Living the Saved Life

Overwhelmed by trials? Wondering whether you've done enough to really be saved? Got issues with anger?

There is an answer.

These are all big questions that many if not all Christians face at some time or another, but the encouraging thing is that this is nothing new and we find them all addressed in the Bible, especially the letter of James.

Though Martin Luther the Reformer thought it was a letter of straw it actually it turns out to be a letter of steel, and digging into it you discover this is more than some New Testament form of Proverbs but an amazing letter that covers a whole range of issues as James challenges the believers of the day to get off the back foot and onto the front foot in their Christian life and witness.

As such it covers a wide range of material regarding life and relationships, and what it means to be the people of God wherever we live and at whatever time in human history we find ourselves.

This is a radical letter.

It digs.

It gets under the skin.

It calls us up and pushes us forward.

For some time I've been working on and off on a devotional overview of James called Living the Saved Life. It's not designed to be a full in depth study of James, but seeks rather to draw out the message of James and it's challenges to us today. It's now available as an e-book on Amazon.

If you would like to purchase the study you can find it on Amazon UK at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EFD57XI 

For Amazon USA please go to: http://www.amazon.com/Living-the-Saved-Life-ebook

It’s also available internationally, please go to the various Amazon international sites.

If you enjoy it, please would you indicate on Amazon’s site with a like, stars, or even do a review.

Many thanks.

Acts 29

Yes, I know there isn't one and it finishes with chapter 28, but reading through Acts you can't help but notice the abruptness with which it end - you are left high and dry, you want to know what happens next.

And there's the point, it's not supposed to end, the story continues right down to today, and right around the globe!

The Acts of the Holy Spirit through God's people are still being done and told. God is still using ordinary people, filled with his Spirit to accomplish extraordinary things.

People are being saved and added to the church, delivered from the power of the evil one and set free to be who God wants them to be, healed from all kinds of sickness whether physically, emotionally or spiritually. Baptised in water; baptised in the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues, prophesying, seeing God's miraculous provision.

Yes, God is still on the move, moving by his Spirit, fulfilling his purposes, bringing his Kingdom in.

Do you know it?
Are you part of it?
What part are you playing in Acts 29?

Continuing the Ministry of Jesus

Reading the Acts of the Apostles one is gripped by its unfolding drama.

The way Luke starts it off is enough to make you sit up and take notice – “in the first book (Luke’s Gospel) Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit….”

Implication, it’s not finished, I going to tell you some more! And my, does he!

But hang on, where is Jesus? In heaven – hallelujah!

So how can it be about his continuing ministry? Jesus said he would not leave us on our own but send One just like himself, who would be poured out on all flesh, and enable that flesh, those people, to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth and do greater works than he – not just words, as important as they are, but demonstrations.

Yes, Jesus was certainly physically present in heaven, but he had received from the Father the Gift of the Spirit, and he had come to the church in  order to release that ministry on a worldwide scale through the church – a people saved and incorporated into Christ, and known as His Body, of which Paul says, he, Christ, is the Head.

Acts vibrates with such a people and church that knew the presence of God, and where God is things happen! As the story unfolds we encounter the continuing ministry of Jesus in the proclamation of His word and works, his saving, healing and delivering power, his guiding and providing influence.

From the outset Luke for the benefit of Theophilus and those who would hear and read down through the centuries writes an ordered and verified account.

This is not sterile religion.

This is not about being comfortable.

This is not about stained glass windows – however nice they may be.

This is not about orders of service – however useful they may be, and even the charismatic has them.

This is not about holy buildings – the people are now the Temple.

This is not about having everything packaged so that we know what’s happening next.

This is not about programs, though they may be useful.

This is about knowing God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not words on a page about God, but God himself. It’s about the life of God in the soul of man, and in the ‘soul’ of the church without which there can be no continuing ministry of Jesus.

Over the intervening centuries, that life has ebbed and flowed as different generations come and go. There are those who’ve grown up in churches or renewal/restoration movements but not had the same encounter with God their parents or grandparents had, and doctrine and practice is modified to account for it, and very soon structure and order become the norm. Then some desperate souls realise something is missing and get back to seeking and finding God again and encounter him afresh and so the tide comes in.

Where God is there is life, and ministry flows as the heart of God is revealed – it’s not tidy, nor is it static, but it pulsates with life, a life that challenges and changes, trumps and transforms our small lives and ministries.

O God grant us more of it!

Hearing the Prophetic

Last time I wrote about being open to the prophetic and it’s importance. In this blog I want to raise the challenge as to how we can hear the prophetic.

Having grown up in a cessationist church with no expectation of hearing God except through a Scripture and the preached word, then getting saved in a Pentecostal Church and experiencing the baptism in the Spirit, followed by involvement in a charismatic denominational church, then independent charismatic, followed by new church charismatic churches/streams I’ve been on a journey of what it means to hear God.

Two or three years ago while leading a church open to and committed to the things of the Spirit, I found myself provoked as to whether I was really as open to the prophetic voice of God as I thought I was. It wasn’t that anyone said it, in fact it had more to do with someone who struggled with the whole idea of prophecy, and it set me on a journey. A journey that was to have a dramatic twist.

I’ve heard and responded to God over the years, I thought I was doing it, but there are situations and circumstances that can make us blind.

I began to read, study and reflect afresh on what it means to hear God.

Then I went to a conference and while there attended a seminar on the gifts of the Spirit in a worship service – something I’ve always been keenly interested in. Little did I know God was setting up an ambush! Following the teaching we were encouraged to get into groups, preferably with people we didn’t know, then wait on God and see what he might say. When people began to share, a lady shared a simple picture about a father and son walking on a beach, the boy had a balloon in his hand, but he had lost it, and was now upset.

Simple, but loaded!

We had been encouraged to discuss what any word might mean and pray for any who it might apply to. Strangely we focussed on what wasn’t in the picture, then prayed. As I left that room I found myself thinking about what had just taken place and in a  matter of moments, God spoke to me saying I was the boy on the beach, the balloon I had been holding was gone and it wasn’t coming back. Then the thought, what would you do if you were that father, and this was your son? I found myself responding that I would get him another balloon, and with that God I felt God say that’s what I’m going to do for you!

The balloon represented who we were connected with and a change in relationship.

Over the next few weeks as I shared with fellow elders we felt that God was clearly leading us to merge our church with another in another ‘stream’ – in fact it turned out that God had already dropped the idea into the mind of one of the elders. Over the next few weeks we began to explore it with the church. Again we found God had been preparing people. Time and again we found God speaking and confirming. In just over six months we had processed the detail and merged the church, and it has been proven over and over that it was of God – PTL!

Had I not felt challenged as to how willing I was to hear God through the prophetic, we would not be where we are today. If I/we hadn’t, would God be blessing? I think he would. Would it be God’s best? I don’t think so. God had something else in mind and he was working to get us there, and I’m so glad he did.

Over the last few weeks my wife and I have been reading through the Acts of the Apostles and we have been reminded again and again of the dynamic of the early church, and dynamic that needs to be recovered and maintained.

Through the journey I learnt again the need to hear the prophetic voice; to not dictate how God should speak, and to be willing to respond to it.

Was there risk? Yes, but if you want to serve God’s purpose and keep engaging with his will that will always be the case.

How willing are you to hear God? How open to the prophetic? Are you as willing as you think you are?

Open to the Prophetic

As people and churches we need not only an ongoing experience of the Spirit and the ministry of the Word we also need the prophetic – the now voice of the Spirit speaking expressly to us as God’s people.

Several times in Scripture we are exhorted to hear what the Spirit is saying – in Revelation it wasn’t the same message to every church.

When those words were written there was no completed Canon of Scripture so it can’t have been hearing what God has to say through scripture, though certainly there is a place for that.

The early disciples and church were very much led by the prophetic voice of the Spirit. As they worshipped the Spirit spoke and they responded. The result was a constantly developing and flexible movement that would impact the nations.

Today, as much as then, we as God’s people both personally and as churches need to be open to and willing to hear that voice, and when we hear it not quench it but respond in obedient faith.

It is the willingness to hear that voice that will save individuals and churches from religious formalism, stereo typing, inflexibility and stagnation.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is there is abundant life and glorious liberty.

Whoever has ears to hear let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

The Importance of the Word

The last couple of weeks we have looked at the necessity of work of the Spirit. In this post I want to focus on the importance of preaching/teaching which was a vital part of the growth, establishment and expansion of the early church.

Not only did they know God present and active through the Spirit, but they knew him speaking powerfully through the Word and continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.

Those who were called to lead were to be men of the Word and Spirit. In fact at one point when the apostles threatened to be overwhelmed by the increasing needs of the rapidly expanding church they appointed men full of the Spirit and faith to look after the practical needs arising so that they could give themselves to prayer and the Word.

But a question is sometimes posed – if we have the Spirit so dynamically present with us, why do we need the preaching/teaching of the Word?

A Few Good Reasons:

Here are a few good reasons…

1. Because we are living in a fallen world, and therefore our knowledge of God and of ourselves is skewed.

2. The enemy is always out to destroy the true knowledge of God – both for the those who don’t know him and those who do.

3. The enemy is out to prevent our relationship to God first of all by seeking to prevent our being saved through faith in Christ, and two, if he can’t do that, he will seek to undermine the relationship we do have with God.

4. The enemy is out to prevent our maturity – the Word keeps us focussed, reminds us where it’s at and refines us.

5.  The enemy is out to prevent our equipping for the purposes of God – all Scripture is God breathed, and is given not only to challenge and change us, but to equip us to fulfill God’s purpose.

The knowledge of God, growth in walking with him, being transformed and being equipped don’t just happen by being filled with the Spirit, our minds needs to be educated, old thoughts and ideas need to be challenged and changed, all of which the enemy is against, therefore in teaching we are confronting and demolishing strongholds, whether in the unsaved mind or the Christians.

The Big Issue 

What place does it have in your life?

What place does it have in your church?

Are you, me, we taking it seriously – in other words acting on what we hear?

Are you quenching the Spirit?

In the last post we looked at the baptism and fullness of the Spirit, in this one we are asking the question, are you quenching the Spirit?

A quick glance over the New Testament very quickly reveals the dynamic of a God who was present with his people, present in person and present in power. The writers describe his coming and activity in a a variety of ways – wind, fire, falling upon, different languages, prophecy… God wasn’t simply a creed, information in a Book, but One who was present to his people in a very real, personal, and powerful way in their lives, meetings and ministry.

I wonder when you read the story do you see it as something that simply belongs to the birth of the church, a bygone day, never to be repeated? If so you are quenching the Spirit. As Peter said the ‘promise is for you and your children, and to all who are far off, everyone who the Lord calls to himself’  (Acts 2:39). No cessation but a glorious promise for all God’s people through every generation and in every land.

Maybe you think you are not good enough and so ruling yourself out, if so you are quenching the Spirit. Peter said the promise was for all God’s people, and it was never about you being good enough – Jesus is our claim on the promise! Peter said, ‘repent and be baptised …. and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:38). He is a gift, not a reward, and you need Him, now.

On the other hand maybe you have known something of the Spirit, yes you had a real encounter, knew what it was to move in the things of the Spirit, but today you are empty, dry….. Let me assure you God doesn’t want you to stay that way, the enemy does. Perhaps it was sin, if so Jesus has paid the price, seek his forgiveness and cleansing, and come and receive again.

On the other hand it might have been a bad experience in church that has caused hurt and disillusionment, and today you are quenching the Spirit. Whatever your circumstance (and I’ve been there) it’s the enemy who wants you to remain that way and thereby rob you of God’s presence and power in your life today. You will need to go to God and pray it out. You will need to forgive those who’ve offended you – the Holy Spirit who is already with you can help you in that. Invite his presence, seek his help, come and be released and be filled again.

Maybe you think the Spirit is for today, just not things like tongues, prophecy, manifestations…. if so you are quenching the Spirit. The promise was never divided up and apportioned differently to following generations. The Spirit is God present to his people in glorious fullness and as such he loves to distribute gifts that reveal to us the heart and purposes of God.

On the other hand maybe you are a ‘Word’ person, that’s where it’s at. You know the Word through and through, you are sound in doctrine, but you wouldn’t go near the things of the Spirit, if so you are quenching the Spirit.  Now I love the Word, I believe in sound doctrine, but with all respect Jesus didn’t promise a Book, but a Person – Holy Spirit (remember the early church didn’t have access to the Bibles we do for many years). As someone who loves the Word I know that it is something I can hide behind, and it can easily be all about my mind, whereas the Spirit is about a Person, a Presence, a relationship. We are called to be people of the Word and Spirit, to be filled with then both (Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16), and no they are not saying the same thing.

Maybe it’s your personality, you say it’s just not me, I’m quiet, reserved (so was I!) – then you are quenching the Spirit. They are arguments that relate to the flesh, the fallen world, but now we are new creations in Christ and the presence of his Spirit can not only transform our lives but personalities as well. Maybe God has given you a word, but your shyness, your fear, has held you back. Don’t allow it to, life in the Spirit involves stepping out in faith – trust God and step out allowing his Spirit to work through you and bring his word to others and a greater flow in your life.

Maybe you fear allowing him to work in your church, your meetings are not like those in the New Testament, everything is held tight,  everything is predictable, then you are quenching the Spirit. The church is meant to be the temple of the living God, the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, the place of his presence and activity and therefore full of his life, love and power.

The Spirit has been given, have you received him?

The Spirit has been given, will you allow him to work in and through you in his own wonderful ways?

Be encouraged, God is for you, and he wants you to know the fullness of His Spirit, the promise of His presence and power is for you. Don’t quench him any longer but come and be filled, and who knows what God will do in and through your life and church!!