Whose house are we building?

This morning I was reading in 2 Samuel 7 and it is where David’s heart is to build a place for the ark of God to rest in rather than a tent. “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent”. He recognises something that is not right and sets about to put God in his proper place of honour.

A few years ago we were managing a sheep and beef farm and the Lord spoke to us out of the book of Haggai 1, verse 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin.” This scripture changed the complete direction of where we were heading.

We were Christians, we were going to church, fully involved in Church, leading a cell group, on the church council, leading worship, doing Sunday School etc. at the time but then God challenged us with the book of Haggai and we realised that we were in fact building our own house even though we were doing God things as well. Our heart was to make money so that we could have enough to buy our own farm and work it while we were young. And then the Lord showed us, why did we have to own our own farm, we were caretakers of everything he gave us so why did we need to have our own farm, why not be content with managing?

And so step by step the Lord has led us away from farming and into building his house, the church, but first we needed a radical wake up call as to the direction we were heading. After surrendering our plans and purposes to the Lords and his desires for our lives rather than our own, we have had such a journey that we would not have changed. We did not even realise the direction we were heading it was so ingrained in us from childhood that this was what you did. But in allowing God to show us our hearts at the core and be changed by it, we have had such a fulfilled life and the promises of God are way more than we can imagine.

In surrendering not only our desires for faming but also our plans towards our child and the direction of her life, I was blessed & encouraged too this morning in 2 Sam 7 – because David set about to build and honour the Lord and make His name great, God promised to make David’s name great, but not only that he promises that his children will succeed him and that God would establish his kingdom. “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom”. I realise this promise is for David but I too believe that because I am building the house of the Lord and his covenant with me, that our daughter has an inheritance that the Lord will give her, not perhaps as the world sees an inheritance, but a spiritual inheritance that will far outweigh anything of the earth and that encouraged me greatly that the Lord will take care of her and his hand will be upon her.

Sleeping while driving?

How many of you have ever driven a car and you become so sleepy that you either need to pull over and sleep or you will crash or you continue to drive only to find yourself swerving to avoid a car that comes upon you or even worse find yourself in a crash. The other day I had a vision where I was preaching and the whole back row in the gathering of men were asleep while I was preaching. And today I had another vision of driving a car while so sleepy that it was going to cause an accident. This is what is like for many in our spiritual walk in the Lord, we are going around in our lives spiritually asleep and if we continue to do so will have a serious crash at some point not only causing damage to yourself but to other people who you may not even know. Men particularly I challenge you to take a look at your lives to see whether you are hearing from the Lord, whether you are responding truthfully to the Holy Spirit and living as He would ask you to live or whether

6 legged sheep???

In the weekend I saw a vision of a sheep that had six legs. And what I believe the Lord is saying, there are many sheep, (followers of Christ), but they are trusting in their own strength and not in mine. When we trust in our own strength and abilities we forfeit the grace that can be ours, the enabling that comes from stepping out in faith in the impossible, the testimonies that give God the glory rather than the expectation of what should be because we have put our hand to something. God is the God of the impossible and in order for the miracles, the testimonies, we need to be a people that step out in what we can't do and allow God to come in and do the impossible. That may simply be asking the Lord to help you to forgive someone that has hurt you so much, to getting on a plane with no finances because the Lord has asked you to, to continue to stay in a job/church/marriage/relationship you don't want to because that is where God has placed you, to praying for a

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, a daughter

Prophetic pictures: Burnt Flesh, Big Fish, Expansion, Signs and Wonders

A couple of weeks ago I have had several visions which I believe is a prophetic picture of what God is currently doing and what He is about to do. Fi rstly, I saw ahead on the highway a huge explosion with black smoke billowing up and as I came to it I saw people had been burnt and I could smell the smell of burnt flesh. Our God is consuming fire (Heb 12:29). His love is in the fire. Something the Lord has been talking to us about is the fall of the acts of the flesh, the strength of man. This vision I saw was a representation that of the fire of Gods love is coming and going to burn away the things of the flesh, the things that were not of the Lo rd, the things that may have been good in their time but today is a new day. Perhaps the familiar things we are so used to that we don't even know it's there. The way we might speak, the way we might act, the way we might respond that are familiar with us but aren't necessarily of the Kingdom nature we have in Christ.

Do you feel small and insignificant today? Well be encouraged!

Reading Psalm 68 and verses 24-27 struck me ……Verse 27 “There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them…. What struck me this morning in the great assembly of Israel, in the great congregation, the Little tribe of Benjamin led them. It hit me how it was a little tribe that led the great congregation. Straight away I got other pictures that came to mind, that of a small tug boat that leads a huge ship safely into harbour, and of the story of the Lion and Mouse where the lion was caught in ropes but the mouse ate the lions ropes around him, setting him free. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the wise” You may feel you are little, you may feel you are small and what effect could you have, but like that of Gideon with only a small number of warriors, came up again defeated thousands in the Lord. Like David in the eyes of Goliath and yet David overcame Goliath. Like yeast in a loaf of bread and how it infiltrates everything, so too can the little thi

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap

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