Return to your gift Proverbs 18:10-24

Proverbs 18:16 nkjv; A man’s gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.

With all that life throws up at us some times we can loose sight of the fact that God has given each one of us a unique gift and this gift not only brings fulfillment to our lives but great blessing to others. We all have this gift and when used as they are designed these gifts presents or demonstrates some of the wealth of the nature of the living God.

Romans 12:6-8 nkjv; Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

We all have some thing to offer to help and to demonstrate the wonder and the nature of God through the gift he has given us. Every thing about us even the very breath that gives us life is given to us as a gift from the lord, our life flow as Christians comes from His presence and there is a deep need or there is a trigger in our DNA that seeks the place of rest and of course that rest has to be in Him. The bible says that Godliness with contentment is great gain.

The truth of the matter is that most of us live our lives not in that place of rest and in this area of gifting we often run ahead or try to exercise our selves in an area that we are not graced in, as good as our desires are or our intention are, if we are trying to exercise what we are not gifted in then we will leave people damaged or at the very least disillusioned. Should we then not try because we could get it wrong? Absolutely not, what we should be looking at is what motivates us, moves us, what grips our heart, and then, develop that desire. Paul says stir up the gift that is within you.

There is another reason that we can be side tracked away from using or continuing to use the grace or the gift on our life and that is we may be in a season of the cut backs of God or for want of a better word we are in a time of pruning at the hand of the Lord. There are two major reasons for the cut backs we may be feeling. God wants to remove the dead wood that has appeared in our lives that hinders the gift the grace on our lives, or he is trying to bring increase to the gift or grace on our life.

Don’t run in a time of cut back or from the pruning. I know it is hard to just stand still and see the loss, see the changes and to just stand there with seemingly nothing to show for all that you have put your energies into. You feel like the merchants in the book of Revelations.

Rev 18:14 nkjv; The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things, which are rich and splendid, have gone from you.

That is how you feel some times. God’s intention for us has never changed His intentions for our life is that we would live in that place of rest and that our life then would be fruitful.
God’s desire for us is that the gift he has given to us would bring us into the presence of the great. Some times we have to loose things to gain things.
We may even feel like we are running out of time or it is too late to come before the presence of the great but we must keep in mind that Jesus said He is the vine we are the branches, there is always life in the vine.
Now we do understand the principal that vines do not produce fruit all the time, but what we may not understand is that the Farmer will dig around the vines, will do all that is possible to see the branches bring forth the fruit in the seasons they are designed for.
Don’t count your self out for God has not counted you out, people may count you out but God is just starting with you. There are many set backs in this life but God is always gracing us to go to the next level. His grace is sufficient and these set back are just opportunities for a come back.

Luke 13:7-9 nkjv; Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, “Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? But he answered and said to him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down

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The farmer’s intention is to see that the vines make a come back. He may cut off what we think looks good but to him it is dead wood. If you are standing here in church today bear and naked with nothing to show for all your gifting and don’t give up for the principal of the bible is that old things pass away and all things become new.
With gifting and with every other area of our lives God wants us to come to that place of rest, that place of Godliness with contentment that we would have great gain and to a place of understanding of the process and the purpose of the process.

Deut 29:29 nkjv; The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Psalm 25:14 nkjv; the secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

Now we know that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable and God will always provide no matter how bear or naked we feel, we may not like or even understand that the cut backs will bring forth new life and fruitfulness.
God wants to take us from the place of provision to the place of blessing. Israel understood the place of provision they lived at that level for 40 years it was not until they entered into what God had for them that is the promise land that they lived in the blessing of God. That is the place we all have to come to that is the place of blessing.
We have to trust in his grace his gift on our lives and rest in it. We have to trust in his provision that place of rest before we can experience His blessing. Rest will prepare us to discover the abundance life that Jesus said he had come to give us. We have to trust that better will come even though we are standing there stripped back to the bear minimum.
We have to trust the gift, we have to trust Him and His word and that he is committed to seeing us conformed to the image of Jesus. When we are standing there stripped and not really desiring to be a gift it is at these times we find it hard or we don’t wont to hear the way that God wants us to hear.
God speaks about fruit in the midst of pruning, He talks about plenty in the midst of lack, He talks about goals when we are blind to vision, He talks about joy in the midst of mourning, about beauty when all we see about our lives is ashes, He talks about overcoming in the midst of our biggest failure. His focus is not on the provision for our life but the blessing for our life.

Romans 4:17b God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. God sees what we do not see he knows the difference between the process and the purpose.

There is a place in gifting and every area of our lives which fulfills the purpose for which we were born and that place is to rule and reign over all things that come our way, that place is to sit with Jesus on his throne as over-comers that place is see those things that do not exist as if they do.

Note Amos 9:13 nkjv; Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

This is a place where God wants us to get to, before we have the time to place the thought about a situation the answer as already arrived. We look at the process He looks at the purpose.
The reality of what is happening to many of us in regards to life and grace or gifting is we are in the place of process where we are learning to trust or rest so we can come to our purpose, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus.
Jesus went through this process, he despised the shame that was part of the process but the scripture continues and says but for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross; that was the purpose.

Hebrews 12:2 nkjv looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our gift is being continually put into a pressure cooker to bring us to that place God wants and that is in the presence of the great and to see the kingdom of God extended. If we do away with the circumstances of life the problems that never seem to end and look at the gift in and on our life we will see that the flame is still there, be it a little small, all that it needs is the fanning of rest to see it burst again into full flame.
Don’t let frustration or lack of expression stop you from using what you have for god will lift you up if you honour what he has already honoured and that is the gift on your life. Hidden within you, you have one of the most powerful tools unknown to mankind. One that has the capability to change the course of history for you your family and those who live in our lifetime and those tools are the gifts that God has given to us.
The gift is in us, but we have the responsibility to stir it up. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you" (2 Timothy 1:6). In the New King James Version of the Bible, the verse is translated, "Stir up the gift of God." 
The gift is not something we learn it is some thing we stir up. It is something God gave us. It is something we need to discover and then stir up. No one else can activate your gift for you. You have to do it yourself. You stir up your gift by developing, refining, enhancing, and using it.

Prov. 17:8nkjv; a present is a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor; wherever he turns, he prospers.

In other words, a gift is like a precious stone to the one who has it, and whenever he stirs it up, it turns into fruitfulness or prospers.

Return to Service - John 4:13-26

(John 4:23 nkjv) But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

The whole structure of man and the thing we need to understand is that he was created by God and for God for the glory of God. Man was created by God and the purpose in all that man will do is to bring glory to God. Man was created to be a priest unto Him, for inside everyone is this overwhelming desire and the ability to worship.

Under the Old Testament God ordained a priesthood to represent His people before Himself. There were rituals and ceremonies that had to be performed and theses rituals were just a type and shadow or symbolic of the spiritual realities that were to come. What the priests did in the presence of the Lords were just shadows of things to come not the substance of things to come. It was in the priestly ministry of Jesus that all these things were fulfilled.

The priesthood of the Old Testament has been superseded and under the terms of the New Covenant every believer is ordained to be a priest unto God. We of course do not offer up the sacrifices of animals as did the Old Testament priest for our sacrifices are spiritual.

(1 Peter2:5 nkjv) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

One of these important spiritual sacrifices that we need and should offer to God is the fruit of our lips.

(Hebrews 13:15 nkjv) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

To offer up the sacrifice of praise to God has the same connotation as the word used in Exodus 24:5 then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord [nkjv]. Simply put the words used here [to offer up] means to activate, to stir up, to spring forth some thing towards some one in this case, towards God.

Now the word priest means to draw near and in terms of the law it was used of one that may draw near to the divine presence. A priest was one that could draw near to the presence of the lord that rested on the Ark of the Covenant contrary to the popular movie raiders of the lost ark. The presence of the Lord was not in the box it rested on the ark especially on the mercy seat.

Have you every wondered why man always challenges the way God has setup things, you would think that man created himself the way he carries on. It is a would be a good thing for man to drive out to a grave and be reminded that he is always just a breath away from eternity.

Now in Numbers 16 we have the account of Korah and the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, and they took men and challenged Moses and Aaron about them being the only ones that could approach the presence of the Lord, so God set out a criteria for those who would approach His presence and we find this approach in the fifth verse of this chapter.

(Numbers 16:5 nkjv) and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, "Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him. That one whom He chooses He will cause to come near to Him.

Notice the three things that God said would pertain to the Old Testament priesthood. Those that are His, who are Holy and He would caused them to come near.Those that were His, in other words those that were set apart by God it was not some thing you could do your self no matter how good or holy you thought you were.

Under the Old Testament the priest represented the people and the function of the priest also represented the essential elements on which the covenant people of God’s relationship was to be based.

(Exodus 19:4-6 nkjv) 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

You follow the history of God’s covenant people through the bible and you see that this purpose was never realized and so now we have a new nation of priest unto God and that is called the church, the ecclesia of God, the called out company, those who have been called out of darkness into His most marvelous light.

(Colossians 1:13 nkjv) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

We are the church, called out and called to be holy for with out holiness the bible say no man shall see the Lord.

(1Peter 1:15-16 nkjv) but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "be holy, for I am holy."

And (1John 3:3 nkjv) says, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

We as the New Testament church are called by God to draw near to Him and to offer up spiritual sacrifices.

If what we are doing has stopped being a sacrifice in the sense of totally letting go, it has ceased to cost us some thing then it has ceased to be worship. If we are staying with what we know what we are comfortable with then what we are doing has ceased to be worship, if we are comfortable with how we are doing it then more than likely it has stopped being a sacrifice. The bible says dance before the Lord why do we not do this? Mostly we do not want to look stupid. What about clap your hands all you people or do we only do it when we feel like it? Where is the sacrifice? Where is the worship? Where is the ministry that we are called to as priest to minister unto the Lord.

(1Peter 2:9 nkjv) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

When Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well in John four about worship, He was trying to set her mind right in the sense that it was not so much the place that she had placed the importance on, it was not so much the form that was presented, but it was the person or the one you are worshipping that was the important issue, the subject was not so much the material but the spiritual.

(John 4:23 nkjv) But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Jesus appealed directly to her religious conviction by saying, if you want to know the truth you will not find it in the formula of your forefathers but in the relationship of your own heart to God. Jesus was showing her that it is about the heart and the will of man and you dealings with God were through the spirit.

Worship has to be about giving God the highest place, the highest value and the surrendering of all things. It has to be about our desire to come into the manifested presence of the Lord.

Some times we in the modern church put more emphases on the word than we do on the presence of Jesus and when we do this as good as the word of the Lord is, we fall into the same trap that the religious leaders did in Jesus day

Note (John 5:39 nkjv); you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

Worship is laying all things at his feet no matter what they are be they good or bad. Praise is not praise if our mind is on some thing else.

In John chapter twelve we have a wonderful picture of worship. In this chapter we see Mary come with a costly jar of ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus and then she took her long dark hair, her crown and glory the bible calls it and wiped the feet of Jesus.All that was most honoured all that was most glorious all that was most expensive, Mary brought it to Jesus and ministered to him. This act of worship filled the room with a wonderful of aroma and it was not so much the ointment but the fragrance of ministry from the one that understood what true worship was. Worship that does not cost us some thing is not true worship.

When we come to Him what do we prize the most the form that we use or the presence that he will bring. When we come to him where do we stand in our life what really flows out of us? Stop and look to see what side of the cross we more at home with, are we always coming to it or are we with grateful hearts looking back to it. Our worship will be determined by where our feet are planted and when we gather our worship will be gendered by what we want or need rather than what we will sacrifice.Mary laid it all down for His presence. Worship esteems God, it beholds Him, bows down to Him, and it loves Him, reveres him, waits on Him and lays all things at His feet.

(Romans 12:1 nkjv) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

When the priest came before God in the Old Testament, God instructed them not to come into His presence empty handed. When we come we must worship in spirit and in truth for these are the ones that the Father is seeking.Truth of whom God is and what He has and is doing and when we worship it must be out of this truth so that our words, our action and our form in worship match our heart. God sees the truth of the realness of our attitude towards Him.

Psalm 24 puts it this way; (in verses 3 -5 nkjv) who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Jesus states that the heart and the mouth must be in sink when we worship for His accusation of the people was this;

(Mat 15:8-9 nkjv) these people draw near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

In the Old Testament, they worshipped GOD ALMIGHTY. Worship was an act removed from intimacy, and they worshipped Him as God. Today, we have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and we can worship Him not only as God and I say that advisedly, we now as New Testament priest can worship God much more intimately as Father. The veil has been removed - Hebrews 6:19-20 "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Mechizideck."

We can know his presence in a very special way in that place of the worshipped heart. When we gather He wants to be with us and not just as an act of faith but He wants us to know his presence and what He wants to achieve when we are gathered together. The bible is full of plain ordinary people like us enjoying the presence of the Lord. We are his priest called to minister too His presence.

Ps 51:9-17 return to the beginning

Psalm. 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Just a little background first; This is A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him. David committed adultery. Then he thought to cover up his sin by deception, calling Uriah back from the battle under false pretense. And when that didn’t work, David again abused his authority and commanded his general to place Uriah on the front line of battle and then to withdraw – thus leaving Uriah to die at the hand of the enemy. And finally David takes Uriah’s wife and made Bathsheba his own.

David after being confronted turns back to God and cast himself on to the mercy of the God he had known all of His life. So this cry comes out of his heart, create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a steadfast spirit with in me.This same passage in the message paraphrase version says this; God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

Oh God cries David take me back to the beginning create a genesis in me. Take me back to the beginning for I have lost my way I have forgotten that you are the creator of all things and I am created, take me back oh God so that again I am reminded of your awesome power of your incredible love.

David wanted God to speak life into a dead heart.We need to go back to return to the beginning and remember that God gave us a new heart and with that new heart and life, he has spoken a word of destiny into our lives and remember that we are designed by the living God to fulfill to bring forth and to subdue the circumstances that surround our lives.

Listen what God created pleased him for God looked the bible says at what He created and god said it is good. David cries oh God speak good things into my life and into my heart things that only you can create.
Listen we are created by God and for God and for the Glory of God and the wonder of this is, God has not left us to our own devices but he speaks a created word in to us so we can go forth and achieve what has been purposed in our hearts and lives.

Gen. 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

The right to rule over all things was breathed as a word of promise into the very fabric of our beings and we can if we decide we can if we make the decision nothing will again rule over us for we have in our dna the power of the breathed word of God to have dominion or if you like to overcome and not be overcome.

Jesus said in rev 3:21 to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.

He who overcomes, that is our purpose to overcome and to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

God looks at you and in you and he says it is good; we have to allow the genesis experience that is in us to come forth and rule and reign just as we were designed in the first place.

Return to the beginning; God believes in you for we are made in his image and likeness and He has given you dominion because He believes in you, the key here is we have to start to believe in what God believes in; so many do not believe in what God has done in them.

David cried out oh God give me a genesis in my heart make me to know truth in my inner parts why, because we have got so far away from the truth, we have got so far away from the genesis experience.

Again beloved we are created by God and for God and for his glory, and our dna is from him which makes us very creative but he is the creator and if you take the creator away then we are left with nothing but evolution to worship, we need to return to the beginnings and discover our God afresh.

John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

If you take God out of the equation then you have to take away the breath of life out of the equation and what do you have left? Not even evolution can be sustained with out the breath of life. So if you take away the foundation what do you have left?

David cried out oh God create in me a clean heart; a heart with no other agenda, a heart that is centered on truth on what you are saying and doing, a heart that is consumed with what you are consumed with.

Listen God does not loose interest in what He has placed in our heart; He has not lost interest in what He has breathed into our soul, the word of life that he spoke into our genesis. Our cry should resonate as David, oh God shape this week in me the week of creation the week of the foundation of all things that I may know truth deep in my inner being.

Again let me say this, God has not lost interest in your destiny, in the seed of greatness that he has breathed into your life; we need to establish this truth in our hearts and thank Him and agree with him for the bible says where to agree on anything in the earth it shall be established.

If we will agree with what God has and is doing in our life then we will see these things manifest when the circumstances of life rise up to rob us. God has not lost interest in your destiny.

Phil. 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

David says God there is a darkness in my heart, there is a void in me come oh God and do what you did in the beginning and call forth life out of the void and the darkness and let my heart live.

We have to have faith in what God has created and what he has placed in us. Just because today we don’t feel like we are great or we may not measure up to the standard of greatness of the world, we must understand that greatness comes not from perfection, but from the ability to admit that you are wrong and then to go on and make the necessary adjustments to bring about the desired change.

All of us make mistakes. All of us take the wrong paths at times. Getting it wrong is what we humans do best. Putting it right is what believers do best.

David said that God desired that we would have truth in our inward parts and in those places God would have us to know wisdom for that to happen he need a clean a new heart.

Psa. 15:1-2 LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.

Paul prayed this prayer for the church at Ephesus,

Eph. 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

Paul prays this so that the church can see the truth of what they do no believe. A clean heart makes way for truth to find root. David also said God restore to me or return to me the joy of your salvation, the interesting thing is it had to be there in the first place for it to be restored or returned.

What David was crying out is, "Remove every impediment to joyful certainty of your presence." And that's appropriate for us as well, because we have temptations, habits, feelings, bad thinking, blindness, ect. We can be children of God and not live as if we are.

We need God to work to take away the impediments so that we are joyful instead of grumpy, fearful, and self-serving so that we are willing rather than resistant, so that there is nothing I would rather do than what God wants me to do.David is asking that the truth overtake him and that every obstacle be done away with.

With out a clean heart there is no room for truth to grow and then without truth there is no joy, there is plenty of information not much revelation.

John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word, which I have spoken to you.

When there is no revelation this void is taken up with religion, which in turn deals a deathblow to relationship.

John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is the year of the returns of God and much has been returned and there is much yet to be returned and we need to return to the beginnings and cry out to God for a genesis in our life, a fresh heart to all that pleases Him.

Return to your testimony Psalm 103:1-22

(Psalm 103:10) He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

One of the great truths of living an overcoming life as a Christian is to remember from where you came in other words your testimony for no matter what the up bringing when we have accepted Jesus as our lord and saviour we were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We all have a testimony; we all have the goodness of God expressed to us.

No matter what we are facing, how hard life is; the Father’s goodness is there for us. One of the things we must do is find His goodness in every thing we are facing and to do that the Psalmist say remember, he used the phrase forget not his benefits. Another thing to consider is that our life is ordered by the Lord

Psalm 37:23-24…”The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”

How does the Lord uphold us? He does this with his goodness and mercy because every where you go goodness and mercy follow you and when you fall you fall into the hands of the Lord which are goodness and mercy.

Psalm 23:6…”Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Now notice what our scripture says of the Father’s goodness that is ours to receive and walk in: The Psalmist says “Forget not”

(1) Forgive all our iniquities.

(2) Heals all our diseases

(3) Redeems our life from destruction.

(4) Crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

(5) Satisfies your mouth with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagles.

He forgives all our iniquities; I wonder why some Christians we struggle with this concept are we game to ask our selves this question? Have you ever asked your self this question what is there in me that sees the speck in my brother’s eye; why we are critical of others? I think it has a lot to do with what is in our hearts and not the other person Jesus called it a plank in the eye. This is what Jesus said to the religious leaders;

(Mat 7:3-5) And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

From this I would say the lack is not so much in the other person but in us and if we will do what the Psalmist says and forget not then these planks begin too fall off and we become a blessing to our brothers for we will love them as we love our selves. He Crowns us with Loving Kindness and tender mercies that is the foundation stone for me us returning to our testimony, His loving kindness, not just His kindness but His loving kindness. Forget not;

A number of years ago Father met with me in an incredible encounter and crowned me with His tender mercies and loving kindness, it was an experience that changed my life and gave me understand of His heart His tender mercies, His Father’s heart towards me.

I was on the floor of the Church under the power and dealing of the Holy Spirit and I was so impacted by the touch of the Father that it removed a ceiling that had been over my life for so long.

When I got saved I had a real confrontation with the Lord and wanted nothing more than to follow him and serve him and at my baptism in water the Spirit of God came upon me and it was like a rushing wind deep into my soul and body I literally felt the wind rush deep inside of me and I began to speak in a language of the Spirit, the interesting thing about it was I did not know what it was but knew it was of God.

All my Christian life I knew Jesus as my saviour and knew and experienced the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit but there was a ceiling over my life in regards to God as father, yes I knew about him and understood the doctrine of Jesus and the Father being one at least on an intellectual level. Yet there was a ceiling over me that stopped me from enjoying the presence of the Father. Something happened in my life that so locked me up to the Father heart of God that hindered me from reaching out and touching the very one I wanted to know.

As a child I was like Adam and Eve who because of their decision lost the gift of innocence.

Innocence was the gift that covered them in the Garden of Eden, for they were naked and transparent before God. The interesting thing about this is, it was not until their eyes were opened to other things that God did not want them at that time to understand that they knew they were naked for innocence and glory covered them.

Parents cover your children as long as you can, protect them for when their eyes are opened to other things it is then that they begin to accept that they have imperfections according to the world standard, it is then they forget that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. When we are innocent we do not see what others call imperfections.

Jesus said in Mark 10:15; Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."

When God came to Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the evening to fellowship with them they hid themselves behind a tree; The covering of innocence was lifted, they saw each other naked and undone and so tried to cover themselves and hide from the presence of the Lord.

More was lost that day than their innocence when they disobeyed God - they also lost their intimacy with God. Because of there decision God removed them out of the Garden; they had now also lost their place of worship.

Lost innocence leads to lost intimacy, and a loss of intimacy leads to a lack of being able to enter into true worship.

This was the very place I had found my self in as one that loved and experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit; it was as if I was outside the garden of the Father’s presence. I did not know it at the time but I could not worship the Father the way I wanted, there was a ceiling over me I instinctively knew that there was much more to worship than what I was experiencing.

As I lay on the floor Father began to take me back to my childhood to deal with the many issues that had been compacted into my heart under so much other rubble to the point that they could not be found but yet were still in my heart. Issues such as never owning or wearing a pair of shoes until I was 15 years old, never owning any thing of my own always wearing second hand clothes and never having my own Christmas.

As a child I was rejected alone and now devastated. The pain was so intense in my soul that it locked me up on the inside yet all the time the pain was looking for a way out looking for some expression.

I felt like the man in Mark 5 who was in such pain in his soul the Bible says, he would daily cut himself and cry out, because of the indescribable pain.

Mark 5:5 and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

In 2 Samuel 13…we have a story of two of King David’s children; Tamar and Ammon who raped her. Not only was her innocence robbed from her; but the one who declared his love now rejected her and left her with feelings of guilt, shame, uncleanness, and all these things were tearing away at the very fabric of her soul;

Such was the pain that racked and raped her soul the intensity was so overwhelming that it could not find expression of an out let and the only way that she could display the devastation, the only way she could express how she felt was to tear her coat of many colour, the robe of her innocence This coat of favour, the coat of the virgin daughters of the kings she tore this to pieces and then she took ashes and placed them on her head. She took the worthless things that is, ashes, the thing that is left over after fire has devoured all that is good and she places it on her crown and glory.

Listen… Beloved, Father’s promise to us; one of the benefits the psalmist asks us not to forget is that “He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercy”.

We may feel worthless on the inside we may feel used and abused by others, we may even be cutting ourself with our words, tearing away at the coat of the image and the likeness of God because of the pain that is trying to find expression, we may even be hurting our selves physically because we feel worthless.

Today that changes, listen to what Father says in Isaiah 61:3 To those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

Give Father your ashes, all the worthless things in your life and He will give you a crown of beauty. We know that there is nothing left inside, we look in our hearts and see only ashes some one or some thing has burnt the very life the glory and the innocence out of our life, we look in the mirror and we do not see the image of god we only see ashes. Listen God is not asking for any thing more, we look at our bodies and we only see the ashes of our health, God is not asking for any thing more; If we will give Him our ashes he will give us beauty for those ashes, we look into our hearts and we don’t find a well of joy springing up as the word say we only see sadness or disappointment, if we give him those ashes of sadness He will give us joy for our morning and garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Ashes.

Now just like the man in Mark 5: who was looking for expression for the pain he felt so was I as a young boy “wrap arm” & grind teeth and rock back; looking for some comfort for my soul looking for some expressions for my pain. As I grew older I soon learnt how to put concrete in my heart and compact those ashes deep into the place of my forgetfulness.

One night on the floor of the Church as Father was ministering to me I saw myself as a little child – and a man’s lap. I never knew the arms of a father around me; comfort beyond imagination. I looked up – I crawled into my own lap. Accept myself.

With all that Father has healed me from there was still a blockage in worship. Father showed me I still had unresolved issues in my life. I was alive but there were still dead things in my life. Like the man in mark 5 he was alive but he lived with the dead things.

Back to Tamar for a minute…despite all that she went through the saddest thing was yet to happen.

2 Samuel 13:20..”Tamar renamed – desolate in her brother’s house.” Absalom her brother said to her “Do not set your heart on this thing.”

He did not allow her to resolve the issues. She remained desolate in her brother’s house. Listen we are not designed for a brother’s house, we are designed for a Father’s house. A brother’s house stops us from resolving the issues. Many Christian live their whole life with unresolved things and if they are in the brother’s house these things will stay unresolved. A father’s house will deal with and bring to resolution the crippled things in our lives but we have got to come to a place where we can receive the help and face the issues to many run to a place where they feel comfortable and where deep attention is not placed on the issues they are struggling with.

I had unresolved issues with my mother even thou I had not meet her and stilled carried deep resentment of disappointment even after I had meet her. Father said Forgive and thank her. Once I did what He asked I was free. What was holding me back was the fact that I did not love my self enough to trust my self to give to her what was freely given to me, I was blaming her for all the things that she had nothing to do with because of her original decision.

Part of the blessing in following Jesus is He crowns us with loving kindness.

Innocence, intimacy and our ability to worship unhindered will be returned.

Psalm 103 – Forget Not

Return to your testimony Psalm 103:1-22

(Psalm 103:10) He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

One of the great truths of living an overcoming life as a Christian is to remember from where you came in other words your testimony for no matter what the up bringing when we have accepted Jesus as our lord and saviour we were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We all have a testimony; we all have the goodness of God expressed to us.

No matter what we are facing, how hard life is; the Father’s goodness is there for us. One of the things we must do is find His goodness in every thing we are facing and to do that the Psalmist say remember, he used the phrase forget not his benefits. Another thing to consider is that our life is ordered by the Lord

Psalm 37:23-24…”The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”

How does the Lord uphold us? He does this with his goodness and mercy because every where you go goodness and mercy follow you and when you fall you fall into the hands of the Lord which are goodness and mercy.

Psalm 23:6…”Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Now notice what our scripture says of the Father’s goodness that is ours to receive and walk in: The Psalmist says “Forget not”

(1) Forgive all our iniquities.

(2) Heals all our diseases

(3) Redeems our life from destruction.

(4) Crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

(5) Satisfies your mouth with good things so your youth is renewed like the eagles.

He forgives all our iniquities; I wonder why some Christians we struggle with this concept are we game to ask our selves this question? Have you ever asked your self this question what is there in me that sees the speck in my brother’s eye; why we are critical of others? I think it has a lot to do with what is in our hearts and not the other person Jesus called it a plank in the eye. This is what Jesus said to the religious leaders;

(Mat 7:3-5) And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

From this I would say the lack is not so much in the other person but in us and if we will do what the Psalmist says and forget not then these planks begin too fall off and we become a blessing to our brothers for we will love them as we love our selves.

Return to heaven Col 2:20-3:6

Verse 2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us that we are hidden in Christ in God. That is a very secure place and cannot be attacked or trodden down or can we be stolen from that place in other words this is a very secure place.

In another passage of scripture he writes; and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6 knjv)

We have to change what we look at or what we are thinking about, we have to as the scripture says set our mind on the things that are above for this is the place where we are hid in Christ.

One way we can do this is, as we come to worship as a family on Sundays. This is where we have the opportunity to open our minds to embrace what is ours, and as we do we visualise what is ours and all that is all ready in front of us in the word which can take us on this journey into heaven or the heavenly realms.

Worship is a great place to start. What do we call worship? And what do we set our minds on when we do what we call worship? What do we see when we worship?

If we just silently stands each Sunday with folded arms and watch the band or the worship leader or others in the church, this is not worship. One reason I propose that these people stand there with folded arms could be that they do not yet have a revelation of the One who sits on the throne and of the Lamb.

When true revelation comes, revelation of grace, forgiveness, acceptance, destiny and our future when we have a revelation of who God is, worship follows; it is a natural response. Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’s kingdom would come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

There will come a day when we will join in with the myriads of those on the sea of glass and the 4 and 20 elders around the throne and sing without hindrances, without reservations and worship the Lamb of God with all of our being.

The great news is we don’t have to wait until we die, we can experience heaven’s worship and the manifest presence of God today. What we have in heaven Jesus wants us to experience on earth.

The scriptures are full of just ordinary people just like you and I who have had heavenly experiences or who have seen the worship and experienced the worship of heaven and the presence of the living God and there was one common denominator that all of them had, that all of them stepped into for them to have these experiences and that was they believed that it could happen. They did not limit them selves from entering into this place. They had faith for it to happen to them.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for; what do we hope for in god? What do we set our minds on in the heavenly realm that causes our hope to be secure? What does the scripture say again? Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. The cry and the demands of the earth with all the disappointments and unfulfilled expectations scream for our attention and scream out to us to exercise our faith and hope in that realm rather than towards God in the heavenly realm. Failure is another voice that keeps us setting our minds on the earth rather than getting a vision of heaven.

So what do we do? Well firstly we have to come to a realization, come to the knowledge of that even in the midst of failure and disappointment there is growing inside of us a greater awareness of what we have in God even if in the natural we cannot see or the realisation of it there is still a growing going on deep inside of us. The bible says that from glory to glory he is changing us. We may not see the change but the change is happening anyway

Samson is named with some of the greatest men in the bible, why? Well the reality is this, to live in the realm of the life of faith, it is not how you start that proves you but how you finish. Samson finished well; in his death he destroyed more of the enemies of God than in all of his lifetime. Faith we all have it.

The bible says that we all have the measure of faith and we may think that we don’t have the faith to get up or to keep going or to believe for some thing new, well the reality is we can if we use this key and that is change our focus; we need to look up rather than around. Heb. 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God

To see the things that are described in the book of revelation to return to the heavenly focus we need to put these things aside change our mind set and focus on what is above not what is around. Our worship must be centered in him and so we need to see our selves worshipping him as it is in heaven so it shall be on earth. Like all Christian disciplines we need to practice this visualization but if we don’t believe it we will not see it, for what we declare about what we believe then we will see and what we see we will do.

I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! (Revelations 15:2-3 nkjv)

We need to realize that we went down so that we can come up. We died with Christ we raise with him. We can rise up to the heavenly realms because that is the place we are seated. If we want to communicate with him we do it by faith and that is why we need to retain our hope. Open our eyes and our mind to heaven. Faith, hope and love will help us set our minds on the things that are above where Jesus says we are seated with him

Return to Justice

Micah. 6:8 nkjv He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you, to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

There are three aspects in this passage of scripture to seeing the world from God's point of view, and we need to keep all these three in clear focus so that the needs of those around us will not be ignored or these needs won't so overwhelm us so as to cause us to run from them. We need to keep these three aspects in mind so that we are able to see how we fit into God’s plan for our life and what He would have us achieve in the kingdom in our lifetime.

The three things that we have to keep in focus are, act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. As great and as important these aspect are most of us are confronted or are often faced with trying to handle the difficulties of life and we are trying to act in a way that does not affect others and then we cast our selves on the mercy of God recognising that with out Him we have nothing. In the midst of difficulties justice, mercy and humility are often not at the for-front of our minds or life and the reason could be that we don’t see the benefits that can be derived form these difficult times.

How many of us use so much energy trying to avoid problems, troubles and things we deem unpleasant, the truth is deep with in the soul of trouble there is a hidden growth hormone called character development and it will be a blessing for all of us if we embrace it willingly and honestly.

When we embrace trouble honestly and with the right heart it then has a way of making us reach beyond our small, imposed limitations and propels us to a level of accomplishment in life we may not of thought possible.

Various trials and tests are never sent to us, so we can crash, burn and fail, but rather to educate us about the weak areas of our lives. These trials reveal the Power Of God that is available for the asking. God forces us to come to the end of ourselves, so we can be cast upon Him; this way He is glorified,

When we embrace the hormone of difficulty it cause us to see what others face and because we are and have walked thru hard times it may release compassion in our hearts and as we respond to that compassion and look to find a way to help. Compassion is not some superficial or romantic feeling; it is a gut wrenching sense of the needs of others that motivates us to action.

To do justly our perspective has to change for it can be characterized by our self protective feelings we have to break free and see how Father sees people with compassion. Compassion is not some sort of nice feeling; it is a heart rending insight into the needs of others that forces us to act. Compassion will change our attitude toward people. Compassion involves discomfort and inconvenience. It is always easier to stay in our warm cocoon of Christian fellowship than to take the time and effort to reach out to those in need right under our feet.

Amos 5:23 -24 nkjv, Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.

Ezek 16:49 nkjv Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Second thing that is required of us is to have mercy. Again like compassion mercy will also give us a clear vision of ourselves as God's workers. The New Testament uses several words to describe Christ's followers (e.g. labourers, servants, soldiers, stewards, ambassadors), but they all imply that we are at the disposal of a superior to fulfil a purpose. We all have a responsibility to work in the field to reach the poor and as we do it brings its own reward.

Psalm 41:1-3 nkjv. blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.

When Paul and Barnabus were recognised as having the call on their lives for apostolic ministry by Peter, James and John they put only one requirement on them as they went about their ministry and that was that they would not forget in the busyness of the work the very reason they were called to the ministry and that is to reach the poor.

Gal. 2:10 they desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Prov. 21:13 whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.

The third thing that is required is to walk humbly with our God in other words focusing on the Lord has to be our imperative.

Walking humble means giving up our independence, this is the disease of the 21st century, we fiercely want to do our own things our way in our time and because of it we have a hard time accepting the concept of Lordship because it means giving up our independence. We will never reach the poor and the needy when you decide the out come, There is a plan that Father has for all of us so what has to be done rather than we decide we need to see what God has se set out for us to do. I believe in our time for our church it is to reach as many disenfranchised children as possible. Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children as Malachi says.

Proverbs 22:9 nkjv He who has a generous eye will be blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.

The people around us, near us, beside us at work or on the ferry or bus it is not enough to just reach into our wallets as good as that is, let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, what the poor around us need is our hearts to love them. So, let us spread our love His love everywhere we go and in every thing we do.

Proverbs 19:17 nkjv He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.

Return to Abiding Ps 15:1-5

Psalm. 15:1 Lord, who shall abide in your tabernacle? Who shall dwell in your holy hill?

I believe that we as a church have to take serious the need to return to the place of abiding with God and especially with each other. The challenge to the modern Church as it struggles to be relevant to its generation is not to compromise its core values or moral values in its deep compulsion to be result orientated.

The question that we need to ask ourselves in this success orientated world is, have we given in to the pressure to look good in the eyes of man rather that God?

Psalm. 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watches but in vain.

God wants us to have a relationship with Him based on a knowledge of Him that would produce a holy awe of his grace, power, love, mercy and that this relationship would produce a holy fear of loosing any part of that fellowship with Him. This holy fear would hold us in and stop us from modifying our value and moral system.

With the pressure to achieve or to reach the goals or results that have been placed out there in front of us we will allow these pressure to either cause us to grow and press in more to God and our relationship with Him or we will be forced to compromise our value system. The pressures will cause us to go forward or to revert back to what we are familiar with. When the pressure was too much for Peter and he compromised his value system and denied the Lord, the bible says that he went back to what he was familiar with and that is fishing.

Holy fear of loosing any part of our relationship with God will cause us to look at these pressures, these challenges of life as an opportunity to grow and mature in the things of God the things of the kingdom.

1Corinthians. 13:11 when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

When we put away childish things we come to a place where we want to do life right and where we want to please the Lord above all the temptations that are presented to us to get results at any cost. Childish things causes us to only look at what we need where as maturity causes us to look at what God wants done.

God is looking for integrity in this relationship with him and with others but it has to be measured by his word not by the implementation of man's value system. You can feel like you have integrity until you measure it by the Lord's standard which comes out of relationship. Now pleasing God may not be what your flesh is lining up to do especially when you consider what Jesus says.

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

So the question that was posed by the psalmist was! Who may abide? We are here in church today worshipping the Lord and in all that we do we must not forget that we are here by permission or invitation of the Father. Jesus said that the Father draws us and then He places us in His body.

John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
1Corinithan 12:18 but now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.

One of the great challenges to the church in general is to live up to this word abide. Who may abide, or who may live with in such a way that they will share their life, share their joy and sorrow and allow those they share their life with to work through the issues of life so that they can see Christ formed in them?

With so many different denominations and churches today it is far easier for some one to run than resolve the issues of life and there by they never learn to abide and enjoy the freedom that they can have in Christ.

Who may abide? That was the question posed by the psalmist. In response to this question a number of issues were presented by the Lord that need to be resolved in relationship to Him and the people of God or the family of God we are knit with in order to bring about this abiding.

Note the issues; walking uprightly, work righteously, speaks the truth in our hearts, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Backbiting must go, love the neighbour and don't give them a hard time, evil is not tolerated, there must be honour in the house of the Lord, we must keep our word, do not expect rewards because we have helped some one and there are to be no bribes.

Psalm 92:13-14 those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.

I don't care what you call the church or what church it is, none of us can get this right unless the church is led by the Holy Spirit, for it is He who shows all things and reveals all things to us of Jesus especially grace and truth and it is He that will lead us in these areas if we allow Him. The natural man wants to control all things even his religious experience but the spirit man embraces the one that will lead into all areas of truth. The Holy Spirit helps us to come into the place of abiding with God and each other. Truth will point to what is wrong and present a solution and grace will cover and restore as if nothing happened.

One of the challenges of abiding and there are many is how we treat what belongs to other people that is their property, their family, their things and their reputation. Jesus put a lot of stock in how people were faithful with what belong to others.

Luke 16:12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

The way of the kingdom is truth and grace which is fulfilling in others what Jesus wants fulfilled in them and as we abide and are faithful with what belongs to others we then in turn get what is ours and no one can stop it. Abiding brings the issues of the heart to the surface and allows adjustments and healing. In Luke 16 we see three areas that abiding will expose.

Luke 16:10-11 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the un-righteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

How diligent are we about handling other people’s property, how diligent are we about financial matters, how diligent are about the little things in life. When we are diligent about these matters the kingdom is expanded and it makes abiding very pleasant.

Psalm 101:6 My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way He will serve me.

Return to Pentecost

(Acts 1:4-5 knjv) And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

We see the fulfilment of the promise of the Father in the second chapter of acts which records the day of Pentecost when all who gathered in the upper room had an encounter with God that changed their lives.

On that day there were many elements recorded for us of the experience that these ones received. Sound from heaven, tongues of fire, the out flow of speaking in tongues and the overflowing joy that filled their very being.

All through the bible we see that men and women just like us experienced the sound from heaven in one form or other. Adam and Eve heard the sound of the voice of God walking in the garden. [Gen 3:10] Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, John, the shepherd watching their sheep at the birth of Jesus, and many more heard the sound from heaven that changed their lives. On the day of Pentecost it was a sound as a mighty rushing wind which filled the house.

Jesus said my sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow. This is a sound from heaven that we cannot do with out and we need to be able to recognise the voice of God so that we know who we are and how to follow Him. With ever sound that comes from heaven there is always a response that comes from those that hear it or experience it and it was no different on the day of Pentecost.

(Acts 2:1-3 nkjv) When the Day of Pentecost had 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 the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

Note the response to this sound from heaven.

(Acts 2:4 nkjv) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

When ever God's presence comes to us there is and immediate response and that response is often a overflowing release of worship that rise from deep within us, it is an uncontrolled reflex action for we are wired to respond to God's presence. The other thing that can happen is we fall flat on our faces, falling down in His presence because of His over shadowing glory where it is impossible to remain standing.

(John 18:4-6 nkjv) Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?" They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.

When ever God's presence comes suddenly there is always an involuntary response form us that cause us to worship or fall down in awe. As good as these times are it is not the norm of everyday life where we live. God wants to come and have us enjoy His presence and have it as part of our normal life. For this to happen we need to respond to Him the way that He desires.

(Psalm 89:15 nkjv) Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.

God has given to you and I an incredible gift and that gift is a free will. His desire for us is to exercise this great gift and begin to worship Him for whom He is rather than from an involuntary response because He came suddenly.

When we exercise our free will to worship and reach out to Him then His presence comes in answer to our hunger for Him. On the day of Pentecost they began to speak in Tongues in response to the Holy Spirit coming suddenly.

We also have been filled with the Holy Spirit as those were on the day of Pentecost and we responded to Him coming on us suddenly by speaking in tongues that rose out of the depth of our being. Now God requires we speak in tongues reaching out and speaking mysteries to Him as an act of our free will.

Form this place we then will experience the coming of His presence and the release of the restrictions of our natural minds and enter into a deeper place in the things of the Spirit.

God poured out His spirit on us as He did on the day of Pentecost to empower our free will to respond to Him and to make right decisions to become all that He desires for us and that is to be like His son Jesus. Our free will exercised towards Him always draws His presence towards us.

(2Ch 5:13-14 nkjv ) indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: "For He is good, for His mercy endures forever," that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

There is a sound from Heaven that is available for all of us are you hungry for His presence?

Return to Sonship

(Psalm 27:6 nkjv) And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

When we know who we are it is very easy to hold our head up high and to look the world straight into the eye. When we are unsure who we are then the tendency is to look down and away from what we think or perceive others see about us. When we are in that mind set we do not look straight into the eye of the world and there fore we do not make our mark on history. When we are unsure of who we are it is a flag to our enemies that gives them a free reign to continue to push us down and to lie about us and to us and attack us in the this area of who we really are and that is sons in the kingdom of God.

Right from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden this was the plan of the enemy to attack God’s plan for man. The enemy comes to man to great doubt in his heart as to who he is and to create doubt in mans heart about the very integrity of God. He accuses God of lying to Adam and Eve by subtly making the statement that God was holding something back from them. His attack was about who they were and despite what was said about them they were not as good as God said they were. Note in Genesis every time that God created He said it was good, but when it came to man he said it was very good.

(Genesis 1:31a nkjv) Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

No matter what we do we cannot be any more accepted than what we are, we cannot undo any level of acceptance from God or extract anymore acceptance from Him. The death of Jesus on the cross is total proof of full acceptance. The great deception that lifts its head every day is this, the enemy has the church striving to be accepted and continually lying to them about their sonship, trying to cause doubt in the hearts of God’s people that they are not in the image and likeness of God and that God is holding some thing back from them. The enemy has us fighting for sonship when we are already sons.

The key is not to fight for position but to fight from our position of strength. In other words fight from the positions of sons. If we are to live a productive kingdom life we have to get to a place where we believe that we are children of God or what the old King James Version say believe that we are the sons of God and that there is no question or doubt that you are who God says you are.

First love keeps the focus on Him, and knowing who you are keeps the focus on Him.

Return to Passion

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

David said I would have lost heart I would have lost my passion accept I believed. David made this his declaration based on what he believed, and his declaration was that he would see the goodness of God. We know that what we declare based on what we believe will determine what we see and what we see will determine what we do. The power of life and death is in the tongue and those that love it will eat its fruit.

When God created man in his own image and in his own likeness, it was not just a mater of being like him in image or a photo or a reflection of Him, when God created ua in His image it was a likeness of heart and mind and attitude and an image that God himself wanted to fellowship with. God opened the porthole of eternity to be with his image and likeness, there was a passion in the heart of God to be with His created image, you and I. (Gen 3:8a nkjv) and they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Have you ever loved some one that never returned that same passion? Have we ever for instance stopped to consider how much passion Jesus expressed to do what he did for you and me? Love and passion have to find an expression for itself it cannot be locked up. Right from the very beginning when you and I were the dream in the heart of God He was making a way possible for us to return to Him because man would make a choice to turn away from Him, before time even begun His love was looking for a way to express its self to pour it self out on the object of His love which of course is you and I.

Jesus went to the place the slavery place of Golgotha to pay a price for a people that were already his. The bible says that we are brought with a price. He paid the price of redemption he paid the price of reconciliation; he closed the slave market over our life and released us to be the bride that He chose in the first place. Hosea paid the fifteen shekels and the half homers of barley for a bride that was already his.

Jesus paid the price of His life for a people that he created in His own image and likeness. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound.

My challenge this morning is, where is His return, what is holding back the things that we should bring in return for such love and passion,

His thanks, worship, love, passion, time and resources. Where is our passion for him and his kingdom, on the gauge of importance where does He rate?