THE FORMER AND THE LATER RAIN Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim) during the 8th century B.C.  God commands Hosea to marry Gomer, a harlot, to symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. Hosea is the same Hebrew word as Joshua and Jesus. Hosea was the Old Testament prophet with the message for God’s People to inherit the land of promise, and Joshua succeeded Moses as the deliverer of Israel and took them across the Jordan into the land of promise. And Jesus takes humanity into a spiritual land of promise, not earthly territory but the soil of the heart.God refers to Israel as his bride (Isaiah 62:5, Isaiah 54) and he also calls her unfaithful, as a harlot (Jeremiah 3:1). In Ephesians 5 Paul calls the Church the bride of Christ and he fears for the church going astray by being beguiled from the simplicity that is in Christ. For I have divine jealousy for you. Betrothing you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11)So we have this story of both Israel and the Church as being God’s beloved bride and who go through times of unfaithfulness to God and being made desolate - and finally turning back to God in their time of affliction to be revived and restored. God says to Israel after they have been stubbornly going astray that he is going to leave them to themselves to go their own way and that he will go and return to his place (Heaven) - and that In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. And that is what is happening in the earth and in the church today Hosea 5:15 God says, I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense.Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. And then they will say "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us but he will heal us; he has afflicted us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going from us is established as the morning, and He will come to us like the rain, like the former and latter rain to the earth. There is no mention that Israel was ever revived and restored after two days during the prophecy of Hosea – It was a prophecy of future hope. He prophesied for 30 to 40 years and Israel never repented and at the end of his prophecy Israel were defeated by the Assyrians. So what does this mean that ‘after two days I will revive you’, and in the third day you will live in my presence? It means that we have to see these two days as prophetic periods of time that the Apostle Peter later writes about. Israel failed in their allegiance to the provisions and promises of God and still now the promise of full possession of their Promised Land awaits them. That promise is one of occupying their earthly territory in the Middle East. But the promise to the Church is to spiritually inherit and occupy the fullness of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. Let us look at the interpretation of this prophetic period of time spoken of by Peter. 2Peter 3:8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish (waste their lives), but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away (lyo – moved aside) with a roar, and the heavenly bodies (elemental particles) will be burned up and dissolved (a purifying fire), and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. If one day can be counted as a thousand years then 6 days would be six thousand years. The genealogies of the Bible show that it is now

PRESENCE PRAYER - PRAYER CHANGES US Paul teaches us the lifechanging prayer of the transformation of our mind and heart. Philippians 4:6-7 which says ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ The wonderful promise of this Prayer of Change is that God will guard and protect our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ in everything that is happening in our lives. That is what overcomes the anxiety of a busy mind and a fretful heart that burdens our souls, and that is what allows us to pray the prayer of faith with thanksgiving in any situation.The Greek word for anxious is merimna?? which means to be overly troubled by too many concerns and needs at the one time (or all the time), whether these concerns are our own or for others we care for. This Scripture is a gracious appeal from God’s Spirit to our spirit – and our spirit is made up of our mind and our heart. But to get through to our spirit God has to get past our soul, and it is our souls that get overcrowded with too many soulish thoughts of the mind and feelings of the heart that fight for priority to get attention. In Hebrews 4:12 The Bible speaks about the word (logos) of God’s creative design and purpose and that word (logos) is said to be like a sword that is able to divide between the soul and the spirit. And we need that logos word so that we can understand what is happening in our soul and in our spirit, because the anxiety is in the soul but the prayer of faith is in the spirit.  Our communion of our spirit to God’s indwelling Spirit opens the way for God to speak truth into our minds and renew our minds in our spirit. The truth that comes from the spiritual renewal of our mind informs our heart with a faith that believes and trusts in God and in his good will and purpose for us in our prayer for our needs. What our mind receives is what our heart believes – that is a fridge hanging statement to keep us focussed on what God wants us to know and what he wants us to believe.  That Scripture also gives us an example of that sword word piercing between joints and marrow. The outside of a joint bone is like the soul and the marrow on the inside is like spirit - the real life-giving substance of the bone. Prayer is not just about trying to fix the outside problems that we see about us but about how God reorders us on the inside for us to see his will and for us to receive what he is faithfully putting in place for us. Good marrow means strong bones – but even if a bone gets broken it will heal well if the marrow is good.  Our souls can become overwhelmed by the outer chaos and disorder that we see around us in this world, but our spirit joined to God’s Spirit is strengthened by the truth and order and promise of the good things of God that he has in store for us. That Scripture ends by saying that that sword word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, so it helps us to know what is going on in our disturbed soul so that we can exercise faith in our spirit that can assure us that Jesus is dealing with these needs for us in a way that only he can, and in that way our souls can be at rest and rise above the anxiety. He tells us to bring these things to him with thanksgiving – thanksgiving for what? Thanksgiving that Jesus will intercede with the Father on our behalf according to God’s will for our lives. So that means he is reordering our prayer. God is at work to reorder our lives for the best outcome for our lives – his outcome – not what our stressed or demanding souls would force into action if we could have things our way and not his. That is the peace of being in agreement with God that surpasses all understanding.

PRESENCE PRAYER THE VEIL What is the veil? The veil represents the mindset of separation from God in the soul.Before Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent to disobey God they lived in the presence of God and were not conscious of any separation between themselves and God within their souls. But after they disobeyed God and listened to darkness, their souls were plunged into a mindset of separation from Him.  Their once innocent and blameless souls became self-serving and willful, hiding in the shadows of shame and guilt from God. Devising strategies to cover up and blame others for their disobedience. This became the separated soul life of humanity from that time on. The veil The first time this veil is spoken of in the Bible is when Moses went into the presence of the Lord when he received the commandments on Mt Sinai. The Israelites were afraid to look at him or come near him because being in God’s presence caused his face to shine so brightly that he had to cover it with a veil. Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him… The temple also had a veil of separation which separated people from Gods presence. No one was allowed to go through that temple veil, except for the high priest once a year on the day of atonement - they would actually sturck dead if they did. Atonement was celebrated last Sunday and today the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated sukkot (John 7:37 living water) Hebrews 9:7 into the second chamber (behind the veil) the high priest went alone once a year, with the blood of sacrifice, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet a reality while the first tabernacle was still standing…11. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  Paul called the Old Covenant of the Ten Commandments given through Moses the “ministry of death, carved in letters on stone” and he contrasts this with the New Covenant given through Christ, where the Commandments are written in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus died for us on the cross, he went through the veil of separation for all of humanity, making the way for us to pass through the veil also and to live a life with the mindset of non-separation between us and God.  Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.This was an incredible physical representation orchestrated by God to show us this Old Covenant was over. The veil was physically torn. The whole earth shook. Just imagine that.Interestingly, that was the end of blood sacrifices for sin for Israel. The veil was torn e through his flesh and blood sacrifice on the cross for all of us, for eternity.  The Old Covenant’s glory was torn and replaced by a New Covenant- a glory that is eternal and internal—Christ in us, the hope of glory (Ephesians 3:4). No one in the Old Covenant had an inner life of the Holy Spirit within them.. What is the Veil? The veil is the flesh. What is the flesh? The flesh is our self-made soul where we build an inner self life that is a very poor reflection of how our original spirit self was uniquely created by God to be like him as his child. But the self of the flesh puts the false ‘shadow of us’ on display. This ‘flesh’ becomes the veil of separation until we

PRESENCE PRAYER SOUL AND SPIRIT   The journey of our lives as human beings with a spirit and a soul involves the reordering of the psychikos or soulish self of separation back into alignment with our true spiritual self in Christ through the Spirit of God. We can become transformed from psychikos or soulish to pneumatikos or spiritual. Paul wrote about this to the church in Corinth. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural (psychikos – soulish) person does not accept the things of the Spirit because they are `spiritually (pneumatikos) discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:13) Adam and Eve started that journey by creating a limited human soul.  The first man Adam became (ginomai) a living soul (psychikos) the last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit (pneumatikos). But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural psychikos), and then the spiritual.  (1Corinthians 15:45) God had created Adam’s body from the dust of the earth and then breathed his spirit into that body. Adam now had a created body and a created spirit but then the Bible says a really interesting thing - that ‘man became a living soul’.That word ‘became ‘in the Greek is ginomai, and it means to cause to come into being, to make or create. God did not form a ready-made soul in us, but he created the capacity for us to shape a soul as a personal entity that was to become the expression of who we are in our inner being. That’s becomes the face of us. Our soul expresses the mind and heart of our unique God created spirit through the journey of our life, embodied by a physical body.  Adam and Eve walked in the garden of Eden with God, and they created blameless or innocent souls. Innocence means to not be harmed or hurt – not feeling forsaken. But harm and hurt and forsakenness came into Adam and Eve’s lives through the lie of the serpent. Satan in the form of the serpent deceived them into believing that God had deprived them of the Divine wisdom that they could have if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve then created souls that separated their true blameless selves from God’s presence. Harm and hurt came into their lives and they became harmful and hurtful people and turned their harmless souls into harmful souls by creating protective helper parts in their souls to avoid feeling forsaken again. These soulish parts created a mindset and a heart-set of separation between them and God. This process became the universal human journey of the soul throughout its life. Our souls are the expression of our spiritual self but our souls have created an inferior version of OUR spiritual self because of the psychikos soul’s self-serving needs. It has created parts to it that helped us to get over the problems, to deal with rejection, to advance itself, to be able to establish a reputation, to feel a victim or to be successful. It has become the me-self version of what the God with us self was created to be – God with us – Emmanuel.When we were very young we made immature decisions in our souls to protect us from having to suffer from these early traumas again. Don’t condemn yourself for doing that as you had no option. You were there as a me-self person not knowing that God was there with you. and you didn't say ‘Lord come and help me here’. We tried to work out a way to work through these things - and we created strategies that ended up not having the wisdom to actually work. We created ‘helper parts’ in our souls. We may have gotten our own way but look what those helper parts have done to our relationships, self worth - our lives. This has resulted in our spirits becoming ‘orphaned’. Jesus said he would not leave us as orphans but that he would send us ‘Another Helper’ the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16-18) The individual uniqueness of every person mirrors the fact that we have each been created with a unique spiritual DNA. That

  PRESENCE PRAYER AT HOME WITH GOD  We discussed last week that Jesus said in my Father’s house there are many mansions (mone – at home with God). I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2). There is a unique individual mone for every person ever born – no two people build the same house for God. And remember the mansions were not only prepared for Heaven but for here on earth as we become the dwelling (mone) for God here. Jesus said My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home (mansion – mone) with him. (John 14:23). The more we dwell with the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit – at home with God here on earth the more they unveil who they are to us, whether we are here on earth or in Heaven, because faith and hope and love are eternal and will remain from age to age for people to come to know and love God more and more. How do we travel that journey of living a life at home with God in all the difficulties and problems? Paul tells us that staying connected to God is the key. He said pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16).Praying without ceasing would seem to be an impossible task but what is meant here is that we can maintain a mindset of connection with God at all times so that what we do and how we feel whether positively or negatively is a ‘God with us’ conversation. And the Holy Spirit is praying for us without ceasing! John 16:7  – Jesus said he would be sent into the world to convince everybody that they have missed the mark of being aligned with his purpose for their lives – that’s your next door neighbour as well as people going to church. - He is also wanting us all to know that he has overcome the power of darkness that they have been slaves to in their fears and anxieties.  The process of becoming still is a prayer that Paul teaches us in our sufferings and problems.  Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called (those invited) to live according to His purpose. Those who are the called according to is purpose are those who desire to live according to his purpose and to respond to that invitation. And we know that all things work together for good - in other words but I know  you do it Father the way you always do, and we only find out how great you are when you show us what you’ve done according to your Will - Because we dont see that but we dont know it at the time… this is our walk all the time growing in faith and promise.    to those who love God, to those who are the called (those invited) to live according to His purpose. As we learn to become actively connected and still with God, we can grow in the practice of being at peace, trusting that he is always working behind the scenes on our behalf. Job complained about his affliction and sufferings to God (Job 30:20) and God said he accepted Job’s prayer, but he rebuked Job’s friends. Job had come to know God in his suffering, but his friends only found judgement in their hearts for Job (Job 42:8). I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. For I know that you will bring me to deathand to the house appointed for all living. House- MANSIONS!  and God said he accepted Job, but he rebuked Job’s friends.  But God wasn’t angry with Job because he complained. God was pleased with him for simply having a conversation. Even through the mo

  AT HOME WITH GOD I’ve had a lot of questions over the years of what I think Heaven would be like. I would like to have the answers, especially in the last little while. And I’m content to wait for God to show us in his time. But what I’m going to talk about today is something that has been on my heart for some time and I’ve felt a deeper understanding of what Jesus was teaching us about his hope and faith and love for our lives here on earth that will continue on in Heaven.  We know we will get a new supernatural body at the time of the Final Resurrection when Jesus comes back. But there is still a time in between - being with the Lord in Heaven before that Final Resurrection that I’m going to look at here, and it is clear that we will have a recognisable resurrected body just as Jesus had when he walked the earth for forty days after his resurrection. But other than that, we cannot be specific It has not yet been revealed what we shall be (1 John 3:2). I’m speaking today about being at home with God in our inner being whether we are on earth, or whether we are at home with him in Heaven.Jesus tried to explain to his disciples about how he was leaving them to go and be at home with his Father and he said he was going to prepare a home for them also. He used the word ‘mansion’ to describe that home (mone – abiding with, making a home. God being at home with us and us being at home with God.John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus went on to say If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home (mansion – mone) with him. So I have two questions.How do we build that house so that we can be at home with God and he can be at home with him?And how do we live in that house? We will look first at how Paul tells us how to start to build the house.1Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. The foundation is the work of Jesus Christ, the foundation stone that gave his life for us that we could become partakers of the Divine nature through the work of the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit in us burns off the dead wood of dead works of wood and hay and stubble, such as ego and ambition and superficial superspiritual success. He transforms us into the likeness of Jesus. The likeness of Jesus is the silver and the gold. The silver represents his redeeming mercy and forgiveness, and the gold represents the nature of God. The fire represents the trials of faith spoken of by Peter. 1Peter 1: 7,9 For a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, or a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with unspeak

FAITH AND HOPE AND TINEKE Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance (hypostasis – the abiding basic reality) of things (pragma – work and business of God) hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.  Faith is abiding in the supernatural work of God doing his will for us in the world of the unseen in the things we hope for - and the assurance of his perfect will coming to pass. In that faith we surrender our will for us to his will for us.Faith is completed in observing the event that comes to pass in God’s sovereign will.When we observe the event we give thanks, and we receive more understanding of who God is.But what we pray to happen may not happen in the way we had first hoped it would.Jesus said ‘If there be any other way, take this cup of suffering from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done’Hope is the ongoing trust in the eventuality of God’s perfect will being accomplished in his way and in his time for our prayer. It sits in the middle of our desire and God’s will and his timing. Tineke and I lived in that hope. The Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit when we receive his gift of faith and it bears witness to our spirit for our hope. We had a witness of hope.Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. The bible speaks of the people of faith in Hebrews 11 who died with the testimony of faith without receiving the promise.The completion of faith is the event of a promise. the completion of hope is the eventuality of a promise. The promise is always the perfect will of God for which we give thanks.We just read that the first experience of faith that God offers to us is about his creation of the world through his word. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of GodThe word for ‘understand’ in that verse is noe?? which means to observe and comprehend and be assured of that event. Most people observe and are in awe of the order and beauty of the universe and they attribute that wonder to a theory called evolution, but some receive a revelation by faith and observe and are in awe of the order and beauty of the universe that has been uttered into existence by God’s Word.  I wont be speaking at the funeral of course so I’d like to share some things about Tneke and me now. The way I came to have that faith in God’s creation was a long and winding road. It started when I met Tineke when she was a university student working as an assistant in a pharmacy during the holidays, and the owner of the pharmacy asked me to come and do a locum for him so he could go skiing. It happened that I was also at the same university as her, having gone back to uni to study medicine and so we continued the relationship from that time on, and then I was introduced to her family and I became a semi-permanent fixture at her home. I also decided to forget about doing medicine – another future had walked into my life.Tineke’s mother Martha was a devoted Christian, and Martha was wary of this catholic university student who believed in evolution, which you had to do to pass the exams, and it was inconsequential to me at that time. But I remember the day years later, after I received a revelation of who Jesus was as my saviour and I read that verse about understanding that the worlds were framed by the word of God and it was a total and complete reality to me and I wondered what I had been thinking all my life. Martha and I got to love one another and lo and behold I ended up becoming her pastor at our church, Northern beaches Christian Centre. I was now living by faith – the faith that said that God was always working his will into our lives for our good in the world of the unseen. Then I realised that my faith was nothing but the abiding under the supernatural work of God for everything I could ever h

GOD’S GRACE IN US 1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am When Paul made that statement, he knew that what he had become through God’s grace was God’s doing, and not his doing. He also said it was not him doing the work of God, but it was the grace of Jesus working with him. That grace was God’s activity upon his soul that empowered him to respond to God in love and the surrender of his will and to know that Jesus was working through him every moment of his life. Generally Grace can be seen working in someone’s life when they are doing some good thing that they love to do and they make it look easy even if it is very difficult.In sporting terms if a tennis player saw Roger Federer playing tennis and compared themselves to Federer they would see tennis grace in action and wish they had that grace in their game.Jesus lived a Divine life full of grace and truth within his limited humanity and people saw God at work in him and through him. As a Pharisee Paul thought he was a top-class man of God before the grace of God took over his life.  Philippians 3:4 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.But then he found grace; And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:14) God’s grace for Paul was waiting for him from before he was born.Before Paul found grace, he was part of the disorder and violence of a treacherous world in a dark time in history. Paul had seen himself as a religious man of great competence and great commitment to the cause of his Jewish tradition. He served God through his own ambition and strategies and he took great pride in his own achievements in persecuting Christians. Paul’s religion had not put God’s love or mercy in his heart or a humble and surrendered will towards the Father, or oneness in the Spirit with Jesus. For that he had to find grace in the eyes of the Lord through Jesus After he found grace, he became part of God’s answer of love and light that overcame the darkness of that world. Jesus had overcome the darkness through his death and resurrection, and now he was sending forth messengers of his grace. God is doing the same thing today! There are multitudes of people who are committed to the cause of doing things for God that have a similar zeal and passion for success like Paul did but have yet to find the grace of God for whatever good thing God has planned for them.We might be inclined to think that Paul’s existence was of such significance and importance for what God called him to do, that the activity of God’s grace upon us could not be anything like God’s grace upon Paul. But we would be wrong to think that, as Paul wrote to Titus concerning the grace upon all of us through Jesus. For the grace of God that brings salvation has shone upon all mankind. And while that grace is there waiting to shine, it is also there waiting to be found. The finding of grace came upon people in the Old Testament who saw the saving power of God and gave themselves to be an expression of that.Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God also told Moses that he had found grace in his sight, and that he knew him by name. And in the New Testament we are urged to find his grace in times of need. Come boldly to the throne of grace that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)The finding and receiving of grace for us is through our faith, as we realise that we are not sufficient of ourselves to produce grace by ourselves, but we also realise

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLEWe’re finishing up Module One of our Salvation of the Soul series with this sixth and final session. We’ve explored how, in response to early experiences of forsakenness, a person can create a protective helper part in their soul. These strategies becomes embedded and trapped as immature attempts to protect us from harm, leading to more unnecessary suffering over a person’s life. We’ve learned that our spirit can discover and gently engage with these outdated parts, not as enemies, but as once-useful protectors doing their best. With spiritual authority and compassion, we can invite them to step aside and make room for our true Helper—the Holy Spirit—who reveals to us our God-designed self, united with Jesus and the Father. There is a graphic story of a spiritual struggle in Genesis 32 about Jacob who wrestles with God, where God appears to Jacob in the form of an angel. Jacob’s life had been one continuous struggle, creating many unhelpful helper parts in his soul, using his own wits and skills and devious ways to get what he believed was due to him. His twin brother Esau came out of the womb before him, but Jacob grabbed his heel to get there first and it went on from there because it was in Jacob’s spirit to want the blessing of God upon his life - that was his heart, and we discover later that it was not Esau’s heart. But Jacob had lied and cheated and achieved many successes and some failures by constantly putting his unhelpful helper parts to use.He got to the point in in his life after cheating his brother Esau and pretending to his blind father Isaac that he was his brother, to get the first born blessing and  manipulating his father-in-Law Laban that he knew there had to be change in his life that only God could achieve in him. He was about to meet up with Esau again after many years in a proposed meeting for reconciliation, and he was worried that Esau might even exact revenge upon him. He let his family go on ahead and stayed alone and in the night, he finds himself in a spiritual struggle with God in the form of an angel and wrestles with God. In Jacob's wrestle with God, he became both a loser and a winner in the same encounter, just as we do with God because we can't beat God, but we stay in the struggle because God’s blessing means more to us than any other blessing. And Jacob refused to let God go until God had blessed him. So in his willingness to have attitudes and behaviours overcome in his soul, he showed God that he was sincere in his spirit. And then God mercifully affirmed him in that by saying, ‘you have prevailed with God’. So, he didn't beat God, but God still declared him a spiritual winner. His spirit yielded to God and his soul surrendered its many unhelpful helpers, and he won God’s blessing. They had thought they knew better than God in their grasping for blessings rather than faithfully receiving them from God. That is what our helper parts do – until they get to know and faithfully trust God for his best for us. But we can say to our souls to hold fast to the confession of your hope without wavering for he who has promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23). And God was faithful to Jacob with his promise despite Jacob’s wayward ways. God changed not only his nature, but also changed his name from Jacob to Israel, which means prevailing with God. So our spiritual struggle with God is not against God, it's with God, and he says ‘we can walk together’. Israel also means prince. He received a new identity and a new place of authority in the purpose of God for his life. But he also received a permanent limp where his hip bone was damaged when the angel struck him and that finished the struggle, and this left Jacob with a new moment by moment awareness of his vulnerability. Now this is being a real person, and his unhelpful helper parts were no longer hidden, but they were no longer ruling his life if and when they were triggered. He now knew

SALVATION OF THE SOUL AND THE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM  I’m continuing in the six part overview of the course salvation of the Soul and the Life Giving Spirit – this is number five. It is designed to be presented in interactive small groups and that is happening – It is not just a Bible study. However, I am doing the overview as sermon podcasts so that I can make my Scriptural position of the salvation of the Soul clear for the sake of accountability.We spoke last week about how Adam and Eve had felt forsaken and had misread the nature of God – not thinking or believing that they were loved and not able to trust him for their lives. They created helper parts in their souls – covering up - and the blame game - the woman You gave me – even God was blamed! The human soul was now on its journey of creating countless self-protective and defensive and self-rescue strategies that would become activated in every person to be born in the earth. Those first unhelpful helper parts were created in the Garden of Eden because of a feeling of perceived forsakenness - but they were not forsaken – God does not forsake us. I will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6. Hebrews 13:5). Even Jesus had to briefly go through the feeling of forsakenness in his soul for our sakes on the cross but in his spirit, he knew he was not forsaken. He never departed from God, even while feeling forsaken but instead, he turned to scripture, quoting Psalm 22, demonstrating a path towards hope and victory through faith amidst pain. And every person ever born goes through feelings of forsakenness, whether real or perceived because it may or may not be intentional. Forsakenness sums up the human emotional pain felt in such experiences as feeling abandoned, deprived, overlooked, rejected, mocked, physically mistreated, unjustly judged or criticised, and many other negative experiences. It brings about a deep sense of separation, vulnerability, and lack of connection.  In childhood, we don’t have the wisdom or insight to understand why hurtful things happen or are said to us so we come up with the best self-protective strategies we can to avoid that kind of pain in the future, and those things get locked into our souls as helper parts early on. The problem is, they don’t grow or mature with us. We think life will improve as we get older, but those old strategies stay stuck at the age they were formed. That’s why we’re looking into the healing of the soul because many of us carry this deep sense of spiritual forsakenness from childhood onwards, even if no one meant us harm. Just the perception of it is enough. These coping strategies, though immature, helped us survive. They became part of who we are—how we show up in relationships and how we see ourselves. But often, we don’t realize we’re just replaying old patterns. They feel automatic, like they have a life of their own. So we don’t engage with them as evil, because our spirit created them in a time of naivety, but we need them to stop driving our attitudes and behaviour, and remember, our human spirit knows them. So who can help us see what’s really going on? We’re not all psychologists—but God is and His Spirit knows our spirit, and He understands our wounds. That’s where healing begins. We also spoke last week about David talking to his soul in the Psalms and talking about his inner bodily and spiritual parts and how they affected one another. He said in Psalm 32:3 that when he kept all his anxieties and guilt inside, his bones grew old, and his body dried up and he felt emotional stress.  I have seen it to be the case that when a person’s determined helper part gets into reaction to something difficult, they also sense a bodily reaction that can be automatic and subconscious. It can be in the chest or the stomach or the throat or the head – or appear as exaggerated movements or overwhelming fatigue. That illustrates that just as our spirit knows what we have experienced in our soul, our body a

THE HEALING OF THE SOUL AND ITS HELPER PARTS Why does the soul need to be healed/saved soterion? We have discussed the fall of Adam and Eve and how the serpent convinced them that they could eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge and they would not die. He sowed the suspicion in them that God forbade them to eat of the tree because he did not want them to become like himself and come into his own likeness by knowing good and evil. The lie of the serpent was that God was withholding something from them that would make them become like God. In their naivety they believed that lie and disobeyed God perceiving that they had been forsaken by God, and they immediately felt separated from God and felt guilt and fear and shame.  They had created in their once blameless and innocent souls a mindset of separation and isolation from God. Their souls were filled with fear and guilt and shame for the first time. They acted out from this newfound ‘otherness’ and become defensive and self-protective. They covered the shame of their nakedness, and they felt exposed and vulnerable. Father God called out Adam’s disobedience and covering up - and Adam put the blame on Eve for offering him the fruit of the tree in the first place. When God called out Eve, she blamed the devil for beguiling her. Their separation mindset had ‘orphaned’ their spirit from God. The enormous cosmic consequence of feeling deprived and forsaken by God set in place a mindset of separation from God for all of humanity. Adam and Eve had just created in the soul of humanity two alien parts in their now damaged souls that had never existed before. The first new part was covering up their sin – and the word for sin used by Paul in Romans 5:10 for sin entering the world through Adam is harmartia and that word for sin appears 173 times in the Bible. It means missing the mark. They were the first of the rest of humanity to miss that mark, except for one man Jesus. They had misread the nature of their God – not thinking or believing that they were loved and not able to trust him for their lives. The second new part of their damaged souls was the blame game – the woman You gave me – even God was blamed! The human soul was now on its journey of creating countless self-interested defensive and self-protective strategies that would become activated in every person to be born in the earth. The relationship between the human spirit and the soul became conflicted and disordered concerning what was right and wrong and good and evil - the conscience was damaged. And once the relationship between the human soul and God was damaged the relationships between the souls of people towards one another were also damaged. The once Godly responses of sacrificial love and trust and agreement became a burden and a struggle – it now became ‘what about me?’Jesus was the only human being who did not create one self-protective or defensive or self-promoting part in his soul. Only he could remedy this disaster, so we have just seen the horrible dilemma for the souls of mankind for the rest of time, and we have just seen the magnificent answer for the salvation and healing of the soul of mankind. Jesus would one day become the saviour of the soul - from age to age for all of humanity. I will be calling these self-created soul parts like covering up and the blame game, and other dfence mechanisms ‘helper parts’. Today we will just identify some common helper parts and next time we will look at the process of their formation and identify more specific parts of our soul and see how they become ingrained and lead to us missing the mark of finding God’s will in many issues of our lives. We will find that these helper parts turn out to be what I will call ‘unhelpful’ helper parts. We all start forming these helper parts in our soul at an early age as we acquire and cultivate the separation mindset that darkness has engineered and weaponised in the soul of mankind. These unhelpful helper parts cau

THE SALVATION OF THE BODY AND SOUL AND SPIRIT  In these teachings I am attempting to lay down the Scriptural foundation and the way of putting into practice the course that is now available and which I have called ‘The Salvation of the Soul – and the Lifegiving Spirit’. As you will see on the Youtube and read in the course booklet, the course is based on the Scripture in 1 Peter 1:9 Reaching the goal of our faith the salvation/healing (soterion) of the soul, and another foundational Scripture is 1Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit’.The healing and salvation of the soul involves the interaction of our spirit and soul and body that are designed by God to work in harmony with one another and in alignment with God’s will and purpose for our lives (1Thessalonians 5:23). Ephesians 1:4-5 makes it clear that God’s pathway of our soul being saved takes us on to his predestination purpose for us, which is for our whole being to become the expression of his life-giving Spirit into our world around us.We have observed the difference between salvation in the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament the choice was for Israel to obey the Law and Commandments and be protected from their enemies and materially blessed. In the New Testament the goal of our faith was salvation for the soul and the blessings were spiritual rather than material blessings (Ephesians 1:4). Today I will be discussing the fact that each of these three parts of us, our spirit and our soul and our body goes through a different stage and mode of salvation. My headline summary would go like this; ‘Our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved, and our body will be saved at the return of the Lord’. The Bible calls our physical body a mortal body (Romans 8:11). That means it is limited by earthly constraints and has been appointed to die (Hebrews 9:27). The Bible calls our body the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 6) and as God’s vessels of his life we embody the inner workings of truth and faith into our world in the will of God (Romans 12:1). This is why Paul encourages us to keep our body in check - he says ‘I discipline my body and bring it into subjection’ (1Corinthians 9:27) The reason that the body is so temporary in this earthly life is because unlike our innermost being of soul and spirit it is subjected to all of the forces of this world. Our outer bodies receive information from the outer world through the five bodily senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. This sense information gets expressed in our soul The soul will respond positively or react negatively to our bodily experiences. David in the psalms commented on this interactive process of our body and soul and he gave glory to God that his body was so fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139.14).  Our physical bodies will be changed in an instant (saved) into a resurrected supernatural body ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal (body) must put on immortality ‘(1Corinthians 15:52). Our earthly body exists for one age – a lifetime, whereas our sprit and our soul have an eternal quality that can progress from age to age and from glory to glory. (The word eternity in the Greek is ai??nios– age to age. In fact the word eternity was only first used in the English Bible by Tyndale in 1526 who translated aenios – age to age  into eternity . And he also translated the Old Testament Hebrew word olam as eternity instead of  ‘horizon to horizon’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) So our body will be a new body one day. it would be interesting to know what we might look like. ‘Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall

THE SALVATION OF THE SOUL GODS IMAGE AND LIKENESS I am continuing today in the discussion of the salvation and healing of the soul. We have seen that God has created us to function as a spirit and a soul and a body – three parts that are to work in harmony together within each person, and in harmony with the will of God, so that we can fulfill the design and purpose for our lives. We saw that these three different parts of us interact with each another in a predictable and logical way. The spirit is the life force of us as a human being, the individual and unique essence of who we are – no two human beings are created spiritually identical – not even identical twins. And each person’s unique spirit reflects a shadow of God’s nature - made in the image of God - So God created man in his own image, in the image(selem) of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). Our human spirit was created with two parts - the mind and the heart. The mind seeks understanding — what’s true or false, right or wrong — and through that process, we form a conscience. The heart, meanwhile, is where our desires, emotions, and beliefs live. What the mind accepts as truth, the heart embraces as faith. But here’s the dilemma - with so many different minds in the world, there are countless versions of what people believe to be true. And with those truths come just as many belief systems that people place their faith in. So, in practice, truth and faith have become relative values, shaped by the culture, religion, or philosophy that a person grows up in. (36,000 Christian denominations). When it comes to our inner spiritual life, the mindset and heart beliefs of our spirit are expressed in our soul, which becomes the expression of who we are and how we are seen in the world. I'm just going to stop there because I just said something that I'd like to clarify. I said 36,000 denominations, and which one has the truth and how do we come to the unity of the faith? I'll tell you what it won't be – It won’t be by having exactly the same doctrine on every single verse in the Scripture - it won't be that, but you know what it will be?  It will fulfill Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13 that says ‘until we all come in the unity of the faith’ and there will be the one ‘yes ‘concerning the expression of Jesus as the one who is living through us and we will have a different flavour according to our gifts and our persuasions of certain things - that don’t have to cause arguments! It is more like saying  ‘that's an interesting perspective’ - but what will be unified is the life of Jesus being seen in his people in the unity of the Spirit because the Spirit is expressed through the soul as who we are. And we come into the unity of that expression as being the life of Jesus flowing like a river through us.  So therefore, the soul reflects the conscience and the belief systems and the soul must take responsibility for those choices. I know that in the denomination I grew up in I had a conscience about not being allowed to eat meat on Friday, and my friends said I was stupid to have that belief - but I did that as unto the Lord because I thought that's what God wanted. And there are many things like that that people do to honour God, and the Bible says in Romans 14 ‘let each man be fully persuaded in his own mind’.  People do things to honour God and perhaps some only eat vegetables while others will eat meat - and others will see one day as being the only day of the Sabbath while others will see all days alike - let each one be persuaded in their own mind, says Paul (Romans 141-6). And it says, ‘but don't put somebody in jeopardy to their faith by demanding that they believe exactly as you’. You can do a thing but if they don't have faith for that it is nonetheless the Lord who sees where their heart is. And Paul said to the people who are able to eat meat offered to idols ‘there's no such thing as an idol’ but he also said but don't flaunt

 THE SALVATION AND HEALING OF THE SOUL  Just as God is a Trinity – as Father and Son and Holy Spirit so we as human beings have three parts – a spirit, a soul and a body, and these three parts of us interact together. The Bible says that God desires for our whole spirit and soul and body be presented blameless at the coming of the Lord. (1Thessalonians 5:23). Through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives these three parts of us were designed to work in harmony with one another to achieve what the Apostle Peter calls the goal of our faith – the salvation/healing (soterion) of the soul (psyche) (1Peter 1:9) The word soul as it is used in modern day language seems to have vague and different meanings for many people. Scientists say that it has no real existence that can be scientifically measured as an entity, and many people simply see the soul as our inner emotional and feeling life – That’s why we have the term ‘soul music’. Plato the Greek philosopher believed that the soul was motivational and appetitive and expressed different inner desires. But thousands of years before Plato the Bible was very clear about the soul as being the expression of our spiritual life. The word soul Is used three hundred and fifty times in the Old Testament including many mentions by David in the Psalms, which help us to understand the spiritual meaning of the soul. And the soul is mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament. Our soul is actually the manifestation of who we really are as the expression of our inner self at any one time in our life. So what is Peter saying when he says that the goal of our faith is the salvation of our soul? And to answer that question we have to go back and look at how our soul came into being. The startling reality is that God didn’t create our human soul as a fully working independent part of our being, as he did when he created our human spirit and our human body.We find that Genesis 2.7 says the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man ‘became’ a living soul (nephesh). That word ‘became’ a living soul intrigued me. It implied a process of something coming into being rather than a conclusive creative act of God. But I could find nothing in the Hebrew word ‘became’ to suggest what the process was. It was only when I discovered the Scripture of Paul in 1Corinthians15:45 that I understood how we become the living soul that we become. The Scripture says The first man Adam became (ginomai) a living soul and the Last Adam (Jesus) became a Life Giving Spirit. That word ginomai means to generate, to bring into being, to cause to be. And this has even more startling implications.  That means that we are forming or creating our own self – the self that people see, the self that we think we are and whom others think we are. And that means that we are accountable for who we become - in what we think and what we believe and how we behave. And it is our soul that gets judged on the last day- what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to suffer the loss of his soul’ Mark 8.36. That is why the goal of our faith is the salvation/healing of our soul. That is why the Bible in the New Testament says that we are ‘being saved’ (2Corinthians 2:15) It is a process of transformation and sanctification. Sanctification means more than just a status of personal piety – it means being set apart for a life of purpose and meaning according to the design and will of God. So how does this process of ‘becoming’ operate? We saw in the opening Scripture that our whole spirit and soul and body are to function in harmony together in the will of God for our lives. God created the first man Adam from the dust (adama) of the earth and then he breathed the spirit of human life into him. These two created parts of humanity receive information that gets expressed in our souls. Our body with its five outer senses and other functional parts send material inf

THE REVERSAL OF THE WORLD AT PENTECOST Acts 1:8 you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.Jesus is making a prophecy here about the cosmic reversal of human history, culture, morality and spirituality. He is saying that from this time forth a new era of spiritual activity would begin in the earth whereby every human being who believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the risen Christ could live as a New species of being – a new Creation. They would become conscious of the Spirit of the life of Jesus being joined to their natural human spirit – a reversal of natural human existence to Divine spiritual existence.  He was also reversing the witness of himself as God in the earth. Israel was once that witness. Israel had been the living proof on earth that there was a God in the heavens – God doing miracles of provision for them and giving them the Promised land of Canaan. And for Israel to be that living proof they had to obey his commandments and perform his sacred sacrificial offerings.But now there was a new witness - a new living proof on the earth that there was a living God in the Heavens. This was to be the lives of sacred power in those who believed in the resurrected Christ that displayed and glorified the nature of a loving forgiving God in the Heavens.Jesus was also prophesying the reversal of spiritual power in the Heavens that would give believers in Jesus the fulness of spiritual power over the principalities and powers and demonic forces in the nations of the earth and in their own personal lives. Pentecost was also a direct reversal of the Tower of Babel. Spiritual corruption had occurred at Babel where the earth was divided into seventy nations (named in Genesis 10), because of their rebellion to God. The language of their one native tongue was divided into various unintelligible languages so that they could not communicate and understand each other. The miraculous ability of the disciples at Pentecost to speak in different tongues (languages) allowed Jews from every nation to hear the gospel in their own tongue, overcoming the chaotic dividing of languages that occurred at Babel. Even the word ‘divided’ in the phrase regarding the "divided tongues of fire" over the heads of the disciples is the same word diamaridzo that describes the division of nations in Deuteronomy 32:8. At Pentecost a new language of the Holy Spirit united humanity unto Christ through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – We will now read the account of the Day of Pentecost from the Book of Acts.  Acts 2:2-12 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.The Crowd’s ResponseAnd there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”But Peter, standing up

  BONDED TO GOD’S JOY We have discussed being bonded to God’s love in our mind and in our heart, and last week I shared about being bonded to his peace in times of adversity. God also bonds us to his joy - not just the joy of having everything going right but getting his joy of overcoming things going wrong. We get God’s own joy that he feels when he sees fear and dread and darkness being overcome in our lives. This is God’s shout of triumph that resonates in our spirit and our soul as we triumph over these things by his grace. This is the point where there is an inner turnaround and new joyful motivation is found to continue conquering and to conquer and reinforcing our motivation to take on new challenges. Knowing God’s love draws us to him, knowing his peace settles us in agreement with him, but knowing God’s joy takes us beyond being drawn to his love and settled in his peace. Knowing God’s joy makes us move forward confidently in his strength as part of his victory over evil in the world. We were not created to cope with these pressures in our own strength, so the only complete answer is the spiritual joy of God. As David said the joy of the Lord is my strength. Zechariah prophesies of the last days in chapter nine about God blowing the trumpet for battle and being seen over his people. In chapter ten Zecharia says And he will make them as His majestic horse in the battle. (Zechariah 10:3).A powerful picture of this majestic battle horse is seen in the book of Job Chapter 39:19. Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength;He gallops into the clash of arms. He mocks at fear and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin. He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded. At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ and he smells the battle from afar, hearing the thunder of captains and shouting. We see the same picture of the joy and enthusiasm of the end time Church as Jesus begins riding on a white horse, conquering and to conquer in the book of Revelation Chapter 6.The background to that is that after the Messenger who speaks to John in Revelation Chapter 3 has given John the letters to the seven churches in that region, he makes this prophetic statement in the next chapter.Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.That means that everything that is spoken to John from that point on (90 AD) is prophetic for the future of the world in the purposes of God. In Chapter 5 these future events are revealed as the seven seals that only Jesus is worthy to open and as each seal is opened it continues to come to its fullest expression of worldwide, not just local, end time events until Jesus returns and the New Heavens and new earth come into being. The first four seals are referred to as ‘The four horsemen of the apocalypse’. And these four horsemen speak of present and future worldwide eventsThat first horseman is on a white horse, which speaks of the worldwide Reformation in 1517 of the Church being reformed from dead works into faith and from doing penance into finding repentance at the time of the reformation. Reading on in Revelation…Revelations 6:2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.This is seen as a symbol of God’s joyful and enthusiastic strength in the battle of his people over the forces of evil. We see Jeus here wearing the crown of authority as head over his Church and with a bow in his hand. Judah, you are my bow! Ephraim,

  BONDED TO GODS PEACE  We spoke last week about being bonded to God’s love and we concluded that knowing we are loved by God and believing we are loved by God is the most deep and profound spiritual thing we can do. It was the starting point of what to know as the ultimate truth of who God is and his goodness toward us and the power of God is seen in his ongoing creative acts of love for us - and when we believe in God’s love we receive God’s peace and God’s joy. Today we are discussing God’s peace and the same principle is involved as with being bonded to his love, which is that what we know as truth with our mind we will believe with faith in our heart.  Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you (focussed on you) because he trusts in you  Let us look at what peace means. In the original Greek the word is Eirene from the word eiro which literally means to be joined as one, and in spiritual terms that means being of one spirit with another person. This is what God wants with us, one spirit with him and one spirit with one another, and that means being of the one mind of truth and the one heart of faith as another person. Jesus said ‘My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:7).There is God’s peace and the worlds’ peace – and they are two very different things. Worldly peace is not really peace. The quest for worldly peace becomes the quest for worldly power. It comes from confidence in our own power base of influence or wealth without feeling threatened about losing it – and that can be a very unstable reality. A nation can feel peace if they have enough of a financial trading and military power base to overcome another nation in a war, but that is also a very unstable reality, depending on what military alliances they form and how much they trust in them.  God himself has perfect peace and certainly has no fear or anxiety about being threatened by any other power. The Bible says that his spiritual peace and oneness is demonstrated in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by the perfect spiritual agreement they enjoy with one another in all things. (1John 5:6-7). Jesus wants us to have that peace of spiritual agreement with God.Jesus does not give us the worldly peace of worldly power, but he gives us his peace, the spiritual power of his love and provision for our lives - and he tells us that his peace overcomes the fear and anxiety in our lives. That means that we come to agreement with God concerning his overall love and goodness to us even in the times when difficult times come upon us, we will receive his peace. Can we agree that God still loves us and is at work for our overall good to us when difficulties happen? If we say to God that we can no longer agree that he is good or that loves us because of the difficulty we are going through, we may forfeit the peace he wants us to receive from him. I think we all get tempted to think this at those times – why have you forsaken me? But God has said I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5) We live with the constant challenge of discerning the difference between the peace of the world and the peace of God. If we are anxious about financial lack and difficulty, we learn to not look for the temporary peace of the world that comes through street-smart strategies. We pray to God for our needs to be met and we agree that God still loves us and is at work for our overall good to us when in difficult times. But money does not start falling from Heaven - God gives us wisdom concerning employment opportunities or diligence regarding investment or superannuation or plans for applying for a pension or whatever else is in his order for our lives. God doesn’t solve the worldly problems we get fixated on – He meets needs. There is no word for problem in the Bible but the word need (chrea- lack) is found 52 times in the New Testament.

  BONDED TO GODS LOVE As we read the many stories from the gospels, we find that there is one gospel writer, the apostle John, who stands out as the one who was bonded to the love of Jesus from the very beginning. His writings emphasize the love of God more than any other Biblical writings. John wrote the last five books of the Bible, which included his gospel and then his three epistles and then the Book of Revelation. In his own gospel he even refers to himself as ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’. He was not being proud in saying this - it was simply a revelation of the love of God through Jesus for all of humanity, and so he qualified for that. And in John’s gospel in the story of the last supper when Jesus said that one of them would betray him all the disciples looked at Jesus and said one after another ’Is it I Lord?’ But John was not feeling self-conscious or guilty as perhaps the others did and so he simply said ‘Who is it Lord?’ I’m reading today from the first epistle of John which is totally about the love of God that bonds us to God and to one another. 1John 3:1. Think about how wonderful is the love that has been lavished upon us by the Father, calling us his very own sons and daughters. But realize that the world does not understand us for who we really are, because it does not understand Jesus for who he really is.2. So, we are now true sons and daughters of God my beloved, and it is not quite clear to us as to what we shall ultimately be like. All we can know is that when he returns we will be like he is, because we will see him for who he really is.3. And all those who keep this hope and expectation alive will purify the state of their hearts and minds, just as Jesus did.7. My dear children don't be deceived by anybody about this; whoever is living a life that shows that they are in harmony with Jesus, is living in the same harmony with the Father as Jesus is.9. Whoever knows that they are part of God’s very life, as his child, will not oppose God outright, because he is born of the same seed, and the essence of God’s life is his life. So he cannot live in hostile contradiction to him because he is part of him.10. This is how you are going to be able see the difference between those who really are bonded to God as their Father, and those who are still bonded to darkness, in the same way. Whoever doesn’t live a truthful and upright life or doesn’t show love and care and kindness towards others is not bonded with God.11. And God has been saying to us from the beginning that we must love one another. John knew how to avoid being bonded to darkness by not letting his mind and heart live in past regrets, or fear of the future, or hopelessness, or resentment, or hostility to others. John knew how to remain bonded to God in his lovingkindness, his expectation of God’s goodness and the power of his might, living in peace and joy and the love of others.I believe that John would have begun each day by thinking about the love that God had for him, and that his last thoughts at night would have been about the love that God had for him. He knew this was the essence of God’s nature and so he wrote ‘We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them’. And He would have known and understood completely that God had always been the same – unchanging in his love. What does God want back from us?He wants the circle of his love to come from us back round to him. Doesn’t he want obedience? Yes – but that same apostle John who wrote about God’s love for us said that if we love God, we will keep his commandments – and that doesn’t just mean the Ten Commandments, it means that when we know what he wants us to do we will do it. He said that both in his gospel and in his epistles. Loving God is our will power – rejecting God’s love is our won’t power, so completing the circle of God’s love back to him comes first and everything else co

A CHILDS FAITH ENTERS THE KINGDOM  I’ve been talking lately about principalities and powers of darkness and the angelic rebellions in the heavens that Jesus overcame for us on the cross. But aligned with that there is the wonderful ministry of the angels who obediently serve God the Father by serving us as his children. God delights to see his children protected and cared for at as early an age as possible. The Bible says that God has assigned angels to help them on this journey of\ the inner life of their souls, as Jesus said to his disciples,Matthew 18:10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.I don’t yet fully understand how that works but I think a lot happens that we don’t realise is happening. Our heavenly Father never ceases to see us as his children, but we may cease to honour and know him as our Father. Growing older is not always growing wiser and the reality of having to become mature and independent is a hugely significant responsibility. Fortunately, God allows us to go through our foolishness and our failures and to relearn and to get back on track, and Jesus had to admonish his disciples on one occasion about having to do some of this relearning. It occurred at the same time that he told his disciples to never despise the little children whom they regarded as a nuisance. The little children were playfully enjoying being around Jesus, but the disciples said that they were getting in the way of them getting the most out the serious things Jesus was teaching them. He then taught them the most important and serious thing that they needed to know and relearn – that they had to become like little children. At that time some parents in the crowd had brought their children to Jesus for him to bless themMatthew 19:13 Then little children were brought to Him that He might lay His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for their simplicity and joy and trust express the kingdom of heaven.” And He laid His hands on them...Luke adds deeper meaning to this story and quotes Jesus saying ‘Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter into it.” (Luke 18:15).  I want to speak today about a child’s faith that was immortalised in Scripture – the child’s name was Isaac. God had told Abraham and his wife Sarah, who was well past childbearing age that they were going to have a child, and that through that child Abraham would bring blessing upon all the families in the earth (Genesis 18:10). That finally came to pass miraculously, and they were greatly blessed. But then God told Abraham to sacrifice this promised child Isaac on an altar at a place called Mount Moriah. The Bible says that Abraham obeyed God and that his faith was accounted to him as righteous. That means that his faith put the desires of his heart in alignment with the desire of God’s heart. We are encouraged to learn from the faith of Abraham, who walked up the hill with his son Isaac to offer him to the lord as a blood sacrifice. But something needs to be said about the extraordinary faith and obedience that was shown by the child Isaac who walked up the hill to be sacrificed. As they walked up the hill in the story in Genesis Isaac says to his father ‘look there is the wood and here is the fire but where is the lamb for sacrifice. And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.Isaac with a ‘Yes Dad’ in his heart prepared to become that sacrifice on the altar un

THE SEVENTY NATIONS AND GLOBAL SPIRITUAL WARFARE We are continuing the account of the second phase of the ministry of Jesus, after he said that he was setting his face toward Jerusalem. (Luke 9). Jesus was heading toward the final victory over human sin and corruption by his death on the cross, so he sent seventy disciples to go before him and bring a foretaste of the blessing of the Kingdom of God in his name. Luke 10:1 towns and villages he planned to visit later. The Lord now chose seventy other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the The number seventy is significant in this story of the ministry of Jesus. Firsly, it represents the principle of delegation of governmental authority, as also seen in the command to Moses to delegate authority to seventy elders to help him in counselling the people of Israel in the wilderness. And the Jewish Sanhedrin was the delegated authority of the ruling council in New Testament times, consisting of 70 elders, following the precedent set in the Old Testament. In this story of the seventy disciples Jesus was not only heading towards Jerusalem to overcome human sin and corruption on the cross but was also heading toward overcoming all the rebellious principalities and powers of darkness that had corrupted the world throughout the ages.  There were three major acts of spiritual rebellion to be overturned by Jesus when he came to establish his Kingdom.The first act of spiritual rebellion was by Satan, the angelic prince power who appeared as the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God.The second  spiritual rebellion was by angelic powers just before the flood of Noah in Genesis Chapter 6. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day Jude 1:6)The third spiritual rebellion was at the tower of Babel, soon after the flood, where the entire world was divided by God into seventy nations. The people had built a tower that they said would exalt them to Heaven. God divided their languages and sent them out into all the world. Read Genesis Chapter 10 where these seventy nations are named. They all came under the influence of spiritual principalities and powers of idolatry. Many of those nations throughout history had rulers who saw themselves as gods, such as Egypt, and Rome (Caesar is Lord). Canaan and Tarshish (Spain) are mentioned. And in Daniel the prince power of Persia and the prince power of Greece, and Babylon.  Soon after the tower of Babel God called Abram out of one of those nations, from a place called Ur of the Chaldees (the nation of Babylon), to establish the Holy Nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was ruled by the one true God, and Israel went into battle against many of those scattered nations who opposed their entry into the promised land. Israel finally took the physical territory of the land, but they did not necessarily overcome the idolatry and spiritual darkness that remained in those regions. But Jesus was to come out of and through Israel, and overcome all principalities and powers in the heavens and on the earth. Jesus was giving these seventy disciples the authority to speak in his name and to confront the territorial powers of darkness that had held power over those Gentile and Jewish places for many generations since the tower of Babel.Reading on in the story… These were his instructions to them: Luke 10:2 “Plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers to help you, for the harvest is so plentiful and the workers so few. Go now, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t take any money with you, or a beggar’s bag, or even an extra pair of shoes. And don’t waste time along the way. This was a disciplined strategic mission.“Whenever you enter a home, give it your blessing. If it is worthy of the blessing, the blessing will stand; if not, the blessing will return to you.“When you en