Acknowledging the Power of God working in us

…That you may know…    …what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ, having raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies… 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly more than all the things which we ask or think, according to the power which is working in us…

Eph. 1:19-20, 3:20

 

The greatest expression of God’s power was in Him raising His Son from the dead. And we who are saved have also received this same operation of God’s power, when He raised us up from being dead in sin, to being alive in Christ Jesus His Son. The surpassing greatness of His power is the power of His resurrection Life working in us.

 

When you see God change a sinner into a saint, you see the greatest expression of the power of God.  When we acknowledge that a brother or sister is gracious – that grace is working in them, and they are now who they are bcos of grace alone, then we are acknowledging the awesome power of God in operation.

 

If you’ve lived today by faith, trusting Jesus, and your life is different than what it used to be, you’re no longer controlled by sinful desires, then you are a walking, talking POWER HOUSE, for that’s the raw power of God working in you, the same power which raised Jesus from the dead.

 

Christian character, then, is the outcome of the power of God working in a person.

 

It strikes me that many of us do not acknowledge the power of God in one another and in ourselves. Many of us have been conditioned to think of God’s power as exclusively consisting of the miraculous, yet, that would be an open door to deception IF one did not know and acknowledge, first, the power of His grace working in them, from the day they were born again.

 

ian.

Back Home

Sheela and I reached home safely and happily to a joyous welcome from our children. After catching up with lost sleep there’s so much that needs attending to here.  The children have been hard at work harvesting the wheat crop, by hand with sickles. As a thunderstorm built up the Lord heard our prayers and stopped the rain, which would have ruined the crop.

For me, it’s good to be home. At first my flesh didn’t like the heat, power going off all the time, mosquitos, food…. etc.  , but, you know what?  who cares what our flesh likes or dislikes!  Stuff it.  Live for Jesus, that’s what matters.  The Kingdom is wherever the King is. Wherever He leads us, that’s the Kingdom of God, and His Kingdom is not food or drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

What is Abundant Life?

Jesus said, …I have come that they may have Life and have it more abundantly…

And the Scriptures declare that He is our Life. Therefore, abundant Life is the quality of life where one lives it by His Life, in relationship to Jesus. It’s abundant Life when He is the meaning, our companion, in every facet of our life. It’s abundant Life when there’s no satisfaction or fulfillment apart from Him : i.e. Our enjoyment of people and things is bcos of, and measured by, Jesus’ fellowship/participation with us in it, and then, everything we do has joyous meaning, and fulfillment, just like He promised.

ian.

Friendless Christians

How can it be that there are certain professing Christians, who claim to know Jesus and can quote scripture freely, and also know all that’s wrong within Christianity, and to expose all the false prophets, and yet, not have a friend in this world?

They say that their friendless state is bcos all have abandoned them bcos of their stand for the truth, and therefore it is the price they pay for following Jesus, but does that cut it?

These ‘christians’ are, in reality, spiritually bankrupt, and they have no friends and no fellowship bcos they do not have the love of God in them. And, bcos they don’t have the love of Jesus in them they don’t lay down their lives for others, and end up friendless and alone.

One man in the UK wanted to have fellowship with me, and i made a stipulation, i said,   I will fellowship with you if you can supply me with the name of at least one person in your country with whom you are in fellowship with.  He couldn’t name one, so i didn’t fellowship with him. I still love him, and i hope he has by now begun to love the Body of Christ.

I Cor. 13 teaches that a ‘christian’ can know everything, and yet be damned if they don’t have the real love of God abiding in them. 1 John says the same.

ian.

Jesus calls men and women!

All thru the Holy Book we read the record of God calling men and women, from Adam, Where are you? , to Samuel, to Saul on the Damascus Road, and so on.

A Christian is simply a sinner who has been called, from heaven, by Jesus Christ. And by grace alone we have answered that call.

In the OT we read ..all the day long I have extended my arms to a wicked and rebellious people.. What a picture! The Father, with arms reaching out to sinful people, calling them to Himself.

The Church, the Ekklessia, is the called-out band, called out of this world to be with Jesus, together. The very essence of what Christ’s Church is, is a calling.

This puts it out of the bounds of human energy to build it, if it’s simply a band of people who have heard a call and have responded to the One who has called them, into His marvellous Light. The building, then, must be simply in the members of the Body heeding Jesus’ call daily, and doing His will joyfully.

As well, we do well to remember that our life together as His Church must always be the expression of an ongoing response to the daily call of our Lord Jesus – He in our midst – always a vital and living response to Him and what He is saying, and not a fixed, lifeless, dead observance.

ian.

BTW, clarifying ‘worship’

Just a note, bcos there seems to be a little confusion on this. When we refer to  ‘our worship’,  some automatically think we’re referring to singing songs ; others think we are referring to the ‘church service’, as such.

Whereas, the reality before the Throne of God (and we do stand before His Throne right now, in the Holiest place)  is that the life that Jesus has mercifully given us in Him is a spiritual, intimate, heart relationship with Him, together with Him,  24/7 – eternal life,  AND therefore, the nature of the life we live is the nature of our worship.

E.g. If i don’t love my brother, then my worship to Jesus and His Father is a perverse ‘worship’, akin to slapping Him in the face, no matter how great my ‘music ministry’ is. Same goes for anything which is …not of faith.. i.e. sin.

A note on what worship is:  It means to bring honor to God, thru laying down one’s life in true obedience and submission, in love, and this is only possible thru faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement on the cross. Showing the worth-ship, His worth.

Our Lord Jesus did worship His Father, thru His incarnation :  and He showed us what worship in Spirit and Truth is : but His church, by and large, is not listening. 

E.g. Singing was a small part of Jesus’ life, and His Life is His worship.  And we know that singing/music was a small part of the life of the early church –  a part, yes, but nothing like the importance people place on it today. We see this in 1 Cor. 14  – –  …if anyone has a song…  (given to them by the Spirit) let them bring it to the gathering of the saints, otherwise, no song.  Not singing as the fulfilling of a component of something, i.e. The error that God expects or requires a specific, dedicated, song service segment in a meeting. We call that an error, bcos we don’t find it in the NT, either in teaching or practice.

We were in a house here in Oz the other week meeting with some saints, and the singing just went on and on until our time was up. I felt that that happened bcos we were operating in ‘default mode’ — like  ..if you don’t know what to do, then just keep singing  (‘Finding Nemo’ :  ..just keep singing, just keep singing..  No disrespect intended to these lovely brethren i’m referring to. I was also a part of it!).

Then, compare with 1 Cor. 14. — where everyone (potentially) has a gift to offer the body at the meeting. What then is the presupposition in 1 Cor. 14?  That, indeed, everyone is filled with the Holy Spirit, and is zealous for God in the flow of giftings.  Without that reality, 1 Cor. 14 cannot be ‘implemented’ — we can’t implement Life (Zoe) — but we can stir up the gifts in one another, encouraging and exhorting one another.

That’s what i’m doing here.

ian.

Adoring Jesus

We worship and adore you, bowing down before you…

 Join with me today in adoring Jesus.  May our stance before Him today be one of pure, unadulterated, adoration of Him.

 The English language has some interesting words, and one of them is adoration.  Would it be accurate to say that we are always in a place of adoration toward our glorious God and Savior, Jesus Christ? 

No. But, this is the stuff of Godly exhortation and encouragement.

ian.

It’s good for me! ??

When you stand in Glory, face to face with our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Father,  will you think, This is good for me!  I’m glad i’m here, bcos this is so good for me!  ??

No.  For at that time you will be fully conformed to Christ  (…when we see Him we shall be like Him…) and therefore there will be no more self-reference, rather, we will fully understand that we were created for His glory, and all our being will be consumed and satisfied that He is glorified (in the same Holy way that the Father and the Son relate to, and love, and worship, one another) and, finally, we will be true worshippers – completely in Spirit and Truth, forever.

We do worship now in Spirit and Truth, yet not without mixture (It was good for me! ) and not perfectly. The Father knows and understands our frame, and has pity on us, His dear children.

It would be good if we all desired, with our whole heart, to only live for His glory, and not for what we think  is good for me!   For He will be glorified,  and what else matters?

ian.

Look for grace

When we see the authentic grace of Christ in a person, then we know we have met one who has been saved by grace, thru faith :  a true brother or sister to us.

The one who has been saved by grace will extend grace to all, even to the enemies of Christ, yet,  we can’t expect all who hear us to be able to perceive the grace of God which is in us, for as it was with our Lord, so it is with His disciples.

We need to have our hearts established in grace : settled there with Jesus, who finished the work of redemption on the cross and has risen and has sat down at the right hand of the Father.  Only grace profits us.

ian.

Who, me, call a meeting?

“Calling” meetings, gatherings, breaking of bread (love feasts) can be done by any of the Royal Priesthood.  One reason that “we’re movin so slow” is that the Body has been innoculated from this fact, and, what happens? Everyone waits for everyone else to call the meeting, to get together – looking to ‘leaders’. If you’re waiting for a genuine leader to lead you, these days, you’re gonna wait forever, and miss out on so much.  But its not for us, what we could miss out on, its a matter of what has God ordained, what is His plan? Anyone who cares for His glory (worship) will only want to find and do His will, His way.  We still need more “renewing of our minds” (Rom 12:1-2) that we might know and walk in all the will of God, His good and perfect will.

Ok, there’s a number of issues (questions) which will inevitably rise to the surface here. Wanna discuss them?

ian.

Mum gone to be with Jesus

Mum passed peacefully this morning, March 5 ,  6:05 am Perth time, into the immediate presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Thanks sooooooo  much to our friends, from Sheela, our family, and i, for your Christian love, prayers and support.  Please do keep us in prayer.      

Mum is face to face with our Lord Jesus, and His Father.  She is in Glory.  She is in joy unspeakable.  She now sees with her own eyes, what she saw by the eyes of faith, all her life on earth. 

See how God is glorified, even in the passing of His saints?                       

ian.