Posted by: pastorapbell | November 2, 2010

as we focus on the life of Peter the son of John

This month we will be looking at some of the traits of Peter the apostle and seeing how we can learn from his journey of faith in our modern world.

The life of Peter is an interesting one. He lived in Galilee where he plied his trade as a fisherman. He was a businessman and worked in the family business with his brother Andrew. The fishing business was messy, labour intensive, but very lucrative. From this Peter was able to build a house by the sea, purchase several boats and run a small consortium in Galilee among the local businessmen, possibly in Capernaum(see Matt 4:12-18).

At the start of Jesus’ ministry he needed people who he could train and pour himself into for three years. Having waited for thirty years to fulfil the legality of manhood [the legal age to become a man and speak in public according to Judaism was 30 years old], the time had come to start the proclamation that the ‘kingdom of God’ had arrived. And that this kingdom was already here on earth but was only visible to those who could ‘see’ it. At first neither Peter or his brother Andrew understood what Jesus was about but they sensed that something out of the ordinary was happening and put their business on hold to find out what was going on.

So our first encounter with Peter is one where he leaves his business and his personal interests to follow a man who spoke about a parallel kingdom, told people about their past and prepared them for a great future (John1:48) .

Today a real encounter with the Jesus of scripture will turn your world upside down. Like Peter, however, we have to ‘see’ Jesus for who he is [the son of God, who is God the son] lay aside our businesses and follow him.

Read St John 1:19-51

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 31, 2010

as we earth our faith by undergoing heart surgery

Having faith is one thing but having the right attitude and acting in the right manner is a completely different matter. As we have been discussing how we reposition ourselves this month, it is quite evident that for us to truly get in line with what God is doing at this time in our localities requires a total re-evaluation of what we do and how we do it.  This re-evaluation may require us to take drastic decisions about how we operate and with whom we associate in the future. 

For Joshua and the Israelite, their drastic decision was evidenced by all the fighting men agreeing to be circumcised. This indicated that they were willing to be a part of the original covenant that God made with their forefathers and were willing to re-consecrate themselves to be active participants of this covenant again.

Today we have a better covenant but we still need to be active participants of this covenant. We do this not by being physically circumcised but by circumcising our hearts. This is where the confusion arises, namely how do I circumcise my heart?

We are reminded in scripture that the heart of humanity is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). This wickedness is not according to today’s jargon but that as a general rule humanity tends to be in rebellion against God. The question is how do we avert this rebellion?

According to what we have been saying this month, it can only be done when we have a Gilgal experience. That is, we undergo ‘heart’ surgery and pour in the ‘oil’ and ‘wine’ of the word to bring about healing and restoration. We will actually develop a ‘spirit’ of hope and start to see things from a completely different perspective.

So let us ask the Lord to perform heart surgery on us and replace our hearts of stone with one of flesh that is sensitive to his touch.

Read 1Sam 16:6-13; Jeremiah 17:5-13 and Ezekiel 36:26.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 29, 2010

as we eat the food of faith

As believers, one of the major failing in our lives is lack of knowledge. Ignorance is no excuse for the believer. We are commended to hide the word of the Lord in our hearts (minds) so that we will not sin against God (Psalm 119:105). Here he Psalmist is thinking about the propensity for the individual to rebel against what God says.  However, if you are ignorant of what God has said, you will act according to your own perceptions or feelings. That is, you will be acting from and be guided by your senses.

Ignorance is no excuse

It is for this reason that we are encouraged to get a daily diet of the word, chew it up and regurgitate it so that it gets deep down into your psyche. Before you can hide something you need to have it. And we are so fortunate that during the Middle Ages people gave their lives so that we can have our own personal copy of the Bible, and today we can even choose what version we read it in.

 

To grow and develop we need food. Although the preparation and presentation of the food is important, the content of the meal is the most important thing. As we have seen in our society, fast food has many disadvantages but food that is marinated and left to soak before being cooked presents the best taste. We need to feed our faith on the food that has been prepared by many cooks over which incorporates the whole of human history as we know it.

Read 1Peter 2

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 26, 2010

as we recognise that the battle is still raging

Having the knowledge that the lord has gone before us to make the crooked paths straight and to remove the obstacles that would trip us up should really allow us to move bravely forward.  However, this is not always the case and we quickly forget this fact and become timid and afraid looking on our navels rather than looking to the lord.

It is for this reason that the lord constantly encouraged Joshua not to be ‘afraid’; I am with you, trust me and so on. Joshua heard the word and acted on it. And when there was disobedience in the camp he repented, sought the lord and started over again

Today the church as the army of God does not conquer the terrain occupied by the enemy because we have become too comfortable with the enemy. We need to raise up a people who understand spiritual warfare and are prepared to engage the spiritual enemies in our towns, cities and country. Like Joshua we need to recognise that the territories around us that is being taken by people who worship other gods are places where we as the body of Christ is losing the battle. Many of our church leaders are being taken out prematurely because they enter territories to minister without recognising the spirits that are in the locality.

Let us seek God so that we develop spiritual awareness of our locality and drive out the spirits who reside in those localities.

Read Joshua 24 as Joshua summaries how they got to where they were at!

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 26, 2010

as we exercise a ‘living faith’

Faith works, but we must also work our faith. An example of this is found in the life of Joshua. As a young man born in slavery, he heard stories that one day their God would deliver them from their oppressor and set them free. Like many of his contemporaries, as he grew older and saw the plight of his people he probably thought the day would never come. Yahweh is a God who always keeps his promises and sure enough a deliver came

the Lord always provide help

but not the one they expected. Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s home as a prince, killed an Egyptian citizen unlawfully, disappeared for forty years and then returned to the Israelites to lead them to a place where they could go and worship their God in peace (see Exodus 3).

Joshua witnessed all these things, saw the river Nile turn to blood, lived through the plagues and heard the cries of Egyptian mothers when their first born sons died just before they left Egypt. 

Now as an older mature man following God, Joshua is given the task of conquering all the land possessed by pagan kings as directed by God through Moses. It is a daunting task and not one that could not be accomplished ‘in his own’ strength. So he learns to walk by faith, and every step along the way the Lord goes ahead of him and gives him great victory. At Jericho (Ch. 6), at AI (Ch. 8), at Jerusalem (Ch. 10) and when all the kings join together against Israel (Ch. 11).

The Lord reassured Joshua, “do not be afraid for tomorrow about this time you will have defeated the enemies”(11:6).

The walk of faith is a difficult one, particularly when you cannot see a logical way out of your situation, But as God said to Joshua, “Tomorrow about this time things are going to change!” Faith is not logical but ethereal!

Read Joshua 11 & 12

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 25, 2010

as we live by faith

We are encouraged to live by faith; does this mean that we should abandon our intelligence? We are told in scripture that the Just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4) and the just here are those who act in a righteous manner. So as we live by faith there are conditions that apply, namely we must act in a manner that is Godly with justice and equity. We are then constrained to try to act as Jesus acted and apply this principle to every area of our lives.

Justice is being even handed and fair. One definition of justice is “giving to each what he or she is due.” The problem we face is, knowing what is “due”.

Functionally, “justice” is a set of universal principles which guide people in judging what is right and what is wrong, no matter what culture and society they live in. Justice is one of the four “cardinal virtues” of classical moral philosophy, along with courage, temperance (self-control) and prudence (efficiency). Faith, hope and charity are considered to be the three “religious” virtues. Virtues or “good habits” help individuals to develop fully their human potentials, thus enabling them to serve their own self-interests as well as work in harmony with others for their common good.

The ultimate purpose of all the virtues is to elevate the dignity and sovereignty of the human person.

These are product of faith in God and what the writer Habakkuk alludes to when he states that the just shall live by faith. Living by faith is not just blindly following the word in ignorance, but applying the fruit of the Spirit to our everyday lives.

Today let love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control be virtues you possess which emanates from a living faith in Jesus.

Read Hebrews 11

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 23, 2010

as we develop the walk of faith

The problem with indiscipline is that we can trivialise our faith and reduce it to a culture of just speaking it and

Faith works!

it will happen or let us think positively and we will get the desires of our hearts. I mentioned yesterday that learning to walk by faith involves a large proportion of trust. This trust is not equal to blind faith but is built up and underpinned by the word of God. The difficulty we have among Christians is the ease with which we accept new concepts and ideas without first carrying out our due diligence to determine their authenticity. This point was graphically demonstrated last Saturday when yours truly circulated an email which appealed to the spirit of greed which is in all of us. Needless to say I quickly repented and learned my lesson from the rebukes I received.

Similarly the subject of faith has been skewed by many Christians falling foul of people who play on their weaknesses. The ‘word of faith’ movement; the name it and claim it brigade; and those who encourage their adherents to use their new found faith in Christ to kill off their enemies.

Our faith must be rooted in the word (scripture). And it must be contextualised. So when we read that Jesus spat on the ground and made clay and put it on a blind man’s eyes and he sees, this does not mean that we should do the same and avoid sending the man to the doctor to get his eyes checked out whilst we are praying for his healing. It is God who heals through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a disciplined one, we are called to try every spirit to avoid being deceived.

Today, learn the art of discernment by grounding your faith in the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to help with the discernment process. Intuition is developed when we have fellowship with God and communion with each other.

Read Psalm 23 and meditate on it.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 22, 2010

as we trust the Holy Spirit and learn to walk by faith

The whole point of being in the army is to be trained to be the best fighter you can be to be able to defend your country. When a civilian joins the armed forces, he or she is signing away their civilian rights and is committing themselves to service for a set period. They become a part of a community and must learn the protocol of that community.

When we enlist in the ‘Salvation Army’, we are operating as spiritual soldiers. We embark on the training programme where we learn about our enemy, our weaponry and the tactics needed to overcome the enemy. So we are told that the first and most important trait we must develop is that of DISCIPLINE (Heb 12:5-11). A disciplined life leads to great success. Next we must learn about our enemy. We cannot defeat the enemy if we do not understand his tactics. Our enemy uses the same tactics over and over again, but it works. He tries to get the individual to operate in the realm of the ‘soul’. That is, we make important decisions based upon our feelings rather than consulting our commanding officer, Jesus. When we walk by our feelings our faith is sidelined and we end up taking the long road home. The enemy tries to get us isolated so that he can ‘wear us down’. This is why we need to be in communion with others. So when we fell down, they can give us a lift by speaking a timely word to our spirit.

The last thing we need to learn to do is to know our weaponry and how to use them. For our weapons are not carnal or fleshy, but are mighty through God. They are: the word of God, the blood of Jesus and name of Jesus among others. And when we go into a battle we must be fully clothed with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit and the shoes of peace.  Once we are clothed in the right manner, we can then engage in the battle.

Today put on the correct garment so that you can defeat the enemy.

Read Galatians 5:16-26.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 21, 2010

as we develop the art of instinctive and unconscious knowing

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 6:12 NIV.

When our spirit is knit or in tune with the Holy Spirit we become aware of what God is doing in our circle. We may not understand it or be able to work out all the details but we are aware that something is going on. This was rather like the Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 which took the life of some 128,000 people, but not one animal was killed. This knowing or sensing without the use of our rational senses is our intuition. We may not be able to explain or deduce what is happening but we sense that something is happening. Most of us are used to making intuitive decisions in our daily life: As soon as subjective judgment is involved, rational reasoning is

I know because I beleive

very difficult to apply. Typical examples where intuition can play an important role in making decisions are: Choosing your life partner, selecting the right car to buy, evaluation of a job, decision about an education, selecting a meal when eating out, selecting the next book to read, decide how to dress for today, and so on. Intuitive decision making is far more than using common sense because it involves additional sensors to perceive and get aware of the information from outside. Sometimes it is referred to as gut feeling, sixth sense, inner sense, instinct, inner voice, spiritual guide and so on.

Intuition plays a major role in the lives of those who have made significant contribution to humanity. People like Albert Einstein (Theoretical Physicists), Immanuel Kant (German Philosopher) and John Naisbitt (Former IBM Executive) all extol the virtues of intuition and regards it as essential to their progress beyond the realms of logic.

Joshua and his close allies use this prophetic gift to conquer the whole of the promise land.  When we become too rational we squash our intuition and stifle the development of our intuition and our consciences which are the major parts of our spirit.

Today ask the Holy Spirit to come alongside and help you to sharpen your intuitive ‘spirit’.

Read Ephesians 6:10-18.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | October 20, 2010

as we understand how our spirituality develops

Since our spirit is comprised of our conscience, which it the ability to be aware of:- life, our surroundings and sin, we must never become complacent. The menace of complacency is apparent all around us. When our hearts are not totally submitted, we will do things and justify them to ourselves and to those around us. And there are those whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. These are the folks mentioned in Romans 1:21ff, who change God’s order to satisfy their own lusts and desires.

Their consciences have not developed and hence their intuition and need for true communion with the creator and their fellow men has been put on hold.  This was the case for Achan, in Joshua 7. His conscience, that is his ability to be aware of what God was doing in the locality, was seriously damaged. So he openly disobeyed the instruction of his commanding officer and spiritual leader and caused a great defeat for his people. Similarly today, there are people in our fellowships who fraternise with the enemy. They cannot keep their mouths and volunteer information to the detriment of the whole community.

There is a saying that ‘loose lips costs lives’ and we must be aware that all double agents eventually get killed.

So today, ask The Holy Spirit to show you how to sharpen your conscience so that you become more aware of and become a part of what God is doing in the earth now.

Read Romans 1

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