As the famine began to grip the land of  Israel,  Abraham took his 60-year-old wife and travelled south to Egypt.  Abram was not wrong for being concerned about feeding his family, but Abram was wrong in thinking God would not provide for his needs in the place where God called him to live. After all, God called Abram to Canaan, not to Egypt. We can be in the centre of the will of God and still have troubles and testing. The walk of faith is about learning to give the Word of God authority in our lives; more authority than what we see or feel.  James 1:2-4

In Egypt, Pharaoh noticed her and took her into his house. Jewish legend says that in comparison to Sarai, all other women looked like monkeys; she was even more beautiful than Eve.  As people get older they are attracted to people of a similar age, so perhaps Pharaoh was quite old.  Either way, Sarah was beautiful. Abraham asked Sarai to lie to protect his own life a number of times on this trip and his wife ended up in the harem of a foreign ruler.  By offering his “sister” he was able to receive favour and riches.

Abram showed little character at this stage in his life and like us found it hard not to let the world affect his faith in God’s word.  God moved to get both Abram’s wife back home and Abram’s life back on track.  God brought Abram back to the land he should never have left and continued the story, apparently before Abram ever repented.  He plagued the house of Pharaoh and brought Abram back to the house of God. There Abram did what he should have done at the start; called upon the name of the Lord.

Friend, have struggled a bit lately, have you wobbled in your faith or even crashed and burned? Abrahams big failings were not too great for God to work around. Thank God it’s not three strikes and you’re out. Our forgiving Father is helping us learn faith and He is not put off by our weakness or failure.  Move out; move back toward God and call upon His name. Your faith may fail, your character may fail your may feel that you have failed Him, but our Father will never fail you.

The old potter stood up from his wheel with a satisfied smile. He had made many vessels before but every one that he made, was something special. He lifted it onto the wooden shelf and closed the door of the drying cupboard. It would be hidden away for a while, but he knows the shelf will protect it from damage while it hardens. Shutting it up in the dark cupboard will also make sure that it doesn’t dry out to too quickly and crack later in the fire.
Sometimes after we have felt the great Potters hands around us, we seem to be put aside on the shelf and left to dry out. Just when we feel ready for promotion in the kingdom, it seems we’re overlooked by those who should be looking over us. But God is just drying us out, allowing us to harden up so we are able to take knocks without losing shape. And if we crack now, we will never pass the test of fire.
But there is a greater reason that God hides us away and we are feel hidden from sight. It enables us to realize where our life is really found. God’s word tells us that our life is hidden with Christ in God. ”For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2). This refers to the life we gain, from the true source of Life.
So while we are hidden, we are meant to find something else that is hidden too - our life that is in Christ! Our life is not found in a position, or being popular or centre stage. It’s not in being a friend of the pastor, or even from connection with others in the Church, but in Jesus.

Friend, it’s good to be integrated and its good to busy in the “Church” but if we don’t work out where our life is, we will get discouraged or disillusioned while serving. When believers don’t find their life is in Christ, they burn out or drop out. If they go to another church, they still won’t find what they are looking for, because they are looking for Life in all the wrong places. Maybe Lockdown is a gift of time when we can find afresh, our Life, that is hidden in Him.

The people of Israel had prayed for years for God to deliver them from Egypt. At the perfect time, God came to set them free from bondage, but they never imagined how deliverance was going to come. They didn’t imagine that the best path to their future, would mean plagues, daily uncertainty, or that they would be hated by the Egyptians. They hadn’t figured that freedom meant leaving their homes and walking away. When they did finally walk out, they found themselves in a desert that had no food, no water and no quick arrival at their destination.

Peter wrote to believers under Roman tyranny. They faced trouble in their life, possible job loss, economic hardship, pressure from relatives and a suspicious society – life was not easy. “In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials” (1Peter 1:6).

If need be! He said they only endured the trials and troubles that were necessary, for them to become all that God intended them to be. Sometimes we don’t know what we need.

Deliverance and “inheritance gaining” always seems easier in our imagination than in reality. We can see the benefits but we just don’t imagine the pandemic, the process or the people, which God will need to use, to get us there. We all want to grow in spiritual authority, character and faith, but when the means to growth and change comes, we struggle to recognise it. Could it be, that what we are going through now, is our path to growth and global gospel breakthrough? Let faith declare that Father is freeing us from unseen fetters. And let our hope be anchored to Him who is beyond the veil but ever-present and ever attentive to our needs. Certainly, we are being prepared for greater effectiveness, but enlargement doesn’t come easy.

Friend, you too, have asked to grow and be delivered. We usually cannot become what God wants us to become, without some shaking. God is raising a people that are free, strong, mature and unshakable. “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:10 ). The present sufferings cannot be compared to the glory yet to be revealed. Our future “freedom” will be infinitely better than the safety of sameness, and the rule of Egypt. In the times ahead, we will say those “dark days” were the door of our deliverance.

Terror states rage against the USA, governments fight over immigration, speciesism, socialists and LGBT fight gain legitimate power to normalise their philosophy,  others fight on behalf the unborn and the unheard. Nation rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom. It’s a battle of words on earth revealing a war in heaven. Words are spoken through human lips yet beyond the eyes of men, ancient powers are stirred. Peter spoke words in a jail, the church prayed words from the house down the street, and angels from another realm appeared in the jail. Words move unseen beings.

When David faced Goliath in the valley, it was a battle of words, not swords. The giant cursed David by his gods saying  “I’ll feed you to the birds,” but David didn’t allow himself to be cursed by the enemy. If David had of agreed with the words of the giant, David would never have fulfilled the unique purpose God had for his life.  He refused to entertain those paralysing words from a dark source because he knew that spiritual beings are empowered by faith. Therefore he roared back his declaration of faith in the power of God to save, and God came through.

Apostle Paul stood on the heaving deck of an endangered ship and declared the promises he had heard from God, to counter the beliefs, of fearful sailors, who thought they were about to drown. They were all saved just as God had said.  Gods promise is "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isa 55:9-11. Gods words spring from His thoughts and only His word is guaranteed to be fruitful. Agreement with His word, is only illuminated logic. But agreement with His thoughts, takes attentive discernment.

The thoughts we agree with and the words we speak matter.  We can’t listen to doubt and walk in faith. We can not talk fear and live boldly. A generation was kept from Gods promised land by their unbelieving words. Jesus gave the example of cursing those things outside of the will of God. He also told us to speak to mountains that should be moved and to absolutely believe the effectiveness of what we say.

  When Peter was in jail the disciples prayed for God to move.  As they agreed with Gods will in prayer, God sent the delivering angel to Peter. The doors of our current prison are opened by declarations of faith, never by agreeing with the jailer that there is no escape.  And let’s expect an answer.  When Peter was let out by the angel, he went straight to the prayer meeting but they couldn’t believe their prayers were answered and never opened the door.  Someone’s faith had opened the prison door but someone’s doubt kept the church door shut.

 Friend, who’s thoughts are we listening to? How much of what God has planned to bring into our lives, is still bound in the heavens by the words we have said or not said. What hasn’t changed because we haven’t spoken? And what has Father released to us that is still outside the door because our doubt has kept the door shut and kept the answer from walking in?

On Grand father duties last weekend I got to watch the Lion king 2.0. Pumbaa said some pretty funny things one of which was, “You got to put your behind in your past.” Well so long as you are moving forward, I guess that is always going to be true, but I think we know what he meant. Our past could have been awesome or average. The problem with the past is that it is exactly that; the past. Isaiah the prophet speaks to us for God, “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert” (Isa 43:18-19).

New things from God can only spring forth today or tomorrow and the only place He promises to make a road in the wilderness is in your future. Even God cant change the past he can only change the meaning of the past.  He can’t change what happened but He re-interprets it, changing the impact of what happened and uses it for our good. While we can’t undo the sad and painful events of our life, thank God, He can totally remove the guilt and shame of every mistake we have made. .

But even the great things that have happened to or through us, are already just a memory.  Some people and even some companies, bask in the success of the past and it limits them. It may be a great memory but it will fade fast.  To live focused on our history rather that our destiny will mean we will only ever be what we were. Does the past have any value at all?  Of course, because God uses difficult pasts and amazing pasts to make us long for Gods “new thing” and bring us to the place where we were ready for Him and the bright future He is planning for us.

The past is set but the future is flexible and flowing with Gods river. The future is your future. Your unfulfilled dreams can only come to pass in the future. The place you can make things different and the only place you can meet with God is in the future, starting right now. 

Friend, Its time to dream again. Don’t settle for what you have become or where you are, but look for the road He is making into the wilderness. You shall know it because, as you focus on Gods future, although it will be a road you have not been on before, you'll find that He is there, His rivers flow there and as you stay focussed on Him, you'll find yourself there too.

I visited a family recently who had a demonic spirit inhabiting their house and throwing things around in the night.  When they threw all their witch craft items out of the house and called on the name of Jesus, they were saved, set free and even their house got warmer!  The devil did his best but his best was not good enough to stop the power of Jesus.
Philip the evangelist went down to Samaria to preach the gospel but when he got there he found someone else was already there. He wasn’t there long before he was involved in a demonic power struggle with Simon the sorcerer. Acts 8  It seems there was a strong hold to be broken in every place the gospel went, in the book of Acts.  It seems that when the enemy knows that the gospel is coming to set his captives free, he seeks to build strongholds in peoples lives before the gospel arrives.
Perhaps when Satan realised that God was planning to do something great in your life he moved into your family and forefathers generations to bring a snare.   Perhaps he has brought a curse into your family: alcohol, insanity, adultery or divorce which seems to go from generation to generation. The enemy has tried to reach in before the gospel got there but there is nothing that the devil has tried to put on you, that Jesus can’t take off you.
Friend, know this, that if the enemy is at work in your life or family members, God’s word and Jesus blood will prevail. God is planning something great for you – Freedom.

The Pharisees mumbled in their beards and complained that Jesus was a friend of sinners. Jesus told them the parable of the prodigal son. The story ends with the rebellious younger son returning and being gladly received by his father; but the older brother was not pleased.  “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His Father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. (Luke 15:17-32). 

There are two prodigals in this story but only one ends up in the right relationship with the father.  Both sons were disrespectful and rebellious but only one repents.  The younger begged the father to be allowed to come home while the older brother had to be begged by the father to come inside. The young prodigal said he was not worthy to be a son, while the older brother thought his father was not worthy to be treated as a father.  The younger was happy to join the unrelated servants, while the older prodigal was unhappy to join his own brother.  The younger said that he deserved nothing, thereby relying upon grace, while the older thought his faithful “slaving” deserved a reward.  The younger son only wanted the father’s presence but for the older son, the father was not enough.  We can easily see who was more “prodigal”

Coming Home means we value what He has done for us, more than anything we think we have done for Him. It means believing He is more interested in restoring us to son-ship than He is in our perfect performance. It means receiving our Fathers love now; not slaving to find favour or trading our service for blessing.

Friend, lets go inside.  It does not matter whether we are coming from the pigsty or a busy field near Father’s house, if we are not inside the house with our Father and feeling Him celebrate over us,  we either haven’t understood His heart or heard His voice yet.

The success of others can often be our greatest test. As David became popular and honoured by the people, Saul began to eye David with fear and jealousy.

“Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments.  So the women sang as they danced, and said: “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.” Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul eyed David from that day forward. And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand” ( 1Samuel 18:6-10). 

An evil spirit came upon Saul from that day forth and the anointing of God began to lift.   Security means an inner strength inside your heart that acts as a fortress against the need to find popularity, position, recognition from men or women, or to have the things that the world says is important.

Insecure people don’t have that inner strength in their soul so they feel uncertain, vulnerable and defensive inside. And so they feel a need to be recognized and promoted.  They need the type of people around them that will help them feel good about themselves. Insecurity leads to codependence or independence; you either need people badly to make you feel good or you reject people out of your life, so you can continue to feel okay.  Insecure people don’t want anybody to correct critique them or speak into their life.

We see insecurity in the life of Saul. His insecurity shows up in fear of the people’s reactions.  His insecurity showed up in independence; he never asked for advice or listened to the words of those around him. He got used to having his own way and exercising power. He couldn’t admit he made a mistake and obviously was threatened by others who are popular or gifted.

Friend, all this ends up in jealousy, envy and some sort of assassination be it literal or character assassination. We cannot give in to insecurity and expect the anointing to increase on our life. Instead lets find our security in our calling and our relationship with our Father and rejoice in His plans for us and others.