A Heart Untroubled

Have you ever been hangry?  If you're not familiar with that phrase, it's a portmanteau of HUNGRY and ANGRY, meaning you're hungry and it's making you grumpy. You can do all sorts of things, walk, count to ten, cry, but the thing about being "HANGRY" is that, if you don't address the hunger part, you'll probably find that you stay cross!  Once you eat, stuff just gets back in the right place. So often that is the case with us spiritually we are hungry and that hunger is a God-given desire for his Word, but we try all sorts of rubbish to fill it and satisfy ourselves. It never quite works and we feel off kilter and like life just is 'wrong' somehow.  It's the same with being tired.   In the 1st Book of Kings, we see Elijah, who has basically come to the end of himself, walks off and finds himself a tree and tells God 'I want to die'.  1 Kings 19:5-8 (NLT) Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an ang...

Following on from my last post, I heard a great analogy this week, which really made the point well: When we say we want 'more of God' as if we are waiting on him, it is like us having a bank account with an unlimited balance, but rarely or never using our bank card to withdraw from it.  We still have the account (salvation) and the money (the Holy Spirit) but we never use it.    We live in a world full of death, depression, sickness, sin and all the rubbish that came into God's perfect and beautiful creation at The Fall.  Christians have the one true solution, and yet so often we are either hiding it,  ignoring it, or just simply not using what God has placed in us for his glory.  That's just sad!  The great commision says we are to preach the Gospel, cleanse the leper, heal this sick, make disciples, raise the dead (not necessarily in that order), but honestly in my opinion, a high percentage of us settle for Church attendance, maybe a mid week bible...

We were at a fab conference recently and, in addition to some GREAT teaching,  we we enjoyed amazing worship. One evening they did a fun medley of joyous songs about the Holy Spirit.  One of the songs goes like this: "They were rockin' and a reelin' on the streets of Jerusalem.  People thought they were crazy, they were having so much fun!  Peter said "These are not drunk as you suppose they're just very very filled with the Holy Ghost. This is that, spoken by the prophet Joel..."  (Here's the link in case you want a listen; it will bring a little joy!  bit.ly/Thisisthat )  It is referring to the following prophecy: Joel 2:28-29 And it shall come to pass afterward,  that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;  and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,   your old men shall dream dreams,  your young men shall see visions:  And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids  in those days will I pour out my spir...

Most of us 'grace people' will willingly talk about God's grace all day long, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly we go back to a law (works) based mentality.   How often do we revert back to trying to relate to God through the law once we have been saved by grace?  It's an interesting, but not new, question (I'll come to that in a minute).  Take healing for example, I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say (and have previously said myself to be fair)... "I've read healing scriptures; I've prayed: I've fasted - What more do I need to do to be healed!".    Immediately relating to God on the basis of law/works - which of my works will get me healed? As I said, it's not a new problem: Paul told the Galatians : " I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel : "  Galatians 1:6 (KJV) and he goes on a bit later saying " Are ye so foolish? having...

The phrase 'fight like a girl' is often used as a derogatory term, supposedly meaning that someone is weak or ineffective, but today, I want to change that perception. I want to fight like a girl!  Read on, and I'll explain what I mean. It is clear from the Bible, we are in a battle: the kingdom of darkness v the Kingdom of Light.   1 Timothy 6:12 tells us that we are to fight the good fight of faith and Paul uses armour as an analogy, and there are many other uses of the concept of being in a fight, but sometimes we don't correctly identify the way to win the battles we face.  Firstly, it's important to remember that actually the battle is already won and we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) so we never fight from a perspective of trying to win or even take back ground!   That may surprise some of you.   We used to sing a song "Went to the enemy camp and I took back what he stole from me"...   It's a really up beat song, but as I t...

So, I was thinking today about the word 'redemption'.  It's not really a common word these days.  The closest we might get is when we have a gift card, or coupon we know that we need to 'redeem' it in order to get the benefit of it.     For example, I was given an 'Experience Day Voucher' for Christmas one year.  It was in a nice little box, and it looked really cool and had a monetary value attached to it, but left in the box it had no value or use. I couldn't show up and use that voucher for a Health Experience or a Cream Tea Experience.  In order to get the benefit of it,  I had to go online and look at the options and REDEEM the voucher for it's worth to book my experience (my husband and I opted to drive fast cars round a track).   The word redeem according to the dictionary means: 1. compensate for the faults or bad aspects of 2. gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment. There are several Greek words used fo...

I've been really focussed on my identity as a believer a lot this year  already.  And this week I was reading the following passage in Romans: ... a nd those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him   Romans 8:8-9 (MEV) Paul is telling believer that they are no longer IN the flesh. I don't know about you, but sometimes that's a hard thing to get my head around.   How many of you find that hard to deal with the idea that if you are a Christian, YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH any more?  I can already see what you're thinking  "Abi you have no idea what I've done today!" But the problem is w e look at ourselves in the mirror and relate to the world around us by what we see,  but the scripture tells us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight!    The truth is, if God lives...

Have you ever been confronted with a new situation?  Of course you have.  On a regular basis we encounter things that we've never seen or done before.  That is also true in the Spiritual realm.  Someone asks for prayer for something, and our first reaction is "I've never prayed for that before...". The good news is, that the bible says that there is nothing new under the sun and the Holy Spirit has been around since the beginning of time.  He has seen every kind of miracle imaginable.  Even in the Old Testament we see accounts of raising the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24), God's supernatural protection (Daniel 3:19-27- Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) and healings (Numbers 21:5-9 - The poisonous snake bites healed) and these are just a few examples.  The Holy Spirit was the one who was hovering before the very creation of the World. He was the one that came and went and facilitated these miraculous events.  Now we are blessed that he lives within us!...

What we believe matters.  If you believe that someone is not honest, how you respond to that person's words will be different to how you will respond if you know a person is truthful.  If you believe the weather forecast, you’ll dress one way; if you believe someone is a good driver, you'll be more relaxed; if you believe your friend loves you, you will feel safe and secure.  The same is true spiritually for us. How we see God will determine how we relate to him, and affect how we approach him.  If you don’t believe God is good - then how will you want to come to him in intimacy.      Consider a marriage where the husband is aggressive, hurtful or belligerent.  A woman who  is in an abusive relationship is not going to willingly come and look for intimacy.   She is certainly not going to entrust her heart to him, or run to him for comfort or strength.   When a husband is good to his wife, she can lean on him and she w...