Month: October 2020

You/we BECOME what we BEHOLD. Rev Neville Johnson

I was listening to a radio program yesterday, as N.Ireland heads back into another 4 weeks increased lockdown(not total, although all bars, cafes and restaurants will close) due to the increase of COVID – 19. As I listened to a series of callers and the interviewer I came to the conclusion that today’s media wants to flood our souls with a constant diet of fault finding. We are in danger of becoming a nation of moaners and grumblers. The program was relishing and promoting (giving a wider platform than social media) to all who wanted to complain. There was no attempt to strike a balance with another viewpoint, negativity was the sole order of the day.

In contrast this morning I read in Proverbs 15 (there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, one for each day of the month) that the word ‘Cheerful’ is mentioned 3 times.

Prov 15:13 NIV A happy heart makes the face cheerful but heartache crushes the spirit./ A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face, a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day. MSG

Prov 15:15 NIV …the cheerful heart has a continual feast./  When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong, when he is cheerful, everything seems right. TLB/ … a cheerful heart fills the day with a song! MSG

As a good friend has said, God is not leaning over the balcony in Heaven, wringing His hands and wondering what to do next. Neither was He impressed with the murmuring of His people Israel in the desert. Since the media and social media are flooded with negativity and complaining, the world’s viewpoint, believers should reduce and avoid their influence.

It’s interesting that sages of previous generations reached similar understanding;

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. Mark Twain

And so of cheerfulness, or a good temper – the more it is spent the more it remains. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be cheerful – the problems that worry most of us are those that never arrive. Benjamin Franklin

You find yourself refreshed in the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others. Lydia M Child

God Himself values those who give out of a cheerful heart, not just those who give;

2 Cor 9:7 …the Lord loves a cheerful giver(God ‘prizes’TLB).

1 Thess 5:16-18 Be joyful always (be cheerful, no matter what MSG), PRAY continually and GIVE THANKS in all circumstances(that should be our focus as believers); for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

May God bless and keep our hearts rejoicing in Him today.

The Lord is seeking a people of His own for lasting
relationship and friendship.

I got a text or SMS this morning from an old school friend. She mentioned three other ladies by name with whom she was still in contact, after forty years(a generation in the Bible). She concluded, ‘Just shows that the people we chose as teenagers were the right choice’. They obviously value their long term friendship and probably more so as all get older. Their relationship may have waxed and waned or ebbed and flowed over the different seasons of life but it has endured. The friendship they struck up in long gone school days is still very much alive.

Many people will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles’? Then I will tell them PLAINLY (Jesus can be straight talking), ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers (He’ll condemn them)’. Matt 6:22,23

Many believers, especially in the Western Church today are drawn to ministry and meetings where the Gifts of God are manifest. Three listed above are Prophecy, Deliverance and Many Miracles but it appears the Lord won’t be impressed by these alone. The verses begin, ‘Did WE not’ and the Lord will answer, ‘I never knew YOU’. How sad that it’s possible to move in these amazing gifts, perhaps for some of our own glory, but never know the Lord who gives them.

I’ve heard many say that the last generation before the Lord’s return who will move in these gifts with incredible power will be Nameless, Faceless and of No Account. They will appear to carry out their mandate and then disappear, all will be done for the Lord and His Glory.

Let’s realise today that we need to know and be known by the Lord as a matter of priority. What things are we willing to set aside to give time to knowing the Lord today?

God bless and keep us today.

 

Esther, ‘a Type or Picture’ of the Church today in exile here.

Some Lessons from the story of Esther, the brave queen who showed respect and humility.

Esther 1, God’s Hand may be HIDDEN as He moves. Esther didn’t reveal, she hid, her Jewish identity at Mordecai’s instruction. God’s Name is hidden in this Book, kept secret in exile.

Esther 4, seek God’s guidance before we begin to step out. Haman first sought direction by casting the Pur/Lot, to destroy all God’s people; a major attack of the enemy. Esther called a total fast for 3 days by all the Jews in Susa (only those Jews got 2 day’s vengeance on their enemies!). She put her life on the line, the Church may do also. ‘I will go to the King…And if I perish, I perish’. V16

Esther 5:1-3 Esther prepared to come into king’s presence. She put on her royal robes (for us this may be praise and worship). She waited to be called into the inner court. The king was pleased with her and extended the gold sceptre, mercy to her. She had to touch it and acknowledge his grace to her, even though she’d fasted 3 full days. She didn’t present her petition, many rush to do this, but asked to spend time with him – 2 banquets on 2 consecutive days.

Esther 5, While we wait God works. Esther went to the king and was received. She hadn’t been called to King Xerces for 30 days 4:11 She didn’t rush to make her petition, she spent time with him. One presumptuous move might have gone outside God’s Timing, but Esther waited (trusted God rather than be driven by the urgency of the situation).

Esther 5 & 6, God’s Timing can be finely judged, but perfect Haman was going to ask the king to hang Mordecai NEXT MORNING 5:14 but THAT NIGHT 6:1 God spoke to the king.

Esther 6:10,12 Mordecai waited at the King’s Gate daily, he positioned himself as close to the king as protocol allowed. He persevered day by day. There’s also an invitation from Wisdom in Prov 8:34,35 to wait at her gate to receive Favour from the Lord, addressed to us as believers.

Esther 8:1,2 Favour for Mordecai, from the gate to the palace! Two significant Transfers; the wealth of the enemy to the people of God (I believe it’s coming to the Church today). The transfer of the signet ring, the King’ authority to His people today for His will to be declared and demonstrated on earth.

Esther 9:28,29 The feast of Purim entered the Jewish Calendar, their deliverance remembered and celebrated to this day.

The Book of Esther begins with another queen, Vashti, but her destiny was very different. She lost her royal position because she disrespected the king and this may be the most important lesson of the story. God tests people to see those who will endure and honour Him in their own lives. He’s looking for faithful, humble people to walk and share with Him in eternity. May we be that people.

Father’s Love would welcome your support for this ministry. The Word says the labourer is worthy of their hire. Luke 10:7. Please Donate today at;

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We are willing to seek personal words of encouragement for those who’d like them. Please contact us on the above webpage, donation required for this service.

God bless and keep you.

Waiting at the gate, the way into the king’s presence.

Mordecai was a man who waited patiently at the king’s gate(Esther 6:10,12) and perhaps this was his only way of hearing about Esther inside the palace. Even after his enemy Haman had led him on the king’s horse through the city he ‘returned to the king’s gate’. Esther 6:12 We’re not told how long Mordecai sat waiting, but it was more than a year before Esther went to the king, she too had to wait and prepare, then she was married and became his Queen.

In Proverbs 8:34,35 Wisdom gives us her invitation;

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the Lord. But whoever fails to find me harms themselves; all who hate me love death.

We need to find Wisdom to receive favour from the Lord, but like Mordecai we too may have to wait to be invited.

I said on Spreaker yesterday that Esther 8:1,2 has two great  Transfers, but actually there are three. Verse 1 tells us that Mordecai ‘came into the presence of the king, for Esther told how he was related to her’. Mordecai moved from outside the gate to inside the palace, a great change in the level of influence and intimacy. It happened because the king moved from his side and put an end to Haman, Mordecai had been faithful but ultimately it was the king who made the way.

Mordecai waited faithfully/positioned himself to be as close to the king as possible for some time. To come into that closer place, which we need to be in today, so must we. The change in world circumstances has opened the way for some of us to wait more in His presence, don’t waste this time.

The other two transfers in Esther 8:1,2 are firstly, wealth from our enemies, Haman’s entire estate went to Esther (a type of the Church today). Secondly, authority from the king. I believe that the mature Church will have delegated authority to declare and decree on earth as it is in heaven.

There is more for all of us today and I believe waiting at the gate/doorway of the king is the place to begin.

God bless and keep you all today.

CALL ME, DON’T BE AFRAID, JUST CALL ME… and I’ll be there.

I woke this morning with the words of a song on my mind. Maybe the Lord wants to invite us to Himself today. God is not a professor nor a theologian – we’re not going to be examined nor tested on what we know. Nor is God a police officer, we’re not going to be charged with breaking the Law. Yahweh/God is first and foremost a loving Heavenly Father who wants children who love Him. God is Love!

HIS INVITATION TO YOU TODAY IS A LOVE LETTER, SENT THROUGH JESUS, THE FIRSTBORN OF MANY.

If you’re feeling sad and lonely
There’s a service I can render
Tell the one who loves you only
I can be so warm and tender

Call me, don’t be afraid, you can call me
Maybe it’s late, but just call me
Tell me and I’ll be around

When it seems your friends desert you
There’s somebody thinking of you
I’m the one who’ll never hurt you
Maybe that’s because I love you

Call me, don’t be afraid, you can call me
Maybe it’s late, but just call me
Tell me and I’ll be around

Now don’t forget me
‘Cause if you let me
I will always stay by you
You gotta trust me
That’s how it must be
There’s so much that I can do

If you call I’ll be right with you
You and I should be together
Take this love I long to give you
I’ll be at your side forever

Call me, don’t be afraid, you can call me
Maybe it’s late, but just call me
Tell me and I’ll be around

God bless us as we respond to our Father’s love for us today.

There is much for us to learn today from the Book of Esther, the account of God’s people in exile. Esther is the story of two queens and two brides of a mighty King, but with different destinies. Vashti was present in the beginning but not at the end. Esther and Vashti’s futures were determined by their attitude and response to the king, honour or dishonour. We might also say to please the king(Esther) or please herself(Vashti).

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the Kings Hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the sceptre. Then the king asked, “What is it you want Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom it will be given you”. Esther 5:1-3

Esther observed the Royal Protocols, but Vashti would not. Esther dressed in her ‘royal robes’ to meet the king and ‘he was pleased with her’. Royal robes might symbolise ‘Praise and Worship’ for us today. Giving honour to God first as our Great King and Lord.

Queen Esther ‘stood in the inner court of the palace’. She was the Queen but she stood, waiting to be called forward into the king’s presence. The initiative was with the king, she waited until called and there are times when we too must wait.

We might say Esther was ‘prayed up’, she’d just completed a three day total fast with neither food nor drink. Yet she had to wait until the king extended the gold sceptre to her, she needed to receive mercy/forgiveness when coming into his presence and she had to touch the sceptre (acknowledge his mercy). Even as his Queen and after all her religious devotions she still needed the king’s personal invitation to approach his throne. Today it’s only ever through Jesus that we can approach God, never in our own standing.

The king was used to being petitioned with many requests but Esther had prepared a banquet, again looking to His needs first(she hadn’t been called by him for 30 days 4:11). She had pressing and life threatening needs, but she spent time with the king before making any requests. I’m sure God must be disappointed at times with our endless requests and little time for intimacy, just waiting in His presence.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Matt 6:33

May God bless us today and help us to come to Him with honour and thanksgiving through Jesus.

 

How do we resist the pull of this world until our tour of duty here is completed?

There are many lessons to be learned from the story of Esther, a Jew in exile who married the monarch of a vast kingdom(we in the Church are also in exile today).

The Jews, God’s only people on earth at this time, were a minority people in a ‘strange land’, as Psalm 137 tells us. They had to learn the ways of their captors and live according to them. Ironically some Jews learned them so well that they never returned to the land God had given them. They knew the ways of Babylon so well that they chose the riches of that world rather than the struggles of life in Jerusalem and Judea. We too can become so captivated by the things of this world that we forget our own people and place. Nations periodically change their Ambassadors and diplomats serving abroad so they won’t identify too closely with the host people in place of their own; change their loyalties. Believers today can also become captivated by the familiarity and comforts of this temporary situation. In the here and now we are called to a journey and to show God’s love for people, but we were never meant to live as if this is our permanent home!

Esther instructed Mordecai and all the Jews in the citadel of Susa to go on a total fast for/with her to prevent the annihilation of the whole Jewish people. In the day of danger she and all the people turned wholly onto God. Everything else was set aside to seek God’s Face and live. Esther 4:16

Daniel when under threat, “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God just as he had done before”. Daniel 6:10 Daniel had a routine that kept him centred on God, the Babylonian world never captured his heart.

Moses kept looking towards God while living under the government of Egypt(the WORLD), “By faith Moses when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be ill treated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible”. Hebrews 11:24-27

God ordained Sabbaths and Feast Days so that people would stop work and rest. Whole days and even weeks set aside to seek God(these are being eroded today). We are in exile and Earth is not our final home. We too need to step out of the struggles of daily life and turn to God. This world wars against our souls in many ways, so we must choose to spend time before the Lord and not be overwhelmed while living here.

God bless and keep us today.

 

 

 

 

 

God’s Timing can be finely judged, but it’s always perfect.

Haman was enraged by Mordecai’s refusal to bow to him (as I’ve said before, be careful what we bow to/worship) and  his wife told him to have a gallows built and ASK THE KING IN THE MORNING to hang him. Esther 5:14

Mordecai was hours away from death BUT GOD!

Esther, 6th chapter begins, ‘THAT NIGHT’. God spoke to the king during the night, with only hours to spare and turned the whole situation around. Mordecai was honoured and Haman was humiliated, complete reversal.

Don’t give up, God has many suddenlies!

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. Isa 59:1

God bless you today

Waiting for the Lord’s hand to move on our behalf. Esther 5

It’s said that WAITING is more difficult than working! There’s something in the human condition (especially modern man) that doesn’t like waiting, perhaps we find it an affront to our egos.

Esther may well have been restrained by the hand of God Himself as He moved to quietly undo the enemy’s trap for the annihilation of the Jewish people. As we read the story of Esther in this crucial period we see that the timing of God was very delicate and precise. One presumptuous move could have destroyed all that God was orchestrating behind the scenes. We too need to be careful and sensitive to the purposes of God in pivotal situations in our lives.

Esther ‘put on her royal robes’ and approached King Xerces  in the ‘inner court of the palace’. What would be the Christian equivalent of ‘dressing in royal robes to go into the inner court’? The king received her with favour, though he hadn’t called for her. He rightly assumed that she wanted to request something from him and assured her to go ahead and make her request. Esther invited the king and Haman (her arch enemy) to come to her banquet. The king again asked what she wanted of him, but Esther postponed her request for a further day;

Esther replied, “My petition and my request is this: if the king regards me with favour and if it pleases the King to grant my petition and fulfil my request let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question”. Esther 5:8

That very night God’s hand moved to deliver His people! Mordecai had saved the king’s life but never received any recognition. The Lord saw that it was brought to Xerces’ attention that very night and Haman’s downfall began.

Esther sat in the presence of her husband, the king, and her arch enemy. It would have been so easy to have blurted out what she wanted. Haman was sitting right before her, it must have taken a lot of self control not to give way to her own emotions and the murderous threat to her people. But she requested them both to return the next day and God’s perfect plan began to unfold.

The lesson for us today; WHILE WE WAIT, GOD WORKS.

God’s Timing is always perfect and oft times, IF WE WAIT, its only afterwards that we realise He’s been at work in our situations.

Father’s Love would welcome your support for this ministry. The word says that the worker is worthy of their hire.

Please Donate today at our webpage;

fathersloveministry.co.uk

We are willing to seek the Lord for personal words of encouragement for those who want them. Contact us on the above webpage. A donation is required for this ministry.

God bless and keep you and give you strength to WAIT for His deliverance in the day of testing.

 

 

It’s wisdom to seek the Lord before taking a step! Esther 4

In the Book of Esther we see two different approaches to meeting with an earthly leader, but both looked for spiritual guidance and aid!

Haman the Agagite(enemy of the Jews) had been honoured by King Xerces above all the other nobles. ‘All the royal officials knelt down and paid honour to Haman(be careful who or what you kneel down to/worship today!) but Mordecai the Jew would not kneel down or pay him honour’. Esther 3:2 Haman was enraged 3:5, but having found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people. The genocide of the Jewish race, all living within Xerces’ kingdom, would have prevented the Messiah coming(Hitler wanted to prevent His return with death camps). Both men used witchcraft to direct their plans.

“In the 12th year of King Xerxes,… they cast the pur (that is, the lot) in the presence of Haman to select a day and month (to destroy the Jews). And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar”. Esther 3:7

Mordecai learn’t what had happened and contacted Esther through a eunuch called Hathach. Mordecai told him what happened, gave him a copy of the edict and told Esther to ‘go into the king’s presence and beg for mercy and plead with him for her people’. 3:8 Esther pointed out that to go into the king’s presence uninvited meant death unless he extended the gold sceptre to her. Thirty days had passed since she’d been called to go to the king. Mordecai told her that she wouldn’t escape if she kept silent but deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place and she and her father’s family would die. The roles then changed and Esther gave Mordecai her instructions;

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the King even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions”. Esther 4:16,17

This was a National emergency for the Jewish people, but the point was they sought God’s help. Three days of corporate fasting before Esther would go forward. There’s always the temptation to jump in and do something in our own strength or ability, but it’s much better and safer to seek Heaven’s support.

God has blessings for our lives and the enemy may try to block these, but when we turn to God he won’t prevail.

God bless and keep you as you walk with Him in the these days.