Month: December 2019

Ruth continued

The voice of reason will not take us to our destiny, it doesn’t know the way!
The voice of the heart or spirit will take us to our destiny if we walk by faith.

Naomi and Ruth arrived In Bethlehem(means house of bread) just as the barley harvest was beginning, around our month of April. This also meant that they made the long journey on foot from Moab before the hottest times of summer. The whole town was stirred because of them and the people talked about their coming, Ruth 1:19. Their arrival caused a stir, even during the busy time of harvest.

Naomi(a type of the Spirit) and Ruth(type of the Church) were called to walk together. Naomi leading the way and the younger Ruth carrying the burden through the dry land around the Dead Sea area.

Ruth immediately became involved in the harvest, picking up the leftovers. She started at the very bottom but found herself gleaning in the field of Boaz(kinsman redeemer, type of the Lord). Boaz told her not to go working in anyone else’s field as that could be risky, Ruth 2:8. We live in a hostile world and need to be careful that we are serving in the right place and at the right time. Boaz, the Lord, commanded his workers to look out for Ruth and allowed her to drink with his workers.

This is a beautiful picture of the Lord’s protection and care for a hard working church in the time of the harvest. We need to make sure however that the place where we’re serving is the Lord’s field for us, provision and protection are provided there. Many however go into other fields and put themselves and others at risk. Harvest is a totally demanding time, working to tight deadlines to save the crop. Working in a harvest requires all hands, absolutely everyone will be used and needed.

Ruth’s hard work was noticed and blessed, the Lord of the harvest left grain, the valuable part for her and Naomi to live on. The real blessing or future gain came not just in the work of her hands but in the guidance of Naomi. Once again, a beautiful picture of blessing on two levels, immediate physical needs met and a step into future destiny.

Be sure to ask the Lord for His field for your life today and know that His blessing will meet you there.

To be continued

Which voice will we follow into 2020, human reason or our own hearts?

RUTH Chapter 1
This chapter has a dramatic and maybe drastic beginning, three men died and three women were left alone. Sometimes God has to bring things in us and in our lives down to to death before He can get us onto His path for our lives. It wasn’t just one or two who died but all the men, there was nothing left. No hope of rebuilding anything. All was gone and that may be God’s place of new beginnings for us, when nothing of the old is left.

The three women, Naomi(means pleasant), Ruth and Orpah(both Moabites) had to decide what to do next. Naomi told the younger women to go back to their mother’s home, she could promise them nothing. Orpah eventually listened to the voice of reason and left, Ruth clung on to Naomi with a powerful pledge;

V16,17 Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go(wherever you go), and wherever you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God(total future commitment). Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried(for life). The old missionaries to Africa used to take their coffins along with them to the mission field, their commitment was for life.

Ruth followed a deeper call and like Abraham, the father of the faith, went out not knowing where she was going. Ruth’s destiny was now with Naomi, it didn’t make sense but she had bound herself inextricably to her Jewish mother in law, her people and their God.

Orpah followed reason and never saw Naomi again(Naomi/pleasant, a type of the Holy Spirit). Ruth followed her heart and we presume never saw her people or her home again. There is a cost to following the Lord, take note! He doesn’t usually ask us to give up everything at once but there will be sacrifices to be made. With the sacrifices comes freedom, a freeing of our lives from unnecessary things and relationships to go on with Him. Sometimes we have to have our hands emptied so that He can fill them again with the things of the Kingdom.

We may not be able to explain why we are taking a certain path, but then it’s only between us and and the Lord. No one else needs to know or understand.

May we, like Ruth, walk with our loving Heavenly Father in this coming year, embrace His ways and go forward boldly into all that He has for us.

God bless you.

A good idea but not a God idea, an initiative not of God.

In 1 Samuel 4 we read of the defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines. They had an idea V3, let US bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it(or He) may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.

Israel decided to do something by their own understanding
that directly affected the honour of their God. Surely God would not allow the Philistines to conquer them again and capture the ark of His covenant, but God cannot be so easily manipulated. Man wants to do things his way and achieve his outcome without yielding to God and acknowledging His Lordship.

The result was a mighty shout in the camp, V5 When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel(the whole camp shouted as one) raised such a great shout that the ground shook.

How many initiatives, how many praise meetings today have their origins in the ‘Let US’ mentality. The mighty shout in the camp of Israel ultimately meant nothing, their enemy still defeated them(30,000 died). God did not feel obligated to fight for them! They were going to battle on their own initiative and they failed.

We cannot bend God to our will, we must go with Him. His will is always best, no glory for the flesh. In the story of Gideon the reason given for God so drastically reducing Israel’s army was so they would not claim the glory. If God is behind a work He must get all the glory. Jesus said when we have done everything we are still unworthy servants. Maybe that’s something we need to ask ourselves before embarking on a new course, who will get the honour and glory for this, us or God?

As we come towards the threshold of the New Year we need to make sure that the things we put our hands to are approved by Heaven. It won’t matter how great the shouts of men, God must be in it for anything of value to be achieved.

May you be blessed and be led of heaven in these important days approaching the New Year.

Who controls your centre?

1 Samuel 4:1 And Samuel’s word came to all Israel(national prophet).

The fourth chapter of 1 Samuel seemingly has a lot of bad things, things going wrong for Israel. But the chapter begins with, or chapter 3 ends with, Samuel in position as the nation’s prophet. Sometimes heaven’s perspective may be very different from our earthly one. God had His man at the centre of the nation’s worship.

In the game of chess the player who controls the central squares on the board usually wins the game. There can be a lot of movement around the board with pieces being won and lost but the central squares are dominant. God controlled the centre in Israel, the spiritual heart was now right. Though there was chaos around caused by their Philistine enemies He used even them to remove Eli’s family from the priesthood and strengthen Samuel’s position as leader.

Another principle of chess is that a player may sacrifice(religious implications) a piece for position. In order to get a winning position a player may choose to surrender a good piece. Jesus was heaven’s grand sacrifice for us! He surrendered Himself in order to secure the victory and God will eventually place everything under His feet. Remember this Christmas that God’s position and hence our position is the winning one. There may be tough things for us to go through but we are on the winning side.

Today ask God again to be in control, to govern, to reign and to rule at the centre of our lives. With Him at the centre we cannot loose.

God bless you this Christmas.

A new day dawning for you?

1 Samuel 3:13, For I told him(Eli) that I would judge his family for ever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them.

We have already seen how God first spoke to Samuel in the night time when everything was silent and still. Samuel needed the optimum conditions to learn to hear God’s voice. No doubt later as prophet of the Lord it was much easier for him, but in the beginning he needed peace for the word to come through.

Eli, the priest, knew that God was speaking to the young boy Samuel which made the word doubly difficult to receive. God had already told Eli that he and his family were going to be judged and removed from the priesthood.

We may think we are getting away with things because God doesn’t judge at once, but God is a God of justice and if we don’t confess(say the same as God) and repent(turn around or think again) then judgement will eventually come.

So the first word God spoke to Samuel was to tell him judgement was coming to the house of Eli the priest. But this word was also important for Samuel, it began to establish him as a prophetic voice for Israel in Shiloh.

1 Samuel 3:19,20 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and He let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

It also set the course for his life as the coming prophet and judge in God’s tabernacle in Shiloh. It was a new day for Samuel and for the people of Israel.

Is God speaking to you today? Does He have something new for your life in the year ahead? Maybe for you this season of training is over and it’s your turn to step up into a new level of calling for your life. Don’t be afraid, He won’t let your words fall to the ground either.

Be bold and determine to enter into all that God has for you today.

God bless you and God bless Israel on Hanukkah.

Switch off from the world and switch on to God today.

1 Samuel 3:1-4
The boy Samuel ministered before Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
One night Eli….was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple/tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called to Samuel.

The first time God spoke to Samuel was in the night time, while everything was still. The duties of the day were over and the place was quiet, no distractions. Samuel had to learn to hear and know the voice of the Lord for himself, so it makes sense that He began to speak when everything was quiet.

Samuel was lying down where the ark(presence) of God was. We could say he was in a place where God could speak to him. He was living in an atmosphere where the worship of God was ongoing. The chapter begins by saying that the word of the Lord was rare, people were observing religious rituals but the rhema (living, spoken) word of God was rare. Samuel had a calling from God and God began to speak to him directly, but even though he had the calling he had to be in a place to hear from heaven.

The Indian prophet Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, talking to young people in this generation, told them they needed to spend the last hour before going to sleep with the Lord. Worshipping, reading the word and praying, getting into the atmosphere and presence of the Lord before sleep. In doing this the Lord would be able to speak to them more readily during the night time. I don’t think we realise how pervasive and contaminating the world is in our lives, especially today with TV, internet, phones, tablets etc.

We need to switch off from earthly things and switch on to the things of God!
It’s said when we read God’s word we think His thoughts after Him. Like the young boy Samuel we need to be in the presence of God to hear Him speak.

God bless you, may you know His love and His voice in your life today.

1 Samuel 2:30
Those who honour Me I will honour,
but those who despise Me will be disdained.

There are no qualifications or conditions to the unknown prophet’s statement from 1 Samuel 2, “those who honour Me I WILL HONOUR”.

Eli, the priest at Shiloh, received a message from the Lord regarding his sons. He and his whole family would be judged because of their sin before God at the place where Israel worshipped. But at the heart of the prophet’s word is this promise from the Lord, a promise that God Himself will honour those who honour Him.

It’s noteworthy that Hannah’s husband Elkanah, despite all the wickedness that was going on at Shiloh, returned year by year with his family to worship there. He was faithful to God, honouring of God and God chose his family to receive the son who would lead all Israel.

In the movie Chariots of Fire, the famous Scottish runner Eric Liddell refused to run in one of the heats of the 100 metres, his best event, in the 1924 Olympic Games. The movie highlights that the heat was to be held on the Sabbath and Eric, coming from a missionary family wouldn’t compete. He eventually ran in the 400 metre event after a fellow team member stepped aside to allow him to run.

Before the race began, someone gave Eric Liddell a note with this scripture written on it, “those who honour Me I will honour”. He went on to take the gold medal in a race where he was not expected to feature and set a new world record. It was a very touching moment in the movie when he won his victory.

Eric Liddell returned to China as a missionary in 1925, the year after his Olympic victory and served there, with two furloughs, until 1943 when he died in a Japanese internment camp. The movie concludes with a note of his death and the simple epitaph, “all Scotland mourned”.

You may not seem to have much honour in your life at present, but God’s Word cannot be broken, honour God today and He will honour you!

Be blessed today as you seek to honour the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Overflowing and bursting with joy for what God has done!

1 Samuel 2:1-10, We read Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving. Everything changed for Hannah and she was saying God would change it for others as well.

Her Prayer/song acknowledged God had done these things, God had intervened.

My heart rejoices in the Lord;
in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.

There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

Two women who gave birth to sons with a calling of heaven on their lives, Hannah and Mary. 1 Samuel 2 is cross referenced to Luke 1, Mary’s song.
Both expressed delight in God, thanksgiving for what God does, there is no one like Him!!

Luke 17:11-19
Jesus healed ten lepers but only one came back and he a Samaritan to THANK HIM! Would the rate 1 in 10 be any better for Christians today?
Hannah and Mary were jubilant, buzzing, and their exuberance led to prophetic outpouring of the goodness of God. God had taken the least and made them the most honoured.

Both uttered prayers of thanksgiving inspired by the Spirit for their sons.
Both began with worship to God and continued with a series of contrasts or reversals of fortune! He deals with both high and low, no one is beyond His reach. He is Lord over all!

Take some time to read Hannah’s prayer and lift your heart to heaven today to give thanks!

May you have much to thank God for today.

 

Hannah got her breakthrough outside her own home, in the place where God was worshipped. It was also the place of her greatest torment, as if the enemy was making that place so hurtful that she wouldn’t want to go there. But it was at Shiloh that God saw her tears and heard her prayer for a son. Sometimes we need to press through our pain to get into God’s presence, indeed our pain and greatest needs can take us to the place of deepest intercession. We literally cry out to the Lord, just as Hannah did.

I believe it was Rees Howells, or his son Samuel, who said that, intercession only begins where prayer ends.

1 Samuel 1:24
After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was,(must have been a real trial for a first time mother to leave her only son with the priests) … and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.

V27,28 I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.

Hannah certainly kept her vow to the Lord and He honoured her with more children, 1 Samuel 2:21.

It’s said that in an oyster it’s a small piece of grit or sand that brings forth the pearl – the constant irritant helps form something of beauty and great value. In our lives, God may have allowed an irritant for a time to form something which would never have come any other way. The pain causes us to turn to God in a way that nothing else could.

Just like Hannah and the oyster, it takes time for the deeper purposes of God to come to fruition in our lives.

May God bless you today and may you have grace in all the circumstances of life.

1 Samuel 1 What is your Samuel?

Sounds like bad English I know, not who, but what?

I had a friend who was head of a very successful international ministry and was on boards of other prominent organisations. He was mature in the things of God and a real blessing to the body of Christ in many nations. His counsel was widely sought after, including by other Christian leaders. However, there came a time in his life when things began to get very difficult for him and he was afflicted by deep depression. He actually started to leave meetings immediately after his messages so that he wouldn’t have to speak to people. He received prayer from other leaders he knew and trusted but nothing changed. Then a good friend told him ‘God wants something from you and He won’t relent until He gets it’!

In 1 Samuel 1:3 & 7 we read that Hannah’s trial of barrenness went on, ‘year after year’, it was a prolonged period of misery. Eventually it led to her vow;

V10,11 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And SHE MADE A VOW, saying, “O Lord Almighty(He certainly is), if you will only look upon your servant’s misery …. and give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor(mark of the Nazirite)will ever be used on his head”.

God wanted something from Hannah, a childless woman, her first born son. Once she made her vow to give God His portion, then He blessed her.

V22 Hannah said to her husband, “I will take him and present him to the Lord and he will be there always”. (In the Dead Sea scrolls and Masoretic text it says, I have dedicated him as a Nazirite — all the days of his life). Samuel was completely set apart for the Lord from before his birth.

Is the Lord asking something of you today, something for himself first before He will bless you? What is ‘your’ Samuel? God wants His portion first, He knows if He can’t bring us to that place that we’ll probably back away.

My friend had written letters of resignation from several ministries because he couldn’t go any further. He was going to mail them the next day and God spoke to him and things turned around. He’d been a very well organised individual, very efficient, but God had to break something in him, so that his ministry was more dependent on the Lord.

The Nazirite is set apart for the Lord, his whole life is to serve Him. He is like a tool in the hands of God, nothing for self.

Has God been asking you to surrender something? Jacob wrestled the angel all night(dark time) but IN THE MORNING he had a new name with God.

I urge you to make to make your surrender today, He wants you for Himself.

Blessings to you today.