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...