This week my wife slipped on the floor at church and broke her kneecap.  After an adventurous journey by fire brigade and ambulance, she arrived at the hospital where she still waits for the operation.  It looks like our ministry in Europe this year, will be cancelled.

During the week a friend of mine rang to say that his wife was flat on her back and he had lost his voice. Their new church plant was only six weeks old and Easter Sunday approaching.  It was a challenging time for them so I encouraged them from Mark one.

This week I had been reading where John the Baptist went from an outdoor revival to the inside of a prison.   Jesus was publicly acclaimed as the Beloved Son of God and ends up in a wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil.  God had my attention. The intriguing key and hopeful thing about that story is that Jesus is led there by the Holy Spirit.

Your wilderness or your prison is not a sign that God’s love and favour has shifted from you.  The reason Jesus went into the wilderness was to establish his authority over the Serpent as the last Adam and the Second man.  The troubles we face in life are never a reflection of God’s love and care for us, but always an opportunity for us to establish our authority over the enemy by an attitude of faith and a steadfast conviction that the devil is a liar and that God can always be trusted.  Jesus came out of the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit and having established His authority over Satan on the earth went straight into the synagogue to teach.  The immediate reaction of those who heard Him was “Where did he get that authority?”  He got it from His father. Father's love is declared and inevitable Fathers authority must be established.  Jesus then turns His attention to an unclean spirit and took authority over it.   After church, He goes across to Peter’s house and had authority over Peter’s mother in laws sickness.

My friend went on to have the most awesome Sunday because he refused to be intimidated by Satan’s temptations to fear or doubt.  My wife and I are expecting that God will release a new level of authority, greater than and as a result of, any trial or trouble the enemy brings upon us because we trust His character and believe what He has written.  I'm sure "New levels - New devils" is true but certainly saying,"No devil!" brings new levels!

Friend, you too are His beloved child in whom He is well pleased. Father said that to Jesus before Jesus had done anything.  Because God is love, He can only love you. Never question that.  All the enemy can do is tempt you to disbelieve it, to keep you from assuming your rightful authority over him.   Father isn’t stopping the testing and tempting because it’s your opportunity to rise to new levels of authority but His angels are with you to minister to you.  Stay strong, receive His refreshing and come out in the power of the Spirit. Your new ministry is about to begin.

One day God told Jonah to join Him in a great mission. God wanted to take God wanted to take Jonah to a greater place in him and for him to grab hold of His fuller purpose for Jonah's life but Jonah didn’t want to go there because it didn’t sound like an easy thing to do.  To go up may mean we have to face difficulties and hardship and like Jonah we don’t always want to go there. We know it’s not as easy to walk uphill as it is to walk down.  So Jonah went down to Joppa which means beautiful and as people, I think it’s fair to say that we that we prefer the beautiful life.  Jonah paid his small fare to Tarshish but the cost of the ride would be far more. You could say “his decent” was continuous.  He went down to Joppa, down into the depths of the boat and finally down into the deepest sea and all God wanted, was for Jonah to go up. There were great storms and impending disaster until Jonah admitted he was running and was tossed overboard.  Jonah braced himself again the wall of the fish’s stomach, it was very hard to breathe and slippery under foot.  While amazed he was still alive, he wondered how much longer he would be.  As his soul began to grow faint, he remembered the Lord and began to pray.    But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jon 2:9-10What seemed like a grave was Jonah's transport to dry land and eventually Jonah is vomited up by the fish.  Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you" (Jonah 3:1-2).God spoke to Jonah a second time.  This is not the same as a second chance. God is the God of the second chance and many more chances beside but the “second time” is something different.  Let’s think of the other places God spoke the second time and notice it is always about breakthrough and blessing.When Abraham was about to offer up Isaac in obedience God spoke the first time to stop from offering Isaac!  Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven(Gen 22:15), and said because of your obedience I’m going to bless you!When Solomon had offered up a thousand bulls as a sacrifice to God in worship, God spoke to him a second time. Again God said He was going to bless and establish Solomon with a new level of favor (1Kings 9.2).When Jeremiah was in prison “the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time (Jeremiah 33:1), saying, I’m going to heal, restore and favor Israel.  As Peter was on the roof, he was assured that God had declared even the gentiles to be clean.  And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common" (Act 10:15). The second time was a new flow of revelation to Peter.The significance of the second time is seen by the fact that all of these people weren’t running from God or disobedient like Jonah. So rather when God speaks to Jonah the second time it is not a second chance but the promise of total restoration, complete blessing and the giving a new commission with a new level of favor.  The second time is not just a reluctant reinstatement to the place we fell from but the pronouncement of favor and a new level of authority and purpose.If you need a second chance God will give you one but He wants to speak to you the "second time."  The book of Hebrew says “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, (Heb 1:1-2)  Our Father has spoken to all of us the second time.!Friend, are you ready to go up? Are you ready to follow God into a new place? You can’t decide when God will talk to you but you can decide to offer yourself to him a living sacrifice.  When Abraham offered his best, God spoke the second time. When Solomon offered his best, God spoke to him the second time and when Jonah offered his sacrifice to God in the fish Gods favor and purpose came again to Jonah.

God is great in so many ways. God is great as to His strength and power but also great in His dimensions, and His extent. Actually His greatness is immeasurable along with His excellence and glory. He is not great in comparison with anyone or anything. He is great by Himself; there is no other like Him.  He is not just first, He is the only God and beside Him, there is no God.  He is great as to His age, being without beginning or end; the Ancient of Days but age doesn't apply to Him. God is great as to His abundance and all that He does. The Greek word for great is mega. He is Mega in His pre-eminence. On top of all that, all His attributes are great.  So He has attributes like great mercy.  Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this person, from Egypt even until now." Num 14:19  Now when you have greatness, it is yours to give away.  King David said  “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted as head overall.  Both riches and honour come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand, it is to make great And to give strength to all. 1Ch 29:11-12 You can only give what you have so God is able to give greatness to His people.  He gives His kingdom to his people; He gives His glory in John 17, He gives power at Pentecost and He gives His greatness to His people. He took the apostle Paul and made a great murderer into a great missionary and it doesn’t matter who you are today, Gods plan is to put His greatness inside your heart and life.  “To know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power”  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, Eph 1:19,  Eph 2:4    God is placing his greatness into our lives! And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Act 4:33 . Even while the apostle preached with great power, great grace was deposited into the heart of those hearing. Grace is really Divine influence upon the hearts of men. So when the resurrection was preached in great power by the apostle, great grace (Divine influence) came upon the people. As the resurrection of Jesus (The miracle-producing power that can bring something that is dead, back to life) was preached in the power of the Spirit, the same grace or life-giving resurrection power came upon those that heard until faith was born in the faithless, those that were hopeless began to find hope and those who were discouraged believed again. Even the dead in spirit come to life. Great Grace comes into our lives when Gods great power is talked about.

Friend, what you hear about God and what you can see of God is what you experience of Him. In other words, when you see His greatness, greatness gets inside of you.  God is revealing His greatness to us so He can work some of His greatness into us.  Not great skills necessarily or great talents but a great heart, a great attitude, great character, great vision, great purpose and great faith.  

Gideon shared his battle plan with the army.  "Do as I do; do the same as me!  Come together under my leadership" Gideon’s men never said, "I’m not sure that is a good idea?" And he said to them, "Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do:  When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, 'The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!' “Judges 7:17 -18The devil knows the churches key to victory is unity.  You never hear of devils splitting up and starting a new hell.   God is not asking for our opinion. We do as the leader does.  That is how you have a breakthrough in a city. This is demonstrated in our corporate worship times. Our task is not to score the worship leader on the job they do or decide whether we like their song choice.  No, our job is to follow their lead.   In the temple when they made one sound, the glory fell.    The Spirit of God will fall if there is one people, with one heart, in one accord, and in one place.  When we say whatever the leader is doing, I’m following it. It doesn’t matter what song is sung if people follow with faith and a good heart. If there is unity there can be a breakthrough.  The power of God didn’t fall because Paul and Silas could sing well but because there was unity in the prison. And every man stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. Jdg 7:21 -22. When every man stood in his place or the place he should have been standing, God moved and the enemy ran. If we are not bringing our gift to the house and our strength to the army, we are not standing in our place.  One can put 1000 to flight and two can put 10,000 to flight.   If you have an enemy you can’t defeat by yourself,  find a friend to stand with you.  And the men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.   Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites and seize from them the watering places as far as Beth Barah.  Jdg 7:23-24Soon all the other tribes’ joined in the battle.  300 brave men armed with lamps, vessels and trumpets brought all the rest of Israel up to the battle.  Our actions can inspire others to rise up.  Don’t wait for your mate to decide to be a world changer. When you decide you will bring your friends with you. Be the first.  Your decision will change not only your destiny but maybe the future of those that know you. God has not changed his mind about you.  You may have had a call and you may have got off track but there a great verse in Amos for you.  "So says Jehovah: As the shepherd takes two legs out of the mouth of the lion, or a piece of an ear; so shall the sons of Israel be taken out... Amo 3:12 .  Here the lion had devoured the sheep.  All that was left was an ear and a leg but God was going to take them out of defeat.

Friend, whatever enemy has stolen and torn you to pieces – as long as you have an ear to hear His word and a leg to stand on, it’s not too late for you.   God will restore the years that the locust has eaten.  You can get back in the game and back in the battle under leadership.

Noah believed Gods warning about the coming rain, built his ark and survived the flood. Afterwards, he built an altar and offered burnt offerings upon it.   Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.  And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake” (Gen 8:20).  Noah is a picture of a “saved” man; a man delivered from judgment.  All flesh upon the earth apart from Noah, his family, and some clean animals were destroyed. Because Noah was delivered from the judgment of God he makes an altar because he had experienced God’s mercy. God revealed Himself to Abraham so he made an altar to God (Genesis 12.1). The Lord delivered Moses from the enemy so Moses built an altar in recognition of Gods help and mercy. (Exodus 17.1)Able, Gideon, Joshua and David all experienced the mercy of God and then built altars to the Lord.

Worship is a recognition that God has manifested His mercy to us; that we have been partakers of His love and delivered from our enemies.  Their worship and their sacrifices were acceptable to God because they were offered because of their experience of the mercy of God. Today the only acceptable altar on which we can offer our sacrifice is a revelation of the mercy of God.  I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1).  The “therefore” is the conclusion of what preceded in Romans three to ten.  In Romans three it tells us God saves us and we are justified from sin as Able was.  Romans five tells us we have peace from God as Gideon had.   Romans six tells us we are told we are now alive to God like Noah was alive after the flood. In Romans eight, we are told there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus and Romans nine says that the Gentiles have received mercy and been grafted into God's purposes like Abraham. All these Old Testament men had received mercy and then worshipped God. Therefore in Romans twelve Paul says because you also have experienced God’s mercy like Able, Gideon, and Abraham, present a sacrifice!  Our body - a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable service or worship.

Friend, devoting ourselves entirely in worship that stems from a revelation of the mercy of God, will always be acceptable worship to our God and Saviour.

Paul says that we have Gods treasure in earthen vessels.  The word for the vessel is “ostrakinos” meaning substandard and not fitting for an occasion.   This type of vessel was not usually seen in the better homes but used by the poor.  As time went by it come to mean, low grade and substandard.  What is important and interesting is that is the one time Peter refers to wives as vessels, he doesn't use that word meaning misfit or substandard.1Pe 3:7  Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. No, he uses the Greek word  “skeuo” which is the word for fine china, not an old pot.  Your wife is like fine china so treat her gently in honour and great carefulness in every situation.   To give honour really means treat as treasured and highly valued at all times.  The idea here about the vessel being weaker is not inferior, but rather it means fragile in the sense of an expensive piece of ceramic. She is not the pot in the garden shed; she is the vase of beauty that is protected from all the grandkids lest it is damaged!  It means to not put her down or make jokes about her in front of people. No pointing out her faults in front of others.  Or dishonouring in front of the children. Not comparing her to other vessels and remembering her special days.   Why? because that is an honour.  Honour is revealed by your seeking to bring pleasure to another. Honour is the best predictor of your marriages future success.

Sanctification or Christian maturity is a  process and is learning to live consistent with who we are in Christ.  For this reason, Paus letters teach us who we are and whose we are. Maturity is realising that anything but Jesus will not give life nor be life. Jn 14:6 Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life Therefore drawing from anything in order to find life in either things, people or places will leave you short of life! Whenever we feel angry, disappointed or fearful it is a sign that you are looking to the wrong thing to give you Life. Years ago I owned a green Austin car. Once a light came on the dash to warn of an impending mechanical failure. I wasn’t long before I had to replace some major parts of the car.  Anger or fear are just a warning light that we are doing the wrong things in order to find life. People, places and things may be a gift from the Life not the source of life! God allows us to have needs that only He can meet.  There are three things that only Jesus can give us. Jesus alone can give us unconditional love.   Jesus alone determines our worth for He alone outbid everyone for us and paid the highest price for us. He alone can be with us always. Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus that they would be strengthened in their inner man by Christ dwelling in their heart through faith, because when they were rooted and grounded in His love they would become mature.  Every time believers get together, it is so they can receive more of the love of God.  There are problems in our hearts that need to be exposed to His love. Love casts out fear and dissolves inferiority.  Maturity also means we must take responsibility rather than blame others.  By understanding the past and its effects we can then make better choices now.

Friends, maturity does not happen with the click of the finger; it takes time and it involves changing the way we respond to ourselves and others and ensuring that we are looking for Life in only one place.

In the middle ages, many sons of noblemen were apprenticed to existing knights. They learned to be knights by wielding weapons and fighting in armour until they were successful in war and were able to guard the house (castle). They became sons of the house through warfare. Spiritual sons know they are part of an army and they know who their enemy is. Sons understand that, when Jesus defeated the devil, He did it in their name. Jesus never came to earth to prove He was greater than the devil - He’s always been that! He came here to defeat him as a human being on our behalf.  The devil was a strong man who could only keep his goods until a stronger one came upon him. That stronger one is Jesus and His Church!  The enemy is still our foe but now in the presence of the enemy, Jesus provides victory. King David said “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;” (Psalm 23:5) There are some things God only puts on the table for us in the presence of our enemies. In other words, most of the times we receive something fresh from God are in the midst of a battle.  In an environment where we need nothing, we receive little. The Christian life is a life of being in need. We should get used to it! We need Jesus every day to live as a Christian. We can’t heal the sick or forgive constantly without Jesus; we can’t cast out devils or defeat our enemies each day, except through Him. Jesus said to one of the churches in Revelation, “...you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:17) They had everything they wanted but nothing they truly needed. If we know our true need, God will be our garment, our life, and the anointing we need to see clearly. Sometimes our greatest challenge is to know what we truly need. Like this ancient church group, sometimes we need an enemy to fight!

Friend, to increase in authority there has to be an increase in the challenges we face. God works on the basis that His provision for us is not just sufficient but is more than sufficient for our need and the things we face. If our enemies are a two on the scale, then His grace can be a four. If our troubles are a five, then the strength and more than sufficient anointing that He gives us, will be a seven plus.