You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘lukewarm’ tag.
In the Old Testament we see this incredible picture of God supernaturally starting the fire in the temple but that the instruction was to the priests to tend to the fire and not let it go out. This is a picture for each one of us – God lights the fire and we then have to tend to it and keep it burning.
As christians our own personal fire – our own personal love for Jesus – is what is going to keep us in the zone. It’s always easier to pour from a full cup to mix my metaphors. It’s going to keep our heart focused, our energy engaged and our attitude positive. It’s going to help restrain us from temptation and refresh us from the inside out so that we have more to give and that we also enjoy it and are blessed from it. When we’re living from that overflow position small things become magestical acts of service, and we find it easier to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the things that Jesus did. Our hearts and spirits are more in tune with the Holy Spirit to hear His voice and be led supernaturally in conversations, prayer moments and in the ways that we live, be it up front or behind the scenes.
I’m sure we can all think of contrasting moments in our own life when we had the fire burning – when we had our personal love tank full so to speak – and when we didn’t.
My first car was a dihasthu charade. It was red and small. I drove it all the way from Dunedin to Auckland with all my worldly belongings. However after a while it had a fuel filter issue. It’s fuel filter would get clogged which made things like driving up hills and well, okay, driving full stop, slightly problematic. When the fuel filter got clogged the fuel couldn’t get through to the engine. Someone taught me a cool trick where I could tap the fuel filter with a spoon and it would unclog and then I could drive so you a) would always find a spoon in my car and b) would often find me on the side of the road, hood up, tapping the fuel filter with said spoon.
Sometimes the fuel filter of our life gets clogged and we need to take that spoon of the word of God and the presence of God and sort it out so that the fuel keeps our engines working well. Flows and seasons can vary – there are times when you’ll be soooo fired up and then times when maybe you’re not feeling it. This can be normal. There are times when you feel God’s presence so close and then times when you know He’s there because you know but you might not feel it as intensely. There are time when circumstances hit and you feel like you’re in a valley season compared to a mountain top season. This is normal. However in those times its important to keep stirring our love and fire and to not let it go out or to not drift into anything else.
Things that can clog our fuel filter are:
criticism
busyness
complacency
temptation
sin
friends
habits
insecurity
social media
Things that can unclog our life fuel filter and tend to the fire are:
time with God
reading the bible
getting around good people
spending time with mentors
priorities
putting Jesus as number one
trace and replace the negative thoughts and behaviours
get prayed for
worship time
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. revelation 2: 2-5
This year as a church we’re looking at finding out who God has made us to be and how He has gifted us and how to get activated in using those gifts.
BUT before we get activated – and even if we’re on the journey of finding out who we are and what we’re called to – we need to have our own authentic real connected in love fired up passionate full on committed relationship with God.
It’s a what came first, the chicken or the egg?
It has to be real and it has to be our heart motivation to know and love Him and make Him known.
we may be uber talented but if we have no relationship with God we will not be serving His kingdom in a humble right manner.
Disclaimer: we’re all flawed and we’re all human and we’re all sinners but a consecrated committed disciple is different from a oh yeah whatever Christian.
But we want to be a person who embrace the call and purposes of God, who believe He is real and that He is the hope of the world
A person who pursue Him and find Him
A person who will dream and live and be marked for eternity, not just breathing and living but living with purpose and destiny
Determined to know Him
Determined to keep knowing Him
Determined to live to please Him
In the face of seemingly impossible odds God is up in heaven, not stressed at all. God is confident of His work in and through us.
Any ministry and service and adventure you have with God needs to come out of the overflow – out of the heart and core of who we are… otherwise its not sustainable.
Or pleasing in the sight of God.
First love: in revelation 2: 2-5 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
The Ephesians were doing plenty of work and using their giftings. They were pursuing the call of God and active in their church and community.
But it wasn’t been done from a place of overflow in their lives. It wasn’t originating from love for God.
You see, God isn’t after our behaviour. He is after our heart.
Behaviour and change and transformation and obedience flows out of love from God and love towards, love for God.
Those that are in love with God and know His love for them respond with love.
You see the most important thing to realize in the world is that God loves you.
“God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so. He loves you when you don’t feel lovely. He loves you when no one else loves you. While we may theologically and intellectually understand the transaction, motivated by love, that took place at Calvary, the reality must reach our hearts in order to complete its course. We are loved. Let the words linger in our ears. We are loved.” ~ Max Lucado
Out of knowing that everything else will flow.
Security instead of insecurity
Peace instead of fear and worry
Hope instead of hopelessness
Righteousness by love instead of compromise
Vision instead of disorientation
You are loved. Loved.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 john 3:1
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. revelation 2: 2-5
This year as a church we’re looking at finding out who God has made us to be and how He has gifted us and how to get activated in using those gifts.
BUT before we get activated – and even if we’re on the journey of finding out who we are and what we’re called to – we need to have our own authentic real connected in love fired up passionate full on committed relationship with God.
It’s a what came first, the chicken or the egg?
It has to be real and it has to be our heart motivation to know and love Him and make Him known.
we may be uber talented but if we have no relationship with God we will not be serving His kingdom in a humble right manner.
Disclaimer: we’re all flawed and we’re all human and we’re all sinners but a consecrated committed disciple is different from a oh yeah whatever Christian.
But we want to be a person who embrace the call and purposes of God, who believe He is real and that He is the hope of the world
A person who pursue Him and find Him
A person who will dream and live and be marked for eternity, not just breathing and living but living with purpose and destiny
Determined to know Him
Determined to keep knowing Him
Determined to live to please Him
In the face of seemingly impossible odds God is up in heaven, not stressed at all. God is confident of His work in and through us.
Any ministry and service and adventure you have with God needs to come out of the overflow – out of the heart and core of who we are… otherwise its not sustainable.
Or pleasing in the sight of God.
First love: in revelation 2: 2-5 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
The Ephesians were doing plenty of work and using their giftings. They were pursuing the call of God and active in their church and community.
But it wasn’t been done from a place of overflow in their lives. It wasn’t originating from love for God.
You see, God isn’t after our behaviour. He is after our heart.
Behaviour and change and transformation and obedience flows out of love from God and love towards, love for God.
Those that are in love with God and know His love for them respond with love.
You see the most important thing to realize in the world is that God loves you.
“God loves you simply because he has chosen to do so. He loves you when you don’t feel lovely. He loves you when no one else loves you. While we may theologically and intellectually understand the transaction, motivated by love, that took place at Calvary, the reality must reach our hearts in order to complete its course. We are loved. Let the words linger in our ears. We are loved.” ~ Max Lucado
Out of knowing that everything else will flow.
Security instead of insecurity
Peace instead of fear and worry
Hope instead of hopelessness
Righteousness by love instead of compromise
Vision instead of disorientation
You are loved. Loved.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 john 3:1
“Paul tells you that you desire to be clothed, but it is necessary that you be stripped before you can put on Christ. Allow Him to strip your self-love of every covering so that you might receive the white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb. You need only His purity.” Fenelon (100 days in the secret place by gene edwards)
isaiah tells us that our righteousness is as dirty rags (isaiah 64:6) (used tampons is a really graphic way of puttnig it…) and in the light of fashion and clothing it is a good picture. our righteousness, our good works, our best trys and efforts are ugly dirty ragged clothing, instead of hte beautiful white robes of christ that he gives us by grace and by faith and such.
we want to wear His clothes, but we want to retain our own fashion sense too… despite what it really is…. we want to hold onto our lifestyle choices… our pride… our unforgiveness… our efforts… our ideologies… our intereptations of the bible… our way of dealing with people… our bias’… our comfort sins… our plans…
its an emporers new clothse syndrome really – we think our clothes are glorious and stunning, whereas God sees clearly.
we need to be humble and allow God to change and transform us. our works and efforts dont impress God… our humility and faith and surrendering “does”.
isaiah 61:1010 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” Revelation 3:17-19
Trials and refinement don’t sit well in our 21st century western way of thinking. We have our microwaves, popcorn makers, dvds, im, mysky etc etc etc… but the work of God takes a lifetime and there are seasons that take time. The work of God is precious and good and right. God is working a miracle in our lives. In my life. I AM a miracle. I am a demonstration and ambassador for him.
The message of Jesus has never been a happy happy joy joy promise. He does promise abundant life, but that life is characterized by a life of surrender and relationship with God. This promise comes with the outworking and demonstration of our faith, shaped by trials and obedience. Jesus calls us to walk a narrow road, to take up our cross, to put Him first above all others, including and especially ourselves.
As Christians we may experience seasons of great joy and freedom, and likewise seasons when God seems very far away and that our spiritual life resembles the Sahara Desert. There is a bigger picture involved.
“In all your journey as a believer, you will have two categories of spiritual experiences. One is tender, delightful and loving. The other can be quite obscure, dry, dark and desolate. God gives us this first one to gain us; he gives us the second to purify us.
First He deals with you as if you were only a child. Then he begins to deal with you as though you were a strong man. In the first there is a great deal of your Christian experience tied to that which you can sense outwardly. But the other category of Christian experience calls for a believer to no longer mind the outward senses. Rather he must know warfare against his own passions, and attain to a will that is in complete agreement and concert with the Lord…. This is the proper occupation of us all.
Dry spells are the instrument of God, for your good. Yes, it is true in such times, your five senses have been deprived and all outward progress of outward piety ends. Know this; In such times you are either going to leave off prayer and perhaps even a large part of your Christian walk, or you will be drive to a comfort which has nothing to do with the outward sense.” Molinos from 100 Days In The Secret Place (by Gene Edwards)
In these dry places we learn to persevere and to draw near to God regardless of how we feel and what we sense. In this time God is still at work, even more so I would think, as He develops strength of character and hunger for Him. We learn to pray in new ways, to seek after God and to in that action to hold onto our faith and beliefs. We may even find our beliefs and faith changing as things that are built on works and feelings and comfortability fall away. We may discover that we do know in our deepest parts that God does love me and knows me and forgives me – despite all our failings and unworthiness. In a dry spell the greatest watering and growth can occur.
Even if we know nothing else we can have hope in WHO God Is. God is God, the God of mercy and compassion, love and peace, grace and hope, Jehovah our Provider, Jehovah our Healer, Jehovah our Breakthrough. He is the same today, yesterday and will be tomorrow. He will never leave or depart us, never abandon us. Our names are written on the palm of his hand, and there are nail scars to reinforce the point.
The dry place is not a time to give up. It is a time to hold on. It is a time to not let go of those “disciplines” that we practice. By the way those disciplines we do, bible reading and prayer and going to church must be actions of relationship or they become ritual. They must be actions of love and discovering who God is and what he does rather than form and just doing. We must read the bible to discover the author and creator – to know The Word, not just the words.
Revelation 3 warns us to have fresh love for God. Rules and rituals are no substitute for really knowing God and having the friendship available.
Knowing who God is will help immeasurably in the storm and the fire. Isaiah 43:1-2 promises that when we walk in the flood we will not be overwhelmed and when we walk through the fire we will not be burnt. Jesus told us that in this life we will have troubles but that we can take heart and be confident that He has overcome the world. Knowing what God says and promises for those situations brings hope and faith. It causes trust to rise in our hearts. This is why knowing the Word is so vital. It strengthens us for the hard road, and refreshes us in the dry place. It teaches us who God is.
Refining and shaping occurs so that we are more like Jesus in heart and character. This is so we are more effective in service for God. I do believe we are all cracked pots containing the great treasure of God, himself, the Holy Spirit, who works through us and in us and that our brokenness only serves to demonstrate how great and graceful and compassionate God is.
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
1 Corinthians 4:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
God does not change. He does not leave us. He does not forsake us. But He does allow us to be transformed and refined. He has a bigger picture and no quick fixes. God doesn’t use band aids but gets to the heart of the matter.
Finally, take great hope from the Word of God that promises that when we are dying of thirst (spiritually) “He will come to their rescue. He will make rivers flow on mountain peaks and send streams to fill the valleys. Dry and barren lands will flow with springs and become a lake.” (Isaiah 41:17-18 CEV) Don’t give up. Keep praying. Keep reading The Word. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
One Passion One Devotion 