Why don't we give freely?

In Acts we see the church community in action like I think we'd all agree - even if we follow with a lot of buts and qualifiers - that the church is meant to be.

There was an intense sense of togetherness among all who believed; they shared all their material possessions in trust. They sold any possessions and goods that did not benefit the community and used the money to help everyone in need. Acts 2:44-45

Why don't we see that? Why don't we share much of anything at all other than maybe a meal with a strictly controlled guest list, let alone everything we own?

One factor is definitely that we see our stuff as ours, that we worked for and paid for ourselves, and why should we give it to people who didn't do anything to earn it?

We forget that we live in God's house, so everything we have is really His anyway.

But more than that, I think it's because we are afraid.

I think I find it easy - relatively - to remember that all I have is from God. But I still don't want to share my iPad. Why? Because while I think that God provided for me once, I have trouble believing he'll do it again.

We live in fear. What if the money runs out? What if I lose my job? What if the car breaks down? What if someone burrows my stuff and breaks it - I might not ever get another one.

When I had a proliferation of baby clothes that my daughter had already grown out of - many unworn - my first thought was eBay. Maybe I could get some money for things I didn't need. The clothes were all gifts in the first place, but the justification ran through my head - 'we've got a new baby, I'm not working, we need the money.'

I was afraid.

Then God nudged me, and I realised how blessed I had been to not have to buy a single piece of clothing for the baby myself. Not everyone has that kind of support. And so I decided that I would rather donate all that clothing to women who might really need it because it would come from no other source.

This idea was met with less enthusiasm from others than I expected. They were afraid too. The idea of giving it all away seemed like too much - 'what if you have another baby? What if you need it?'

Momentarily I nearly gave in to the fear. 'Maybe I shouldn't give it all,' I thought. 'Maybe I'll keep enough to clothe another baby just in case I happen to have another baby and its a girl and its summer and I desperately need clothes for her...'

And then I realised I had nothing to fear.

And not just because the family and friends who bought me gifts last time will still be there to support me next time.

But because I choose to believe that God is faithful. That Jesus meant it when he said "My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.
That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor." Luke 12:32-33


The baby clothes are just practise. And I hope that I am learning how to have faith so that when it comes to giving away all I have - my money, house, time - I can do it without fear.

You can start practising too. Find little things to give and share, even if you're worried you might lose out.

And how do you overcome the fear of what it will mean to give? Perfect love drives out fear. Seek God and His love, and with your eyes on Him, your 'stuff' won't matter. In fact, giving away your money will be a joy not a fear.

I know I've got a long way to go before I get there, but I know deep down my spirit rejoices in the love of God so much that I'd have joy living in the mud with nothing to my name if it meant love and life with the body of Christ.

Where is your treasure?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34

Where is your treasure? Or in other words, where is your money? What do you spend it on? And in a society where time is also valuable, what do you spend your time on?

Because that will say a lot about where your heart is. Where your priorities are, what your focus is.

In a society where a lot of our time is spent earning money, and that money is then spent on ourselves, I'm not sure that says anything good about our hearts.

Plenty of people will right about now be saying, 'But I earn money to support my family - that's where my heart is.' True, and that's not wrong but I would like to challenge a lot if people to think about the lifestyle they are paying for and whether that is really what their family needs?

My instinct is to tread carefully here, to not upset anyone or make anyone feel bad about earning money or having nice things.

But then another part of me - an increasingly stronger part - starts to feel sick at the disgusting excess in our culture. The selfish state of our lives and hearts. The hypocritical political correctness that prevents us from talking about money while so many suffer.

We are storing up treasures for ourselves here on earth, like that is going to get us somewhere.

'Planning for the future' is not even an excuse. Because most of us are doing it out of fear, the opposite of trusting God - I need my money. I need to take care of me, or who else will?

We spend our time and money on ourselves, on gluttonous businesses without regard for those trampled on to supply them, on building up our wealthy, secure indulgent lives...

We have no time left over for real community. For giving generously to others. For lavishing love. For nurturing relationships.

Where are we storing up our treasure? Is your heart focused on yourself or the kingdom of God?

Don't be afraid. Don't conform to what is expected in our self-centred society. Don't justify or make excuses. Examine yourself. Make room in your heart and life for the ways of God, no matter the sacrifice of time, money or desires for yourself and see the heavenly results. You might just have a change of heart....




Don’t reduce your life to the pursuit of food and drink; don’t let your mind be filled with anxiety. People of the world who don’t know God pursue these things, but you have a Father caring for you, a Father who knows all your needs.
Since you don’t need to worry—about security and safety, about food and clothing— then pursue God’s kingdom first and foremost, and these other things will come to you as well.
My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.
That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor. You can have a different kind of savings plan:one that never depreciates, one that never defaults, one that can’t be plundered by crooks or destroyed by natural calamities.

Your treasure will be stored in the heavens, and since your treasure is there, your heart will be lodged there as well.

I’m not just talking theory. There is urgency in all this.

Luke 12:29-36

Faith Muscle Rehabilitation

If anyone has been bed ridden or sedentary after a long illness or bad injury, often they will need some sort of physiotherapy to rehabilitate their muscles. After not being used, muscles atrophy and it can be difficult to make them function normally and with any degree of strength again. I noticed it when I was pregnant and had a long bout of morning sickness that left me bed ridden for a couple of months. Afterwards I found it difficult to do even simple things because my legs were so weak, let alone more strenuous exercise. I didn't do much in particular to strengthen my muscles again due to a combination of laziness and preoccupation with a new baby, but I probably should have. It's taken the better part of a year to feel back to normal, whereas with proper exercises and training it may have only taken a couple of months.

Our faith & love muscles have atrophied. I feel like I'm harping on about the negatives of the western world, but I think out insulated lives have a lot to answer for when it comes to our faith, or lack of it.

I'm not discounting anyone's suffering - there's a lot of very real pain no matter where you are in the world. I just mean that there's a lot we can turn to and rely on before we consider God as our best and only option. It's very easy and all too tempting to become self centred, for life to become all about us and how people treat us, and what others do for us.

We don't have all that much opportunity to exercise our faith and love. Not in real, deep, til-it-hurts kinds of ways. Our faith and love are languishing and need some rehabilitation. We need to start actively seeking ways to use them, and it needs to go beyond the day to day.

Sure, buy someone some flowers. That's nice. But it will be a long slow road to powerful love if that's the extent of our exercise.

If we want real change, real heart revival, real and powerful faith, we need a bit of hardcore physiotherapy. Something that extends us, challenges us, maybe even hurts a little.

Jesus didn't go around giving people flowers and writing get well cards. He healed them.

'They'll know we are Christians by our love' doesn't mean 'by how nice we are'. The love of God goes hand in hand with power.

We need to exercise the love of God in us - we are not meant to be so weak and feeble when it comes to faith and love. And we can't do it alone either. The body is meant to work together. The hand can't move without the arm. What use is a strong foot without a strong leg?

Time for some serious love rehab.

Rich or pathetic?

Last time I wrote about how we, the western world, have told God we don't need Him, that we can do it ourselves, and is it any wonder that we feel like we are on our own?

God doesn't force His way in if we've told Him to stay out of our lives - he'll never leave us, and will continue to draw us back - but He gives us the free will to say no to Him. And we've said no so often and so loudly that I think many of us don't even know how to 'need' God anymore.

When Jesus said its easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom, he wasn't saying people with money can't go to heaven - he was pointing out how many obstacles get in the way of us recognising our need and putting God in his true place when we have wealth to rely on.

Consider a person crushed by sickness and poverty. If someone comes and says "I can pray for you and God will heal you", how much nearer are they to the point of saying "Yes, I need God. I've got nowhere else to turn." We, with our profuse wealth and health and safety, don't know what it means to have nowhere else to turn.

At least we think we don't. Intellectually we may know we 'need' God, but most of us are looking at our lives with earthly eyes, and even though we say it, deep down do we really believe it? Are you really relying on God, or are you relying on your prosperity and praying to God that you never lose it.

That's a dangerous position to be in. Because with earthly eyes you are fine and dandy, but that's not what God sees with. "I know your works. You are neither cold with apathy nor hot with passion. It would be better if you were one or the other, but you are neither. So because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. You claim, 'I am rich, I have accumulated riches, and I need nothing'; but you do not realize that you are miserable, pathetic, poor, blind, and naked.

Does that prick your pride? Does it make you defensive to be called pathetic and wretched? Not that we need to dwell on our lack, but it's something to think about when we are tempted to look to ourselves rather than Christ.

We've told God we don't need Him

Sometimes we hear of amazing miracles happening in third world places like the deaf hearing again, the blind seeing, the dead being raised, and we (the western world mainly) wonder - if that stuff is all real, then why don't we see it here too? If God's the same everywhere and in every time, why don't miracles like that happen more here?

Why doesn't God show up?

But let's think about what we have been saying to God...

Have we been worshipping Him with our lives? Have we been devoting ourselves to Him? Have we been telling Him how much we need Him and acknowledging that everything comes from Him?

Or have we been keeping Him at arms length? Have we been paying Him lip service, while going our own way?

We've told Him to stay away. We've told Him we don't need Him. We've told Him we can do it ourselves. And he's let us.

We wonder why God doesn't show up more, but He's just doing what we've asked Him to do.

We think it's too big of an ask to devote our lives to God, because we feel like we'll have to give up too much. So we'd rather go it on our own.

We rely on our own health system, our brains, our safety, our prosperity and wealth. What do we need God for? He might just ask us to give some of it up.

I can't convince anyone of their need for God alone - that comes from each of us, from our hearts to God.

And you can choose to give your life over to God now, even while you prosper, even while you seem to be ok on your own. Or you can do it the hard way, when the trouble comes.

What is going to sustain you when the things of the world crumble? When these things fade away and you realise God upheld it all, and you were putting your hope in the temporary, decaying things, the things of earth instead of the things of God's kingdom.

"O how bad it will be for you who look to the south
to Egypt for help and depend on her horses,
Who trust in its many chariots and fix your hopes on its strong drivers.
Yet you do not look to the Holy One of Israel for relief
or even bother to consult Him.
God is both wise and willing to wreak disaster;
He does not second guess Himself or backtrack on what He says.
God will amass all divine power against those who do evil
and against whoever aids and abets them.
As for Egypt, why do you rely on them?
They are great, yes,
but merely human, not God—their steeds just creatures, not spirits.
But when the Eternal reaches out and makes His power felt,
those who lent their help will stumble; those who looked for help will fall.
Together they will be routed and killed."
Isaiah 31:1-4

The devil wants to keep you from praying any way he can

The devil wants to do whatever he can to keep you from praying.

He wants you to think you're too tired, busy or full of doubt to pray.

And if he can't keep you from praying all together, he wants you to be weak in prayer, to think it doesn't work or Gods not listening or he's too far away.

He wants to do anything he can to keep you from the kind of prayer where you know that you can go boldly to God with anything, that ANYTHING you ask for will be done.

And if the devil works so hard to keep us from bold, effective prayer, there must be a reason. And that reason is that when we get connected to God, we really do have the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, to overcome ALL the power of the enemy.

If the devil knows our authority, so should we. Don't let him keep you from it.

Go boldly to God. Pray without ceasing.

When you feel like you're ready...maybe you're not

I've spent a long time wanting God to use me in big ways. I've spent a ,LNG time being impatient, quite frankly.

But when I look back in hindsight a few years later, I'm so ate full to God that He knew better and didn't give me what I was asking for then, because I can see now that I was totally and completely not ready for it. It would have overwhelmed me. I hadnt learned to trust God enough, I hadn't learned to manage my time, my health enough, I hadn't learned much of anything enough. But I didn't realise that at the time. I thought I was ready for more, and felt frustrated that God wasn't giving it to me.

So, thank you God that you know better!

But, ok, that was then. I'm ready now, right? Enough waiting already.

I never learn, clearly.

But as I go, I find I am learning more and more to see how inadequate I am currently and not just in hindsight. God has been revealing my weaknesses to me, not to condemn me, but to humble me, to heal me, and to help me understand how to rely on Him.

I have a terrible feeling that the day I truly grasp how unqualified and incapable I am of doing anything - the day I think to myself, "Actually, I'm not ready for any of this" - that will be the day God hands me the big stuff....

Because when we think we can do it, that's when we'll stumble. We forget to rely on God.

And when we know we can't, that's when His power is made perfect in weakness.

So if you think you're ready and up for the challenge - there may be some humbling and training on the way first.

And if you know you're completely un-ready... Watch out ;)

One sentence sums up God's plan for your life

We can spend a lot of time and mental energy wondering if we're on the right path, wondering what God's 'will for our life' is, and whether we're in it. But I feel like God's will for us is less an exact series of precise decisions that we can potentially stuff up at any minute, and more a way of living our lives aligned with His heart. The specifics are less important than we often think. So if you're wondering what exactly is God's will for my life? One sentence sums it up...

God's will for you is to reach spiritual maturity.

Maybe that sounds too simple. But think about it. If you are spiritually mature, you:

know God's heart more
have the fruit of the spirit abundantly in any circumstance
love like He does
understand His words
see His kingdom more clearly
become more like Christ

All of this makes it much easier to be led by the Spirit, wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

It's like knowing a friend or your husband really, really well. My husband doesn't have to be there for me to know what he will like or dislike or find funny or annoying about a situation. It's a bit like this with God. The more we know Him, the more we are aligned with His heart and will.

Whatever decisions or circumstances we encounter, this is something to keep in mind. If we see everything as an opportunity to grow in maturity, to grow closer to God, how would that change our mindset? How would that change how we respond?

Eph 4:14-15 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

We sometimes believe that God's will is unknowable, that we can't comprehend it, that we just have to blindly step out and cross our fingers and hope. But while God may not reveal to us the precise details and step by step layout of our lives, minute by minute, or even year by year, I don't think it is right that we can't know His will.

It's like saying of a friend, "We are good friends, but I'll never really 'get' him, I'll never really know what he likes or wants or will do." That's not how it happens. The more we know someone, the more we understand them.

It's the glorious grace of God that He is so beyond us, and yet, we can know Him. We are not servants, in the sense of acting out of obligation. Jesus calls us friends.

<sup>I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Jesus has made known to us everything that the Father told him. By growing in spiritual maturity, we discover more of that revelation, and we understand more of it. We are changed and renewed by the Spirit to understand who God is and what His perfect will is.</sup>

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

And we get beyond the simple mindset of wanting to know God's will, as in every little specific decision just for ourselves, in a little anxious bubble, and instead we more easily move in the flow and peace of the Spirit, in harmony with God's big picture for His church as a whole.

If God's will for us is that we grow in spiritual maturity, we can be sure that in every circumstance, bad and good, we have the opportunity for this to happen, and God will provide you with everything you need to grow and not be crushed. Let this change your thinking when faced with challenges.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

God does not want to keep you broken

I've heard people say, and seen the effects of people believing, that it's God plan to leave them broken, sick or struggling so He can use it for good.

God will use your brokeness, it's true. He will use what you have been through to help others. He will work all things together for good for those who love Him. 

But it is a huge fallacy to think that means you have stay where you are, in your pain, so that God can use it to help others.

How can you give a testimony to how God can heal our hurt, our sickness, our brokeness, if you are still in it? How can you lead people through their pain to the other side, if you don't even know where that is because you've haven't got there yourself?

Don't get me wrong - God can and will use you where you are. He can use anything and anyone, no matter how imperfect or broken. He can bring unfathomable good in even the most difficult circumstances. But just because God is using you while you are still sick or broken, does NOT mean he wants you to stay there.

"Many people followed Him, and He healed them all" Matt 12:15

There is no addendum to that verse, no fine print that says *"except for the few he let stay sick so that they could empathise with other sick people".

Sure, you may find comfort in talking to others who are experiencing the same thing as you. It may help the burden not feel so heavy. But who can help you more - someone who is also struggling the same as you, or someone who once struggled, but has found freedom?

If you are blind, another blind person can only teach you how to cope as a blind person. Jesus can teach you how to see!!

It is not God's will for you to stay sick, hurt or broken. Jesus didn't die and rise again so that you could stay as you are. He didn't conquer sin and death so that you could just battle on, and try and prop up others also struggling.

He died and rose so you could be free! So you could be healed! So you could have life!

Don't believe the lies and doubts that maybe God wants you to stay where you are. If we are to pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and there is no sickness and brokeness in heaven - then that's what we should be believing for on earth!!

And don't hold on to this belief as a security blanket. Sometimes we believe that maybe this sickness or struggle is God's will because if we let go of that idea, then we risk being disappointed. What if I don't get healed? What if God doesn't get me out of here? What if I believe that I'm meant to be set free, but find myself still a prisoner?

It's a scary place to be - to have stepped out from behind our protective lies, and into the wide open. And we don't know the exact timing of when and what God will do. Sometimes what is done in the spirit doesn't appear in the natural right away. Maybe it seems risky.

But if you can be sure that if you stay where you are, you definitely will not see change. 

Step out in faith. Give Jesus a chance to prove that he wasn't lying when he said that now is the time!

"He sent Me to tell those who are held captive that they can now be set free, and to tell the blind that they can now see. He sent Me to liberate those held down by oppression. In short, the Spirit is upon Me to proclaim that now is the time; this is the jubilee season of the Eternal One’s grace." Luke 4:18-19

It is our testimony of our personal and collective experiences of God's grace, love and freedom that will draw people. Anyone can say to a sick person "I know how you feel". 

But don't you want to be able to say, "I know how you feel - but I also know the one who can make you well!!"

If you want to be put back together, if you want to be healed, get to know the healer.

Joseph Prince's second sermon at Hillsong conference 2012

No box is big enough

A thought occurred to me last night, as I lay in bed talking to God. I felt that God was close to me, that I could talk to him one on one, with his full attention. Then I imagined everyone else in the world. The billions of people who could also be talking to God at the same time, with this same full attention.

Just think about that for a moment. A being who can be everywhere at once, and not be diminished at all. Who can talk to you intimately like a loving Father while also doing this for billions of others, but never being diminished or distracted or too busy.

It's hard to wrap your mind around. If we are talking to one person while trying to listen to another conversation, we can barely take in any of it.

And while there is so much in that about God as Father and how loving he is, and how we can have such an intimate relationship with him...none of that is unimportant or trivial. But the thing that occurred to me last night was, how can I possible ever think I've got God figured out?

We can know more and more of Him, but we are barely scratching the surface.

Yet we continue to try and fit God into a neat box so we can manage Him. And if he does something that makes Him not fit into that box any more, we just recalculate and decide that we just need a bigger box.

But no box will ever be big enough. He is outside of the time and space, beyond anything our earthly minds can comprehend.

If I can't even understand how it's possible that He is even talking to me, then how can I suppose I know and can fit into neat boxes who he is and what he will do?

And yet, by His spirit to ours, He gives us glimpses of things greater than natural life. He does make it possible for us to know Him. Bit by bit, the more we spend time with Him, the more He can reveal His glory, the more we have life by the spirit, and the natural things no longer bind us. We begin to live and know more than is naturally possible, by His spirit.

If we are only willing to accept and know God as much as we can understand Him or define Him, we are missing out on so, so, so much.

How small is our God if we allow Him to be only what we can comprehend? If we allow Him to act in only ways we could have thought of for ourselves?

Don't just look for a bigger box to contain Him, trust that if you stop trying to work Him out, He will supernaturally make himself known to you.

You might think it will be scary or confusing if you let go of the box and allow Him to live in you - in us, His house, His church - in whatever way He wants. But in God you will find so much love and so much grace - you will find so much divine peace that it completely passes all understanding!