Category Archives: Encouragement

Hearing God – The Faith grower

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I was reading Hebrews 11 the other day.  It struck me that it explains nicely what faith is and what happens without it. It even lists out a few biblical heroes who had faith and what they accomplished by faith.

Hebrews 11:1 describes what faith is – an assurance and a conviction.  Assurance of things hoped for and a conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:6 clearly shows that without faith it is impossible to please God. A good link to verse one, because we are convicted of Gods existence even though we cannot see Him.

The question I have is, if we know what faith is, and we know without it we cannot please God, where can we get faith from? Asda? Sainsbury’s? I know, it must be Amazon!!  Nope, none of the “above”

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Faith comes from hearing God.  God speaks today, He speaks as much today as He did in the Old and New Testament.  Today we have scripture which God speaks to us through, He speaks through His Holy Spirit to our hearts about many things.  When we are connected to God and His Spirit, and we are hearing from Him,  we get faith and we grow faith.  The more we hear from God, the more our faith will grow. Look at the Heroes of Faith in Hebrews 11 – they heard from God and by the faith that came, the achieved amazing things.

I felt strongly as I meditated on this that God was calling me to hear Him more, in other words, He was saying ” I am talking to you, are you listening?”  I admit, I have not been listening as much as I have in the past, so no wonder my level of faith has been eroded away, but the beauty of being in a covenant relationship with God is that I can repent of this, return to Him and listen.

My next few blogs will cover the huge topic on how to hear from God.

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The Chest Beater

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I love this illustration in the bible.

“Two men went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘O God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—thieves, dishonest people, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of my entire income.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he continued to beat his chest and said, ‘O God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am!’ I tell you, this man, rather than the other one, went down to his home justified, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Luke 18:10-14)

I have come to the place in my walk with the Lord that it is far better to be a chest beater, in other words, genuine heartfelt admittance of my TRUE state of heart.  It is only when we are prepared to be honest with the Lord about our hearts and the state of our hearts, that the Lord can begin a wonderful work of renewal within.  Whatever “good” I have to brag about to the Lord about does not add up to a hill of beans. My own righteousness is like a filthy rag (Isaiah 64:6).  Only Jesus can be my righteousness, not my deeds.  It is time to be honest about the real state of our hearts don’t you think?  What I love is that the Lord lifts those up who are humble enough to be completely honest with Him.

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Brokeness

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The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and he delivers those whose spirit has been crushed. - Psalms 34:18

I used to think this only applied to people who were grieving, as in having lost someone close to them through death.  I don’t think this is the case, for the God I am getting to know reaches every form of broken heartedness ( if that’s a word) and every person whose spirit has been crushed for whatever reason.

What about sin? What about those who are so addicted to harmful things that their own sinful behaviour has broken their hearts, or their own sin has crushed their spirit?  Is the Lord near to them?  Oh absolutely!  Don’t for one minute think the God discards the lowly and the outcasts of society.  Don’t for one minute think that because you, as a believer, are struggling with an area of sin are a write-off in Gods eyes.  Not a chance, the price that was paid for you was high, and God does not give up.  If you are feeling hopeless, take heart.  If you are brokenhearted and crushed over things that stand in your way from true freedom, take heart,  He will deliver you.  His deliverance will come, but it will come in His time.

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GOAAAAAAAL!!

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Recently I have been taken aback at the football fever.  All I have heard for a week and a half is football this and football that.  Britain is football crazy!  It must look so comical to the celestial beings watching crowds of thousands getting so excited over a small ball heading toward scoring a goal for their team.  The whole object of the game is to score as many goals as possible and climb the ranks. Continue reading →

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Have you lost the plot?

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Cutting to the chase, I realized I had lost my way, and hence, lost the plot.  Yes, I am on the journey with God, but, like Peter walking on the water, I had taken my eyes off Jesus and onto the size of the waves and the noise of the goings on around me.  Admit it – many of you have either done the same, or like me, realizing that this is what you are doing right now. Continue reading →

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The X-Files

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No, this does not star Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, this stars you, in real life, not television. We live in a natural world, governed by natural laws and we use our 5 natural senses to see, touch, smell, hear and taste this world.  It seems almost impossible to comprehend that the unseen world is just as real.  Continue reading →

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When demands overwhelm!

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I felt like the wind up monkey recently.  It seemed every one wanted my attention, or wanted me to do something, all at the same time.  The key in my back was winding tighter and tighter, and to make matters worse – technology was not on my side, in fact, the more I needed it, the more it dug its’ heels in, folded its arms, and said “no!” Continue reading →

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Your attention please!

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I did a count today.  I counted how much information flies at me in a day.  Here is what I found:

50 work emails ( this was not many in comparison to other days)

200 tweets

19 blog posts

Approximately 20-30 conversations on differing subjects

I did not bother with facebook postings, because I don’t really consider that to be a daily occurance for me.

There is more information on the internet today than ever has been before.  This outstrips any of the libraries that have existed or could ever exist.   When a question is asked, the default source is google!  The information resources that are at our finger tips on the internet is mind boggling. How do we know which information is good information or bad information?

As a Christian, there are more “how to books”, devotional books available to me than I could imagine.  Every day there is an article or a book written by an author that somehow has an answer, a teaching, a prayer that is a new and promises more freedom, more closeness with God, more than what you currently have.  The weird thing is, we try it, because deep down we are desperate for more, we do want more of God, there is nothing wrong with that.  The more we search, the more we have to sift through.  The more we look, the more is available to be found.

The predicament is now nothing to do with how much information there is out there, it is what should I take in? I can’t take in everything!   What should I be doing with all the information. What is it I am really looking for?   What information should I be paying attention to?  With all the voices screaming for my attention, whose should I listen to?

The bible says

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
(John 10:27)

Has the Shepherds voice been drowned out?  With all the myriads of information flying at you, all the voices calling for your attention, are you hearing the voice of the Shepherd? Do you need to silence these voices and get still again?

Oh, since writing this post, there have been 34 tweets that have come in – they can wait, I need to pay attention to the Shepherd, He is speaking.

 

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