Sowing in Drought

Last week God began to challenge me about some more of my poverty mentalities.

A poverty mentality believes that resources are finite and therefore you have to take from one place to have enough in another, but this is not true in God's Kingdom. His resources are limitless.

About 8 months ago, Bryn was preaching about inheritance, and I struck me that I need to plan to have a material inheritance to pass on to my children, not just a Spiritual one, and it was not God's desire for my being in ministry to disadvantage my children in any way. We get paid a generous salary but I no longer get city bonuses, which were the most obvious way of having extra cash to invest for retirement and inheritance to pass on to my children. However, if I believe that He is my provider, and not my employer, then how much comes from my monthly pay cheque is largely irrelevant. How much He gives me is what determines how much I have to live on, how much to give away and what is left over for investment. As we were in the process of trying to move house at the time, the idea of not selling our current house, but keeping it as an investment and renting it out, arose. The sums do not add up for this, we would need a significant cash/equity injection for this to happen, but this is not beyond God.

However, in October, when we went to speak to a financial adviser about how this would work out, it seemed impossible. If we took equity out of our current house, to use as a deposit on a new house, we would still need a significant cash/equity injection and the debt leverage would mean that the interest rates we would be charged would have us right at the edge of what we could afford. Stretching ourselves to the limit when interest rates are at the lowest they have ever been seemed very unwise, so we discounted the possibility and put our current home on the market to sell. Also nagging in the back of my mind was a prophesy from Sharon Stone, a recognised prophet, in Sept 2008 about God leading his church into a new financial era, one that was not based on extreme debt, but on His provisions and ways. http://www.christiangrowthinternational.org/Articles/126567/Prophecy_by_Dr.aspx Maxing ourselves up on mortgages when interest rates are so low did not make any sense intellectually or spiritually. In the meantime, we received no offers on our house.

Then last week God began to remind me of the things He had said over the previous 9 months. A prophetic word about God wanting to bless our family financially and telling us not to worry about where the provision would come from, Him speaking about inheritance and then Ryan's word over KingsGate about God saying 2011 would be a year of prosperity. As Bryn preached on Sunday evening, he spoke about a 'realm of the impossible' where people trusted God for impossible things. Angus Buchan's story of sowing potatoes during a drought in response to God's word came back to mind, as did another conversation the day before about Elisha telling the kings of Judah and Israel to dig trenches in the desert to contain and channel the water God would send (2Kings 3:16 - 19).

Father asked me what would prosperity look like for me in our house situation. Without doubt, my first prize would be to keep our current house as an investment, and to buy another. He then asked me what I would do to the house if I was going to rent it out. Our windows are currently old single glazed windows and need replacing. We applied for planning permission in the past to do this, but were refused as we live in a conservation area, and you can't install standard uPVC windows. The council will, however, give a 50% grant to install steel double glazed windows, which fit in with the character of the area, that they want to maintain.

So there is our trench, our potatoes, our seed. It makes no economic sense to replace the windows in our house if we plan to sell it and in the natural, we cannot afford to keep it and buy another house. but then it made no sense to dig water trenches in the desert or to sow potatoes in a drought.

I believe Father is looking for people who will take his prophetic words at face value and start living as if the future was present reality. After all, that is in essence what faith is, being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we have not yet seen (Heb 11:1). If we believe that He is our provider, that His resources are unlimited and that He want's us to prosper in every way, not just financially, then surely we must put plans in place now to contain His blessings when He releases them in the future. As I said on a previous post, this doesn't leverage His hand open or make Him owe us. It just says "Father, I know you are good and you are true to your word" Therefore, I'm going to act like the future is now.

Have a great Christmas as we celebrate Father's lavish goodness to us in every way, past present and future.

How do we live in His blessings?

After my last post on 'A Debtors Ethic' the next obvious question must be "If we don't live under Fathers blessings by giving to receive, how do we live under His blessing?" Lets face it, all of us want to live in blessing and abundance.

I think the first thing that has to be said is that God himself is the ultimate prize. His presence, His voice and His touch are the greatest blessing we can have on this earth. In Genesis 15:2 God says to Abram "I am your very great reward". There is no greater reward we can have, and we can have this no matter what our circumstance are. We simply spend time with Him, cultivate our relationship with Him and our reward increases. The more we experience this the more we know it to be true. Verses like "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere(Ps 84:10)" or "as the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you (Ps 42:1)" used to be merely theory to me, words that might have meant something to someone else but not my reality. However, as I have learned to spend time in Fathers presence, I am beginning, slowly, to understand what the writer is talking about. He is the ultimate prize.

Having said that, the bible speaks too often and too emphatically about us living in material blessing for us to settle for the rewards Jesus spoke of being confined to the spiritual. In some ways, settling for our rewards just being spiritual, means we don't have faith for the tangible, just the intangible.

So how do we have faith for and experience the tangible outpouring of Father's blessings? I believe the two keys are position and positioning. Let me explain with an analogy. As I said last time, I believe Father's hands are always fully open to bless. I deliberately used the word 'outpouring'. If you imagine Fathers blessings being poured out like a flow of water. The flow never changes but I've got to stand under the flow to get wet. How do I position myself under the flow?

Position - Firstly, as I grow in revelation and understanding of my status as a son (or daughter), as I gaze into my Fathers face and am filled by His love and affection, His light illuminates dark corners of my heart and I can recognise them and allow Him in to heal, restore and set me free. Me being confronted with a debtors ethic lurking deep within is a pertinent example. As I was spending time with Father, He reminded me of some things and then showed me the thought processes behind them. As I spend time with Him and allow Him to change me, I become more like Him, I become more a son in experience, not just in status, and this ongoing process brings me continually closer to Him and therefore more under the flow of His outpouring.

Positioning - Secondly, as a son, spending time in my Father's presence, my will is transformed to align with His. I increasingly do things His way and think His way. I submit my will to His will, not because I am afraid of the consequences if I don't, but because I love Him and want to do what He wants. As I think His way and do thing His way, I walk closer to Him and so come under a greater measure of His outpouring. Jesus said in Mat 5:5 "Blesses are the meek for they will inherit the earth". Inheriting the earth sounds like material blessings now and that goes to those who are meek, bridled to and submitted to a greater Authority.

Jesus said in Jn 15:7 "if you remain, live, dwell and are rooted in my love, and my words remain, live, dwell and take root in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." This remaining is not a once for all, static and passive status. It is an ongoing cultivation of a relationship as with any human relationship.

Often we think that Father is withholding His blessings from us when actually the reality is He is still pouring out His blessings, we are just not correctly positioned to receive it.

So to summarise, we come under Father's outpoured blessing, not by doing things to try and get Him to adjust His aim, but rather by pressing into Him understanding who we are. As we get closer to Him, in experience as well as status, we come under His outpouring. Which takes us nicely back to where we started. He is our very great reward. When we pursue Him, we experience His benefits. When we pursue the benefits we can end up missing out on everything.

Jesus said in Matt 6:33 "seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the other things will be added to you". Search for the Giver and you'll find you get the gifts. Search for the gifts and you get neither the Giver nor the gifts.

A Debtors Ethic

I have realised recently that somewhere deep inside my psyche resides a debtors ethic. What does this mean? At it's most basic level, it means I give to get something in return and when I receive something, I think I must repay it as I am indebted to someone. When something is given, subconsciously at least, I then begin to wait for payback.

Where does this come from? I'm not 100% sure, but most people carry it to some degree. Is it because we tell our children they must be good so that Santa will bring them presents ( i.e that presents are a reward for good behaviour, not freely given) or that they will only get a gift when parents return if they have been good for the babysitter, or they'll get a gift if they succeed in their exams? How's that a gift? It's recompense for good behaviour or achievement.

Anyway, whatever the reason, somehow, I understood that my generosity and my giving were necessary to unlock Father's generosity and goodness, and if I'm not seeing as much generosity and goodness released on my life as I want/need, then I need to do something more to unlock what I want. Writing it down now it sounds like 'giving karma'!

The idea of unlocking Father's generosity and goodness is flawed. He is always generous and good. I may need to be obedient to his ways to fully come under the outpouring of His generosity and goodness but his hand is never closed and never requires unlocking.

His generosity and goodness are poured out unconditionally. My giving cannot prize his hand open any wider because it's already fully open. He is the initiator and gives freely. We then give freely in response. We do not even owe a debt of love. Love cannot repay what He has poured out for us. Love cannot balance the books and He doesn't want our love out of indebtedness. Rather as our hearts are filled with His freely given, unconditional, no-strings-attached love the desire rises up in us to love in response, not to repay, just to respond.

If I live by a debtors ethic, I only come under God's ways i.e obey Him, for what I can get from Him and not because I want to be with Him. Last time I checked, that called using someone. I'll come to your house and be your friend because then you'll let me play with your xbox.

If this is my motivation, what do I do if His blessings and favour don't look like what I wanted/needed? What if he blesses my marriage with new depths of intimacy when I was giving to Him, expecting to see financial blessing? What if I start to see a load of my family or friends turn to Jesus when I was hoping for a job promotion? In Matt 6:4,6&8 Jesus says"Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you". He doesn't specify what the reward will be, and certainly there is no mention of it correlating to the righteous acts mentioned. Do I stop being obedient to God's ways because the slot machine is not rewarding me in the way I'd hoped/prescribed? I'm not getting the required return on investment. Living like this almost guarantees disappointment and unmet expectations.

The words of that song "You wont relent until my heart is yours' ring very true right now, but at least there is the real comfort of knowing that Father only exposes our defects to set us free of them, not to humiliate us. Good fathers discipline their sons, because they see the son's future.

Set up for success

Great Dad's set their kids up for success. Everything they do is training and equipping their kids to be successful in their own lives. In fact, probably the greatest tribute to any dad, is when his kids pass him out and succeed him, because he set them up for it.

How does a dad sets his kids up for success? Well, first and foremost is the example he sets them, integrity, diligence, how to treat people, kids watch everything and absorb even the smallest things. The next most important thing is the environment he creates for them. Encouragement, affirmation and protection all enable kids to prosper, to experiment, to take risks and to learn to succeed. Great dads cover their kids mistakes and failures so that fear of failure doesn't become their dominant emotion. Then risk taking becomes a positive experience and the chances of a successful outcome dramatically increases. A person who grows up believing they will fail, or afraid of the consequences of failure, usually does fail.

So what's all this got to do with our Father, God?
Like all great dad's He sets a great example. In fact He sets the perfect example. Jesus, divested himself of his divine attributes and came to earth as a man, constrained and confined by the same limitations as we have. Yet he lived a perfect life, not only not doing anything wrong, but doing everything right. He was perfect in every way, demonstrating to us how we too can do it, if we live by the power of the Holy Spirit, as he did.
But he didn't just set us a perfect example, he gives us everything we need to follow his example. When Jesus died on the cross he fully paid the legal penalty for each time every one of us has broken God's law, past, present and future. In fact he cancelled the laws under which we stood convicted, making them obsolete. He says if we believe in Him, He will create a new spirit inside us, one that is free of the addiction to breaking God's laws, free of the injuries and behaviour patterns that come with addiction, free of the inability to know God intimately, free to be the children of God we were originally designed to be. It's like He not only paid off our debts but He's also given us the downpayment for a new life. He's done everything to set us up for success. The only thing we have to do is accept the free gift. It would seem crazy not to.

He doesn't want rules, He wants you!

Many peoples idea of Christianity is a rather long set of rules and rituals which must be obeyed. If you manage to obey these rules, you get to count yourself in the category of 'good people' and you go to heaven when you die. Very few things could be further from what God intended for us.

Obeying rules is the lowest form of relationship that exists - I do what you say to avoid unpleasant consequences - in fact it stretches the term relationship to extremes. In normal human relationships we adjust our behaviour out of respect or affection for another person and their sensibilities. When I first met my wife, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I'd made a bed in my life, but becasue she is a tidy person, I have adjusted my behaviour to such an extent, that I now even make the bed when she is away. She didn't stipulate that I had to do this, I just learned what made her happy and changed.

It works fairly similarly with God. If you get to know the Person first, fall in love with the Person, then lifestyle changes don't seem such a big deal, in fact they seem obvious. Try and make those same changes before you know the Person and you will just end up resenting it. It's called religion and it stinks. Relationship is not about what you do or don't do, it's about who your with.

The amazing thing is that God, the perfect Father was so deteremined to make it possible for you and me to get to know Him, that He took it on Himself to remove the obstacles between us.

People often question some of the rules and practises in the Old Testament and struggle to reconcile them with the loving Father I am describing now. All those strange rules about food and clothing, all those strange practises of segregating people, all that destruction of people, cities and nations are all designed to show how serious our rebellion against God is. God is prefectly holy, which means He is 100% perfect in every way, not that He is a prude who never does anything wrong (or fun). Every rebellion against His perfection is an absolute affront to His perfection and so He commanded the things we see in the Old Testament to show just how serious this is. But amazingly, God then sent His own son as the ultimate substitute for us.

All of God's correct fury and anger against us, all the fury and anger that wiped out cities with fire and brimstone, all the fury and anger than wiped out the world in a flood, all the fury and anger that wiped out whole people groups was poured out on Jesus. Is it any wonder that it says Jesus became deeply distressed and said "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" as He prayed in the garden anticipating His death. His apprehension related more to the anticipation of God's fury more than the physical agony! As Jesus died on the cross it is recorded that he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me". This was not a question but a cry of anguish as the full weight of God's anger vented against him and he died.

The point of all this is that becasue Jesus did this, God's anger against all rebellion is now fully satisfied. The penalty has been paid in full, the 'time has been served', justice has been done and been seen to be done. In fact God would be unjust if He was still angry. The only things left for us to do is to accept this free offer and to begin to rebuild the relationship.