Psalm 67:1-2 “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.” Selah” WHY? –that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among the nations.”

We have become a very private people when it comes to our faith, not wanting to openly declare to all our love for our God and His blessing on our life. WHY? - because we have allowed the enemy to intimidate us into taking our faith underground. We don’t want to be ranked among those who are considered a little peculiar by the general public even though we are just that! Friends, this is just WRONG, WRONG, WRONG we have been intimidated by our enemy into an unfruitful condition. We need to come back out of the closet and start going public again. We need to start letting our light shine before others in a dark world, we need to start becoming that city on a hill where others can run for safety and help.

WHY? In Verse 6 is says; “because then the land will yield its harvest”. Here’s the deal: you want to SEE a Move of God – start BECOMING a Move of GOD!! Come out of the closet whereever you are, start wearing your faith on your sleeve for all to see, let the world know whom you belong to and whom you serve. Then just watch in wonder at what our God can do!!

My Prayer: Heavenly Father it is time to come out of the closet, the era of under cover Christians is over. Give us the courage to go public and begin to let our light shine before all people. Let us proudly display to all, the evidence of your blessing on our life, and as we do, let salvation break out among all people of the nations about us. In Jesus name we pray-Amen!!

Isaiah 6:8 - “Here I am Send Me”

Isaiah reminds me of all of humanity outside of a relationship with Christ. God starts to draw them close through circumstances and they automatically withdraw because of a sense of guilt, shame or fear. Unfortunately for many this is where the journey ends, they simply refuse to entertain God’s involvement in their life. They just feel so unworthy that walking away is an easier option rather than dealing with the real issue of separation from their Creator. Isaiah however, never ran, he just stayed put and then he had a wonderful encounter where God’s spirit touched him and changed him forever! It was after this encounter that he then boldly said “Here I am send me”!

If only people would just respond to the drawing of God’s spirit rather than running away, the transformation they so deeply desire is really only moments away if they would stop running and engage. Do you know what is even more sad than this? It’s the many thousands of Christ followers today who once encountered and walked with Christ in a powerful way –but now they have let their relationship with Him slip so far that their hearts are no longer responsive to God’s spirit moving them. No matter what God asks them to do it is always too much trouble. They have lost their first love. The first love that declares powerfully to their God and Saviour “Here I am send me!”

Oh how we need a fresh outpouring of God’s spirit in our individual lives, a fresh outpouring of holy fire that keeps us so fired up that we are ready and available whenever our Master calls! I wonder how our level of passion and love for God is today? Am I still deeply in love with my Saviour?

My Prayer: Lord help me to cease running in my heart. Help me to hold my ground until I encounter you afresh in power. Renew my passion, light a fire within so that the response from my heart to my lips is ‘Here I am Lord send me.’

Ecclesiastes 7: 29 “компютри втора употребаThis only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have in search of many schemes.”

I just wonder if this was Adam & Eve’s downfall. Did they fall for the very first get rich scheme on offer? Were they promised to be able to go way beyond what they currently had at lightning speed? Were they enticed into thinking they could better their station in life without having to be accountable or even put in the hard work that is normally involved to make such progress?

What were they promised?

They were promised that they could become like God. A proposition that if they had taken a little time to think it through, they would have realized that the offer was just to good to be true. But they didn’t, and in their pursuit of fast tracking advancement they lost it all! Not just for themselves, also for generations to come!

I must be on the alert for all such schemes for this is the ploy of the enemy. He wants you to think that you can somehow fast track life. He wants you to believe that you can fast track the gaining of wealth, you can fast track success, you can fast track relational development, you can fast track spiritual development. He promises you the chance to somewhat better your station in life with the need of paying the price of effort, energy, accountability and discipline across the sands of time. I must remember there is not such thing as a free lunch when it comes to the process of human development and advancement!

My Prayer: Oh God help me to keep a clear head to discern when the devil is making me an offer that is just too good to be true. Let me always remember that your principle for growth is line upon line, precept upon precept. It is always the journey of us walking together across the sands of time that builds lasting success.

Ps 119: 97 -102 “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding that the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your Word. I have not departed from Your laws, for You Yourself have taught me.”

This is a wonderful portion of scripture to help us see just how powerful the Word of God is when it is applied to an individual’s life. All we have to do is meditate on it and allow it to take root in our lives.

Let’s look at it;
1.

It makes us wiser than our enemies

- now that is helpful, considering we are in a spiritual battle. It means we have the potential to always be one step ahead of the evil ones plans and schemes.

2.

It gives us more insight than all our teachers

- simply by studying the Word of God you can gain insight that comes from way beyond this world. In fact, some people don’t engage in life because they don’t feel like they achieved enough in school from an academic standpoint. Don’t let that hold you back - you get the Word of God into you and you will astound others by your insights on living.

3.

It gives us more understanding than the elders if we obey what it says

- this is a bit sad, but obviously the elders were not doing what the Word of God was saying so they all together lacked understanding. That need never happen to you and I.

All we have to do is keep ourselves from any evil path that would lead us away from God. All we have to do is meditate on God’s Word all day long and He will use us to bring wisdom, insight and understanding to every situation we face in life. At that point in time the world stands up and takes notice because there is someone who seems to understand why they are here and what life is all about!! It’s not hard to do - but it does have to be done!

My Prayer - Father help me to hunger and thirst for your Word until it consumes all of my thoughts and actions. So that one day my first response and reaction will be to consult the Word of Gods answer to every area of my life. Help me to keep it in my heart and mind all day long!

Psalm 56: 4,10 “In God, whose word I praise, In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise - in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

In this Psalm we find a wonderful spiritual principle which when applied on a regular basis can rid us of the fear of other human beings. In fact, this is so important that God felt we needed to hear it twice. Friends, there is direct link between fear and a lack of praising and trusting the word of God. This is how it goes:
• If the Word of God is in our heart,
• Then God’s praise will be on our lips, (for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks)
• This indicates that our trust is firmly placed in Him,
• The result is we fear not anything that another human being might do to us for God is our ever present refuge.

Freedom is so close!! All we have to do is pick up our bibles and read on a daily basis until God’s Word fills our hearts with love, praise and trust in Him. I guess we need the same commitment as David. Look at verses 12 and 13 - David says I am under vows to you O God, that I may walk before you in the light of life. If I am gripped with fear of people, it is because God’s word has not filled my heart with faith, hope, love and trust in Him. I feel like I am alone in the dark! I guess it’s our choice - a few chapters a day keeps fear far away!!

My Prayer: Father help me to cultivate the kind of relationship that David had with you so that no matter what circumstances may be going on around me. I will fear no-one for you are my God and shield!!

Matthew 22: 8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘ The wedding banquet is ready, but those invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

The Father has extended an invitation to every single human being on planet earth to engage with Him, and the invitation is to be delivered by you and I. God expects us to go out and make contact with as many people as possible and extend His invitation to come in. What we have to be careful of is making sure we don’t prejudge who we think should invited. It says both good and bad are welcome!

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I look at someone and in my mind I have this little conversation trying to determine whether I think they would fit at the party. In reality I am trying to work out whether I think they will accept or reject my invitation. However, that is not my call to make. My responsibility is just to extend the invitation to all. It says the Father will determine who should and should not be there at a later stage.

Friends, why don’t we make the ask? Why don’t we extend the invitation for people to accept Jesus? Fear of rejection, fear of being shunned or outcast by society as some kind of freak. Or maybe we have just heard for so long how hard it is to share your faith with someone outside of Christ. Friends, it’s a lie that sharing faith is hard work. Sharing faith is easy if it is done God’s way! John 15 tells us that God expects us to bear fruit, and fruit that should remain. It also tells us that unless we stay tapped into God we can do nothing. Sharing faith is a work of God’s spirit within us. It is really us becoming like John in our understanding where we must decrease in order that He may increase. Sharing faith is about us losing our self consciousness and walking in God consciousness. That is part one of the process and part two is found in John 4 where Jesus models sharing faith for us in the encounter with the woman at the well. Read this chapter and just look at how easy it is.

Let me break it down:
It climaxes when a whole village encounters Jesus as Saviour through word of mouth by one individual - so how did this happen?

It says Jesus had to go - Jesus went to a place he would not normally go. He simply followed a prompt from God.

Jesus then strikes up a conversation with a woman at a well around a common interest- they both have ” thirst”

He then steers the conversation around thirst to a new level by making some intriguing statements to gather her attention.

He then receives a word of knowledge from the Father to ask her about her husband. This moves the conversation even further along.

She then takes the conversation to a whole new level by referring to him as a prophet and talking about worship.

Jesus obliges her initiation to take the conversation deeper where he reveals more of himself and she is wonderfully transformed by an encounter with the Saviour.

She then runs off to tell everyone about encountering the Messiah.

So what did Jesus actually do?

He took a walk across the room,
He started a conversation around a common interest,
He then just observed, made good statements, asked good questions and listened well for response - one ear on God as to what he should say and one ear listening to the woman to discover what she was and was not saying.
Then he just responded to how the Father and the woman moved the conversation along.

Friends, sharing faith is easy - take the pressure of yourself. After all Jesus himself said no-one can come to me unless called by the Father. The process is like having a baby. Who usually determines when it is time for the baby to be born in natural circumstance? The baby - the baby lets you know when it time. The woman let Jesus know it was time when she moved the conversation to a whole new level. Just let go of being self conscious and start to be God conscious and take a genuine interest in another human beings life. Start a conversation around a common interest and then observe, listen and ask good questions under the leading of the Holy Spirit, and God will do it all!!

My prayer is that every single Christ follower would simple engage with the people around them and extend the invitation on behalf of the Father!!

If you would like to hear a more on this you can listen to my podcast at www.pastorkev.com

Bless ya heaps
Ps Kev

Mark 14:43 “Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.”

I find this totally amazing! Lost people, sinners, they actually loved Jesus. Even though His teaching challenged them to live a different life, a life where relationship with God was to be the main thing, a life that would require them to understand they are accountable to someone- that being God. Jesus challenged them to orientate their life around Kingdom issues and priorities. It was a challenge to a change of lifestyle and sinners welcomed and embraced Him with open arms. But what about the religious people? How did they respond?

Judas had already felt the challenge of his attitude towards money earlier in the chapter when the woman with the Alabaster Jar anointed Jesus ready for his burial. Judas was so outraged by what he considered to be a waste of money that he then arranged to betray Jesus for extra money for himself. Judas had a real problem and so did Jesus. The Priests, Teachers of the Law and the Elders all welcomed Judas with open arms sending a mob with swords and clubs to arrest Jesus and send him to his death. The plan was for Him to be executed with the intimacy of a kiss!

Oh boy!! I have to carefully watch my attitude to what I perceive to be incorrect application or poor stewardship of the use of resources. After all, Jesus himself said the poor will always be with us! Pastor Wayne of New Hope often talks about scrubbing your heart and soul to really know your motives. Judas was using the poor as his stated objection and motive, but when Jesus took the stated motive away the real motive came to the forefront Judas had a weakness, a selfish desire for financial gain and he was using the poor as a smokescreen to hide it. I really feel for Jesus on this one for the enemy has attacked from within, and from within there can be no defence!! Sadly for Judas there was no recovery either!!

My Prayer: Father help me to know the motives of my heart and to surrender all to you. Help me to respond well to your instruction and correction!!

Mark 2: 22 “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

So often we sit in our churches or families in our current state and position crying out to God for a fresh new move of His spirit. We fast, pray and jump up and down yelling into the air to somehow manipulate out of God’s hands a new fresh wave of blessing for all people. We think we are waiting on Him, but in reality He is waiting on us. We will do everything and anything except what we need to do, which is CHANGE!! We want the new wine without the effort required in finding and establishing the new wine skin! We want God to fulfil his responsibility to us without us first fulfilling our responsibility to Him. God wants to pour out new waves of his spirit but he can’t without blowing up his church. A new move of God will destroy an old wine skin and both will be lost. It’s time for us to put in the hard yards!

We have to honestly evaluate every single thing we do in our personal and ministry life. We must ask the tough question. Is this method (Program, Service, Structure etc) still an effective channel by which God can continue to pour fresh moves of His spirit? If not, then action must be taken. We must either carefully dismantle and rework it for a future out pouring of God’s spirit, or we must have the courage to simply knock it in the head, putting it down like a suffering dying animal. This requires great leadership and great courage. However, it is essential if a church, person or family is to continue receiving fresh outpourings of God’s spirit and blessing!! We’re not waiting on God, God is waiting on us!!

Prayer: Father help me to put aside my own personal preferences on how life, church and ministry should be so I can discover the new thing that you want implemented to pour your blessing through. Grant me great wisdom, discernment and courage to build for the future.

Acts 26:28 “Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’ Paul replied, ‘Short time or long- I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”

Paul has such confidence in knowing exactly who and what he is. He carries such a conviction within him at all times. His encounter on the Damascus road obviously changed him forever!! Paul really understood first hand the futility of a life lived outside of a relationship with Christ. He truly is a changed man and as such he longs for every other human being to experience the kind of life he has come to know in Christ. So whenever an opportunity arises Paul makes a point of holding nothing back, so when he finds himself before King Agrippa - Paul is going for gold, he is taking his best shot leaving the results up to God.

I wonder what kingdom opportunities I have missed by simply not being prepared. What results have not ever had the chance to emerge simply because I never gave them chance to see the light of day? I need to become more like Paul, armed and ready to take the shot whenever the opportunity arises! Who knows where it will lead or what destinies will be changed!

My Prayer: Father help me to always be prepared to share the faith that I have at a moments notice. Grant me wisdom and discernment to know where and when to take the shot and leave the rest up to you!

Acts 17:23 “For as I walked around and looked carefully at our objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

Paul was the master of starting spiritual conversations. He had a way of getting beyond people’s walls to at least gain a hearing. So just how does he do it?
• He has eyes to see!
• He observes and studies people and their culture to find out what sort of things they value and honour as a people. The things they Worship.
• He keeps his mouth shut during this process.
• He Finds an IN - something that he can use to launch into a spiritual conversation.
• He now has a platform from which to launch, to get behind their walls of objection, so he launches into a clear simple presentation about Christ.

The result of his efforts were that some believed! Not all - Just Some.

If we simply follow Paul’s lead I think we would engage in a lot more spiritually productive conversations for The Kingdom. We simply need to carefully observe and study people to see what is important and valuable to them. Then just wait and pray until the Holy Spirit reveals to you an opening to engage them. At that point of time you can then present a clear simply message. However, you first must get beyond the wall - until that point of time keep your seven card studapostar dinero paginas internettrucos ganar ruletajuegos apuestas paginas internetsistemas ruletasapuesta dinero portales internetcasino du libanjugar apostar portalruleta sistemas juegolos mejores casinos onlineweb baccaratruleta europea portal internetcasino virtual gratiscasinos netjugar baccarat en lineadescargar juegos de casino gratisayuntamiento madrid casinojuegos flash casinojuego interactivo internetapuesta dinero onlinejugar cartastrucos para casino empirecasino villajoyosajack black en linea gratisjuego tragaperrascasino portales internetruleta internetcasino on net downloadruleta pagina webjugar interactivo portalcasino virtual portal websistemas ganar ruletaganar dinero real portalescomo ganar en la ruletaruleta portal webjugar gratisganar dinero real portales webcasino internacional paginas internetcasino virtual paginas webcasinos internacionales paginas internetmaquinas tragaperras portalvideo poker paginas webapuesta portales internetjuego gratis la ruletaplay free baccaratjuego instantaneo portal internetcasino juegosroulette paginas webjuegos seguros paginas internetjugar cartas linea mouth shut!

My Prayer: Father give me eyes to see and the gifts of your spirit to discern how to become all thing to all people that I might win some to Christ! Show me how to get beyond the walls of objection to bring the message of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I understand I won’t win them all but at least let me win some.