19. HARBOURING SPIRITS. Luke Chapt. 8 & 9.

Harbouring means we are giving something (a person, place or thing) a home, at least for a while if not permanently. Similar to a ship resting in a harbour, it’s a time and place to take on and deposit people and or goods. Spiritually speaking, we often give what I’ll call Minor Spirits this luxury. Allowing them to make harbour in us. Sometimes for a season, sometimes for longer and sometimes for a lifetime. I have identified six occasions in two of Luke’s Gospels (and there are many more in the other Gospels) where Jesus spoke on the spirits we harbour. I thought today I would look at these six and see what we can learn about ourselves and the potential drag on our future. I am not going to discus major spirits like Witchcraft, Murder, Drugs etc. But the smaller ones, because I believe the big problems people have with harbouring spirits have grown from something small that was not taken in hand much earlier in life and “nipped in the bud,” perhaps in childhood, when it was considered cute and funny but now has grown in to something quite serious and has the potential to get even worse. 1. Luke 9.12 ”Send the crowed away.” We can call this a Callus Spirit. One that doesn’t care, Rather than believing that Jesus could do something about feeding the five thousand, the disciples said just send them away to find food and lodging. One of the problems in ministry to day is... We can care more about crowds than individuals, we want contributors but don”t want to spend time on meeting and talking with people and trying to meet their individual needs. Only as we stay in touch with people’s needs can God use us to meet those needs. The old adage still rings true,”People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.’ 2. Luke 9.33 Peter said “ master it is good for us to be here, let us put up three shelters – One for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Scripture says “he did not know what he was saying.” (A babbling spirit.) Peter had a penchant for saying whatever came into his mind., but this time it drew a strong rebuke from heaven. “This is my beloved Son hear Him.” in other words, zip up and listen. There is an important lesson here, our need to appear wise and have all the answers can get us into trouble with God and people. Generally speaking, we are not learning when we are talking so we need to be quiet, observe what’s going on and listen to what God may want to say to us. When we don’t know, we shouldn’t speak. People respect you more when you have the wisdom and humility to say “I’m Not sure about that matter, but if you give me a little time, I’ll pray about it and give it a bit more consideration and get back to you.” Experts tell us we are bombarded with 35,000 messages each day emales text messages, billboards, t.v. radio, twitter, face book, blogs etc. (Information overload,) people don’t need more information they need answers that work. God has those answers, so we need to talk to Him first, only then will we have something to say to others that is worth listening to. Prov 15.13 says Everyone enjoys a fitting reply, it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time.” 3. Luke 8.22 25 v24 says “as they sailed a squall came down on the lake so that their boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. the Disciples woke Him saying Master, Master we are perishing.”(A spirit of fear or timidity) Take note what is at work in this story “Fear” Fear is natural, especially when we are encountering something we’ve never had to deal with before, and therefore there’s no past experience we can call on. This is why we should always pray for an increase of Faith, because it’s not until our faith surpasses our fear that we can deal with the problem of fear. No matter how many times God blesses us and answers our prayers, we still give into fear the next time we face a crises. Here’s a question, who told the disciples to get into the boat in the first place?. Jesus understood. Faith doesn’t exempt us from life’s storms, but it does equip us to go through them and when we are in the will of God, no storm no matter how severe will drag us under. Jesus knew the storm was coming even before He told them to get into the boat, so why did He expose them to it? I believe it was as in several other Scriptures, Jesus was equipping them for the future, and He does the same for us. For the Disciples it was for the time when He would no longer be with them in His humanity and they would have to face persecution, imprisonment and even death. So whatever it is, we are being prepared for today don’t be afraid, the Lord is with us and we are going to make it to the other side. One thing to remember is. Fear is natural, Faith is not, it has to be cultivated, developed and grow, this is achieved through trust and dependence on God. Try it with little things first and each time you graduate to a bigger thing your Faith will grow a little more. The more we learn to do that the stronger our faith will get. That’s what worked with the disciples, it took them three years and they were with Jesus all that time, so it will take time for us too but, it will be worth it. I will let you into a secret, I am almost blind, and have been so all my life, but, God has been beside me all the way, and shown me what Faith can do. At times things became extremely difficult, and there were several times I almost threw in the towel, especially six years ago when I was diagnosed with Glaucoma, I now only have very limited narrow tunnel vision. But, God is using me to write this series of “When God Speaks” to bring people to Him. One would think God would choose a fully sighted, clever Scripture Scholar, but No He chose me. Like Abraham with his dislocated hip to lead the Israelites, or Paul to write all those Epistles, I like to think He has chosen me an 86year old almost blind woman to write this series, not that I’m anything like those auspicious characters, but I believe God chooses the handicapped or inadequate to do His work so that people will know that it’s the hand of God at work and not their own. Therein lies Faith. When there is no other option than to do one’s best, dive in, trust and obey God things happen. 4. Luke 8.45-48. “And you say who touched me.” This is what I call an (undiscerning Spirit) What is at work here? Notice Peter’s words, “ Master the multitudes throng around you and You say who touched me.” I believe Jesus can tell the difference between the indiscriminate touch of the crowd and a touch of faith. Faith draws on His power and brings results. note v46 “I know that power has gone out of me” and v48 “YOUR FAITH has healed you”Jesus is not taking any credit for the healing. When our Faith touches Jesus the power goes out of Him and He can feel it. Also when we touch Jesus the source of His power the healing occurs (When we turn on a tap, we expect water to come out of it, if it doesn’t, we look for the blockage, I believe it’s the same with Christ, when we touch Jesus we should expect the healing, if it doesn’t happen we should look first at ourselves for what is stopping it. This woman must have walked some distance in considerable discomfort and pain, with just one thought on her mind and with absolute faith just touched the hem of His garment. The last thing a dressmaker does when making a garment is to sew up the hem, but before doing so she goes over all her work to make sure it’s okay Perhaps we should do the same, look for the blockages, what is there in me that is stopping the power of Jesus coming through. Fix it, then you can sew up the hem. And it is finished. This woman was the only person in that crowed who discerned the healing power of Jesus and had the Faith to exhibit it, So we need to develop a discerning spirit. So once again take a step back and pray quietly, and see what God is saying, not what the crowd is doing. 5. Luke 9.46-48. A dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest.” (a self seeking spirit.) As long as our motive is to make ourselves look good we will never enjoy God’s approval, His “Well done” is the only thing that counts. The ability to serve behind the scenes and do it with joy, comes from the knowledge that ultimately our service will be recognised by the audience of One, the only ONE that matters. I believe Christ featured a child that day for three reasons, 1. Because a child is teachable. When we’re finished learning we’re finished. When we can’t or wont be told, God will have nothing more to tell us. Prov. 18.15. Tells us – The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, the ears of the wise seek it out. 2. A child is trusting, when you promise a child something he believes you, He acts on it and believes it to be so. Psalm 118.8 says—It is better to trust in God than to put confidence in man. 3 A child is tender hearted, 1Peter 3.8.-- Finally be tender hearted. In Scripture the Holy Spirit is represented by a gentle dove, so we need to keep our hearts tender and receptive to His dealings. 6. Luke 9.54-56. “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.” (A judgemental spirit).-- A pole taken by the “Barna Research Group” Reveals that most non-beli8evers view most Christians as too judgemental so it appears that we can be sincere but too severe. When we mix only with people who share our views and values we can have a tendency to communicate with others in ways that attack rather than attract. I know that never has it been more important to know the truth of God’s Word and stand on it. But if we have the right Doctrine and the wrong spirit, we will drive more people away from Christ than to Him. If Satan has his way ,he’ll drive holiness away from our hearts and into our fists. Imagine Christ’s disciples wanting to incinerate those people who didn’t agree with them. They weren’t even aware of the spirits that were in their own hearts. Jesus said in Matt 19.18-19. “Love your neighbour as yourself.” That includes our non-Christian neighbours. We don’t have to sell or even defend Jesus, we only have to introduce Him. Psalm 34.8 say “Taste and see that the Lord is Good.” So make Jesus the tastiest gift we can give away this Christmas. Thank you all for reading my thoughts on Harbouring unwanted Spirits. And resolve to accommodate only the Holy Spirit of God. Phaline. -----------------------------

18.. JUDGING Yes or No?

There is an apparent paradox in Scripture (primarily in the New Testament) about whether or not we are to Judge. There are a number of passages which tell us when we are to judge and just about as many telling us when we are not to judge. I have done a considerable amount of study in this area over the years under David Pawson, Derek Prince, Jack Hayford and 1 or 2 other good teachers of standing, so I’ve pulled out my notes and can feel relatively safe and authentic with what I have to say. First we will have a look at some scriptures which tell us NOT to judge... (Matt 7. 1-5) Jesus is saying here quite emphatically “Do not judge” and if we do, the judgement we use will come back on us, and I believe it will do so from two different sources, Human and Divine. People will judge us as we judge them. In addition God will judge us the way we judge others. In (Rom 2.1-3 Paul is addressing Religious people. Then, as now, Religious people seem to think because of who they are, they have all the answers and on that premise all others are wrong. In fact this is not always the case. A person who is regularly judging others is very often wrong themselves. A little further in the same chapter (Rom 2.16) and again in (1Cor 4.1-5) This is a remarkable statement from Paul, He’s saying, “I’m not aware of anything I’ve done wrong,” but that did not justify him, or prove him righteous. God alone is his and indeed every ones judge. He alone will do the justifying and condemning .One last Scripture against judging, taken from the Epistle of James (4. 11-12). Here James is especially speaking about believers who speak evil against other believers, as Christians we are warned against doing this, yet many of us do just that and regularly, with words like, “I just think you ought to know” or “ I’m not judging them but do you think so and so are doing the right thing.” There is a Scriptural principal to deal with such matters, talk to your Pastor, not members of the congregation, that’s just Gossip. We need to remember, doing this is contrary to Scripture and The Lord will deal servilely with anyone who persists in doing this. Now for some Scriptures advocating judgement. (John 7.24) In this case Jesus was telling them how to judge. Then in (Cor 5.1-5) Notice, Paul says he had already judged and required the Corinthian church to endorse his judgement. Furthermore it was an extremely severe judgement to deliver a man over to Satan. In the same chapter ie (Cor 5.11- 13) Paul distinguishes between the believers and the unbelievers, in this instance we are not responsible to judge the unbelievers, but we are required to judge the believers. Again in the same Epistle (Corr 6.1-4) Paul is establishing two points the first is negative. It is wrong for a Christian to take another Christian to face the law in a non Christian court. On the positive side however, Christians are required to judge internal disputes between fellow Christians. Finally, look at what Jesus says in (Matt 18.15-17) If Christians can’t settle disputes among themselves, ultimately it has to go before the church. That is not an option. It’s a commandment. We are not free to leave disputes unresolved. In fact we are obligated to take them before the church. If a person refuses to accept the decision of the church, he looses his right to be treated as a believer. This is a solemn statement from Paul which few Christians take heed of these days, they would rather throw all their toys out of the cot and go to join another group, but in the time of Paul and the Apostles there were no “other groups,” or Christian churches like Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian etc. However the basic principal is still valid today as it was then, unresolved disputes lead to disunity in the body of Christ and need to be dealt with quickly and honestly by a good healthy Bible believing Christian Church We can now see the resolution to the paradox. The confusion arose when the Jews wanted a King. Prior to that, the king was the judger there was no supreme court or court of appeal the Kings word was the final judgement. So we see that God’s design originally for Israel was “King and Judge” In fact the sacred word for God was applied to Judges. “Elohim” Why? Because they took God’s place to judge His people, they had the authority of God, this was born out by the fact that they were permitted to use the name of God Himself “Elohim” it was a measure of the tremendous sanctity and authority which God attaches to the position of Judge when they judge with righteousness. There are a couple of scriptures I’ve chosen to clarify this. (Gen 18.25) Right in the beginning of the Bible God is establishing a principal that I believe holds throughout scripture., It is contrary to scripture to treat the righteous as the wicked. Our contemporary culture resents authority and law enforcement, we assume the primary function of judging is to punish the wicked, whereas it is and always should be to protect the innocent and righteous, which seldom if ever happens today. One only needs to look at the court pages to see how criminals are treated in comparison to victims this is a typical instance of our perverted thinking in modern culture. We must always bare in mind that the primary function of justice is to protect the righteous. It is never in line with God’s will to deal with the wicked as with the righteous. In this connection a word about divorce, I believe it is contrary to scripture to treat the innocent party the same as the guilty. That is a denial of the basic principal of scripture, in the words of Abraham “Far be it from You to do such a thing...That the righteous should be as the wicked Far be it from You! Shall the judge of all the earth do right.” (Gen 18. 25) God responded by implication, “Yes that’s right Abraham I will never depart from that principal.” So we see then that God the Ruler is also the judge of all the earth. The principal of Ruling and Judging should help us understand when to judge and when not to. In Psalm 82, God reproves the judges for judging unjustly, Verse 1. says “God stands in the congregation of the mighty, He judges among the God’s” That’s a remarkable statement. Who are the Gods? And why is He judging them? The Judges are the gods (remember Elohim they are taking God’s place) and God is judging them because they had been unjust judges using God’s name and their position as God’s visible representatives to judge unrighteously and that’s the reason we are not to judge others, first of all we have not been given that mantle or gift from God and therefore we cannot take Gods place. I’d venture to say, this goes for all God’s gifts. Use the gift God’s given you, support others in theirs but never ever try to take on another persons gifting it will end in disaster. The New Testament gives us more details of judgement.(1Peter 1.17) is saying The ultimate Judge is the Father, However, as Jesus Himself explains in (John 5.22 God has delegated the job to His Son, And in (Matt 25.31-32) Jesus tells us The Son of Man will come on the last day in all His Glory and the first thing He’ll do is judge every man according to his works, in verse 27 Jesus describes Himself as “The Son of Man), because Jesus as a human being understands our human frailties and infirmities He experienced them Himself and we will not be able to say, “You don’t understand.’ The delegation of authority goes further, just as the Father delegated it to The Son, and He delegated His authority to His Word, in (John 12.48) Jesus says we will be judged by His word, and we will have no excuse because we are so privileged not only to have our own Bibles but also have so many good teachers available to us. The Word of God should be our most treasured possession. There are some people in the world who so desire to possess a Bible of their own they are willing to pay the little money they have for food just to possess a copy, ultimately they know and so should we The Word of God is going to be our final judge. Scary thought isn’t it!! Especially when one sees today Christian Teachers, Priests, Pastors and Leaders watering down God’s Word, Yes He loves us, Yes He has Mercy on us and Yes He is the ultimate perfect Judge who has provided us with the ultimate perfect source of help in His Holy Spirit. So we should take full advantage of all the help that is available to us, because one day we all have to answer to“The Word.” My final say on this subject is judging without authority, I will give you three instances from Scripture They are worth looking up for yourselves. The first is in (Gen.19.9) Lot did not have any authority as a new comer in the land to deal with the men who came to his door to rape his visitors, fortunately the Angels dealt with the intruders. My second Scripture is taken from (Exid 2.13-14.) After killing an Egyptian on the first day that Moses set out to deliver Israel he tried to intervene in a Hebrew fight, and was smartly put in his place “Who made you our Judge.” My third Scripture is from the New Testament Luke 12.13-14.) by Jesus Himself. You will remember the man who claimed his brother was cheating him out of his inheritance, Jesus’ words to him were ”Who gave me the authority to judge this case?” So we see that authority and judgement go together you cannot have one without the other, if you give your eldest daughter the job of baby-sitting the younger children you also give her the authority to judge what TV programmes they watch, what time they go to bed etc. Otherwise her job becomes impossible. We can now establish a simple basic principal. Where we have a responsibility to rule, we also have the responsibility to judge, and conversely where we do not have the authority to rule, we do not have the authority to judge. Thank you for reading my thoughts on judgement, and thanks also to Derek Prince from whom I borrowed much of my material many years ago. I hope it’ s as great a help to you as it has been to me. God bless us all. Phaline.

17. LOVE IS. 1Corenthians 13 v 4-7.

When The Lord first asked me to write on this theme today, I was not too impressed, I even doubted Him, because we have had so many good teachings on that subject recently. So either we have been hearing but not listening, or listening and not doing. Either way it was going to be difficult to find a new angle. However, God doesn’t often change His mind, and He did give me a few words which I hope will be helpful to all of us. Before I start in earnest I must explain that the word LOVE. in English, as you probably know is banded around everything from food to sex and shoes to scenery, we love it all. But in Latin there are at least four words for love, First, there is Storge which is Parental love that is parents towards children or children towards parents. Secondly, there is Phileo, which is brotherly, sibling or family love. Thirdly Eros, which is marital love, where two people give themselves entirely to each other. Then there is Agape love which is the life giving love that God has for us. It actually is a life giving love, remember when Christ said “There is no greater love than this, that a mm lay down His life for a friend.” It is when one is prepared to give up his own life for another, and of course that’s exactly what Jesus did for us to demonstrate His AGAPE love for us. The first three are to do with our emotional, Human life, although being deprived of any or all of the first three can have quite an adverse effect on our spiritual life they are mainly to do with our humanity. But the forth is to do primarily with our Spirits and God’s relationship with us and OUR need to have the same relationship with Him. Because we can’t see God (The object of our Love) normally, the only contact and understanding we can have with Him is through Prayer and the knowledge we gain through the Holy Spirit, Scripture and good teaching which develops our Faith and as we learn about Him. we can foster and allow this to grow into AGAPE love for God. This love is not emotional as the other three are, because it involves a decision of the mind and will. The other three are a spontaneous emotion. No mind or will required. However, Agape love, I believe is a special gift from God, which He gives to people who really want to know, love and get close to Him, This I believe can be achieved as our relationship with God grows. Some people like Mother Teresa, and her team who Love and are drawn to help people who are physically or mentally Handicapped, or in great poverty or addicts to alcohol or drugs seem to have this wonderful gift I think God is very close to such people.. How can we know and feel the love of God? And if we are responding to it correctly? John Ch14.v20-23. (NIV) says “On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you, Whoever has my Commands and Keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him, and show myself to them”. Then after a question from one of His Apostles Jesus replied v23. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make our home with them.” That should be quite clear, if we obey God’s Commands and keep the teachings of Jesus we can be certain not only of God’s love for us but secure in the knowledge that we are doing all in our power to show our love for Him. While this may not always be easy, let me tell you, knowing you are in God’s will is the most rewarding blessing one can have. Understanding this along with regular prayer and self examination on whether or not we are keeping Christ’s teachings will keep us on track. Now, I believe we need to understand the full implication of the word “is” So here goes. The word “is” is a continuum verb, which means it has no beginning and no end, but is continually working. That is why God is spoken of as Love.”God Is Love” because He cannot and will not stop loving us, no matter what we may do,.think or say. That is also why He will answer our every prayer, albeit not always as we think He should. As a loving parent answers His child, so He answers us, giving us exactly what we need in any given situation; not necessarily what we want, but always what would be the very best for us at that particular time. When we say “Love is” we are using that continuum, which means everyday all the time, because if we are striving to be like Christ, that word “is” has to become part of our nature, we can’t have “off or bad hair days” Our love must not depend on the other person”s attitude towards us, but on what God”s attitude towards them is., which is love. “But,” we reply, “We are only human.” Yes we are, however, We who are Baptised in the Spirit are much more than “only human,”, we even refer to ourselves as Spirit Filled human beings. So what is different about us, How do we look, talk, listen, touch peoples lives differently from people who are not Spirit Filled Human Beings. We should stand out like the Sun on a rainy day, and why don’t we? I suggest because we are not seen to be loving enough. In the early church that was the characteristic which distinguished the Christians not only from the Jews, but from the Gentiles as well, Christians lived on a whole different plane, Their whole mental, physical emotional and spiritual attitude was completely different from what ours is today.. They embodied the entire teachings of Jesus, Not picking and choosing and doing what pleased or suited them and leaving the hard or dirty stuff for someone else to do, Christianity is very practical. Loving God and loving our neighbour has to be our Motto. When the Churches and people of God do that I believe then, and only then we will see the hand of God move in our country and this world. So what is love? Love is Patient and Kind, doesn’t boast nor is it Proud, it doesn’t dishonour others , it is not self seeking or easily angered, it doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, Love always tells the Truth it Protects Trusts, Hopes and Perseveres Are we ‘PATIENT’;-- What does it mean to be patient? It means to allow someone else to illustrate in whatever way they choose to get their point across, without any interruption or interference. This can be very difficult, especially if the person is handicapped or has difficulty expressing themselves, but with patients, tolerance and understanding this can be achieved. And thus the Spirit Filled life is working. Are we ‘KIND’ ;-- What is kindness? Kindness is an attitude of holding everyone else in higher esteem than yourself. There are so many examples of this in Scripture. “The First Shall be Last.” is one of them. When Jesus felt sorry for the five thousand, it was an act of Kindness to feed them, the miracle was incidental to the sympathy He felt for the people, and who did he ask to clean up the mess? Not the people who made it, there was a lesson to be learned by the Disciples here on how to be a servant. Again when Jesus put a towel around his waist and washed the Disciples feet, this was another example, If we don’t do this, we can have no place with Him. That’s what He told Peter. So kindness is a very important part of the Spirit Filled life, Kindness is one of the ways we can show our love and people will see we are different and maybe one day we will hear those words “See how those Christians Love one another.” “Love is not JEALOUS, BOASTFUL, PROUD or RUDE:-- As soon as those characteristics appear in a Christian”s life their credibility as somebody different disappears, you see, those who are observing us are not Christians, and are looking for and can always spot a fake a mile off, that’s why I am talking about LOVE IS a full time 24/7 job which must become our full life. This is not easy or even possible by ourselves, but “In Christ all things are possible.” It’s not just our credibility, but the credibility of Christ Himself and His Father that’s at stake here. So He will help you when you ask Him. We have been especially chosen, Why? Because in His great wisdom God knew we were capable of changing people’s hearts, minds and attitudes. Therefore we can’t afford to demand our own way, or get irritable, or keep a record of wrongs, or remain quiet while injustice and prejudice remain, we must stand up for the truth, hold to our Faith and Hope to the very end. We must always remember love never fails and to be a true Christian LOVE IS all the time everywhere,.everyday. Thank you so much for reading my thoughts of what Love is, may they help us all to remember to Love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves. He paid the ultimate price for us. He gave His only Son. Is He asking too much of us? May God Bless and help us to show what true LOVE IS.. Phaline.