Prophetic | Grace and Truth

May 11, 2023
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Faith to keep going

It takes as much faith to stay where God has brought you to as to get there in the first place.

When He told you to go, you obeyed in faith, like Abraham, unquestioning.

It was hard to go, to leave behind all that you knew, even though it was a place that became too small. But the sense of the unknown, the anticipation of adventure ahead led you to follow Him to the promised land.

But you didn’t know there would be giants there.

You were shocked at the size of them as you entered the gates.

The fruit of their unrighteousness was massive.

One by one they came against you. Blow after blow. Cut you down till you thought you would never recover. Till you were sure your body would be always broken, your mind might just go.

One more giant and you will be broken for good, you think.

You begin to look back longingly to Egypt. You forget the slavery and hard bondage and remember the flesh-pots and the yummy cucumbers you enjoyed there.

You thought the promised land would be different.

What am I doing here?

It takes as much faith to STAY where God has put you as to get there in the first place.

It takes vision to see past the giants and the constant battering to see the beauty, the freshness, the new thing that God is doing.

Occasionally you catch a glimpse before the next blow lands.

Sure you’d heard the stories of the children of Israel…but you didn’t know you would actually have to face a fierce battle to take new territory. They were just Bible stories right? Nah, it’s actually real, you discover. A picture of what is happening in the spiritual realm when God moves you to a new place.

Will you stay?

Or will you go back?

Then one day the last giant is gone. Of course you didn’t know at the time it would be the last giant. That was the biggest one. The last-ditch effort to destroy your faith and send you packing.

And then as you lie on the blood-soaked ground, not wanting to examine your wounds, wondering how or if you will ever recover from this… God sends a messenger to you out from Himself. A kind one who sits with you, tends your wounds, listens to your trauma, acknowledges what you’ve had to face. One who looks like he’s faced a few beatings himself.

He helps you up and walks with you.

Did I fail Lord by even wanting to go back?

No, He says, you have overcome: because you are still here, and you are still following Me.

Eventually you look up and see the sunlight bouncing on the leaves in the promised land, you notice the air here feels freer.

You don’t just believe God is good anymore, you know it, deep within your being. Because every time you thought this giant was the one who would kill you, a Man with scarred hands would show up on your behalf.

And now you have scars too.

And then the people start coming to you, one by one. There is need here too in the promised land. And suddenly you see that the scars and the desolation is what will be used to help others to overcome and bear their Master’s scars too.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

Don’t give up my friend, the Lord Himself fights for you. He sees you, He loves you, He will carry you. Keep looking ahead, moving forward. Don’t look back, forget the former things, He wants you to stand in the new thing He is doing. He has much for you to do.

January 31, 2023
by GraceandTruth 9 Comments

A Word from the Lord

I don’t usually do this…but today I have received this word from the Lord and felt to share it.

Here is is:

They’re running ahead of Me, like Esau, to make their cities, their kingdoms, their names.

They want greatness, they want glory.

But I desire a man after my own heart who will slow down and walk with those who struggle to walk, those who can’t keep up.

A man whose hip has been touched.

These have no power in themselves , they are the weak and foolish of this world.

I see them. I see them.

I have not forgotten them. I am the LORD of the weak, the foolish, the nothings. In weakness I was lifted up, now I call all men unto Me.

They are my treasured possessions. My glory shall be seen in them.

They are not intellectual

They are spiritual

Think of …(name of a Christian with schizophrenia)

Think of …(name of a Christian who struggles with alcohol)

Think of …(name of a child who has turned to Christ)

These are precious to me. Oh so precious. The world has no idea how precious.

The church for the most part has absorbed the thinking of the world. The church runs to glory and greatness.

But they miss My greatness in the weak.

Their eyes are blind to them.

They want crowds. I want one.

They want money. I want My treasure I died for.

The broken, the lame, the marred, the nothings, the foolish, the weak: these are My glory, these are My precious stones.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it”

blog, Christian, Christianity, church, Esau, Faith, foolish, poetry, Prophetic, today, weak, Word

July 14, 2020
by GraceandTruth 2 Comments

How Much Owest Thou unto My Lord?

“When I stand before the throne

Dressed in beauty not my own,

When I see Thee as Thou art,

Love Thee with unsinning heart;

Then, Lord, shall I fully know-

Not till then – how much I owe.

R.M. McCheyne

May 21, 2020
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Burning Hands

My hands were burning

I couldn’t sleep for the pain

I sought the Lord

His eyes are fire

I am scared

He had fire to give me but I was

Too scared to receive

His eyes are like a flame of fire

His feet are like fine brass refined in a furnace

I laid my body down on the altar

Of burnt offering

He spoke to me of fire

Why was I keeping on keeping the fire going?

I see now it’s going to hurt

To keep the fire going

I am willing and He is able

I’m in His army

It’s His work

I wanted the fire

I received the baptism of fire

Go out to the Road again

Pick up the lost, the forgotten and broken

How?

With burning hands

Hands of fire

April 15, 2020
by GraceandTruth 2 Comments

Paul Brought the Gospel to Rome from Home Lockdown

Paul was under house-arrest in Rome for two years. Chained to a prison guard, he couldn’t leave his own home.

“The Rise of A.I.” acrylic and gouache

Sound familiar…?

During his home-imprisonment he asked the Church to pray for him :

“and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak” Ephesians 6:19, 20 (emphasis mine)

Paul couldn’t go to church, he couldn’t street-preach, he couldn’t go to Synagogue. Paul was physically restricted as soon as he arrived in Rome, and that’s how he stayed for two whole years. But in it, in this very situation Paul was asking for prayer to be able to speak forth the gospel boldly.

Do we think Paul’s situation caught God by surprise? Do we think He did not know that Paul’s arrival in Rome would be under hard circumstances? That His man would not be free to move about as previously? No – it was in to this very situation that God brought Paul, and thus the gospel, to Rome.

At that time Rome was becoming the centre of the world’s wealth. The art, the artists, the architects were moving there as it became recognised as the world’s most cosmopolitan city. This place was of diverse culture, containing many different beliefs and ideas. In some ways it was advanced, as in the case of women’s rights. It was to this worldly city that God chose to send His man, chained and bound to one small house.

God’s strategy to evangelise a whole city was through a man bound to his own home.

Paul may have been restricted, but never is the Gospel of Jesus Christ restricted!

Never will it be restrained.

God still used Paul, even chained to a prison-guard, unable to leave his own home. One man, in one house, but in that one house God brought revival to Rome.

“So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening.” Acts 28:23

Do we think this Covid-19 pandemic has caught God by surprise? Do we think He had no idea all the churches would be shutdown and outlawed? Of course He knew. And it is into this very situation that He has called us.

The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be stopped, no matter if our church buildings are shut. The gospel will go forth.

The gates of hell will never prevail against His Church! It’s time to recognise that this is how God has chosen to use us for this season. God’s plans are not being stymied by the enemy, God is still Sovereign and from the Throne He has decreed that right now this is how His church will go forth.

Without high-tech sound systems, church buildings and programs, once again from the simplicity of our homes! Prayer with our families, Bible studies online, prayer in the closet. Could this be God’s plan…?

We have the internet, social media, telephones. We can walk around our neighbourhoods, dropping leaflets in letterboxes. We have many ways we can answer God’s call from our homes:

““Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”

Who will join me in saying “Here I am Lord, send me!”

“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” Acts 28:30,31

Blessings,

Belinda 🙂

February 11, 2019
by GraceandTruth Leave a comment

Rebuilding the Altar of the Lord

“No man is greater than his prayer life….failing here, we fail everywhere.” Leonard Ravenhill

It is time we rebuild the altar again brothers and sisters. The Spirit of God is calling us to return to the prayer closet.

Remember the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel? Before the fire of God could fall on the offering, Elijah had to rebuild the altar of the Lord “that was broken down“.

Broken down… neglected…disused….Nobody cared enough to do something about it until Elijah came. It was a time of backsliding in Israel. Evil king Ahab was ruling with his evil wife Jezebel. Witchcraft and the occult was abounding, people were turning away from the true God and to lesser gods. Sound familiar?

And then Elijah comes to turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord.

Just like John the Baptist would do later, Elijah confronted the people with his holy life, and with his words:

“How long will you falter between two opinions?”

But they answered him not a word. How sad. When God’s people no longer seek Him they lose the conviction within them for the truth, they go silent on good and evil. Things that were once detestable to them slowly start to be tolerated. It’s a recipe for lukewarm-ness.

“Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come near to me.’ So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.” 1 Kings 18:30

Notice Elijah rebuilt the altar in front of the people. His life was an example to others, just as ours should be, particularly in ministry. We can’t call others to pray if we aren’t doing it ourselves.

The altar represents prayer, coming before the Lord and offering up the sacrifice of praise.

Let’s rebuild the altar again Church so that the fire of God can once again fall!

God bless!

March 19, 2018
by GraceandTruth Leave a comment

How to be Sensitive to the Spirit of God

Sensitivity to the Spirit of God is driven primarily by being able to hear Him.

“The Lord God has given Me

source: catechismway.blogspot.com

The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned” Isaiah 50:4

Again, sensitivity to the Spirit of God is driven primarily by being able to hear Him.

“He awakens my ear to hear as the learned”

This hearing happens within our spirit. This can be sometimes channelled through our physical ear as we listen to a sermon, or someone gives us an encouraging Word, but not always. But it is always through our human spirit.

What do I mean by our human spirit? When we are followers of Christ, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our human spirit and quickens (or makes alive) that inner part of us which was previously dead through trespass and sin. With our spirit now alive to the Lord and His Spirit dwelling within us we have the ability to hear His voice.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” John 10:27

Whether we hear a sermon, read something or feel a prompting in the spirit, we know it is of the Spirit of God when it bears witness with our spirit.

Sometimes you may listen to a whole sermon and nothing registers in your spirit. It could be an intellectual masterpiece, or it could stir our emotions, but if it doesn’t penetrate through the realm of our soul and into the spirit it is simply the flesh and profits us nothing spiritually. Another time you may hear a couple of words, a line of a song, read one verse and your spirit suddenly jumps. You know like you know that that is a Word for you. That is the Holy Spirit speaking, bearing witness to your spirit.

When that happens we need to slow down and listen. We need to allow it to really sink in and take root in our hearts because the Spirit of God is trying to tell us something. We need to wait on God. But even more than that, we need to be so intimate with Jesus that we are constantly in a pose of listening to Him. Remember Mary sitting at His feet… We are with Him where He is so that when He speaks a Word, or wants us to do something we are so close to Him that we know like we know immediately.

“He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”

Jesus said something similar to this multiple times through the gospels and also repeatedly to the churches at the beginning of Revelation. Since He repeated this phrase so often there must be a reason for it.

Hearing in the Spirit Leads to Speaking Forth in the Spirit

Notice in Isaiah 50:4 it says “The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary…”

The hearing in the spirit and the speaking forth of a word in season to those around us are connected. How do we speak forth with the tongue of the learned into people’s lives in order to minister and be a blessing? By having our ears awakened to hear as the learned! We need to hear from Him first or else we will have nothing to offer others.

The deaf-mute man whom Jesus healed in Mark 7 is a picture to us. This man could not hear, thus he could not speak. Jesus first touched the deafened ears, then spat and touched his tongue.

“Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.” Mark 7:34,35

Are you wondering why you have nothing to give others? Do you not know what to say when someone comes to you for help? Do you feel like you have failed them?

You need your ears opened by the Lord. Go wait on Him. Confess your need, confess your desire to be able to feed others with the Word and ask Him to open your ears to the Spirit. Then when He tells you to do/say something, do it. Prompt obedience to the Lord is a sure-fire way He will keep speaking to us.

Blessings!