Putrefying pots

Would you use a dirty pot to make your dinner? An unclean pot with caked up, black, dried mould?

I thought not.

It’s ironical though that many self-confessed, twenty first century followers of Jesus assume that God would choose to use a vessel that is defiled.

Now the word defiled is a strong term but its usage here is intentional.

The world we live in is defiled, unholy, and decaying, unperturbed by lifestyles and ways that in God’s economy are abominable, because these desires, passions and ideologies, flow out of the natural nature of mankind, which is flawed.

All of us as God’s children started off with this flawed nature, however, as His truth enters in and we make the choice to believe it by following Him, engaging with His word, allowing it to transform us, and filling up on His Holy Spirit, our nature changes from a state of sinfulness to righteousness.

We are full of sin on the outset of our journey into new life in Christ, however, many of us are not aware of this and assume the moment we say a prayer of repentance from our past ways of thinking and living, that we’re completely cleansed and made whole.

We forget that many of us indulged in sinful actions that caused our bodies, the very vessels that Father God desires to use, to become defiled.

When Jesus commanded Lazarus to come forth, he was still bound and wrapped in grave clothes, which had to be removed.

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go” – John 11: 43 – 44.

As we embrace a new lifestyle in Christ Jesus, some of us as spiritual children, still struggle with habits from our old nature and may fall into the temptation of acting out some of these habits, which messes up and causes our bodies to become impure

This defilement happens every time a child of God indulges in the act of sexual impurity; pre-marital sex, pornography, masturbation, or fills their minds with unholy scenes from Netflix movies, Instagram, Tik Tok or other media.

Unresolved heart issues: a lack of forgiveness, anger, resentment, fear, rejection and other negative emotions can also block the free flow of God’s love into our hearts and need to be resolved, so we can experience the abundant life promised to us in Christ Jesus.

Unfortunately, today we have a watered-down concept of God as Holy and haven’t been taught the full gospel that incorporates our new nature in Christ with a renewed lifestyle of holy living and so we think we can frolic with the world, indulge in its ways and still remain pure.

We need to be set free from the impurity and bondage that attached itself to us when we lived a lifestyle of indulging the flesh.

Psalm 119: 1 says,

Blessed are the UNDEFILED in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

It’s when we are made righteous and live righteously that we experience God’s blessing!

As we mature, the Father expects us to grow in righteous living.

God doesn’t just want to save us from eternal destruction, He wants to cleanse us, use us to bring His Kingdom in and express Himself through us for His glory!

Let’s listen out to what Father God is saying. Can you hear His whispers? The bridegroom is almost here and it’s time for the bride to get herself ready.

The Gardener

Weeds are awful,

they tend to re-emerge in the very spot they were uprooted from. Some roots are so deeply embedded in the soil that there’s a struggle to pull them up from the root without breaking the stem, which allows for it to grow back really quickly.

A gardener needs to understand and be expert in caring for and tending gardens to ensure they remain weed free.

The Father is the Gardener, Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener” – John 15:1.

As branches, it’s important that we’re aware of the weeds (lies and negative thought patterns) spoiling the gardens of our minds and preventing us from blossoming into all that Father God has in store.

It’s our responsibility to expose our hearts to His word and ask the search light of the Holy Spirit to reveal what’s growing.

As branches, we need to realise we are not self-sufficient within ourselves, to know what’s truly going on in our hearts or the reasons why we think, act and react in certain ways, and perceive situations from a particular stance.

Pride lies to us that we’re fully in control and understand everything about our complex make up as humans.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing – John 15:5.

The more of His word we take in, the more aware we become of the unwholesome thought patterns that dominate and have carved out deeply ingrained grooves within our psyches, affecting our thoughts and actions.

Do you want to become all that God had in mind when He secretly crafted the delicate interweaving of your precious heart?

Realise as a Son of God, that you have been replanted (grafted in) if you’re categorized as a gentile. 

But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree – Romans 11:17 (NLT).

It’s an amazing miracle. With Jesus alive in us we’re a new specie! 

We can not survive outside of Him. We cannot do anything without Him. Our new life is IN HIM. 

Let this truth seep deep into our consciousness. 

We no longer need to live legalistic lives of religious duty or follow the norms of a culture embedded in death.

All we need is Him, for everything. He the potter, we the clay.

Let’s allow Him, our Father, the Gardener to uproot the weeds, tend our hearts, refine and use us to bring glory to Himself and life to a world spiralling in confusion and tottering on the edge of destruction.

Father I realise how deeply I need You. I’m sorry for the times I’ve allowed pride to cause me to act independently of you and believed the lie that I am self-sufficient. Please search my heart, root out the weeds, and reveal to me who I am, as a branch attached to the true vine.

From Glory to Glory

A snowflake. 

We love how snow carpets our landscapes and makes everything seem unusually surreal. Our otherwise mundane neighbourhoods turned into a breath-taking scene from a Christmas movie. But have we ever considered that blankets of snow are made up of trillions of individual snowflakes?

As snowflakes fall through the air, each individual flake is shaped by the different temperatures and moisture levels of the clouds as they descend.

Under microscope, snowflakes are a wonder to behold! 

No two snowflakes are alike.

As sons of God who yield to the Father’s dealings and continually behold the glory of the Lord, we are being changed from one degree of glory to another.

‘And we all with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit’ – 2 Cor 3:18 [AMP].

Who you were at the start of your journey, who you are now and who you will become as you continue to press forward, are a progressive reflection of the perfect man; Jesus.

Like snowflakes swirling, and tumbling in their individual pathways to the ground, shaped by the differing temperatures and moisture levels of the clouds; each of us are being pruned, moulded and shaped to reflect His glory.

Each trial or test that we overcome causes us to reflect a brighter expression of His person, almost like a dusty lamp being cleaned with a duster to make it shine brighter.

In our individual selves, we’re not perfect as we set off, and many of us come from a myriad of sordid and harrowing backgrounds, however, positionally (in Christ), we are perfect! We are on the journey to maturity. 

Father God doesn’t see us in our weaknesses, He sees us as sons, perfect in Christ, but we must understand that His desire is for us to grow, not remain where we were when we took our first steps to follow Him.

When a child is born physically, we celebrate the fact that a baby is born. We fuss over the child and love, nurture and provide for all the child’s needs but we would be concerned if the baby remained as a baby and the child’s growth was stunted by some defect.

Spiritually speaking, many of us; destined to reflect the glory of the Lord like wonderful snowflakes, are stunted in our growth journeys by various defects. 

Sometimes it may be that we have inner wounds needing healing, that we haven’t exposed to God. In these instances, many times, on the back of these wounds, the enemy gains a foothold in our lives, leading to anger, fear, resentment or lack of forgiveness, which pushes us into bondage.

Other times it may be that we’re not consistently walking with the Holy Spirit or yielding to His directives. We need to decide if we truly are ready to follow Him all the way.

We may not fully understand the Father’s dealings, but He is the Father of our spirits and just like we accepted the discipline of our earthly fathers (or the discipline of others placed in our lives to help us), we need to trust and know that His thoughts towards us are good.

The great thing, is that the Father Himself, by the help of the Holy Spirit will grow us from glory to glory to glory to glory as we remain yielded, united and obedient to Him. 

A call to action

I watched an Indie film on YouTube yesterday called, ‘The broken Rose’, it broke me! Check it out on YouTube (raw and explicit).

It told the story of an innocent 5-year-old; Rose, who was abandoned by a mother, who had told her a story about a beautiful girl; a princess who lived high up in a castle guarded by a big scary dragon, and even though the dragon hurt her, she still loved him because he was the biggest, meanest of them all and kept her safe.

She told her mum she didn’t like the story and her mother agreed that she didn’t like it either but reassured her daughter that one day she’d understand.

This mother, who was being abused, tried to escape her home with her daughter but was prevented from doing so by a broken, abuser of a husband and eventually had to leave without her.

Approaching the end of this year and the beginning of the next, are we going to rise to the clarion call of God’s heart to be a channel through which His love can reach this dark, broken, dying world and families like Rose’s or are we going to continue in our normal fashion of allowing our own will and desire to be the focal point for 2023; ‘our year of success and increase’, or whatever other slogan we choose to whip up?

Do we see what’s going on right under our noses? The increase in county lines, substance and alcohol abuse, families crumbling under the weight of financial pressures, the increase in suicides amongst the under 30’s, Secondary school students arriving at school with empty stomachs.

As those that are alive in Him, are we content to continually drink from the brook of life while our neighbours wallow in sickness, fear, death, depression, anxiety and mental torment?

Have we forgotten who we are; the salt of the earth?

Remember what Jesus said?

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men”.

And,

‘For whoever wishes to save his life (in this world) will (eventually) lose it (through death), but whoever loses his life (in this world) for My sake will find it (that is, life with Me for all eternity)’ – Matthew 16:25 (Amp)

When Jesus died in our place on the cross, we died with Him. His life for ours.

The disciples, not fully understanding the extent of what had taken place through the death of Jesus, were ready to go back to their previous life of being mere fishermen after His crucifixion. The revelation of the Risen Christ and who they now were in Him, came only after they encountered him on the beach – but Jesus had told them before His death, that He was going to make them, ‘fishers of men’.

Have we considered that the difference between us and the early disciples may well be that we haven’t given up all to follow Jesus?

Are we holding too tightly onto our lives; when Jesus said to ‘be careful for nothing and not worry about tomorrow?’ Are we like Peter and the other disciples going to go back to the comfortable lives we were familiar with before we encountered Him (if we’ve truly encountered Him)?

Our response to all He has done for us should be to offer ourselves to Him daily, as living sacrifices.

God is calling us to abandon everything we know, our dreams, hopes, plans and desires and embark on a great adventure with Him in the mission to reveal His love to a broken, dying world.

It’s time.

It will only happen as we journey closely, listen to and obey His voice and promptings.

Let’s make 2023 a year like no other, leading us into a life we could never have imagined, even in our wildest dreams!

The source

I recently sat by a stream and watched the water trickle down the stream’s path. I could see the riverhead a far way off from where I was seated.

A lady with a water bottle in hand, climbed down the rocks a long way from the riverhead and collected some of the water as it spilled over a crack and formed a neat flow, almost like a tap into her bottle and walked back up the pathway.

Leaving the stream, I stopped at the riverhead and heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “draw water from the source”?

Why? You may be asking. Because the source is pure. It’s authentic. It hasn’t been contaminated.

When we commune with and are intimate with God’s Holy Spirit and His word (the source). We’re hearing directly from God Himself. Remember that one of the enemy’s gameplans is to infiltrate our thoughts with half-truths, which indicates that there will be a measure of truth in the lies which He offers us.

In these last days, knowledge has increased, just it was prophesied in Daniel 12:4 (b),

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Deception has so covered the earth that we have to be sure that we are hearing His voice. There are many self-professed prophets, teachers, apostles, and preachers infiltrating our gatherings, the internet and the media. He said,

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me -John 10:27.

In the same way that bankers are trained to be so familiar with original bank notes that they can spot a fake in an instant, we are to be so intertwined with the Lord, that we are sensitised to the voice of His Holy Spirit within us, that we will hear clearly, when He’s alerting us to the deceptions and lying voice of the stranger.

What we have in God is so precious! If Jesus was willing to lay down His life, so that we can share it with Him and become co-heirs in His Kingdom, if the disciples were willing to be killed, and sawn in two for their faith, if the enemy fights tooth and nail, to stop us from pressing on in God, what is it that the enemy doesn’t want us to have? Have you ever considered or asked yourself this question?

Deception is so diabolical in that you may be deceived and not even know it, such that a thought you have received as truth or light may actually be darkness.

The world is screaming at us through its airwaves, it’s ideologies and lies offered to us through the suggestions of social media, news outlets, and even ferocious wolves; false prophets dressed in sheep’s clothing. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says,

And no wonder, for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

If we thought that being a follower of Jesus was a walk in the park, it’s time to think again. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn away from the love of God by the lies and distractions presented to us by the world.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, strength and die to the world, our flesh and overcome the snares, pitfalls, and temptations of the enemy.

Look away for a moment and you may become ensnared…

ALL EYES ON JESUS!

Reign

Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for casting a demon out of a slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination and how did they respond to their circumstance? They prayed and praised God!

How do we react when faced with persecution or trials on account of our faith? We give into fear, complain, or become confused and perplexed at our predicament. We wonder why, if we are truly serving and following the Lord, we experience such adversity.

The call to reign with and become co-heirs with Christ is a great call; to REIGN WITH CHRIST… do we understand the glory of all that has been promised to us? This is a high calling, and our faith will be tested greatly in the journey to the high places in God.

Because of persecution and trial, we give up, buy into the lies of the enemy that our circumstance is an indication that God is punishing us for our sins, has deserted and is no longer for us and so fail to experience the glory on the other side of our trials.

Didn’t Jesus say that we would experience troubles in this world (John 16:33)? And how did He say we should respond? By whining, complaining and giving up? NO! He said,

“Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”

We marvel in awe at the power welded by the early apostles in the book of acts; how demons trembled at their command and wonder why us 21^st century followers of Christ, filled with the very same Spirit of God, are a sorry replica of the life of Christ we profess to possess.

Whatever battle, test, trial or persecution we are called to face as God’s sons, the truth is, we are already victorious ‘in Christ Jesus!’ He has already conquered the world, the flesh and the devil and in Him, we are called to be victorious too!

Followers of Jesus are not wimps, although the world would like to suggest otherwise! In our own strength we are nothing but in Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us!!

When Moses cried out to the Lord on behalf of the children of Israel, on their way out of Egypt’s slavery, with Pharaoh and the Egyptians in hot pursuit, what did the Lord say to Him? He said,

“Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward…” (Exodus 14:15).

If we are truly submitted to the Lord (this is a foundational requirement of our new life in Christ); not living a double life of having one foot in Christ and the other in the world, we can rejoice in the middle of our trials.

Just like we are encouraged to, when our faith is tested or we are under trial, we can count it all joy and be patient, because we know that when patience has its perfect work, we will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:3 – 4 paraphrased).

We need to get to the place where we believe God more than our feelings, circumstances, and the things that people say. We must place no confidence in the flesh!

While Paul and Silas worshipped in prison, not only were they finally released, but the other prisoners were freed too! When we worship God through our tests and trials, the outcome on the other side will be freedom for the captives!

Now, son of God, are you truly ready to reign with Him…?

Come on, it’s time to ‘rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and continue steadfastly in prayer’ (Romans 12:12).

Whose Kingdom?

He arrives on the scene and the masses flock to Him. The demonised, broken hearted and poor find hope, healing, acceptance and a family with Him and the disciples, who gather together regularly to eat, fellowship, and learn about the Kingdom…

The Kingdom

In His teachings, He likened the Kingdom of Heaven to life-like scenarios to help us mortals understand the culture of the Kingdom; the realm and domain of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Following Jesus is being united with Him and led through this maze of life to a destination, a kingdom that is birthed and revealed in us, even before we finally get there. John the Baptist arrived declaring, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Jesus tells us that a table is set before us in ‘the presence of our enemies’, He says, “the Kingdom is within”, and it does not come with observation.

This Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom and averse to our earthly kingdoms founded on darkness, corruption, and all that is centred around self-fulfilment and gratification.

In today’s fast paced, knowledge overloaded world, social media is saturated with proponents, professing ownership of a Kingdom that they know nothing about! Any professor speaking Kingdom but shifting the focus away from the King of Heaven; Jesus, onto self is counterfeit.

We are not here to build our own Kingdoms, in fact, the Kingdom journey is a journey of death to self, the pursuit of personal pleasure and self-gratification.

When Jesus spoke to the multitudes about the realities of the Kingdom; feeding on the bread that came down from Heaven, His flesh and His blood, many disciples turned away saying, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”.

The same is true for us… when we learn what it truly means to follow Jesus, many will turn back.

He already told us the gateway to life is narrow and difficult and that few find it. Have you ever stopped to ponder on this?

Everyone you meet professes to know God but even the demons believe there is one God and tremble! Some profess to know Him and sincerely do, their lives bearing the fruit of their words. Other profess Him but unfortunately due to not remaining attached to Him as the vine, are left with the relics of religious activity that focus on self; whether that’s self-righteousness, self-centredness, or self-gratification – the source of all of the above being ‘the self,’ and not ‘the Spirit.’

The only one Who came from the Kingdom of Heaven, taught us about it, showed us its power through miracles signs and wonders and released the life of the Kingdom to us through His life-giving Spirit is Jesus.

Unless we remain in Him and follow Him; we will end up in a frenzy of activity that has no real life in it, ugh… I shudder at the thought!

The world around us needs Jesus, the authentic life of the Son of God Who came, lived amongst us, died, and gave His life in exchange for ours, that we might live through Him.

The King Himself (Jesus) said, You say rightly that I am a King… “My Kingdom is not of this world…” (John 18 36 – 37, paraphrased)

Do you get this?

Through His eyes

A box has six rigid sides, and our minds have pre-conceived perceptions of the fearfully, wonderfully made human beings God created. As His children, many times We try to fit Him into our self-imagined, six-sided boxes.

During a moment of tender-hearted inspiration, while taking a leisurely walk along the Pier, I had asked God to help me see the people around me through His eyes. As I exited the uphill slope that led away from the Pier, an elderly gentleman dressed in a colourful blouse and skirt, with a face made up and hair neatly brushed back said hello to me.

It was the depth of His voice as he spoke that drew my attention to Him.

Sitting on a bench at the furthest end of the Pier no more than twenty minutes later, a well-known local guy, dressed in a white mini skirt, white t-shirt and white sunglasses walked by. We had a brief conversation, as he shared that today was his first day off in twelve days.

I had sensed it as the elderly man in the blouse and skirt said hello. Seeing the guy in the mini skirt confirmed it! God was messing with my perceptions of people. Would I judge these men and view them through the stereotypical lens that says; ‘gay guys’, or would I see two lost souls needing the love and healing of a saviour?

What were your initial thoughts and perceptions about the images of the two men depicted above?

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things – Romans 2:1(NLT).

God wants ‘everyone’ to repent! That’s the prostitute, transvestite, thief, murderer and the two gay guys I bumped into as I walked along the Pier.

What do you think God’s heart and thoughts are towards them?

2^nd Peter 3:9 says,

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent.

God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He doesn’t condone our sin but wants to transform our sinful nature and conform us to become like the perfect man – Jesus.

The woman caught in the act of adultery.

The Samaritan woman by the well.

The Gadarene demoniac.

Zacchaeus the tax collector.

You, me… He wants to save us all.

A pure heart

Sitting in my garden, I bit into a nectarine. Its bright yellow flesh offered suggestions of juicy sweetness; just how I liked them but as I ate around the seed, near the core, I tasted something unpleasant; which made me peer more intently at the fruit.

The seed appeared hollow and part of it had broken off, however, another bite caused the nectarine seed to split in two, revealing a mouldy decayed centre, shaped almost like a heart.

My thoughts centred on how many of us are beautiful and nicely made up on the outside but plagued with decaying hearts, just like my nectarine. Hearts full of unresolved anger, fear, hurt, bitterness and unforgiveness; neatly disguised under a deceptive exterior.

God is more concerned about the state of our hearts rather than exteriors. As humans, our words, and what we display externally, reflects what’s going on beneath the many masks that we wear, to camouflage the true state of our hearts.

Under the surface, a teenage girl dressed promiscuously, is likely expressing an insecure heart crying out for the love and attention of a father. A person that displays uncontrolled fits of anger, could be hiding a heart that is fearful and afraid of losing control. Someone who is a workaholic may be using work as a way to ignore trauma or emotional issues.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks – Luke 6:45 (b)

God wants to touch our families and communities with the overflow of His love from our hearts, but in order to fill our hearts, He needs to deal with the rotten core and remove decaying roots.

Unfortunately, many of us are not aware of the true state of our hearts, until God’s light exposes the hidden darkness.

The entrance of Your word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple – Psalm 119:130

Positionally, in Christ, when we become born again, we are forgiven, delivered and complete but in the natural, there are issues we need to work through (many relational), as we renew our minds and are changed from one degree of glory to another, into the image of Christ.

We may have wondered why we act in certain ways. Perhaps we’re overly quiet in social settings or find that we’re controlled by irrational fears. God’s Spirit within us, sees these flaws and wants to bring the needed healing.

Sadly, unless we recognise these areas of need, expose them to Him and ask Him for healing, we may end up just like my nectarine; although it looked really enticing on the outside, I thought it best to stop eating it.

Do you want God to flow unhindered through you as a vessel, to touch the lives of the people around you? Will you allow Him to uncover the real you? The one beneath all the different layers of onion peels. The you He intended when you were intricately woven by your creator in secret.

If you would really like God to expose the root of any hidden, deeply entrenched, negative behavioural patterns, pray this prayer from Psalm 139 with a sincere heart;

Dear Father, search me and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting – Psalm 139:23 – 24.

First steps

From the time we receive the seed of His word into our hearts and are born as new babes in Christ, until we know who we really are in Christ, the tendency is that we may likely make foolish mistakes and take faltering steps that lead us somewhat away from the path God intended and end up getting ourselves tied up in knots. Especially given that discipleship isn’t readily offered to new believers in the way it was in the early Church.

God’s mercy is rich and so He constantly calls out to us, being the loving Father that He is and hopes that we will heed His warnings and wooing but very much like the children of Israel, many of us persist in our foolish ways, until we’re caught in a trap which our sly enemy (who’s always lurking in the shadows), sets for those of us that choose to believe in the Name JESUS and set out to follow in the footsteps He has laid down for us.

As we start out on this journey, we may not fully understand that the core of our identity is as spirit beings; recreated in Christ. Our spirit is the candle of the Lord and the place of our deepest connection with God. This is the part of us that is renewed when we become born again.

‘But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him’ – John 4:23.

We are tripartite beings, made up of spirit, soul and body.

The renewal that has taken place in our spirit is designed to permeate our souls and bodies, until we each reach the full measure of the stature of Christ. However, this takes discipline and a determined effort to cooperate with the Spirit of God, in forsaking our old ways, which flowed naturally (effortlessly) from our sinful nature and follow the new lifestyle, which is laid out in the Scriptures and tallies with our new nature as righteous sons of God.

We are called to look into the mirror of His word daily and realise who we are (renew our minds), turn away from our sinful ways, which flowed out of our previous nature as sinners, be continually filled with His Spirit, led by His Spirit and partner with Him in the plans and purposes He has for reconciling the world to him.

But unfortunately, many of us are not aware that our souls can become wounded and contaminated by the earthly pollutant of sin and we fall unsuspectingly into the murky cesspit of sin, our souls become darkened and the light that shone so brightly at the point of our conversion to Christ becomes dimmed and confusing.

The enemy’s game plan is to steal from, kill or destroy us, so he is constantly looking for in-roads to our lives. Any opportunity to stop us from realising who we really are in Christ and fulfilling the purposes that our Father has for us.

If we are truly His sons, when we go astray, God, our Father disciplines us. This is actually a good thing (be wary if you call yourself a child of God but have never experienced His discipline!).

We may get ourselves tied up in all sorts of knots, just like children that end up falling over in the mud, as they attempt to start taking their first few steps, but Abba Father knows how to rescue His children out of all troubles.

We may experience pain, turmoil, confusion and affliction, have to sit the same test all over again; wasting precious years and opportunity in the process, nevertheless, Father God will lovingly restore all that we have lost in our ignorance and wanderings, if we do not give up, and allow ourselves to be trained by the experiences He allows; to help us learn how to obey His voice.