An Encouragement To The Church

by Patsy Grubb

Integrity: honesty

Honour : (on or upon one’s )
(a) acknowledging personal responsibility for one’s actions.
(b) pledging one’s reputation as to the truthfulness of a statement, etc.
(c) promising obedience or good behaviour.

As Christians, representatives of Christ Jesus, it is our responsibility to ensure we do not discredit or dishonour God by representing Him inaccurately within the context of our daily lives. I am not talking about being perfect people all of the time. I am referring to how we conduct ourselves in situations in which we witness behaviours and ethics, etc. contrary to our beliefs and Christ’s teachings. For example - How do we respond to injustice in our work place? Do we ignore it ? Do we get angry about it but not speak up ? Do we respond in the same spirit or simply mind our own business?

God requires that we make a stand for justice. This is imperative regardless of the cost. Even if we do not address injustice by verbally speaking out against it we must address injustice with our actions. We must be a living example of justice within our work place and broader community because that is both the battle ground and the harvest God has entrusted to us for this time. Regardless of what flows down from the top we must always conduct ourselves with integrity, and we must honour our word, promises, agreements, and commitments regardless of the consequences. We must weigh our words, measure them and only speak them if we can do as we say.

It is imperative that we honour the authority over us even when that authority is not Godly because they have been placed in that position by God and He will work within us what He desires through our honouring of that authority. Honouring authority does not mean however, adopting ethics, standards, etc if those standards etc are contrary to God. If we truly honour God we will adopt the standards, ethics, etc . that He has set for us.

Compromise is not an option when it comes to justice issues. Our behaviour must reflect our conviction. If we do not stand for righteousness in our everyday lives, how will we be counted as righteous in times of true persecution?  If God alone sees our efforts to stand for what is good and right, is it not worth the battle?

I Love You Africa

by Belinda Jabore

I was given a ticket to go and see a show called “Mother Africa” at the casino here on the Gold Coast and the highlight of this show was a man who played an instrument (I think it was ) called the Kora. As he was playing I had such an amazing interpretation of Gods heart for Africa. It was like I wasn’t at the casino but in a heavenly place and I was feeling and sensing His love for Africa. I probably will not do this justice as I felt words could not describe what I felt, but with my inability to express heavenly words and feelings I pray you would get the Lords, His heart for Africa.

“Oh how I love you Africa. Africa My love, My pearl, My jewel, My sweet smell of hope and glory. I love you with a passion of the wind sweeping over My land of beauty, every crevice is filled for My love for you oh Africa. The fragrances of heaven surround you and are in your midst. I have smelt your fragrance and longed for you to be by My side for all eternity to see. As you are enriched deep into me and as the land needs the rain and thirsts for rain, this is how much I long to smell and breath you in oh Africa. As you are My refreshing and My amazing sign of My hope and forgiveness. Your jewels are like the rays of hope and life. Where there was once shabbiness in the light now it will break forth into My heavenly delight, in to what it was always meant to be. To shine forth like the brightest of the morning glory stars that bring forth prisms of light to save and bring forth My radiance and My delight. Oh My beautiful Africa how I love you, as you are with Me  you will come into your finest moment to serve Me and to glorify Me.

You are a whirlwind and hurricane of unexplained rainbows in the sky and there will be new hope scattered forth from these prisms of light that will be a spectacular display of My love and hope to your land oh Africa. You have a light that will never go out for Me, as My love for you will be the very thing that holds you to Me. For see, only My love and those who love Me will stand in My glory and see My glory. Oh Africa, oh Africa, My beauty, My fragrance of love and hope.

Pressure

by Johanna Van Weeren

My saints have been under great pressure. Pressure which I have allowed. Pressure by it’s very nature must be released or destruction will come to the vessel holding that pressure. All those who have held together under the pressure will be released. Those who have not held together or who have released their own pressure will not be used in this next move of Mine.

All saints from ages past have waited and longed for this final move of Mine. Those who have walked out this journey with Me know who they are and they will walk in My Glory in the days to come. This Glory cannot be taken from them nor can another be given it. I have sealed those to hold it. It will be envied but those who carry it have earned the right through trial by fire. All others will be subject to that Glory.

If We Love Him We Will Obey Him

by Belinda Jabore

I would like to continue in the Sabbath and its promises for us. The safety and protection it will bring to us His people.

I love it how the Lord clearly keeps saying it is a sign between Me and you (twice) in
Ezekiel 20:12, ‘Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me , that they may know that I am the Lord  who sanctifies them.’

Exodus 31:13, 31:17- In these scriptures the Lord speaks about the Sabbath being a sign between Me and you again, (twice) in the same verse. God is really trying to make this clear heh. Yet I love the part that He speaks about it being throughout the generations, that you may know that I am the Lord God who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. (Holy meaning- morally and spiritually excellent or perfect, and to be revered; belonging to or devoted to God. consecrated, sacred.)  (Sanctified – meaning consecrate; treat as holy; free from sin; justify.)

So to me His promise to us is that we will be continually sanctified, made holy and refreshed in the Sabbath. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to miss out on His promises. We need all the help we can get. This is a conditional word to us as His people to be obedient, faithful (not rebellious) - being sanctified and refreshed in His presence.  This is a sign between us and God that we follow Him. This is about God’s authority. When I spoke last time re holy days or holidays this is about the catholic church changing the holy Sabbath day of God almighty Himself from Saturday to Sunday. Ultimately, this is about Gods authority verses mans. This is why coming into the Sabbath is so crucial as it will separate the sacred and the secular. “It will be a sign between them and Me, that they may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them”. It is also about standing for righteousness.

We must come and receive and believe Him. If we don’t it then goes on to say in Exodus 31: 12-18, ‘Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death: for who ever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.’ (profane means- irreverent, blasphemous, not sacred or biblical; secular; treat (especially a sacred thing) irreverently or with disrespect)-  Of coarse that is not literal – But it is and would be a spiritual death not being able to hear His voice and to know His ways. Being deceived, and not being able to hear Him. Ahh what could be worse than that!

It also says that to observe the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant. (Perpetual meaning- lasting forever or indefinitely; continuous; uninterrupted.) It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

Isaiah 58:13, “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

So here is one of the promises the Lord has for us that He will cause us to ride on the high hills of the earth. What will that look like I ask myself? It sounds too good to miss to me.

In Exodus 20:8   10th Commandment.

In Deuteronomy 26:16-19, It says you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Then the blessings come that He will set us high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.  More blessings on obedience in Duet 28:1-14. Then the opposite comes as it continues on in curses on disobedience. Ahh  I sure know which one I am choosing!

I would like to end in this, Hebrews 3 and 4 says it all but especially this part;

BE FAITHFUL

Hebrews 3:7-15

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says;
Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tested Me, and tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest’.

Beware, brethren, lest their be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called  “Today”, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:

‘Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in rebellion”.

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

Although the works were finished from the foundations of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “ And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”, and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and shaper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Gods love for us is such an amazing thing.
No eye has seen or ear has heard what God has in store and prepared for those who love Him.
If we love Him we will obey Him…

Freedom in Surrender

by Patsy Grubb

I am constantly amazed at the innate ability creation has to adapt to changing surroundings and circumstances. God in His infinite wisdom has caused His creation to be as  resilient and flexible as it is diverse.

There are creatures who live in water and yet in times of drought bury themselves deep in the earth to survive until the next wet season arrives. Camels who like to drink once a week, however, survive for much longer periods without water. Trees that require fire in order to reseed. Animals who shed their skins or lose or lessen their coats through malting, depending on their needs. Lizards and reptiles that drop their tails in order to escape predators. Animals that have the ability to blend perfectly with their surroundings through colour change. Everywhere we look in nature we can see amazing examples of adaptation, often due to extreme circumstances and of course due to the  natural cycles of life.

We as humans seem to be in many ways less willing to adapt to our surroundings and /or circumstances, preferring instead to control our environments very carefully in order to minimise it’s impact upon us. We take every opportunity to control every aspect of our lives to ensure our safety and security lies within our own hands. We invent and reinvent ……….. surroundings, gadgets, relationships, communities and entire lives.

Rarely do we embrace that which will strengthen, discipline and develop us, but rather we search out that which will comfort, appease and pleasure us; often to our great detriment. Regardless of our need or desire we will always control from a base of fear. Fear will always be at the heart of control regardless of our consciousness of it.

Just as we seek to control in the natural, we also attempt to control in the realm of the soul. In order to feel safe and secure we distance ourselves from our negative experiences and the resulting emotions and begin to create an environment or false reality that enables us to feel less threatened and less hurt. Pain is an alarm system that warns us that something is not right, out of balance or order. It is a powerful indicator. However we tend to mask pain to gain temporary relief rather than investigating the origin /source of it. We begin to erect barriers and structures around us that enable us to better deal with the situation/experience and the pain thereof. We deal with our pain and discomfort and for a time are satisfied, however, because the source has not been found and treated it is only a matter of time before the pain and discomfort returns often in a greater measure and so the need for greater control arises. For many this process is repeated time and time again until they are surrounded by mechanisms that allow them to cope ,to exist, but have robbed them of any quality of life.

When we receive the revelation that we must deal with our pain at the source, in order to be free of it, we then find ourselves with the unenviable task of having to dismantle the very structures we have erected for our self protection, in order to get to that original source.

By nature we take that which God has made simple for our sake, and inadvertently complicate it until we become almost lost in its complexities. Our pain and grief along with the structures we have put in place to deal with them become like a giant spider web which entangles us. The more we struggle to escape the more entangled we become until the very fear we have been seeking to avoid paralysis us and causes us to become devoid of life.

Our only true escape from fear is to surrender to the love of God.

John 4:18 tells us, “there is no fear in love: but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

In order to be free from fear and the subsequent need to control every factor of our lives and the lives of others, we must allow ourselves to be filled and perfected by the love of God. Only then can we be truly free to be all that we were created to be. Just as God Himself ensures the rising and the setting of the sun, the ebb and flow of the tides, the phases of the moon, He Himself has orchestrated a perfect plan for our life.

In order to truly live we must draw what we need from the source of our existence, not try to manufacture for ourselves that which we believe we need.

The perfect love of God is the only true source of total security and it is freely available to everyone through Jesus Christ.

My prayer would be that we swiftly find freedom in surrender.

My Beloved Intercessors

by Johanna Van Weeren

Revelation 2:26-29, ‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father: and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.’

Leviticus 10: 10, ‘and that you are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.’

The Body of Christ is coming into a new and living way, which our current path of self death and severe purging has prepared us for. It is now time to pass through those last barriers and to be found in Him. We will each obtain profound understandings that we longed to walk in but were unable to in our previous condition. But now, the Grace is given to move into the deep, deep truths that will launch us forwards into fulfilling our high call.

The current apostolic reformation has only begun. God is maturing and positioning apostles to set the church in order and to wisely distribute His authority until every last follower is walking in maturity and power. Then the creation itself can be restored to its perfect state through the sons of God.

My Beloved:

My beauty is being released in this hour. Mantles of favour and beauty are beginning to fall upon my people. You ask why beauty, you would say, I can understand favour. But why beauty? I am a God of beauty, my creation is beautiful and drawn to beauty. In this hour you shall see my glory. My glory is beautiful, it is attractive and wooing to the lost. This is an hour unlike any before it’s time.

A time to ponder and tarry in prayer. Position your self upon your knees and lay before me to seek my face. Although you would look around you and you feel the “cards” are in the enemies hand, you must remember I “own the house, and the house is on your side”. Things may look grim globally and the very ground you walk upon seems unsteady and unsure, but remember that you don’t trust in horses or chariots, but you trust in the name of the Lord.

I will have my purposes come to pass and I will use you in this hour to display my glory, my beauty and my favour. Get ready, and position yourselves before my throne face down, for I have much to share with you. I have much to impart to you in this hour.

For I would further say to you that this is the hour of my open heaven. This is a season of a window of heaven being opened and I am purposefully and intentionally mantling you anew for this hour and season. Again, I would say to you, position yourselves that you may receive what I have in store for you. These mantles will not only sustain you for the years ahead, but will release those who are captive, and lost. Come unto me for I am lowly of spirit, and I am gentle with my beloved one’s. You have a saviour who adores you and who longs to adorn you with his heavenly treasures, gifts and impeccable character.

Watchman it is time to get up out of your slumber. It is a time to wake up for the alarm clock has sounded and you must rise early. You will hear the call of the geese as they pass over your land for they call out for the intercession that will be needed in the days ahead. Many are being called in this hour to prayer. Many. Will you answer the call, or will you stay in your slumbering state? Awake O sleeper and rise to the occasion. I have sent my precious Holy Spirit upon you preparing you for this hour. As the redwoods have been burned out and all that remains is the shell, so is it that I have burned out your flesh so that I could have a place to rest within you. I have prepared a place for my presence to dwell within you. Arise My loves, my fair ones and come and dine with me. For I have so many things that are upon my heart that need your intercession. Come, I say come while it’s early and join me in intercession before our Father.

Isa 58:10-12, “And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of buildings that have laid waste for many generations, and you shall be called Repairer of the breach. Restorer of streets to dwell in.”

Rise up mighty intercessors!

Go in peace. I have it all in hand. Be not distressed. I AM.

Now rejoice in the Lord your God. Truly the time for rejoicing has come. We have crossed a threshold, entered a new era, having come a long way to this point. The new has begun. See it, sense it in the Spirit. Relax and rejoice.

Oh, my soul, rejoice! How many times have you sung that? Now is the time to release that joy. When the world is mourning its losses, let the people of God release and express their joy, which is resident on the inside of them, a joy no one can take away. I say, let joy be released!

His Will Not Ours

by Tony Clark

I was out shopping the other day and noticed a couple walking together and John 1:12-13 was impressed upon my spirit.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13

I believe that what God was speaking to me about was not in relation to people being born of God, but more the fact that there are things being birthed out of the will of man and the will of the flesh that are far from the will of God – So much goes on in this world that originates in self will and fleshly wants and desires and is far from what God intended and is not birthed in Him nor is it pleasing to Him.

In relation to marriages and relationships, in the world and in the church, many people follow “a way that seems right to man but it’s end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12

People get into relationships for all kinds of reasons, without consulting God and their God given leaders, and because of fleshly wants and needs, or because they have been wounded in their hearts, try to fill the voids that are created, and look to relationships for comfort or to escape the pain they feel, but this can result in compounding the very problems they are trying to fix in further damaging their hearts, relying on and trusting in others instead of God – who is the only one that can heal them. Ask me how I know this!

In particular I felt the Holy Spirit focusing on the fact that there is a lot being done in the earth that is not of Him and is purely the will of the flesh and the will of man. This grieves the heart of God.

One prevalent incorrect attitude in the church that God has been highlighting to me is that “If it’s God’s will then it will happen, what I do doesn’t affect that.” (Which is really eastern philosophy). But the fact remains that there is a lot happening in our lives that is not His will and some things that He has willed for us have never happened, because we are resisting Him and we have another way of doing things that we think will get us what WE want, and get our needs met.

A scripture that comes to mind is that “All things work together for good to those that love Him, to those who and are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 – People love that scripture.

We can look at this to mean that no matter what I do, all the trouble I get myself into, all of the things I choose over His will, all the results of me doing things my way: God will in some way make it all work out for me and get me where I need to be and fulfil His will for my life. But I wonder whether doing our own thing, our own way and resisting Him is what He meant by “those that love Him” in this verse – when we know that to love God is to obey Him?

And there is grace, God is amazingly long suffering and patient with us, and we all go through stages of learning and immaturity, where God allows us to mess up and teaches us, in and through our experience, and although there are still consequences for our actions somehow we get to where we need to be because of His favour. But then there’s a time to grow up, as we become more aware of the consequences of our actions and what our sin does to the heart of God, to ourselves, and to others, and find that the grace that once shielded us from the harshness of the penalty of sin is meant to empower us to live a holy life so that we can honestly continue to say “I love You” without contradicting ourselves by choosing our will over His every time. That’s not Love.

Another scripture – “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord” Psalm 37:23

I once wondered whether this meant that the things I found myself doing were predestined or controlled by God, and that I had very little real choice in the way I did things. But once again it’s the righteous man that has his steps ordered by the Lord, the man that is led by the Spirit, not the fleshly man that walks according to the lusts of his evil heart. As we choose Him, and are led by Him we will walk in His perfect will.

I feel that the plan of God in this dispensation is to have men and woman that are led by Him, that are no longer controlled by the lusts of this world, that have chosen Him, over themselves, and their own desires and will, and have truly come into the reality of “It’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” When a people like this are alive and well on this planet we will see great fruit and a massive harvest for the Kingdom of God, because its what He does that is perfect and it’s what He does that brings the result. We cannot do anything of value without Him, our “good works” are really selfishness and bear little real eternal fruit in God. But coupled with the Holy Spirit, led by God every action will send ripples into eternity.

God loves us, and patiently works His perfect purpose in us, but I cant help but feel that things are getting more serious, and there is a lot more required of us than there has been in the past, because time really is short. We can have our own lives and our own plans and our own agendas but we will miss out on so much!

“I know the thoughts(plans) I have for you, thoughts(plans) of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

The only thing that will last is what we do in Him, everything else will fall away. There is such reward (of GREAT magnitude) for those that will choose His way, and only they will taste of it.

Get healed, seek God, submit to your leaders, repent of your sin as the Holy Spirit makes it visible, as He convicts, and trust in the God who can do ALL things!