Category: alert

Your Master’s Voice

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”

Matthew 13:16, ESV

There is a vast audio ocean that surrounds us.  Did you know that in the room where you are reading this, that there are “voices” going on? You just don’t see or hear them unless you have your radio or television tuned in to the right frequency, or they’re just too far away. We live in this golden age of Bluetooth, and cell phones. ( I suppose that they have positives, but also negatives.)

There is a frequency that we must lock into, where we can hear important things (or block-out confusing sounds.) But the Holy Spirit really wants to talk with us.  We soon understand that He wants us to communicate with Him. He yearns for a dialogue with us,  just like He had once a long time ago in the early chapters of Genesis. (Gen. 3:9)

“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. Gods voice in response to mine is its most essential part.”

Andrew Murray

Knowing that I’ve been created in His image I can ponder the visible, which is a shadow of the real world. Mankind in general, creates and communicates–this is what we do–because it’s how God acts. After all, we are in His image. Just look at a mountain or an apple tree, in a way they explain God, if we can listen with our hearts. We will hear Him.

He is always speaking, but we’re not always listening.

The attribute of listening is amazingly profound.  Forty years ago, I listened to my local radio station while I’m driving. When I moved away from the radio tower, the signal got weaker and weaker. But if I turned the car around and drive back into town, the signal becomes stronger and I can hear it again.

In the same way, we stop hearing God when we drift away from Him. But if we will turn around and come back to Him, we’ll hear His voice again. The closer we are to God, the clearer we can hear Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

Dear one, if you foster listening to Him you’ll be really hearing, and that is why God created you. Hey. Read your Bible, and ponder a passage, and then prepare to hear Him.

1brobry-sig4

Listening to God’s Voice 101

mastersvoic

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”

Matthew 13:16, ESV

There is a vast audio ocean that surrounds us.  Did you know that in the room where you are reading this, that there are “voices” going on? You just don’t see or hear them unless you have your radio or television tuned in to the right frequency, or they’re just too far away. We live in this golden age of Bluetooth, and cell phones. ( I suppose that they have positives, but also negatives.)

There is a frequency that we must lock into, where we can hear important things (or block-out confusing sounds.) But the Holy Spirit really wants to talk with us.  We soon understand that He wants us to communicate with Him. He yearns for a dialogue with us,  just like He had once a long time ago in the early chapters of Genesis. (Gen. 3:9)

“Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. Gods voice in response to mine is its most essential part.”

Andrew Murray

Knowing that I’ve been created in His image I can ponder the visible, which is a shadow of the real world. Mankind in general, creates and communicates–this is what we do–because it’s how God acts. After all, we are in His image. Just look at a mountain or an apple tree, in a way they explain God, if we can listen with our hearts. We will hear Him.

He is always speaking, but we’re not always listening.

The attribute of listening is amazingly profound.  Forty years ago, I listened to my local radio station while I’m driving. When I moved away from the radio tower, the signal got weaker and weaker. But if I turned the car around and drive back into town, the signal becomes stronger and I can hear it again.

In the same way, we stop hearing God when we drift away from Him. But if we will turn around and come back to Him, we’ll hear His voice again. The closer we are to God, the clearer we can hear Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

Dear one, if you foster listening to Him you’ll be really hearing, and that is why God created you. Hey. Read your Bible, and ponder a passage, and then prepare to hear Him.

 

1brobry-sig4

 

 

 

 

 

His Very Breath

breath

“When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 

22″ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

John 20:20-22, ESV

The history of the world is about to be rocked! Jesus isn’t dead anymore. He joins His frightened disciples in a room that has a locked door. His stunned followers are hiding from the Pharisees, but all of this is about to abruptly change. Jesus is alive–genuine flesh and blood, as real as you or me. 

The disciples who are already afraid, are pretty much freaked out by all of this.  Fearful mutterings can be heard, “What is this… who is this…and, who left the door unlocked?” :-)

The risen Lord walks in with 22 eyes fixed on him. 

He is confident,  and walks with resurrection authority.  He holds out his hands–they see for themselves the puncture holes the nails had made.  He lifts the hem of His robe, and they saw for themselves the holes in His feet.  In spite of His brutal wounds, He shows them He indeed is the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Savior of the world!

The disciples are ecstatic! 

I see them laughing and crying and leaping around the room.  It’s like they just won the World Series (and if they had champagne everyone would be soaked). Pure joy pulsates through them.  He is very much alive!

(Hey, isn’t that Andrew, doing a backflip?)

It’s in this gonzo-intense moment, Jesus speaks–and they become very quiet.  He proceeds to impart something into their hearts and minds with a simple command, “Peace be with you” in verse 21.  Peace is a vital ingredient in the humble heart of every faithful disciple.

He directs them to complete the work that the Father had given Him.  He now extends the baton of evangelistic work to the disciples. Seeing the resurrection up close like this will drastically alter your life’s trajectory. (They’ll be further fortified by the coming of Holy Spirit at Pentecost described in Acts 2:1-4.)

It’s now time to exchange the excited emotion of the moment in order to put on work gloves.

In this Jesus does something unprecedented–He leans over each disciple and exhales on them. Now this is more than just a really weird ritual.  You see, His breath is saturated with resurrection life, and they breathe into their lungs the life of the risen Savior!  They now carry his ‘life essence,’ and in the light of Jesus’ previous statements to them, they’re going to need it.

When God created Adam, he gave him His breath, (Genesis 2:7).  But the new life is more than existence; for the believer it’s the energy to come alive supernaturally–to be recreated.

And when you’re really recreated you’ll discover the power that Jesus had when His eyes fluttered open in the tomb. It’s far more than good and noble ideas about religion.  You’ll need Jesus, and you will need to rely on his breath to lead you to wherever you’re sent.

Jesus breathes on all His witnesses.

His breath fills our lungs, his oxygen enters our blood stream, where it now powers us on both a spiritual and biochemical level.  It’s totally supernatural. You will never, ever be the same again.  Even if you tried.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Romans 8:11

Be aware. No matter what your personal issues are–He’s in charge now. Are you locked in a dingy room–fearful, depressed, angry and alone? Jesus’ disciples understood all that. But they also saw the risen One, face to face.

The key to our lives as believers today is how clearly we “see” by faith the resurrected Christ.

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Things Aren’t What They Seem

“Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the perilous pestilence.”

“He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.”

Psalm 91:3-4, NKJV

I believe that there is great opposition to living free. Satan contests every square inch. His modus operandi parallels the predator. He likes to hunt human beings. We see his power and influence all around us.

I’m being quite careful not to be melodramatic when I say this, but Satan has a terrible plan for your life. He often uses human ‘lackeys’ to carry out his wishes. They will use deception, lies, and foolishness to snare people’s souls. They [he] will even resort to brute force. As a result, many believers are being persecuted for their faith.

14 “David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him.”
1 Samuel 23:14, NLT
5 “My future is in your hands.  Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.”
Psalm 31:15
7 “We escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!”
Psalm 124:7

And there is plenty more where this comes from. And we haven’t even got to the New Testament yet, where there are substantial references to this kind of attack. The doctrine of Satan is developed further there. Perhaps it is because we encounter the person of Jesus Christ and the act of personal redemption He made for each of us. Through this, we discover that we have an enemy that we were never really aware of before. And guess what— he hates us!

Some New Testament thoughts:
4 “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.”
2 Corinthians 4:4
12 “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12

Just as we have a personal savior in Jesus, we find we also have an antagonist and a sworn enemy. We didn’t ask for it, and it would be really swell if he didn’t exist at all. But the world’s evil around us has a source and we dare not minimize it.

“There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”

CS Lewis

Our fealty to Jesus becomes critical at times like this. Spiritual warfare has an ebb and a flow to it, sometimes the battles can be intense, and at other times less so. But we can do nothing at all apart from the blood of Christ. We must defend ourselves, by calling out to God, or else we will become a casualty.

  1. We can pray.
  2. We can read the truth (the Bible).
  3. We can praise and worship.
  4. We can put on “the armor of God’ (Ephesians 6:11).
  5. We can “submit to God” (James 4:7).
  6. We can resist Satan and be firm in our faith, (1 Peter 5:9).
  7. We can “plead the blood of Jesus” over our lives, and over our loved ones, (Exodus 12:13)

Probably the capstone is the following verse. This pretty much sums up this ‘act of resistance’ we are all called to do. I wanted to emphasize it because it is critical:

“Stay alert!”

“Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

1 Peter 5:8