Month: January 2021

When we accuse one another, we do not see our brother’s faces (division separates us) or GOD IN THEIR FACES. Kjell Sjoberg, on Crete, 1993

… I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan but now I have become two groups. Genesis 32:10

Jacob fled Canaan alone and God met with him and spoke to him in his dream at Bethel. He made a Covenant with God there, that he would give God a tenth if God would bless him and bring him back to his own land. He’d also fled from his uncle Laban, whom God warned not to ‘say anything to him, good or bad’. Now he’s ready to cross back into the Land of Promise, but he has to FACE something from his past!

God had prospered Jacob and given him livestock and servants and also his large family – it wasn’t easy for him to be alone now. But Genesis 32:23 records that Jacob sent all he had across the stream at Jabbok (the Hebrew can mean ‘to empty itself’, a prophetic name!)

So Jacob was left alone and wrestled with a man until daybreak. Genesis 32:24

Jacob left the Land alone and came back and met God alone, both times. The first time in the dream with the Promise and again at the ford of the river. This time he wrestled with the man, much closer and more personal. The man eventually touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it, but Jacob still demanded a blessing. ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but ‘Israel’, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome’. He received a New Identity before he went back into the Land and he became a Patriarch for the whole nation of God’s people.

Jacob’s natural strength had been greatly weakened (‘poured out’, like Jabbok) in the confrontation and he still had to face his brother, whom he’d robbed twenty years before. OUR PAST LIFE HAS A WAY OF CATCHING UP WITH US, especially when God’s hand is upon our lives. Jacob still devised a plan to meet with Esau and appease his anger, but he was once again totally vulnerable. When he met Esau he bowed 7 times to the ground as he approached his brother. Genesis 33:3 God defended Jacob and Esau received his brother after the long separation. Unity was restored.

Jacob had to MEET ALONE WITH GOD to receive the personal things that God had for him and as we’ve seen this week, they involved many struggles in the natural and spiritual. He also HAD TO FACE THE THINGS OF THE PAST to have reconciliation with his brother and continue with God’s plans and purposes for his life.

We too may have to deal with outstanding issues from our past, asking forgiveness, to allow us to move on with our futures in God.

Once again we appeal to those who are being blessed to support work of this ministry. Please Donate today at our webpage;

fathersloveministry.co.uk

The worker is worthy of their hire.

We are willing to seek personal words of encouragement and guidance for those who need them. A donation is required for this service.

May God bless and keep you today.

 

God rescued Jacob ‘out of’ all his troubles. Genesis 31

“Then the Lord said Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives and I will be with you”. Genesis 31:3

God had brought Jacob out of the land of Canaan for twenty years to his mother’s people and increased him greatly there. Now it was time to return to the Promised Land, the land where their destiny lay, but Jacob feared Laban. Jacob left secretly with his large family and flocks to return to Canaan, but Laban heard after 3 days and pursued them. He journeyed for 7 days and finally caught up with Jacob and his family in the hills of Gilead. Before they came together God spoke to Laban in a dream and warned him, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad’.  (Don’t touch the Lord’s anointed!)

We shall never know this side of Heaven, how many times God or His angels have delivered us from harm, maybe much more than we imagine. I knew of someone who had been a drug user but God was calling them to Himself. Under the influence of the narcotic they could actually see some things in the spiritual realm. They were standing on a bridge over a large river, contemplating jumping into the water and they could see two angels, a light one and a dark one fighting over them. The person came to know the Lord and helped many later in life.

Jacob knew fear (interesting that the Bible refers to the Fear of Isaac – what we fear can become our god!) as he fled with his family and flocks. Laban said he’d been foolish and that he had power to harm him, BUT GOD had visited him in the dream. God had warned Laban not to even ‘say’ anything to Jacob or there may have been a different outcome. Jacob had to step out and obey God, commit with all he had to the journey away from Haran. God may also demand of us to put everything on the line, like Abraham with his son. What’s in our hearts is often revealed in ‘times of challenge’.

God rescued Jacob from his uncle, but very soon he’d face the next challenge when he met his own brother Esau, whom he’d robbed of his father’s blessing.

Jacob was God’s man to form a nation through which all the nations or peoples would be blessed, but God tested Jacob many times during his life. He was called to be a Patriarch and that’s what he became after God’s dealings with him. God knows His plans for us and He can just as certainly bring them to pass if we cooperate with Him.

God delivered/rescued Jacob ‘out of’ all his troubles.

God bless and keep you today.

 

We have to walk through the reality to come into the vision!

In yesterday’s blog we saw how God not only kept but increased His sons/servants in adversity. I want to take a closer look at this in part of Jacob, the Patriarch’s life.

God orchestrated Jacob’s life (his name means the schemer/plotter), so that after stealing his older brother’s blessing he had to flee to his uncle Laban and seek a wife. So his journey (our lives are journeys, not destinations!) began and he stopped for the night with a stone pillow and had a dream about heaven, angels and the Lord speaking to  him;

“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your the descendants the Land (Land of God’s Promise) on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the Earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east to the north to the south. All peoples on Earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you where ever you go and I will bring you back to this Land. I will not leave you until I have done to you”. Genesis 28:13, 14, 15

This was the vision God gave Jacob at the beginning of his journey, alone and away from his family and all he knew. God works with us all individually (not like other religions), He has a personal plan created in eternity for us on earth and it may mean coming apart onto Him. On a personal note, a mature apostle gave me Genesis 28:15 back in 1993 and I’ve gone through some good times and some tough times until today.

At the other end of the journey, Jacob left Laban without telling him and began his return to Canaan. Laban caught up with Jacob, but God warned Laban not to ‘say anything to Jacob’. Gen 31:29 Jacob recounts his time with Laban;

“I have been with you for 20 years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: the heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the 20 years I was in your household. I worked for you 14 years for your two daughters and 6 years for your flocks and you changed my wages 10 times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Issac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands and last night he rebuked  you”. Genesis 31:38-42

God is not in a hurry in the refining process, Jacob spent 20 years in this situation. As I said, we’re only looking at this one part of Jacob’s life. God continues to work with us and mould us for His purposes and our destiny.

What if we don’t endure the full process? In Jeremiah 18, God told the prophet to go to the potter’s house and watch him. The potter reshaped a vessel into a different pot because it was marred. ‘ O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does’? Jer 18:6 God can and does change what He wants for us, but our response should always be “Yes” to His work in our lives.

Jacob had to endure God’s Process to live in His Promise.

God bless and keep you today.

 

Know for sure that GOD CAN KEEP YOU until He gets you where He wants you, your land of promise.

God doesn’t always work in straight lines, the shortest distance/most direct way, to our destination. He could do that because He’s God but He’s got His own reasons for doing things the way He does.

God told Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you (destination unknown)”. Gen 12:1 God then gave Abram a blessing, good things to anticipate, motivation for the journey and He may do the same for us today.

As we saw yesterday, God blessed Isaac in the Promised Land, but Issac’s wife Rebekah had to come from outside the Land.

Jacob, at Rebekah’s prompting, deceived Isaac and stole his brother’s blessing. Gen 27 Jacob had to flee his household and go back to his mother’s land and work for his uncle Laban many years. Jacob went out as a hired hand, watching over someone else’s stock, but in God’s time returned to the Promised Land with four wives and their families. God took him away as a single man and built a family line through him and prospered him.

Joseph went out alone, was sold into slavery and became ruler of Egypt. God had promised Abram,

Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and they will be enslaved and ill-treated for hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. Genesis 15:13, 14

God took Israel out of their land and increased them to become a nation in Egypt, God’s blessing on them. Both Jacob and Joseph faced struggles in their new lands, but God INCREASED THEM IN THEIR DIFFICULTY. God has a place of blessing/promise for His people, but He trains us and builds us up in adversity before we come into the inheritance He has for each one of us.

Israel were scattered among the nations, their diaspora, after the time of Jesus, their Messiah. God has been regathering them back to the Promised Land in these days and once again they’re prospering in the Land. Jesus will return to His people in their Land and the Kingdom of God will come on Earth, God’s plans will not be defeated.

Don’t be disheartened today if you’re in difficulties and far removed from promises spoken over your life. God has not forgotten His children, He increases us in our time of adversity, before bringing us into His destiny for our lives.

God is able to keep us and increase us and ultimately He will bring us to Himself.

God bless and keep you today.

 

Are we (the Church) about to enter into an ‘Isaac Day’?

Isaac planted a crop IN THAT LAND and the SAME YEAR REAPED A HUNDREDFOLD because the Lord blessed him. Genesis 26:12

Genesis 26 begins with another famine, as Abraham’s time. Isaac was in the land of Abimelech, king of the Philistines in Gerar. God appeared to Isaac and said,

Do not go down to Egypt(in a time of famine there is a temptation to ‘go down’ to Egypt, the world system around us), live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while and I will bless you. Genesis 26:2, 3

It was important to God that Isaac trusted and obeyed Him. God was about to show Isaac that He could and would bless him even in a famine. Just because others are in want doesn’t mean you/we should be in need;

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want/lack. Psalm 1

Isaac planted IN THAT LAND (we need to be in the place where God would have us to be – maybe in our own hearts) and the same year reaped a hundredfold. Are we willing to receive all that God wants to give us, or do we have a doubt that He could be so kind and bless us so mightily? Many believers have lived so long in lack that it may be difficult for us to receive all that He has for us. Maybe we should stop now and tell Him, and keep telling Him, that we want all that He has for us. It’s not a one time blessing,

The man (Isaac) 1. BEGAN to grow WEALTHY 2. His WEALTH continued to GROW 3. Until he became very WEALTHY.

We will need resources to harvest the hundred fold harvest. We’ll all have different roles to play and we need to be supplied for that to happen. The world economy around us will be shaken, but God can still supply us abundantly for all He has for us to do.

He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. Gen 26:14 They blocked the water for his livestock several times and he had to move on. Isaac had the blessing of God and he had wells but he had to move on and God allowed that. God may allow disturbances in our lives to get us to move to the place where He can bless us (and not others). In a recent blog I told the story of how Lydia Prince, wife of Derek, left a group of Arab women she’d ministered too and seen a mighty move of God with them. A man from a denomination claimed they had been there first and the work(well) was theirs. God opened up a new work with WW2 service personnel from all over North Africa. She moved and began to dig the new well that God had for her, she was flexible and obedient.

I believe that the Church is about to enter a time of great blessings and that the world system may be shaken. People may begin to look to the Church in the days ahead to have their needs met. It’s important that we’re in the place where  God can bless and use us to reap the hundredfold harvest. Our vision may have to expand dramatically for this to take place. Ask the Lord to help us to come into that place where He can bless us.

God bless and keep you today.

 

 

We saw in yesterday’s blog how Rebekah accepted the invitation to go to Isaac, son of Abraham and become his wife. A huge step into the unknown, with people she’d never met, how courageous she was. It was no ordinary invitation, there was a Divine destiny attached to it. The Chief Servant, representing the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t even permit her own family to delay his return, the call was urgent.

In Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke 14:16-24, Jesus told the Parable of the Great Banquet, about another wedding feast (perhaps referring to His own wedding with the Church).

Luke’s account begins with a promise of a blessing from an unnamed person dining with Jesus in a Pharisee’s house.

Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Luke 14:15

All who attend this Heavenly feast will be blessed!

Jesus related the parable to all those present at the meal, it spoke exactly to their situation. A man was preparing a large banquet and invited many guests. At the ‘time’ of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those invited to come, as all was now ready. There’s a time for doing things and if we miss it, we may never get another opportunity (Rebekah had only one chance to go back with the Chief Servant to Isaac, no one else knew his whereabouts). ‘But they all alike began to make excuses’. It didn’t suit them, it wasn’t convenient at the moment (NB not one of their excuses was accepted). When the servant returned and told the master, he was angry and told the servant to go out into the public places and bring in whoever would come. The servant obeyed but was sent out again so that his master’s house would be full (God will have many people for His Feast) Luke’s account ends with the master’s final decision;

I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. Luke 14:24

Matthew’s account though very similar has a couple of additional points.

‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.

‘Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

‘For many are invited, but few are chosen.’ Matthew 22:11-14

A man had come to the wedding dressed incorrectly. Revelation speaks of those in white robes Revelation 3:4, 7:13, 19:14. We need to be wearing righteous clothes and deeds now, to be welcomed into the Great Banquet.

The final line is a warning to us all, ‘Many are called, few are chosen’. Now is the day of salvation! 2 Corinthians 6:1, 2

We would appeal again to those who are being blessed by the ministry to Donate today on our webpage,

fathersloveministry.co.uk

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

We’re available to seek the Lord for those who wish personal words of encouragement and guidance. We’re also available to counsel online for those wishing it. Contact us on the webpage with your request. A Donation is required for this service.

God bless and keep you today.

Drink and I’ll water your camels too (Gen 24:44) – sometimes it pays to go the extra mile.

In November ‘97 four guys set out by car from N.Ireland to go to a conference in the far north east of Scotland, above Inverness. The conference was being run by a missionary organisation, (New Horizons?) in a real Scottish Castle. People came from across the U.K. and further afield, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The setting was truly magnificent as the castle overlooked a gorge and it was well filled for the conference. We had only gone as visitors but the Lord gave me a message while we were there and I shared it at an evening meeting.

Genesis 24 is the story of Abraham, now elderly and following the death of his wife Sarah, Gen 23, seeking a bride for his son Isaac (means laughter). Abraham called his chief servant and made him swear on oath, to go to his father’s own people and get a bride for Isaac. So the servant left and travelled the long journey (just like ours to Inverness) to his master’s family. Rebekah came to the well to draw water and met the chief servant, who asked her for some water himself Gen 24:17. She immediately offered him some water and then miraculously fulfilled his condition for being Issac’s wife, by watering the camels too. Rebekah blessed those who’d come to her by giving them over and above what had been asked of her.

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

In the Genesis account, the Chief Servant gave Rebekah a gift for her help but then went to her family and paid the ‘bride price’ for her hand for his master’s son.

This account can also be interpreted for our own day; Abraham represents God the Father, Isaac is Jesus the Son and the Chief Servant is the Holy Spirit. God has sent His Spirit ‘to choose’ the bride/His Church for Jesus. The bride for the Lord is being chosen right now across the world, God is sifting a people to be with His Son for eternity. Jesus has paid for His Bride by giving His Life for us; He came to us on earth and offered His own life.

The Chief Servant wouldn’t tolerate any delay, Rebekah had to decide if she’d go with him at once. We all have to make our own choice, we’re not forced to follow the Holy Spirit.

Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. Gen 24:67

A love story with a happy ending, the bride consented to go with the Chief Servant or Holy Spirit and marry her prince (The Prince of Peace).

God bless and keep you today.

God’s goodness is LIFELONG, and troubles are passing.

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his Favour lasts a lifetime (or in His Favour is Life! AMPC, KJV); weeping may remain for a night, but Rejoicing  comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5

David endured many lengthy troubles, indeed he even told Jonathan, ‘there was only a step between him and death’, 1 Sam 20:3; yet it was David who wrote Psalm 30. He held on to his faith in the Lord, despite numerous difficult trials and wrote praising God’s Favour on his life. He didn’t just endure his trials but praised God through them and kept his soul free from bitterness. (‘Stay sweet in your soul, Russ’ Roy Walden Senior).

God is often portrayed by religious people as being harsh and critical, looking for our mistakes and weaknesses to catch us out. David’s picture is the opposite, momentary anger and Lifetime Favour. We have a loving Heavenly Father who is looking for a people to share eternity with Him, AFTER we’ve finished our walk on earth.

Job, through no fault of his own suffered greatly without explanation(God had boasted of Job to Satan and the devil tried his utmost to get Job to curse God). Job endured tremendous suffering but it ended with an encounter with God and double restoration of everything he’d lost, including his family.

Joseph was thrown into a pit by his own brothers, sold as a slave, lied about by his master’s wife and thrown into prison. He too had no idea why all this happened to him, but in God’s time he was brought to a position of great power and became ruler of Egypt and a father to Pharaoh. In God’s time he was reconciled to his family and rescued them all from famine. His father Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and counted them as his own — in other words God made sure the sons were blessed along with his brothers’ children, they didn’t miss out because they’d been born in Egypt.

Ruth, the Moabitess, a descendant of Lot, lost her husband but decided to leave her own people and accompany her mother-in-law, Naomi(means pleasant) through the arid land to Bethlehem. She had nothing of her own and had to go out and glean/pick up the leftovers after the harvesters. She met Boaz, a family relative of Naomi and eventually became his wife and produced a son in the line of David.

All these people had to endure hardship, often without choice, but once they set out on their journey there was no turning back, they had to trust the Lord. For many of us we’ve gone too far to turn back. Life may seem difficult at times, but God and the cloud of witnesses are watching and urging us not to give up.

God’s Favour towards us is for our lifetime, keep going, our reward is sure.

God bless and keep you today.

 

‘Fear and trembling’ versus ‘complaining and arguing’. Phil 2

I’ve come across a couple of references to Philippians 2 recently which are worth considering. Paul appeals to the Philippian Church, because of their unity with Christ and fellowship with the Spirit;

…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Phil 2: 2, 3

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Phil 2: 5, 6

Apparently there were ‘complaining and arguing’ in the church and Paul urged them to have a change of attitude and follow Christ’s example as a servant. He’d previously told them to

— continue to work out your salvation with ‘fear and trembling’, for it is GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU TO WILL AND TO ACT ACCORDING TO HIS GOOD PURPOSE. Phil 2:13

Paul wanted them to stand out from those around them;

…become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you SHINE  (Paul wants his spiritual children to Shine, so does the Lord) like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. Phil 2:15

Israel wanted to be like the other peoples/nations but God said it would never happen; nor will the Church.

Ruth Prince (Derek’s second wife) was lying ill in a Catholic Hospital in America, too weak to read her Bible. The senior sister was passing and asked if she could do anything for her. Ruth asked her to read the Bible to her, from Phil 2. The sister remarked that it was the scripture that had been read at her institution to her office in the hospital. She read the chapter and then told Ruth about a time of teaching with a Trappist Monk and a few of the sisters. Trappists take a ‘Vow of Silence’, but occasionally they are allowed to go and share what God has spoken to them in the stillness!

The monk had said to the small group of sisters;

Pray to Desire, Not to want to be Esteemed, Secure or in Control.

That’s a challenging prayer and not for the faint hearted, but it does give God control and reduces the role of our Ego. God arranged that the monk’s message, only shared with a small group of sisters, should be transmitted to a much wider audience through an international ministry. God wanted the message shared much more widely than just the few nuns and orchestrated that encounter.

God wants the Church to serve Him in ‘Fear and Trembling’, where and when He directs. ‘Complaining and arguing’ are a sure sign that our fleshly egos are dominant.

God bless and keep you today and give you a heart to serve in Spirit and in truth.

 

 

 

Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. Psalm 28:9

What a powerful and beautiful picture to end David’s psalm. …’be their shepherd and carry them forever’.

Prayers and blessings are so important, even generations later they can still be affecting the people they were spoken over. (Unfortunately so can curses, negative words). David called out to God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, on behalf of Israel, that God would, ‘carry them forever’. It’s amazing to think that these words of David’s prayer are still being answered today. Just as David prayed that God would carry Israel ‘forever’, so God entered into an everlasting covenant with David and his family line;

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you… Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever. 2 Samuel 7:11, 16

What are some Biblical inferences around the term ‘shepherd’? What was involved in David’s request to God to ‘shepherd’ Israel?

David’s opening words in Psalm 23, ‘The Lord’s my shepherd, I shall not want’. David trusted that because of his relationship with the Lord he wouldn’t be in need, just as the sheep trust the shepherd for their pasture.

John’s Gospel contains the seven great ‘I am’ declarations of Jesus and in John 10 He declared twice, ‘I am the good shepherd’ (The only one He repeated).

I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

I am the good Shepherd; I know my Sheep and my sheep know me – just as the father knows me and I know the father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. John 10:14, 15, 16

The Lord said He lays down His life for His sheep. The shepherd sometimes had to protect the sheep with his life; David ‘fought the lion and bear’, but Jesus actually did lay down His life for the sheep, so that there would be ‘one flock and one shepherd’.

Further in John 10, Jesus addresses the Pharisees;

…but you do not believe Me because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me. John 10:26

We can’t just take having Jesus as our shepherd in a blasé or casual way, our destiny depends on all that He’s done for us. His sheep hear and follow His voice, that’s an important characteristic for belonging to Him.

Please Donate today to Father’s Love Ministry and support the work.

Give and it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap.

webpage: fathersloveministry.co.uk

We are willing to seek personal words of encouragement for those who want them, a donation is required for this service.

God bless and keep you today.