The Growth of a Tree

As you are growing deeper in God, you are growing stronger as a person. In your mind, your heart, character, wisdom and faith.

Every Tree must grow deep in order to grow big. So you must grow deep if you want to grow big to accomplish all that God has for you.

The Whale

I once saw a whale
who had sad eyes
because he was a whale,

and there was no one like him.
To be a friend to him
To understand what it was like to be a whale

To understand all his whale-y talk
And how his whale-y mind thought
He knew he was no shark

He could never stand the smell of blood.
He wondered why
He was always hungry, sometimes sleepy, always dreamy

Some of the other fishes said,
"He's whale-y crazy!"
It wasn't their fault, they had never seen a whale before.

But the tragedy was
that he had grown to believe them
It was the oft-repeated line that caused

him not to want to be a whale,
but to be anything else
but a whale, never a whale.

But then the whale gradually
Learnt to be glad, that he was a whale
The other fishes were glad too

Because he brought joy, just by being himself
And not somebody else
He grew stronger so he could go deeper

To plough the ocean's depths

He had a whale of a time

Songs of sweetness and songs of Hope

A song about the sweetness of communing with God

Matt Gilman - Made for you 

So love the whole album - which is Holy, Matt Gilman

Songs of Hope if you're going through a tough time

Hope's anthem - William Matthews

You are my Hope - Cory Asbury

Holiness and joy

Hebrews 1:9 NASV

“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”

Joy and Holiness?

Somehow we don't associate an exuberant joy and love for life with God's characteristic of holiness. yet the two are inextricably linked in the above verse about Christ, the Risen One.

God is Holy but He is also exceedingly joyful and full of life. The exclamation of 'You are holy' also means "you are full of life, you are exceedingly joyful, full of righteous-ness and full of purity and clean!"

I heard a preacher say that Holiness is the exclamation of How "other-ly" God is to us. To exclaim Holy Holy Holy is to say you are "different, different, different (from us)".

Arguably the only way to be more joyful in the Christian walk is to have more of God the Holy Spirit who is also a spirit of joy! Think about that. A Spirit of Joy. (Romans 14:17)

And the closer you press in to experience God, the more you will like a miner hit the core, the massive gold deposit hidden in rock- the core characteristic of God, the treasure trove of God. Where He is in the Holy of Holies, the angels cry out "Holy Holy Holy is Jehovah Elohim Shaddai!" There is a growing discovery of how pure God is  - that God is Holy, exceedingly so.

And so to walk with God would mean we are pressing into His presence. Pressing in with the heart, seeking with that heart to desire to worship to know and love Him more and more. And His presence will produce an imprint on our lives - a holiness manifest in our heart, that will differentiate His people.

But somehow the prevailing thought takes away the revelation that Jesus was an exceedingly joyful man and to know Him now as He is in heaven and to be full of Holiness is also to be full of the joy of God. The same joy that the Father had when He created the world and said, "it is good!" the same joy that the Father had, I imagine when He raised Christ from the dead and said, "It is exceedingly good!".

I think God the Father's heart brimmed over with love and exuberant joy when he created waterfalls, mountains, the sea and all the tress and all the birds and all of nature, when He created man. His heart brimmed to overflowing when His Son decided to complete the work of saving mankind from their sins and when The Father raised the Son from the dead, after the Son's violent suffering at the cross, the Father was so exceedingly happy that He said (i imagine) "I will give you the full reward of the joy of the Holy Spirit forever and ever." Look at the focus verse of this post again.

Other examples of a joyful God

"For the joy that was set before him, endured the cross."(Hebrews 12:2) The joy of the salvation of mankind - to know them in relationship, to be involved with their lives, getting rid of sin through His broken body at the cross, to apply His Holy Spirit.

(Luke 12:32) "it is God's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom" For His Children to know and exercise the reign of the King within their hearts and in their lives, brings God good pleasure - or joy.

"For He is the light, the life of the world"(John 8:12)
"For the Son of God has come to give life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).

What Kind of life would He give, if its was a joyless life?


What makes God joyful?

MAtt 10:21 NASV

20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.
21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 22 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Proverbs 8 NASV

30 Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,
31 Rejoicing in the world, His earth,
And having my delight in the sons of men.

From proverbs, we see that Christ (personified as the wisdom of God) rejoiced in God Himself, He also rejoices in His work in men, He delights over mankind who are all His children those who are saved, and those who are not, those who know Him and those who don't God loves and rejoices in them all, for He made them all for his good pleasure.

From Luke, we see that He also loves to to reveal Himself to child-like hearts, He rejoices to cause people to rejoice in heavenly truths and He delights to teach His children the secrets of God. He loves to reveal Himself to hearts who seek.


John 15:10 NASV

10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Leaning into the wind

-Reposted from my diary @ www.buildingheartandmind.blogspot.com

Leaning into the blast
Bones shivering, Chattering

The cold it goes straight through the soul
If you let it

Blinding snow by day
Thick darkness by night

But for the strength
To take

One more step

Before long we'll we reach shelter
The mountains trail behind

The trail only upward winds
Our abode lies yonder

Think of fairer days
White streaked clouds against a sapphire sky

Sun shining kindly again

Warm company,
Instead of maddening solitude

And chilling wind

Grab your heart by its strings
Haul it up

Think on brighter things
Chest out and chin in

Leaning into the wind
But for the heart

The courage to last
And wait out

But one more day

For the sun still rises

How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power

Acts 10:38

38 You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Various facets of the Person of the Holy Spirit

It is strange - why does Peter emphasise that God anointed Christ "with the Holy Spirit", "and with power" as though the power of God is a separate entity from the Holy Spirit which is definitely not the case. For the Holy Spirit is the spirit of power and might (Isaiah 11:12 Isaiah calls Him the Spirit of counsel and might). Why does Peter then separate the two items?

Restoration of Relationships through the Holy Spirit

John the baptist was anointed with the Holy Spirit from the womb, but did no miracles. No signs and wonders followed His ministry, the Spirit of God was a spirit of conviction through preaching piercing the heart of men, to convict the people of their sins and for repentance - a prophets anointing to turn the hearts of the Children to the Fathers, and the hearts of the Fathers to the Children (Malachi 4:6, fulfilling the Elijah ministry which breaks the hold of idolatry over the heart and allows for restoration of the love of God in primary relationships) .

Is there division in your life? strife and quarelling amongst brothers? Pray for the Power of the Holy Spirit to bring a unity of heart and Spirit - "for the Glory You have given Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one." The unity that comes is a unity born out of a common experience of God's love, His presence and Glory, the proximity of His person, which destroys division.

There are therefore different manifestations of the spirit. Elijah prayed for the children of Israel to return to the worship of Jehovah or Yahweh, but there is another manifestation of the Spirit which is called the Spirit of power and might. Elijah also arguably obtained the Spirit of the might of God when the tangible power of God manifested from heaven against the false prophets of Baal. (read the story for yourself in 1 Kings 18).

The Fire of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit manifested in the room with the 120 with the symbol of fire, marking the ministry of the age of the church, to be one which is with the power of the Holy Spirit, for the same purpose that it was on Christ - to do good works - which is "to heal all who were oppressed by the devil, for God works with His people and partners with them for this work." 

1 John 3:8
the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of thedevil.

The fire of God destroys the hold of the enemy over lives and sets them free to grow in the Holy Spirit and be the people whom God originally intended them to be, and to walk in holiness and not sin. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Holiness, His influence is cleaning, cleansing, making people walk and do what is right in the sight of God.

Lets further examine another aspect of the fire of God

Isaiah 64:1-5

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

1Oh, that You would rend the heavensand come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
2 As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3 When You did awesome things which we did not expect,
You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.
4 For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?

We see from the above passage that one manifestation of the Spirt and manifested presence of God is fire. I've written a bit on manifest presence of God which Tozer, Lake and Wigglesworth teach on, here.

As we can see from the above passage, the fire of God works to make God's name and character and goodness manifest against God's enemies - the powers of darkness in high places which cause people to be in perpetual sickness, poverty, violence, abuse and are not able to "lift themselves out" of these messes.

The fire of God also consumes and destroys the allure of idolatry as we see in Elijah's story, every false love and worship of the heart is destroyed when God manifests His own love to people in fire. The disciples when filled with fire and love proceeded to promulgate the message of the gospel to the world.

Lets pray for the fire and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives that God may be seen to be who He really is a mighty God full of compassion mercy and power to change and transform people's lives. Lets also pray that our hearts will reflect the character of Christ through the Holy Spirit also, so that we don't stumble and cause others to stumble when we do have the manifestation of power in our lives.

Notes and references

I have three reflections on Elijah's life in April 2011 here.

Been influenced profoundly by David Davis's message on Eliah here (David Davis is the late David Wilkerson's spiritual son).

Tozer explains the manifest presence comprehensively better than I ever can here.

I stood still

I stood still
As the crowds passed me

Tried to follow
But couldn't keep up the pace

Tried my best
But it never really fit

The clothes they gave me
Always looked dull
Nothing like the colours which I wanted to wear

Tight in the shirt and tight in the waist
Movement hindered
They felt more like restraints

Then I decided
Not to learn what they wanted teach

Because most of what they taught me
Was all, all wrong

But I found out
A bit too late

That they were the ones lost
In their choice drug
Infused haze

Not wanting any of that
I wondered "is there another way?"

Most kindly He stepped in,
Taught me to pray

"The path cuts upstream,
Against all currents.
But you need first to break through,
The pull of the tide."

"Are you up for this?
It's going to be one
Rough ride"

Frankly I trembled,
I was but a child,
I hardly understood
The words that He told

Deeply afraid
But His eyes were kind
So lovely, I said,

"Well, if you would walk with me,
Wherever I go,
If you would promise to lead me
And promise never to let go.

For your love is warm"

"Your hand comforting and kind

And never have I been treated with such kindness

In all of my life."

"Then My life and yours one shall be."

"And Yours shall be all my joys and sorrows
For all eternity."

Announcement

So, I've just added an email subscription feature. If you like to receive updates from my blog in your email address, just type in your email address on the right. RSS subscription features just added too. Cheers & Blessings, Isaac.

Link to my diary

So to all who are interested, the link to my diary is fixed @ www.buildingheartandmind.blogspot.sg

"Come wreck my life"

"Come wreck my life."

Its my way of saying 'be God, be king, command me, rule over my heart. I welcome Your rule and I embrace all and any changes to my life that You would desire to make. Change my life and transform me into the life of Christ. Take me higher, take me deeper.'

Its my way of saying,

'If theres anything out of line, align it, if theres anything deficient, heal and fill me up. If theres anything weak strengthen it so that I can obey with a full heart.'

'I choose to restructure my whole life around You'.

'if theres any priority that has taken Your place forcefully wrench my heart with a strong and mighty hand overpower my heart, with the power of Your love, so that it belongs to you alone.'

'Still the restlessness, be the focus of all my attention. Bring Your peace, let Your presence cause me to rest. (Exodus 33:14). '

'Come change my life and shake me out of a sleepy comfort that You alone be the full pursuit of my life. I'm not satisfied. Change me.'

The God encounter in the different seasons of life

To encounter God in intimacy takes a seeking, constantly searching heart that seeks His face.

Some measure of silence is necessary so that God can speak and lead us to rest.

The God encounter is more than music and singing and worship. It is more than the reading of scripture. It encompasses these but is not restricted to them by any means.

In a way it is a result of contant prayer "praying without ceasing". The God encounter can be in the prayer closet where we learn what His voice sounds like and what His presence feels like and we learn to value His presence, alone where no one else is. It can be in a prayer meeting or a worship meeting.

His presence is not restricted to the closet or the meetings in church. The God encounter looks different in the different seasons of our life.

It can be while you're walking in the park, while we're eating alone, while we're walking and talking to God in a flow of natural conversation, while we're writing, while we're in the office, in the school halls.

Its a matter of the openness of your heart to the Holy Spirit to say 'God I need you' listening and watching for Him 'more than the watchmen wait for morning so my soul waits for you O Lord'.

The Son can do nothing on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing

John 5:19 NRSV

Jesus said to them, 

"Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on His own, 

but only what He sees the Father doing; 

for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise."

Most remarkable words from the mouth of the Son of man. 

John 5:26

For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

Jesus was created to be self-existing and self-sufficient - to have life in Jesus's own self.

Yet He says I can do nothing on my own. Not I will do nothing on my own but I can do nothing on My own.

How much more can we do nothing, if the Son of God said 'I deeply need the Father for everything I do.' How deep is our need for God if the Son of Man Himself felt in His own humanity the deep need, the deep cry, the deep imperfection and the glory of man's design - that we were made for God through and through, we were made to need God.

In every layer of my person - I need the Father in every layer of my being - psychological, mental, emotive, in the seat of the affections, desires and goals, in my physical body. For what the Son of Man is trying to tell us is that mankind is made to depend on God alone and for everything.

I can do many things on my own but if my heart and mind is not set first and foremost on one thing - to love God and to act from the revelation of the Father, in seeking the real presence of my Father to come into every layer of my being and direct me and Father me, it amounts in eternity to nothing. Wood hay and straw which will not stand the fire.

His devotion is singular - He only does what He sees the Father doing. His imitation was entire. "Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise." Every bit of the Father was studied extensively in detail, His face, His heart, His hands, His way, His voice, His tone, His love, His splendour, His power, His generosity, His graciousness and mercy with eyes and a heart of eager child-like affection.

The Father was experienced deeply in Jesus own soul, in prayer where He would seek His Father only and alone. He intimately knew His Father, in every step of life, in every need, in every challenge, in every step of His ministry - Jesus knew His Father's heart, for He took time to be with His Father.

The Father was then represented fully in detail. Every act, every word every teaching, every miracle, every gesture of kindness, power, love and mercy, was done in loving devotion and obedience to the detail of what the Father had showed Christ. No more and no less.

My heart cavernous and bereft
The wind howls through
The sound a Fury
Howling like hungry hunting dogs
Crying, longing, pleading for you.

We need a real and powerful experience of Father God to transform us from our deep places of our soul and Spirit. Let us continue to seek with persevering prayer to know our Father.

The beauty of a view from the outside

If you draw your existace from within a system, the growth of your thinking and what is possible, will necessarily be limited to the maximum stretch that the system can accomodate.

The beauty of not being created and grown from a system is that you are free to create something entirely new. You are free to create something that has never existed before since the creation of the world.

This is the logic of the cloth and the wineskins.

The right to decide the hermeneutic

The right to decide the hermeneutic depends on the commitment, love and sacrifice which that person is willing to flesh out, commit to and see through.

Of course the other two things which are rock solid are 1) scripture itself 2) the revelation of God the Holy Spirit

All of life yields its lessons to the humble

If one is of the right spirit, then anyone walking beside you becomes your teacher, all of life yields its lessons to the humble.

Measurements of Success - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“We believe that things which can be measured are real, and we ignore those that we don’t know how to measure. So people take intelligence more seriously, because the mental ability we call by that name can be measured by tests; whereas few bother about how sensitive, altruistic or helpful someone is, because as yet there is no good way to measure such qualities. Sometimes this had profound consequences – for instance, in how we define social progress and achievement”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity Pg 40

Re-imagining church success

The size of growth of a church might just be a function of its relevance to the culture that is pre-existing. Show me a thriving, radical counter-culture measured in radical humble and serving love and I will show what you a successful church looks like.

Shifting Culture

Cities are repositories of culture where modes of thinking are passed down from generation to generation and stored in our collective memories in the way we work in schools in politics, in buildings in the military in the way we respond. Shaping communities and buildings which we now inhabit and shaping the generations to come.

Culture is profound education. Deeper than most formal learning which is cognitive in nature. Culture molds the underlying attitudes which then forms a receptacle to hold those ideas.

People act out of the seat of their deep conviction which are often times dictated by the culture in which they live. to shift culture in a families is to shift the heart of a city.

Therein are nations won to righteousness or lost to the world.

adrift

A single plank

On a dark wide sea

Soul adrift

Lost my bearings many moons ago

Where are all the signs

Which in pervious times seemed so plenty

I never really could lose my way

A desperate cry
Cold and hunger

Comrades with the salt and spray

Of wind tossed waves

Dark and damp

Two unsettling friends

Somewhere deep there lies

The bound, wet and

Shredded remains of a map

Traces of a forgotten dream

All this while

The hunger never dies

All false promises

Never deliver

Quite the joy I pictured tasting in my mind

When will I find

Shore again

Everything I’ve believed in

I now question thrice

My compass

Spins in

Every direction but true

Yet my heart still

Haunted by faded gleams-

The memories of you

Looking for Something

More permanent than a feeling
No words can describe
No colour illustrate
Nor sight vivify
No music could bring to life
Nor song elaborate
No friendship satisfy
Nor thought explain

In true substance
Not imagination
In power
Not fleeting touch

I ache as a man dead laying
All of life holds no meaning
I languish until you come

The glory and the beauty 
The person of you

Winter's Song

In winter in summer spring or fall
,
Let me grow Deep, 
growing deep is all

Whether there be fruit or friend nearby

Solitary
As can be

In a storm of biting cold

Not a stir of a breath in the environs around

Except the sound of twigs falling
Dried and cracked from The winter's bound

Purpose or no

Sails full
 or flagging

Let me grow deeper and nearer to where
Hidden rivers bubble and well

Ever closer 

Gradual closer inching every day
Every year gaining but a yard
Hands reaching ever grasping
Forward, onwards
To the hidden secret of who You are

GOD is beauty
He is life and overflowing life
He is truth undergirding all of of reality
He is sincere, honest and real

Sometimes with eyes closed we see better for vision many times obscures.

Faith is a substance more primal than sight

So what if you build something, if God is not truly its commissioner and builder, you truly build in vain, blasphemous monuments of atrocity

So what if you are wise, or simple? God is strong wisdom to the simple and can make the simple great in wisdom.

How can one who is lost lead another who is lost? It can never happen.

First you have to find something, only those have been found can lead the lost.

Only those who have something can give it away.