Planted by Water

I mentioned yesterday that I received a word from God while at a conference about 10 days ago - it was a confirmation about priorities that I need to be making at this time. One of the results of this is that I feel the need to stop regular blogging for about six months! Although I enjoy blogging and really appreciate the people who have posted comments and initiated discussions which have really helped develop my own thinking, it can be quite time-consuming. That’s OK when it is what God wants you to do or it is not interfering with other things God is wanting you to do. I can’t say that with conviction at this moment in time.

I will also be continuing with the Bible Tour Blog and including occasional - hopefully weekly-  reflections of Scripture. I have been persuaded to leave this blog on-line and perhaps simply post an occasional interesting quote from my reading from time to time. I hope to be able to be back blogging more abundantly (!) in the new year! But bye for now!!

My apologies to readers for not posting for a while. I had a great last session with the students as we considered the main global challenges the world faces and that Christians need to be aware of - namely, globalisation and world poverty, the clash of civilisations and the environment - massive issues that it was good to begin discussing. I ended with the encouragement that in whatever God has called them to do, each of them, as citizens of the Kingdom, are called to be world changers! They’ve been a great group to teach and I’ve enjoyed our discussions over the past year.

Interestingly just before I went to be with the students, we had a conference in Manchester with Keri about his vision to take the gospel to all nations. It is important that, as we develop a global awareness, it is not just the issues, challenges and crises that men fear that we consider, but that it is the global purposes of God to reach the world with his gospel and fill the world with his glory that should dominate our thinking!

I also had a word from God while at the conference which confirmed something I had begun to consider that I needed to do and that will affect this blog. I will share it with any interested readers tomorrow.

I mentioned yesterday that I was reading a book by Andrew Murray called Power For Your Life, all about experiencing the Holy Spirit. One potential problem with him and other ‘deeper life’ authors is that they can sometimes leave the impression that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is something you graduate on to after a period of really faithful obedience, rather than being the foundational and initiation experience of the Christian life that it is. One implication of this  foundational understanding is that you can have people who have genuine experiences of the Holy Spirit but who are still immature, people who are very charismatic but of faulty character. I always thinks of Samson in the OT and the Corinthians in the NT; and I always remember being told about the healing evangelist who ministered powerfully in the Spirit and saw many miracles and healing when he was actually partly drunk - as he had a serious alcohol problem! Not good! Sadly this has made some Christians react against genuine experiences of the Holy Spirit. The answer though is not to dismiss the charismatic but rather to work on the character. It is wrong when people set against each other character or charisma, fruit or gifts of the Spirit. I want both! Equally we can learn from this not to follow someone just on the basis of their charismatic gifting. Murray and others like him at least give you a desire for an on-going and deepening work of the Holy Spirit in your life; I will try to share some of the insights he gives over the weekend - though I will be at a conference in Manchester with keri Jones tomorrow; and I go down to the College at Cardiff on Sunday.

For my devotional reading recently I have taken up a book by an author whose books I used to read a number of years ago. Most famous for With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray was a preacher, pastor and writer in South Africa at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. He came from a tradition sometimes kknown as the ‘holiness movement,’ a proponent of the original ‘Keswick’ teaching on the ‘deeper life.’ As with all traditions this teaching was open to distortions but for me Murray represents some of the best of it, with a genuine love for God and longing to know more of him, and insights into life in the Spirit. He experienced revival while minsitering in South Africa. The book I’m reading at the moment is called Power for Your Life and I’m finding some helpful insights. I hope to post some of them from time to time. Another short piece about him can be found here.

I was reading recently about the tragic death of King Saul (in 1 Chronicles 10) and noted how, when killed, he was ’stripped of his armour’ by his enemies; and I thought back to how he had offered his armour to David. He was the king at the time, the leader of God’s people, and he should have been going up against Goliath.  He had all the appearance of strength with his armour but not the real faith to go up against the giant. Stripped of his armour he was found to be a weak man with a divided heart. Contrast David who rejected Sauls armour but who went up against Goliath with a naked faith, an unadorned strength of heart, a real, honest, simple and unquestioning confidence in his covenant-keeping God. The appearance of strength with macho charismatic posturing won’t slay any giants; only strength that comes from sincere faith like David’s will do that.

I am cheating today, as well as making a shameless plug for another blog that I do, by directing you to the Bible Tour Blog for my comment today - on Elisha’s prayer in 2 Kings 6.