a house of prayer for the nations

Over the last week or so I have been receiving a considerable amount of “feedback” or “confirmation” regarding a prophesied earthquake event which is to occur affecting Christchurch, New Zealand and the surrounding townships  and settlements on Wednesday 28th September 2011…

I personally believe that the prophetic words which have been given with respect to this earthquake event – the two which I have seen (from Kathy & Lee respectively) – have been accurate and will surely come to pass…

They “meld together” with what the Lord has been showing me regarding a third epicentre earthquake event for Christchurch although before reading them (Kathy & Lee’s words) He had not given me a specific timeframe for the event…

I feel on my heart to make a clear and categorical statement of what I believe with respect to this event…

Please take what I say before the Lord in prayer and pray for the Peace of God which passes all understanding to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus…

Please pray that you will know whether what I am saying is from the Lord and if you sense that it is from the Lord, what He would have you to do about it – we all need to hear individually from Him and then do what He says…

Let the Peace of God and the Blood of Jesus Christ cover everything I am about to say for the Glory of God, everything…

Before the Lord I believe that I need to state that I believe categorically that there will be a Magnitude 8 earthquake with epicentre to the North of Christchurch which will hit Christchurch on Wednesday 28th September 2011…

I believe that those who believe that this word is from the Lord should leave Christchurch and the surrounding townships and settlements on Wednesday 28th September 2011…

Those who hear this word and do not live in Christchurch or the surrounding townships or settlements I believe should take this word before the Lord and ask Him whether He would have them warn those who they do know who live in Christchurch or the surrounding townships  and settlements…

The words which have been received (by Kathy & Lee respectively) – coupled with what the Lord has been speaking to me – are sobering words, indicating wide scale destruction and loss of life…

Those who want to avoid being caught up in this event I strongly believe need to leave Christchurch and the surrounding townships and settlements on Wednesday 28th September 2011…

The Lord does not wish for any to perish – this is what His word tells us – but He would rather that we repent and live…

He will come and He will not be silent…

He will judge this city and He will judge “the gods of this city” just as He judged “the gods of Egypt” in days gone by…

Those who do not heed the warning to escape and flee from the wrath to come may find that when the wrath begins it is too late to escape…

Please, if you are reading this post, please, take heed to the warnings, to the words which are being given…

The Lord is merciful, He is slow to anger, He is abounding in lovingkindness and truth but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Him but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Him and keep His commandments as His word says…

Do you love Him?

Do you love Him more than anything else in Your life?

He is near to you right now, nearer than you could ever know…

Just as the Lord sent His angels to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue righteous Lot and his household He has sent His Prophetic Voice along with His angels and His Very Own Presence to the city of Christchurch and to the surrounding townships and settlements to plead with all to flee from the wrath to come…

There is a “dome” of the Lord’s Presence over this city and the surrounding townships and settlements, His Presence is here, His angels are here, the demonic entities are being evicted from this city  – from under that “dome” – as we speak…

His Peace is here…

If you are an inhabitant of the city of Christchurch or any of the surrounding townships or settlements right now, the Lord is near to you…

Call upon Him while He is near…

Be saved…

Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, you and your family…

Do not delay, get right with God…

Pour out your heart to Him, He will hear you…

Wherever you are in the city of Christchurch or in any of the surrounding townships or settlements, whatever you’re doing, get right with God…

He is merciful, He will save you from your sin…

Your sin has brought a separation between you and your God…

Let the Blood Speak…

He does not like your sin…

He hates it…

He loves you but also at the same time His Wrath burns against you…

All who have not given their lives to Him in this city, His Wrath – the full fury of His Wrath – burns against you…

To give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ means that you surrender to Him to allow Him to make all the decisions in your life…

You allow Him to be Lord…

You believe that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord and that He is God, that He died on the cross, shedding His Blood for the remission of your sin, the forgiveness of your sin and that through His resurrection from the dead He has proved that His Sacrifce was sufficient to forgive your sin and not yours only but the sin of the whole world if you will but repent and believe the Gospel…

I have a strong burden on my heart to warn all the inhabitants of the City of Christchurch and the surrounding townships and settlements to flee from these locations on the day of Wednesday 28th September 2011…

Basically don’t be anywhere near Christchurch on Wednesday 28th September 2011…

If you heed this warning and survive the earthquake which I believe will occur on that date then I believe that you will be saved in the Revival which will sweep this City after this earthquake has been accomplished…

God is here…

God is in this City…

His Presence is pleading with the inhabitants of this City right now to be saved…

Today if you hear His Voice do not harden your hearts as His word says…

He is going from inhabitant to inhabitant, His angels are working to speak to the hearts of all those whom He is going to save and to warn all of the coming judgement…

He will not relent…

He will bring judgement to this city but along with the judgement He will bring mercy to those who call out to Him from a pure heart, seeking His mercy and seeking His forgiveness…

Seeking to submit themselves to Him…

This is His City…

It is named after Him, after His Church…

It does not belong to us, it belongs to Him and He is taking it back for His own Glory…

He will not share His Glory with another…

“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3 NASB)

Father, in the Name of Jesus, please Lord let everyone who reads this post know that You are serious Lord about Your word…

Your word will not return to You void but will accomplish everything for which You have sent it as Your word says…

Thank You Father that You are Faithful to perform Your word and that, as Your word says,

“‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'” (Acts 2:21 NASB)

Let the Fear of God fall upon this city, let the Love of God be felt by all in this city, begging and pleading with them to give themselves unreservedly to You for Your service…

For Your Glory Father, be Glorified…

When Revival hits this city and the surrounding townships and settlements let Your Name be Glorified and let all remember that You wrought wonders in the earth…

You punished the guilty…

You removed iniquity far from us…

You judged the principalities and powers over this city…

You are keeping us in perfect peace, those of us whose minds are steadfast (because You have made them steadfast) because we trust in You…

You are keeping every believer in this city – whose heart is in tune with You Father – in perfect peace – Thank You Lord…

You are keeping the Restraining Power of Your Presence over this city as You go from house to house pleading with each – in their sleep or in visions or in dreams or through word of mouth – pleading with each to receive You and Your will for their lives…

Your plan which would give them a future and a hope as Your word says that they should not go down to death…

Thank You Lord for Your plan for this city, establish Your plan Father and let the Glory go to You alone…

Let there be salvation in this city and out of the ashes let there rise Praise to Your Name…

For the Glory of Your Holy Name…

Come Lord Jesus and take Your Place…

Lord Holy Spirit Preside over the Spiritual Atmosphere over this “dome” surrounding Christchurch and the surrounding townships and settlements and let us all know that You are convicting us all of sin, righteousness and judgement – let Your Presence be felt in this City…

Thank You Father, in the Mighty Name of Jesus I pray,

Amen and Amen

Let the Blood Speak…

God is Light – in Him there is no darkness at all as the scripture tells us…

In Him there is no darkness at all…

No darkness..

When we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the Blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin…

As the scripture tells us…

When we walk in the light completely surrendered to Him and to His will for our lives we experience incredible liberty in the Holy Spirit…

We can stand freely in the Presence of God and experience His fullness flowing through us as He works through us…

He flows through us and as we work in proximity with others who He is flowing through we experience the incredible power of Unity in the Body of Christ…

The Unity of God is symbolized or translated into the human realm via the Unity of the Saints…

We walk in step with Him and He brings others across our path who will walk in step with us as they walk in step with Him – this is a great blessing to our faith…

I have been priviledged recently to be walking in step with two brothers in the Lord who have been teaching me a lot about Unity in the Body of Christ…

When we’ve been united together there has been such power – I feel it…

Such authority – I feel it…

Where two or three are gathered there am I in the midst, said Jesus…

So true…

The word of God is true…

Unity in prayer is also very powerful…

When we pray in Unity at the leading of the Holy Spirit we have great power with God…

Great power, great things are accomplished…

The Lord loves honesty…

He will never despise honesty…

The honest heart will hear from Him…

The honest heart will be renewed by Him…

The honest heart will walk in fellowship with Him…

The honest heart will also walk in fellowship with it’s brothers and sisters…

When we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with each other and the Blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin…

The Blood of Jesus – we are sitting waiting this evening for a big dump of snow to “hit us” here in Christchurch coming up from Antarctica – we have a small “dusting” on the ground already – and I always remember the Lord’s word, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, Though they be red like crimson, They shall be as wool”, when I think of the Lord’s Blood, I think of Blood falling on snow it is a powerful metaphor in the spirit (the spiritual realm)…

Praise You Jesus that as Your Holy Spirit leads us we walk in the Light and have fellowship we experience the darkness exposed and revealed and removed from us with the Light of Your Presence – Your Holy Fire flowing through us and via fellowship with others we see the things in us which are not pleasing to You – these things are exposed and our brothers and sisters can pray for us – whether we know they’re praying or not – we feel it – and we can be released from burdens which we would not even see if we were alone…

Praise the Lord for fellowship when He provides it…

Praise the Lord for the Unity of the Saints…

Praise the Lord for the safety in the multitude of counsellors who know and hear from the Lord…

Praise You Jesus that You have given us the armour of light…

Transparency is the armour of light…

Being transparent before the Lord…

And before others as He leads us…

Not holding anything back which He gives us a peace to reveal or to share…

Praise You Jesus in the safety of being led by Your Spirit…

You know all things and we are safe in Your Hands…

Praise You Lord,

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Fill me with Your Holy Fire…

Father God, Fill me with Your Holy Fire…

You are a Consuming Fire…

Fill me with Your Holy Fire…

Father, I have been having visions (mental pictures) of flowing lava and I desire to be filled with this just as Jesus is filled with this as You have described Him in Your Word…

I desire to be filled with Your Holy Fire to the extent that nothing else remains in me and I am consumed with Your Glory and a desire to live for Your Glory alone…

I want to be filled with the Zeal of God, with Your Holy Zeal for Your Holy Name…

With Your Holy Zeal which led Jesus to defend Your Righteousness with such passion that it cost Him His life…

To defend Your Righteousness with such passion that those who hate You are filled with a desire to do away with me so strong is the anointing which You are bringing through my life…

Bring reality through my life Father, reality which Jesus brought when He was on earth, reality which is felt by all who come in contact with me…

Let them feel Your Holy Fire when they come into contact with me…

Let the Zeal of God consume them as it has consumed me and let it flow out from me and into all whom I come into contact with…

Let the Zeal of God flow to Your entire Church throughout the entire world…

Let us be filled with the Zeal and Fire of God…

Fill us Father with the Zeal and Fire of God…

Bring us to the utter end of ourselves, where we detest ourselves – our old selves – and are not trying to hold on to our lives in any way, shape or form but are giving our bodies to You for You to fill with Your Holy Fire, Your Passion for the Glorification of Your Own Name, Your Zeal for Truth and Your Passion for Righteousness…

Let not any deceptive spirit stand against You and against Your will to rid this world of everything that is not Holy and is not well-pleasing in Your sight…

Use us Father to come against anything in anyone which does not please You…

Use us Father like Your Word says,

“A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.” (Psalm 97:3 KJV)

Use us to bring glory to Your Name…

Create in us a hatred for unrighteousness and anything which is unrighteous…

Let us hate unrighteousness with an absolute hatred and let us love righteousness with an absolute love…

Let us abhore unrighteousness in any shape or form or appearance – in any way it comes to us – let us hate it and rebuke it and repel it from us…

Let the Fire of God which is flowing within us repel it and burn it up as it comes near…

Let the Fire of God continuously flow through us and out of us, never ceasing, continuously being re-filled for the rest of our lives on planet earth…

Fill Your Church with Your Holy Fire Father, Fill us with Your Holy Fire…

Set the world on Fire Father with the Fire of Your Holy Spirit let Your Holy Spirit be unleashed on this world and burn in the hearts of every man, woman, boy or girl…

Let those whom You have chosen be saved and regenerated and re-created with Your Holy Fire and let all those who do not believe be consumed with the Fire of Your Wrath…

Fill this world with the Fire of God, let there be no mistake as to who You are and as to how Righteous You are and as to how Holy You are and as to the fact that You are a Consuming Fire…

Let the inhibitants of earth tremble before You…

Let the inhibitants of earth tremble before You…

Let the inhibitants of earth tremble before You…

Let the Presence of God fall all over the world…

Let the Presence of God fall and bring conviction to the entire world…

Let the Presence of God fall and bring consciousness of sin to the entire world…

Let every mouth be shut and let the entire world become accountable to God…

Let me Father be entirely consumed with the Fire of Your Holiness and never let me be the same again…

Never let me live again, let Your Fire live through me, Baptise me Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with Fire…

Let my life end today and live through me for Your Glory until the end of time…

Glorify Your Name in all the earth…

He is so Sovereign…

He is Sovereign in creation…

He is Sovereign in salvation…

He is Sovereign in all the affairs of mankind…

There is nothing that occurs on earth which He does not permit…

He is in complete control of everything and everyone in His universe…

Even the devil and the demons can not do anything unless He ultimately permits it…

His will is done on earth as it is in heaven…

When He speaks the universe listens and obeys…

When He speaks to the hearts of His Children they listen and obey…

We are not in control of our own lives, He is…

We are not in control of our own destinies, He is…

We are not in control of our own pleasure, He is…

We are not in control of our own circumstances, He is…

We are not in control of our own life path, He is…

We are not in control of our own careers, He is…

He speaks and listening to His Voice, New Life the Dead Receive, as the hymn says…

This is the truth…

No word which God speaks to the heart of one of His Children returns to Him void, it accomplishes what it is sent to accomplish – every word of God proves true, as the scripture says…

When He speaks He sets in motion reality…

He is reality…

And His Voice is reality…

By His Voice He created the universe….

Bringing into existance what only existed in His Mind before this time…

When He speaks into our hearts – as sons and daughters of the Living God – He brings into existance what has previously not existed except in His Mind for our lives…

He is the Establisher-of-Our-Way, the Straight-Path-Creator, the Guide-to-Our-Steps, He will guide us until death, as the scripture says…

We are in the palm of His Hand, nothing can stand against His will being completed in our lives…

“O LORD, you have searched me, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue O LORD, you know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.”

Psalm 139:1-18 (NIV)

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be…

Praise God…

Praise God for His Sovereignty…

Praise God for His Love…

Praise God that He has so ordered our lives – as sons and daughters of the Living God – that nothing is wasted…

Everything we go through has a purpose…

We are not living purposeless existances…

We are living in the purposes of Almighty God…

We are a part of a plan which was set in motion before the creation of the world…

Glorify Your Name Father in all the earth…

Use us, Your Children, for Your glory…

Do whatever You have to do in each of our lives to fulfil Your plan for our lives and for Your Church at this point in history…

Exalt Your Name Father in all the earth…

Be exalted…

Be exalted…

Be exalted…

Turn our hearts towards Your Truth…

Turn our hearts away from worthless pursuits…

Turn our hearts towards Your Glory…

Establish in us Your “Other-centred” way of living…

Establish in us Your “Selfless” way of living…

Let us live for Your Glory…

Glorify Your Name in all the earth… 

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog as I really haven’t had an unction to post.  Today I feel it’s time to testify about what’s been going on in my life and heart in the intervening time…

I was previously working over in Manila, Philippines – paying off some overseas debts incurred in Dubai, UAE – while my wife and children returned home to New Zealand…

The Lord had been dealing with me regarding a root of coveteousness in my life and I’d come to a place where I never wanted to go into debt again…

I’d been sensing strongly from the Lord that He wanted me to return to my home town of Christchurch, New Zealand but I couldn’t see how He would do this quickly as I had at least two years left of repaying this debt in Dubai – in the natural – before I’d be able to return…

In August, the afternoon and early evening of Mon 09 Aug 10 to be precise, the Lord had indicated to me that I’d be returning home to Christchurch, New Zealand and I’d believed Him and was waiting to see how He would make this possible…

I’d believed Him so fully that I hadn’t booked a return ticket for my end of year trip back to New Zealand…

I just had this overwhelming sense that my time in Manila was drawing to a close but I wasn’t sure how the Lord would achieve this as I’d strongly felt He didn’t want me to “do a runner” when we had to leave Dubai after the financial crash as I’d been transferred to my companies Manila Office…

The Lord gave me a word prior to this day saying, “You have paid your debts to men” and when He did I had this overwhelming sense of freedom, so I knew “something was up”…

Anyway, time seemed to drag throughout October as I just knew something was around the corner, I knew I’d need to give one months notice to my current employer and I had a “cut-off” time to achieve this…

I just kept getting this strong sense that I was returning home, I’d surrendered my loneliness to the Lord – I was really missing my littlest son, Zechariah, as I’d felt his pain in prayer one night when I was praying (as he’d been the one who’d missed out the most with me being away) – but just kept feeling that something was going to happen…

In late October my Dad sent me an email saying that he had a sum of money – it was a large sum of money – which he wanted to use to pay off my Dubai loan…

I responded to Dad that if the Holy Spirit had really put it on his heart to do this that I would not resist the Holy Spirit and gave him my Dubai bank account number to make the deposit…

He and Mum responded that they had a peace to do this and so they deposited the money and I repaid the loan…

I was praising God but there was more…

In “hope” I’d been applying for jobs back home in New Zealand, opting to go for jobs only in Christchurch, but prior to this no one could pay me enough to be able to live and make the Dubai loan repayments…

The September earthquake in Christchurch meant that there were more Structural Engineering jobs going and after the loan was repaid this helped in reducing my salary expectations – but we still had a sizable loan which we were repaying back home in New Zealand also – and as my deadline for handing in my notice approached I had three interested parties but no written job offers…

The day came (Fri 12 Nov 10) and I handed in my resignation (I’d pre-empted this with my boss by telling him that my Dubai loan had been repaid so he wasn’t completely taken by surprise) without a certain job to go to…

The Lord had given me enough faith to resign without this and I said my “goodbyes” to the Guys in Manila and headed home…

We had to ship all our stuff down from Napier to Christchurch and didn’t get a rental before it arrived so it went into storage…

We arrived back in Christchurch on 17/18 Dec 10 and after staying at my parents/my step-daughters/my wife’s friends we finally moved into a rental on Sat 19 Feb 11…

I had been paranoid about where we were going to live as the Lord had showed me while I was still in Manila (back in September, the week after the September earthquake) that there would be another earthquake and that people would die – I felt the pain – and it was annoying me that we couldn’t seem to find a place – either the Lord would say, “No” or someone else got it or people were slow to get back to me…

The children ended up missing the first week of school and I got to the point where I just gave up then my wife found a place and I felt the Lord said He’d keep us safe during the earthquake in that place…

In the meantime one of the job possibilities which previously had been a “no go” because my salary expectations were too high before the loan was paid off, was still available…

The strange thing was that on one of my training runs in Manila (before the loan was paid off) the Lord had said, “If such and such a company offers you such and such an amount then you should accept the job”…

At the time this made no sense as it wasn’t enough but still I kept it in the back of my mind as I really felt it was the Lord speaking to me…

Anyway, this company ended up offering me exactly this amount – I told the recruiter that I’d accept if they offered me this amount and then they offered it – and so I took this as a sign from the Lord…

I started work on Wed 19 Jan 11…

So when the February earthquake hit on Tues 22 Feb 11 we were in our rental and I was at work in Hornby (as I’d turned down two other offers in the CBD)…

We were blessed to only lose one vase at home and work was basically unaffected as the gravel seemed to dissipate the seismic energy…

I think I will leave it at that for now but I would like to praise God for what He has been doing in my life in the intervening time between posts (there is more but this might come out at a later date)…

There is nothing that can compare with the presence of God…

For those of us who are a part of God’s family – His children, His Church, His Bride – we are blessed beyond any measure…

Beyond comprehension we are blessed…

The presence of God is free…

It is not earned…

It is not lost…

It is not conditional…

It is free and freely available to all who believe…

We have limited God for so long that we think we understand His presence…

We do not…

He can not be defined…

He can not be confined…

He can not be understood with our reasoning…

We are brute beasts before Him…

We have nothing of value to offer Him and yet in His goodness He has deposited His life inside of us, making us new creatures in Christ…

Freeing us from our sin…

Freeing us from the dominion of darkness…

Setting us free to serve the Living God…

And we are serving the Living God in our spirits – those of us who have been born again by the Spirit of God…

And nothing can stop that because the spirit – the new creation – that He has given us is created in all holiness and righteousness of the truth…

The Holy Spirit indwells our new spirit and He transforms our soul into the image of Jesus Christ…

Our spirit – our new creation – is already transformed into the image of Jesus Christ and can never be “un-transformed” :-)…

It can never sin, it never thinks a wrong thought, never has a wrong desire, always delights in the Law of God in the inner man…

It is incorruptible, because we were born again with Incorruptible Seed…

The Living and Abiding Word of God – Jesus Christ Himself…

We have the Divine Sperm within us – each one of us who know the Lord – and He will never leave us or forsake us…

We are one spirit with Him…

We live in His presence…

His presence is all around us…

We can not escape His presence…

We can not leave His presence…

His presence is always with us…

We are surrounded by His presence…

His protection is over us and the evil one can not touch us…

Our spirit is safe and indestructible in the Hands of Almighty God…

Our souls are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, emotions and wills into conformity with the mind, emotions and will of Jesus Christ…

Our bodies are sanctified by the presence of the Holy Spirit residing in them…

And we are clean by the Word spoken to us by Jesus Christ when He said “Let light shine out of darkness” and when He “called into being that which did not exist” as the scripture says…

God called us into being by the Word of His Power and He sustains us by the Word of His Power so that we are not consumed…

“It is because of the Lord’s great love that we are not consumed for His mercies never fail, they are new every morning, Great is Your Faithfulness” as the scripture says…

We have been blessed beyond all comprehension in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ…

We have been personally blessed by His effectual call on our lives where He caused us to be born again by the Word of Truth that we might be first fruits of all He created…

We are so blessed…

All that remains is for us to come into the presence of God and enjoy Him for who He is…

He is “altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me” as the song says…

He is everything that we have ever wanted, He is everything that we have ever longed for, He is everything that we will ever need…

We have no needs outside of His presence…

He is everywhere and He is with us…

His presence shall go with us and He shall give us rest…

He shall give us peace…

He shall give us provision…

He shall give us comfort…

He shall give us support and wisdom, confidence and direction, guidance and discernment – wisdom – everything we need…

He will give us his peace which transcends all understanding – and He shall go with us and be a Wall of Fire around us…

We are protected in Him, He is protecting us…

We are safe in His Hands…

Underneath are the Everlasting Arms – as the scripture says…

We have a great Saviour – His Name is Jesus Christ…

We and our desires and our hopes for the future and our plans and our dreams and our goals are all thoroughly insignificant against who He is and what He will do in our lives…

When He is in control of our lives we have entered an added dimension of human existence, a new dimension of human existence, a supernatural dimension of human existence where nothing is impossible because nothing is impossible with God…

Nothing is impossible with God…

When God is for us who can be against us?

And God is for us…

He is so for us that He is removing pride from us so that we might walk in His presence all the days of our lives, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple…

He will not let our foot be moved…

The God who guards us does not slumber or sleep…

He is on duty 24 hours a day to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day, as the scripture says…

We are safe, we are secure in the Rock of All Ages and His Banner over us is Love…

He is so big…

We are so safe…

As He brings us to a place of not striving we see that all along we have been so safe, we just didn’t realise it…

Sin does not stand in His presence, our sins are forgiven us for His Name sake, so our sins don’t stand in His presence, there is nothing we can do to break His presence, He is at work in us to will and to work for His good pleasure and as we receive from Him sin falls off our lives…

We are not to focus on sin, we are to come into His presence without striving and allow Him to do whatever He would like to do in our lives…

No agenda…

Just come…

Just come and receive from the Lord whatever He would like to impart to us of His Person, of His Face as we open up ourselves to seek Him and to seek His Face continually…

We will not seek anything else once we get a grasp on just who our God is – we will just not want to seek anything else, we will cease from all other pursuits and pursue Him alone…

We will be captivated by Him as by the Pearl of Great Price and sell everything we possess to gain Him…

We will serve Him because we love Him and because He is worthy for us to serve Him…

We know Him and we surrender to Him…

We love Him and so we keep coming back into His presence for more of Him…

He becomes our All in All and we delight ourselves in Him…

He is everywhere and He is everything, we do not see anything else…

This is a process and one which is Eternal Life…

It is this process, this relationship that we are called to…

It is coming into His presence with no consciousness of sin – because it is paid for and under the Blood of Jesus – that we live for – to be transformed by the renewing of our minds…

We are in the Hands of God, He is holding us and we are secure…

Thank You Father, Thank You Jesus, Thank You Holy Spirit…

The Lord has been speaking to me about faith…

He has been telling me that He wants me to live by faith and not by sight…

He has been explaining to me the importance of living by faith and not by human effort…

He has been explaining to me that I can achieve nothing that will aid Him in His work on earth via human effort…

He has been showing me that there is nothing that I can do to establish the Kingdom of God on earth in the hearts of men, women, boys and girls via human effort…

Only faith will establish the Kingdom of God on earth in the hearts of men, women, boys and girls…

Only faith will move mountains…

Only faith will speak to that mountain, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea!”…

Only faith will speak to principalities and powers in the Name of Jesus Christ and command them to be removed…

Only faith will break down strongholds, only faith will loose the prisoners…

Only faith will release the blessing…

The blessing of God onto the lives of the Church of the Living God…

The blessing of God is that we experience a relationship with God wherein we know Him with no veil or wall or division or separation between ourselves and our God…

Where we know Him as He is…

Where we experience Him as He is…

Where we see Him as He is…

Where we understand Him as He is…

Where we know Him as He is…

This is our calling as the children and Church of the Living God, as the Bride of Christ, to know our Bridegroom, to know our Father and to know our Brother – for Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren…

We are the Church of the Living God, called out by God Himself, for His own glory and goodness…

Set apart, anointed with the Holy Spirit and sent out into all the world to preach the gospel to all mankind…

We are anointed, we are appointed and we are called…

We are sent out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom…

The Gospel of the Kingdom that God is calling people into a relationship with Himself where He dwells in our hearts and gives us what only He can give us – His presence within us…

We are called into a relationship with God where He owns us and controls us and uses us for His glory…

Where we have no say in what we do or say or in anything else which happens to us but we just come into the presence of God and enjoy Him for who He is…

We come into the presence of God in our own hearts in our own quiet meditation and prayer before the Lord and seek His Face…

We are called to seek His Face and to seek His Face continually…

The Lord Jesus set the Lord continually before Him, He lived His life on earth coming into the Lord’s presence and the result of His time in the Lord’s presence was what we call His “ministry”…

As Paul and Barnabus were “ministering to the Lord with prayer and fasting” the Holy Spirit spoke and said, “Set apart… for the work which I have called them to do”…

As we wait before the Lord coming into His presence and ministering to Him by us just “being there”, He will send us out to accomplish the work which He has called us to do…

But our ministry is to the Lord…

This is what the Lord has shown me…

My ministry is to Him…

To seek Him with all my heart is my ministry to Him…

To be found by Him is His promise to me when I seek Him with all my heart…

Last night in prayer the Lord specifically told me, “Do not strive in my presence”…

It was the most powerful thing the Lord has ever told me…

What He is saying to me is “Rest in My Presence, I do not want you to strive in your relationship with Me”…

I was so set free…

It is an affront to God and it was a rebuke to me to hear the Lord say, “Do not strive in My presence”, a loving and yet authoritative rebuke, for us to think that we can achieve anything in His presence…

We are only there because He has led us there…

We are not there because we thought of it ourselves…

We are there because He led us there and had things which He wanted to reveal to us…

What gives us the right to strive in His presence?

What do we think we will achieve by doing this?

I was rebuked but greatly encouraged to receive from the Lord what He gives in His presence…

To pray what He gives me to pray in His presence…

And to proclaim what He gives me to proclaim in His presence…

He told me specifically this afternoon that my call is to “come into His presence”…

That is my call…

As I seek Him with all my heart I will be found by Him…

As I seek Him with all my heart I will be found by Him and He will open the floodgates of heaven to me in the spirit (the spiritual realm) and pour out such a blessing that I have no comprehension or capacity to understand or fathom what He will do…

Everything will be provided for me – not only the physical things which I need to live and move and have my being – but everything I need for life and godliness through my knowledge of Him who called me by His own excellence and goodness (as the scripture says)…

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly…

His faith – scripture tells us of Abraham (the father of all who believe) – was credited to him as righteousness…

Our faith is credited to us – whether we are Jews or Gentiles (just like Abraham was a Gentile, i.e. uncircumcised, when he believed) – as the scripture tells us – as righteousness…

And no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly…

As we walk in faith, trusting what God has and is – through His word and through His Spirit – saying to us, no good thing will be withheld from us…

We are overcomers through our faith…

We walk by faith and not by sight…

We live by faith…

Without faith it is impossible to please God…

We are saved by faith…

We are under a curse if we trust in flesh and do not make the Lord our trust…

God resists the proud and it is the proud who refuse to trust God…

We can either trust ourselves or we can trust God…

We can either walk in stress and in anxiety and in worry and in fear and thus in “control” or we can lay down our burdens at the foot of the cross and walk in humility by surrendering to let the Lord look after us and thus walk in faith (Help me Jesus to do this)…

In the path of faith is peace…

In the path of faith is rest…

In the path of faith is being misunderstood (even by those nearest and dearest to us)…

In the path of faith is being “hated by all men on account of Me”…

In the path of faith is certain persecution from the world as the life of faith is diametrically opposed to the ways of the world (who do not know God or His ways, His way of faith)…

And yet the way of faith is the path of peace and enduring happiness…

In His presence is “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, He will fill us with “joy in His presence and eternal pleasures at His Right Hand”, He will be a shield to us and a strong tower from the enemy, He will not let our foot stumble, He will establish us and bring us to Zion where we will behold His Face in righteousness – as the scripture tells us…

We have no choice as children of the Living God but to live by faith…

If we do not live by faith we oppose ourselves and the Holy Spirit within us will not allow us to oppose ourselves for by opposing ourselves we are opposing His will and purpose for our lives…

As the scripture says, “The Lord will fulfil His purpose for me, Your love O Lord endures forever, Do not abandon the works of Your hands”…

The Lord will not allow us to oppose ourselves so He will work in us to remove pride from us so that we become people of humility just like His Dear Son was a Man of Humility…

He was meek and lowly of heart and He lived in rest…

He lived in perfect faith all the days of His life and He died in perfect faith – even when the Father forsoke Him on the cross…

He rose in perfect faith and ascended to the Right Hand of the Father in heaven in perfect faith…

He was, is and is still the Author and Perfector of our faith…

He is the Holy Son of the Living God and He is still God in human flesh…

He is “the Man in the Glory” as I heard a brother say in my younger days and He is our assurance that we will join Him in due season…

We live by faith not by sight…

We receive God’s provision by faith and not by sight…

We rest in the presence of God by faith and not by sight…

We lay our burdens down by faith and not by sight…

We trust God against insurmountable odds by faith and not by sight…

And by faith and not by sight we receive the promises…

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified;

for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.

For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

(as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.”

Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;

yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,

and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,

but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” 

Romans 4:13-25 (NASB)

In hope against hope he believed – as the scripture says…

O Praise You Father, Praise You Father…

Release Your anointing Father over Your Church to believe Your word and look up for their salvation draws nigh…

To look up to You and Your word…

To believe what You are speaking to them through Your Holy Spirit within them…

To understand the times in which we are living…

And to see that You are coming to be perfected in Your Body, Your Church, Your Bride in this generation…

You will come and You will not be silent…

You will come and You will save and You will deliver and You will establish righteousness in Your saints all across the world…

There will be righteousness in Your Church all across the world in this generation and You will do what You have not done since the day of Pentecost, You will visit Your Church, Your entire Church, all across the world with Your Holy Fire…

The Fire of the Anointing of Your Holy Spirit…

You will Baptise us with Your Holy Spirit and with Fire…

As on the Day of Pentecost, we will be Baptised with Your Holy Spirit and with Fire…

And we will go and do exploits – just as the Apostles did of old – in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…

We will go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptising them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything which Jesus commanded us…

And we will do this in the power of the Holy Spirit and through His Holy Fire burning within us…

The Fire of His Love towards the Father and towards the Lord Jesus Christ and the Fire of His Love towards His Church, the Bride of Christ, whom He is preparing for her Bridegroom…

Glorify Your Name in all the earth…

Be exalted God in all the earth…

Exalt Your Name in all the earth through Your Church in this chosen generation…

Give us the gift of faith to move mountains and to believe Your word which has been spoken to us in the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen and Amen – So let it be…

“Just as in Christ, God forgave you” as the scripture says…

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself…” as the scripture says…

The power of forgiveness is infinite…

There is no end to the power of forgiveness…

We see bitter bondages in our lives, we go around the same mountain year after year, decade after decade and even sometimes for an entire lifetime until the Lord reveals to us the power of forgiveness…

To be forgiven by God is the most liberating experience a human being can experience…

To then turn and forgive our fellow human beings, even to forgive the devil and his demons, even to forgive the Lord if that is what we feel we need to do will completely free us from the power of unforgivenss…

Oh, I forgot, we also need to forgive ourselves (Lord help me to fully forgive myself and see that every sin I’ve ever committed or ever will commit has been and will be committed against You – if I ever sin against someone I am actually sinning against You and I am actually sinning against myself – have mercy on me Lord and help me to see this with clarity I pray and be moved to forgive)…

I just saw today that I’d never actually forgiven the devil and his demons for all the hatred and malice that he and they have brought against me in my life to date…

In forgiving them I’m not becoming friends with them, I’m not saying it wasn’t their fault, I’m not expecting them to change but I’m just removing from myself all my pent up anger towards the devil and his demons – which comes out in prayer sometimes – and the Lord has revealed to me is actually giving the devil and his demons a foothold in my life…

When I say that we need to forgive the Lord, in our hearts deep down we all believe that the Lord has let us down or not been faithful or let us fall on our face or “not come through for us” and although we know in our minds that it is impossible that we should ever need to say, “I forgive you Lord for all that You’ve done to me”, the words have often formed on my lips and then I’ve just known that that’s “not a spiritual thing to say” and refrained and said instead, “Thank You for Your purpose for my life”…

Well tonight I finally said those words to the Lord, “I forgive You for everything You’ve done to me” and I started to list out my list of complaints before the Lord and I saw as I began that that spirit of “whatever” just started to lift and I started to thank Him for letting me fall flat on my face and exposing whatever was going on in my life…

I feel better having forgiven the devil, I do not like the devil and I do not want to have anything to do with him or his demons, but I am happy that the Lord has showed me to forgive him and not hold that bitterness in my heart towards him, I do not need to have “an attitude” towards the devil…

The scripture tells us to “leave room for God’s wrath” and that “vengence is Mine, I will repay” declares the Lord…

Where I went wrong a few weeks back now – in fact nearly a month ago now – was that in prayer some strange “wrath type” prayers started to come out of me and I was confused as to where they were coming from and I concluded – against my better judgement – that they must have been coming from the Lord…

But looking back now they have broken my peace and my place of silent communion with the Lord that I’d been enjoying for the nearly six months before that…

Since then I’ve been “up and down” and haven’t known what’s going on…

I remember distinctly praying very angrily about certain principalities and powers, etc and feeling that anger quite strongly…

Now there’s nothing wrong with that – in and of itself – but I think somewhere I moved from righteous anger or was deceived into thinking that I was still in righteous anger when I had moved into fleshly anger or bitterness not just towards the devil but towards certain others who’d mistreated me and I felt a certain sense of powerless towards because of what the Lord was taking me through regarding laying down my life and offering my cheek to the ones who would strike me…

“But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!””

Jude 1:9 (NIV)

“But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!””

Jude 1:9 (NASB)

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

Jude 1:9 (KJV)

Anyway, as I came in to work this morning one of the guys who sends us through, “Our Daily Bread” via email had sent in a word regarding forgiveness and saying to guard our hearts against bitterness…

Anyway his word – via “Our Daily Bread” – really agreed with what the Lord was showing me about forgivenss and was a great blessing…

He had a quote from Tim Stafford which really resonated with me, ‘I would rather be cheated a hundred times, than develop a heart of stone.’…

What a powerful word…

I totally agree with this…

No matter who hurts me, how many times or how repeatedly, I choose to forgive them (O Lord enable me to do this) because I do not want to develop a heart of stone…

I do not want to become a bitter and twisted person…

I want to be a happy and joyful person…

I want to always be loving and kind (O Lord enable me to do this for Your glory) to all who come across my path (only You can do this Lord) and the only way I can do this (You can do it through me) is to be forgiving…

Nothing is worth holding onto when it comes to bitterness and unforgiveness (O Lord let me practice this in my life)…

We are not made to hold grudges, we are not capable of handling the mental anxiety caused by holding grudges and harbouring unforgiveness in our hearts (O Lord help me to forgive, instantaneously and without hesitation in Jesus Name)…

“Forgiving one another, just as in Christ, God forgave you” as the scripture says (O Lord let us forgive one another in Christ, let us forgive one another for the glory of God, let us forgive one another just as in Christ God forgave us, O Praise You Jesus, let us forgive one another just as in Christ God forgave us, O Praise You Jesus, let Your forgiveness flow over Your Church, this night Father let your forgiveness flow over Your Church and let us see the true power of Your forgiveness in our lives, break the chains which hold us bound tonight Father and set us free into all the freedom of God, let us rejoice as You rejoice over us, let us accept Your will for our lives as You have planned our lives to unfold because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, Hallelujah Father, Hallelujah Father, You are the Victor and we have victory in You)…

We are so forgiven, let us “wait on the Lord” to gain “new strength” (Father establish this in us) – “new strength” to forgive – and let us again “soar on wings like eagles, let us run and not grow weary, let us walk and not grow faint” as the scripture says (Lift us up Lord)…

Glorify Your Name in all the earth…

Magnify Your forgiveness in all the earth…

Be glorified through Your lovingkindness and tender mercies Father and blot out our transgressions, all of them, not just from Your memory – where You have chosen to remember them no more – but from our own and also from our brothers and sisters as they have forgiven us and we have forgiven them…

Let us be a company of forgiven people, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave us…

Let us know the truth of “it is more blessed to give than to receive” and let us freely forgive as if our lives depended on it, for they really do – as the scripture says – there truly is no spiritual life without forgiveness…

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:35 (NIV)

O God…

We are nothing without forgiveness, O God grant us Your forgiveness that we might forgive others and forgive ourselves and all those who sin against us…

Whether they be ones who belong to You or ones who do not, let us forgive them…

This is beyond us Lord but it is not beyond You…

Hear our cry Lord and answer us from heaven…

Give us the desire of our heart, which is to forgive and to experience Your forgiveness…

To experience that closeness with You which comes through being right with You by being right with our fellow man in terms of our forgiveness of their debts against us…

O let us experience what the life of forgiveness will bring us, joy forevermore…

“Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.”

Psalm 25:6 (KJV)

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Matthew 6:12-15 (NASB)

What is humility?

It is realising that “apart from Him we can do nothing”…

What is pride?

Trusting in ourselves…

When we trust in ourselves we are not trusting in the Lord…

The Lord asks us to believe impossible things, things that defy logic, things that we just can’t understand with our natural minds and yet things which He assures us will definitely come to pass…

We know this as we have definitely heard His Voice, our consciences bearing us witness in the Holy Spirit that we have heard this from God and yet we still cannot believe it…

Why is this?

It is because of pride…

We are trusting ourselves…

If it is beyond us or beyond our understanding it can not be done…

It is just not possible…

We limit ourselves to what we can conceive ourselves achieving (perhaps with a little help from God :-))…

We do not believe that God can do anything beyond us and what we can achieve…

Supernatural faith and living in supernatural faith are beyond us because they require a complete death to self in the area of “trying to make things happen”…

The Lord was showing me tonight that He has given me faith – “He has given me everything I need for life and godliness” as the scriptures say – but that my pride gets in the way of that faith being able to shine forth or shine out because faith does not operate out of pride…

Where control is broken within us, pride will also be broken as pride is the root of control…

Pride is the root of all sin, pride in what we can achieve without God…

But in reality we can not achieve anything of value without God…

All our striving is as filthy rags to God as He, God, sees our hearts and knows that our hearts are not for Him…

Our hearts are so far away from Him when we are walking in pride that we are not even focused on Him or His glory at all…

We are focused on ourselves…

We are glorifying ourselves…

And God hates that and will resist that…

He gives grace to the humble…

He does not give grace to the proud…

He does not even look upon the proud to take notice of their attempts to impress Him with their vain efforts…

He is not impressed and He is not fooled…

He is not mocked…

He will only receive the brokenhearted…

He will only receive the contrite of heart…

“A broken and a contrite heart O God, You will not despise” as the scripture says…

We can not produce this heart only He can and He does this through “the furnace of affliction”…

There is no shortcut to brokenness…

There is no shortcut to humility…

We can only get there through pain, pain which God brings into our lives and focuses on us to bring about deliverance from various aspects of pride in our lives…

We do not bring this – this testing – upon ourselves, God brings it upon us when He knows it is the time for it to be brought upon us to release us from the pride which binds us and is inhibiting His faith to flow through us…

Once pride is removed from us His faith will flow through us, His “Yes Lord” will be heard through us and His “Mountain, be thou uprooted and thrown into the sea!” shall be heard through us…

We will do mighty things in faith once His humility is established in us…

We will do mighty things and the earth will be amazed at the presence of God through us as He speaks “and listening to His voice new life the dead receive” as the hymn says…

Praise You Jesus, it really has nothing to do with us and everything to do with You, everything to do with You speaking through us and establishing the humility in us to make us capable of believing Your word when You speak it to us…

“You are faithful and You will do it” as Your word says…

Thank You Father for Your faithfulness…

Revive Us Lord…

My wife wrote a song based on this Psalm, Psalm 85, a few years ago and I’ve been led via Psalm 84 tonight back to this Psalm and have been greatly blessed…

“Will You not Yourself revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?”

Psalm 85:6 (NASB)

The verse which the Lord put on my heart just before I went out for my run was Psalm 84:11…

“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Psalm 84:11 (NASB)

The Lord gives grace and glory…

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly…

Oh Hallelujah Lord!!!

You establish righteousness in us and then You reward us for it with further righteousness…

You give grace and glory…

What is the glory You give?

Psalm 85:9 tells us…

“Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.”

(NASB)

That glory may dwell in our land…

O Praise You Jesus…

I see in the spirit (the spiritual realm) that glory will dwell in the nation of New Zealand, I see it very clearly tonight in the spirit that glory will dwell in the nation of New Zealand and that…

“Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth springs from the earth, And righteousness looks down from heaven.

Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce.

Righteousness will go before Him And will make His footsteps into a way.”

Psalm 85:10-13 (NASB)

as the scripture says…

The land of New Zealand will be filled with the presence of God and righteousness will literally spring up from the land…

The land is saturated with the presence of Almighty God, the intercession has been completed and the land is ready to receive her salvation…

Truth will spring up from the land…

Righteousness will look down from heaven…

Lovingkindness – the Grace of God – and Truth will meet and Righteousness and Peace will kiss each other…

We shall be saved…

We shall be saved…

We shall be saved and give glory unto the Lord Most High…

We shall be saved and receive that which is good…

“Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce.”

Psalm 85:12 (NASB)

You Lord will yield a harvest from the land of New Zealand, He will reap a harvest which will go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature under heaven…

He will not be thwarted…

He will achieve His purpose for the nation of New Zealand and He will not delay…

He will not delay to fulfil every word which He has given to His servants the prophets concerning His nation of New Zealand…

I will not hold back, I will declare what the Lord will do…

He will come and He will not be silent…

He will come with power and with great authority and He will thoroughly reap His harvest in the nation of New Zealand and He will not fail to accomplish anything of His purpose for the nation of New Zealand at this time and in this generation, declares the Lord…

“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Psalm 84:11 (NASB)

O Praise You Jesus that You have heard the cries of Your righteous saints in the nation of New Zealand, the cries of Your righteous saints for many generations and now You will act, You will not delay in making a Praise for Your Name in all the earth…

Starting with the nation of New Zealand and going to all the nations of the world, You will make a Praise for Your Name in all the earth…

Hallelujah!!!

Hallelujah!!!

Praise You Jesus!!!

Praise You Jesus!!!

Praise You Jesus!!!

You will make a Praise for Your Name in all the earth….

Come Holy Spirit and breath upon these slain that they may come to life…

Come Holy Spirit and breath upon these slain that they may come to life…

Come Holy Spirit and breath upon these slain that they may come to life…

Praise You Father…

Praise You Jesus…

Praise You Holy Spirit…

Hallelujah!!!

The Lord has declared and He has said, “Is Mine arm too short that I cannot bring salvation to Myself?  I will bring salvation to Myself”, declares the Lord, “in this nation of New Zealand and I will not delay”, declares the Lord…

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.

So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”

Isaiah 59:1-19 & 60:1-2 (KJV)

O Hallelujah Father, to You be the glory for what You are about to accomplish in the nation of New Zealand…

To God be the glory, great things He has done…

O Praise You Father, O Praise You Father, You have healed our land…

We have cried out to You in the power of Your Holy Spirit, You put the desire within our hearts, we did not do it ourselves…

You have risen up, You deserve all the glory for what You are about to do…

You are Almighty we stand in awe of You and Your great goodness to us in that “while we were still sinners Christ died for us”…

Praise You Father, Praise You Jesus, Praise You Holy Spirit….

These scriptures will be fulfilled in our generation…

You have spoken and You will not change Your mind…

You are resolute in Your purpose to create a Praise for Your Name in all the earth…

And You will achieve what You purpose to perform…

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God the Almighty, the whole earth is filled with His glory”…

The Lord has been teaching me about brokenness…

I see in part and I prophesy in part but I feel to share what He has showed me so far…

I have been experiencing a stripping away of all control in my life…

I have been resistant to this work at the same time as welcoming it (if that makes sense 🙂 )…

I welcome it knowing that it will set me free but at the same time resist it because it has been so much a part of my life to this point in time…

This process has been rather “messy” and is ongoing…

I see the progress that the Lord is achieving and yet feel that I am and going up and down like a “yo-yo” at times in my experience of Him…

He has given me a peace that this “roller coaster ride” is OK with Him as it is the way in which He can continue to remove control from me…

He must expose it and to do this I must see it in full operation in me so that in the position of it being in full operation in me – without me trying to resist it in my flesh (my old self or sinful nature) – but in a position of me – in my new nature (my new self) – being surrendered  to the Lord and to His work in my life, allow the process to unfold and allow the Holy Spirit to rise up within me through the various “troughs” that He takes me through to create “a new way of living” in me, where I naturally live the way I desire to live in my new nature…

Control is so insidious…

We have been filled with control from the time when Adam and Eve partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…

We are so filled with control that we don’t even realise what control is…

This is a real problem in each of our lives whether we belong to the Lord or whether we do not…

We have a desire to control our lives because we believe that we know best how to make our lives “work”…

How to bring our lives into “order”…

And how to “make something of ourselves”…

We are each on the pursuit of “self actualisation” – a very new age concept – although we don’t actually call it that we just think it’s “making life work”…

It’s just what we have to do to “get by”…

What God is calling us to is to a life of dependence on Him…

He is to provide all our needs…

We are to focus on Him…

We are not to focus on ourselves…

We are not to focus on our needs…

We are not to focus on how God will achieve the things which He has said He will achieve through us…

We are not to try and “make” God’s will “happen”…

We are in fact incapable of doing anything which pleases God or will further His Kingdom…

There is no boasting in God…

We are incapable of accomplishing anything of value to God…

We were not created to try and “show God” how “good” we were…

So many things that the Spirit of God says to me I have tried to go out and make happen…

Even when He has specifically said to me, “There is nothing that you or anyone else can do to make this happen.  I will accomplish it in My time and for My glory” (or words to that effect) and even though I’ve submitted to this to the best of my knowledge at the time, I’ve still found a few months later that I’ve actually been subconsciously trying to “make it happen”…

When we try to “make things happen” we put expectations on ourselves and also on others who we feel are involved with the “making it happen” process…

This is sin…

God hates this…

And it can not remain in our lives…

He will remove it…

This is pride and He hates it…

He will remove it and the process which He uses to remove this is brokenness…

He breaks us, He humiliates us, He lets us “fall”, He lets us “stumble” and He lets us be “abased” just like He did with King Nebuchadnezzar and He lets us experience the reality of walking in pride…

For there is no grace when we are walking in pride…

There is no overcoming power when we are walking in pride…

And we “fall” and are “picked off” when we are walking in pride…

“Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)

We are only safe when we are walking in humility…

What is humility?

Humility is realising that we are nothing without God…

“apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5b (NIV)

We are nothing without God…

It is also realising that we are to accept what God brings into our lives, to give it to Him and surrender it to Him…

Not to automatically fight it or disagree with it or complain about it or “rise up” against it but to just raise our hands and give it to the Lord…

To allow the process of it to be worked out in our lives…

We are not to resist evil in the flesh, we can not resist evil in the flesh, it will gain a foothold…

We can only overcome evil with good and “there is no one good but God alone” as the scripture tells us…

Through the Holy Spirit taking us through our “broken” experiences where we “fail” and see that we have been walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit we become aware of the depth of the control which control has had in our lives…

We begin to see just how deeply in bondage to sin we were and why God says “we were dead in tresspasses and sins” in the scripture…

Once we see the depths of our depravity in the flesh we are humbled in that area and walk in brokenness in that area…

Not a false humility of trying to appear broken but a genuine awareness of our brokenness in that area and the power of the Holy Spirit giving us “something better” than our control in that area…

What the Lord has been showing me is that “take no thought for tomorrow” really does mean exactly what it says…

“Take no anxious thought for anything at all” would be a paraphrase that I would use to explain my present understanding of this verse…

We have all been given a measure of faith and I believe that as the Lord establishes faith in one area of our lives that He then releases an increased measure to establish faith in another area of our lives and so on and so forth which is the method He uses to help us to grow…

As He releases faith – just simply trusting Him and what He says to us – then we cease being in control…

So faith is linked to humility…

Brokenness ends with “Yes Lord”…

Not “Yes Lord, I’ll get right on to it”, not “No Lord”, not “Hold on Lord I’m just trying to think up an excuse as to why I can’t say ‘Yes Lord'” ( 🙂 ) but “Yes Lord” (this is only produced in us by the Holy Spirit, we can not produce this response ourselves)…

It is the “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” response where we just agree with God from a quietened heart which doesn’t understand or know how God will do it and we are not experiencing any “pressure” or “drive” or “compulsion” to go out and “make it happen” or any desire to “think it through” to try and “figure it out” or put our “spin on it” in terms of our own “interpretation” of how God will do it…

We are truly broken in a specific area when we just believe what God has said and go “Yes Lord”…

He may at that point give us specific instructions as to what He wants us to do or He may not…

We may wait for a very long time as to what He wants us to do about it (maybe that “waiting” is actually a form of control also through anxiety, I think it is) or He may not actually want us to do anything about it, just agreeing with Him was all He needed…

It is a very weird place – for me anyway – because I am so used to “running ahead of God” or wanting to “take control” of every area of my life in the natural, I mean in my sinful nature…

I feel to post this because we can be discouraged when we “fall”, we can be disappointed, “where did I go wrong?” but the Lord has shown me that when we walk in pride – whether we are aware of it or whether we are not – we will “fall”, but when we are walking in His humility – in the place of brokenness – we will “stand” and this will be a process throughout the rest of our lives…

The only way we realise that control remains in us is through “falling” and the brokenness produced through this experience is priceless in the establishment of His humility in us…

Thus the enemy and the enemies attacks on our lives – which the Lord permits by the way – are actually used by the Lord as a blessing to us…

If he – the enemy – attacks us in an area where we are already walking in brokenness then his attack will have no effect on us, but if he attacks us in an area where we are still walking in pride then it will have an effect on us, we will “fall” but the Holy Spirit will use it to bring brokenness to that area so that “we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” as the scripture says…

“All things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” as the scripture says…

I’ve really felt led to share this this evening and hope that it will be a blessing to someone who is going through this process at present and doesn’t understand what is going on…

All the best, Love in the Lord, Andrew

“There’s a light shining forth.
I can see it on the horizon.
It’s the army of God,
preparing for war.
Coming conquering, victorious,
o’er the army of Satan,
nothing shall stand
before the army of God.”

The Lord has placed this song on my heart tonight and I went on an internet search to find it as I couldn’t remember all the words…

Nothing shall stand before the army of God…

Praise You Jesus…

When You rise up Your enemies are scattered…

When You rise up the nations tremble and quake at Your Presence…

Your glory shall fill the whole earth like the waters cover the sea and Your Church shall be beautiful and radiant in slendour and majesty at Your side as Your army, Your Church marches with You to take the land…

It is time to take the land, we are the Church of the Living God and God is arising within us and He is saying, “I will no longer be silent, I will no longer hold My peace, I will arise and I will no longer be silent, I will arise in My people and do great exploits in them throughout all the earth”…

We are here Lord, Your people and we are waiting for You to arise within us and to lift us up to do Your bidding in this earth…

We are here, we are waiting for You to act, we are aware that we can do nothing without You, You are everything to us, please Lord, for the sake of Your Name, rise up and take this world for Your glory…

Exalt Your great and glorious Name throughout the whole earth and make a Name for Yourself among the Gentiles among those who have been grafted in to Your Vine, Jesus Christ…

Glorify Your Name in all the earth through us Your Church Father and let the glory go to You alone…

Lift us up so that we may lift You up in all the earth…

Do through us things which have not been done before in the history of the earth, let the mighty power of God inhabit His people…

Let the miraculous, supernatural, overcoming power of Almighty God fill His people and cause them to be overcomers of all things, things which have plagued Your Church from its inception, let them be overcome in our generation…

Let the presence of God fill Your Church, Your Temple on this earth, let Your presence fill our hearts with awe and with love and with reverence for Your Name…

O God come, O God save, O God deliver…

O God pour out such a blessing that there will not be room enough for it…

Let the presence the tangible Almighty presence of Almighty God be felt on this earth…

Let the heathen know that there is a God in His Church, let them know that there is a God inhabiting the hearts of men and women and boys and girls in His Church…

Let the Church be all that You have called her to be in this generation and fill up Father God to all the fullness of God every Blood Bought saint who makes up Your Body, Your Church on this earth…

Fill us all up to all the fullness of God and satisfy Your own righteousness in us that You might have a testimony to Your Name on this earth before the “great and terrible day of the Lord”…

Give Yourself a witness throughout this entire world of the unity between Yourself, Your Father and the Holy Spirit within Your Body, the Church of the Living God…

Exalt Yourself Jesus, Exalt Yourself Father O let the Holy Spirit be magnified in His Church, let the Church of the Living God glorify and magnify the work of the Holy Spirit amongst them as they worship the Father and worship Jesus for all that They have done…

Let Your Holy Spirit be honoured and revered and treasured for His work in our midst…

O let the presence of God fall on His Church…

Let the power of God fall on His Church…

Let the Spirit of God fill His Church with His glory…

Let the Glory of God fill His Church…

Let the Church of the Living God experience the full force of the power of the presence of the Living God…

And let them be carried away by the Spirit in the power and strength of the Spirit to where He would have us to be…

Let us be swept up on wings as eagles to soar where the Spirit would have us to soar, to move where the Spirit would have us to move and to go where the Spirit would have us to go…

Let the Holy Spirit be established as the Director of Your Church Lord Jesus…

Let Him be placed in the place in which He belongs in Your Church as the Director of Your Church on earth..

You are seated at the right hand of Your Father in heaven but You have given us the Holy Spirit who is Your Representative on earth and You said, “Greater things than these will you do because I go to the Father”…

Greater things than these are what we Your Church are longing to do in the power of Your Holy Spirit…

We are longing to fulfil our prophetic destiny and to be the demonstration of Your Reality which you boasted of to Your Father before You went to the cross…

“I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

John 17:23 (NASB)

Holy Father, exalt Your Name in all the earth, Magnify Your Name in all the earth…

Do not delay Father, the night is almost gone the day is at hand, Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus…

Not to rescue us from this world but come to demonstrate Your reality to this world, it is not yet time for You to return to reign physically from Jerusalem, although this is much nearer now than when we believed, but to inhabit Your Church and to make Your Church what she is meant to be, a demonstration of Your glory to the world…

Fulfil our destiny Lord, do not delay, fulfil our destiny so that we might glorify You…

In the Name of Jesus our Saviour I pray, our Lord, our Bridegroom and our Very Great Reward… Come Lord Jesus and Glorify Your Name in all the earth, Glorify the Name of the Father in all the earth and let the Name of the Holy Spirit be lifted up in all the earth and held in Reverence by Your Church in all the earth in Jesus Mighty Name I pray, Amen and Amen

Even so come Lord Jesus and fill Your Church with Your Glory…

“Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

“Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’”

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.””

John 6:26-40 (NASB)

“For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy” as the scripture says…

“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Revelation 19:10b (NASB)

Jesus’ words were prophetic and Jesus’ prayers were prophetic, He saw without the limitations of time which we experience…

As I was meditating on Jesus’ prayer in John 17 this past lunchtime at work the Lord showed me a picture of Jesus praying in John 17 and time lost all significance, in one breath Jesus was praying for things which were to come as though they were already and I saw around Jesus time just breaking away like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle with Jesus and His Light shining behind it and literally blowing it away, blowing it to pieces, time could not stand in His presence…

He is the Author of time, He is I AM…

And He holds each of His own in His Hands…

And no one, no one can snatch us out of His Hands…

“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

John 10:29 (NASB)

When Jesus who is “the Everlasting Father” and is “the Mighty God” says, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all” He is invoking the Name of His Father, the Lord God Almighty, who He is One with, who is in Him, as being an even more sure assurance that no one, absolutely no one, can snatch those whom the Father has given to Jesus out of His Hand, which has the Father’s Hand placed over His Hand for double protection…

There could not be a stronger more emphatic statement in all of scripture regarding the security with which the believer is “kept by the power of God” than is revealed in that scripture…

We are so secure…

We are so secure, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus…

We are so secure that we have no worries for this life…

We are so secure that we have no worries for the next life…

We are so secure that we have no worries regarding our past life…

We are so secure, so “accepted in the Beloved” that we are “one spirit with Him”…

“But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

1 Corinthians 6:17 (NASB)

We are so inseparably linked to the Lord that His own Spirit would need to be forcibly removed from Him were we to be able to be separated from His love and from His heart…

His heart is so intertwined with our hearts that He literally could not live if anything happened to us, that is the degree to which He loves us…

His love towards us is perfect and it is holy and righteous and true…

He can not be thwarted in His love towards us, He must bring us to glory to see Him in the glory that He had with the Father before the world began…

He must bring us to glory because it is His desire…

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

John 17:24 (NASB)

Jesus has so much passion for us that He willingly suffered the cross and the wrath of God so that He could bring us into the glory of heaven to see Him in the glory of the Love of the Father, so that we could see the Love which the Father had for Him before the foundation of the world, this Love which the Father had for Jesus was His glory…

And He wants us to see this and nothing will stop Him bringing us there so that we can see His glory…

Praise You Jesus, Praise You Jesus, that You love us so much that You want us to see Your glory, Your glory is the Love with which the Father loved You before the foundation of the world…

I am very moved as I type this tonight, I am very moved in my spirit that You would love me so much that You would ensure that I get to heaven to see that Love which the Father has for You, that Love which was so strong that it saw You through the cross and the agony and the pain and the bearing of my sin and the sin of the whole world with the view to bringing a company of redeemed human beings “home” to see You in Your glory, to see You being Loved by Your Father…

I worship You tonight Lord Jesus, You are High Above All Else, You are Holy, You are Worthy of all my praise, any praise which I can offer You tonight I offer it in the Name of Jesus…

I worship You Father that You are so worthy of Jesus’ devotion, Your love is so strong that it meant more to Him than anything else in the whole world, He loved You so passionately that He laid down everything that You would be glorified through Him and then He asked You to glorify Him with the glory He had with You before the world began…

“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

John 17:4-5 (NASB)

Jesus’ glory was to be seen by His own being loved by His Father, that is why – if for no other reason (and there are other reasons :-)) – we will be in the glory with Jesus to witness the fruition of His desire…

This is the Divine “Meet the Parents”… 🙂

Jesus wants His Bride to see His Father and to see that His Father loves Him…

He wants to introduce His Bride to His Father…

We are His Bride…

All those to whom He has given the gift of faith and the gift of repentance are His Bride, from all peoples, from all ages and to all ages until time shall be no more…

What is the work of God?

To believe on Him whom He has sent…

Anyone who beholds the Son and in beholding Him recognises Him for who He is the Spotless, Holy, Lamb of God who “taketh away the sins of the world”, who recognises Him as God Incarnate, “without Father, without Mother, but made like the Son of God forever”, who understands that He is the full expression of the very Nature of God, He is God and He came as a Man to carry away the sin of the world like the scapegoat in scripture, to “suffer outside the camp” and “bear the sins of many” that we, those who look to Him in the faith which He gives us and repent in the humility He gives us from a repentant heart which He gives us, will be saved forever…

O Hallelujah, the rest which He has brought us into is immence, we can’t get out of it, it engulfs us and carries us to places we never before dreamed possible to experience, places of acceptance, places of love, places of security, places of belonging…

We are so blessed…

We are so loved…

We could not be loved more than we are loved…

We are so secure that we can not be separated from the Love of God in Christ Jesus…

Jesus is protecting us so that the evil one does not touch us…

“We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

1 John 5:18 (NASB)

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

John 3:6 (NASB)

Our new self which was created by the Holy Spirit when He “caused us to be born again” is spirit and is created in all “holiness and righteousness of the truth” as scripture tells us…

It can not sin…

God defines it as us…

We are “one spirit with Him”…

The evil one can not touch our new self, he can not pollute it , he can not taint it, it is untaintable, it is undefilable, it is and will always be perfect and created in the image of it’s Creator, who is God Himself…

We are “so close I believe You’re holding me now” as the song says…

He really is “holding us now”, He really is “bringing many sons to glory” and we are “in the palm of His Hand”…

O Father burn this truth into the hearts of all Your elect throughout the entire world tonight Father, burn this truth into our hearts that we might know the joy of our sins forgiven that we are “safe and secure in the Rock of All Ages” and that Your “banner over us is Love” as the song says…

“We’re safe and secure in the Rock of All Ages and Your Banner over us is Love, We’re safe and secure in the Rock of All Ages and Your banner over us is Love, Your banner over us is Love” as the song says…

Give it to us Lord, give it to us with full understanding just how secure we are in You, just how loved we are in You, just how complete we are in You, just how inextricably linked we are to You, literally a part of Your very heart, we cannot be removed from Your heart…

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.”

Song of Solomon 8:6 (NIV)

“The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (NASB)

You have loved us Lord and we are grateful, open our eyes to see the full depths of Your unfathomable love for us, we are grateful Lord increase our gratitude as You increase our understanding of Your immeasurable love, We worship You, in Jesus Name, Thank You Father, Thank You Holy Spirit, Thank You Jesus, I love You, Amen and Amen

“namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

2 Corinthians 5:19 (NASB)

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

God was in Christ…

The Everlasting Father was in Christ…

“I and the Father are One”, Jesus said…

“that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:21 (NASB)

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”

Romans 11:33 (NASB)

God was in Christ, Jesus is the Mighty God, Jesus is the Everlasting Father, Jesus and the Father are One, the Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father, Jesus “through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God”, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit” scripture says…

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Romans 8:11 (NASB)

The Holy Spirit “raised Christ Jesus from the dead”…

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God the Almighty, the whole earth is filled with His glory” as the scripture says…

“And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.””

Isaiah 6:3 (NASB)

“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.””

Revelation 4:8 (NASB)

Father, Son & Holy Spirit… “Holy, Holy, Holy”… “the Lord God, the Almighty”… the whole earth is filled with His glory…

He is One with Himself, the Godhead is in Perfect Unity, They are One…

And we are in Him…

We have been reconciled to God and we have been given the ministry of reconciliation…

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”

2 Corinthians 5:18 (NIV)

“Here I am to Worship” – Chris Tomlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2nLyfzBfKw

The Grace of God is so pervasive that He will go with us wherever we go…

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,”

Titus 2:11 (KJV)

If we have been Bought with the Blood of Jesus then Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, wherever we may go, whatever we may do, He will be with us and will rescue us, declares the Lord…

The word of God tells us in Psalm 139 that it is impossible to get away from the Holy Spirit of the Living God for those who are His…

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

Psalm 139:7-12 (NIV)

There is no escaping from the Presence of Almighty God…

He is everywhere and He lives in our hearts, He never leaves, He may be silent but He never leaves, He stands by us through thick and through thin and is faithful to His commitment never to leave us or forsake us…

He is the Faithful and Almighty God of our Salvation, He is by nature Loyal and Faithful to all His children, He can not be contrary to what He is, even when it appears that He has forsaken us, He will turn again in great mercy and reveal to us that any distance we felt from Him was necessary to bring us even closer to His heart…

He is the Great I AM and He is Ever-present, our Ever-present Help in Time of Need…   

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Psalm 46:1 (NIV)

The LORD spoke to Moses and said,

“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Exodus 33:14b (NIV)

Hallelujah!!!

Praise You Jesus, You are the God of Rest, You created Rest and You created mankind to enter in to Your Rest…

Adam and Eve were in Your Rest in the Garden of Eden before the fall…

They communed with You and walked with You in the cool of the day…

They knew Your Presence and they knew Your Rest…

Jesus came to give us Rest…

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

Man was created to enter into the Rest of God…

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Galatians 5:1 (NIV)

“It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.

Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;

for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”

Hebrews 4:6-11 (NIV)

God does not want “any to perish but for all to come to repentance”, He is not willing that “the wicked” should die but rather that they “repent and live”…

He takes no “delight in the death of the wicked”…

He is not longing for the day when they die so He can send them to hell, yes, He will send them to hell when they die if they do not repent but it is not His desire that this is their eternal destiny, He yearns in His heart for all men everywhere to “repent and live”…

He is a Great God of Compassion and yearns for the salvation of all mankind, He “deligheth in mercy” is “rich in mercy” and characterises Himself as a God of Mercy…

“And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:5-7 (KJV)

Yes, He is Vengeful and Wrathful and hates sin and will not tolerate unrepented wickedness and yet His heart burns with the desire that all men should be saved…

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:12-16 (NASB)

Man was created for Rest…

Man was not created to strive, man was not created to take control, man was not created to worry, to be anxious, to be fearful, to go out and “grab for himself”, man was not created to “figure it out for himself”, “sort it out for himself”, “think it through for himself”, “come up with a plan to make it work”, or any other form of striving, control or self-effort to “make his life work”…

God had a plan that He would create man and enjoy a “stress-free” relationship with man where man didn’t know or even need to worry about “good and evil” but just “knew God”…

Where man had direct contact with God every moment of every day and could ask Him anything and God’s answer would be believed and trusted and the relationship of quiet rest between man and God maintained…

“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,”

Isaiah 30:15 (NASB)

We were not willing…

This is the problem, there was nothing wrong with God’s “Way of Salvation” – to enjoy a quiet “stress-free” life of dependence on Him – but “we were not willing”…

We have condemned ourselves to hell…

We all now deserve to go there because we rejected our “Rest Giver”, we thought that by striving and stressing and working and overstretching and trying to “get ahead” we could somehow “outdo” God and His “Way of Salvation”…

“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

Isaiah 57:20-21 (KJV)

What the Lord has been showing me with greater and greater clarity is that He has “called us to peace”, the Peace of God which “transcends understanding” – i.e. is better than the “knowledge of good and evil” which we “grabbed for ourselves” so that we could “live independently” from God – is what will “guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus”…

Nothing else will guard us but “the Peace of God”…

We are to “let the Peace of God Rule in our hearts”…

We are to be surrendered to the “Peace of God”…

When the Peace of God reigns in our hearts then we hear from God, then we know that what we are receiving from God is from God…

The Peace of God will not lead us astray, He will lead us into the Presence of God, He will lead us to God Himself, to the very Throne Room of God in Heaven…

He will lead us to the place where the angels cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, The Whole Earth is Filled with His Glory”…

And they cry this continually…

They never stop…

The Throne Room of God is a place of Perfect Peace, the Prince of Peace is seated there, waiting for “His enemies to be made a footstool for His Feet”…

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

It is this “Prince of Peace” – Jesus of Nazareth, “God With Us” – who goes with us and gives us rest…

“He is our Peace who has broken down every wall, He is our Peace, He is our Peace, He is our Peace, Who has broken down every wall, He is our Peace, He is our Peace, Cast all your cares on Him, For He careth for you, He is our Peace, He is our Peace, Cast all your cares on Him, For He careth for you, He is our peace, He is our peace”

as the song says…

Jesus Christ has called each of us, as His children, to peace…

He has called us to enter into His Rest…

He longs for us to “cease from our labours” and believe that He has done everything necessary for our eternal salvation…

In terms of our practical every day lives He is not calling us to strive to “make ends meet”…

He is not calling us to strive to “sort it out”, He is calling us to abandon ourselves to Him in unbridled trust and devotion and believe Him that “He is our Peace” and that He will provide for our every need as we sit at His feet as Mary has demonstrated to us so beautifully and “delight in Him”…

“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

The life of faith is to live believing that God “will provide all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” and to “cease striving and know that I am God” as the scripture says…

“O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

Psalm 34:8 (NASB)

As we lose control, He takes control, as we cease striving, He establishes His Rest, as we forgive, He establishes His forgiveness in our hearts, as we humble ourselves, He establishes His humility in our hearts…

All this is from Him, He does it all, but as He does it, we see the freedom growing and are encouraged to surrender more and more and more to His purposes to gain more and more and more of His Peace…

The Place of Peace is a Place of incredible clarity…

It is a Place of deep knowing…

It is a Place of Abiding…

 There is deep unity in the Place of Peace, deep unity between man and God…

This is the Place that He is calling each of His children to, this is the place which He yearns all of His creation – men, women, boys and girls – could inhabit…

“For this is what the high and lofty One says–he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Isaiah 57:15 (NIV)

If we would inhabit this Place we would inhabit a Place of Peace and Enter into His Rest…

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Matthew 6:24-34 (NIV)