Jesus last orders crashed on the disciple’s ears as they stood on the Mt of Olives “Go and make Disciples…”, but it seems often the same words bounce off deaf ears in the church today. We say we want a harvest but we won’t sow the field; we say we love the lost but we don’t spend any time with them. We think prayer alone will bring in the sheaves or that tearless sowing of seeds will penetrate the stony ground. We work harder and even try to work smarter but the days tick by and we wonder where the increase is. Often we are waiting for one to be given to us after the altar call or we wait to be asked to follow up a new believer in the church. We’re trying to make disciples in the wrong places. Go into all the world and make disciples means into all nations. For the Jewish disciples it meant gentiles; people unlike them, and for us, it means people not like us. That is the genius of this command; they are shocked straightaway at your concern or interest. Jesus chose his disciples before they had become Christians and we should too. He chose some to be with him when they were unsaved! If everyone chose and made a disciple of someone that is not like us, we would see the harvest begin to come in and it may still take time. When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples they started preaching and making disciples. When Jesus came out of the wilderness, in the power of the spirit, the first thing he did was chose disciples; then he started preaching.

Friend, the evidence of being in the power of the Spirit is choosing and making disciples. It not feeling goosebumps; it’s not having gifts of healing its making disciples.

Read More

You can have relief and still not have peace. You can leave home to get away from your parents and find relief but in your heart, you may still not have peace. You can have an argument with your wife then go and play golf. You may have relief but not peace. We might tiptoe around the house in silence for a day. We have a truce but we don’t have peace. Real peace always begins with spiritual peace. That is where the world misses it. They want to go from trouble to peace and bypass the Prince of peace. They want peace but don’t want the source of peace. Spiritual peace: the peace that God came to give us, is always a result of something else, called righteousness. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Rom 14 .17. We may find ways to cope a little better. There may be a way to mitigate some of our troubles and they could satisfy temporarily but till righteousness enters the heart of men, there can never be true peace. And unfortunately, this is why there is little you can do for broken families robbed of peace in so many ways, till they are ready to do it Gods way. We all have to lay down sin and our pride and our lives before Jesus and receive his forgiveness and righteousness.

Friend, where ever there is no peace, but friction, anger, wars, hatred or lack of peace in our hearts or home, workplace or nation, it is always a lack of righteousness, but thank God that is something he is willing to give us.

Read More

Jesus shouldered the heavy cross and staggered along after the Roman soldiers. It wasn’t the first cross that Jesus had faced. As a minister, He had put others needs before His own, and made a thousand selfless choices before he finally took up the final and greatest cross for us. Embracing the Cross is really dying to a self so as to bring life and blessing to others. Jesus embraced the cross among the ancient olive trees as he was tested with the will of God which He ultimately held fast to. To be under Christ’s authority means to be a follower of Jesus. It means to accept the Cross daily and die to self. Jesus said that anybody that wanted to follow Him had to first deny himself and take up his cross. Our submission to God is not tested, till the cross is presented. Jesus was submitted to the will of God at all times but it was supremely tested in the garden. The cross tests or willingness to be a Christian and a follower of Christ. There can be no cross-less followers. No one following the lamb! We have this idea that disciples are one step up the ecosystem of believer or Christians. We need to destroy this notion. Christians and disciples are to be the same people.

Friend, if you are a Christian; you are a disciple and it is only possible to follow Jesus if we carry our cross.

Read More

Adam felt incredible shame and guilt as he heard the steps of the Creator in the garden. He hid in the trees but where can you hide from Love. If we learn anything from the theology of Genesis 3, it is that imperfection and failure run in the family. Even the perfect specimens are tainted with it; those prim and proper people who never seem to blow up perhaps struggle with pride and judgmental pettiness. The fact is we all fail. If we don’t give ourselves and others room to fail, we will breed dishonestly in people. People will be afraid to admit their mistakes, choosing to live in unreality. Brothers or sisters that are struggling with certain fears and temptations will be afraid to reach out for help. God’s people may sink in a sea of failure and temptation, not able to ask for help, thinking that weakness or failure is unforgivable. It’s great to have a triumphalist theology, where we talk of a constant walk in the glory and power of God, but where does that leave people in the times when they struggle and need help. When we fail, we must know that God is still able to use even that! Before Adam failed he felt perfect without any sense of sin and no need for forgiveness. He also felt no gratitude for God’s mercy and no sense of love. God allowed men to sin that man might discover all of God.

Friend, if we fail or stumble in sin, God still has a plan in mind. For us to see our own inability and our need to abide in His love. He wants us to experience His forgiveness, and then see His loving character and to love Him even more in return.

Read More

I used to work at the city council where there was a man in our section, who often used to say “success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Everyone wants to claim they played a part in something that was successful but when something is a disaster or fails, nobody wants to own it. We might talk about failure in hushed tones but everybody does it. Teacher and students, cops and crooks, parents and children all fail. Doctors fail and they bury their mistakes! Nobody likes to fail but everybody does sometimes. In Gen 3.10 we find that failure is part of the human race. Moses failed in understanding when he sought to save the Israelites. He rose up in anger, killed an Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Samson failed morally and David failed the temptation test. Peter denied that he knew Jesus, and wept bitterly later as he thought about his lack of courage and loyalty. Probably like me, you have come to church some weeks with a small or large library of failures from the past week, and some even added that morning.

Friend, failure has been a part of the human experience for a long time but stop and think; did their failure stop them being used by God and becoming an eventual success? No they all finally did the will of God. Some of them not in spite of their failure but because of their failure, as it made them more aware of their need for God.

Read More

The rugby coach asked the team to run another five lengths of the field. He knows that although training is not popular, it is only the hard yards that will prepare them for the rigors of the games to come. He is training them for the challenges of the future. It always takes discipline to maximize our potential. No one loved us like our own father, so we know when they disciplined us it was because they loved us. The discipline of children is not done to them but it is done for them. Discipline helps children grow in obedience and respect. Without obedience and respect in society, there is no civil order only anarchy. That is the reason why God tells fathers, to train the next generation to obey, honour and respect authority. Child discipline builds a sense of justice; it also removes guilt, develops their sense of right and wrong and gives boundaries and security.

Deuteronomy says that God disciplines his children, for the same reason. The discipline of the wilderness was to prepare them to enter the land. It doesn't matter how much we turn up the volume at church or how high we jump in the worship, if we aren't people that fear God or have not been trained to live at our potential, we may not enjoy the fullness of what God intends.

Friend, Father God may discipline us, but it will enable us to enter the inheritance and the better future He plans for us.

Read More

The wilderness stretched out in front of the people of Israel for miles, as they walked through the desert on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. It was harsh, empty and cold at night, and it was hot during the day, but there was no alternative. In the wilderness, they were to learn to observe the word of God, and not to observe everything else around them. It was a place that tested their hearts to see whether they would obey God's Word. In the wilderness, God gave them manna they didn’t know so they would come to understand they could not live on the bread they already knew. To see that the things of this world, that they knew, were not what gave them life. The Manna was a type of Jesus Christ. It was free, pure, from heaven and tasted good, but it had to be gathered daily and eaten daily to be enjoyed. As they picked up Manna every day, they learned to obey and they learned to trust God. They learned to do things Gods way and they learned to do the difficult. When they came out of Egypt as slaves, they thought of themselves as poor, man dependent, and bound by natural limitations but as they learned to walk in God's ways they learned that they were wealthy enough, to have a day off every week, that dependence upon God meant the impossible could happen and that God can remove human limitations.

Friend, like the Israelites we have to learn that Gods ways are different. We need to learn that he is for us and leading us into a life of unrestricted, heaven-sent, limitless possibilities.

Read More

Moses stood before the nation to repeat the promises of God, to the new generation that would fight their way in the land. They would be the generation that got a breakthrough, into the promises of God. Moses was convinced they could do it. I know you will breakthrough. I know you will take the land from the enemy but if you don't obey the word of God once you are in the land and live God's way, you may not be able to maintain possession of the land. A “breakthrough generation” has to be more than louder music and stronger shouts of praise. There needs to be a strong character, a strong home life, a strong marriage, a strong work ethic and a strong personal life. The breakthrough generation will be people of faith and passion but they will also live with a commitment to the principles of God's Word in their family and their finances. If they don't know how to live right every day, they may enjoy days of victory but not be able to maintain their victory. It is just as important that our marriage is a testimony as our miracles are. For our family to be as much a testimony as our faith and our finances should be as sound as our fervour for God.

Friend, the way we do live in the community is more testimony than the way we do communion. Moses said the nations were going to take note because they were a wise and understanding people, not just a noisy excited people.

Read More

Your words bring you into Gods future plans and destiny for you. The words you speak today can bring Gods “planned tomorrow” toward you. If we speak words of unbelief, we can frustrate and even deny the good plans of God for our life. How much of what God planned to bring into our lives, has been bound up in the heavens by the words we have said or not said. When Jesus said to Peter “I give you the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth, will be bound in heaven,” He was talking about binding and loosing with words. Words of preaching, forgiving, casting out demons and prayer. All words by which we bind or lose the things in heaven onto the earth and into our situations. Only what you loose in heaven, comes to us and we lose it by our words.

Friend, our words need to agree with God promises.

Read More

Moses climbed the rugged mountain to meet with God. On the mountain, he received the 10 Commandments and other laws as they are recorded in the Pentateuch. The high watermark of the law was the simple command to love God with all our might and our neighbour as ourselves. This is still the essence of Gods law and illustrates the goal of our spiritual growth as the people of God. In fact, the first five books of the Bible or the Pentateuch, from Genesis to Deuteronomy, are an illustration of the processes of growth, that God takes us when we follow Him. Genesis is the beginning and explains how God called men from Noah to Abraham. It is about Election; God calling His people, the first privilege we experience, being called by the father to Jesus. Exodus illustrates deliverance and coming out of Egypt. God’s people are brought out of the old into a new beginning. It illustrates how we are redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb. Leviticus informs the redeemed slaves, how to live with a holy God, as they approached His sanctuary: Sanctification is about we gain a new way of thinking about God, along with a changed lifestyle. Numbers deals with how God trained his people from a mob or rabble into the army of God through discipline and learning to follow the cloud of His presence. Finally, Deuteronomy repeats to the second generation all the requirements they were to obey after the old generation had died off. Their obedience would bring the blessing and victory as they entered into their inheritance. These truths formed the basis for the teaching of the early church doctrine about how we are called, regeneration, justified and sanctified to be made ready to enter fully in our inheritance, who is Christ.

Friend, to come to the full stature of Jesus Christ means to be a wholehearted disciple but mostly means to be fully loving of people and God; even in that order. John said we can’t say we love God till we love your brother and sister. 1 John 4.21

Read More

Jesus said to the disciples “Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they neither toil nor spin yet they grow and are beautiful. All growth depends upon God. The Christian life is not a life of self-help or self-improvement but is about receiving the benefits of God’s grace. Growth happens when you and learn to receive more grace from God. The early church had only the Old Testament for a bible and found in its pages explanation and illustrations of the truth they had experienced. The 6 men of Genesis illustrate the work of God in us to bring us to His image and spiritual growth. Adam, of course, is a clear picture and cause of the sin we all share. Noah is a picture of regeneration, where new life begins out of the old. God saved him from being destroyed with the old creation and he begins a new life with those He brings forth into a new life Abraham is the illustration of Justification by faith. He shows us that Gods way of putting man right with Himself is by an unusual manner; faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Isaac illustrates sonship, where the son becomes the apple of Father’s eye. Isaac is truly blessed; he has no needs, everything is provided for. He is loved by God and even in time of famine he is blessed. He is the favoured one, the special boy, the beloved son. That is you and me. We are Gods sons and daughters. To as many as received Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God. That is a picture of supernatural living because he’s blessed by Father. Jacob’s life reflects the process of sanctification. Jacob was a trickster he was a schemer. Faith is living without scheming; it’s living in a way that just trusts God. His life was all about him but God changed him and wrestled with him till he walked with a limp.

Friends, all growth and the dealings of God in our lives, are to bring us to a walk of dependence upon God where our self strength is broken and we limp on our own feet. Ultimately growth must come about through a work of God.

Read More

One day, I felt the Lord say to me "Any real success in life is proportional to the Life you have drawn from God in prayer and relationship with God”. The greatest weakness of the flesh is its own natural ability. O yes, it has strength and the flesh has power. It can build, run, think and contrive, but it all ends in the natural world. Nothing of the flesh goes through into the spirit realm to move men eternally or to move Gods hand on behalf of sinners. The flesh has no ability to affect men's heart for good. The flesh finds it hard to do nothing in its physical world? Jesus asked his disciples “Could you not watch one hour?” Just waiting can seem like a waste to the natural person. Gal 5.17 The flesh is at war with the Holy Spirit of God. The flesh is smart, conniving, determined, self-sufficient and that’s what makes it dangerous. Our flesh’s strength is our weakness! God says “Cursed is the man who trusts in a man who makes flesh his strength..... but blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord”

Friend, if you know that the flesh is dead and therefore determine not to rely upon it, you have a weakness that God can turn to strength. Strong people are people who know they are totally weak to do His will in the flesh so they know desperately that they need Him to do His will through them.

Read More

God uses His power not to interrupt free choice but to turn evil for good. He uses the tribulation of the world and the temptations of the devil all for good. We know all things work together for good to them that are called but does that mean we just accept them all blindly? No, we don’t just accept it or give in to it. Joseph didn’t say well it Gods will for me to be in prison forever so here so I won’t take any opportunity to get out. When the apostles ended up in prisons they didn’t say it is the will of God, no they prayed till there was an earthquake. When troubles come or we lose our job, we don’t say Que - sera sera - instead, God wants us to rise up in faith and trust Him for the new job. Sometimes you have to fight the devil off. This builds our character, forges perseverance, opens our understanding and grows us into the mighty image of Christ.

Friend, if the enemy is seeing to depress you or sap your strength, rise and fight him off by declaring God goodness and His promises.

Read More

When the Potter has finished firing the vessel, it is ready for final inspection. He looks closely all over the vessel, to see if it has been ruined by cracking. The vessels that pass the inspection test are approved, meaning proven and found to be without cracks.2Cor 10:18 . For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. When a vessel did not pass inspection, it was cast out the shop into the Potters Field; it was called a castaway. Paul said he strove to walk in integrity lest he became a castaway vessel.1Cor 9:27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become castaway. KJV . One man who did become a castaway was Judas Iscariot, who was finally broken, in the Potters Field.Mat 27:7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.

Friend, are you in a test right now? Pass you final inspection! Be faithful to God, keep integrity with people, hold you peace because the Potter is about to pour greater treasure into your life. God never makes a great vessel except for a great purpose.

Read More