Month: April 2020

There is hope in the midst of darkness.

The Book of Lamentations is one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history in the whole Bible. The nation had been taken into exile and the streets of Jerusalem were empty. Yet even in such sad times the author(possibly Jeremiah, the weeping prophet) finds a reason to be hopeful.

In the middle of the third chapter, which is in the middle of the book there are some wonderful lines of hope;

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail(Hallelujah).

They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lam 3:22,23

Israel had been carted off to Babylon, they’d turned their backs on God as a people and come under severe judgement. But right at the heart of it all, the writer begins to talk about God’s great love and His compassions being new every morning.

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him(hope in God when all else fails), to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. V25,26

Perhaps the most difficult thing for us to do, particularly in a crisis, is for us to ‘wait quietly’ on the Lord and yet there is often no alternative. Mankind’s resources are finite and that is being demonstrated today like never before.

For men are not cast off by the Lord for ever.

Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love.

For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief on the children of men. V 31-33

David, even when he’d sinned, incited to count the army and was facing judgement asked the prophet that he would fall into the hands of God because He was compassionate, the same word used above. Be thankful we serve a good and compassionate God, who renews His mercies every morning!

Take some time today to read and ponder these verses and get some comfort for our souls. There’s also a little chorus on these verses which is good to sing. YouTube, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end

God’s blessings to you today from the Emerald Isle(Ireland).

What you do for others will be done for you!

”Our lives for your lives”! Joshua 2:14

Rahab is one of my favourite biblical characters, she and her family were rescued from Jericho just before its total destruction by Israel, the only ones to be shown mercy.

She hid the two spies on her roof and covered them with stalks of flax. She talked to the spies on the roof before they lay down for the night. ‘I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us(she encouraged the spies and they later reported her words to Joshua, v24)’. Rahab was one of the Gentiles in the Bible who understood the true God, ‘for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below’.

Rahab and her family were soon under siege and closed up(much like today’s lockdown) by Israel’s army. She began to speak to these men and contend for the lives of her whole family. ‘Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare their lives(she made the spies swear by the Lord and give her a sign, scarlet cord)’. There are times when we can ask Heaven for the things that we want, especially for the future of those we love.

It wasn’t only Rahab’s words that won her the lives of her family, but her actions. She let the spies down through a window and told them to hide in the mountains for three days until the search for them was over.

“In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction”. James 2:25

Rahab was decisive and had a boldness to ask for something that seemed contrary to God’s will for the people of Jericho. I believe that there are some Rahabs today who need to claim the lives of people ‘they know’, who aren’t living or thinking righteously. God loves bold requests from His children and is willing to answer in the most surprising ways!

Remember, what you do for others will be done for you.

God bless and keep you.

 

Good conscience or guilty conscience?

So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God AND man. Acts 24:16

The two greatest commandments the Lord gave were ‘Love the Lord your God’ and ‘Love your neighbour’. Mark 12:30,31. Paul also links ‘God and man’ when talking about his conscience. We can easily delude ourselves when we talk about a good conscience towards God but our neighbours(family and friends) with all our faults and failings are more difficult to justify. Paul didn’t just speak about keeping ‘his conscience’ clear in private, he said it publicly and often before the religious Jews who were out to accuse him of everything they could.

I looked up the word conscience on an an online dictionary; a person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behaviour. Surprisingly the second meaning given was, ‘still small voice’, like Elijah’s meeting with God on Mount Horeb. It’s easy to ignore the still small voice of conscience but the Spirit quietly, persistently tries to get through our busyness and our flesh to engage us.

Paul was sold out for the Lord and wanted to do His will above all things and he was very aware of the voice of his conscience, he didn’t want any hindrances to his walk.

My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 1 Cor 4:4

Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world… in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. 2 Cor 1:12

The goal of this command is love which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. … holding onto faith and a good conscience. 1 Tim 1:5, 19

I thank God whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 2 Tim 1:3,

Also Heb 9:14, 10:22, 13:18,  and 1 Peter 3:16, 21

Two points; if something is COMING to our minds REPEATEDLY it may well be the voice of the Spirit trying to get our attention, so stop and consider what we’re hearing. Secondly, keep short accounts. Maybe at the end of the day(but whenever works for us) stop and ask if there’s anything we need to address or repent for. It may that we need to go and apologise or put something right. In high tech western society, the ability to hear our own hearts has been eroded. We need to learn to listen and like Paul to keep our consciences clear.

God bless and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.

 

 

Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me. Acts 23:22

Finding the right person or people to tell!

Paul’s life was in grave danger and his nephew had been sent to warn him. The commander had to get Paul away from the Jewish plot to murder him and he assembled a small army to protect Paul during the journey. But he also warned the young man not to tell anyone that he knew about the plot.

I have spoken previously about the fastest growing church in Iran. “Everything is foundational on prayer. We find people of peace through prayer. We even find locations through prayer”, the Iranian Church leader noted. The church in Iran is a persecuted church and like the early church can only operate undercover, yet it is growing rapidly. The persecuted church has to be a supernatural church, a Spirit led church. It operates under the direction of Heaven, not by the plans of men. Above all the church has power from above.

As a friend said recently, ‘we are living in strange times, but God is still the same(unchanging)’. None of us knows what the future holds but things may never return as they were. The church is coming under increasing pressure to conform to a society which is moving further from God. The power of heaven is available to those who are willing to listen and follow the leading of the Spirit.

Church in Smyrna: ‘I know your afflictions and your poverty – yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do you not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life’. Rev 2

May God bless and keep you today.

Who is(not was) Christ for us on this Good Friday morning?

The seven ‘I AMs’ of John’s Gospel.

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. He who comes to Me will never go hungry and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. Jn 6

I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jn 8:12

I AM THE GATE FOR THE SHEEP. Whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. Jn 10:9

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep(thank you Jesus). I know My sheep and My sheep know Me… there will be one flock and one shepherd. Jn 10:11,14,16

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Jn 11:25

I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Jn 14:6

I AM THE TRUE VINE AND MY FATHER IS THE GARDENER. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes/cleans so that it will be even more fruitful. Jn 15:1,2

Father’s love is a faith based ministry and would welcome donations to support the work. Thank you!

May God bless and keep you at this Easter time.

Will we see God’s simple solutions to our situation, or will they pass us by? Acts 23:16

There are numerous incidents in the book of Acts when God intervened in the lives of the Church, particularly the leaders.

Peter was in prison and the Church was earnestly praying to God for him. Herod had already killed James the brother of John and intended to do the same with Peter.  ‘Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up, “Quick, get up”! he said and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists’. Acts 12

Paul and Silas were in prison after Paul had cast out the spirit from the slave girl. ‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns… suddenly a violent earthquake shook the prison and all the doors were open and the chains fell off. Acts 16

Paul was once again in prison in Jerusalem and the religious had taken an oath to kill him. Time for another miracle? No, a much simpler solution. “But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to say to him””. Acts 23:16,17 God rescued Paul from their plot, of which he wasn’t even aware, through his ‘young nephew’. The Holy Spirit/the Counsellor can and does use our everyday circumstances to speak and direct us.

The great, national prophet of Israel(a man who knew God as few others) after defeating the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, fled to Mount Horeb and met with the Lord. ‘God was not in the mighty wind, nor was He in the earthquake, nor was He in the fire but God was in the gentle whisper/still small voice’. 1 Kings 19:12

God’s answer to our problems may be something simple and practical like the young nephew who came to Paul and he was rescued. It may be in the whisper of God which we need to learn to hear. God will not always speak to us in dramatic ways. Humble ourselves and listen!

God bless and keep you today.

Passover begins after sunset tonight(15th Nisan), 8th April and lasts until sunset on Thursday 16 April.

Passover is the first of the three major Jewish feasts when everyone in Judah made pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship God at the Temple. Passover commemorates the Lord bringing His people out of Egypt, the land of slavery.

Exodus 12 Tell the whole community of Israel… each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. The animals must be year old males without defect. Slaughter them at twilight and put the blood on the sides and tops of the door-frames where they eat the lambs. The lambs are to be roasted and all of the meat eaten. Eat it in haste, it’s the Lord’s Passover. Eat no bread with yeast for seven days and do no work. On the first night of Passover the Jews eat the Seder, a meal which symbolises their deliverance from the land of their slavery.

God was about to bring the tenth plague on Egypt, the death of all the firstborn men and animals. Just like all the houses in Israel had to have the blood(without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness Heb 9:22) so all the Egyptian households were visited by death that night.

‘At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt’. Pharaoh immediately said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested”

“Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honour the Lord for the generations to come”. Ex. 12:42

“Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth”. 1 Cor 5:7,8 NIV

God told the Israelites to remember their deliverance from Egypt, we too have something to celebrate in Christ, our Passover lamb.

God bless and keep you today.

 

I’ve been thinking today about citizenship. Acts 22:28 What  does it mean to be a citizen? My simple answer, it means TO BELONG.

Paul was rescued by the Roman soldiers from the hands of the Jews, but ‘the commander ordered him flogged and questioned to find out why the Jews were shouting at him like this’. Just as they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty”? They immediately withdrew. Rome was the super power of the day and to flog one of it’s citizens illegally would have been a risky thing to do, especially one born a citizen.

It’s interesting that in Acts 16, Paul didn’t reveal to the jailer that he was a Roman citizen until after he’d been severely flogged and put in stocks. It may be that he kept silent so that the jailer and his family could come to salvation! A high price to pay to see someone come to faith.

Ephesians 2:12 tells us we were without hope, “ remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without HOPE and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”.

Many people in the world today are stateless, refugees. They don’t belong anywhere and have no one to plead their case and fight for them which is a tragedy. Like the Gentiles in Eph. 2 they are people without hope.

In the film/movie, Crocodile Dundee, Mick was asked what this place was called. He replied, ‘Belonga Mick’ (Mick’s Place). Thank God today, that we are not refugees but ambassadors on earth. Thank God we can say and mean it, ‘Belonga Jesus’.

How does the Lord look upon us? 1 Kings 15

In the Spreaker broadcasts we have been looking at the reigns of some of the kings who ruled the twelve tribes.

I’ve been saying that David was the benchmark for Judah and for all who followed him, but I actually believe the Bible shows it was more than just being a favourite with God. Solomon was succeeded by Rehoboam(who sinned before the Lord) and Rehoboam was succeeded by Abijah. ‘He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been(the Word compared Him with David, two generations before). Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord… gave him a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong(the city where He’d put His Name). Next came Asa, who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David had done. God was mindful of His covenant with David(when God speaks and promises something He has to bring it to pass) and he treated David’s descendants on the basis of what He’d previously covenanted!

Three years ago this summer, we were in the USA and a prophet spoke some things to us around a table. He’d never met us before and he told Anne in five days she would do something that would set the future course of her life and it would affect me(thanks to the help of some friends we were married within five days). He also prophesied to me part of which I’d heard before, but he gave more detail. He said that because of something that had been done four generations ago in my family, the Lord was calling me to step into a place in my life. We need to understand that our lives before God can and will impact the coming generations!

Jeroboam was two generations after David and he became the benchmark for the ten tribes of Israel, nothing good, he led the entire nation into idol worship.

When the Lord looks at you and I today, He sees us in Christ, just like He saw the kings of Judah from David. He may withhold judgement and bless us, because He sees you and I in Jesus. God does not deal with us solely on the basis of our behaviour, though that will count, but He remembers Jesus sacrifice. Please Take Note, our lives are looked at ‘in or through Christ’.

A final point from the 1 Kings 14:30, ‘ there was continual warfare between Judah and Israel’. This is mentioned a further four times in chapter 15(five times in total). David had been continually fighting the Philistines, pressure externally, but now brother fought brother and no peace. The church today has been tricked many times into fighting one another, it’s repeated here five times. We cannot be doing the enemy’s work for him if we want to walk in the blessing of God.

God bless you and keep you.

 

 

Paul went up to Jerusalem and met with James(the Lord’s half brother) and the elders. They told Paul to go with four men who’d made a vow, join in their purification at the Temple and pay the expenses, to be acceptable to the Jewish believers. Acts 21:26

While Paul was at the Temple, he was recognised by Jews from Asia and sure enough, another riot began where they tried to murder Paul but he was rescued by Roman soldiers and their commander( it wasn’t time for him to go home just yet). Our times are in His hands!

Paul spoke to the commander in Greek, V37(the language of the people and trade in the Mediterranean area) and asked to address the crowd of Jews. They listened to him as he spoke to them in Aramaic(their own language). God chose a unique man in Paul, to be His apostle, born in Tarsus, brought up a strict Jew, who spoke several languages. He could connect with Jews and Greeks.

Paul spoke of his Jewish credentials to the crowd, brought up under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, persecuted the people of the Way and then his vision on the road to Damascus. Ananias, a ‘devout observer of the law’ prayed for Paul and he received his sight. Ananias said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know as will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard’. Paul had a powerful calling on his life and yet even he had to observe God’s leading.

When Paul returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the Temple, he fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking, “Quick”! He said, “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not(not they could not, but wouldn’t) accept your testimony about Me”. The Lord sent him far away to the Gentiles. The crowd erupted again at the thought of a Jewish God sending anyone to unclean Gentile people.

There are people and places that will not accept a testimony about the Lord, no matter if it was from Paul himself. It will become more crucial in the days ahead to be led of the Lord in what we seek to do for His Kingdom. Once again, the fastest growing church in Iran, prays to go to people and places of peace, because their lives depend on it!

To all those who view our website, please make a contribution, no matter what amount to fathersloveministry.co.uk

We are available to seek prophetic words from the Lord for you today.

God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.