The people of Israel slowly packed up their tents one more time to follow the moving cloud. To some it was a hassle to be moving again, to others it was exciting. A desert is a good metaphor for life. It is difficult sometimes and hard to negotiate. Sometimes its hard to see where to go or to orientate ourselves. It can be hard to make progress but there is always the hope a better day beyond the desert.

As they shuffled forward, everyone kept their eye on the Rock. In was their source of life in the desert and had come to represent the Lord Himself. Moses even called God “the Rock” and while it may seem strange, to call God a Rock, it made perfect sense to people who lived their whole life in a desert. In a desert, rocks are your best friend. It’s a hiding place from the harsh desert storms, be they sand or rain. The rock is a refuge from the floods; it is a rock that is higher that you. ( Psalms 61:2) The rock is a defense against your enemies. It is the best vantage point for vision if you can’t see where to go next. The rock is a shade from the burning heat of the midday sun and it was a welcoming place to rest. Earlier Moses himself had learned that the only way a man can meet with God and not die is to stand in the cleft rock, that God provides.( Exodus 33:22)
Eventually the ancient story tells us that the Rock brought them home to their inheritance. The Apostle Paul tells us Christ was that Rock in the desert and when Jesus came out of His rock tomb in resurrection life, he became the Rock of our salvation.
Friend, He is all we need in this desert – live by, stand on, hide in and depend on our Rock. He will bring you home.

Blind Bart sat on his mat on the side of the busy road out of Jericho. It was just another day, but when he heard the crowd and Jesus coming closer, he knew this was going to be a life changing day for him. He’d heard that lame people and even the blind had gone to Jesus and were healed. (Mat 21:14)
Bart wasn’t lame but he may as well have been; it had been years since he had walked anywhere. When you can’t see, you don’t walk very far, certainly not with confidence. He cried out for mercy over the noise of the merely curious and when Jesus heard the honest cry; he stopped, called Bartimaeus to Him and healed him. When blind Bartimaeus eyes were healed he immediately got up and walked after Jesus on the road.
When God raises followers, He touches the blind eyes of our hearts. God doesn’t start or finish with rules. God doesn’t try to change the way we act or walk, he just heals the eyes of our heart.
When Israel came out of Egypt, they had a change of religion but they never had change of heart. People cant walk differently unless they first see differently. Finally God said I’m going to show you Myself and when some of the Jewish people saw the heart of the Father displayed in the cross of Christ, their hearts were changed followed by their lifestyle. It is always the same. We change by revelation not rules. Our hearts are only changed by seeing the heart of God, in Christ. The way Father changes the way we walk and live, is enabling us to see more of Jesus.

Friend, if your sitting on your mat thinking no one notices you or that no one is listening, your wrong. Cry out in faith because I hear him coming closer to you right now.

What a feast! We enjoyed cakes, videos, hakas, speeches and prayer from all the generations in the congregation. Yesterday was amazing as the leaders of our local church sent us out to begin itinerant ministry. It was a beautiful day and we felt honoured and encouraged.

A number of years ago a man of God prophesied over us, that we were hidden in a quiver as sharp arrows, but there was a time when we would be released from the quiver.  That time has come.

But an arrow without a bow is powerless and pointless   It is the testimony, the credibility, the prayer backing and the corporate anointing of the local church, that gives flight to the arrow. Yesterday the bow was drawn back and released.

David said that God had enabled him to bend the bow of bronze. “He teaches my hands to make war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great” (Psalms 18:32-35).

 David was saying his hands were a weapon and our hands are still the weapon of the church against the dark kingdom. By laying on of hands we cancel sickness, cast out devils and impart life into death and we still need the strong arms of local church leaders to bend the bow and release the arrows of the Lord.

 I'm incredulous when I hear a Christian say they don't need a local church. It's like saying we can be a Christian without going to Church. You can become one but you can’t live as one without the local church. That is like saying I can be rugby player without a team. It is delusional for the best rugby player is useless apart from the team, as is a knee joint without the rest of the body or an arrow without a bow.

I love the local church for it is the genius of God and the dwelling place of God. To believe you can worship the Trinity and reject relationships in a local church, misunderstands the nature and the heart of God. He only wants to dwell within a corporate gathering of His people. Only Jesus Christ is enough for God to live in alone. He otherwise needs a nation to dwell in the midst of.  He constructed from a thousand parts His one tabernacle.  He had a temple constructed out of many thousands of components into a glorious unified house for His habitation.  And so it continues that only the whole body of Christ manifested in local churches can contain Him.  It is your brothers and sisters that carry Him within. To get closer to God we need to get closer to the Church. Apostle John said that we love God  as much as we love His people.

I was converted the day I encountered Christ all alone in a pup tent while goat shooting in the hills of Hunua but from that moment God’s people prayed for me, helped me, encouraged me and visited me. His church discipled me, befriended me, fellow shipped with me, taught me and lead me.  They then believed in me, trained me, prophesied over me and released me into ministry.  Eventually they listened to me, honoured me followed me, supported me and my family and enabled me to my destiny. Yet all they were doing was being Christs mouth, heart and hands.

Friend, I love Jesus and I love the Church.

I’m so glad He invited me to sit at His table and to “feast” on Him but do I want Church with that?  Yes please!

In New Zealand we remember our brave soldiers who went to war in WW one and two. We remember those that fell in battle and those that come home. Every soldier paid a huge price to preserve our freedom from totalitarian and godless regimes. What a great time to remember the certain future for mankind unless Jesus our Saviour, also went to war against Satan and evil. Hell was created for the devil and those who refuse to escape it, and it is not pretty. "The whole extent of hell, the present suffering, the bitter recollection of the past, the hopeless prospect of the future, will never be thoroughly known except by those who go there."- J. C. Ryle.

Because we have never visited hell we don’t know how great a death we have been saved from.  But Paul said “Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” ( 2 Corinthians 1:10) To deliver us from such great death, God provided a great, chain snapping, bondage breaking, and sin cleansing salvation.  The Bible calls it a great salvation.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him” (Hebrews 2:3). In this great salvation, Jesus has saved us, delivered us from death and hell but that’s not all. We are saved from the devil, from shame, hopelessness, and fear.

 Yes!  We are saved from sins power, from the flesh, from bitterness and hatred but greater than the things He saved us from, are the things He saved us for. He saved us for a new life - He saved us for peace and for purpose. He saved us for heaven for His family and for the kingdom of God. He saved us for divine power and for works of ministry but mostly He saved us for Himself.   Jesus purchased us at a great price and He paid the same price for you as he paid for Billy Graham and the Queen. He died to save Englishman and Indians.  He saved tinkers, tailors, soldiers, and sailors; rich men, poor men, beggar men, and thieves.  It is a great salvation!

When Jewish Peter was on a roof wondering if God could love gentiles like us, he saw a sheet came down from heaven holding unclean animals. It was not a handkerchief and it was not a size that could fit inside his lounge. No, it spread out over the earth.  “He saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. (Act 10:11)  Every unclean thing was inside this great sheet. God said, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." Act 10:11).

 Friend, He has cleansed you. You are not common or unclean. God gave Peter a great picture to say that no person is too unclean nor is their sin so great, that God cannot save them by His great Grace. 

A new day dawned and the sun rose a lot higher than Elijah’s hopes.  In his cave, he still felt useless and slightly betrayed.  “Then God said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” (1Ki 19:11-13)

God was telling Elijah to come out of his cave and stand with his back to it. In the Bible, caves were never happy experiences. Abraham and others buried their loved in ones in caves. David hid in caves as he was rejected and pursued by those who should have loved him. We will all have a “cave times” but if we spend too much time there, the cave can start to feel like home. Often the worst thing about a cave, is that you have no vision from your standpoint.

Caves are not good places to hear from God but Gods word is always to turn your back on the pain, the lack of fruitfulness and failed expectations.   Purposely turn toward the Lord and position yourself to hear again.     Before Elijah could move outside, the Lord passed by.  Winds and earthquakes split the rock with its power but God was not in any of these things for Elijah.  Manifestations without a meeting with God are meaningless.  Father’s gentle voice was needed to heal the heart of the prophet and it came.

Friend, don’t make a cave, your home.  Don let yesterday’s pain determine your expectations for today.  Don’t get stuck. Tomorrow is not going to be the same as yesterday. Turn your back on your cave. Don’t listen for a mighty manifestation but for His voice. He has something to say that will restore your heart and answer your pain. If He asks you “What are you doing here? It is only because God never wants you to be in a place where you doubt His care or become stuck in your circumstance.

Jesus sat in the upper room with the disciples as he faced the cross and give them this assurance.  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  And where I go you know, and the way you know.”  John 14.1-56

But Thomas protested.  Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  To the question of where and how, Jesus gives the answer of who! Jesus said, “I am the way.” Jesus answer to Thomas’s question about how to find the location of the Father and how to get there, was to find the person of Jesus Christ. It’s not where or how but Who. God did the same with Abraham saying “Go out of your country to the place that I will show you”  So Abram went out not knowing where he was going. He didn’t know where he was headed or how to get there. God said just walk before me. The point of reference for Abraham to arrive at God’s chosen place was God himself. What was important was the way he walked before the Lord and when he got there, God told him.

Our walk with the Lord is like that. Maturity, perfection, full stature is a destination that we can’t pinpoint and it’s impossible to know the steps of how to get there.  Really our journey with God is always toward a place that we have never been before. We don’t know where it is or how to get there.  It is a walk of faith and abiding in Christ. Jesus was saying “You don’t know what the end will look like and you don’t know to get there but if you pursue the Way, respond to the Truth and the draw from the Life I provide, you will arrive at your destination.  Our walk with Jesus is a journey, not a destination. No body learns anything on the exam day but on the weeks of practice leading up to it.  It is always on the journey that we learn. Abraham didn’t come to know God by arriving in the promised land after only a few months, but from his journey of 100 years with God.

Friends, arrival is only guaranteed by abiding. Trying to find how we can get to our spiritual destination, is like asking how a lily grows into its full glory. The way it grows is never by trying or striving or even thinking but by abiding in the conditions for life. Growth is then possible, inevitable and beautiful.

David was hiding in the hills from Saul and needed food for his men so he asked a man for help. “The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings.  1Sa 25:3  Nabal didn’t help David but Abigail did.   Eventually, after Nabal died, David chose Abigail to be his wife.  Nabal (meaning fool) saw David as a threat and a thief and dismissed his value completely.  On the other hand, Abigal (meaning source of joy) saw destiny and worth in David.  She decided to do for him what he couldn’t do for himself.  Her honourable heart saw honour, therefore she showed honour and her future was changed forever.   The foolish-hearted died and the joy giver became queen! Her future was the result of how she saw David. Our heart has eyes; therefore our heart determines how we see others.   Your heart, not your circumstances determine the future of all your relationships and your true success in life.

What came into Abigails “tomorrow” was determined by what was in her heart “today.”  “Out of the heart come the issues of life” Prov. 4:20-23  The condition of our heart is the source of our life. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”  Prov 23.7   If we wish to change our life, we only have to change our heart.  Our two choices in relationships are, to be a “Fool or a source of Joy”  We decide what is going to be in our heart; mistrust, faultfinding and negativity or love, faith and honour.

Friend, don’t let your life circumstances determine what goes into your heart,  rather let your heart determine how you go through your circumstances.  Who has God sent into your life for you to help?  How do you see them?  There is only one thing affecting your marriage relationship – and it’s not your wife’s habits. There is only one thing affecting your happiness at work and your ministry in the house of God – it’s what is in your heart. How are you seeing people?

Often time’s, angry people come from angry families because we learn from them. I never actually thought I got angry but my wife says I do and I'm a ‘stuffer’.  I stuffed my anger because my father stuffed his anger.
In an angry family, nobody listens. They think anger is the only way to get anyone to do want they want, so they use anger to make the kids behave; to stop the wife from spending money, to stop the husband from watching too much TV and they might even try to potty train a baby with a bit of anger!
Mostly we get angry because we don’t get what we want. Naaman was angry because the prophet didn’t do what he expected or what he wanted. 2 Samuel 5. 11. Ahab got angry because the guy next to his palace wouldn’t sell his little vineyard to him. Esau didn’t get his blessing and got mad enough to kill. Gen 27. It was a tantrum! That’s the bottom line. Our flesh “can’t get what it wants” Roman 6.2. We get angry if we can’t control people and make them do what we want for us. It's ugly and nearly all the works of the flesh are about controlling others. Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, Gal 5:19
Balaam couldn’t even get his donkey to do that he wanted so he was going to kill it. Num22. When we throw a tantrum its usually a  blowing up type of anger (GK.Thumos), where we might yell at people or tear a strip off them.  But there is also stored anger (GK"orge") which is frozen anger. Disappointment in a person is frozen anger. We tend to become depressed or angry when our expectations are not met. We go on strike and don’t offer to help. We might withdraw our affection or refuse to have sex. We let somebody do the work by themselves or give them a cold shoulder.

Friend, both are anger and both are destructive of your health, marriage and family. Is it time to yield your heart to God again and not try to control everyone around you?
 

David watched the deer graze on the rocky hills above him.  It was amazing how they lived their whole life upon the rocks that soared above him.  They found food around the rocky outcrops and in the cool ravines they would rest and play. They seemed so confident on the rocks and it was a marvel to him how they never fell or stumbled, never lost their footing or their balance.  He thought to himself “He also makes my feet like the feet of deer.” (2Sam 22:34)  A deer’s foot has been incredibly made for its purpose.  It has sharp hooves which enable the deer to go up very steep cliffs and large pointed dew claws at the back of his feet, to help him come down without slipping and they do it with confidence.

God can make our feet like deer’s feet. As we live our life on the Rock we negotiate times and paths that are sometimes hard and very steep, but joy is our confidence. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”.  (Jude 1:24) or you could say that it is our rejoicing in God that enables to keep us from falling. The prophet declared, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labour of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; …Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills”.  (Hab 3:17 -19) He rejoiced in the face of seeming lack. Deer never think that because they never found grass today they won’t try looking tomorrow. They never think present lack will determine future supply. They get up every day expecting to find food. Habakkuk believed his future was not determined by his past but by his faith. He knew that his future would be changed more by singing prophecy than sympathy. He understood that rejoicing in God would attract the spirit of fruitfulness, more than complaining about the present.

Friend, sometimes our way is “steep and slippery” but He has equipped our feet for every rocky path he leads us. The Lord has made your feet like hinds feet so go ahead and rejoice anyway because steepness never kept a deer from coming into Gods provision and goodness. He is able to keep you from falling and to present you perfect before Him with joy and it is the rejoicing in faith that keeps us from falling off the Rock!