Years ago there was a haunting song that became quite popular, “I want to know what love is ... I want to you show me..”  That is the cry of every man and women, and even every Christian.   Even people that know the Lord, can still be desperate to feel love.  Bono from the band U2 sung “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” yet he was a believer.   There are some believers who know the Lord but still never found what they were looking for in the church, among Gods people.   Everyone is looking for love; believers come to church expecting to find it not just from God, but from His people too.   Bonding is something that happens in families and it is a powerful bond that usually lasts for a lifetime. If a child is able to attach to others and begin to trust others like parents, they develop normally. Every emotional problem from addiction to depression has alienation or isolation as its root.   Even church-going will not fix it.  If all we get is religious exercises and not life, we don’t get better.   Life comes from our relationship with our Father and from life-giving relationships with people. What is not found in natural families is meant to be experienced in our new family the church.  The Bible calls it, the bond of perfection.  (Col 3.14)  It is a special kind of love; its Gods love found in and among Gods family. As we develop relationships with others in the body of Christ we are built up and built together by the joints or the bonds between us.

Friend, no alcoholic recovers on his own and if you allow your heart to be cut off from people and from relationships where there is real love, it will develop a hunger for a deceitful lust or desire in your life. Maybe for substances, sex, food or other addictions.  The empty-ness must be filled and it is designed to be filled with a relationship with God and others who are filled with God.

Paul walked with his bags up the gang plank onto the ship but the chorus of sea birds drowned out the sound of his steps. The ship smelt of salt-soaked hemp ropes and tar. Beyond the ship, the green sea twinkled but Paul never noticed; he was thinking of the people he knew and those he had never met waiting at his destination. Most of Paul’s missionary life, he was on a boat somewhere on the Mediterranean. These sea journeys were not the only voyages he took, for He took an internal voyage as well. Our live journey is a voyage, and therefore, we must know our destination and negotiate the storms that come the rocks of intimation and even the shallow waters of small vision and low goals. This is true of individuals and of churches. Every person is born for a purpose and our voyage is to fulfil our “pre-destiny.”

Hundreds of years ago, men were press ganged into the Navy to fight for King and country.  They were captured as they walked home from the pub and they woke up below decks out at sea. Our Captain only captures our hearts, gives us a vision of reality and we follow Him. But one thing is still true; we are called to a battle campaign, not to a jazz cruise. Jesus looks for men and women who will enlist for life. We can’t be a soldier for the summer and there are no reserves. Our voyage begins when we discover who God has made us and we decide to become it; when we understand the reason for our birth and we pursue it in spite of all opposition. Every job and ministry is about recreating the world God that intended. He assigns us to fix something that has fallen in people, education, business, church or society. The way we do church is changed for the moment and parts of its expression, will never be the same again. But may be that’s the point. Maybe we weren’t meant to do it down there on a Sunday. Maybe we were just meant to be the Church in our closet and in our street, in our place of ministry at work. Our new goal is not to get the Church back to normal but to take life to the city. May be our lockdown learning is that our problem is not that don’t have enough, the problem is that we haven’t given what we have. Could it be that we don’t need more buildings, more power, or more love, just more courage and more involvement with the people. There is a greater anointing but maybe it is in the field. Jesus seemed to think that the 99 in the fold didn’t need as much attention as the one that was still lost in the field.

Near the end of his life Paul said   “… the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7).  The word “course” was used in regard to plotting the course of a ship. Non of it was completed tied to the wharf but driven by storms to find the sick and the needy.

Friend, if it seems there is are many hindrances right now to the future we planned, there is no hindrance to the Church, God has planned, Jesus guarantees victory in the conflict.  The apostle Paul said “…I kept the faith”.  Keeping the faith is not just “remaining a believer” till Jesus takes you home; but doing our part to make the earth a home for Jesus now. That won’t happen unless we all fight the good fight and finish our course.  Lets march forth into the cursed world to release our Captains “blessings”. Lets not think that the kingdom will come, by filling the Sunday grandstand and cheering on the “full-timers “ or by waving a handkerchief of token appreciation, for those saints that are going into the battel field, but lets join the ranks as well. The Church is not defined by how much life we have inside on a Sunday, but how much life we release outside in the city each week.

Once when visiting friends in Tanzania, we were taken to a snake zoo, where graphic photographs hung on the walls of men being swallowed whole by pythons. Guards had been attacked while sleeping and then swallowed by the big snakes. Apparently, pythons are attracted by the breath of their victims and when they have coiled themselves around the victim they squeeze the breath out of them till they are dead.
Many years ago I went through a time of real confusion in my life. I did everything I knew to do to break out of it but in the end, I knew I needed help from friends I trusted. I had had the breath squeezed out of me.
When the Apostle Paul was breaking new ground in Philippi, he once found himself opposed by the devil, though a woman with a spirit of divination. She spoke the truth but with a spirt that brought death. The Greek word for divination translates to python in English.

In the spiritual realm the “python spirit” smells people with breath and life and creeps up on them to squeeze the breath and vision out of them. It might wait till you are feeling low mentally or spiritually but it will slither your way. The python spirit wants to crush you and destroy your spiritual life. What God put in you, the devil will seek to take out of you. Sometimes it works through people like Jezebel, who squeezed the life out of Elijah and shut down the prophet in the land. Watch out who you let into your life and find some one who can bring you life.
Friend, it’s an old device. It began in the garden when the serpent turned up to squeeze the breath and life out of Adam. We may be in lockdown but we are not to be knocked down. We are told to stay at home but we choose to stay in Him. Don’t let him squeeze the life out of you. Get annoyed like Paul; rise up and cast it out. It didn’t solve all of Pauls challenges; he was locked up but because his spirit was now free, he was ready for revival, prison couldn’t hold him and even the prison keeper was set free. Come on; someone needs you to be ready too!

Two weeks after she broke her knee cap, my wife still sits in a straight leg brace and my housekeeping skills have grown exponentially!   I love this verse. It explains a lot to me.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all.”  Psalms 34.19. 

We live in a world that is broken because of the bad decisions and actions of ourselves and others.   God doesn’t keep us from every affliction but He will help us out of the troubles, or through those troubles when we ask Him.

 We sometimes wonder, why God doesn’t stop pain from happening, but here’s the thing – He doesn’t even keep himself from suffering.  Only beings that feel and love, can suffer.  If we want the possibility of feeling love in the world, we also have to have the possibility of suffering.   Whoever loves the most, suffers the most and God suffers greatly to see the choices His children make but loves them enough to give us the freedom to make them.

He never stopped Adam from disobeying but when Adam realised his error, God quickly forgave and redeemed him.  God always warns people of consequences but doesn’t force anyone to obey.  He doesn’t stop people from disobeying either.   For God to stop every sin, crime or conflict that creates pain like an argument between husband and wife, he would have to override free will every day. He is not a controlling demigod, who takes away our personal freedom and personality but He gives us the dignity and responsibility of our own lives.  In the midst or our afflictions, he draws near to reveal himself and restore the broken, by empowering us with the strength and grace to overcome in this life.

Friend, if you were kept from every issue you could neither see more of God or know your need.  God does not keep us from every affliction but through the window of pain reveals Himself as the Comforter and wonderful Deliverer out of it all.  Today He is drawing near to you and wants to reveal Himself. Take time to look through the window.

David sat among the sheep grazing all around him, unaware that back at the house, he’d been excluded from an important meeting with the Prophet. The actions of the family showed that they did not believe that God could or would use David. Their exclusion showed that he was considered by them, to be insignificant to the real work of God but God thought differently. (1 Sam.16)
One thing that shapes our values is our family. Maybe you can see how your family has written a message on our minds that affects how we see God and ourselves. Sometimes the people in our life or past are not the best people to tell us who we are!
Thankfully, when we are saved, God begins to write upon our heart and mind a new story by giving us new experiences of His love, care and power in our lives and the best place now, to find out who we are is from God Himself.
Moses was a sheep farmer but he didn’t know who he really was, till God spoke to him. Peter thought he was a fisherman until he heard from Jesus. Gideon found out he was a deliverer and Elisha a prophet was not just the farmer’s son. God showed them all that they were loved, significant and called and capable.
Friend, you’ll never know who you really are, till you hear God tell you - Get away from the sheep for a moment and listen at the burning bush. He will tell you.

The 12 spies went up to see the Promised Land and found it full of beautiful fruit in the Valley of Eschol. The land was full of opportunity and possibilities but there were giants in the valley. God wanted the spies to see both grapes and giants but not to be discouraged; nor for them to discourage others by giving a negative report. "For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them" (Num 32:9).   The valley was Gods opportunity for the twelve spies to manifest a spirit of faith.  We are to see the problems and the giants but still live in faith. God is looking for a people with a spirit like Caleb and Joshua who will cause Gods people, to enter into their promised land.  Moaners are a dime a dozen and people who can see problems, abound; people with the gift of doubt are legion, but people with a different spirit and a faith-filled confession, are two in a million.

These are the type of people God is looking for and it is only in valleys inhabited by giants that they and their faith, stand out!  When David went down into the valley it was clear that Goliath was huge and his weapons large, but the biggest thing on the field of battle was David’s faith in God.  It is in the moments when people face giants, that the men and women who will become leaders, shine.  Our faith and trust is proven in the presence of giants and in the presence of 10 others who are negative about life's future. (1Cor 11.19)

Friend, don’t let others discourage you with a negative report about your future or Gods ability to help you, but place your confidence in God, who said: “I have given it to you.”

Gideon spoke to his 300 brave men as they were about to attack the enemy army “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do” (Judges 7:17).  The leader says do as I do.  The leader goes the way and shows the way first. Gideon’s men never said “I don’t really feel like it right now” God is not asking for our opinion only our obedience. God leads us through leaders. Doing as the leader did was how they got a breakthrough. The devil knows the key to victory is unity.  That is why we never hear of the demons splitting up and starting a new hell.

So our task is not to score the worship leaders quality of voice or their song choice, our job is to follow them.  The Spirit of God will fall if we are one people, in one place, and in one accord.  They say Paul’s' voice was not great so if that was true, the power of God fell in the prison because of their their unity not because of their clever harmonies.

Amazingly, when the brave 300 entered the battle, the fearful remainder of the tribes were encouraged and returned to the battlefield.  (Judges 7:22-23)   The 300 all became leaders.  Our actions can inspire others to rise up.  Don’t wait for your friends to decide to be a world changer. Be the first, be the change.

Friend, find a leader to trust, follow them and become a leader to your friends who are watching you from afar. Your decision will change not only your destiny but the future of those who will inspire.

Many years ago I was in Nepal, when I heard the news that my wife had almost died from a haemorrhage, due to an ectopic pregnancy. It was hard for me being overseas and even harder for my wife. As leaders, we’d like to think that God would keep us from the valleys of trouble and pain, but one thing God wants to do is to teach us that he is God of the mountain and the valleys. When the spies went into the promised land they discovered fruit growing only in the valley. If you like – God doesn’t prevent every trouble – He doesn’t step in and stop every challenge and difficult time coming our way, but He will help us out of the troubles or through those troubles. The Bible says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers us from them all” God wants to be biggest and best part of your life; to be in your life. He wants to be the wind beneath your wings and to have involvement in your challenges and He simply kept us from every trial and trouble, it would inevitably keep Him locked outside your life. God does not always control circumstances on the front end but he always gets involved and delivers on the back end. This is how we grow. As His children we don’t just go through trouble; a believer always grows through troubles. David was convinced that God never left him nor forsook him. That conviction changes everything.

Friend, heaven is no place to grow kids. There has to be some resistance; some things to overcome; some trouble to bear in order to grow up strong and capable. A strong faith cannot be achieved by weak or small challenges.

I used to work for the Ministry of Works and sometimes they would have a sign in the middle of the road saying “Caution men at work.” It reminds me, that all of us need a sign up around our life every day, which says Caution God at Work! Not that we need to treat our loving Father with caution but that we should treat every moment with caution.  There are no secular moments when you are a believer and no secular jobs. Obviously, the glorious church is made up of truck drivers, lawyers and housewives. God uses their work hours and jobs to perfect them. Every part of our life; whether spending time with family, having breakfast and driving to work, are all spiritual, because He is always at work! 

Sometimes we think that God stays in the closet when we go to work but our life is like a movie. If you could stop each frame and look into it you’ll see God in every frame. God doesn’t compartmentalize our training or life as we might. We send our children to one for music lessons, to the gym for fitness, to school for their minds and to the Church for their spiritual growth, but not Our Father – all of life is His. He has one school and we are all in it full time. He can use every experience and every person we meet throughout the day.

Jesus told of a servant who wasn’t looking or expecting his master to turn up at any time.   “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers (Luke 12:45-46). Unbelievers? A strange thing to say unless this man represents us, believers. The fate of the believer that isn’t expecting or looking for the Master to appear throughout his day is that they are given a portion like the unbelievers. In other words, a life where they cannot see God at work, in and around their lives – just another pointless day.  I love being in the “zone” where I’m expecting and seeing God communicate with me by any means, at any time in my day.
Friend, our Father is always with us, communicating with us and always working in us. God goes to work with you, not just to help you in your work but to work in you. God’s plans are not accomplished by His work in church meetings but because He is always at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Philippians 2.13)