Prophetic Insights for 2012 – Part 2 – Post 3

This is Post 3 of our prophetic insights for 2012 series. Post 1 - “Prophetic Bulletins – Are they valid today?” Post 2 - Prophetic Insights for 2012 – Part 1, Post 3 - Prophetic Insights for 2012 – Part 2

Todays entry is Part 2 of the Prophetic Insights. Before you read it can I suggest you read the previous two entries which can be found directly below this on the blogsite.

Prophetic Insights for 2012 – Part 2

Seek Wisdom!

Wisdom is key in this season (Matt 7:7; Prov 2:2,6). This wisdom is not just the revealing of some mystery, knowledge or mindset. It is Wisdom – the person, making himself known to us and showing us how to walk as he does; it is Jesus! Paul tells us that in 1 Corinthians 1:24 ”Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Now, more than ever, we need Jesus, the wisdom of God, to live in us and through us.

Shift in the Prophetic

There is a coming shift in the prophetic – more and more the prophetic will not just say, “There is something new coming” – that ‘ever elusive something new’. They will not just say “Revival is coming and starting here, or there.” As well as pointing us forward, they will point us back to the regaining of what we have lost. They will proclaim that a revelation of the old is here – Christ and Christ in us – the hope of the world.

The “Good News” will be preached in a way that it has not been for many centuries. The prophetic will trumpet the “Good News” to the church and many in the church will get truly converted as a result of it. They will then spread out like fire from their churches, proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of Heaven in such a way that countless others will be saved.

The prophetic will more and more proclaim, “Christ in you (NOW) is the hope of glory – not Christ coming some day, somewhere, to do something! Christ in you here and now, revealed to the world through sons and daughters who are fulfilling the mandate given centuries ago.”

The prophets will say, as God does here and now, “Look at the Cross, look at the cross, look at the cross! See what I did already. Walk in that! Don’t keep looking for something new. I don’t need to do something new – I already did all that was needed at the cross. Look back so that you can walk forward!”

We will recognize that there have been prophetic voices amongst us who were prophesying a true word, even though we did not want to hear it. The word…. “That church, as we have known it, has not been working and that God is changing that.”

Revelation

There is an increase in revelation that is here now. People are, and will be, seeing more visions, having supernatural encounters with Jesus and angels, receiving revelation in dreams. This will continue to increase this year and in the coming years as people allow God to be the supernatural God who communicates in supernatural ways.

Miracles, Signs and Wonders 

These will continue to increase in frequency as Christians believe again that Christ will work through them to do miracles, signs and wonders. Miracles will no longer be the domain of the ‘few’ but of every man, woman and child who believes.

Justice

Justice issues will continue to become more of a focus for the church, but not in the old way of only doing the practical, but a combining of the practical and the miraculous. Hope ambassadors will continue to proclaim and demonstrate God’s heart and intent, and peoples and nations shall come to him because of it.

The Nations

We will continue to see instability and even collapse in nations’ monetary foundations as things in the world’s system get worse, but we will also see the Lord provide for his people in miraculous ways. Make sure that you know who your provider is. Is it your employer or the hope of winning Lotto, or do you truly believe that God has, is and will provide your every need? (2 Pet 1:3)

It is not all doom and gloom, despite what the news media tell us. The world’s best days will soon be upon us, as we Christians become who God originally intended us to be, and live the life he always intended us to live – bringing hope, salvation, healing and freedom to many thousands. This will, in the days ahead, even lead to whole cities and nations becoming filled with true believers and as a result we will see some of those cities and nations become safe houses for those that are persecuted elsewhere. We will also see their economies bloom as God gives ideas and witty inventions to them. The world will begin to turn to the church for ideas and strategies to feed the poor, ideas for how to provide housing and education for their people and more. Some will even ask the church for strategies to bring their nations out of the crises they find themselves in. While this will bring increased freedom for some, it will also bring an increase in persecution and hatred of the Church by others.

To Finish

To be alive and representing Christ in this day is an awesome privilege and we are called to that. Releasing heaven into earth is our mandate for 2012 and beyond. We were created and called to release it now, tomorrow and every day that follows. Let’s have fun doing it!

Prophetic Insights for 2012 – Part 1 – Post 2

Prophetic Insights For 2012 – Part 1

Before reading this post can I encourage you to read the post “Prophetic Bulletins – are they valid today?” which is directly below this one on the blogsite.

Please also do take the time to re-read the Prophetic Insights for 2011 (you can find them on the toolbar above if reading this on the blogsite or here on our website if reading this on facebook or email). These will continue to play out over the next few years as God is unfolding his plan for the church. In writing these insights, while I call them Prophetic insights for 2011 or 2012, they are in fact prophetic insights into a “time-frame” that spans a few years, as well as being relevant to this particular year.

While these insights are what I believe the Lord has shown me I would encourage you to seek the Lord for yourself regarding them and ask him what his plans are for your personal life for this coming year.

Prophetic Insights for 2012 -Part 1

As I have been praying about this coming year there are a few things that the Lord has been saying, but one has rung louder than all the others. I believe we will hear more and more about this thing coming from many different sources. It is the foundational thing that all else is being built on – both in our personal lives and corporately, as the Church. When I share what God has been saying, it may sound in some ways innocuous or “old-news” at first, but everything the church becomes and does in the years ahead hinges on us getting a greater revelation of it. 

That statement is “Look at the Cross!”

God is calling us to look back in order to properly find our way forward!

A Largely Lost Revelation

Over the centuries the church has largely lost her way and we are hearing the voice of the Lord say again “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isa 30:21). And the way he is calling us to walk in is not some great mystery recently revealed, it is not some new revelation, but it is a revelation that we have largely forgotten. The revelation of the Cross – what Jesus did for us by his death and resurrection (check out 2 Cor 5:19; 1 Cor 15:22; Rom 5:18,19; Rom 6:8; Col 2:20 to start with).

The revelation of the cross is all about the grace of God and what it means to be born again and live in that grace. God is bringing a refocusing on the freedom that the gospel brings people into and reminds us that we live not under law but under grace (Rom 6:14; Gal 3:3; Col 1:23). While people initially get saved by grace, many all too soon get encumbered by teaching and beliefs that cause them to be unable to continue to live by grace. It is this that God is drawing our attention back to – the need to continually live in and by the grace of God. This revisited revelation of grace is revolutionizing the church.

Like with all things that God reveals or re-reveals, there is the possibility that some will believe and others won’t. The enemy wants to make mileage out of that and cause both sides (supporters and opponents) to rise up in self-righteousness and pride and defend their beliefs by tearing down the other side. Don’t let him draw you into that devilish trap.

Some in the Body of Christ are calling this the “grace revolution” but I would caution against using labels to define what God is doing. Our man-given labels have caused much dissension and fighting within the Body of Christ. Jesus is not calling us to give another label to what he is doing but to discard the labels altogether! We should not say I am of the “grace movement”, the “prophetic stream” etc – the early church had that problem (1 Cor 1:11-13) and Paul basically told them to grow up. Today I am doing the same. It is time for us as individuals to discard our stream or denominational labels. It is time to leave them behind and simply be “Christians” again.

Blending Streams

I see in the days ahead the Lord bringing the revelation truths of those different “streams” and “denominations” – Pentecostal, Evangelical, Charismatic, Prophetic, Grace, Glory etc together into a mighty river of revelatory understanding. He is currently bringing to the church an understanding of how the truths we have had revealed to us are all a part of the whole. Each has restored important revelation to the church and God is blending the truths together to cause us to grow up into a whole body, not factions that are set against each other.

There will still be some who refuse to leave their labels behind, but more and more people are discarding them and moving on to a greater maturity as they do.

The outworking of all this is that we are continuing to grow up and become the sons and daughters of God we were called to be.

It is “Christ in us” being revealed and released. It is releasing the Kingdom of Heaven into earth wherever we go, sharing the true “good news”, bringing hope, setting the captives free (both inside and outside the church), healing the sick, seeing the lame walk, and the blind see.

It is the time to reclaim our lost heritage. It is a time for the church to take back the ground we have let the enemy steal from us. It is time for stepping into our destiny and calling, to see the seemingly impossible bow to God as he empowers each of us to fulfill his plans and purposes in the earth.

Part 2 will be up on the site tomorrow. i have made them smaller posts so they aren’t too much to wade through at once.

Prophetic Bulletins – are they valid today? Post 1 of Prophetic Insights for 2012

Around this time of year, and also earlier at the Jewish New Year, there are lots of prophetic words from Prophetic ministers that hit the Internet. Why is that?

Is it simply that it’s a good time to think about the coming year? That is certainly a possibility and not a silly reason for doing so. Is it because one person did it and others copied? That is also, unfortunately, a possibility. Or, maybe, is there something special about these times of the year that causes God to speak more than at other times?

I don’t believe there is anything special about these particular times of the year (Rosh Hashanah – Jewish new Year or our western calendars New Year) although many people do. I know some people will not like my saying that – especially those who follow the Jewish Calendar and feasts, but it is good sometimes to be challenged to take the time to look at and question why we do what we do.

Personally I believe that it is no longer a necessity for us as New Covenant believers to follow the Old Covenant feasts (Gal 4:8-11) – they have interest factor and can teach us things, but our lives should not be based around them. Our lives are to be based on and lived from the New Covenant – what Jesus did for us through his death and resurrection. That is the pivotal thing for us to walk in. I also believe since Jesus’ ascension we have been in a continual season of his favour, under a continual open heaven and place of being able to hear God and fellowship with him.

But back to commenting on the Prophetic words that are being released… 

Let’s look at the timing of releasing prophetic words. In the Old Testament we don’t find the Prophets putting out prophetic bulletins to coincide with a particular date. They spoke when God spoke or when God told them to release the word, no matter what day that was. Let me explain that a little further by giving an example from my life. In my prophetic walk there have been words God has given me that I have prayed into for weeks and months before releasing them to do their work. At other times there has been an immediate release of a word in a particular situation. Both ways are valid and done for a reason. Some words that God gives you are only for taking to prayer and may never be publicly released; some are to be birthed in prayer first before being released, while others are to be given when they are received. Part of growing in my gifting as a Prophetic minister is learning to discern which is which.

While I don’t have a problem with the annual prophetic postings, and indeed I do one myself, there is something that does bother me concerning them. That problem is not primarily with the words themselves but is this – I have to wonder whether the Church receives and approaches these missives with a right understanding. If they don’t, that is not primarily their fault but ours, as Prophetic ministers, because we haven’t taught them how to discern, receive and apply them.

So I ask the question, “How do we receive and approach New Covenant Prophetic input like these bulletins?”

This is not an exhaustive look at the subject, but it is a start to get us thinking…

There is no doubt that the prophetic gift is still a gift valued by the Lord today. After all, he says that as part of the New Covenant Body he gave some to be Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Pastors or Evangelists (1 Cor 12:28). If that is so, then we can expect to hear from those prophetic voices giving us current words from him and understanding on what the Lord is doing or going to do.

But what is the primary role of the New Covenant Prophet? Is it just to hear and share, expecting people to base their walk on what they share? I don’t believe so. I think their function is first and foremost to train the church to hear from God for themselves so that they can minister rightly to those around them (Eph 4:11,12). It is also to hear and share.

Yes, we need the Prophets and what they hear from the Lord – it gives us a big picture view of what he is doing, and that is needed. The problem comes, though, when people begin to base their lives on those prophetic words without first going to the Lord and asking him how it applies to their life. To base our life on what someone else says they heard from God without going to him ourself and asking him how it applies to our life is at best ill-advised, and at worst monumentally stupid and will have consequences for our walk.

What are some of those possible consequences…

• We may not make time to hear God for ourselves – this could cause us to become an ‘easily swayed’ person.
• We may open ourselves, and possibly others, to deception (if we pass these things on to others).
• We may put our faith in what the person says, not in what God has said to us personally.
• If God does say something different to us we may question whether what we are hearing is right or not, and may possibly even disbelieve God.
• The church will end up with people who do not think for themselves but just blindly follow.

So while there is nothing wrong with prophetic people putting out insights regarding the coming year or the present season, do read them with a right understanding…

• That we prophetic people are learning to hear from God just as you are.
• We are not experts who have it all sussed, we are people just like you.
• At best we see partly and dimly (1 Cor 13:12).
• The interpretation and conclusions we come to from what we have heard are subjective and we may or may not be correct.

But has that ever stopped God speaking through human vessels? No! And He will continue to do so.

Don’t just blindly dismiss those prophetic words as having no value now under the New Covenant, God does still use Prophets and prophetic people in the New Covenant. Too many Christians are rubbishing other believers because they don’t understand why they do what they do. If you don’t understand, ask! – that’s the path of wisdom. Don’t just dismiss them or label them – that is just playing into the enemy’s hands.

Just make sure that when you read what we publish that you take it to the Lord and pray about it and ask how or if it relates to your life. Don’t just blindly believe everything you read and certainly don’t base your life and walk on it without checking it out with the Lord.

Will I be doing a Prophetic Insights for 2012 like I have the last few years? Yes, but I do so submitting them to you to weigh up before the Lord. They are what I have heard the Lord speak to me and while I do believe that they have application for all of us, you must take them to the Lord and ask him about how, or even if, they apply to your life. They will be up here on our blogsite, facebook and also our website in the next couple of days. I hope that they do give you some insight into what the Lord is doing in this time.

Some of you may be asking why do I do them at this time of year. Simply, I do it because for me the end of the year is a good time to do a stock-take on this year, and to seek God for the next one. There’s nothing particularly spiritual in that reasoning, sorry.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. May the Lord bless you with wisdom from above (James 1:5, 3:15-17) so that you know how to walk through this coming year.

Christmas / Xmas – is it really that important?

Christmas, Xmas, Happy Holidays – everyone says something different and sometimes people get so hung up over the right term to use it can get a little crazy. I learnt something interesting not so long ago It’s not earth shatteringly life changing but it does bring some clarity to the Christmas / Xmas debate that often rages around this time.

Apparently the term Xmas is not a new thing but originates from New Testament times. Patricia King (Extreme Prophetic’s leader in the USA) sent us this little article to explain it all. Interestingly it is also where our XP logo originated.

“The idea of using “X” in place of Christ is not a modern idea. In the Modern Roman Alphabet, which comes from the Greeks who were before Rome, the first letter of the word “Christ” is “chi” which is represented by a symbol similar to the letter “X.”

X in Ancient Greek is pronounced as the hard “ch.” The Greek Chi or X is the first letter in the Greek word Christos as in Iesus Christos aka Jesus Christ. You will frequently see people write Xmas, as well as Xian, which means Christian, using the same principle.

Chi is written as an “X” and Rho is written as a “P,” but they are the first two letters of the Greek word Christ “savior” that “XP” is sometimes used to stand for. Sometimes X is used alone. This is the case in the Chi (X) abbreviation for Christ in Xmas.

Thus, Xmas is not directly a way of secularizing the holiday, but since “X” is not Chi in English, we read the word as X-mas and see no connection with Christ. It’s really not the word Xmas’s fault, but our ignorance. Some may use the word Xmas today as an unchristian shortcut for Christmas, but the ancient abbreviation by no means originated as such. The scribes who copied New Testament manuscripts had no intention of taking Christ out of the New Testament. They used the abbreviation simply to save time and space.”

So Merry Christmas or Happy Xmas to you all! Take time to enjoy the true meaning of the season and don’t get hung up over a few letters, they really aren’t that important in God’s grand scheme of things.

A Grand Adventure

If you received the following invitation do you think you’d take it?

You are invited on

“A GRAND ADVENTURE!”

Starting point – NOW!

Finishing Point – YET TO BE DETERMINED!

“It’s the adventure of a lifetime! I can’t tell you exactly what will happen – that would spoil the surprise but I can promise you an adventure you’ll never forget.”

“I can promise times of peace and white knuckle times, I can promise there will be times you never want it to end and times you thought you never should have come along.”

“You’ll meet nice people, you’ll meet some not so nice. Some you’ll remember forever, some you’ll forget and some you’ll wish you could forget.”

“You’ll experience times of rapturous bliss and times of deep despair.”

“You’ll experience times when you have more than enough, times when you have just enough and times when you don’t have enough – of time, of finances, of love, of creativity, of patience and of  life experience.”

“There will be times when you know exactly what to say and times when you can’t find the right words. And then there’ll be times you’ll wish you hadn’t found the words at all.”

“There will be times when you will see the world and times when you will be shut in and wish you could see the world.”

“There will be times where you’ll discover new friends and times when you leave behind old ones.”

“I can promise there will be fun and laughter and also tears.”

“I can promise there will be friends to hold your hand and speak love into your life after others have spoken unkindly.”

“I can promise you’ll be loved by many and possibly hated by one or two depending on how you treat them.”

“There will be times when it all goes well, times where you’ll hit problems and times when you’ll be the problem.”

“I can promise you will have times to sit quietly and think and times you’ll wish you had the time to sit quietly and think.”

“I can’t promise you’ll love every moment of it but I can promise you it will be a grand adventure, the adventure of a lifetime.”

Would you come along if you were offered that invitation, if you had time to weigh it all up?

Maybe you would and maybe you wouldn’t, but in some ways it doesn’t matter whether you would or wouldn’t because you’re already on it. It’s the adventure of  a lifetime – it’s the adventure of your lifetime! It’s a grand adventure, one you won’t get to repeat and one that you will remember for ever. Make the most of every moment of it even the bad ones. Wring out of it every bit of truth and understanding you can. Experience it all with every fiber of your being and in it all look for the one who created you and extended you the invitation. You will get the chance to meet him somewhere along the way. Look out for him because you never know when he’ll reveal himself and once he does a whole new chapter in your adventure will begin.

 

Work out my salvation – but how?

The other day at our “Outrageous Grace – religious detox day” someone asked me to explain the verse where Paul tells us to ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling’ (Phil 2:12-13). While I answered the question in an okay way, to be honest I felt that my on-the-spot answer didn’t go deep enough. So this article gives a more in-depth answer to the question. I do apologise for it’s length but it is an important topic and deserves looking at and understanding properly.

First here’s the verse in two translations:

ISV – “And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him.”

WAY - “Since I am far away, work out, with fear and trembling self distrust, your own salvation. You have not to do it in your own strength. 13 It is God who is all the while supplying the impulse, giving you the power to resolve and the strength to perform the execution of his good pleasure.”

Work hard…

The most common understanding of this verse is that we were saved by grace  and faith, and while we didn’t have to earn our salvation, now that we are saved we do have to work hard at working for God and pleasing Him. We are to do so with fear and trembling (having the fear of God in our lives) in case He is not happy with us, or in case that when we stand before Him He says, “Go away, I never knew you.” It is to live in a state of uneasiness and fear, never knowing if our best will actually be good enough. But that is, I believe, a very wrong interpretation of this verse.

If that is a wrong interpretation then what is the right one?

Firstly, when the disciples asked Jesus what they should do to work the works of God, He answered that they should believe in the one that God sent (in Him). John 6:28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”  (NASB)

So…

• This is the foremost and foundational part of our works before God – to believe in Jesus, who He is and what He has done!

Is that it, though? Even in a grace walk is there nothing else we are to do? Surely it is not just as simple as that? As we will continue to see in this article our idea of works and God’s are often different.

Work out your salvation…

The salvation in this verse is not the salvation that we commonly understand – Jesus dying on the cross for us and us believing and ‘receiving that salvation’. It is something different.

“The word ‘salvation’ has many different meanings in the NT. In Phil 1:19 it means deliverance from prison. In Phil 1:28 it refers to the salvation of our bodies. The meaning in any particular case must be determined in part, at least, by the context. We believe that in this passage salvation means the solution of the problem that was vexing the Philippians – that is, their contentions, squabbles & strife. The apostle has given them the remedy. Now they are to apply the remedy by having the mind of Christ. Thus they would work out their own salvation, or the solution of their difficulty.” (BBC)

“In light of Paul’s preceding exhortation to the Philippians to unity, this passage may mean that the entire church was to work together to rid themselves of divisions and discord. The Philippian Christians needed to be especially careful to obey Christ, now that Paul wasn’t there to continually remind them about what was right.” (LASB)

So we see that part of our works is to love one another – to let Christ’s love be unleashed through us, not to love in our own strength. It is to be diligent in maintaining the unity of the Body of Christ, working out our problems with each other in a godly and scriptural way, tapping into the mind of Christ. In other words it’s not about our effort, it’s about letting Christ live through us.

In fear and trembling…

The fear and trembling mentioned here in this verse is not the fear of God or the fear that we won’t be good enough for Him. According to scholars, “The kind of fear which is recommended here is self distrust, a fear that leads to caution and care. Not slavish terror, but wholesome caution, it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation.” (VWS)

As mentioned above, the Philippian Christians now have the mind of Christ and Paul is saying that they should use Christ’s wisdom and His knowledge in their life and church situations rather than their own or the world’s. The world’s wisdom, or even our own human wisdom, cannot wholly be trusted so we need to have self-distrust in that way. It’s a distrust that makes us ask, “Is this Christ’s wisdom or man’s that I’m about to apply to this situation?”

So what does it mean?…

Paul is in prison, not around to keep an eye on those he loves and cares for, so he writes as an apostolic father to them. Basically, I believe he is saying something like this –

“It’s time to grow up, guys, I’m not there to keep you out of trouble. I’m not there to deliver you from your squabbles and problems. I’m not there to warn you when religion and legalism is trying to creep in. You’ve got to begin to take responsibility for your own grace walk before God. You have to learn for yourself just what the Christian life is all about. You need to get your own understanding of the wonderful work Jesus did for you – you can’t keep walking in my revelation. Outward motivation like that won’t work. It’s got to become your revelation and then you’ll be inwardly motivated. But even then, don’t rely on your own efforts to live the life Christ has for you. Don’t believe that lie; your best efforts just won’t cut it. Distrust the voice that says that you need to ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ to be a good Christian. That’s not Christianity, that’s religion and it’s not what you were born again into. Remember – it’s for freedom that Christ set you free. He didn’t set you free to bring you back into another form of religious bondage. Your best efforts are not good enough for any aspect of your salvation and Christian walk. Remember that it is Christ who gives you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases Him, so rely on Jesus and Holy Spirit – let them live this life in you and through you.”

Unforced rhythms…

Put the above mentioned verse (Phil 2:12 – 13) together with some others and you get a good picture of the attitude and the way in which we work out our salvation.

1 Cor 2:12 – 16  “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

• We have been given the mind of Christ – His wisdom, His knowledge, His strategic thinking mind. We are to use His wisdom, not our own or the world’s.

Matt 11:28-30 says “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (MSG)

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. In grace there is an ease, a rest that we can live in and walk in that is relaxed and unforced – not a result of our works, but of Christ’s.

Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest… (KJV)

Again here is a verse that makes it sound as if we have to work hard to obtain something in God. But does it actually mean work hard?

Labour  = make haste, be diligent, zealous (SC, TGD)

Labour, in this verse, means to be diligent. Diligent means ‘to show care or conscientiousness’. It comes from the word ‘dilgens’ which means to love or take delight in. So this diligence is not something heavy it is something that is a delight. I believe that part of that delightful diligence, that conscientiousness, is that entering and staying in that state of rest should be a thing of prime importance.

So this is working out our salvation….

• To receive and enter that rest state that Christ has provided and stay in it and then out of that to do what pleases Him.
• To be diligent in maintaining that rest and all that Christ has given us (John 6:39), not letting the enemy steal it from us (John 10:10).
• To allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds (Phil 4:7).
• To not let the enemy whisper in our minds and establish thoughts that set themselves up against Christ (2 Cor 10:5). It means pulling down those thoughts and bringing them into submission to Christ.
• To not let the enemy condemn us and tell us that we aren’t performing well enough (Rom 5:18; 8:1).
• To believe that Christ will lead us, guide us, and provide a way out in every temptation (1 Cor 10:13) and give us what we need in every circumstance for everything He asks of us (2 Pet 1:3).
• It is to believe and trust Him!

This then is what it means to work out our salvation. Our works are primarily to believe, trust and rest in Christ. When we do that we are diligently labouring to work out our salvation. From that place of rest and trust anything we do with Christ is not hard but joyful, and our burden is easy and light. And so we keep vigilant, we make sure that we enter and guard our state of rest. We work out our salvation, both eternal and earthly (problems, temptations etc), by relying on Christ, His mind, wisdom and strength to help us in every situation. Out of that state of rest, and knowing that Christ will supply our every need, we then cooperate with Him, doing His will and releasing heaven into earth.

Sources -

• LASB – Life Application Study Bible
• BBC  – Believers bible Commentary
• GNB – Good News Bible
• WAY – Arthur Way Translation
• ISV – International Standard Version
• MSG – The Message Bible
• NASB – New American Standard Bible
• VWS – Vincents Word Studies
• SC – Strongs Concordance
• TGD – Thayers Greek Definitions

Commercialized rejection!

I was talking to my daughter the other day about a parenting course she is doing. She talked about the role of ‘Disney’ in propagating the lie that looks and romantic relationship define who a woman is. In their cartoons and childrens stories they have become world leaders in commercializing rejection. Every heroine is thin, beautiful, well dressed and sees her future as being realised in a relationship with a hero that rivals her in his looks and style. Yet ‘Disney’ is not alone, rejection is everywhere we look in the media, from waspishly thin and young models in fashion magazines to the weekly tabloid magazines and their obsession with so called ‘stars’ and their figures and looks.

With one hand they tell us to be unique, to be who we are and on the other hand tell us that who we are is not enough. The world commercializes and sells rejection; they tell us you need to wear this, own this or look like this to be acceptable. All the time our identity, sense of well being and even health is being stolen and destroyed because of this rejection.

But there is good news and that is this – God freely gives accceptance and value to everyone regardless of gender, age, size, looks or ability .

God’s love, acceptance and grace is central to the good news of the gospel. And it really is good news for women when we walk in his grace. We stand side by side with man, equal yet different. Paul is very clear on this although religion would tell us otherwise (for info on teaching on this see the bottom of this article). Paul, the pharisee of pharisees who, before his encounter with Christ, everyday would have said with pride that he was glad he was not born a slave, gentile or woman. Yet in coming to understand God’s love and grace Paul’s mind was renewed and he did a 180 degree turn stating that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. And for Paul this was not mere rhetoric but heart-felt belief.

I look on amazed sometimes at the church which continues to propagate not only the worlds standards concerning women but also the ‘laws’ view of women. I have no problem with women wanting to look their best and taking pride in their appearance, I love fashion and make up and love seeing a woman hold her head up high because she knows she looks great. But I do have a problem with a Christianity that says a woman has to weigh a certain amount or look a certain way to be able to be a suitable minister of the gospel. I have seen women (and men) told they cannot minister or worship lead or do some other form of ministry because they are too old, too fat or had some other worldly standard applied to them. Rejection is in many ways just as rampant for women ( and to a lesser degree for men) in the church as it is in the world. Under the law and in religious Christianity women are all too clearly told that they are less than and not enough. Under law we are invited from one form of rejection and bondage (in the world) into yet another form of rejection and bondage (in the church).

As a woman, only as we embrace and walk in God’s grace do we truly experience and understand the freedom we have been given. When you begin to understand what Jesus did and what God’s grace gives women you realise what a glorious freedom you have come into. Accepted and loved as you are with no expectations or fear of rejection by Him ever. Oh, how your heart sings and your spirit jumps for joy when you realise this. And in your being free and being who you were created to be you call others into freedom and acceptance too. I love the grace of God and the freedom it brings me as a human and as a woman. Accepted and loved just as I am, now that is good news!

For more teaching on how God sees women get my teaching “Strong by Design” from our website here.

For some good teaching on ‘Grace’ check out these books on our website – they’ll be up on the website early next week if we don’t sell them all this weekend at our Outrageous Grace religious detox event. If we have run out of copies you can get them from here

“Living In The Grace Of God” – Rob Rufus

“Extra Virgin Grace” – Ryan Rufus

“So You Think Your Mind Is Renewed” – Cornel Marais

Sow & reap, sow and reap

When I was 20 I was part of a youth group that was on fire with passion for God and for people. They loved to worship and together we adventured deep into the heart of God. During that formative time in my Christian life I remember hearing a quote that I remember even today. That quote has been a foundational part of my Christian life and it’s truth still rings the same today as then. Here it is…

Sow a thought

Reap an attitude

Sow an attitude

Reap a act

Sow an act

Reap a habit

Sow a habit

Reap a character

Sow a character

Reap a destiny

My tomorrow and yours is being set by the choices and decisions we make today. Make a decision to make good decisions and to keep on making good decisions – future proof your life. Sow good thoughts, follow through on them and reap  a great future.

To the victor the spoils!

What an exciting six weeks we’ve had as a nation hosting the Rugby World Cup. It’s been great for the nation and a great encouragement to me as a Christian (more about that later). I’m not normally a Rugby fan but even I sat and watched the semi-final and final matches. And the final was a cliff hanger! What a match. I sat there a wound up mass of tense muscles and shallow breathing until that final whistle blew and the game was over and we had won; by one point – but we had won! The All Blacks won and now they get the spoils. In their case that’s a victory payment, a shiny gold cup (The Webb-Ellis Trophy) with their name engraved on it, hero status in the nation and the right to call themselves the world champions for the next four years.

You know sometimes as Christians we can be a bit like I was, watching the final game of the RWC, when it comes to the Lord and Satan. We somehow get into our mind that there is a huge struggle for victory going on between the forces of heaven and the forces of darkness. But there isn’t! Jesus thoroughly thrashed the enemy in a decisive ‘huge score’ win against him on Calvary, not merely a one point victory either! There is no inch by inch fight for territory from Jesus’ perspective. It’s only us that see it like that if we’ve  not understood the nature of the battle or Christ’s victory. We can take one verse from scripture and build a theology around it like this one – “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principlaities and powers” and think that the battle is still happening and the war is not over yet. Yet so many other scriptures tell us that he has triumphed (Col 2:15, Eph 1: 20,22, Eph 2:6, and more…). Jesus has already won, and through him we have, too.

We are now in mop up mode, gathering the spoils and plundering the enemy’s camp – setting free his prisoners and taking back what he stole from us. That’s a far different viewpoint to see things from and operate from. Let’s get a correct view of the enemy and get out there and set those prisoners free and plunder the enemy’s camp. To the victor the spoils! That’s Jesus and that’s us!

The other thing that encouraged me about the RWC was the crowds of people that turned out to watch in the fan zones. It got me dreaming again of the crowds that will gather to worship in open air stadiums and fan zones as Christ’s power and love are unleashed in our land. And believe me, it will happen! As a team we have had a great time getting out amongst all the fans and sharing the Lord with people. We’ve had some great conversations and so many people have had destiny spoken prophetically into them and their lives have been touched in a way that they will never forget (Holy Spirit will see to that). Seeds are planted in their lives that the Lord will now water and bring to fruit. One day we’ll get to meet many of them again and they’ll say “Do you remember the RWC in 2011, you prophesied over me and it changed my life….”

Who will you ask for a prophetic word for this month, this week, today? That word will have an effect – have no doubt about that. God says that when we open our mouth he will fill it and his words never return to him void – they always accomplish what he sends them to do. Let him speak through you this month. Be a blessing and be blessed.

When right is wrong

Over the last year or so I have noticed something heartbreakingly pathetic happening in the Body of Christ and that is this – the body is in self destruct mode, tearing each other apart over what we believe or don’t believe as the case may be.

It’s crazy how as Christians we divide ourselves into streams of belief or denominations – the prophetic stream, the grace stream, the glory stream, the charismatic stream, this denomination, that denomination etc. To label yourself and put yourself in one camp or another is to divide the body and set up divisions and oppositions. And make no mistake – to say you are from “this” stream or “that” one is to put yourself into the modern version of a denomination – a man made structure to house your beliefs!

It’s puzzling to me that when a person receives fresh revelation they say things like “I used to be a part of this stream but now I’ve moved on” and they then embrace the new beliefs as if none of what they believed before had any truth in it. For some reason people often move on – into an ungodly extreme! (Unfortunately with this some people also ditch their old friends because their friends don’t have the same revelations they now have)

Is it right that the church divides itself according to our beliefs and by that dividing itself, declare that one is right and another wrong? I’m not talking here about cults that obviously believe against what scripture teaches but about the subtle divisive beliefs that happen within the Body of Christ. But do be careful, because deception and cults form out of believing you have somehow come into truth that others have missed.

God doesn’t want lots of little streams – they are man-made wineskins – whether it is the grace movement, the prophetic movement, the glory movement or any other! God simply has one body, there is just one river that flows from the throne; and there are just sons and daughters in God’s eyes not this or that stream or denomination.

In the coming days the Lord will join the truths in the prophetic stream, the charismatic stream, the grace stream, the glory stream and all the other streams until we have a full picture of truth. He will not simply welcome home a part of the body but the whole body. So you better get used to loving each other and living with each other now because you are going to be doing that for all eternity. When you get to eternity you will see all your differences for what they are – ploys of the enemy that you bought into, that brought division into the Body of Christ.

In coming into a place of fresh revelation you need to look at what you have believed and simply get rid of what is clearly scripturally inaccurate, ask God to give you clarity on what you are unsure of and embrace what you are sure of. But in doing so, do not swing like a pendulum from one extreme to another. People who swing from one extreme to another simply make sideways movements but never gain any forward progress really. Instead move forward in a consistent manner into the truth of who God is and who you are in him. Remember also that not everyone is in the same place you are in your journey in Christ. In remembering this don’t look down on them as if they are somehow inferior because they don’t believe what you do. The reality is they are quite possibly looking at you the way you are at them and they may possibly have revelation of truth is some area that you don’t yet. You can share what you now believe to be a more accurate and scriptural belief with others but you cannot and must not rubbish what others believe in a way that puts them down.

All to often I see people saying childish things like “I puke on that belief” or referring to something another Christian believes as “superstitious old covenant nonsense” or something similar. While it is good to be passionate and to passionately share what you believe we are never called to belittle our brothers and sisters and where they are in their journey into truth.

Yes, God is bringing back into focus long forgotten or overlooked truths that have been plainly written in scripture all along. But God is not and does not look down on, rubbish people or write them off because they don’t see what He knows to be truth. If He did that none of us would stand because we all (at this moment in our truth journey) only have partial truth and are growing in our revelation of truth.

When you rubbish others you set yourself up as a judge and allow the sin of pride to gain a foothold in your lives. That is not God’s heart and should not be yours. We talk about growing up into truth but maybe it is also time to just “grow up”. Endless debates about who is right and who is wrong will not advance the Kingdom of Heaven nor release heaven into earth as the Lord wants. All it does is play into the enemy’s hand and cause us to become a tool of his. Yes truth is important and we should all be on a journey into greater revelation of truth but taking pot-shots at your brothers and sisters reveals both immaturity and a lack of truth in your life.

It’s time to grow up Church, it’s time to stop tearing the Body apart limb from limb. Its time to stop creating self afflicted wounds. If a person did to themselves what we do to the body of Christ we would say that they are mentally sick and in serious need of help. Hmm…

Let’s stop the nonsense, start to honour & respect each other and see that our brother or sister, while not believing what we currently do, is in no way inferior or less than we are. Maybe then we will begin to love one another and the world will see a true representation of Jesus in the earth.