The Best Plan of All: Meeting with Him

I am convinced that unless you experience where the Lord is at, and hear his words, you will not find your identity. This seems to be the opposite of the way the world is going, they seek to find their identity in what they do (which is kind of a paradox) - but in the Lord the only way to find your identity is the opposite. Sitting down, communing and having fellowship with Him.

You see, he does not have IFs. the only IFs I have experienced with Him have been these ones: "If you do not relinquish your right to understand, you will not gain the benefit of me" Equally, there are very few questions. What he said to me last time is "I want you to be filled with JOY!" - this coming from Him, who is pursuing me. I think we have it all the wrong way round. We assume that he is like us, that he is like a man who changes His mind - literally "repent" that he is not on his throne. That we are doing Him favours by going out and doing His will for Him - as if he needed our help. In a way I cannot believe I am talking like this but it needs to be said! It will startle you, he didn't say "if you want to, keep my commandments" he said "If you love me, keep my commandments" - a prophetic picture of seeing His disciples willing to do anything for Him because of His love.

The Spirit of God is very real. What scares me the most is taking these to their conclusions. This means a lot of change for those around me, If I am His witness, there is only one thing to broadcast, the truth. Be at peace, because it is not upto you. He will more often than not, tell you what to do, this is not in a domineering way, this is in His excitement and JOY. He is the Lover, we are the Loved, He is the source of all life.

The Spirit of God is what makes it real. He takes of what is from the Messiah and reveals it to us. This is done to glorify the Son, who has all things that the Father has. He even went onto clarify what He meant, "I am the Son" Listen to Jesus : "You are my Beloved, and my desire is for You" (Song 7:10) people have told you "you are loved by God!" surely that's not enough! Surely you need to know it!

Psalm 139

Here is a song that God gave me while playing on the Piano which I would like to share with you.

It is called

Psalm 139 here is the Rapidshare link

Enjoying Shabbat: Keeping, Observing and Obeying Shabbat Law

Isaiah 58:13 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, [From] doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy [day] of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking [your own] words,"

A few scriptures that are highlighted regarding the Law and specifically Shabbat.

These are the very words of Jesus.
Matthew 5:20 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Hebrews 3:15-19 "while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, [was it] not all who came out of Egypt, [led] by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

Romans 7:23-25 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."

Today, while having a conversation with Kent, He asked me a question "So do you want me to help you move the mattress?" To understand this question I have to rewind a little. During the time that Jesus walked on earth, The Pharisees and Chief Priests were in eldership of Israel. One of the things that they say in the law is this:

Deuteronomy 17:8,9 "If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge [there] in those days, and inquire [of them]; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment."

Chief priests and lawyers were in a position of authority over the nation as to the way certain cases regarding the law were to be handled.

As we are aware, one of the biggest parts of the law is Shabbat. I will say in essence, Shabbat is a day of no work. Not just saying "I will rest" but "I will refrain from doing this, and that, and this and that on Shabbat - so that I will rest. Because the Shabbat day was given by God, and consecrated Holy, and a delight - to rest" a day where traditionally the time is spent thinking of God and the word of God.

I want to say, that the teachers (Rabbis) are right in their estimation of Shabbat, saying it is a day where work must not be done. They correctly divided this law. For all the 4000 and more regulations on Shabbat have been given as a delight, and the essence is to make this day a delight. O, that righteousness like this is seen on the earth!

Jesus, reveal to us the importance and joy of Shabbat!

In fact, Jesus also had alot to say about Shabbat. In John 5 he states:

19,20: "Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel."

a definition of miracles is mentioned here, "What he sees the Father do" Saying that all the works he does are miracles. By saying this, Jesus is saying "I cannot work, it's only the Father who works" - He fulfills the law of Shabbat, because if we are attaining to a righteousness, we need an example to go from. Jesus perfectly fulfills Shabbat law, because He perfectly obeys the Father. In fact,the Father is still longing for the same kind of fellowship as He originally created - where we walk with Him in the garden.

People think that part of becoming a Christian is getting rid of the law. But without the law I can never be conscious of my sin. It's only in knowing the law that my sinfulness if revealed. The law is good to us because it kills our flesh. Make no doubt about it, our flesh deceives us, and kills us, it says "these things are good for you" when they are not - and being ignorant we die. We are to hold the two in balance - in tension. The law of sin in our mind, and the law of the spirit of life in our hearts. Without the law we will never be keen to the motions of the Holy Spirit.

In finishing, I have to say something else. If the Shabbat has been given to us as a delight, showing us that we can't do anything, surely it should not just be for a single day? Yes, that's right! God has given Shabbat to us, as a kind of way to live out the rest of our week, when we get it right on Shabbat, we will get it right for the whole week, God does not want us just not working on Shabbat, but also for the rest of our lives, enjoying rest.

I want to stress this, the essence of Shabbat is to do no work. So we cannot condemn Jews who have accurately divided this word rightly. But without the Spirit we cannot expect to fulfill the righteousness that God is asking of us. As a follower of Jesus, His delight is my delight, and Jesus is excited about seeing His Father heal a paralytic, on Shabbat. How much then do I want to obey the words of Jesus in attaining righteousness greater than the Pharisees?

In finishing then, I want to tell the story. Kent asked me "do you want me to help you move the mattress" immediately in my mind I thought "I cannot lift a single finger on Shabbat - to move a mattress" then I listened to Him speak and said "Yes! of course! that's the whole point!" Thank you Spirit revelation. It's good to do no work on Shabbat, it is better to obey. And I will forever obey. I am compelled to obey.

(The reason that we do not enter into rest, is because of disobedience, in multiplying laws, we know that it makes it harder to obey, in the end, only the faithful will attain to righteousness)

Freedom to choose

Here is a very good teaching on pursuing the knowledge of God, by Mike bickle, called Encountering the Magnificence of Jesus (Proverbs 2) the notes are here

Jesus opens up a whole new world to me, by grace.

I have been meditating on Proverbs today. While singing it out on the piano an epiphany came to mind, and the result is shared below. Enjoy! Actually, it's not the first time that I've been thinking about this particular topic.

The bible teaches that, while we were in the world, we were slaves. Romans 6:21:

What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things [is] death

We were free to do what we want, but none of the things we did resulted in life.

Jesus came to destroy the power of sin, and to reconcile us to the Father, transfer us into the Kingdom of Light, and give us eternal life.

In proverbs it uses very active and effective words to describe the way that we are to seek the knowledge of God. In Proverbs 2 it says:

2:3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, [And] lift up your voice for understanding,
2:4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as [for] hidden treasures;

In fact this is not the only time where the use of active (verbs) are used to describe the way we are to seek.

Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

Who is the one we are crying out to, and what is He giving to us? If we are asking for wisdom, then whose wisdom is it?

to find that wisdom is life. We also know that, God has made Christ, wisdom and power from God. When he bridged the gap of separation with us, by grace, the vast wealth of hidden mysteries and wisdom were revealed, (yes, were!) and the salvation that He wrought, also became the fullness of His glory. Christ being our salvation, is our life! When He gave Himself for us, He was providing the gap that was separating us from absolute and unlimited pleasure. Because Christ is everything!

When He says, "don't go back to doing the practices that you did, while in ignorance" who is He talking to? Surely just the people that live, gasping for breath because they were cut off from this life.

There is now nothing separating us from everything that we ever wanted. And Christ has been given the key. How does this all play itself out? Just in that, being united with Jesus means that when you are searching for wisdom, giving your heart to not depart, not turning away, giving attention, persevering for the gold, listening to instruction, being obedient, we are not outside the vast limitless mysteries and fullness that is Jesus Christ and he becomes everything. He did it Himself!

This is only the beginnings of the beginnings, this is what God has revealed to me by His Spirit because I live a lifestyle of hunger and encounter with God. Oh yes, but obedience is the first! I will not be hindered from encountering His love. I really cannot take anything! No one ever pointed to the Son when the Father is pouring forth His wisdom. No one ever said "nice singing" when you're singing about the one you love. No one ever said "nice serving" without looking at the person doing the work.

I just want to add as well, I'm looking forward to when Jesus arrives. I will see Him face-to-face. I also miss Him very much. Jesus is the same person forever. The one I obey will come to me because I want Him to - because I show it by my lifestyle and cry out for Him to come. These all happen because it's the same person. Beauty in Sovereignty

Enjoying Shabbat Practical Realities

I'm thinking of how simple the instructions are. "Shabbat is a day of no work" we meet together as a family for the most important meal of the week. We share scripture readings and sing spirited songs. We don't need to wash our hands literally, because we know that Jesus said "it's not what comes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of a man that makes him unclean"

I had the ideal shabbat last week. God had supernaturally given me the most perfect day, and I was taking captive my thoughts, excited about engaging in creative pursuits with my Father, and knowing "I'm not working today" - I need to speak up and let people know this is my day of rest, The day that I can be with my creator. I was so excited that I didn't even want to receive or take cell phone calls, think about what I have to do - If I did, I had to let people know that I'm not working today.

Dreaming and taking Risks

I'm celebrating being able to share that, wanting to goto Israel, I have now been to Israel! It's something to be able to say that 2 weeks prior to leaving I began to receive finances to go and then left on the 30th to leave for Israel, where I've never been before!

The one thing that has been occuring over and over during this whole process is dreaming. I cannot give dreams to others, but dreams happen when you have hope.

Enjoying Shabbat and Kosher Laws

I felt like I wanted to let everyone know, the development of my wanting to live by God's law and in particular Shabbat (Sabbath) and Kosher (dietary food laws) What an amazingly enjoyable and profoundly satisfying change.

There is a scripture in Genesis 2 that says: "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." I get amazing enjoyment sharing this because it's brought me such freedom!