renewed mind online

Grace Abounds

2011-11-25T13:07:00.001+10:30

Romans 5:20,21

"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This passage is so powerful and I have been meditating on it for the last few days. It definitely has been one of my favorites, but I believe there is so much more in this passage for the whole church right now in this day and age, than we are aware of.

The law is finished with - which is anything that we do in our own self righteous way for God, because when we do things own our way, we are actually not fully believing and trusting God's way or that He is in control and has the very best for us.

Sin in the new covenant is unbelief in the finished work of the cross which is wrapped in His absolute love and desire for us, His bride. So before Jesus was the law, which produced sin which then leads to death. The law manifests how unrighteous we really are, how no one can keep the perfect law - apart from Jesus.

All ours sins are now gone, they were all put on Jesus at the cross, so we don't have to continually ask for forgiveness. We just have to receive the gift of His righteousness and abundance of grace! To keep believing that He has completed His work - there is now nothing we need to do to earn righteousness. The works that are done through us are actually God's works through His grace - it's all about Him.

So where sin reigns, which is unbelief in the finished work of the cross, grace reigns so much more through Jesus' righteousness. Where there is chaos, destruction, death, doubt, fear in the world or in your life - His grace is so much more powerful to override it and we already have His righteousness covering us - how amazing!!! His grace is HUGE! It's His love, favour, blessings, peace, joy, power, devotion, all that is from His Spirit. This is what now reigns - HE NOW REIGNS!! It is also saying in this passage "to eternal life", which means we have all this on this earth right now. On the way to eternity, we have the opportunity to have the abundance of His grace reigning over every situation in our life now - grace most certainly does abound!!

We Have Wings

2011-11-19T08:38:00.000+10:30

Ok - That's it! I'm going to just put these thoughts / revelations on here now instead of wondering what to write and how much to write. This is me...

"Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city, a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!" (Micah 7:11 MSG)

This is that day!! What are we doing sons of God??? Where are you? All the prophets in the old testiment were seeing and longing for this day. We have wings!!!

What is the Kingdom of God???

2011-08-31T14:40:00.001+09:30

Matthew 6:31-34

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry! Don't worry about anything!!! Our God knows exactly what we need. He knows our physical and spiritual needs, but Jesus is actually talking about physical needs at the start of this passage, but he answers with a spiritual answer. We actually already have every spiritual blessing / need (Ephesians 1:3) for those who believe in Him.

In 33 Jesus says "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Now a lot of people believe that the kingdom of God is the church, so they will put the church and church activities first. In Romans 14:17 it writes, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

The kingdom of God is not of outward things and it does not start from doing church related activities. It is within us - "Nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21.

Now if the Kingdom of God is within us and it says in Romans 14:17 that the kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the biggest key here. The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals the kingdom to us, reveals who we belong to, reveals to us that we are an heir, a son or daughter of the most High, we no longer are in the world system, we belong to His system and His economy. We are totally redeemed from this earth!

The Holy Spirit also puts a desire in our heart to want to serve and do God's work, not our own work. It's a overflow of His Spirit working in and through us. He will tell us what do and when, He is the one who guides us in all things and in truth. If we are serving from any manipulation or control from man in the church, we end up doing it out of fear or bitterness. That is totally not from the Spirit of God - He fills us with all righteousness, joy and peace - it is a supernatural deep sense that you are in the perfect will of God - where your spirit unites with God. Nothing or no one can tell you any different. You don't get bitter, you don't get angry, there is absolutely no fear - just His perfect peace and love. Then He will show you what is really going on in the spirit world, He'll give you dreams, visions and promises that come to pass. He will show you revelations that you have never seen or heard before. Miracles, signs and wonders just happen! You are filled with the fire and glory of God!

Our God is so amazing!!! All praise and glory and honor to you! You hold all things on your hands! You created the heavens and the earth - how can we not trust you? There is nothing too hard for you God!! \O/

Where You Go I Go

2011-07-28T22:38:00.003+09:30

This I my favourite song at the moment:-

Jesus Culture - Where You Go I Go

The words have just hit me deep in my spirit. Here are the words:-

"Where you go I go
what you say I say, God
where you pray I pray
where you pray I pray

Jesus only did
what he saw you do
he would only say
what he heard you speak

He would only move
when he felt you lead
following your heart
following your spirit

How could I expect
to walk without you
when every move that Jesus made
was in surrender

I would not begin
to live without you
for you alone are worthy
and you are always good

You are always good

Though the world sees and soon forgets
we will not forget who you are and what you've done for us,
what you've done for us

You are my God"

How can we as believers, even think that we can live in this world without totally surrendering to the Holy Spirit, if Jesus lived in total surrender to God the Father? The Holy Spirit is the most important person on this earth. He is the one who reveals who Jesus really is and what He has done for us. He brings no glory to Himself. He is our comforter, He fills us with joy, peace and love. The Holy Spirit is the power from God the Father, through Jesus, on this earth. Jesus is coming back for us, His bride. He is not coming back for a church building! We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are the church.

The Holy Spirit also shows us how we are the bride of Christ, how He is totally devoted to us as an absolute perfect husband. He is protecting us, He has an abundance of supply for us and His love is pure, true and everlasting. What our beautiful husband did for us on the cross - there are no words.

He has taken all fear, condemnation, worry, stress, intimidation, judgement, accounts, offense, anxiety, depression, sickness, poverty, frustrations, anger, pride, confusion, negativity and so many other things that our flesh gets wrapped up in.

The words "God is always good" - well He is always good! His plans will always turn around for good. He always has the very best for us in mind, nothing less! We go from glory to glory when we are believing in who He really is for us. For us individually. Even if you were the only person left on the earth - Jesus did all this for you only! He us our God, He is My God, He is your God!!!

Faith Without Works is Dead???

2011-07-14T10:17:00.000+09:30

James 2:14-26 (NIV)

14 "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 "But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

20 "You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone."

25 "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

Well I've been chewing, praying, meditating, studying and researching over this passage for a few days now and God has most certainly put the light on in more ways than one!

Let's get a bit of context in this first shall we? James is writing to converted Jews who obviously was so wrapped up in the law, that when they received the gift of righteousness by God's grace, thought they didn't have to do anything at all any more. They were also judging on appearances - eg the rich in the font row, the poor and dirty in the back row, ignoring those in need. James 3 talks about praising God one minute, then cursing someone the next. James 4 talks about self-centeredness and greed, how wrong it is to be friends of the world. Their focus was in making money and building up businesses for themselves. Having the best in materialistic things in this earth.

Here we go! In James 2:14 it says "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?"
Now we know that we are saved by grace through faith and NOT BY WORKS (Ephesians 2:8), so James is actually referring to the type of faith. Genuine true faith in grace, with a heart transformation, majority of the time, has a love and compassion from God for others and naturally helps them. From a worldly point of view, that sort of faith in 14, doesn't help / save people at all. He actually goes on to say that this faith is dead (useless and lifeless). He is not saying the person is dead or not going to heaven. He is saying that the faith of that person is dead, lifeless or useless. James is also asking a question here, not making a statement because only God truly knows who is saved and who isn't. There are so called Christians who say they are believers, but are not and don't do any works. There are also Christians who are true believers that don't do any noticeable works, that could be considered by the outside as dead or useless faith. Then there are true believers who are doing dead works, and again there are true believers who are doing God's works.

The works that James is writing about are God's works - they ARE NOT our works. Religious and legalistic teachers look at this passage and think that WE need to DO something to show or prove we have faith, but they don't look at it from God's point of view, just from their own point of view in a self righteous way. The works that do happen as a supernatural flow from the Spirit of God, is a NATURAL EFFECT of our faith. God's works are also not evident to all people, because it is between the individual person and God - especially not evident to believers who are self righteous and because they are God's works, no one can judge or say anything.

Through this whole chapter, James is looking at physical v spiritual and how the world looks at us. He is talking about evidence from a worldly perspective. How the world tries to justify us (24). Because the Jews James was writing to were full of pride and making judgements on others, it was as though they were just like the world, living under the law again, so James was taking all this from a worldly point of view. He was trying to say to them - if you really want to take the law in your hands again by judging others, you have to take the whole law which says you also need to love your neighbor as yourself - which you are not doing. If you think you are helping or saving the world by showing respect to the rich and totally ignoring the poor, when the poor are also your neighbor, it's ridiculous, totally twisted thinking!

Now we come up to James 2:24 "You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." We also know that we are already declared righteous and justified through Jesus and His perfect work. (Romans 5:18,19). Because James is taking it from a worldly point of view, this is referring to how we are justified in the world, not by God. God has already justified us, without us doing anything, only believing and accepting Jesus sacrifice! I think we sometimes forget that the world is looking at us and are also making judgements on us. They are seeing if we are the true believers. This is what they want to see and are waiting for - the sons of God being revealed! (Romans 8:19)

Now in 26 we read "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead"
Again James is not saying that because we don't have deeds, we are dead and going to hell! He is saying that that type of faith is dead, lifeless and useless - it's not doing anything fruitful in God's kingdom. It does not mean they are not saved!!!

Now I'm going to focus a bit on "As the body without the spirit is dead" in 26. In a physical aspect, the body without the spirit is totally dead, lifeless and useless - just like that type of dead faith. In a spiritual aspect, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Without being guided by, submitted and surrendered to the Holy Spirit, our works are dead! We can do a whole lot of works that we think are God's will and good etc (I have been there more times than one over the last 17 years!), but are actually not what God really wants you to do. When you are doing God's works, you have His supernatural peace, joy, excitement, freedom, grace when doing it. It's not a struggle because it's all through His strength, His grace, His power. You are His vessel that He is flowing through. There's no fear, because you have this amazing love and fire burning inside you, there's no pride because you know it's all about Him, through Him, for Him and for His glory! It's the way God has created us to live! An abundant full life!!!
I know when I have been doing dead works, because it's like my spirit has gone a bit flat, it does actually feel like a bit of life has gone, things start becoming a struggle, I can even let condemnation and intimidation in and it's all because I'm doing things in my own efforts (it's so subtle, which is how the enemy operates!) - even though they are good and godly things. God will let us do it too, because He is not controlling or pushy. He does not force us to do His will. James is actually referring to people putting the law back into their own hands. We sometimes think the law is the 10 commandments, what Moses was under, all the do's and don't's, but the truth is the law is when we are self righteous, when we think and do things our own way. Thank you Jesus that you have delivered us from the law!!!

You are My Beloved...

2011-06-22T09:34:00.000+09:30

Come to me. I am so much more than near you - I am surrounding you, in you, through you. If you let Me, I can consume every single part of you and take you places that you have never seen - I will show you all the amazing plans I have for you. Do not limit Me to your physical experiences. The supernatural and natural are complete opposites. What you look at in this world everyday, unless you see Me, goes against my Kingdom and truth. You need to continually let your heart and spirit go, I can't do this for you. I am so SO for you. My love and devotion for you My precious child is absolutely nothing compared to anything this world has to offer. I am devoted to you, I believe in you. I will unconditionally love and cherish, provide and protect you. You are My beloved.

Hunger for My presence

2011-06-15T06:27:00.000+09:30

How can you do anything without My presence? If you talk with anyone, you can either see, hear or touch their presence - you know that you are in their presence. How much more should My presence be priority? Your real man is the spirit man, it's not the flesh. So how much more truth, life and freedom would you receive through My Spirit? It will and does override, dominate and overpower every part of your flesh nature. It puts to death those things and thoughts that don't belong to Me.

Isaiah 40:31
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

The strength that is renewed here is always your spirit first. The flesh will eventually come into line if it doesn't happen straight away. You won't even be worried about your flesh! This is where you fly like an eagle, all weights drop off, there are no more limitations. No more being weary or disheartened.

Look up! Arise, awake! Come up here with Me, for I will show you great and mighty things! I am so longing to pour out my presence on you!

Do we trust Him?

2011-05-17T22:51:00.004+09:30

Genisis 22:1-2
This is the passage from Ashely and Jane Evans 'Devotions', plus a few of my notes. It's when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac. Why would God ask Abraham to do that when He detests the sacrifice of a person? And for that matter, wasn't Isaac the one who all the nations were going to be birthed from? Isaac was the most important thing to Abraham. God was seeing if Abraham trusted Him with his own son. He wanted to also see if Abraham believed in the promise about Isaac. What God has given to us, He actually wants us to let go & give back to Him. He can do such a better job than we can! The things He has given us are gifts from Him, He is the owner. We are stewards, which means we're meant to do what God wants, not what we want with what He's given to us. He wants us to believe that He can do something great with it. He wants us to believe that He is faithful and trustworthy. He wants to multiply it. Do we trust Him? Our life belongs to Him, we are hidden in Christ and seated in the High Places with Him where His Kingdom reigns! Where no weapon formed against us can prosper. We CAN trust our faithful, just, loving, giving, amazing God! He is our true Father who will always look after His precious children.

True Unity

2011-04-19T14:56:00.005+09:30

John 17:20 – 23 (The Message)

“I’m praying not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me, because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind – just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are – I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me.”

I’m praying not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me, because of them and their witness about me.
The whole of John 17 is a prayer that Jesus prayed just before he was betrayed and went to the cross. This part in particular, I believe is so important for us. Jesus is praying for us here – the people who believe in Him now, who couldn’t see Jesus in the flesh & those who heard and believed in Him after He was resurrected. Future generations. How amazing – He had you and me in mind when He prayed this prayer! Jesus is saying here, that what He is about to pray, is how we witness who He really is on this earth now. Our testimony about Jesus.

The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind – just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us.
The main objective is to have the same heart and mind together, as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so that we would be one heart and mind with both God the Father and Jesus. When Jesus was on the earth, He went off all the time on His own to talk, pray and have fellowship with the Father. He only said and did what the Father told Him to do. He didn’t worry about what anyone else thought. He was so united with the Father. How? Through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit told Jesus what the Father wanted Him to do. So how do we have one heart and mind with the Father and the Son? Through the Holy Spirit.

Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are – I in them and you in me.
This is how the world can believe in Jesus, the fullness of what He has done on the cross and the amazing blessings He has given to us. The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals who Jesus really is to us and also can direct us in everything we do. We have to listen to Him over and above everyone else and not be side tracked with confusion, doubt, worry, fear, bitterness etc, which are all not from the Spirit of God. Jesus has already given us His glory, but this world will not see it until we are first unified with the Holy Spirit, who then unites us with Jesus and God the Father. That is how we can be in Him and Him in us.

Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me.
This is mature and true unity! The body of Christ will not be in true, mature unity until we, as individuals are in unity with the Holy Spirit, who puts us in unity with Jesus and God the Father. Just like when Jesus was on the earth with His Father. His Father always came first. When you are in unity with the Spirit, you are so full of His love, joy, peace, power, rest, grace & favor. Not condemnation, judgment, doubt, fear, bitterness, self-righteousness, stress, struggle, striving etc. This world doesn’t need to get any more of this, especially from believers! They need something real and they need to know how much God really loves them. The Holy Spirit reveals true, unconditional love & grace by what Jesus has done, THROUGH US. He is more real than anything else on this earth – spiritual and non-spiritual. I want to be a true witness having true unity

Deep call unto Deep

2011-04-13T12:50:00.001+09:30

Well I’m back! I haven’t blogged for about a year now – wow – that has totally flown by! I have felt God wanting me to blog again, so here I am. It might be a bit different this time, could be short ones or long ones, could be a statement or a revelation, but the main thing I need to do now, is totally be directed by the Holy Spirit. Not that I wasn’t before mind you! I just know that this will be a bit different this time. I’m letting Him take over, that’s it!

Deep calls unto Deep
We need to go deep in the Spirit. It’s like our body has layers. Everyone sees the outside, which is shallow. Just like the enemy – he is very shallow. His techniques are all emotion driven. The Spirit of God is on the inside. The deeper you go in the Spirit, the more of the fleshly nature (worries, fears, doubts, offenses, etc) you breakthrough and break over, where you are eventually so deep in the Spirit that it comes out and overflows over and above your flesh, like rivers of living water. This is what it is to walk in the Spirit and what comes out of your mouth is the Spirit of God. Where you radiate and ooze the presence of God. This is what I want.

Let go!

2010-04-19T20:57:00.001+09:30

I have just been reading about one of the miracles Jesus did in Luke 5:1–11. This is when Simon (Peter) and his fishing partners had worked all night and caught nothing, so they gave up and were washing their nets. Jesus then got into Simon’s boat and taught the people. He stopped speaking and told Simon to go back out there into the deep. This obviously would not have made any sense to Simon, but He did what Jesus said to do anyway and caught so much that they had to get the other boat over so that both boats could not contain the amount of fish they had caught. Simon and all the other people there were totally amazed, then Jesus said to Simon, “From now on, you will catch men.”

God really does care for us. We sometimes might think that He just cares for our eternity, but He so much cares about every part of our life now, at this very moment.

This passage is amazing! This was Simon’s business and income. Simon and his fishing partners had worked all night and caught nothing. That would be like working for a full day and not getting paid for it. I don’t know anything about fishermen, but I know you would not be guaranteed to catch fish every time you went out. They would have been disappointed, tired and fed up, while they were washing their nets. Simon still let Jesus into his boat to preach though, who knows if he was really listening to what Jesus was saying. Perhaps Simon didn’t, because Jesus stopped speaking, then told him to go back out into the deep and cast your nets again. I mean, Jesus would’ve known exactly what they were thinking. Simon did start to protest. He would’ve thought, “Are you crazy? We’ve been out there all night! Now all our nets are clean, we are all tired and have had enough for tonight! Whatever though, you are the boss, we’ll give it another go.” And that’s when the miracle comes.

Jesus wants us to face our problems, but through Him. As I stated before, this was Simon’s income and business which he worked so hard to just get a little. It was a serious problem that night, because he did all that work for nothing. It was no problem to Jesus! The only way Simon could face his problem again, was by listening to Jesus’ word and obeying it, even though it didn’t any make sense. Just look at the outcome! The only problem he ended up having was that he had way too much fish that he had to get help and give it away! How awesome is that?

Jesus will always test us with how and what we are believing and if we are really trusting Him. He might tell us to do something that doesn’t make any sense and that will go against everything in our natural mind and what the world expects. “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.”

Jesus has taken care of all our problems – physical and spiritual. What we do though, is let ourselves get worried and try to do everything ourselves. What usually happens when we do that, is we get exhausted, stressed, worried, depressed, frustrated and angry. God wants us to let go, listen to His words and trust in Him. Especially in the area where we are struggling the most – because when we give that area over to God, he totally turns it around and makes it our strongest area – in the physical realm and the spiritual! That is when we 100% know that we are living in His grace and His power – because we finally have let Him sort out all our problems and let Him take over our lives. The problems are not problems anymore. The only problems we would have, is the huge amount of things God wants to show and give to us, will just overflow our lives so much that we would have to give it away – physical and spiritual! How awesome is our God!

Out of Control and Loving It: Giving God Complete Control of Your Life

By Lisa Bevere / Charisma House

Is your grip on life so tight that God cannot work out His plan? Lisa Bevere shares an incredible discovery that helped her let go of her obsession to manage and manipulate everything around her. You are about to take a journey from a lifestyle of fear and disorder to a haven of rest and peace under God's protective wings. This revised edition includes interactive study questions and new testimonies from women who learned to let go and trust God's protection. 184 pages, softcover from Charisma House.

Don't lose your first love

2010-04-09T22:55:00.001+09:30

This life that we live as believers, should be all about God. When we are believing for something, we always need to be focused on what Jesus has already done for us on the cross, but is what we’re believing for, for His glory? Do we focus on the outcome or result on giving the glory to Him, or is the outcome actually more about us? We do not own our life any more – our life actually belongs to God. That is where our freedom is, because He tells us that we don’t have to worry anymore. Our burdens are gone. He is taking care of us now.

Everything is in Him, through Him, to Him, for Him and all in HIS TIMING. This is why Jesus died on the cross, so we could LET GO of our own life and give it over to Him. Let Jesus take control and take over – this is where His peace, joy, fullness and power overflows in our spirit in a supernatural way, that makes no sense in our natural mind. This is where He wants us to be when it seems like everything we see in the natural is falling apart. He wants us to just trust in His love. Trust in His goodness. Trust in His faithfulness. Trust in His word. Trust “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). If it ever seems like it’s not working, He can see the bigger picture. He might be testing your patience, building your character – ask Him. If you don’t get an answer straight away, you will eventually. Do everything for His glory. He has so many riches and blessings to pour out over your life, no matter how much your life seems to be in a mess. He DOES restore double, triple, a hundred fold.

Another thing we do when we are believing for a breakthrough, is compare ourselves to other people – especially when it looks like they didn’t get their breakthrough or they didn’t get what they believed for. Don’t do that!!! Don’t compare! Don’t look at others if they say God didn’t come through for them – God always comes through! As soon as we start comparing, doubt starts creeping in – the enemy’s not stupid, he’s very strategic and subtle, but thank you Jesus that the power inside of us is so much greater than the devil – he’s already lost! There is always a reason why things happen the way they happen. Don’t ever doubt the love, care, faithfulness and goodness of God.

I’ve really been noticing lately how a lot of people don’t believe in God’s faithfulness, love and goodness that He has for them. Surely we can see that through the cross? You know, if we just believed that Jesus died on the cross for us to receive eternal life, then what the heck is the point of us still being here on this earth??? Do you really believe in His love and goodness in your own personal life, in your marriage, in your health, in your workplace, in your kids, in your finances, in your relationships etc? Does this come out of your mouth? You can tell when someone doesn’t believe in all His love and goodness by the way they talk. He is an awesome, loving, faithful, merciful and gracious God to us here and now. I really believe that this can be lost after we first get saved. This is our first love that we need to never forget. This is what God wants for every single one of us on this earth, “to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19. This is how we begin to know God.

The evidence of believing how much God loves us, is trusting in Him. If you really believed and knew how much He loves and cares for you, you would trust Him in every area of your life. This is believing by grace through faith. You trust and believe in His love, care, goodness and faithfulness in every area of your life and stop trying to control it yourself, because that is why He died for you on the cross. Don’t worry – I’m not there yet – but I’m trying!!! One step at a time…

Unmerited Favor

By Joseph Prince

Did you know that it's God's desire for you to succeed in every area of your life---and with his help, you can! Brimming with motivational insights, Prince's resource will teach you to depend on Jesus alone for success---not on your own efforts. Get ready to be transformed by God's passionate love, great blessings, and undeserved grace! 368 pages, hardcover from Charisma.

Does fear control you?

2010-03-28T23:10:00.001+10:30

God has definitely been challenging me lately with my emotions! Whenever we really are fearing, worrying or stressing over something, we are actually under it’s control – that emotion is controlling us. He has also been showing me how often and easy it comes against us. An advert came on TV the other day for a certain product with which I then had a little worrying thought that “I better do something before it’s too late.” Straight away the Holy Spirit said, “That is that fear Nik. Are you going to let me be Lord of your life or the enemy?” Fear, worry and stress are straight from the enemy. God does not want us to fear, worry or stress, which is thrown at us from every single angle in this world. The key word that God said to me at that time was ‘let’. We are the ones who either let fear rule our lives or God. What does God say and what has He given us?

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

He has already given us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. This is what is already inside of us. Don’t let your heart be troubled of afraid – in other words, don’t let yourselves worry, stress or fear anything! This world tries to all different ways to give us peace, safety and security, but the only true and perfect peace comes from God. If you are putting God first in your life, I would guarantee that the devil will try and put fear and confusion into your mind. The key thing is not to let that thought sink in. When we entertain those thoughts, it can take a hold of us, but we are the ones, through the power of God, who control it.

When those fears take a hold of us, we then try and take care of situations ourselves. God desperately does not want us to do that! Jesus has done so much for us when he died and rose again on the cross – not just salvation, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts. He wants us to let go of our burdens, fears, worries and anxieties – Jesus took that for us on the cross, so that we can live in HIS grace, power, boldness, joy, love and peace right now! He wants us to get to the point of, “I’ve tried and I can’t do it anymore – Lord take over, take charge of every area of my life. Let me do whatever you want me to do, your way and in your time.” I remember years ago, when I felt like I was on my death bed and I came back to God. I totally gave up everything and put my whole trust and life in His hands. It’s amazing how things can creep back in! We can try and hold on so tight to things when He’s constantly saying to us, “Don’t be afraid, don’t worry, don’t stress, I love you so much! You are so very precious to me. You are my favored and beloved child. My love and thoughts I have for you, are so much greater, than any love you have ever felt on this earth. Why can’t you just let go and trust me? You don’t have to have those burdens that constantly pull you down. It breaks my heart. Let me have your heart, let me protect it because I love you. I want to be the love you never had.” Hear His voice, hear His heart.

Like the Holy Spirit said to me - am I going to let the enemy control me or the Lord? Wouldn’t you rather live a life of perfect peace, joy, love and power through God? He is waiting for you, but it’s your choice…

Breaking Intimidation

By John Bevere

Where heaven is...

2010-03-16T23:21:00.001+10:30

I have just been reading Hebrews 9:11 -

“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.”

In the Old Testament, the high priest was the only one who could go into the tabernacle for the forgiveness of sins for himself and the people, and because it was here on earth and the tabernacle was built by people like us, it couldn’t work, because we all have sin in our lives. The high priest also had to bring blood. The only way it could work, is for God to use blood, which is why Jesus had to be born a man on this earth with no sin (God can not be around sin, that is why Jesus had no sin) and then die, but the covenant had to be made in heaven and not on earth (ref “not made with hands”). There is absolutely nothing we can do in works or in the flesh to receive salvation.

Our reality should be heaven and what has been done in heaven, where God the Father and Jesus is now. Whatever shall be done in heaven shall be done on earth “Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10. We should automatically go to, or get into the habit of thinking, that what has already been done for us in heaven, shall be done on earth, instead of listening to the negativity and pulling down of what people say in this world. These things that are talked about in the world that go against what God says (things that already have been finished in heaven), come from anywhere, including believers, which is why we have to be so careful with what we hear and accept from others. The devil is very subtle, his ultimate goal is for you to believe the wrong thing – especially getting believers not to believe God for everything and not go to Him first in everything. He will try and get us to think of going everywhere else first and with our sinful nature, it is so easy for us to go there.

That is why we need to renew our minds – we are a new creation now and thank you God that we have His spirit inside of us to confirm what He says and what has been done! He is the one that will bring heaven into reality in our lives here on earth. The Holy Spirit is the most important person on this earth and sad to say the most ignored. He is the one we need to go to first. He is with us every second of the day – how often would we just stop our own selfish thoughts and talk to Him?

Live in His empowerment

2010-03-02T23:04:00.010+10:30

I know I’ve wrote about this before (perhaps in a different way), but this is my journey and I’ll always try and be guided by the Holy Spirit with what I write. Lately, I’ve found myself getting a fair few head aches and not as much patience as usual. I’ve been extremely tired and feel like I’m rushing everything at the moment. I’ve been praying, reading and spending time with God, but tonight, it has just clicked with me with what I haven’t been doing for a while. I haven’t LET God minister to me. I haven’t been receiving from Him. I haven’t been hearing Him say to me that He loves me and for me to receive His peace, His love, His joy, His strength and everything else.

That is His grace. Like when we first experience His love, peace, joy, abundance in every area of our lives, total freedom after we give our lives to Him, it’s like we’re on cloud nine, we’re unstoppable! Then most of us stop Him from giving all that to us. Some times we have let the law can creep in to stop us, unbelief can creep in, unforgiveness can creep in – I mean the devil will try anything and everything to stop us from staying in that freedom, but in the end, it’s actually our choice. Most of the time, we’re not aware that it is the devil.

Our God is a giving God. He will never stop giving to us. He is actually stronger when we receive from Him. Like the Samaritan women at the well who received living water from Jesus (John 4:7-38), He received strength after she heard, believed and received from Him. He said to His disciples that He had already eaten food that they didn’t know about, which was to do the Father’s will and to finish the job. The awesome thing is that Jesus did finish the job! All that grace is there for us already! When we are weak, He is strong. It’s not “When we are weak, He is going to be strong”. HE IS STRONG! Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. God’s grace is so powerful and so much stronger than anything in this world and that is what has saved us and is in us right now. We need to keep living in His grace. We need to keep receiving all that He has for us or we won’t be free. God wants us to be free in this life and on this world! Not just after we get saved. Believe that all of His grace and empowerment is inside of you to do His will for your life, the divine purpose that He has ordained for each and every one of us.

Are we living an extraordinary life?

2010-02-22T23:10:00.003+10:30

I’ve been watching a bit of Extraordinary by John Bevere on ACC – it’s absolutely amazing! That’s definitely next on my list to get! We are all called to be extraordinary, not the ‘norm’. We are meant to reign in this life and have the world coming to us, asking us for advice. We should be the best at whatever God has given us to do. Why isn’t that happening? That is the big question! Well John’s teaching on grace is sooooo good in this series. He always goes back to the true meanings of the words in Greek and Hebrew, I love it! So he states that the grace of God is God’s empowerment. It is the empowerment from God to do what truth demands. In other words, it’s God’s power that is in us to do what ever He wants us to do. What HE desires us to do and how HE desires us to be, IS the truth. Whatever is in the word and what He speaks to us in the spirit, IS the truth. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m so sick of hearing lies, and not from non-believers, from believers!!! Come on! What are we doing! You know, we go to church or a conference and get all fired up and we hear all about God’s power that is in us, that we’re in this world to rule and reign in this life, then someone will say, “I just don’t know what to do about this or that, it’s really worrying me and getting me down.” That is a straight out lie from the devil! We also have the wisdom of God in us and if we lack wisdom, we can ask God for it, with no doubting and He has to give it to us (James 1:5), because He can’t lie, His words are the truth. How often do we ask God first? Don’t you think we should EVERY time? We so easily believe lies. When are we going to really start believing in Him. You know it breaks His heart. When we worry about what other people think or believe what someone else says and not what He thinks or what He says. When we please people before pleasing Him, His heart is breaking. It’s just like the person closest to you, your husband / wife or a best friend decides to believe a complete lie about you that ends up putting you at a distance between each other, you’re no where near as close as you were and there’s nothing you can do. When we think about that happening to our relationships, times that feeling and heartache by 1000 to get a glimpse of how God feels. God has given us a choice and will not force us to believe Him. His truth and what He thinks is what really matters. What is in God’s heart, what are His desires, what are His desires for others? He wants to be involved in every area of our life simply because He loves us so much and that’s what people do when they’re in love. It’s so amazing that He has given so much to us and for us, that we’re not living the way His heart desires for us to live. He has given us an extraordinary life! The best and greatest life we can ever have! The key is, it’s His power and His way, not ours. All we have to do is believe, obey and trust in Him. We have to let go of our own desire and control, that’s the only way we will live an extraordinary life through Him. It’s amazing that a simple little thing like believing that God’s way is the best way, is so hard. We are always trying to do things our way (myself included). We will never see and live in the fullness of Christ until we let go of our own control. It’s pretty ridiculous really when we think that we can do a better job. He did create us, the world, the universe, the heavens, absolutely everything!!!

Extraordinary: The Life You're Meant to Live DVD Curriculum

By John Bevere

Extraordinary: The Life You're Meant to Live

By John Bevere

In Him

2010-01-27T23:08:00.004+10:30

How many of us truly living by grace? How many of us can really sit back, not be anxious for anything and give EVERY little anxious thought we have over to Him? We’re always worried about doing something or the need to do something. Yesterday, I was just thinking that I really want to get closer to God and really want to pray more and just be able to talk to Him all the time, then God showed me that I was actually being anxious about that!!! How ridiculous! God also showed me that I do that all the time! All He wanted me to do was to stop doing it (getting anxious that is). All He wants me to do is to just open my heart to Him and actually ASK Him what He wants me to do. How easy is that! He really doesn’t want us to worry about anything, even praying because He has already done everything thing for us. He took every WORRY with Him on the cross. As soon as I did that, I was surrounded is His presence and realized that all He wants is my heart. That is how you can walk in His perfect peace. We can’t do anything, only LET GO of our heart, stop trying to protect and control it, and give it over to Him. When we do that, He gives His heart over to us. Don’t you want to know the heart of God? I know I do! Can we just stop and let ourselves rest in Him? That is what the scripture means to ‘walk in Him’. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” Colossians 2:6. A lot of us just receive Jesus, but stop there. Some might even walk with Him, but here it is saying to walk IN Him. If we just receive Christ and that’s it, we are so open to attacks and can easily forget the things of God. “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to tradition of men, according to the basic principals of the world, and not according to Christ” Colossians 2:8. We can be totally affected and start believing what people say to us who are either in the world or not walking in Him, even if it is against the word of God. Our thinking, and the way we live, is just like being in the world, even though we have received Christ. Even when we’re walking with Him, the enemy can get to 3 of our sides, but when we are actually walking IN Him, we are totally protected, nothing can pull us down! All we have to do is let God do everything for us! The enemy can try and come against our flesh, but if our inward man is protected, it doesn’t matter. The flesh will go back to this earth and disinigrate into dust. The times when we are not fully walking in Him and we do get attacked, we re-act in the flesh, just as the world does. We just have to believe that we are surrounded by Him. We are surrounded by His power, His love, His peace, His presence, His joy, HIS FULLNESS (Colossians 9). It’s all through us and all surrounding us, if only we knew who we really are in Him.

Walking in the Spirit

2010-01-14T13:33:00.011+10:30

God has been really challenging me to walk in the Spirit a lot more lately. To be really sensitive to Him, to His voice, His promptings and knowing what He wants me to do. I've been listening to John Bevere's Drawing Near series again and he mentions in there that you need to get into the right channel. One of the ways I sometimes do this is by praying in tongues, which is also a powerful way to walk in the Spirit. John goes on to say that we can be praying in tongues and our mind is actually on something else, which I can definitely relate to. A couple of times I have been at our home group praying in tongues and having one eye on the kids thinking, "I hope they don't start mucking around now!" I know exactly what he means! There is a way, a channel, where you can learn how to draw near to God, where your mind is totally clear and you can focus your spirit on connecting with Him. That is when the hidden mysteries of God are revealed. When the revelations come. God is Spirit and can only connect to our spirits. We don't know what is happening in other people's lives, but He does and can reveal things to us when we're walking in the Spirit. When we can live like that, we don't tend to worry so much if anyone has anything against us. We can walk in peace, love and joy. We are all spiritual beings. Anything and everything that we see now in the flesh will disappear and be gone one day, so don't you think that our spiritual inward man is way more important than our outward fleshly man? Wouldn't our lives be so much better if we can discern when someone is talking from their flesh / a wrong spirit or from the Spirit of God inside them and not letting our own flesh get in the way, not letting ourselves get offended. God is the only one who knows what is actually going on. When we're humble, open, staying close to Him and tuning in to His channel, He can reveal it to us. As a result, we won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh "When we walk in the Spirit, we don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh" Galatians 5:16. I don't believe that is talking about a lust between a man and a women. That is talking about any lust that the flesh can feed on, it is anything and everything that is actually in control of us, apart from God. It is something in the flesh (pride, unforgiveness, anger, hatred, selfishness etc) or some sort of pleasure in the world that we have chosen to put above God and usually we are not aware of it or that it has happened. The greatest thing is, that when we start walking in the Spirit and drawing near to God, those things will be made manifest in the light and come to the surface, so we can deal with them, growing and fulfilling God purpose for our lives.

Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy With God, DVD Curriculum

By John Bevere / Messenger International

Introducing John Bevere's first ever INDIVIDUAL KIT. Drawing extensively from his own journey, John has specially written and prepared this Drawing Near message to lead you into times of private and intimate communion with God Himself. This extraordinary devotional kit acts as a treasure map guiding you around potential pitfalls and breaking through personal barriers leading you into new and glorious realms of a lifelong adventure with God!
This kit contains:

Best-selling book Drawing Near
A Personal Devotional Journey to His Heart Journal
12 Lessons on 4 DVDs

Do you believe that He is?

2010-01-04T12:02:00.000+10:30

I really hope this encourages and helps you out there with what I write about, because I know it helps me. It’s really God’s writing’s, not my own. He’s just using me as a vessel and stirring my spirit at the same time. I love it!

I think we forget sometimes that God really wants to bless us. It’s like there are so many troubles, problems and worries in this world, that when we’re not constantly reminding ourselves of God’s promises (His promises for us are HUGE by the way – bigger than what we can ever imagine ourselves), we slip into the worldly thinking of, “We don’t deserve to be blessed,” or “How can we be happy and not worry when you look at what’s going on”. The truth is, we don’t deserve to be blessed at all, we actually all deserve death. It is only by God’s grace and undeserved, unmerited favor that we can have an abundant life full of God’s blessings, but we have to believe it and actually not look at the world or what’s going on it.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

We must first COME to Him (He won’t first come to us) and believe that He is. What does that mean? We must believe that God said we are favored, we must believe that He HAS chosen us for a holy calling. We must believe that we are a royal priesthood, as it is written. We must believe that He loves us unconditionally. We must believe that He wants to be so intimate with us. We must believe that he shall supply ALL OUR NEEDS according to HIS riches in glory. We must believe that He wants to fill us with His peace and joy and take away all our burdens and worries. THEN we must believe that He WILL reward us when we seek Him with all our heart. When we pour out our heart to Him and receive everything that He has for us. God has all these treasures stored up for each one of us (while we are here on this earth, not just in heaven), so much desiring for us to have them, if only we would believe that He is.

Why are so many of us struggling financially?

2010-01-01T22:11:00.004+10:30

REVIEW – Christian Financial Freedom

It is really amazing how many people are struggling financially. It’s even more amazing how many believers are struggling financially. It’s almost worse, in most cases. How many times have I heard, “I’ll have to see if I can afford if,” or, “Sorry, can’t do it, I’ve blown the budget this week.” The worry of not having enough money to pay for the mortgage, bills, fees, clothes, food, petrol etc is so evident now, not just in the world either. It’s subtly crept into the church. If you say that you don’t worry about those things, you’re almost looked at as a weirdo or told, “That’s just not being realistic.” I’m so sick of it! What is supposed to be ‘realistic’ to every believer of Jesus Christ, is whatever is done in Heaven, shall be done on earth. Do we really think that God was in Heaven worried about not having enough money to create the earth or create human life? Do you think He had to go over His budget on the 7^th day after all that work? That’s just stupid. We are favored and beloved children of the most High God, our Father and King. So many of us want to try and control our money ourselves and don’t even give God a second thought. We can just get in the habit of tithing because it is “the right thing to do”, not even worrying with asking God about all our other money and expenses, then find ourselves in extreme debt. Can we really let go, stop controlling our money and let God worry about it? He is supposed to be our Lord – right? He is the King of all Kings and owns everything anyway. Why then do we still worry and try to control it? God doesn’t want us to be struggling and in debt! How can we bless and help others if we’re worried all the time and haven’t got any money? God also wants us to be debt free and totally blessed financially, and also NOT to feel guilty about it! We need to trust Him and not our bank account. We need His wisdom and direction, not our own.

“I do not have to worry, saying, “What shall I eat?” or “What shall I drink?” or “What shall I wear?” For all these the gentiles seek. For my heavenly Father knows that I need all these things. But if I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added to me. Therefore I do not have to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about it’s own things.” Matthew 6:31-34)

We are not meant to worry about anything, especially that to do with money or ‘things’ we need. God knows what we need! We tend to put that in the back of our mind. The key is to put God first in everything, His will, and His way. He knows the very best way for our lives, every single part and detail.

^“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Not worrying and living in His peace is real Kingdom living! We are sons and daughters of the only King, do you really think He wants us to be poor and always worried about money? Not my God! We are royalty.

I’ve been reading a couple of e-books and listening to some audio by Terry Dean that’s really got me stirred up even more about this issue. He is also very passionate about believers getting totally debt free and being abundantly blessed to bless others. His testimony is awesome!

Check it out! - www.nickysentme.com

Above The Waves

2009-12-17T08:12:00.001+10:30

God is so amazing! He just blows me away with how much He looks after us and is totally constant, never wavering in His love towards us. I’ve just been reading John 6:16 – 21 where Jesus walks on the water. What happens first is the disciples decide to get into a row boat and cross the sea towards Capernaum, then a strong wind arose which made the water really rough. All of a sudden, they see Jesus walking on the rough water! Can you imagine that? Jesus would have been just casually going for a walk up and down over the big waves – surely He has a sense of humor! He was probably thinking, “This will really freak them out!” And sure enough it did! Anyway, Jesus tells them not to panic, then they were fine, He got in the boat and then the boat was already at the place where they were all meant to be going to. Obviously the disciples knew where Jesus wanted them to go, but they didn’t wait for Him. They went when they thought it was time to go, they then got in trouble with the rough water. Like when God has called us to do something and we do it in our own strength or timing and don’t wait for His direction, we usually end up in trouble and have all sorts of problems. It’s in those times we need to look up and see Him walking above all our troubles and problems. They are all under His feet. He is in total control, we don’t have to worry, all we need to do is receive Him (like the disciples did in the boat) and let Him guide our way, in His timing. He will take us the right way and calm the storms in our lives. He knows the best way for us to take. After the disciples did receive Jesus, not only did the storm stop, but they were automatically at land and where they were meant to be. Most of the time, we want things to happen straight away with what God has called us to do, “How do I make things happen quicker?” (I know I can get pretty impatient at times!), but Jesus is WALKING. He doesn’t run across the water. He doesn’t see the disciples in trouble and think, “Quick! I have to go and save them!”, then race out there to get them. They actually made their own choice of rushing and going in their own time and as a result, found it was the wrong thing to do. They didn’t wait for His direction. The amazing thing is that Jesus knew exactly what they were doing (even before they did it!) and He was right there in their time of need, but the disciples had to look above the waves, above the troubles and problems. No matter how many times we rush things and do it our way, God is always there ready to calm our storms, even when it’s our own fault. He’s always there saying, “Look to me and don’t be afraid, don’t worry about what’s going on around you.” How awesome is He? Sometimes when we do do it our way and we’re not listening to God’s voice and direction, He draws away. Don’t get me wrong, He will never leave us, He just steps back a bit, which can make it a bit harder to hear His voice. He has created us with our own will and will never force His love onto us. He wants us to willingly love Him back and have a close intimacy with Him through our own will – not by force. As soon as we get back on track with what He has called us to do, make His will first, receive and walk in His kingdom again, He draws near to us and the storm just seems like a distant memory.

Who are you listening to?

2009-10-30T23:04:00.001+10:30

I’m reading John at the moment and a light bulb went off after reading John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We don’t know where the Holy Spirit comes from, He’s just always been there and He goes wherever He wants. We can hear the Holy Spirit and like the wind, can see the effects of the Holy Spirit, but we have no idea where He’s going to take to us, unless we are actually listening. Our ears need to be tuned in at all times for us to really live a ‘born again’ life. If you think about new born babies, they have to learn absolutely everything – it’s all new to them and it’s all foreign. Like when we become born of the Spirit, we have to learn everything of the Spirit. It’s totally foreign to the world and at the start doesn’t seem right, normal or natural to us at all (because it’s not – it’s spiritual), but the Holy Spirit’s aim is for it to be normal, just like Jesus was in this world. How important is it for us then to be listening to the Holy Spirit? No wonder this gets repeated so many times in Revelation 2 and 3 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” He’s not talking to unbelievers here, He’s talking to those of us who are born again, born of the Spirit (we are the church). We are living in the last days and if we don’t get into the habit of listening to the Spirit, we could be listening to anything.

Who is the real you?

2009-09-23T22:07:00.000+09:30

I used to be so shy from as young as I can remember up until I was in my early twenties. I used to be really self-conscious and worry about what other people thought. I used to think, “If only I was as confident as so-and-so”. A real fear gripped me. I prayed for that fear to go for years! Anyway, I was at kindy and just started talking to one of the mum’s there that I’ve never met before and I wasn’t nervous or worried or anything. I actually loved doing it, surprisingly enough! I then realised, while I was driving home that I wasn’t self-conscious anymore. I just started thanking God that that fear was gone and saying to Him, “That’s definitely You doing that God, coz that’s not me or my personality at all!” He then said back, “That IS the real you, that IS the person I created you to be, that IS your real nature.” Then it hit me! I can’t believe that for so many years I’ve lived thinking that that self-consciousness and me being shy was the real me! How many times I’ve used that excuse! That is NOT the real me! Now that I have kids, I’ve been continually saying over their lives that they are Kingdom Influencers and all the great powerful things that God says about them. I really try and watch what I say to them too now. They are the future generation. I want them to be all that I never was. So many of us have grown up with such deception about ourselves for so many years, that we just think it’s our ‘personality’ when it’s totally opposite of what God says about us. Who is the real you?

God is not an OGRE!!!

2009-09-03T22:20:00.001+09:30

I know that I’m bringing this up again, but you know, I keep forgetting and have to be constantly reminded by the Holy Spirit that He knows what’s best for me. He knows me more than I know myself. The other thing I forget a lot is that He knows what I like and what I don’t like, He knows what things relaxes me and gives me joy – physically and spiritually. Sometimes I let condemnation get into my mind. I’m not aware of it at the start. The devil is very subtle. I get a guilty feeling and hear a voice saying, “You’ve blown it, what are you doing? That’s not right!” I’ve just noticed that it happens quite a bit with me. It can make me feel as if I’ve really disappointed God and I can feel quite condemned. What a huge lie!!! I have to remember that the best, most joyful, most awesome, most powerful life I can ever have is already inside of me. God is not an ogre (so He told me today!). He loves it when I’m happy, when I’m at peace, when I’m living in the Kingdom. I sometimes forget and then have to proclaim the scriptures and what I already have, stop and listen to His voice. When He needs to correct me, He does it with so much love and never in a condemning way. He loves me so much and is always wanting to be with me and to talk with me, to fill me with His precious love and peace, no matter what I’ve done, but I’m not always listening, I’m not always aware that He’s there. When I am listening, I just want Him so much more. He will never condemn me. It’s like when Amber just looks at me, I love it, let alone when she’s smiling, baby talking or laughing! She is so precious to me. We are so much more than that to God. How amazing is His love for us! Why do we still at times, do it our way and not ask Him, when He’s the one who knows the very best for our lives? I think the devil has put fear and condemnation in so many believers and has tried to make us think God is an ogre. He absolutely hates how much God loves us and will try anything and everything to get us to believe a lie!

Time to start fighting!

2009-08-17T15:52:00.002+09:30

I’ve had such an urgency lately to get into some spiritual warfare! I’m so fed up with the devil having a hold over areas in my life, my family’s and life of my friends. Most of the time, we just carry on in our lives and put up with ‘stuff’ that’s getting us down (physically, spiritually & mentally), which stops us from doing all that God wants us to do. I’ve had it with the devil!!! I’ve just read Ezekiel 37, which is where the Lord made the dry bones come to life, God joined the bones together and put flesh on the bones, but they were still dead. They didn’t come to life until God breathed His spirit into the bodies, but not only did they come to life, they were “an exceedingly great army” (37:10). How awesome is that! We were dead before the Holy Spirit came into our lives, but now that we have Him, we are MEANT TO BE an exceedingly great army! We are meant to fight in the spirit! We need to start using our weapons! The word says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). I have been really proclaiming that I, my family and my friends live in the Kingdom of God, where my Lord is the supreme authority and that there is no pain, no sickness, no worries, no strongholds in the Kingdom! The devil has lost and did lose all authority when Jesus rose again. We really need to read and proclaim (proclaim it until we believe it) what it says in the word, speak in tongues, pray, praise and worship God – these are our weapons. If someone went up to someone in my family or one of my friends and punched them out – I wouldn’t just say calmly, “Well that’s life.” I would probably get extremely angry and want to punch them out (there’s that lovely flesh rising up!), but we just let our minds be in captivity. That is where the war is. The first thing Jesus preached was “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here”. ‘Repent’ means to change your thinking, think the way God thinks. If we all did that and really BELIEVED that we live in the Kingdom of God, we would be an exceedingly great army!

Living in 'Cruise Control'

2009-07-28T21:24:00.001+09:30

It’s amazing how many things are around these days to make life easier. You can now play tennis, with a tennis racket in the comfort of your home in front of the TV (Wii), don’t have to worry about the weather, getting burnt, or the rain etc. We have recliners that you just have to sit in to have a full body massage. You can have your whole house connected to a computer that can run almost everything that you can control through your mobile phone. I was just driving to drop Jay off at kindy this morning and just had to press a couple of buttons and not worry about the speed limit anymore, just had to steer the wheel. How good is cruise control? Apart from when you come up to a tractor that’s going 70kms below the speed limit, which is also what happened to me this morning on the way!!! Usually I would get angry and frustrated, especially because I was running late, but I was surprisingly pretty calm. The only reason I was calm is that I was talking with God and was in His presence. He’s actually the one who told me to slow down (because I was speeding!) when I first left and to put the car on cruise control, that way I don’t have to worry. God’s presence is like cruise control. When we’re in His presence, there are no worries. Problems just don’t seem as bad or are non-existent any more. There’s just an overwhelming sense of His love and perfect peace, with absolutely no stress, anger, frustration and we can actually be in a place where we can hear God’s voice. I have found it so hard to hear God when I’m stressed and in a rush, angry or frustrated. When I DO tune in and listen to Him, He’s always telling me to slow down and not to worry about anything. We have all these things in this natural world to give us peace, and ‘less stress’, but everyone is going so fast, most people you talk to ARE stressed and just ‘too busy’. No wonder we can’t hear God’s voice and receive God’s peace and presence. When we’re in His presence (on cruise control), we’re also going the perfect pace because God has taken over. We might come across things or problems that slow us down (like that stupid tractor!!! Only joking – God bless that man! It really didn’t bother me at the time!), but life is so much easier when we’re in His presence and listening to His voice. If we try and race or speed here and there and do life in our own strength, we get ourselves all hyped up, stressed out, in trouble and a speeding fine!

Food for the soul

2009-06-04T16:27:00.000+09:30

Well, it’s about time I wrote another post I think! Was it the last one that I said I’d try and do one each week? Anyway, the last seven weeks have been interesting and yes, that’s how old our beautiful little girl Amber is now. To be honest, it feels like I’ve had absolutely no spare time what-so-ever, as a result I haven’t really spent a whole lot of time with God. I’ve been exhausted, extremely tired, stressed out, angry, crying, yelling at the kids, yelling at Darren and also have had 2 sinus headaches, which are really intense and lasts for 24 hours, haven’t found anything that can get rid of them yet. It was last week that I realised what I was doing and how easy I had let myself get like that. Also realised the fact that I need God everyday. I can’t survive a day without Him. That revelation of receiving God’s love I had a fair while a go had slipped my mind until last week. I now realise for me to function in God’s kingdom, I need to do that everyday, but it’s not just God’s love that He’s ready to pour out into my life, it’s total peace when everything seems like it’s out of control, it’s His awesome power and presence, it’s also His amazing strength. Everything that is His, is ours. We are created in His image. I just heard a testimony of Lisa Bevere who asked Jesus into her heart, then being told by John Bevere that she was saved wondered what that meant. John said that she was in darkness and now she was in the light, her body, soul and spirit were saved and whole again and filled with light. After hearing that, Lisa asked if that meant she was healed from her sickness with food allergies, so would stop getting stomach pains all the time, so John prayed for that and Lisa was healed. We really do limit God don’t we? I know I do all the time, especially in these last weeks! All of that was available to me and I didn’t receive it. Salvation means that we’re saved from everything in this world as well as having eternal life! I do understand that I have just had our third child, but it’s amazing how it all worked out when I did spend time with God. Another thing I haven’t been doing much is meditating on the word. I wasn’t having much food for my soul. That’s another reason that scripture says the word of God is ‘living’ and why we need to walk in God’s presence, walk in the spirit and receive what ever spiritual things God has for us, because we are meant to live in a spiritual kingdom on earth. If we think about our natural life and that we have to eat and drink everyday, how much more do we need our spiritual food - God’s word and His presence everyday? We can spiritually die and how easy that can be done, as I’ve just snapped out of! I mean, I HAVE to eat at least 3 times a day (usually more than that!) and at the moment I’m drinking about 3 litres of water a day. If I compare that to how often I talk or think about God or meditate / think about His word a day, it’s pretty dismal, but I’m determined to get there! Now that I’m getting closer to God again, I’m just craving to get more of Him and to be everything He wants me to be. In those times, everything else is insignificant (food, drink, this world).

He is always patiently waiting for us...

2009-03-26T18:04:00.005+10:30

A lot of things have been going through my mind lately, but it’s all really related to God’s love. First thing I might start with is how I see so many believers deceived when it comes to having a close, intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. I know a lot of people who don’t think they’re worthy enough, or the fact that they’ve done way too many things against God, even just to pray. Some even think that because they haven’t ‘prayed’ or read the word for so long, that God won’t even accept them, that there really isn’t any point. Now I know this, because I’ve been there. I know exactly how they feel and it is such a HUGE LIE from the devil!!! It doesn’t matter how long it’s been either – it doesn’t mean squat to God! God is love and His love is everlasting, never ending, always there to just pour into our lives. God is always waiting for us to come to Him. His love is not condemning, He will never reject us, He will never leave us nor forsake us, God never changes. Why on earth do we trust the things in this world, including our emotions rather than trusting in God, who created us and this world and the fact that He is always loving us, constantly??? It’s not just God’s love that He’s ready to pour into our lives though, it’s joy, peace, healing, power, strength, comfort, blessings and the list goes on. God’s nature is ‘giving’. There is a lot more in this, which I’ll write about later. Another thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot is how much the Holy Spirit longs to have a close intimate relationship with us. I’ve been listening to the ‘Draw Near’ series by John Bevere lately (thanks Mum!!!), which has really brought me to tears (in a good way) and made me realise even more how the Holy Spirit is just waiting for us to spend time with Him and talk to Him. John quotes the scripture, ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you’ (James 4:8), which he goes on to say that we are the ones who have to draw near to Him first. God is never pushy and He’ll never push His love onto us, He just waits, always just waiting for us. He has given us a choice and He can never force us to love Him back. How amazing is that? The other thing John talks about is how praying is meant to be a dialog not a monolog. It’s a two way conversation, not a one way. A lot of us have turned prayer into a ritual that we just talk for the whole thing, setting aside a specific time for God and bringing our requests, but we never let the Holy Spirit talk to us. I was like this for years, until I had that revelation of believing and receiving God’s love. I used to have a routine and pray for a certain thing for 5 mins, then the next thing for 5 mins etc until I got to an hour every morning (but most of the time I’d either fall asleep or be getting other thoughts about what I have to do in the day etc). It didn’t work, because the Holy Spirit is actually a person and that is NOT how intimate relationships work! I’ve also been talking to the Holy Spirit anytime through the day now, rather than just a set time. I can’t express enough how much better my life is when I’m in close relationship with God.

Is He Lord of all or not Lord at all?

2009-03-10T23:24:00.003+10:30

Well my plan with this blog was to at least write a post a week, if not more, but we’ve copped a bit of sickness and different things that has slowed me down a bit. It’s very interesting though, that when you know what God wants you to do, how many different things ‘all of a sudden’ pop up, distract you and try and stop you from doing it. I know without a doubt that this is part of God’s plan for my life. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but only God knows the fruit of what can come of this and there’s no way I’m going to stop! I might slow down at times, but I’ll never give up! I’m reading a book by Dr Myles Munroe at the moment and I must say, it’s the most eye-opening book I’ve ever read – definitely will be a favourite. There are two things from the book that have really challenged me this week. The first one is (and I’ve just realised while writing this post that I’ve subtly let this one slip in my own life with this blog!), that each one of us are citizens of the Kingdom of God and our job in this world (under God’s supreme authority), is to dominate, rule, lead and have power and authority over our own personal lives, this earth and our area of gifting which God has given to us (not over people). Each one of us has an assignment from our King, we all have to find out what that job is and the one thing that a lot of us forget (talking to myself here!) is that all authority has been taken and stripped from the devil and his demons and has been given to us. He has no power over us (which I wrote a bit on in the last post). It’s so easy to forget! Like the sickness our family has just been through, I prayed for healing, but really how I should’ve prayed or declared is, “How dare you satan come against God’s beloved citizens of the Kingdom! All authority has been given to me, so I command this sickness to go now in the name of Jesus!” and that’s it! We have access to this Kingdom 24 hours a day, but never live in it! The devil knows it too, that’s why he himself will snatch away any understanding of the Kingdom from any believer (Matthew 13:19a). It certainly does mess with our minds though and that’s exactly where we need to focus on – renewing our minds. Jesus main message was, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.” (Matthew 4:17) and the word ‘repent’ actually means to change your thinking, and to think like God. It doesn’t mean to feel guilty of all the bad things we’ve done in life, Jesus didn’t come into this world to condemn the world, but to save to world. The second thing that has challenged me this week from the book (after all that!), is the fact that God is either Lord over all or not Lord at all (over our own lives). I’ll explain, when we call Him ‘Lord’, it means that He has total authority over every part of our life. Obviously we are all human and make mistakes all the time, but how amazing is God that He can just forgive us. It’s a good thing that we’re saved by grace and not by works! To me ‘Lord of all’ means letting go of my own desires, worries, thoughts, wants and giving it over to God, so He can control them instead of me. Doing what God wants me to do, how He wants me to think, what He wants me to say everyday. Years ago, this used to freak me out. I used to be so scared to let things go and would try and control the way my life went. It’s actually how God created us to be in some way (to have dominion and authority), but we seem to miss one vital thing - God is our supreme authority. Now I believe, know and accept the fact that He knows way better, what is best for me than I know myself – He created me and I need Him to be the Lord of my life. I’m definitely not saying that I can do all of that every second of the day, because I’m not perfect and my flesh does rise up, but I’m a lot better with giving things over to God now than I used to be. I don’t stress out like I used to or worry about things, I’m more at peace, it is such a better way to live. God is not some huge ogre that will order us to do this and that. He just absolutely loves us to bits and wants the best for us. The love and care we have ever felt in this world, doesn’t even compare to the love and care God has for us – why do we hold on so tight to our own lives, worries and problems?

Do we really believe?

2009-02-19T16:36:00.002+10:30

We take so many things for granted (well I know I do anyway!). Those of us who believe in God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, the word etc, can easily just miss the promises and the things that God already has given to us. We can go through this whole life and not live an abundant life, like the word says. We can just simply read the bible and not let the promises get into our spirit or heart. Do we really believe the scripture that says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)? The word of God is living, it’s alive, it’s life, the secret to life is in His word. How amazing is that and I’ve only just stopped on the first part of this scripture!!! It is powerful! God’s power totally oversees any sort of power on this earth. We live in God’s kingdom, in God’s world, so anything that does come against us, has absolutely NO POWER over us! God owns the whole earth anyway, He’s in charge and He has given His power to us (2 Timothy 1:7). I’ve been thinking a lot about living in God’s kingdom lately and have been trying to renew my thinking as much as I can, which is the only way we can live in God’s kingdom, but our bodies obviously have to function in this world and deal with people in the world who have no idea what we’re on about. Seeing as though pretty much all that we deal with in this world comes straight through our ears and eyes, I been trying to consciously remember that I live in a different kingdom. Anything negative that has been spoken to me, I don’t accept and remind myself that I live in God’s kingdom. It’s what God has for me, not what people say to me. Even if they have facts and it’s totally impossible in this world, I’ll still remind myself that I live in a different world where all things ARE POSSIBLE! Nothing is going to stop what God’s plan is for my life! Then there’s the other thing about worrying. Why do we worry when God’s got everything in His hands and in His control. How much easier would it be to just let God worry about things instead of us stewing on things (money, sickness, kids, jobs, bosses, expectations of others) and in some cases getting sick and depressed. We are all still human though and there is a constant war going on in our minds between the flesh and the spirit. Everyone falls short. Thankyou so much God, that we are saved by grace and it’s not what we do, so we can just admit where we’ve gone wrong, then keep following His course! The more we have God going through our minds with the promises He’s already given us, the easier we can give our burdens over to Him. I didn’t even get to finish the rest of that scripture!!! Oh well, another time :-)

Time to change my thinking - yet again!

2009-02-12T16:16:00.004+10:30

How easy is it to slip? You know, just slowly and subtly how we can slip back into negative thoughts. It doesn’t even have to be negative, just not remembering and claiming the promises God has already given us and get back into living an average life. God has not called us to be AVERAGE, but most of us live that way, when we don’t have to (including myself). I’m 31 weeks pregnant atm and I have actually been finding myself, even today, saying, “I’m so exhausted and tired. I can’t even do the dishes everyday let alone the housework; my legs, back and feet are killing me! I’m over this pregnancy! This is so much worse than the other two times I’ve been pregnant!” I’ve been saying it to my friends and thinking it to myself a lot lately. I know most people would say, “Well, you’ve got a great excuse! That’s what happens when you’re pregnant and you have another two kids under 5 to look after. You’re hormones are all over the place too,” so I was just driving home this afternoon and realised what I had been doing. I think it started a couple of weeks ago with just one or two thoughts and very subtly changed into thinking about it a lot and talking about it. Seriously, is anything too big for God? No way! We might live in this world, but we’re NOT meant to THINK like the world. I know it can be hard (I’ve definitely been there quite a few times, like today!), but our thoughts and MY THOUGHTS need to be from the heavens throne room, how God thinks. The kingdom of God, the spiritual / supernatural world needs to be more real to us than this earthly world, in our thoughts and mind, because that world, the spiritual world, God’s world, created this earthly world we live in. We’re meant to live in the kingdom of God, which means heaven on earth, what goes on in heaven is MEANT to happen on earth – like the Lord’s prayer (which we can so easily take for granted!), “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). I am really talking to myself here and know that I need to keep close to God to make that happen. My favorite scripture at the moment is Matthew 6:31-34 and the main part I go over and over in my mind is, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Even the start of this passage is so good, “Don’t worry!” God is always telling us not to worry, don’t be afraid, don’t fear! There is so much in this scripture that I could just keep going on and on, but I better leave it for now, save it for another post, I just can’t help myself sometimes!

Another life-changing moment

2009-02-05T14:17:00.004+10:30

Obviously the 1^st time was that supernatural intervention I had from God when I was at that party Bit of Background. Another life changing moment for me happened probably about a year and a half ago. I listened to a CD from Joseph Prince who talked about God’s love. Before this ‘life changing event’ when I heard anything to do with this subject, I thought, ‘Well God loves everyone, everyone knows that’, but I actually did strive to love God and people more. I’d go over the ‘love’ scriptures and memorise them, because I knew that deep down love is the major key for living in God’s kingdom. I just didn’t know how I could do it and I knew it wasn’t meant to be in my own strength. God says that His yoke is easy, well it never used to be EASY for me! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’ve ever been a mean person, I just kept wondering HOW could I really have that love for God and others more? God talks about having perfect love; What does that really mean??? How the heck can any person have perfect love in this world??? Well, on the CD’s Joseph Prince talked about receiving God’s love personally. He kept saying that he BELIEVES that HE is God’s beloved and favoured son (just like Jesus) and that he feeds and receives on His love for him, which automatically makes Joseph fall in love with God more. The perfect love that God is talking about, is God’s perfect love FOR US. Receiving and BELIEVING that God really does love each one of us personally, just like Jesus (as He is in the world, so are we). Anyway, I thought I’d give it a go. I didn’t really know what to do at first, so I just sat still for a bit then started saying and thinking that ‘I am God’s beloved daughter’. I then started hearing God’s still small voice saying, ‘I love you Nik, you are so precious to me, you are my beloved daughter. Just receive My love. This is the key for you. Don’t worry’ and straight away I felt this amazing love all through me, the same feeling I felt at that party. All my worries and fears just disappeared immediately and I just started getting this deep love for God and for others that I have never had before! I just kept asking God, ‘HOW can you seriously love me that much, I’ve got so much crap in my life?’ I then just felt even more love from Him and just broke down. God looks straight past our ‘crap’. He loves each one of us regardless and the first thing I believe He wants for each one of us, is to BELIEVE how much He loves us with real, pure, everlasting love, how precious we are to Him. He wants every one of us to hear Him say ‘YOU ARE my beloved son / daughter’. This moment really did totally change my relationship with God and my life. I just need to keep sitting still and listen now!

Bit of background

2009-01-11T17:39:00.003+10:30

Thought I’d give you all a bit of background about myself, so perhaps you’d get a bit more understanding why and where exactly my mind’s at atm. Well apparently I was the worst baby in the world. Mum got to that desperate stage when I was a 1 yr old and became a ‘born again Christian’. My Dad is an atheist (hasn’t really changed much), so Mum took us 4 kids to church every Sunday morning. When I was about 13 yrs old, I stopped going with Mum. I decided to not worry too much about God when I got to High School, put Him on the back burner and focus on guys, partying, alcohol and drugs. It’s just what any parent would want for their child, or is that their worst nightmare? – I know what it would be for me as a parent! I was definitely not in a good place for about 5 years, but I always knew that God was real and knew all about Jesus and always felt that I was doing the wrong thing. I had nightmares about going to hell in that time too, that made me feel even more guilty (my opinions about the ‘guilt’ feeling have changed over the past few years too, which will definitely come up in this blog sometime).

One night, I was at a party (pretty drunk before I got there) and had a headache, so I took a few headache tablets, then someone offered me some drugs and didn’t hesitate. I can’t remember how long it was after I had taken all that, that I started feeling sick, my heart was throbbing extremely fast and felt like it was going to explode, extremely dizzy and out-of-it. I threw up, then all I wanted to do was to lie down and go to sleep. The guy I was with put me on a bed to try and sleep it off and he just sat down next to me for a while to make sure I was OK. I had a real bad feeling, that if I did close my eyes, I would actually die. Anyway, I couldn't stop my eyes from closing and had this nightmare / vision thing (I was telling this guy everything that I was seeing) that all the people at the party were just getting shot, stabbed and slaughtered. I was freaking out, so swallowing my pride I desperately yelled out to God to help me and save me in my last hour, because I literally felt that ‘this was it, my life was over’. Straight away I became sober and felt this amazing feeling of totally peace, love, joy, freedom all mixed together and it was the most REAL feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. No drug could ever compare to it – could never even come close. This was so real, I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t call out to God sooner and I knew 100% that God was real, no one could ever take that away from me. God was the only one who could’ve helped me out of that situation, no one else could’ve and didn’t even try. I knew that everyone there probably thought I was a complete nutter! Especially after the fact that I couldn’t help but tell everyone what had happened. To be honest though, I really didn’t care what they thought, because I knew in myself that what I experienced was more real than even life itself. Anyway, I haven’t looked back since, but I must say, the journey and my relationship I’ve had with God over the years, has changed dramatically! There have been a lot of wrong things that I’ve been taught by others and accepted, that I haven’t checked up on myself, so really it is my own fault being misled. It’s amazing how much we can just accept in our lives when we don’t have to. The funny thing is, (or should I say disturbing thing is,) that the majority of people who do believe in God ARE misled. As a result, people who don’t believe are hearing the wrong information. I might leave it at that for now, save the rest for some more posts.

Why this blog?

2009-01-10T18:13:00.000+10:30

This is my very first post - obviously! Not my first blog. I really wanted a blog where I could express what exactly is going through my mind, which for a lot of people would be extremely unrealistic and probably a bit scary even. I can be very deep at times, well probably in this blog, all the time, but trust me - I can get extremely silly and have fun (as you can see from the photo of me!). Being 26 weeks pregnant and entertaining 2 boys - I have to at least be a bit of kid! My husband though is probably the biggest kid of the lot, out of us - we all have a lot of fun together! Well I'll just leave at this for now and start my deep revelations soon, so stay tuned...