there are only two forces, the force of ‘Good’ (God) and the force of ‘Evil’ (the Devil).  When Adam and Eve gave away our birth-right we did not have a choice in the matter, but now we do have a choice in our destiny and our final destination.  Jesus came to give us back our choice so now we have power over our own destiny and not someone else.  Now we have a choice and can choose to be with God or to be with the devil.  In choosing one the other will be rejected and most people find this easy enough to understand.

However, if you do not make a choice, you are in the default position which is sin, Satan’s domain and there is no middle ground and no grey areas.  If you do not chose God, by default you have chosen the devil, because you will remain in your sin and sin is of the devil.

The default position is inherited, we are all born in it so we must make a conscious decision to get out of it, this is the choice Jesus gave back to us.  As stated earlier, the human race came under it when mankind fell and it is the worse position we could be in which is why God gave us a way out.  Many however, do not realise that they are in the default position, so they do not think they have to make a choice to get out of it.  To get to heaven, you must choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, He is the only way, it has been ordained by God from the beginning of time.  Jesus confirms this in the following scripture when He is talking to Thomas one of His disciples:

John 14:6
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.

There is no other way to get to the Father or to get into heaven.  No matter how much we challenge this, criticise it, reason against it, it is what it is.  Any doctrine or teachings that sidestep Jesus are redundant.

Stay blessed!

Broken Wing!

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Inspirational Poetry, Seeking God

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Seek God Blog2

I came upon a bird, more beautiful and perfect than ever I’d seen
Who tried to fly away to pastures green
He fought and struggled and wore himself down
And wondered why he couldn’t get off the ground
He gazed at the other birds, and praised them for their beauty and grace
Then completely excluded himself from the race.

His mind confused he sought to hide
While searching for answers far and wide
I came upon him again one day
And felt his pain as he walked my way
“Little bird” I said, “why walk when you have wings?”
“Birds were made to fly and sing
It is a most unnatural thing you do
This is not the life for you.”

I sat him down and asked him to sing
He spoke and said, “I seem to fail at everything
I cannot fly, no matter how hard I try.”
“Little bird,” I said, “you are a clever thing
But even you cannot fly with a broken wing
You must seek and you will find
The answers await you, in front, not behind
So fly little bird fly.”

He continued to look downhearted
“My heart is so heavy,” he said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“To love someone else,” I replied, “you must first love you
Little bird with the broken wing
Divine loves come from within
Love God first, and all things will be revealed
Then slowly, but surely your wing will be healed.”

 

God is Here

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Inspiration, Inspirational Poetry, Poem

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God is hereI love to write poetry so thought I’d share some with you. Hope it inspires and blesses you!

In the beginning we were created
Perfect in all our ways, innocent as new born babes
But deceit, deception and dangerous liaisons
Brought about such a cataclysmic reaction
One thing leading to another
Pain and estrangement from our Father
The world turned upside down
And into turmoil we were thrown.

Expelled in shame and disgrace
That was the punishment to the human race
Out of the presence of God our Father
Distance growing ever farther
The ‘knowledge’ of good and evil we desired
Became but a curse as it transpired
To be like God, in our vain pursuit
Snatched from His Glory and left destitute.

But His Love knew no bound
And Mercy in His sight we found
His one and only Son He sent
To tell us our sentence was spent
For He countered the attack on our race
Bringing us back under Grace
So now we have Hope in Christ
For no one else could pay that price.

Our aim, to be one again with God
But to be with our Father, we must go through His Son
The journey is long with challenges along the way
Now there is nothing for us to pay
Revealing all through His Holy Spirit
Protection from Satan who dropped us in it!
Many kick against the prick and jeer
But I’m so glad GOD that You are here.

Be Blessed!

Follow Christ and the Blessings will follow you!

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Faith, God's Blessings, Love, The Gospel

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 Above clouds

We spend a lot of time focused on obtaining blessings from God, begging for the signs and wonders; the miracles, great wealth and more! Many Christians when they come to the Lord, get carried away with what they see, the miracles, the preaching and teaching, the prophesying; and crave the ‘power’ of the Holy Spirit.  They want to raise the dead, they want to preach to thousands, they want to prophesy and have many followers. Leading these followers to the Lord however, comes in a distant second. The desire for worldly wealth becoming an obsession in this Christian generation. Whilst it is a good thing to have a desire for the Lord to use you, and work great things through you, and there is nothing wrong with being blessed with wealth; nothing can or will work if you do not have love in your heart.  Love for God and for each other. If your heart is not for God, everything you do will be in vain. 

We do not follow the signs and wonders or the wealth… we follow Christ and the blessings follow us!

In the following scriptures, Jesus tells His disciples that the signs and wonders will follow them who believe and go forth preaching and teaching the Gospel. Then the Lord Himself will work with them confirming the preaching with the signs wonders! 

Mark 16:17-20
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.  

Praying ceaselessly for God to give you the power to heal and raise the dead is not what the Lord taught us. God’s blessings come in many forms but first and foremost, He is a Spirit and requires us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. We are called from the physical to the spiritual. His blessings will primarily be Spiritual and to a lesser extent material. He will not bless us with things that we are ill equip to deal with, don’t understand, and He certainly will not bless us with blessings which are not part of our purpose in Him.

Often Christians take scriptures out of context as in Malachi 3 below, and pay their tithes only for what they think they can get from God; and start asking for what they want. But God did not say, pay your tithes, then come to me with a list of your demands!  

Malachi 3:10
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 

God did not say the blessing will be great wealth, actually we do not know the what, where, when or how; so often if the blessings don’t fall in line with what people desire, they ignore it. We think if we say it long and hard enough, claim it and believe it; it will be so. Some start ‘sowing’ into huge global ministries buying miracle water, oil, prayer shawls, magic: if you sow into the ministry, thirty days later you will suddenly become rich. In all this people are relying on their ability and determination and forget the most import factor; God’s will! Often there is little or no love for God or the things of God. We don’t spend time with Him, refuse to praise Him; but we want to demand the blessings from Him.

There are so many books, teachings and advice in the world today on how to remind God of His promises to us, how to claim those promises, what processes we need to follow to obtain the blessings of God and a victorious life in Christ. There is little mention on nurturing your relationship with God, waiting on Him, letting Him work in your life according to His perfect will for you! If all these worldly doctrines are to be believed, we will all be rich in earthly wealth, we will never be sick, we will have be healed if we become sick, and we will not die because we can just ask the Lord for whatever we want, believe it and we will receive it?? Not so… many people who don’t know the Word of God for themselves believe and live according to these doctrines.

Christians will struggle, will go through trials and tribulations, will get sick; some will be rich and others won’t, and we certainly will die. The abundant life is not a life rich in material blessings; it is a life rich in Christ and the things of God. This is not defined by earthly possessions and financial status. Life itself is a blessing which we so often take for granted, or completely discard by the taking of a life. How often do we thank God for the life He gave us without worrying about the trappings?

If we love God, believe in Him, preach the Gospel, delight ourselves in Him, have a real relationship with Him, be faithful and obedient to Him; guess what? He will give us everything we need. The blessings really will follow us, above and beyond anything we could ask for! And the following scripture confirms this!

Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Apostles were never rich in earthly wealth, but they could not avoid the signs and wonders following them wherever they went, because Jesus was working with them through the Holy Spirit, simply because they were doing the work of God. They never once prayed and begged for the ability to work miracles. Let us go back to the doctrine of the Bible and stop getting carried away with the doctrines of charismatic men and women!

Be blessed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do I deal with betrayal?

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Faith, God's Plan, God's Process, Jesus, Spiritual Training

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silver

Matthew 26:2
 Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified

Where do I even start on the subject of betrayal? It’s such a huge topic and so many of us have experienced it. So, how did you deal with it, when the person(s) you loved, cared for and trusted; your friend and confidant betrayed you? Are you healed from the attack; because that’s what it is, an attack! For me when I am dealing with the aftermath of an attack of the enemy, my first port of call is the one person who can actually help me; Jesus! And in understanding the very debilitating condition of this attack we examine how Jesus dealt with it.  How did He deal with the aftermath of His betrayal, this attack direct from the enemy channelled through one of His closest confidant? 

Betrayal as defined by Meriam Webster is to give information about (a person, group, country, etc.) to an enemy; to hurt (someone who trusts you, such as a friend or relative) by not giving help or by doing something morally wrong; and we can all agree that this sums up Judas Iscariot perfectly. He was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples who handed Jesus over to His enemies for thirty pieces of silver; to be killed. 

Luke 22:3-6
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. 

The components of betrayal:

  • Satan
  • Close friend/confidant
  • An immoral plan
  • The reward
  • Unwavering determination to hurt someone who trusts and cares about you 

The devil is always in the detail. Judas made a pact with the enemies of Jesus who sought to kill Him and was waiting for the perfect time to accomplish his plan. There is no special DNA for this type of person who could betray a friend; it is determined by many variables. The circumstances, the type of relationship between the players, envy, selfishness, greed, their mind-set and beliefs; the list goes on. Who really knows why people do this… sin! 

What we need to do is learn how to deal with it, by understanding How the Lord Jesus Himself dealt with it. So, He knew what was going to happen long before it hit and did it hurt Him in His heart? Yes of course it did! Did He rant and curse, swear to get even, rile the other eleven disciples to take sides with Him and against Judas? No! He left Judas to his own devices, because He knew that He had to go through certain things to fulfil His destiny, and so do we. 

John 18:2-4
And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? 

Jesus remained CALM, trusted God to take Him through and waited patiently for someone He loved and trusted, to bring an army against Him, brandishing weapons and to take Him to His death. Never did He challenge the plan of God for His life. Never did He lash out at Judas or anyone else. He didn’t seek revenge, He didn’t even stop speaking to Judas. Matthew 26 tells us that Jesus made it known to the disciples that He would be betrayed by one of them and confirmed to Judas that it was Him. He then continued to keep the Passover with all of them, including Judas. He didn’t send him away and eat with the other eleven, He ate with them all.

When we come to the Lord we know we have to go through many trials to become spiritually mature. How we deal with these trials and tribulations are determined by our level of maturity.  We cannot avoid them if we are to fulfil our destiny in Christ.

What to do:

  • Never react as you would before you came to Christ.
  • You are a new creation in Him now so act the way He would.
  • Stay calm in all situations.
  • Assess the situation and take it with your wounded heart to the Lord.
  • Close your door and pour it all out to Him, as often as is necessary.
  • Exercise self-control when dealing with the betrayer.
  • Ask God to heal you and spend a lot of time with Him while He works in you.
  • Don’t rush it!
  • Never seek revenge.
  • Go through the process and come out the other side, stronger than before!

Stay blessed!

 

 

 

 

 

Understanding Resurrection

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Jesus

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grave-2115941And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Luke 22:19 

We have just had an amazing weekend remembering the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ the one thing the Lord asked us to remember until He comes.  We know that there are many stories surrounding Jesus’ resurrection as the Roman government of the day and Jewish Religious leaders plotted together to fabricate stories that His disciples stole His body. But there are many, especially new converts who don’t fully understand and are just not sure what the Resurrection really signifies in the life of a Christian.

Resurrection is such a huge concept to understand that I couldn’t let this most important event pass for another year without writing a few lines about it, especially for our new converts or anyone struggling to understand it. I often read of three different types of resurrection; but for me there is a fourth.

  1. The raising of the dead such as Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the young man from Nain; to mention a few
  2. Jesus’ resurrection
  3. The resurrection of those who die in Christ when Jesus comes again
  4. Resurrection from Sin into Christ

Definition: Resurrection put simply is the raising up of someone from the dead; bringing them back to life.

Jesus showed us that this was possible when He rose Lazarus from the dead and indeed throughout His ministry He raised may others from the dead; but as we know the vast majority of miracles He did could not all be contained in Bible. However, we have enough to gain a full understanding of this amazing act of God. The following scriptures tells us of some of the people who Jesus resurrected. These people were resurrected into their physical bodies and continued life as before and later died again just as we all must die one day: unless we are alive at Jesus’ second coming. But that’s topic for another time. 

Recommended Reading
Matthew 9 – Jairus’ daughter
Luke 7 – The young boy from Nain
John 11 – Lazarus

Then we have Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection as told to us in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Now this resurrection is the one that is extremely important to mankind! For it is this resurrection that gives us eternal life. The following scriptures tells us that Christ is the ‘firstfruits’ of the dead, so He is the first one to be raised from the dead. 

1 Corinthians 15:20
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

But we know many others were raised from the dead also and before Christ died because He was the one who raised many of them. So, what does this really mean for us? The scripture is referring to the first one to be raised from the dead into eternal life. Jesus was not raised into His earthly body to continue suffering pain or to die again. He was raised into His glorified spiritual body, never to be a man again, never to suffer pain and NEVER to die again. And He is the first one to experience this and through Him, we will later experience this also.

The third resurrection is the one that affects all those who die in Christ. When the Lord Jesus comes again, the dead in Christ will rise and not into our physical, sick dead bodies, but into our spiritual, glorified bodies; never to die again. We will be resurrected onto eternal life in Christ.

So where does the fourth resurrection come in? Well, for me it is in fact the first one, because before any of us can be resurrected into eternal life, we have to die to sin and be resurrected in Jesus Christ; we have to be saved. Kill the old sinful man and be born again into the new righteous man. And we do this by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and later receive water baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Be blessed!

 

Disbelief in the things of God

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Jesus

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Dove

I understand when the world does not believe in the things of God, but I don’t understand when Christians, God’s babies… don’t truly believe in Him.

I have met many Christians from various denominations who categorically DO NOT believe in ‘tongues’ or the workings of the Holy Spirit: and I do not understand why! I do believe that there are many things in the Bible which are not easy to understand and without spending time with God studying the Bible, we will never truly understand them. This however, is not one of them. The New Testament teaches us about the gift of tongues and the gifts of the Spirit again and again. Christianity could only be birthed after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the earth. Jesus taught us about Him, why He had to come, what He would do, why the Apostles had to WAIT for Him to be empowered to go and preach and teach the Gospel. So, why do we have Christians saying that we are ‘pretending,’ or ‘acting,’ when we speak in tongues or ‘fall out in the Spirit?’  The following scriptures confirm the Holy Spirit and tongues are not a figment of our imagination.

Acts 1:8

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

Acts 2:1-4

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 So, in just a few verses of scripture we have confirmation that the Holy Spirit exists; empowered the Apostles and that they spoke in tongues: yet many Christians say they don’t believe in tongues! Throughout the New Testament we have Jesus and later the Apostles constantly casting out demons who were possessing human beings. Yet many Christians don’t believe this happens either? Are we saying as Christians we do not believe in what Jesus did? Or what the Apostles did in His name? Or that when the power of God comes on us; feeble physical human beings; we will continue to stand in His presence?

There seems to be so many things that Christians don’t believe in which is clearly stated in the Bible as truth that I have to wonder how this is possible? If we have been taught incorrectly or have grown up believing in something, God has given us direct access to Him so we can ask Him questions and He will teach us so that we are not lead astray. 

Both the New and Old Testament write often of men falling to the ground when in the presence of God. Saul who later became Paul, fell to the ground when He was in the presence of Jesus.

Acts 9:3-4

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

He wasn’t acting, the glory of Jesus was around him. He was not a frightened or feeble man, he was going around killing Christians. But now, he was in God’s presence. When the Holy Spirit begins to work with your spirit to clean you up from the world, to fill you to overflow, to bless you with gifts, you will find that there are times when you cannot stand in His presence, His power is so great!  Our body and spirit are not used to this pure, holy power now residing in us.  You will experience many things that your mind will try to comprehend.  There are many scriptures in the bible that tells us when the power of God came upon someone they could not stand, they lost all the strength in their bodies.  We often refer to this as ‘falling out in the spirit.’  This is not something to fear, it is a good thing and we are not ‘slain out’ or hurt, actually we are more refreshed and alive following the experience. 

Daniel the prophet was praying to God to know what the fate of the Hebrew people would be in the future and God sent an angel with the answer.  The angels escort the glory of God so they come with great power.  When he came to Daniel, Daniel could not stand in his presence.  The scripture below give us some idea of what the angels look like and we get an insight into how Daniel felt when he was ‘on his face’ in his presence.

Daniel 10:4-9

And on the twenty fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.  And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.  Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness (attractiveness, charm) was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.  Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. 

Many Christians say we should never fall out when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us, I say you have not experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.  The scripture above is very clear and there are more throughout the bible.  Daniel was in a ‘deep sleep on his face.’   

As Christians, how can we believe in some parts of the Bible and ignore, or deny others?

Recommended Reading
The Book of Acts