Breaking the Bottleneck  by John Beaumont (Church of My Dreams)

It was an amazing dream. It could be one of the most significant revelations that God the Spirit has entrusted to me to share with His people!

I saw what appeared to be an hourglass of gigantic proportions. In fact, the top of it seemed to reach into the heavens, so that I could not see the upper rim at all. The lower portion of the hourglass was smaller than the upper part, so that if what was in the top part were to pour into the lower part it would not be able to contain it all. The lower portion of the hourglass was so immense that it covered great nations, including South Africa, where I was at the time. The lands inside that lower part seemed to be in a condition of drought and famine, with need and hunger everywhere, and with very little nourishment to be found anywhere. The lands cried out for rain, and the peoples were in desperate need of hope, health and nourishment. Shadow and gloom shrouded the countryside. Here and there I perceived pockets of abundance, but they were pitifully small and inadequate for the countries encircled by the hourglass.  READ ON

In the church of my dreams there is a quality of leadership that we probably all desire to see functioning, but find hard even to describe. Here or there we have commented about some person or other, “If only all church leaders were like that!”
In the New Testament there are various words used for such terms as “authority” and “rule” in connection with leadership, and they frequently are open to the possibility of a wide range of interpretation and understanding. For example, there is a variance of meaning between “Obey your leaders,” “Obey your spiritual leaders,” “Remember those who lead you” and “Be mindful of those who are guiding you.”
In our day there is a major danger of using the kinds of authority found in the world about us as a yardstick for our understanding. This will never do! We cannot compare leadership in the church with officership in military forces, nor with management of business establishments, nor yet with the “authority of a politician in power.
Because of the range of possible interpretive translations it is of utmost importance to have a basic understanding of essential biblically stated qualities and descriptions of leaders. This will provide boundary lines for our understanding of God’s purposes in the realm of leadership.  READ ON….

I have been reading Acts recently and asked our dear friend John Beaumont about this statement in Acts 2.

Q: In Acts 2:42 “…they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching…”  Would you say this statement relates more to the devotion of walking in what they heard as opposed to actually sitting and listening to the apostles teaching? Some would use this verse to justify meeting centred church life and more and more preaching!!!

Response:

The apostle’s teaching was unique in that these men were able to share the Lord’s heart and mind having experienced life with/in Him first hand as no one has since.  I have no doubt that in the early church people devoted themselves to living out what the apostles taught.  Jesus’ teaching was ‘teaching to do’ as shown in “He who does these sayings of Mine.”  So should teaching today!  Meeting centred church life makes it very difficult indeed – if not impossible – for today’s believers to devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching.  READ the whole article

Devotion of the Heart

In my previous article about living life beyond the borders I wrote about something that has persistently stayed alive

Waterfall

within me and which I feel carries some significance for the days ahead.
I believe it is a redemptive word for the Body of Christ at this time. I am convinced that our Father desires to help us to understand what it means to live ‘experientially’ beyond the borders which have been imposed upon our lives from different sources. These borders are the unnecessary limitations that have marred our lives causing pain, fear, heartache and discouragement.
There is an immense purposefulness within the heart of God to bring us all into a place of intimacy with Himself and in this process releasing us from these restricting borders, whatever they may be. This Fatherly passion is summed up in a translation of James 4:5

“the Spirit which He made to dwell in us jealously yearns for the entire devotion of the heart.”

The Gospel is always good news, even when we do not perceive it to be. Christ’s desire for you and me is to bring us in to an experiential freedom of the heart. And for that to grow within us let the cry of our heart be, “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”   READ ON

 This is how the Psalmist describes what our God is like; “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”  [Psalm 145:8,9]

Feed My lambs

If you are part of a growing number of Christians who are leaving the organized church there is a price to pay. For some it will be higher than for others. It may be the simple question, “Where do you fellowship?”  or “what church do you go to?” that triggers guilt and  that horrible feeling that you are not quite living up to the set standard.

You may feel that  the people who were calling you to come to the meetings are no longer doing so and because of that  loneliness sets in alongside the weight of guilt  you already feel!

The very sad part of this story is that there are some who do not survive the burdens placed on them to be more committed to the ‘vision’ or group. We have spoken and met with some who have similar stories. Rejected, isolated and disillusioned with everything relating to church and this god they have tried so hard to please but without success. They have invested years of their lives in this process only to end up suffering with burn out!  These believers have lost their freshness in Jesus and their desire to press on, mostly because they have been trying to shoulder the weight of “doing for God” rather than knowing the freedom of embracing what God has already done for us in Jesus.

The scars of ‘religious obligation’ run deep within the soul and can rear their ugly head at any time. But, there is great hope!

Healing and freedom

We are convinced that there is healing and freedom for all those who call upon the name of Jesus. There is healing and encouragement for those who are bowed down and hurting, those who are vulnerable and in need of a fresh touch from Jesus. For those whose lives have been scarred in any way by the “religion of the Pharisees” there is a way beyond these restricting borders……………MORE

We received this abbreviated life story from David in New Zealand. Hopefully, you will find it encouraging because as he puts it, “there have been some very significant non-normal occurrences amongst it all”

It is valuable and encouraging to be reminded that Jesus wants to be Lord of our lives and He often does that by taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary!

GOD BLESSED LIVES

Introduction

Expressing the depth of God’s blessing over the past forty five years is like trying to explain colours to a blind man.  Words don’t hack it.  But I know for certain that if anyone is bold enough to entrust their life to the Lord Jesus Christ then He will show them colours!

Brief Resume

I gave my life to the Lord Jesus when I was nine.  It was a simple prayer “Lord Jesus please come into my heart”.  He did!  Since then life has given the appearance of “normality”.  I grew up, left home, got educated, was married, had children, bought a house, and held a job as a teacher.  I now have grandchildren, and am still teaching.  But in reality there have been some very significant non-normal occurrences amongst it all.  Here is an attempt to categorize some of those blessings.

1.   Spiritual

a. In my late teens I suffered inner turmoil caused by a relationship that had ended unhappily.  Two years later I prayed for God’s help to deal with the issue.  In response he filled me with the Holy Spirit (lots of people were experiencing this at that point in time, but I had no idea what it was all about.)  The inner peace and tranquility was unbelievable, and it went on and on.  READ MORE…

This question has been with me for some weeks now. It was prompted while thinking about a statement in John 15, “Live in Me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.” [The Message]

What does it mean to live in Him and to make our home in the God and Father of Jesus? It may be   difficult for us to understand how He can assure us, “…just as I do in you.” That the God and Father of Jesus chooses to live within me is a seemingly unreasonable statement which only makes me feel even more honoured, privileged, blessed, encouraged, amazed and awestruck at His master plan. How good He is!

He knows me

He knows me just as I am – and He still loves me unconditionally because He has purposed to reveal Himself to me out of  His nature  of  pure love. His longing is to share fellowship with us and this happens most when we are relaxed with Him and open and available to His company. Jesus longs for us to be like children with him -  receptive, utterly dependent and totally reliant on His power and grace.

Because He knows me I can feel totally safe with Him, assured that in spite of where I am at He wants to be with me. Brennan Manning has said, “Adam and Eve both hid from the Lord and we use them as role models!” Our most natural inclination is to hide from him and yet  He seeks daily intimacy with us!

A personal question

I had felt that this was a personal question Father was asking of me. It was not a call for me to run off and study the scriptures and return with a pat answer. We may think that because we are Christians and read the Book and therefore know a great deal about God, therefore we know God. It is not so, for we need an experiential knowledge of Him. We do know much about Him but He calls us to Himself that we might know Him personally.  Learning to cultivate intimacy with Christ will not only become a joyful experience but will bring amazing freedom to our lives.

How do you see Me  in everyday life?

When we have people visit our home we often find ourselves saying, “Please make yourselves at home!” And we do that because it is in our hearts for them to feel relaxed enough to be themselves. When people feel relaxed and cared for they are far more able to share their lives with you. That awareness of being at home with someone is what Father calls us to. When I am at home I speak freely and honestly. I am relaxed and available to chat and listen! I want to be involved in all that is going on in the home.  All this of course is a simple picture of what Jesus is wanting us to experience with Himself.

Being at home with Jesus helps us to understand what He is like. What He enjoys! His care and concern for us as well as knowing what pleases Him is all part of being “In Christ!”  He in me and me in him. It may be that we need a shift in our understanding. We can ‘be at home with Jesus’ today without waiting for heaven as some believe! It was John Wesley who said, “Best of all God is with us!”

Encouragement

Look what David has to say, “I thank you, High God – you are breathtaking!” and “Your thoughts – how rare, how beautiful! God I’ll never comprehend them!”

Let us renounce our illusions of God and surrender to Him today because - “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

Have you heard people  comment that so and so is a balanced teacher or the book they have
just read is declared to have a balanced point of view!  In my experience we view being  balanced as someone who believes much the same as “I” do. It makes us feel safe and gives us some assurance in our beliefs!

This person or book or teaching or church group can then be viewed as ‘acceptable’ for our consumption. What does balance mean?  It  is seen as being neither too liberal but also not too legalistic! In other words it is like walking a tightrope! And is this what Jesus calls us to? I think not!
In practical terms we would all prefer God’s gracious work within us to be neat and tidy with no blurred edges and
if it ‘works out OK’ praise the Lord because He answers prayers. On the other side of the coin I have heard people complain that they are angry with God because it did not work out as they had wanted it to.

These two streams of thought lead many  Christians to believe that Christianity and respectability or compromise  are one and the same thing! We may not admit that but we certainly practice it.
This is so far from the truth! We have picked these thoughts up from a distorted Gospel and a lack of understanding
of the character of God.

Jesus – Our Example

When we read about the life of Jesus in the Gospels we find that Jesus is neither ‘balanced’ [as described earlier], nor is He in any way respectable. He is a Father pleaser! When I follow Him on His journey along the dusty roads of  towns and cities He has a way of  making me feel quite uncomfortable at times. He rattles cages and challenges us deeply because He does not fit into our ‘Christian cultural view of  life!’ Why? He turns everything upside down and the right way up at the same time!

We are not called to walk a tightrope of ‘our best efforts’ based upon human endeavour. Thomas thought like that when he said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?” [The Message] Jesus tells him that it is not about being balanced or respectable or dependent upon human effort. Living for God is all about a Person called Jesus. “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life.” [The Message]

Listen carefully to Him. “Someone told Jesus, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you!’ He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” Wow! Does not this statement offend our sensibilities. Today He would be called abusive, slanderous and uncaring! He does away with sentimentality and goes straight to the heart of the matter. Pleasing the Father! We would probably want to finish off what we are saying and then go outside to see our family. He lifts our focus higher!

What about this statement – “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Again, He appears to rock the boat of our ‘respectable Christian viewpoint’  and yet all He is doing here is giving us real perspective on life. He does this over and over! Thankfully, there is always the grace to embrace what He is saying. The problem comes when we resume the ‘balanced’ state of mind and living within the perimeters of a religious mindset!

The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God has come when those ‘respectable’ cozy relationships we cling to are put into perspective through Jesus’ words. He has a simple yet profound way of sharpening our focus. In these very challenging days Jesus leads the way by demonstrating how life is to be lived.
He does not fear man and challenges His disciples to forgive 490 times. He talks to a Samaritan woman at the well and makes it clear who He is. Even his disciples are taken aback when they return from buying some food!  He tells this woman He has water for her and she will never thirst again if she drinks it. Finally He breaks with ‘political correctness’ and tells this Samaritan woman that she worships in ignorance [obvious discrimination] but the way ahead is to worship the Father from the heart! “ These are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks out”

Jesus does not say and do these things just to be different or awkward but rather because He knows He is right! And, because He is right He knows what is best for us. When He speaks something that might appear difficult or challenging it is at that point we realise that unless He helps us with this matter we are sunk! And so we learn to be dependent upon Him all of our lives.

It is not about being seen to do right but rather following The Master’s example – “I never do unless the Father shows Me” We need men and women in this hour who walk humbly dependent upon Him away from respectability and balance as we experience the power of His life working within us. And, never recover!

You may have been experiencing some problems accessing Hislife over the last couple of weeks. The reason for this has been our search for a new hosting package. The volume of traffic to the site had created some problems and so we changed once and then due to further problems we changed again!

We are really sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. Everything should be up and running properly now but if anything is out of sync please let us know. Thank you.

May 2010 be a year of fresh passion for Jesus linked to renewed receptivity to His purposes.

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.”

“…he went to the meeting place. When He stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!’ “

“You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”  [Luke 4, The Message]

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry He stands up and declares something which Isaiah had prohesied. TODAY!…. again we read how Jesus’ life and ministry moves away from the predictable and respectable to giving all but the religious gang a sure and certain hope! A reason to be glad.

The religious  response to this declaration and subsequent discussion was…..wait for it. They wanted to drive him out of town in order to push him down a cliff. Why?  Because they did not like what He was saying. He was announcing to them that salvation was to be offered to the Gentiles. This is far too radical and hence their response to him. Change can bring uncertainty and fear may follow but who better to trust if He is leading the procession!

Other ‘unpredictable’ actions

Jesus went on to Capernaum and on the sabbath began to teach the people as one having authority. And then he drove out a demon with a word in the same meeting. Eek!! This is not the kind of experience we want to have in our meetings! 
Ernst Kasemann, a German scholar remarks,
“What causes most trouble for Christians of all ages is not legalism or lack of faith or theological controversies; it is Jesus Himself, who bestows freedom so openhandedly and dangerously on those who do not know what to do with it. The Church always gets so panic-stricken for fear of the turmoil that Christ creates when He comes on the scene; and so it takes His freedom under its own management for the protection of the souls entrusted to it, in order to dispense it in homeopathic doses when it seems necessary.”

I am deeply moved over and over again as Jesus’ feet are washed by a woman ‘who had lived a sinful life’ I revel in the fact that I too can do this in my gratitude to Jesus for all He is and what He is doing in my own life. Her act of pure worship and appreciation through outpoured perfume and the washing of Jesus’ feet affects us all.
The greedy and self-focussed see it as a waste of money! The religious fear it and frown upon this as something to be avoided!  While for those who have learned to enjoy Father’s extravagant love see it as the simple expression of a forgiven woman!

These acts of mercy and grace make the respectable squirm. Jesus Christ today drives out demons, heals the sick, feeds the hungry and has time for little children saying that we must become like them if we want to see the Kingdom –  just as He did when He walked on the earth.

All of this in the course of life!