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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!

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

Acts19:29, “Soon the ‘whole city’ was in an uproar…”. The preceding verse states, “they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”! Ephesus was a religious city, with a ruling goddess and Paul’s message was threatening and destroying that rule.

Acts 21:29, “The ‘whole city’ was aroused…”. This time it was the city of Jerusalem, another religious city(multiple religions/churches are based there today) and once again the entire city was aroused. Spirits of religion are literally a stronghold(having a ‘strong hold’) over a city or an area. One of the founders of Operation Exodus, brings Jewish people back to Israel, said there was a demon on every street corner in Jerusalem. He was identifying the intensity of the demonic opposition there, yet Jerusalem has a prophetic name meaning ‘peace’.

My mentor from Sweden, Kjell Sjoberg, was a missionary in India and Pakistan for many years. He said that the toughest times they had in the land were when the religious parties came to power. The demons behind those religions were also very violent in their opposition to the Gospel. The many different international missionaries were thankful when the secular parties governed, life was less dangerous for them.

Kjell got a book/diary of Praying Hyde’s ministry in India, all the places he’d ministered in the land before partition. John Hyde from the USA had prayed so fervently that his heart shifted within his body, but he’d seen multitudes saved. Kjell saw that the places where he’d prayed were still the most open to the Gospel years later, the religious strongholds had gone. After his time on the mission field, Kjell eventually moved into a worldwide ministry of identifying and pulling down religious strongholds. Charles Finney, perhaps the greatest American evangelist, also had brother Nash, who prayed much in places before he came to minister. I believe research shows that Finney had the highest success rate of people who kept their faith, converted under him. 

Praying Hyde, brother Nash, Kjell and other intercessors weakened the spiritual strongholds over areas. Paul suffered uproar in many places because he was in full frontal confrontation with resident religious spirits. Evangelists and churches need focused prayer support, to win the battles in the spirit before the people can be released to come to Jesus.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Church in Iran, seek the Holy Spirit’s leading in prayer before! they go out to testify. They are working with the Spirit and seeing much fruit.

God bless and keep you today.

Growth in the Church despite or because of persecution Acts 21.

Paul and his companions reached Caesarea and stayed in the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, with the four unmarried daughters who prophesied. After they’d been there some days, a prophet Agabus came from Judea. He took Paul’s belt and tied his own hands and feet and said the Jews of Jerusalem(where Paul was headed) will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles(Rome). Paul kept his course and headed to Jerusalem, though Acts is full of warnings from the Holy Spirit about persecution and hardships awaiting him. Eventually the enemy did put Paul in chains, but as he himself said, “the Gospel was not in chains”.

I recently watched a film on godreports.com

It was produced by Frontiers Alliance International(FAI), which supports ‘disciple making’ teams targeting areas within the 10/40 window. The documentary is called, ‘Sheep among wolves’ and tells the story of the growth of the Church in Iran. Researchers say it is now the fastest growing church in the world. The caption is;

Fastest growing church has no buildings, no central leadership and is mostly led by women.

They face huge persecution if caught and yet the church is growing rapidly. Some striking comments are, ‘everything is done by prayer’, the Spirit leads them to people of peace and places of peace to share. Often He has gone before them and the people have had dreams of the Lord. They make disciples(Disciple Making Movement DDM) not converts. They say converts run away from persecution but disciples are willing to die for their Lord. The church also loves and prays for Israel, very unusual in the Middle East, can only be the work of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, an Iranian couple had a chance to move to the US (any western country) but after they’d been there some time the wife told her husband that she wanted to go back to Iran.

“There is a satanic lullaby here. All the Christians are sleepy and I’m feeling sleepy”. She was discerning a greater threat to her faith than the persecution in Iran. The film makers state that in Revelation the only church the Lord didn’t criticise was a persecuted church. They believe that what is happening in Iran today will become much more prevalent in the body during the times ahead.

May the Lord wake us up to the times we live in and give us hearts to go with Him through all problems and obstacles.

God bless and keep you.

Testimony posted on Facebook page

God’s kindness and goodness to a corona virus pastor.

I have been trying to post a testimony from a pastor in N.Ireland who was in Intensive Care. (We have heard of three pastors here who’ve been in the ICU, two are home now).

This brother was very ill and as he said no one is allowed onto the isolation ward, no family, no pastor, no-one. He was struggling for his life and he asked God to send help, to encourage him. A hospital cleaner came by and talked to him and eventually prayed for him from the door of the ward, asking God to save him  and use him. That cleaner had been a missionary in Nigeria and led many people to the Lord. We have a friend who is a friend of the cleaner, so this is definitely someone known here. After the cleaner had finished praying he kept walking past the corridor window to the ward and giving him the thumbs up, encouraging the pastor.

The pastor ‘turned the corner’ that night and began to feel stronger. He asked the Lord if there was any way that he could get him a ‘packet of Tayto prawn cocktail crisps and a can of coke’. The next morning the cleaner arrived back in his ward with  a bag, a gift from the Lord. In the bag were two oranges, a packet of prawn cocktail crisps and a can of coke. God answered his prayers exactly, even when no-one could seemingly get to him.

God is kind and good, He cares for us, even the smallest details and He reaches down to help us. The pastor knew who to call to in his hour of greatest trial and the Almighty God answered him.

May our hearts be encouraged today; I believe we will hear more testimonies of God’s goodness in the days to come.

Jesus heals the man born blind and some interesting comments around this event. John 9

• The disciples asked who had sinned, the man or His parents (who was to blame, Jesus said nobody) that he was born blind.

“As long as it is day, ‘we’ must do the work of Him who sent ‘me’. For the night is coming when no-one can work”. V4

Until the coronavirus outbreak some weeks ago it would have been unthinkable that no-one would be able to work,(except essential services) but now we’re living in it globally. Jesus words mean more today than they would have a few weeks ago, because we’re experiencing it first hand. The lesson is don’t take our freedoms for granted, what was so readily available and so easy a short time ago is no longer. As long as it is day we need to work, for the times will change.

Jesus healed the man born blind, put mud on his eyes(not a pretty sight) and told him to go and wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. This miracle caused division among the religious people of the day. Some believed the sign but others refused because Jesus had worked on the Sabbath(He seemed to do that often). The Lord’s body is divided today, but it may become more divided as world events(as I said corona is a global event, nations or even groups of nations can’t deal with it alone). We need to be seeking the Lord about His will in these days and not just adhering to religious doctrines! All people, including Christians, are being impacted by events today and there will be lots of confusion. I pray Proverbs 3:5,6 nowadays, Lord I don’t lean on my own understanding, please direct my steps.

Lastly V39, Jesus said, “For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind”. Things were going to be turned totally around(by Jesus coming), not just that the blind would see but that the sighted would become blind. Again, some religious Pharisees with Him, questioned if He was speaking to them, but He was(God is no respecter of persons).

In troubled and changing times we need to be walking close to the Lord and not losing sight of Him and His call on our lives. Most of us are strongly influenced by the media and many believers are trusting in their church’s doctrine, but we must develop  a living relationship with Jesus today.

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

Paul was only with them for a season. Acts 20

What a blessing it must have been to sit under the ministry of Paul and to witness the miracles the Holy Spirit did through him; the raising of Eutychus after he fell from the third story window.

‘Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. …you know how I lived the whole time I was with you. I served the Lord( Paul was serving the Lord, not seeking for himself) with great humility( again the mark of a true servant’s heart) and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews’. Paul’s ministry bore much fruit and it was carried on in a continuous atmosphere of tears and testing! He also had an issue that he asked the Lord to remove three times, but was told that the Lord’s strength was made perfect in weakness.

‘Compelled by the Spirit, I’m going to Jerusalem…I only know the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me(Paul’s goal was finish his race before going to his Lord, eternal viewpoint to his life)’. The trials ahead weren’t changing Paul’s direction, he wanted to finish the race, cross the winning line. Everything in Him was striving towards that goal, no matter what the obstacles.

‘Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again(this was a final goodbye to people who loved him). …remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you day and night with tears’. Paul was with the Ephesians believers for a period of time, three years and then he had to leave. He’d poured his life into them and greatly blessed them but they wouldn’t have him with them again. They had their own race to run. ‘Keep watch over yourselves(first priority) and the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood’.

Trials and tests produce lasting fruit! We may only be able to drink from a servant of the Lord for a time, so make the best of it while it’s available to us.

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Please contact us at; fathersloveministry.co.uk

God bless you and keep you.

 

Get rid of anything tainted or stained with darkness, burn it or destroy it. Acts 19:19

Acts 19 tells the story of the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who were using the name of Jesus (with no authority or right to do so) when trying to drive out evil spirits. The man with the evil spirit beat them up and both Jews and Greeks who heard about it were afraid and held the Lord’s Name in high esteem.

“Many of those who believed NOW CAME(as a result of what had happened) and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas(a drachma was about a day’s wages)”.

Something cathartic/cleansing happened to the body of believers and there was a public burning of materials stained with wickedness from their past lives. When I came to the Lord, I immediately felt to go and burn some magazines and papers in my possession, don’t even remember what they were now. My sister had done the same thing(she lived abroad) and we’d never spoken about it.

The other significant thing was the high value of the material. The enemy often gets us to buy things at a high price so that we find it difficult to dispose of them. Derek Prince, who was a pioneer in the deliverance ministry, felt that there was something not right in his house. He asked the Lord to show him anything that was causing problems and his attention was drawn to two expensive, rare oriental vases. He believed that they had demonic connections, yet they were very striking. He chose to remove and destroy them(didn’t sell them on to someone else). People often go on holiday and bring back ‘expensive souvenirs’ from other lands, unaware that they may have been ‘dedicated’ to evil entities.

This is the time of year for Spring cleaning, it would be good to ask the Lord to show us any objects with spiritual connections that we need to remove from our homes or workplaces. May even be something very small, like jewellery or medals.

“In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power”, after the hindrances had been removed.

God bless you and keep you today and every day.

 

 

The story in Acts is our story, it’s where we come from.

Paul travelled widely and spoke to many people, Jews and Gentiles about Christ, the Messiah who had come.

Acts 18 begins with Paul leaving Athens for Corinth, where he met Acquila and Priscilla. Paul stayed with them and worked with them as a tentmaker, but every Sabbath he ‘reasoned with the Jews and Greeks in the synagogue’. When Silas and Timothy came, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching and testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. He eventually left the synagogue when they became abusive and moved to a house next door. It’s ironic that the word of life was so close to the religious people but many couldn’t receive it.

However, a man called Crispus, the synagogue ruler ‘and his entire household( spoke previously about WHOLE FAMILIES accepting the Lord) believed in the Lord’. This synagogue ruler, first of two mentioned here, made the transition from religious ritual to faith in the living God. He was obviously a man who’d given his life to serving God in the synagogue, but he got grace to believe the Good News.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Dont stop speaking… I am with you, no one is going to harm you, because I have many people in this city (it must have been good to live in a city with a large number of believers, influence on the whole society). Paul taught there for a year and a half.

Soon after Paul had his vision the Jews tried to attack him again through the court but the proconsul threw them out and they beat up the second synagogue ruler, Sosthenes. One ruler and his whole family came to faith but the second was beaten by his own people(spirits of anger and rebellion). The Jews had gathered with violent intent towards the Lord’s servant and it had to come out!

In N.Ireland where we live, there has been much bloodshed and a lot of it on innocent people. When groups in society buy into the spirit of anger and violence it has to come out. Today most of the violence on our streets has stopped, but many people and a lot of young people are taking their own lives by suicide. The spirits behind the disorder are still demanding sacrifice. There are things in society that only the Church has authority to deal with. May we see the Lord’s hand helping us just as He rescued Paul.

God bless and keep you in these days.

 

 

These are unusual times we’re living in today, N.Ireland is in lockdown, no social gatherings are permitted because of the Coronavirus( interestingly corona means crown in the Greek language, a false ruler, don’t accept).

Yesterday I shared from Ruth and how she approached Boaz(type of the Lord) while he was alone at night on the threshing floor. She lay alone, in the night, at his feet until he told her what to do.

Last night I read a similar verse in Psalm 37, one of David’s psalms;

V7, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 37 is a psalm that I’m drawn to often, especially the opening ten or so verses. In these changed times, life has slowed down for many people and perhaps this is a time when we can be still and wait before the Lord.

Three times in the opening eight verses, we have the phrase, ‘do not fret’. It would be so easy for many people who are used to their routine which may now be disrupted to fret about how things are going to work out. But this psalm is saying don’t fret, don’t give way to worry or fear.

Some of the meanings of fret are: to eat into, corrode, wear away by rubbing, disturb, vex, irritate.

There’s nothing positive or wholesome in fretting, best to hand the situation to the Lord(and LEAVE IT WITH HIM). Read and speak out some of the verses in this psalm to reassure yourself of His love and care for you;

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

This may be a God given opportunity to spend some extra time waiting patiently on the Lord.

God bless you and keep you in these changing times.

The Book of Ruth — Walking, Working, Waking

During the weekend and the strong appeals to Stay Home because of Covid 19, I’ve been listening to some messages on YouTube.

One speaker whom I’d not heard much before, Bobby Conner, said he was greatly inspired by the Book of Ruth as he believed it was a picture for the Church today. I did a one week series on Ruth, only four chapters long and it’s one of my favourite Bible stories.

Walking; Naomi and Ruth had a long journey through very arid and difficult country to get from Moab to Bethlehem. They arrived at the time of the barley harvest.

Working; Ruth (type of the Church) immediately began to glean in the fields to get some food for herself and her mother in law, Naomi (type of the Holy Spirit, guiding Ruth). She worked in the field of their kinsman redeemer, Boaz (type of the Lord) and only his field where she was safe and provided for. Ruth met her Boaz in the harvest field, not in the synagogue.

Waking; Naomi spoke to Ruth about finding a home for her, in the house of Boaz. Naomi gave her specific instructions, to wash and perfume herself and wear her best clothes and go to the threshing floor (final stage of the harvest, separating the grain and chaff). When Boaz lay down at the end of the grain pile Ruth lay ‘at his feet’. He wakened in the night and Ruth asked him to ‘spread the corner of his garment over her’, take her as his wife.

The picture of Ruth lying at the feet of Boaz(the Lord) is a picture for our day. The initiative was then with Boaz, to take the situation in hand and acquire Ruth and the land of her late husband for himself. He settled the matter in good form with the elders at the city gate. Ruth gave birth to a son Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel. Ruth had to leave her land and her people and live in Bethlehem of Judah to fulfill her calling and God’s plan for His Messiah.

Ruth could never have determined her own calling, she bound herself to Naomi and walked step by step into her destiny. She only had a heart to serve and obey. Lying at the Lord’s feet and waiting for His direction may be the only path open for us in uncertain times.

Mini series on Book of Ruth is available on webpage;

fathersloveministry.co.uk

God bless and keep you in these uncertain days.