Seeds of the Kingdom

Devotional Message | Tough Love

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 94:12, NIV
"Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law."

Real love can be expressed in many ways. It isn’t loving not to warn a person when they are in danger. And it’s not loving to avoid giving a person correction when, without correction, they would be heading for trouble!

I loved my Dad – but I also had a healthy respect for him! He was incredibly loving and amazingly generous , but he was also firm, but fair, when it came to the need for bringing some needed correction into my life. I learnt to recognise that Dad’s love could sometimes hurt – at least for a season – but it was the sort of ‘hurt’ that I knew was for my own good, even if I didn’t like it at the time. A loving and disciplined environment made for an amazingly secure and safe family in which to grow up. I was very blessed. And even today I know I am being blessed by the straight edge of godly order that he helped establish in my life.

Now, if a human Dad, who is not perfect and sometimes acts without full understanding of everything that’s going on, can be the source of such blessing, how much more can we expect our heavenly Dad to be a loving Father – a Father who has both perfect understanding and insight into our lives, and cares for us enough to want to teach us truth from His Word?

We may have to go through some tough times when we get it wrong, but a mature believer will welcome those times of discipline from the Lord, for we can know for sure that God has no other objective but to bring us back to a place of blessing. What He teaches us from His Word is TRUTH – and when we choose to walk in His ways we will have LIFE – abundant life and real blessing.

Prayer: Lord,. I choose to welcome Your discipline in my life. Help me to see with Your eyes the things that need to change and I ask that you will bring to me the blessing of Your correction – now and always. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Learning Life’s Lessons – God’s Way!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 22:6, NIV
“Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

As I was thinking about writing today’s Seed, I received inspiration from a surprising source – the London Daily Telegraph! Tomorrow is the funeral service of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister in the twentieth century. There will be few reading this Seed of the Kingdom who haven’t heard of her. The great and famous of the nation, together with Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, will be present at St.Paul’s Cathedral for the service.

Margaret Thatcher was known as a strong leader and she had a deeply entrenched respect for the laws of God. But where did that come from? The Daily Telegraph explained how It came from her childhood upbringing. Her father, a Methodist lay-preacher would take her Sunday by Sunday to churches all over Lincolnshire, where she heard him preach from the Word of God. God’s Word became her childhood meat and drink. While studying Chemistry, and then Law, at Oxford University she herself became a Methodist lay preacher. Her sermon on “seek ye first the Kingdom of God” was described as outstanding. And she took prayer meetings “extremely seriously”.

So when the world watches the service, relayed by television to the nations, what will they hear? Famous people sometimes have the privilege of preparing the Order of Service for their own funeral. Margaret Thatcher was known for her great attention to detail, so she carefully prepared instructions for how the event should be conducted. She specifically asked that there be no political eulogy at the service, because, she said, “the sole object of worship must be God!”

And then she asked that the Prime Minister of the day should read the second lesson, carefully chosen by herself from John’s Gospel. So, in tomorrow’s funeral service, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, will read to the world from John 14:1-6, which begins with the words, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God” and concludes with Jesus answering Thomas’s profound question, “how can we know the way” by saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” I will be praying that the congregation, and the nations, will be listening to what David Cameron reads.

So where did the 87-year old lady learn such wisdom? As our Scripture for the day reminds us, it came from her childhood upbringing. When she became old, she did not depart from what she learned about God from her father’s preaching, and her childhood upbringing in the heart of her local Methodist Church. What a privilege it is to impart to our children and grandchildren a knowledge of God. None of us know what fruit there will be in the generations yet to come. I pray that we will each take seriously our own personal responsibility to impact the generations yet to come with the truth that Jesus is the only way!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for those who have impacted my life with truth from the Word of God. Help me, Lord, to serve You and the generations yet to come, by sharing my knowledge of You with those who are young, so that when they are old, they will still desire to serve You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Keys of Salvation

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Lamentations 3:25, NIV
“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

When learning English as a child, I soon got hold of the fact that it’s the ‘action word’ (the verb) which makes a group of words into a meaningful sentence. Without the action word the other words made no sense. In our Scripture for today, taken from a little-read book in the Old Testament, there are three such ‘action words’. But for those people who like to make things happen, and get on with life ‘their way’, the third of these action words can be very frustrating, for it can seem like a ‘non-action’ word, when there is so much we want to be doing!

The three verbs in the verse – hope, seek and wait are like three keys which God gives us to help us through difficult doorways on our spiritual journey. The keys are hanging from an amazing key-ring called faith. It’s not for nothing that in Hebrews 11:6 it says that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Faith is the forerunner of God’s reward and when we use the three keys and turn them in the doorways to life, we will discover some of the blessings that God has laid up for those who love him.

The first key, HOPE reminds us that there is a source of blessing – it is the Lord Himself. The meaning of this word is a million miles away from what we usually mean when we say something like “I hope it won’t rain today”. Certainly, in the UK in 2012, that seemed like a very uncertain hope! Hope in the Lord is an expression of certainty – not wishful thinking. It is absolutely certain that He loves us and that because He loves us, He not only understands all the circumstances of our life but cares for us in them.

The second key, SEEK, reminds us that there is a requirement on us as disciples to actively look to the Lord for His Word to us for today through the Scriptures, and for every sign of His presence, His leading and His signposts, giving direction to our lives. The word seek is a very active word.

But it’s the final key that can often cause us the most difficulty – WAIT. Having done everything we can do to walk in His ways, then sometimes there is a period of waiting as we trust that in His time, God will provide the answers we are looking for. A period of waiting is not, however, a period of doing nothing.

When you go to a restaurant the ‘waiter’ is there to serve. And while we are waiting for the next step in life, then our responsibility is to serve faithfully in the place where God has already put us, as we look to Him for His unmistakeable leading. “Waiting quietly for the Lord” simply means to be at peace where we are and to carry on serving until we have heard His unmistakeable voice. If we try and rush ahead of God and make things happen ‘our way’ then we may well miss the very best that God had in store for us and He was waiting to give us!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that you are a faithful God and that I can trust You! I know that those who hope in You will not be disappointed. Help me, Lord, to be faithful in serving You while I wait for Your leading in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | God’s Blessing in Tough Times

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 84:5-7, NIV
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you (the Lord), who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs, the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.”

These three verses describe the journey of faith which believers follow as they travel through life. A pilgrimage is not an occasional walk in the country – it’s a determined commitment to keep on walking forward in faith throughout life, until that moment comes when we step into the realms of glory and ‘each appears before God in Zion’. The psalmist states without any hint of compromise that those who set their hearts on pilgrimage will be blessed.

But almost immediately the psalmist anchors this promise of blessing into the context of earthly reality, as he recognises that we are not exempt from the sufferings that are hinted at by reference to passing through ‘the valley of Baca’. The word Baca means a place of tears, or a place of weeping and lamentation. Tears are a godly expression of inner pain – they are also the first step on the road to comfort and healing. We are not, in this life, exempt from the possibility of suffering, as is so graphically illustrated by Job’s experiences, described in the first chapter of his book.

There are many events in life that can be the source of pain and consequential tears. Perhaps the greatest suffering any of us can experience is the untimely loss of a loved one. Such events prompt unanswerable questions – questions that Jesus totally understands. For, in the midst of the pain of bereavement, Jesus himself declares, “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4).

Our Scripture then moves us on to the place of trusting God for the blessings that can come from God, even in that place of tears – blessings that change ‘the valley of Baca’ into ‘a place of springs’ that strengthen and equip us for the onward journey of faith and encourage us to keep walking forward. My prayer today, therefore, for all those who are walking through their own personal ‘Valley of Baca’, is that in the midst of all the unanswerable questions, they will keep looking up to the Lord in faith, knowing that He is the only source of comfort that can touch the very core of our being and strengthen our hearts for the pilgrimage that lies ahead. The springs that well up in the valley will enable us to go from strength to strength.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You understand the hurts and pains we experience when travelling through our personal ‘Valley of Baca’. Help me today to keep on trusting you on the pilgrimage of faith, even when things happen that I cannot understand. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | When Loss is Gain!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 3: 7-9, NIV
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him."

On January 26, 1905, the superintendent of the Cullinan mine, in South Africa, Frederick Wells, came upon a reflection in the dirt. He picked up the otherwise dull stone, nearly four inches long, and, almost accidentally, discovered the largest diamond ever found. This amazing stone turned out to be a perfectly clear, colourless diamond weighing 3,106 carats.

Taking the name of the owner of the mine, the Cullinan diamond was sold to the Transvaal government for £150,000, with the finder of the stone, Frederick Wells, receiving 3,500 pounds as a reward for the precious discovery – a huge sum back in 1905! This enormous diamond was cut into several exquisite diamonds, most of which now adorn the Crown Jewels of England, having been presented to King Edward the Seventh as a 66th birthday present.

The value of the Cullinan diamonds would today be almost beyond price. They are the sort of treasures that people can only dream of. Yet even if it were possible for you to buy and own such amazing treasures, they would be totally valueless to you at the moment you stopped breathing at the end of your days! At that moment the value to you of everything you have and own reduces to zero and will become totally irrelevant! At that point the only treasure that will be of any interest or value to you, will be that which you can take with you beyond the grave.

And the only treasure that we can own in this life which is of value to us in the next, is our relationship with Jesus. He is the ultimate treasure, the utterly precious One. The One who left the riches of Heaven’s glory to show us the way to the Father. It is beyond belief to me how the majority of the world will spend all their time and energies in the acquisition of treasures that are only of value while we have life and breath, and will spend virtually nothing on discovering the surpassing greatness of Christ Jesus.

Paul got his sense of values exactly in the right perspective. What would be the point of owning the Cullinan diamond, he would have said today, if it became the focus of your existence and you took your eyes off Christ. For it is only those who are found in Him that will have any eternal treasure – everything else is rubbish by comparison. Yes, we can own and appreciate the things of this world while we are here, but let’s never forget that they are irrelevant when we stand before God at the end of time. If Jesus is not the treasure in our heart then, we will bewail the years when we sought earthly treasure at the expense of Heavenly blessing.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for all the wonderful things you have created in this world for us to have and to enjoy. But help me Lord, never to value them more highly than I should and to take my focus off Jesus, the only treasure that is valuable in this world and the next. In His Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Pressing On!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 3:12, NIV
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me”

Yesterday we asked the Lord to shine His lamp on the inner recesses of our heart – especially to check the motives of our heart. Today we are looking out on a New Year with all that the year may have in store for each and every one of us.

Ultimately, there is only one New Year’s resolution for believers! And that is profoundly expressed in our Scripture for today – to press on to take hold of everything that God has planned and purposed for our lives. And the other side of such a goal is to lay aside everything that gets in the way of achieving God’s best for our lives.

The big question is, of course, how do we know what it is that we should take hold of? The answer is found in the Scripture which God has used to deeply impact my own life – Psalm 25:14. Here God tells us that He confides in those who fear Him. What a privilege believers have – to be able to hear His voice directing our lives and leading us into the plans and purposes that He has for us.

Learning to live in the love and the fear of the Lord is a wonderful key to turn – it’s a key which will unlock even the most difficult situation in your life. With God showing us the way to go we can then press on with confidence to take hold of that which He has prepared for us in advance. I pray that this will be a very special year, as you step out into all that God has set before you in 2013.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that you have plans for my life. Help me, I pray, to walk in your ways in 2013 and to press on to take hold of that for which you took hold of me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Lamp of God

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 20:27, NIV
“The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man, it searches out his innermost being”

I have always enjoyed the opportunity which the end of a year brings – the opportunity to review the past, assess the present and make plans for the future. John Wesley always led his followers, the early Methodists, to use this season of the year to renew their covenant with the living God.

The secular world knows nothing of covenant, but many people are fond of making New Year Resolutions – even though most of them will probably be broken by the end of the first week of the new year! A resolution, without understanding of the reasons why the resolution has become necessary, will invariably end up on the scrap heap of impossible dreams and unfulfilled ambitions!

So, what, as believers, can we do at this time of the year to redeem the season? One answer to that question lies in our Scripture for today. Our innermost being is the source of the decisions we make and the things we do – both good and bad. It is here that the motives of the heart have their origin and another proverb (Proverbs 16:2) tells us that it is the motives of the heart that are weighed by the Lord.

It is so easy for us to deceive ourselves and for our ways to seem innocent to us (also in Proverbs 16:2), even though they may be far from innocent! As a result we become blinded, even to what those innermost motives are! We need help – and help is at hand. For this Scripture tells us that the lamp of the Lord will search out our innermost being. So our prayer for this last day of the year is simply to ask the Lord to shine His lamp into the recesses of our heart and to show us what He sees! We will then have some great material to address with the Lord as we renew our covenant with Him as children of the King, who have chosen to follow Him in the work of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are able to see into the inner recesses of my heart. Please shine your lamp and help me to see those things that are displeasing to You, so that, with Your help, I can make lasting and fruitful changes in my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Straight Talking!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100

1 Peter 3:12, NIV
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

At times Scripture can seem difficult to understand and we wrestle with the words to try and discover their meaning. At other times it is so devastatingly simple and clear that we wish it was more complicated and difficult to understand – so that we would have a good excuse for not putting what God has said into practice! Today’s Scripture is one of these – so clear and so obvious that we can be tempted to wish it wasn’t so!

What can be clearer than what the Apostle Peter wrote in his letter? It’s so simple! God hears the prayers of those who are righteous, but he turns away from those who do evil. I am reminded of what the Psalmist wrote about his prayers in Psalm 66:18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Again his words are devastatingly simple – the cherishing of sin in the heart (much the same as Peter’s ‘doing evil’), means that God is unable to listen to the cries of our heart or, in other words, our prayers.

I fully realise that there can be other reasons why God doesn’t always answer the prayers we make at the time we ask Him. But sometimes, when trying to help people through the problems of their lives, the Holy Spirit has prompted me to ask some hard questions about the cherishing and practice of sin in their hearts – not always the obvious sins of commission, but those that can be more hidden which have their root in pride and secret rebellion against the ways and the will of God. Unvarnished honesty, followed by repentance and receiving forgiveness, is so often the key to the power of God being released in our lives.

So, by way of response to today’s Scripture, may I encourage you to pray the prayer which the Psalmist recorded in Psalm 139:23 & 24 – a prayer which I have made our prayer for today. If we then wait to listen to God’s response we may be surprised to hear Him speaking to us and giving us some important keys as to why our prayers may not have been answered!

Prayer: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there be any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Evidence that Inspires the Generations.

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Joshua 24:31, NIV
“Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.”

There’s nothing like first-hand experience to energise the soul and motivate the heart! When we have seen something for ourselves we are transformed by what we have been able to share in. Nobody can ever take away from us the blessing of watching God at work.

So, as long as Joshua, and the elders who had walked with him through all the pilgrimages of the Children of Israel, were leading the nation, the people were happy to serve the Lord – they knew that God was real, because He had been real to those who were leading them. But as soon as that generation had passed, on and there were no longer any witnesses to what God had done left alive, the people soon forgot the stories and started going their own way.

There are many things I have seen God do in people’s lives across the years of the ministry. Those experiences are as precious to me today as they were on the day they happened – and I often tell the stories to encourage and inspire people. They were unmistakeable evidence of a living God and of His hand upon the work that God has given us to do.

But what will happen when the generation who saw all these things has passed away? My prayer is that each generation will have their own experiences to talk about, but that will never happen if they are solely depending on second-hand stories. People have to gain their own experience of God at work, so it is always fresh in the memory of the present generation.

I pray that while you may rejoice in what God has done in the past through others, that you will never be satisfied with second-hand accounts of what God used to do – otherwise the next generation will have no living evidence on which to base their trust in Him.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, not to depend on the stories of what you used to do, but to be always trusting in You here and now, so that I will have my own stories to tell of what You have done in my life, which will be a blessing and an inspiration to others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Freedom for Prisoners!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 61:1, NIV
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me . . . to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”

Many of the people who read this daily devotional are in prison! But some are in prison twice over!! All can know the freedom that only Jesus, the Sovereign Lord, can bring into our lives, wherever they are and whatever their present circumstances may be.

The prisoners the Bible is talking about here are not those who are experiencing punishment in an earthly jail, but every single one of us who, through sin, is eternally separated from a holy God. As a result of sin we have all been born in a ‘jail of mankind’s own making’. Satan is the jailer – and all of mankind has come under his control.

The only one who can release us from this eternal jail is the One who never sinned – Jesus, the Son of God. When He died, He took the punishment for everyone who was born within the jail. He has the key of freedom and He offers that key to everyone who believes and chooses to accept Him as their Saviour. He is the Doorway to Freedom. And not only can He free us from sin’s jail, He is also the only one who can open the gates of Heaven for us. When we accept the fact that we are sinners and ask Him to be Lord of our lives, we are freed from the eternal jail and can begin a new journey into the purposes of God for the rest of our lives – on both Earth and in Heaven.

And what about those reading this devotional who are also in an earthly jail and could, therefore, be in prison twice over?! I want you to know that even in jail you can be more free than people who are not in prison! They may be free to live their lives as they please, but without Christ they are in eternal bondage. You may still be in an earthly jail, but with Christ you can already have eternal freedom - and can now prepare for that day of release when you begin life all over again with Jesus as Lord of the rest of your days on earth and eternity in Heaven as well!

Prayer: Thank You Jesus for dying on the cross so that I may have eternal freedom. Help me to humbly ask God for forgiveness, so that I might be free to live the rest of my life released from the consequences of sin and set free to serve God all my days. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Keeping Records for Future Generations

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 102:18, NIV
“Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord”

For some time now I have been gathering information about my family history and recording some of the things that God has done in my life. I have an object in mind that was inspired by today’s Scripture. For children, grand-children and the generations beyond will never have the opportunity to hear of all the things that God has done and all the lessons I have learned in my walk with Him unless I write them down.

True, it’s possible that they may not want to know, but I know how interested I am in the pilgrimage through life of my ancestors and if, one day, some of my descendants do start asking questions, I wouldn’t want them to miss out on the opportunity of being blessed by reading of what God did in the lives of previous generations. Our experiences may even be the very means through which our descendants are drawn to wanting a personal faith in Jesus for themselves.

Remembering what God has done in the past is a theme which goes throughout Scripture. Both Moses and Joshua spent time reminding God’s people about what He had done for them. These stories inspired, encouraged and challenged them to continue walking in the ways of God. And how I would love my own descendants to learn about the ways of God from my own experience of Him. I believe it’s important to keep a record of the things God does.

So, when you experience the hand of God upon your life may I encourage you to do what our Scripture says – write it down for a future generation. I have been very blessed to have records of things that happened in my own Dad’s life. I have been amazed and thrilled by some of the stories – they have been a huge source of encouragement – especially when going through tough times. If he hadn’t written things down, I would have missed out on a huge amount of blessing. And when we remember the way God led us earlier in life, these very lessons can be instrumental in giving us the courage to press on to run the race that God has set before each one of us.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for all the times You have blessed my life. Help me to remember these important lessons and write them down so that future generations will be able to read of what You have done in my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | No Secrets from God!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 29:15, NIV
"Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, `Who sees us? Who will know?`"

It seems very obvious that there is nothing in all of creation that can be hidden from God. There is nowhere in the universe we can go to escape His presence. He is everywhere – and how I praise God that He is everywhere. The world would be a pretty scary place if there were places where it was impossible to be in touch with Him. It’s not difficult to find a place where your mobile phone is out of reach of a signal – but it’s impossible to find a place which is out of reach of God.

And yet people behave as if this obvious fact is not a fact at all. They harbour secret sins in their mind, hide their ungodly behaviour from others, somehow or other thinking that if nobody else knows about it, then God doesn’t know about it either! We reduce the vision of God to that of physical humanity and are deceived by the enemy into thinking that there will never be any accounting for hidden works of darkness.

But the truth is that one day there will be an accounting. Everything that was hidden will be exposed for ‘nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account’ (Hebrews 4:13). And when that happens there will be nowhere for us to hide. I have come to realise that hidden sins stack up like secret bricks around our heart. The more bricks there are the more our heart is hidden from the love of God and the more artificial our relationships become with God and everyone else. Eventually we would finish up with a hardened heart and an artificial personality.

There is only one solution – repentance at the foot of the cross. There is only one solvent that can melt the hardest of hearts and that’s the love of Jesus. But not even the love of Jesus can melt away the hardness, if we don’t own the reality of what we’ve been doing and come before him in repentance. Better to shed genuine tears of repentance here, and experience the love of Jesus melting away the consequences of forgiven sin, than to try and keep things hidden and suffer the wrath of God in eternity. An open heart before God is quickly healed!

Prayer: I am so sorry, Lord, for the times when I have been deceived into thinking that I can hide things from you. Please forgive me, and help me to face reality about the hidden things of my past and live my life as an open book before you in the future. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Devotional Message | Be Wiser Than Your Enemies!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 119:97-98, NIV
"O how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me."

Wisdom and knowledge are very different. Two different people could look at exactly the same sets of information and come to entirely different conclusions. The problem is this – our understanding varies according to both our perspective and our experience.

We may think we know what a familiar mountain looks like, but when we see that same mountain from a different direction it looks entirely different. It’s all a matter of what our perspective is. We may set out to climb the mountain a certain way, but discover it’s impossible to approach the summit from that direction. Whereas the man with experience of having climbed the mountain before, may set off in a direction that looks longer, but he will always get there first, because he has learned from experience.

The problem with life is that we can look at all the circumstances prevailing around us and be at a loss as to what is the right thing to do. Our knowledge is limited, our perspective is not perfect and we have limited experience. What we lack is the wisdom to know what to do. We may have the facts but we don’t have the understanding as to what to do with the facts!

But there is One who has all knowledge, and His perspective on events and circumstances is always just right. The Lord is not limited by the horizons of our own experience. On our journey through life we desperately need to be taking our instructions from Him. No wonder the Psalmist was able to say ‘your commands make me wiser than my enemies.’ When we hear and obey His voice we will always be on solid ground.

His wisdom is essential if we are going to make our way through this fallen world, in which the enemy of souls is constantly wanting to trip us up and take us off course. With His wisdom we will always be wiser than our enemies – as we acknowledge Him, He will make our paths straight and show us the way to go – every step of the way.

Prayer: Father God, I confess that many times I have depended on my own knowledge and experience and have not listened to your voice or taken note of what you have said in your Word. Help me, Lord, to look up to you for the wisdom that passes all human understanding so that I will be wiser than my enemies and experience your blessing on my path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Father’s Delight!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 37:4, NIV
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Don’t you just love the promises of God?! Like any good dad, He rejoices to bless His children. He wants them, whenever possible, to know and to enjoy His provision and his blessing in their lives. But there’s a condition attached to the promise – it’s a simple one – first delight yourself in Him.

Now what does that mean? First and foremost it means you must know Him and love Him. You cannot delight yourself in someone you don’t like or love! If you have an idea that God’s not loveable then you will probably have had some difficult experiences in life, especially when you were young, that have made it difficult for you to trust and love God. God is able and willing to heal those as we forgive those who have hurt us.

Then, when you really love someone, it’s your joy and desire to find out what will bless them. And as you do so you discover that you are getting blessed yourself, and the things that you desire change, so that you are looking for those things that will be a blessing in your relationship with God. It’s in this process that we discover the amazing dynamic taking place that the desires of our heart have become the things that God wants to bless us with.

Yes, there are often tough times in life as well – but if our relationship with the Lord is right, then He will sustain us through the tough times and even then, we will discover the amazing truth that our desires, at those times also, are those that will bring joy to father God – and those things that bring joy to Him are also the things that will bless us the most!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your amazing love and that you delight to bless your children. I choose, Lord, to delight myself in you and trust you to then give me the desires that you fill my heart with. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Going for Gold!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 3:14, NIV
“I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In the coming days the focus of the whole sporting world will be on the Olympic Games. Over a billion people watched the opening ceremony in London and billions more will be watching as the contestants strive against each other for the highest possible sporting achievement that our world has to offer – Olympic gold! And I will be one of them, glued to the TV screen whenever I can get the chance to see these modern-day Olympians going for gold. Inevitably, as the events unfold and the final races are run, there will be tears of intense disappointment as well as tears of great joy.

At times like this I am always reminded of a much more important race – the race of life. This is a race that is not just for a few super-fit Olympians, but a race into which all of humanity has been entered, with the opportunity of striving, not for Olympic gold, but the gold of eternity. We are not running against each other, but against all the obstacles that Satan puts in the way of mankind to prevent us from reaching that golden moment of eternal destiny! And yes, there will be tears of not just disappointment, but anguish as people realise that they have ignored the truth about God and have been running to serve themselves.

Satan does all he can to blind the eyes of the world to the absolute truth that is found in the Son of God. He doesn’t want people to discover that there is One who has already run the greatest race there has ever been and come forth as gold. Jesus’ desire is that we would join Him in His victory procession when, at the end of time, all the powers of darkness will be seen for what they are. All who come to God the Father through Him, trusting in His righteousness and not in our own, will be partakers of the prize which Paul talks about in our Scripture.

And then, for those who have come to know Him, God has a destiny for us to walk in – a purpose to live for – a race to be run. And it is as we walk in his ways and learn to be obedient to his voice that we will have the opportunity to gain the rewards, the ultimate prizes, which Paul reminds us about, and that God has stored up for those who love Him.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to always remember that I have been entered in a race which is far more important than any event at the Olympic Games. Help me to be aware of, and avoid, the pitfalls along the way, and to so hear and respond to your voice that nothing will get in the way of winning the prize that You have stored up for me in eternity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Highway Code for God-Blessed Living!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 29:18, NIV
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

Without restraints being in place there is danger. This is true in many areas of life. We have recently had much heavy rain in the UK. Some areas of the country have been subject to severe flooding and people have even died when the flood waters became a raging torrent. A river is a wonderful blessing when it is contained within the restraint of its banks, but once the restraint has been breached the water goes everywhere, people’s homes are flooded out and there is danger. Restraints make the river safe.

The laws of God are meant to act as a restraint on our behaviour. But if people have no understanding that God’s law is designed by God to keep them safe, then there is no restriction on their behaviour. As I write this devotional, the newspapers are full of news of the tragic death of one of Britain’s richest women – she had everything she could possibly have wanted. Her house was said to have been worth seventy million pounds. But she and her husband had lived a life without restraint, addicted to drugs. Her life ended at a tragically early age. If only she had learned to live her life according to the revelation of truth that there is in the Word of God.

When we choose to respect that God’s Word truly is a revelation from God himself, and begin to walk in His ways, we lay down a foundation of blessing – not only for our own lives, but also for the lives of our children and grand-children. When we gladly live within those restraints we find ourselves constantly discovering the many blessings God wants us to enjoy as His children.

But because we have freewill, people find it tempting to laugh at those restraints and choose to live life in their own way. But we will eventually discover that there is a law of sowing and reaping – and it’s only good seed that produces a good crop. If you need convincing about the blessings that come to those who keep God’s laws, then I suggest you spend a quiet hour reading Psalm 119. Just as the Highway Code is the blue-print for safe driving, Psalm 119 is the Highway Code for God-blessed living!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that you loved us enough to show us how restraints can be a source of blessing in our lives. Help me, Lord, to welcome the application of your laws in my life. In jesus’s Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Are You Lost?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0100

John 14:5-6, NIV
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.”

Sometimes life is a bit like an unknown jungle or a maze!

In the jungle, there are tall trees rising up out of heavy undergrowth, interspersed with many different tracks and pathways and, apparently, no signposts. I once watched a film, telling the story of what happened to a boy who was lost in the forests of the Pacific North West. Whichever way he looked, all the pathways through the forest looked the same – there was no indication whatsoever as to which was the way out. From ground level the jungle is an impossible barrier to escape from.

In many of our great houses, the gardeners built a maze of thick, high hedges, for the entertainment of the family and visitors. The more complicated the maze the harder it was to get to the seat where you could rest in the middle of the maze. But once in, there was only one way out and it’s easy to get trapped.

If you are high up, however, you can look down on the jungle or the maze, and see at a glance which is the right way to go to get out of the mess you’re in. And if you’re on the ground and have a mobile phone, the person who is high up, looking down on you, can easily direct your steps, so that you know exactly which direction to go at any moment of time.

Long before man invented the mobile phone God showed man how He could speak directly into the hearts of His children. He didn’t need a phone, but we did need to have our ears of the spirit open to listen in to the communication channel we call prayer. He is high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1) and from His vantage point He can see everything that’s happening. No matter how thick the jungles of life may be or how complicated the maze seems to be, we don’t need to be lost.

Jesus expressed this wonderful truth so simply, but powerfully when He said to Thomas “I am the way!” It’s not a pathway we need to follow – it’s a Person – a Person who can see the way ahead and who longs to speak to His children and give them the benefit of His wisdom and direction. He has promised that He will show us His way for our lives. One of the songs we used to sing at our Church Youth Group was:

‘My Lord, knows the way through the wilderness,

All I have to do is follow!”

The words may be simple, but they are incredibly profound. Following Him requires us to humble ourselves, submit to His authority in our lives and walk in obedience – and we will find then our way out of the jungles or the mazes of life.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you have promised to show me the way. Help me to have my ears always open to listen to your voice so that I can know where to put my feet on my journey through life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | In Holy Fear

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 11:7, NIV
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

I’m always very challenged when I read Hebrews chapter 11. This is where the writer gives us a long list of Old Testament saints who have lived by faith and how even though they never knew the Messiah, demonstrated to a very pagan world the truth about God and the wonderful promises that are revealed to us through His Word. They had enormous faith and trusted God without the privilege of seeing or knowing about Jesus, the man who came from God.

Noah tops my list of those who persevered and endured, even when there was no evidence around him that the ark he was building would ever be needed. He just trusted that if God said it would be needed, then God knew best. Such faith is unusual. In our experiential world people want to see something with their own eyes before they will believe it. Noah believed what God had said to him and lived the whole of his life in full expectation that one day the ark would be the most important item on the planet! And he was right.

Our scripture tells us that it was ‘holy fear’ that Kept Noah’s faith fuelled with divine energy. This sort of fear is nothing to do with either being afraid or being in terror, but is a fruit of “love and awe”. His love for God was such that nothing pleased him more than doing what God had asked him to do. And it was in awe of God that he found his place of security in the world that God had made, the almighty God who created all things and before whom we are but a speck of much loved dust!

I often meet people who in later life have regretted not doing the things God had asked them to do when they were younger. They have had to face the reality that even though God has forgiven them for their disobedience, they have, nevertheless missed out on what was God’s best for the earlier stages of their lives. If you are at the younger end of life never forget Noah’s amazing example and choose to live in holy fear of a holy God knowing that His plans and purposes are always His best for us. But if you are at the older end of life and wishing you had been more like Noah when you were younger, perhaps this is a time when you could come back to God and express your sorrow and repentance and ask Him to show you the right way forward for the rest of your days. God is a great redeemer – and He loves to redeem every season of our lives.

Prayer. Thank You, Lord, for Noah’s amazing example of persevering obedience. Help me Lord to be like him and always choose to live my life in loving obedience also, as I trust You with whatever is left of my life. In the Name of Jesus, my Redeemer. Amen.

Devotional Message | Broken but Loved

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 34:18, NIV
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way

He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Beware the Schemes of Man!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Ecclesiastes 7:29, NIV
“This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

When I am praying for people, especially those who have suffered many things in their lives, I have in my mind a definition of Christian healing that God gave me many years ago at the outset of the work of Ellel Ministries – the restoration of God’s order in a person’s life. So I sometimes start by asking people the obvious questions about possible roots of disorder in their own lives and the lives of their parents and those whose influence and control they have been under down the years.

Often, however, I discover that some people are only looking for the healing of their present symptoms, and are not really interested in asking God what those roots of disorder actually are. As our Scripture implies, disorder is the fruit of mankind wanting to go after the many schemes that both men and women dream up for themselves – usually with a little help from the schemes of the devil that Paul warned us about in Ephesians Chapter 6! God created mankind upright, but following the schemes of man has resulted in a lack of uprightness. And none of us can escape the reality expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:5 that there is a law of sowing and reaping which applies to our lives as well as our crops.

It is a sad fact that, in the stories of the Kings of Israel, the Bible tells us that many of their problems were caused by things like a lack of uprightness in their lives or because they were not wholehearted in following the Lord. As I read this Scripture afresh I felt God challenging me to examine my own heart and ask Him to show me any areas of my life where the schemes of man have got in the way of the plans of God. May I encourage you to do the same and trust God as you seek His best for every area of your life.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see myself as You see me. Help me to see those places where there has been a lack of uprightness in the things I have done. I want to put things right with You and anyone else who has been affected by my decisions and actions. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | For Such a Time as This

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Esther 4:14, NIV
“And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

These words from the story of Esther are very often quoted and used to give scriptural affirmation to the purposes of an individual’s life. You will all have heard it said of someone that the purpose of their life was ‘for such a time as this’! It was certainly true of the young woman who became Queen Esther. Her intervention was strategic in saving the Jewish peoples from annihilation.

Today is a special extra national holiday in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne) of Queen Elizabeth the Second. There is absolutely no doubt that her presence on the throne of England has been ‘for such a time as this’. But for the abdication of her Uncle, Edward the Eighth, Elizabeth would have lived out her life as a minor royal – a niece of the King – but God had other plans for her life. When her father, King George the Sixth took the throne, in place of his older brother, the course of history was dramatically changed. A godly man became King and carried the nation through the greatest military conflict in the history of the world. And he instilled into his daughter, the new heir to the throne, the very essence of royal service so that even though he passed away in 1952 at a young age, Elizabeth was already well-schooled in the godly responsibilities of serving her peoples Sovereign..

And this she has faithfully done for sixty long, and often difficult, years – years in which, sadly, the western world has largely turned its back on their spiritual history and allowed secular humanism to be the driving force of society, instead of living in godly submission to the living God. In the midst of all this change, however, the Queen has quietly maintained her own personal faith, as was evidenced In her last Christmas message to the Commonwealth, in which she said:

"God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love. In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,

Descend to us we pray.

Cast out our sin

And enter in.

Be born in us today.

It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord. I wish you all a very happy Christmas.”

I listened in stunned amazement as I realised that the Queen had just told the world that she was praying for all who were listening, that they would find room in their lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord!

At her Coronation the Queen laid down her sceptre and took off her crown before receiving communion, in recognition of the fact that even though she was now Queen of England, she was still in submission to a higher authority, the King of Kings! I don’t believe there is any doubt that, like Esther, Queen Elizabeth the Second came to royal position for such a time as this. Scripture urges us to pray for those who reign over us. I have no problem in singing the prayerful words of our national anthem in which we ask God to save the Queen, that she may reign long over us!

Prayer: I thank You, Lord, for Queen Elizabeth and pray that you will long preserve her as Queen of her peoples. I thank you for her personal faith in You and ask that You will once again raise up the British peoples to follow her example of trusting in the “Holy Child of Bethlehem”, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Gaining Strength in God

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 30:15, NIV
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.’

God has made His ways very clear to us in His Word. In chapter after chapter, book after book we read of the blessings that come to His people as we choose to walk in the ways of our God. When we come back to Him in repentance, we know salvation and healing. When we rest in Him, and cease to strive to do things our way instead of God’s way, we know His presence and the healing restoration that resting in Him brings. When we stop depending on our own abilities and start trusting in Him and His ways in all circumstances, then we discover the reality of how much God loves and cares for us.

Sadly, the people of Isaiah’s day reflected the universal condition of a rebellious heart in all generations when they said, “we will have none of it!” Some of the saddest days of my ministry life have been when people have poured out their life story and had to relate circumstances in which they had known what was right, but chose to do wrong. Sometimes the price they had paid for their pride was huge as they discovered what massive consequences had flowed out of ungodly choices.

Because the nature of God is love, however, He still acts towards us in a loving way and that means warning us when we are in danger and correcting us when we make mistakes. It would be a cruel human father who never helped his children grow up through loving correction and encouragement to do what is right. And that is what God is doing in this passage of Scripture. He is reminding us of the dangers that lie ahead on life’s journey if we ignore God’s loving direction.

Road signs warning us of road conditions ahead are there for our benefit. The road signs we discover in God’s Word are also for our benefit, but even more important! If we choose to ignore the signs, we shouldn’t be surprised if there are consequences.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to have my spiritual eyes open at all times to see the possible dangers there are on the road of life. Forgive me, Lord, for the times when, in pride, I have not wanted anything to do with what your Word says. Today I choose repent and rest and discover your strength through quietly trusting in You. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Devotional Message | An Undefendable City

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 25:28, NIV
"Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control."

A while ago my wife and I visited Hadrian’s Wall – that huge stone wall which crosses from the west to the east of northern England. It was built by the Romans to protect this furthermost border of the Roman Empire from the wild and dangerous Scots, who lived in the hill country beyond the wall! As I looked at this amazing structure, much of which still stands strong and wide today, after nearly two thousand years, I imagined how difficult it would be for invaders to cross the wall in the face of the constant patrols of Roman soldiers, who paraded up and down the wall, twenty four hours a day.

There are many ancient cities in the world also, which are surrounded by high strong walls as a defence against invading armies. It was news of the broken down walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:3) which moved Nehemiah’s heart, as he prayed for his home city and his people. The news that the walls were still broken down and the gates burnt brought him to grief. He knew God was calling him to do something about it. Nehemiah’s book covers the whole story from beginning to end, of how God used him to take on and complete the task and thus restore the safety of the city. Without complete walls, the city was defenceless.

Our Scripture today likens the broken down walls of a city to the broken down walls of a person’s life. Control of our conduct and behaviour is a vital protection against the invasion of the enemy into our lives. Paul explained very carefully in Galatians 6:7-8 how there are consequences for not living a life which is self-controlled and in godly order. The fact is, that a city with broken down walls is undefendable – and equally, a person’s life which is out of control, is also undefendable.

Without the Holy Spirit none of us will have the strength to resist the attacks of the enemy – we all need that spirit of self-control that the Lord will give us if we ask Him. The problem is that many people enjoy too much the things that come in through the gap in our defences, and the Lord can’t help us win a battle which we actually want to lose! Let’s first pray that God will give us the desire for all the gaps in our defences to be filled in and then ask Him to show us how to do it. Then our lives will be strong and effective for Him – and what’s more, we will be more blessed than we ever dreamed possible!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to identify those areas of my life where there are gaps in the defences of my soul. I choose now to want to have defendable walls, so that the enemy will no longer have access to the centre of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Learning to Multiply by Adding Up!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

2 Peter 1:5-8, NIV
"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love; For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I've recently been building a stone wall in our garden. Stones are heavy and unless there is a solid foundation in place then, in time, the weight of the wall will make it fall down. But, conversely, if I only put down foundations and build nothing on them, then the wall will never rise above ground level and it will certainly have no use as a wall - the foundations alone will be ineffective.

This is the point Peter is making in our Scripture for today. To become a Christian requires the exercise of faith - but Peter is saying that the faith we have, even the faith through which we have become believers, is not enough if we want the lives we live while here on earth to be productive and effective for the Kingdom of God.

My wall has needed layer upon layer of stones to be placed one on top of the other so that the completed wall will fulfil the purpose for which it has been built. Equally, we need to build on the faith we have and add layer upon layer of spiritual stones such as goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness and brotherly kindness. In this way we will grow strong in the practise of our faith and will then become effective disciples of Jesus, fulfilling the purposes for which God called us to Himself and be released into our destiny.

We all need to keep adding to our faith - and if we keep up with the additions, then I have observed that a divine law comes into place - the law of multiplication. God takes what we offer Him and multiplies it in His service, achieving far more than any one of us could have ever imagined. In God's economy, the more we practise addition, the more we learn about multiplication!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to day by day add solid spiritual stones to the wall of my life. I want to build on the foundation of faith so that my life will be effective and productive for the Kingdom of God. Help me, Lord, to fulfil the purposes for which You called me to Yourself. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | No Need for Cleverly Invented Stories!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

2 Peter 1:8, NIV
“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty.”

False religions depend on people being deceived into thinking that something false is true. Cleverly invented stories or deceptive spiritual experiences convince people into thinking that they are following the truth when in fact they are swallowing a lie. All such lies have their origin in Satan, the father of lies, who delights to deceive people into trusting him instead of trusting in the Lord.

Peter had no need to make anything up. He and the other disciples had witnessed so many amazing and wonderfully true things that all they needed to do was ‘tell it as it was’. For example, Peter was present on the mountain top with Jesus when “the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1:17-18). Peter saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. He didn’t need to make up anything.

There is nothing like a personal eye-witness account to add credibility to the facts. In the same way Jesus gave his own eye-witness account of when Satan was expelled from heaven’s glory when he said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” And then there was the blind man who didn’t need to make anything up. He said, “One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!” (John 9:25).

The facts of the Kingdom of God speak for themselves. We don’t need to exaggerate them. All we need to do is tell the truth and let the truth speak for itself. That’s why a healing church will always be an evangelising church! For when God touches a person’s life, the facts of what God has done will speak for themselves and those with eyes to see and ears to hear will begin to ask the right questions. And when we give the truth as an answer then God gives them an opportunity to respond to His love and turn to follow Him.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that Scripture records many of the amazing things that You did when You walked this earth. And thank You, Lord, that you are still working miracles in people’s lives today. Help me to share the true things that you tell us about in Scripture, and which you do in each one of our lives, with those who don’t know you, so that they may have the opportunity to get to know You for themselves. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Risen from the Dead!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

1 John 4:14-16, NIV
"And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."

These letters were written at the end of John’s life. He had been an eye-witness to the events on resurrection Sunday. He wanted his readers to know that what he was saying was not only true, but could be totally depended on. John will have seen Thomas thrust his finger into the wounds of Jesus and heard the excitement of the two who ran all the way back from Emmaus, having seen the Lord!

These were events that could never be erased from his memory and it was absolutely vital that new believers in Jesus caught the validity of John’s experience from the lips and pen who had proved over a long life that what Jesus had said and done was true and that He really was the Saviour of the world.

The resurrection was not just a story that John and the other disciples had concocted. The strength of his words, “We have seen and testify” come down the centuries with the force of conviction of someone in the witness box in a court of law. And just as powerfully, John could testify to the fact that down the years he had found the risen Lord Jesus to be totally trustworthy. There wasn’t a hint of doubt in his witness statement. He knew that he knew that he knew. Jesus had been raised from the dead and was alive and could be trusted.

And today, as we celebrate with thanksgiving the victory of the cross, the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God and the glorious resurrection of the Son of God, let us determine to be like John and put our trust in this same Jesus, for as John said in verse 15, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God.” What a privilege, what a joy – to be alive in God - both for now and throughout eternity.

Prayer: Dear Father God, Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gift of Your Son. No words can fully express the inner joy of Your salvation. But I do look forward to telling you face to face in Heaven! In the Name of the risen Lord Jesus, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Testing the Heart!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 17:3, NIV
“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart”

Many years ago I watched as gold was being refined in an electric furnace. As the ore began to melt, the slag floated to the surface. Then the whole furnace was tipped forward so that the slag could be poured off. But then the furnace temperature was increased, and more slag was separated from the gold - again, and again. At each pouring the remaining gold became more and more pure. Finally the refiner judged that the gold was ready and the liquid metal was poured into brick-shaped moulds.

I was very impacted by the fact that at each stage of the refining process the temperature was increased so as to achieve a greater level of purity and I have never forgotten this very graphic lesson – for greater purity, the temperature must go up!

We sometimes sing a very popular worship song, “Refiner’s fire” which encouragers the worshippers to ask the Lord to “Purify my heart, let me be as gold, pure gold”. I sometimes wonder if people really understood how gold is refined whether they would sing this beautiful song so enthusiastically! To purify the gold the temperature must be turned up. So, here’s the big question - are we sufficiently in love with the Lord that we can gladly ask Him to turn up the temperature, so our hearts can become more refined!

It’s so easy when facing tough times to cry out to God for a way of escape on an easier road. None of us like going through such experiences, but is it possible that the road God has put us on is the very road God has chosen for us, as part of our refining process? If so we could even find ourselves praying against what the Lord has planned for our best! Perhaps it would be best to pray as the Lord taught us “Deliver us from evil”, for we certainly need deliverance from anything that the enemy uses to oppose us. And then we should pray for the Lord to be with us on the journey, covering and protecting us through the tough times and inviting Him to use whatever circumstances we are passing through to cleanse and purify our hearts so that we will come forth as ‘pure gold’.

Prayer: Lord, I choose to ask you to use whatever circumstances I am passing through to cleanse and purify my heart. I want to be wholly available for You. Help me to learn to trust you through all the situations I have to face today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Living Water and Crack-free Cisterns!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 2:13, NIV
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

There were many different things that God’s people did when they turned their back on the living God – the list of sins that would be needed to describe all their ungodly activities would have been very long! But when, through the prophet Jeremiah, God began to speak words of rebuke, he reduced all their sinful behaviour into just two categories.

Firstly, they had deserted the only source of living water and secondly, they had tried to generate their own ‘water supply’ as a substitute for the living water that flows from the heart of God.

In Israel, underground cisterns were vital for the storage of water for use during the dry season. Without a good cistern people would die through lack of water. A cracked cistern was useless, water would flow into it alright. But the water would all leak away through the cracks so that when the water was most needed, there would be no water there.

God uses this picture to speak to His people about what they had been doing. He uses the need for physical water as a parable of the need for the living spiritual water, which sustains God’s people through all the ups and downs of life. The first sin of God’s people was to decide that they wanted an alternative source of supply, so instead of constantly coming back to the only source of living water, they did what mankind has tried to do throughout history – they built their own cistern, which embraced everything from idolatry to sexual immorality. They finished up believing that good was bad and bad was good and going in the opposite direction to the ways of God.

God had provided for them everything that was needful for living in covenant relationship with the God who had created the world and everything in it. But pride in the heart of man will always want to build an alternative way, and say it’s better than what God provided in the first place. Ultimately this is the foundation for every alternative belief system, false religion or moral order that has ever risen up in the heart of man and practised on the face of the earth.

It’s easy to look at the people of Jeremiah’s day and ask, “How could they?” But all we need to do is look at our own generation and see that 21st century man is no different. Part of the reason why I believe God put the vision for Ellel 365 into my heart was to ensure that within Ellel Ministries there’s a constant flow of living water from God’s Word and that people are able to know how to build a cistern in their own lives that is sound and without cracks.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to only ever want the living water which flows from your heart to the heart of man. And give me the determination to rebuild sound and crack-free cisterns in my own life, so that the Water of Life will always be available to me throughout my days – even in seasons of drought. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Gaining Strength Through Waiting

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 40:31, AV
"Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

We’ve all smiled at the quip which says, "Lord, give me patience. And give it me now!" But however much we may smile at something like this, the sad fact is that we can all fall into the trap of wanting to twist God’s arm to do something quickly – especially when the pressure’s on and we’re struggling. God must sometimes feel like a father who hears all the wants of his children, but knows very well that to grant all those requests instantly would not be good for them.

Just as there are seasons in life, there are also timings in God and learning to wait on God is, in reality, learning to trust God - that He knows best. And that can be especially hard for those who have been brought up by parents who proved themselves to be untrustworthy or even abusive. Our natural instinct is to think that God is like our human parents, so we find it hard to trust Him.

One of the reasons Jesus came was to show us what the Father is really like. Was Jesus trustworthy? If we can answer yes to that question, then we can know that Father God is also trustworthy and we can safely depend on Him. We can know that when we bring our requests to Him that He knows what is best for us.

There are many times when I’ve cried out to God in desperation only to find that God didn’t seem to answer the prayer – and that was usually because I had a pre-conceived idea of what the answer should be. The best answers are usually ones that come from a very different direction and, yes, later than we would like – but always on time, nevertheless! God’s clocks do keep perfect time!

And when we wait on Him, as our Scripture teaches us, we gain strength and through trusting God we can rise up above the problems and have God’s divine energy to run the race of life.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are totally trustworthy and that when I bring the needs of my life before You, that I can trust You to provide the right answer and at the right time. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | God’s Vision for Restoration

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Joel 2:18 and 25, NIV
“Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. The Lord will reply . . . I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten”

I will never forget the day in 1970 when I acquired the wreck of a 1934 Alvis Speed 20 car. It was already 36 years old and in an unbelievably impossible condition. The problem certainly wasn’t locusts – but the car had been stolen, crashed, vandalised, set on fire and finally pushed into the River Mersey! Most sensible people would have consigned it to the scrap heap without any hesitation! But as I looked at that broken car God spoke to me about His vision for restored lives. I was thinking of a restored car, but in God’s vision He was showing me that He wanted to see beautifully restored lives.

Just as I didn’t see the sad remains of the car as being a hopeless case, God doesn’t look at the history of any of our lives and write us off. He sees what the “locusts of life” have eaten and dreams of what He could do in restoring His people to once again fulfil their destiny in Him.

In a few precious moments of vision I caught a glimpse of timeless eternity. I saw things that I’m still unpacking today. I saw into the heart of God and with His eyes I looked at the wrecks of broken lives – hundreds of them, thousands and millions of them. And there on the sidelines was Satan grinning over the lives he had wrecked and which he was wanting to send to the scrap-heap, without hope.

But as I looked, I sensed the joy there had been in God, when each life had been created in all its pristine beauty. Then I saw His tears at the wrecks that so many of these people had become. Finally, however, I became aware of the joy that would be His once more, if those broken lives could be restored as their maker had intended them to be, and for which His Son had died.

I realised that God’s emotions over broken lives were not dissimilar in nature to the ones I had experienced when I looked at the wreck of a broken car – only broken lives are much more important than broken cars. God never shrinks from the magnitude of the task. In Him there are no hopeless cases – none are beyond the healing love of a God who is passionate about His creation.

It has taken me 42 years to restore the car and this year I will be driving it to all our UK Centres and across the Channel to our Dutch Centre as well. The car has been restored to run! At each Centre I will be conducting a new training course, simply called Restored to Run – because that’s what God wants to do with each one of our lives, restore them so we are able to run the race of life.

To see a short video about the vision, the car, Restored to Run and the Alvis Tour, http://www.thealvistour.com/video {please click here.}

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You rejoice to see Your people restored and once again fulfil their destiny. Help me to own the mistakes I’ve made and to forgive those who have hurt me, so that You can have Your way in restoring my life and dealing with the damage caused by the “locusts” which have damaged me. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

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To see a short video about Restored to Run and the Alvis Tour, please click here.

Devotional Message | FREE – but still living in prison!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Romans 8:1-2, NIV
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

Familiar surroundings make us feel safe and comfortable. We like the security of the world that we know and believe we can trust – even though there may be much more exciting places to live, work and play in. It’s amazing how often people are just content to enjoy living in the same old familiar surroundings that they’ve known all their life – even when they have all the resources at their fingertips to make radical and positive changes to their lives.

Equally, I find it surprising sometimes, when trying to help people face the real issues in their lives, to find that often they have known the Lord for many years but have not allowed the supposedly abundant life they now have to change their way of living! They are still in bondage to the same old temptations and the same old behaviours. What they were familiar with in their unredeemed life has continued to be the furniture with which they are still comfortable.

Yes, they are looking forward to the joys of Heaven, but they have rarely experienced the blessings from Heaven on earth – in spite of the new law of the Spirit that God has written in the heart of every believer. This new law gives us authority over the law of sin and death which tries to drag us back into the attitudes and activities of Satan’s Kingdom. Satan does his best to blind us to the fact that we can use our free will to walk free of his chains, using the higher authority that we now have in our lives – if only we would use our free will to let the Spirit of God transform us from the inside out many of the problems which beset believers on a day to day basis would simply fall away.

Those who are in Christ Jesus are freed from the curse of sin – they don’t need to remain sitting in the jail of Satan’s making oblivious to the fact that the chains that formerly held them there are broken. Jesus – the Lion of Judah – has broken the chains. Now is the time for His people to start living in the reality of their new found freedom.

Prayer: Thank You Jesus, that you have broken the chains of bondage for all those who have trusted in You. Help me, Lord, to live in the reality of that freedom, now and for the rest of my life. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Comfort in the Darkness

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 14:24, NIV
“The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’”

As a child I always took great comfort from the words of my Dad. I was always totally secure because I knew that my Dad was in charge of everything pertaining to my life. I knew that I was safe in the home, and that Mum and Dad together would always honour their promises to us as children. Home was a safe place because I could trust them. What Dad planned always happened.

Obviously, ‘my world’ at that time was only a tiny portion of the world that God had made and I was only one of billions of people that made up God’s huge family. But because of the security that had been built into my life by my parents it was an easy step for me to understand that God really did have the whole world in His hands and that I could trust what He says in His word.

World events of the past twelve months have shaken all the nations. As the financial structures through which the nations govern the world collapse, fear and insecurity have disturbed the peace of many. The world seems to be changing shape at an ever-increasing rate and in the midst of confusion, the sense of imminent danger, even disaster, is never far away. In such circumstances is there anyone we can trust? Does anyone know what they’re doing?!

The world has gone through tough times before – on many occasions. When you read Scripture you see that there is a golden thread of the purposes of God being fulfilled that is woven into the fabric of every book of the Bible. And when you read history you see how in all seasons God has been slowly working out His purposes on the pages of man’s story. And as our Scripture assures us – what God has planned, He will fulfil. The purposes of God will always stand like immoveable rocks – we can trust Him. And to be more specific, it is only He who can be trusted. Knowing that He is in charge is the ultimate comfort for the believer. No matter what is happening around us, we are secure in Him, both for time and for eternity.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are in charge of Planet Earth! I’m so glad that whatever happens I can trust you at all times and in all circumstances. Help me, Lord, not to be afraid, but to trust in Your unfailing love as your plans and purposes are fulfilled. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Are you a Finisher?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Colossians 4:17, NIV
"Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord’."

There are many interesting spiritual lessons in the little greetings that Paul includes at the end of his letters. Here is one. He is adding a personal message for an individual, who is described in Paul’s letter to Philemon as a fellow-soldier.

We have no idea why Paul felt this personal message was necessary, but the most likely thing is that Archippus was a person who was good at starting things, but not so good at carrying them through to completion. If that’s the case, then he is typical of many people, even in the body of Christ, who get really excited about something new, but show little enthusiasm for persevering with what’s already on the go!

It’s exciting when God calls us into something, but it’s not so exciting when we discover that there is a considerable amount of work to be done in order to realise the potential God has opened up for us. The fruit of our calling does not appear out of the sky, delivered by an angel, like a bit of Hollywood magic! It has to be worked for through loving obedience to the One who called us into His service.

I love reading the biographies of those who did persevere in missionary service. Recently I read about Charles Cowman who founded the Oriental Missionary Society; and Wilfred Grenfell who transformed the spiritual environment of Labrador as a missionary doctor. Get hold of their stories and read them and be amazed at how much they achieved through perseverance. Our instant-fix society doesn’t like the idea of 40 years of service – that’s what it took Wilfred Grenfell to fulfil his destiny. But it’s through determined perseverance that the Kingdom of God is built.

If Paul was writing a letter to you – what would he say? Would he have a message for you like he had for Archippus?

Prayer: Lord, help me to persevere with the things that you ask me to do. I don’t want my life to be marked by many new starts but with nothing ever finished. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | From Past Lessons to Future Blessing (2)

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, NIV
“Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

God knew the heart of man all too well! He had seen how even when He had shown people the right way to go, that they had often wanted to follow their own carnal nature and, as we might say today, ‘do their own thing’! No wonder God had to reinforce His directions to Joshua as they were about to enter the Promised Land by reminding them not to add to or take away from the instructions He had given them.

All too often when praying with people I have had to help them see that the problems they were now facing had arisen because at critical stages in their own pilgrimage they had tried to rewrite God’s Word and make it say what they wanted it to say! It’s so easy to close our eyes to the truth and to justify going in a direction which, in our hearts, we know to be wrong. Hindsight is a great teacher, but if we ignore the lessons that hindsight gives us, we will never have God’[s foresight to lead us into His future.

The beginning of a New Year is always a time of both challenge and opportunity. The world talks about New Year Resolutions - most of which are usually broken during the opening days of the year! I would prefer to talk about New Year Opportunities – by which I mean opportunities to discover how faithful God is to His Word, how loving He is to His children, how caring He is for those who look to Him. For lying before each one of us is a 365-day diary of opportunities to discover God afresh for ourselves, to prove His love and rejoice in everything that He has planned for our blessing.

God has promised to show us His way for our lives, but we need to do our part by choosing to walk in His ways. In Psalm 25:14 the Scripture tells us that “the Lord confides in those who fear Him.”

Prayer: Thank you Lord that You have given us Your Word and that it is a light for our feet on the pathways of life. Help me day by day to make right choices as I choose to live in the love and fear of the Lord in the year ahead. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | From Past Lessons to Future Blessing (1)

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Genesis 37:10–11, NIV
"Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

Joshua was now the leader of God’s people. He had been with them throughout all their wanderings in the wilderness, and following the death of Moses he had taken up the reigns of leadership. By his own testimony he was able to say to the people, “The Lord . . . has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything” (Deuteronomy 2:7).

There are seasons in life when it is right to look back and remember with thanksgiving the lessons that we have learned in the past – and the turn of the year is one of those seasons. John Wesley always used this time of the year to renew his personal covenant with the Lord, and so he led his followers to mark the end of one year and the beginning of the next with a special covenant service – a service which was both a time of confession and repentance as well as rededication and commitment, in the context of a service of Holy Communion.

Some of those lessons of life we have learned the hard way – by going our own way and discovering that when we ignore what God has said, there is a consequence. Joshua could look back and see how God’s people were disobedient forty years previously and as a result they had missed out on God’s best and lost the opportunity to enter their Promised Land at that time. But Joshua could also look back and see that even though they had been obliged to wander through the wilderness all those years, God’s hand had still been upon them. There was so much to thank God for!

So, as you look back on the past, may I encourage you to look afresh at the journey you’ve been on this past year. And if there are obvious places where you have left the path that God laid before you, let this be a time of personal confession, repentance, receiving forgiveness and rededication. Even though there may have been mistakes, as there were with His own people, Israel, God has still been there for you and now’s the time to come before Him with an open and willing heart.

God gave Israel another opportunity to enter their promised land and through Joshua He reminded them that it’s still important to keep the commands of the Lord. And so it is for us as well! God has given us His Word – let’s choose to walk in His ways and enjoy His blessings in the new year that lies ahead.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that even though your people sinned, you still loved them and did not leave them. Help me to remember that you are always there and that you long for us to return to you so that we may enter the promised land that you have laid before each one of us for the years ahead. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.

Devotional Message | Depriving Ourselves of God’s Best

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 5:24-25, NIV
“They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’ Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good.”

I loved my Dad. He really cared for me when I was young and I would have done anything I could for him as an adult. But, as a child, I also had a healthy respect for him and I know that on more than one occasion the ‘fear of my Dad’ kept me from doing something wrong. And I know, too, that as a result there were many things I didn’t miss out on in my growing years. There was a connection sometimes between doing what was right and the reward of good things that I was looking forward to!

I am so glad that my Dad modelled for me the relationship between love, obedience and blessings – and because I loved him (and I knew he loved me) it wasn’t difficult to do those things that would please Him. But what I didn’t understand at the time was that he was also modelling for me an important aspect of the relationship we can have with God.

In our reading Jeremiah was highlighting the fact that there was a direct relationship between the blessings of seedtime and harvest and living in a loving and healthy fear of God. The people were ignoring the authority of God in their lives and were doing wrong things as a result. As a result they had moved outside the blessings that come from living within the covenantal provisions of God (see Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

God has not changed His character – indeed His character is not only unchanging, it’s unchangeable! So we can fully expect that if we choose to ignore the laws of God and live outside of His covenantal provisions, then there will be a consequence. In Jeremiah’s day God’s people discovered there was a relationship between how they lived and how much they experienced of the blessings of God. Paul reminded us that ‘God cannot be mocked’ and that ‘a man reaps what he sows’ (Galatians 6:7). But he also said that ‘the one who sows to please the Spirit will, from the Spirit will reap eternal life’ (Galatians 6:8).

Prayer: Lord, please forgive me for not thinking that there can be a direct relationship between whether or not I choose to obey your Word and whether or not I experience your blessings. Help me, Lord, to get back on track with you and choose to walk in Your ways, holy fear of You, because I love You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Back in the Family!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100

John 1:12, NIV
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”

I have had several friends across the years who were adopted as babies into a new home. For whatever reason their natural parents did not want to keep their child and gave them away for adoption. Usually they were received by their new parents with much joy as the hole in their aching heart for a child of their own was filled.

When an adoption takes place, paperwork has to be completed giving the new parents the legal right to bring up the baby as if it was their own and giving the baby the legal right to be brought up under the secure covering, protection and, above all, the love of the adoptive parents.

The problem with mankind is that through the fall, man forfeited their natural rights as children of God and chose to be under the covering of a false father. In so doing we lost our natural birthright. But when Jesus came as Man and died as a totally sinless human being who had never come under Satan’s control, and then was raised from the dead, he opened up a legal way back to the Father that is forever open to all men and women everywhere.

And the only entry requirement is to believe in his name – knowing that He has authority with the Father – and He has promised that everyone who receives Him in this way will have their right of access to their natural Father restored for all of eternity. I feel like shouting Hallalujah in a thousand languages, drawing everyone’s attention to this fantastic truth, so that the whole world will know they don’t have to stay under the control of a false father, but there is now a legal right open to them to be adopted back in to the family of God!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for dying that I might be forgiven. Thank you that when I receive You as my Saviour and Lord, I am adopted back in to my natural family and can be blessed by all the rights available to me as a child of God. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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"The Truth Stick" - NEW BOOK by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Blocked Drains

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 12:2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

We recently restored an old part of our house and were delighted to have some friends come and stay in it for the first time. Everything was fine at first - it looked good, the room was warm and the bed was comfortable – but a few days later our friends were slightly embarrassed to have to tell us that the toilet had ceased to flush away its contents! The drains were blocked.

Fortunately the problem was soon resolved. The blockage in the drain was discovered and with the energetic use of some drainage rods, everything was quickly restored to normal. That particular drainage pipe had not been used for a very long time and, of course, we should have checked it out more thoroughly before inviting our friends to stay. It was our turn to be embarrassed.

But as I looked at the blockage, and watched as it was removed, I sensed the Lord was speaking to me about a much more serious issue than blocked drains! My mind drifted from the stuff that had been causing the blockage from so long ago, to the fact that hidden sins from a long time ago can equally be a blockage today if they have not been confessed, forgiven and, literally, cleaned out of our system!

We tend to think that things which happened a long time ago are of no relevance to today’s circumstances. But just as our friends discovered that an old blockage was obstructing today’s drains, things that have been buried in the past, in the hope that they will just ‘go away’ have a habit of eventually catching up with us. Just as we should have tested the drains before inviting our friends to stay, we should ask the Lord to expose any blockages in our past that are obstructing the flow of His life-giving Spirit today.

Unconfessed and unforgiven sins are the most common blockages to living a fulfilled Christian life. We need to be fit and ready for all circumstances of life as we seek to follow Jesus and fulfil God’s Kingdom purposes for our lives.

Prayer: I’m sorry, Lord, for the things I have buried in years past which today are causing a blockage in my life. Help me to face the truth about myself and come afresh to you for forgiveness and cleansing, so that there will be no blockages in my life to the flow of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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"The Truth Stick" - NEW BOOK by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Keep On Track

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 1: 10,15 & 16, NIV
"My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them . . . do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into sin."

The word ‘entice’ means to tempt, or to lead astray. It carries with it all the connotations of exciting, but ungodly activities. Things which fascinate the carnal nature and which, if we are honest, all of us can be vulnerable to from time to time. Everything from greed to lust, and a whole lot of desires between these two extremes, can get stirred up when enticement is in the air!

In these very testing days, when many people are struggling to hold things together financially, and many are having to fight a sense of despair, enticement is especially dangerous. People look for some form of ‘comfort’ or ‘escape’ from the pressures they are enduring and are that much more vulnerable to temptations when they come – whether that temptation comes in the form of making money, having a wrong relationship or simply indulging in selfish and unproductive activity.

When times are tough, whether the season is totally personal to you or part of a national or international situation, the enemy will always try to take advantage of what’s going on, to entice you into something ungodly. He tries to stand in the place of God and be a source of comfort, not telling his victims that his sort of comfort will always prove to be false comfort.

When John penned the letters from Jesus to the seven Churches, recorded in Revelation 2 and 3, each one highlighted issues and problems that needed dealing with in the churches, but then ended with strong words of encouragement to endure and overcome. Jesus knew that, in testing times, the enemy would want to rob them of their inheritance. So, I urge you not to let anyone be used by the enemy to rob you of your inheritance in God – press on, win through and keep running the race of life!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to recognise the enticements of the enemy when they come and then to endure and overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of my destiny in God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

"The Truth Stick" - NEW BOOK by Peter Horrobin

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Devotional Message | God’s Eternal Magnet!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 9:11, NIV
“Jesus welcomed the people, taught them about the Kingdom of God and healed those in need.”

I must have read this verse on many, many occasions before it jumped out of the page of my Bible and hit me between the eyeballs! At the time I was praying into the future work that God had called me into and was asking Him what we should teach on the Healing Retreats that would take place at our Centre when it was opened. I was looking for God’s strategy for the ministry and not my own good ideas.

It was as if the Holy Spirit arrested me and made me go back and read that particular verse time and time again - until it had become so much a part of me that I would never forget it. And the more I read it the more I realised that here, in this almost throw away comment in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, was the key to my own life’s calling.

To Welcome (show love), Teach (about the Kingdom of God) and to bring Healing to people in need, is not just the foundation stone of Ellel Ministries, but should be the essence of what ‘Church’ is wherever Christians gather together in fellowship. These three things are at the very heart of the Gospel. Love is the eternal magnet which draws the heart of man to the heart of God. It is only when people feel loved, safe and secure that they will really listen with their hearts to the teaching they receive. And it is only when they have received and understood the teaching that they can really apply it in their lives.

It is exactly twenty five years ago today that we first opened the doors of Ellel Grange and began to welcome those in need of healing through our doors My heart is full of gratitude to the Lord for all He has done in so many lives across the years and across the nations. But no matter how far the work spreads I will never forget that moment when God electrified Luke 9:11 and taught me the most important lesson of my Christian life – a lesson which is still bringing hope and restoration to people across the world today.

When you read the Word of God, always be open in your spirit for that ‘electrified’ moment, when God grips your heart with vital truth. Be ready to let God change the direction of your life as you learn to trust Him and His Word.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You are always ready to speak to me through Your Word. Help me to always have my spiritual ears open to listen to your voice so that I won’t miss important lessons that you want me to hear, understand and live out day by day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | When God Goes Deaf!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 66:18, NIV
“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

When I think about the word ‘cherish’, I immediately have a picture in my mind of showing love to someone I care about and love very much. It is one of those warm, affectionate words, the very sound of which almost speaks for itself! It came as something of a shock, therefore, to read our Scripture for today and discover this much loved word linked not with affectionate love, but something we are meant to hate - sin and its consequences. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised what an appropriate word it is to use to describe the idea of choosing to think about sin in our minds and dwell on it affectionately in our hearts. Every single thing we do originates first as a thought, before we choose to act. And in our thinking we can imagine a great deal as we contemplate what we could do with the ideas we have.

There is nothing wrong with creative thinking. For example, every single invention that has blessed mankind throughout history was thought about before it ever saw the light of day. But we can think about both good and bad things and when we dwell on the bad things and cherish them in our hearts we have crossed a line into ungodliness. Even Christians can use their thought life as an opportunity to ‘do’ things in their minds which they would never even contemplate doing in the flesh, and certainly wouldn’t want to share with their own friends and loved ones.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews realised this all too well when he made it clear that as far as God is concerned, the things we choose to dwell on in our minds can be as dangerous before God as the things we actually do. For, he said, God judges the “thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.” (Hebrews 4:12). And we cannot overlook the words of Jesus when he said that looking on a woman to lust after her (dwelling on unclean things in your mind) is seen by God as adultery and will be judged accordingly (Matthew 5:28).

I realise these are extremely challenging ideas, but we cannot ignore bits of the Bible because we find them difficult! We need to seek God’s help to be overcomers, not people who capitulate under pressure from the enemy to think ungodly things. For one thing is absolutely certain - Satan listens very carefully to our ungodly thinking and it is not surprising, therefore, that so many people report that after thinking about something wrong, they suddenly find themselves with the opportunity to put that ungodly thing into practice. The thought can open the door for the action.

Cherishing sinful things - dwelling on them in our minds because we love them - is clearly not something that blesses God. And when this is the message that travels from our hearts to the heart of God then, the Psalmist said, He will not listen. As John said, in his amazing prophetic book, in Heaven there is no unclean thing! (Revelation 21:7). So when the message God is receiving from our heart is saying one thing (cherishing sin), but the message to God from our lips in our praying is saying something else, God won’t be listening to those prayers, because He has already turned His ear away from the message that is going heavenwards from our hearts!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for challenging me with these truths from Your Word. Forgive me, Lord, for times when I have cherished ungodly things in my heart. I pray that you will forgive and cleanse my thoughts and that you will hear the prayers of my lips when I come to you with a pure heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Be Still - in the Midst of Uproar!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 46:10 - 11, NIV
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Those words, “Be still, and know that I am God” are so very well known and loved, but they are often quoted out of the context of Psalm 46 from which they come. We forget what God was really trying to say to us through these comforting words!

Psalm 46 begins by saying that God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Later, in verse 6, it talks about the nations being in uproar and kingdom’s falling. In fact, the more I read this Psalm the more I realise how utterly topical it is. We cannot turn on the news without being confronted with world events which describe nations in jeopardy, financial systems in danger of collapse and distress on every side. And here in the UK we have gone through an unprecedented season of riots and public disturbances on our streets.

It is exactly these sort of circumstances in which God is speaking to His people and telling us to be at peace, for nothing that’s happening in the world is outside His knowledge or understanding. He is above all these things and it is He who is speaking into our hearts today, telling us not to be afraid, but to trust in Him. For the day will come when He is exalted above all the nations and the truth about God will be manifest for all the world to see.

In the midst of all these circumstances we can be assured of His presence, His comfort and His encouragement. In Psalm 37 David put it like this, “The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them.”

Prayer: Thank you Lord that I can trust You whatever the circumstances are in either the world or in my life. I choose now to let your peace fill my heart and to be still before you. I give into Your hands, Lord, all my affairs and choose to trust you in everything and for everything, all my days. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Hearing the Voice of the Lord

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 25:14, NIV
“The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.”

When you confide in someone, you are doing two things. Firstly you are trusting them and secondly, you are sharing with them things that you wouldn’t necessarily want anyone else to know about. This remarkable verse expresses an incredible and amazing truth - that the living God, the Creator of the Universe wants to trust us and share with each one of us personally in just this way!

He wants to trust us and then He wants to share with us things that are precious and important to us that are not for anyone else to hear. But if we want to be one of those who is able to hear the Lord speaking in this sort of way - and sharing His heart with us, then there is a condition that we need to fulfil. It’s a very simple one - have we learned to “fear the Lord”?

When someone fears the Lord, they are not afraid of Him because he’s a frightening person. But because they love Him they will always seek to walk in His ways. Their first choice will always be to do those things that please Him. And it is to these that the Lord reveals the blessings that are to be enjoyed through understanding His covenant. Someone who has the ear of the Lord will not need to be alarmed, in case they accidentally transgress the commandments of God - for they will constantly be aware of the Lord’s gentle confiding voice showing them what is right and what is wrong, what is within God’s covenant provisions and what is not.

It is through this profound principle of covenant relationship with God that we are able to enjoy the guidance of the Lord in all of life’s many different circumstances. I can think back to times when I chose not to listen to God’s confiding voice and do my own thing - always those were proven to be bad decisions. I learned the hard way that the only key to guidance that really matters is also the key to being in relationship with the Lord - enjoying life living in holy fear of a holy God. Then the promise of the second part of the verse can be fulfilled - as our eyes are always on Him, the Lord will release us from snares laid on our pathway by the enemy of souls. No wonder Isaiah said that the Sovereign Lord would come to “proclaim freedom for the captives” (Isaiah 61:1)

Prayer: Lord, I would love to hear Your confiding voice, as you share with me Your truths and lead me along the path of righteousness. Help me to desire above all else to walk day by day within the provisions of Your covenant blessings. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Walking and Leaping!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Acts 3:10, NIV
"They recognised him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him."

When I was very young a missionary friend of my parents was invalided home from missionary service in Nigeria. She was suffering from cancer and the tumour was growing progressively larger as her last days approached. The doctors gave her about three weeks to live. She had left behind a thriving mission work amongst leper children and the greatest agony of her heart was not that she was soon going to meet her Lord, but that the children back in Nigeria needed her.

All the mission supporters were praying for her - including my Mum and Dad, but not even they were ready for the news when it came. News, not of her passing into the presence of her Lord, but that the tumour had miraculously and completely disappeared overnight. Instead of preparing for her last days on earth, she got up and wrote letters to all her prayer supporters telling them what God had done. Her wish had been fulfilled, the hearts of the children crying for their adopted ‘mum’ had touched the heart of the Father. He had stretched out His hand and touched her dying body. She was totally healed and lived many more years to serve the Lord. Everyone was totally amazed.

I understand just what the people must have thought when they saw the crippled man, no longer begging, but dancing with joy! When Peter and John were hauled before the high priests to give an account for what had happened, they were able to testify to the fact that it was through the name of Jesus that the cripple man had been healed, but that there is an even greater miracle that is available to all from the hand of the same Lord Jesus - the gift of salvation.

The physical miracle gave them the opportunity to tell of how this same Jesus wants to heal our broken hearts and restore us into relationship with the Father and enjoy Him forever, in time and eternity. All healing is a witness to the salvation that Jesus won for each one of us on the cross. the One who heals is also the One who saves!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for the miracle of healing - and that the even greater miracle of salvation is available now to everyone who chooses to believe and receive the Saviour for themselves. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Discover the Truth - by Learning to Trust!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 34:8-9, NIV
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”

Many years ago I was trained at University as a scientist. My degree was in chemistry. Chemistry taught me to analyse carefully the substances I was working with and to test things out one step at a time. When I was doing research we learnt to analyse, test and, having discovered something, to re-test it again and again to see if the experimental results were repeatable. And if they were we could then begin to depend on what had been discovered as a fact and not just a theory. That is how all the great discoveries of science were made, proved and then used for the benefit of mankind.

Our scripture for today encourages us to have a similar approach to discovering the truth about God. When you taste something, you don’t take a big mouthful and swallow it without thinking - you put a tiny bit on your tongue and test it. Then, if it tastes good, you eat it. And if there are no unwelcome side-effects you then remember that this particular food is good to eat at any time. You don’t need to test it any more - you know what it’s like.

I recently gave some of my favourite tropical fruit, papaya, to a friend. He had never tried papaya before. He tasted a small amount and discovered how good it was to eat. He was discovering that what I had told him about papaya was true. By trusting what I had said, he discovered the joys of soaking the papaya flesh with lemon juice, followed by a coating of sugar. He loved it!

Similarly, when we listen carefully to what God has said to us in His word and then test it out in our lives, we will discover that those things God has prepared for us are ‘good to eat’, and that God’s Word really can be trusted. Because God is trustworthy, His Word can also be trusted. I find many people these days like the idea of believing in God, because He’s the one who can save them in eternity, but, sadly, they don’t trust him enough to believe His Word and put it into practice in their lives. As a result they never discover the joys of tasting the fruit of obedience and, eventually, many of them discover the consequences of disobedience instead.

An important key to learning is to trust what those who are trustworthy actually say, and then do what they do. God is trustworthy and if we follow in His ways we will discover the joys that His blessing upon our lives actually brings. Is it time for you to taste and see that God really is good!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to trust what You have said in Your Word - and then to apply it in my life. I don’t want to discover the hard way that I’ve missed out on all Your blessings by not listening to what You say. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Good Soil

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 8:15, NIV
“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Many important lessons can be drawn from the parable of the sower, but in his version of the story, Luke draws out a very important principle that was not mentioned by Matthew in the version of the story which is more commonly quoted. Matthew tells us that the one who produces a good crop from his life is the one who hears the word and understands it (Matthew 13:23). This is so true, but Luke adds a very important additional comment on this. For, sadly, it is totally possible for someone to hear and understand the word and do absolutely nothing about it!

Luke adds to the hearing of the word, the desire to retain the word in the heart and then, by persevering produce a crop. We have all known people who hear a thing one minute and have forgotten it the next! The fact that they may even have agreed with what they had heard is of little significance, because they just as quickly forgot it. Luke reminds us that this will not produce a good crop in our lives - we MUST retain in our hearts what we have heard and then persevere in the understanding and the application of the word in our lives.

Without perseverance a farmer would only produce a very limited crop from any sowing of seed. Farming requires diligent attention to the conditions in which the seed is sowing so that it will germinate successfully. It then needs protecting and caring for throughout the growing period until the time of harvest. Perseverance is an essential requirement for fruitfulness.

And so it is in with us. God sows many seeds in our lives of things that He want us to be and to do. But growing and developing those seeds requires diligence and perseverance on our part. There is an enemy of souls who wants to try, even, to devour the seeds before they can germinate and he wants to rob us of the blessing that would be ours if we were able to see the work God gives us to do through to completion - to harvest time.

I am increasingly aware of how important it is that we not only start well, but that we persevere and finish what God gives us to do. It’s in the finishing well that the crop is made ready for harvest. Perseverance may not sound like a very attractive option for the Christian walk - but in reality it’s the only way that the work of the Kingdom will ever produce the fruitfulness that God looks for from the seeds that He sows.

Prayer: `Thank you Lord for the seeds you have sown in my life. I’m sorry for those times when I have not persevered and the crop has not been good. Help me Lord to be so renewed in You, that it will be a joy to press through to completion so that the crop from my life will indeed be good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | More Precious than Gold

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 19:9-11, NIV
“The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Gold is the international currency by which the governments of the world measure their worth. It is the ultimate trading commodity. Its value is determined by its qualities and its scarcity. A small amount of gold can be worth hundreds, or even thousands of pounds.

Few of us own much of it, but what we do have we look after and we value. We value it not only for its intrinsic worth in monetary terms, but by the additional value we give to it when we use it for very special purposes such as wedding rings and fine jewellery.

But the Bible tells us that there is something else which is much more valuable, even, than much pure gold! And the Bible is not talking about even rarer metals or commodities such as platinum! It is referring to the simple life-changing and life-protecting truths that are contained within the Word of God.

For the fact is, if we choose to live our lives according to the Word of God, in obedience to the commands and ordinances of God, then we will be far richer than if we put all our trust in the valuables we have stored away in the bank! And we will have greater wisdom than some of the most educated people on the planet!

I once prayed with a very rich and clever man - he owned the equivalent of much gold. But he had made some very simple mistakes in life which meant that his riches were now of very little significance to him, for he had lost so much in terms of family and relationships. What he had lost he desperately wanted, but what he had lost no amount of money could buy! If only he had chosen to obey the commands of God, he would have discovered that they are worth much more than pure gold .

Prayer: Lord, help me to understand your value systems and to realise that the blessings that come from walking in your ways are of much greater value than much pure gold. Help me, Lord, to avoid the plans of the enemy for my life and to treasure the blessings that come from obedience to your ordinances. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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Devotional Message | God Hears the Prayers of the Humble

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Daniel 10:12, NIV
Then (the angel) continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel.. Since the first day when you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”

Our first thoughts when someone mentions the name Daniel are usually about the story of what happened when he was thrown into the lion’s den as a punishment for not bowing down to an idol. Daniel was more concerned about his relationship with God than he was about his own personal safety. Daniel’s relationship with God was lived out at an unusual level of intimacy and fellowship. He wasn’t interested in protecting himself if it meant that he would be betraying the God he loved. What an example he is to us all.

Through his well-established pattern of living in relational obedience to the Lord, Daniel had grow into having an unusual level of awareness of the spiritual realms. He was able to hear and understand what God was saying through dreams and visions and at times he was able to see the angelic beings and hear what God was saying to him through them. And when Daniel prayed it was as if there was an open door into the heavenly realms - he had an exceptional level of earned authority with the Lord. When he prayed - things happened!

In our Scripture for today we discover the key to Daniel’s effectiveness as an intercessor - as a man who could not only speak to God in prayer, but who also heard God’s answers with amazing clarity - whether those answers came to him directly from God or through the intervention of God’s angelic messenger, as happened here in Daniel 10.

The key is one that is there for each and every one of us to use! The key of humility! Humility is the opposite of pride. Pride says, ‘I know best’. In pride people rise up in their own authority, oblivious to the fact that there is a higher authority than any human authority. Humility recognises that God is the source of all power and all authority and that as we come before Him, in holy fear of the Lord, then we are putting ourselves in the place where our ears can be open to hear His voice in response to our prayers and intercessions. Derek Prince used to say, ‘The way down is the way up.’ Daniel was a dynamic example of how when he humbled himself before the Lord, God raised him up!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the example of Daniel and for his humble submission to your authority. Help me, Lord, to walk in a similar way in my own life, recognising that pride is a barrier to effective prayer and that humility opens the doors of the heavens to those who know and love the Lord. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | The God of ALL Comfort

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

2 Corinthians 1:3,4, NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

We can only give away what we already have. It’s no use offering somebody something they need, if we don’t have any to give! That is so obvious it is hardly worth stating!

But when it comes to being of real help and comfort to others, people can find themselves with an empty tank and nothing to give from the heart. They may go through the motions of doing the right thing, but somehow or other the most important ingredient is missing.

There isn’t one of us who hasn’t gone through tough times and faced difficult problems, and in this verse Paul is encouraging us to learn how to draw our deepest level of comfort from the Lord himself, who is described here by Paul as the God of ALL comfort. He is the one who understands our deepest sorrows, our most severe rejection, our most painful bereavement. He knows from experience what it is to suffer such personal pain and trauma. He went through it for us.

So Paul encourages those of us who are seeking to be mature in Christ, to draw on the love tanks of heaven and be personally comforted by Him. In that way our own love tanks will be full and we will have an overflowing resource to give to those who may not yet be in the same very blessed situation of knowing the Lord of Glory well enough to draw directly from Him. If we have been filled with His comfort, we will always have plenty to be able to give to others!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to so draw on your love that my heart will always be comforted by your presence with me. Please help me to keep my eyes open for those in need of your comfort so that I can share the blessing with them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Growing Strong in God

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 4:14-15, NIV
“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised Him.”

Times of testing are times of great opportunity! We may not think so at the time, but in my own experience I can say that the occasions when I have been personally been under test have always, retrospectively, been huge growth points in my own personal pilgrimage. Sometimes because of the joy that comes through victory, but, sadly, on other occasions, because of the vital lessons learned when things didn’t quite turn out as they should have done!

When Jesus was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to experience first-hand the direct temptations of the enemy, Luke tells us that He went into the desert ‘full of the Spirit’ (Luke 4:1), but that He returned to begin His ministry in the ‘power of the Spirit’ (Luke 4:14). Overcoming the enemy’s temptations, attacks and strategies will always strengthen us for life’s journey and give us vital ammunition to use in the years ahead whenever the enemy tries to take us off course. For those times will always come, no matter how much we try to avoid them!

Paul didn’t say ‘IF the evil day comes . . .’ when talking about the spiritual warfare that is part of every believer’s life, he said ‘WHEN the evil day comes . . . ‘ (Ephesians 6:13). I never gladly choose to focus on the enemy and his tactics, but Paul made it clear that he had chosen ‘not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices!’ (2 Corinthians 2:11). And if it was necessary for Paul to be alert at all times, because of how the enemy wanted to take him off course, then we, too, should be constantly on our guard about the possibilities and be on our guard also - especially in those areas of our lives which we know are potential danger points.

The temptations Jesus faced were always aimed at destroying Father God’s plans and purposes for His life. In just the same way, Satan wants to destroy God’s plans and purposes for our lives. He is a destiny robber! But as we look to God for daily strength to overcome all the attacks of the enemy, what Satan intended to harm us will actually strengthen us to be God’s overcomers in the journey of life, as we enter into all that He made us to be.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, not to allow temptation to overwhelm me, but give me the strength for today so that as I live life one day at a time, I will see Your purposes come to pass in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Time. If We Don’t Use it - We Lose it!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Hosea 10:12, NIV
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”

Time is an extraordinary thing - we all spend exactly the same amount of it every single day of our lives – 24 hours, or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. That’s our daily allowance. And we can’t save it up and spend it tomorrow either. If we don’t use it we lose it!

So, how we spend our time has to be the single most important consideration of every single human being. Much more important than how we spend our money. For one thing’s certain – the time we have left to live is getting shorter by the day! Every twenty four hours that passes adds another day to the time we have been on the earth, and lessens the amount of time we have left!

In seeking to help people who are struggling with the consequences of what they have done with their lives, one of the commonest expressions I hear them say is “if only . . .” And what follows is usually a description of something they spent their time doing which has only produced bad fruit in their lives. Sometimes people regret the years of pleasure seeking at a time when they could have sought the Lord – and having missed the opportunities to put their lives on a solid foundation when they were young, they didn’t have anything to fall back on, later in life, which would have given them the wisdom to know how to avoid those catastrophic mistakes.

No wonder Hosea wrote “it’s time to seek the Lord”. He knew that if we miss out on the most important search we can ever make, we will never be able to experience the “showers of righteousness” that God longs to bless us with (Hosea 10:12). But the promise is that He will bless us with His righteousness - at whatever stage of life we seek Him - but we cannot sweep the past under the carpet of experience as if it didn’t matter. Under that carpet are often many things that need to be brought before the Lord in repentance, asking for forgiveness. And as we receive His forgiveness we will experience the blessing of being made righteous in God’s sight because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Now is the time . . . to seek the Lord!

Prayer: I’m sorry, Lord, for occasions when I’ve spent my time unwisely. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me from the consequences of sinful choices. I seek you afresh today and long to be fully restored in You, experiencing your forgiveness and the showers of righteousness that can be mine because of Jesus. In His Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Facing the Unknown

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

John 20:1-2, NIV
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’”

The disciples had heard Jesus say many wonderful things. They had learned to trust what He said, even when they didn’t fully understand what he was saying. They’d heard the teaching, watched the miracles, seen the healings, experienced the deliverances, and now they were on their way to Jerusalem. What was going to happen next? This man was the real thing! But when He told them what was going to happen to Him, they didn’t want to believe that this bit of what Jesus had said was also going to be true!

There must have been great apprehension in their hearts as they approached the city. Surely He wasn’t really going to die? Especially as, at first, the people had waved him into the city, like a returning hero. But then the mood had changed. The Pharisees stirred up the people, Barabbas had been released and the cycle of events which confirmed their worst fears inexorably proceeded towards that terrible death on a cross, rushed through by the authorities to beat the failing light, as the Sabbath dusk closed in on them.

Jesus had died. He had gone from them. Confusion, distress, pain, loss, disappointment, grief, failure, hopelessness, even despair - all these emotions and many more will have been swimming round their agonised minds as they thought about their beloved Jesus lying in a borrowed tomb, behind a giant stone and guarded by Roman soldiers. Sleep would not have been easy for them as, no doubt, they went over and over and over again everything they could remember about what Jesus had said was going to happen. They were facing the unknown.

What had gone so terribly wrong? They had hit the wall and Jesus was no longer there to help them pick up the pieces of their lives. They had no-one to go to and the wonderful three year journey of faith was over. It must have been a very disturbed bunch of disillusioned followers who waited on Sunday morning to hear how the women had gone on, when they went to anoint his body.

And first reports were not good - in spite of being guarded by soldiers, someone appeared to have stolen the body! But this first report was not the whole story! The body was no longer there for a very different reason. It had definitely not been stolen!

The unknown they were facing was about to be totally transformed by the amazing truth - not only that Jesus had died, but He was alive again. When it looked as though all had been lost, they discovered that every word of what Jesus had said was true. Not only was it was the beginning of a new era in all their lives, it was the beginning of a new era in the history of the world!

If you are facing the unknown on this Easter Sunday, not sure about what life has for you just now, may I encourage you to remember that Jesus CAN be trusted. His words ARE true and that you can face the unknown with Him. The message of Easter Sunday morning is not just the record of a historical fact, it is the greatest encouragement to trust Him there ever can be.

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for your willing obedience to serve all of mankind through Your death on the cross. Thank You, Father God, for raising Jesus from the dead. And thank You, Lord, that I can face the unknowns in my own life with confidence, because I am not alone with Jesus in my heart. In His Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | This is Love

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

1 John 4:10, NIV
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

The hastily buried body of Jesus’ lay in a borrowed tomb. A Roman guard outside. The disciples were in a state of shock and disillusion. Surely, it wasn’t all meant to end like this? What about those words to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)? And those words of comfort to Mary and Martha about the death of their brother Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)?

It’s easy to imagine what they must have been going through as they remembered all the things He had said and done during those precious three years. The disciples were naturally caught up in all the emotions and activities of the moment. It was far too soon for them to be thinking through the theology of what was going on at that very moment!

But towards the end of His life, the Apostle John summarised the experience in the simple words of our scripture for today - words that embraced everything that the old covenant sacrificial system had anticipated, but which now had brought that era to an end with the most extraordinary and only complete sacrifice. At that very moment Jesus had become what John the Baptist prophesied (John 1:29), “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus had died in the place of every sinner. He was right at that moment enduring the hell of separation from Father God and atoning for our sins. He was suffering in your place and mine. Hallelujah, what a Saviour.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for paying the price for my sins, for being willing to accept the punishment that should have been mine. As I dwell on your amazing love, help me to be willing to walk in your footsteps and gladly serve you all my days. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Hope from the Wreckage

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 2:3-4, NIV
“How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”

I watched as two exhausted survivors were plucked from the wreckage of the Japanese earthquake and lifted into a rescue helicopter, nine days after the Japanese tsunami had hit and destroyed their town. For them, it was an absolute miracle. For the rescue workers it was a pin-prick of joy in the midst of their gruesome work of extracting the dead from the wreckage of their community.

As I watched joy being expressed, as these two people were lifted to safety, I suddenly realised that this was a picture of the great joy the Father must experience, when one of His precious children comes to Him and is lifted to safety from the morass of human rebellion and rejection of Him and His love, through what His Son did for them on the cross.

Headline after headline this past week has only confirmed the picture of a world that is suffering the consequences of tsunami-like rebellion and devastation. For close on two thousand years the warnings that God has sounded have been largely ignored. The pride of man continues to tell Creator God that he has a better way and ignores the truth of God’s Word!

In a news report on the Libyan situation, one senior general referred to the Security Council of the United Nations as the highest authority there is in this world! This is both a very true and an arrogantly false statement at the same time. Humanly speaking, when the United Nations act together, they are declaring themselves as the ultimate world authority. But they conveniently forget what Jesus said at the end of His time on Earth, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18). I’m so relieved that ultimate authority really is in His hands and not the hands of man!

Most of the people who were fortunate enough to hear the tsunami warnings in Japan, and flee for their lives without turning back for anything, reached the safety of higher ground. But tragically the majority of those who, for whatever reason, chose to ignore the warnings or couldn’t escape from their particular situation, perished as the giant wave annihilated so many communities. It’s dangerous to ignore such warnings.

I am reminded of those poignant words from the Scripture for today, which ask the question, “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3). The good news is that there is always hope for those who look to Him – no matter how terrible anyone’s personal situation may be. We don’t need a helicopter to lift us out of the wreckage of life, but we do need to humble ourselves before Him and, as the Scripture says, “He will lift us up” (James 4:10).

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You have already provided a means of escape, for all who come to You, from the sin and rebellion of mankind. Help me, Lord, to always to be aware of the needs of others to also know the truth, and be willing to point them to the only One who can rescue them from the mess of this fallen world. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Yet Another Earthquake

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 14:25, NIV
“O Lord, we acknowledge our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers; we have indeed sinned against you.”

Throughout Scripture there is a constant pattern - forgiveness, restoration and healing always begin with confession and repentance. Isaiah said it as it is when he wrote to God’s people, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). And how do we get to that place of being cleansed so we can be white as snow? The first step is always to follow Jeremiah’s teaching and acknowledge our sin - or “our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers” as he expressed the condition of the people of Judah.

But how do people get to that place of acknowledging their sin if, as has happened in most nations of the world, respect for the Word of God is no longer part of the structure of either society or government? For once people’s consciences are so seared that they feel they can ignore the Word of God, and even be scornful of those who still respect it - as has happened in some recent legal judgments in the United Kingdom - it is only when their very lives are under threat that people may once again consider that there is a God in heaven and start to think about what their first encounter with the Almighty could be like.

We are living in days that truly are like the days of Noah - when the world has rejected both the love and authority of the living God and has gone into great apostasy. God still loves every single one of us, but how can He get our attention in days when the world’s noise has drowned out the voice of faith. You cannot trust in a God whose existence you don’t recognise, you don’t know or you can no longer hear!

When you are in a noisy place you need to speak louder in order to be heard. It seems as though this is what God is doing. He is speaking louder than He has ever done. I am actually writing these words as I watch the terrible news of another massive earthquake and tsunami that has devastated regions of Japan. The rest of the Pacific region is waiting to see what will happen next as the tsunami speeds on across the Pacific ocean. It’s too early to tell what the cost will be in loss of human life, but it cannot be small. New Zealand is only just beginning to recover from the massive earthquake at Christchurch which claimed the lives of hundreds - at the same time as the memories of thousands dying in Haiti are still fresh, and the Haitians are still experiencing daily the consequences of what happened to them.

The prophecies of Matthew 24 are being fulfilled at every turn and we know Jesus said that when these things happen they “are the beginnings of the birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8) of the coming days when the Earth groans under the strain of man’s rebellion and we know that the days are hastening on towards that glorious day when Jesus comes again.

What shall we do? Our heart goes out in deep compassion for the people caught up in the disaster and we need to be in intercessory prayer for all involved. But in the midst of it all the Word of God once again speaks through the earthquakes, tsunamis and all the storms of life to say, “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). When God speaks it’s our responsibility to listen.

Prayer: Lord, we pray today for everyone who is caught up in the disasters the world is facing. May you be the comfort that the bereaved and the suffering need. And in the midst of it all may there be those who hear your voice above the world’s noise and turn to you in repentance to receive forgiveness and eternal life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Partial Obedience is Disobedience!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

from Genesis 6:13-15, NIV
“So God said to Noah . . . make yourself an ark . . . this is how you are to build it. The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high . ..”

God not only asked Noah to build a boat, but gave him very precise instructions about the size of the vessel and how the ark was to be built. It was to be a vessel with a very specific purpose which would be large enough to take on board the biggest floating menageries the world has ever seen – either before or since!

Now, when Noah heard God speaking to him he could easily have said “Yes, Lord, I’ll build a boat – but I think you must have got the design a bit wrong, I think it would be best if I made a few alterations to the plans!” So Noah might have set to work to build a vessel and done it, in Frank Sinatra style, ‘My Way!’ And when the boat was finished it turned out to be a magnificent pleasure yacht for him and his family! Noah would have been totally obedient to God by building a boat, but completely disobedient to God by building the boat to his own design instead of God’s.

When the flood came, and God told him to gather on board the vessel two of every animal under the sun, Noah’s pleasure craft would have proved woefully inadequate for the task. His partial obedience would have destroyed God’s plan. It would have been no good Noah protesting to God that at least he built a boat – it would have been sinful disobedience.

When you read the stories of the Kings of Judah and Israel you find many short comments about their lives. One of which says that “Amaziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly” (2 Chronicles 25:2) Eventually Amaziah turned away from the Lord and finally he lost his life in tragic circumstances! For him partial obedience was an unmitigated disaster.

It’s vital that when God speaks to us and shows us from His Word the way to live, and what He wants us to be and to do, that we don’t compromise with partial obedience. Each of our lives is like a vessel that, like Noah, we are building day by day. We have a destiny to fulfil, but partial obedience will always mean that we’re never quite fit for th4e Master’s use.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for these powerful lessons from Scripture. I’m sorry, Lord, for times in my life when I have been less than wholehearted in following you and have, as a result, only been partially obedient. Forgive me Lord for this disobedience and help me to start again, with your help, and build the right vessel for the purposes you have for me in the future. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | God`s Word Makes Us Whole

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Matthew 28:18 & John 15:3, NIV
`Then, Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples . . . ” and “You are already clean because of the word (teaching) I have spoken to you.”

Because Jesus loves us we are drawn to Him. But when we come to Him, He loves us too much to want to leave us in the same condition! The problem is, however, that all too often we want to remain rooted in the things that are familiar to us and we resist change! Most of us are not too keen on having our world shaken up too much. We are delighted that because of Jesus we can look forward to eternity in Heaven when we die, but we can so easily resist the idea of Heaven coming down to Earth and stirring the pot of our lives!

In recent years I`ve become more and more conscious that many of the people who ask me to pray for their healing have been wanting God`s healing, but have resisted God`s ways and God`s authority in their lives. Of course, we have been given free will and God doesn`t force us to change, but when we choose not to we can ensure that the healing we long for remains like the elusive crock of gold at the end of our own personal rainbow – an illusion which we never find.

I believe it`s because of these issues that God gave me the vision for Ellel 365, as a means of helping people to become the disciples which Jesus instructed us to make (Matthew 28:18). I passionately believe that when we choose to let God have His way in every area of our lives, that we put ourselves in the way of God`s healing. This week I received the following message from someone who is doing Ellel 365 in India. Their testimony powerfully illustrates the dynamic relationship between discipleship and healing.

“I am into the 8th month of Ellel 365, and I must say that it`s been a wonderful experience thus far . . . I had deep rooted issues of rejection, unforgiveness, hurts, generational iniquities etc. and the Lord, very gently, area by area, has been unearthing, cleansing & setting me free as I went through the teachings. To mention a few areas, like fears, timidity, and uncontrolled outbursts and rage – these are some of the areas in which I have experienced great healing. The realization and acceptance of the sinfulness, has been a humbling & painful process, nevertheless, the Lord`s enabling power to identify the roots, and relieve me from the hold of sin, was wonderful, worth every pain and all the tears that I have shed.

Though I was a believer for many years, God was somebody who seemed far away. But today I know He is close to me and that he loves me dearly. I present myself boldly, expecting to receive my healing & restoration. Yes, now I know I have a FATHER in heaven. The lie of the enemy has been broken. Alleluia!”

Then, a few weeks ago, I was teaching on forgiveness and healing when a lady who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, which had spread into other areas of her body, realised she had never forgiven someone who had damaged her greatly when she was young. The doctors are now trying to explain why it is that she no longer has the cancer!

I see these principles of discipleship and healing at work in every area of life. We desperately need to allow God to show us His word so that we, like the disciples, may be able to apply His truth into our lives and be made clean.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to seek to understand how to apply the truth of your Word into my life, so that I may grow, as a believer in Jesus, into being a true disciple and know His cleansing in my life. In Jesus` Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Things We Can Hide in Our Heart!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 28:13, NIV
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” Psalm 119:11. “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

When we eat food our body’s chemical factory sets to work on what we have eaten, and converts it into all the things we require for growth and daily needs. In a very real way the food becomes part of us. In just the same way, when we eat spiritual food it becomes part of who we are – not physically, but in our spirit and our soul. The more of God’s word that we take in, the more resources we have to understand the ways of God, avoid the tactics of the enemy and how to live in righteousness, even in a world that’s full of temptation.

The Psalmist knew the value of hiding God’s word in His heart. Because the truths of God had become part of him, when he faced temptation he had a straight edge in his being, that God could use to show him what was right and what was wrong. Anything that measured up to the straight edge was OK, but anything that looked crooked against that straight edge was off limits for the child of God.

In our Scripture from the Proverbs we see a contrasting principle at work. If we’ve done something wrong, and hide it in our hearts, unconfessed and unforgiven, it will always work against us and become a stumbling block on the pathway of our life. As long as pride tells us to keep it hidden, the enemy can use the ungodly choices we have made to undermine our lives. The principle of confessing sin as a step towards healing and wholeness is not just a New Testament healing practice (see James 5:16), but is a theme which is interwoven throughout Scripture. When we deal with our sin, then we can receive mercy and forgiveness – essential steps towards personal wholeness.

When we read the Word of God, there are always new things to see and understand – new treasures to unearth from the greatest mine of spiritual truth that’s ever been written. It’s essential that we read the Bible as young believers and take in everything we possibly can of God’s truth then – but let’s never get so proud and arrogant that we think we know it all. To his dying day my Dad would read his Bible morning and evening – it was his essential guide for life. I learnt so much by his example. Let’s resolve to constantly take in from the Word of God all of our days. In so doing we can be an example to others, especially the young, of how to live so that we don’t sin, instead of falling into temptation, concealing sin in our hearts and undermining the joy God would have us know, and destroying the fruitfulness of our lives.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for Your living Word. As I read it day by day, help me to take it into my heart so that it becomes part of me and helps me make right choices when tempted to sin. And if I do fall into sin, help me, Lord, to always confess it quickly, ask You for forgiveness and healing and continue to serve You with all my heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | My Life in His Hands

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 118:24, NIV
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

There is fundamentally no difference between the first day of the year and any other day of the year! The sun will rise and the sun will set and the world’s history will move forward by another twenty four hours. But the fact that we call the first of January New Year’s day forcibly reminds us of the passing of time and provides us with a means of recording and remembering history.

The weather in the UK has been especially cold these past few weeks and those of us old enough to remember such things have been talking about what it was like in 1947 or 1963 – years when the snow and ice stayed on the ground for exceptionally long periods of time. I will never forget walking up the frozen river in Oxford and skating on the ice! We put the memories of our own lives in place by remembering the date and we measure the events of history by what happened in, say, 1066, 1776 or, closer to home, 1914-18 and 1939-45.

So as we move from one year to another, and wave goodbye to 2010 as we welcome 2011, is anything going to change for you personally in the year ahead? Undoubtedly for every single one of us things are going to happen that will surprise us, maybe, even, shock us, possibly disappoint us as well as excite us. There may be traumas we have to face, unscheduled events that take place or blessings that we could never have dreamt of coming into our lives. None of us know what the year ahead will have in store – and those who think they can foretell the future with every form of astrology or divination are simply telling the world how deceived they are!

There is only One who knows the end from the beginning. There is only One who can be trusted to help us through whatever events and circumstances that we may be looking back on in twelve months time. There is only One who has your very best interest at heart and whose love for you is beyond measure or comprehension.

So, at the beginning of this New Year, my own resolution is one that everyone of us can share in, if we really want to - to trust Him with today, every day of the next three hundred and sixty five days. It is a fact that as we trust Him in the present, He determines our future. I don’t want anyone else to try and forecast what 2011 holds in store for me – I only want to trust the one who truly holds the future in His hands. I don’t need to know what will happen ‘tomorrow’ – for as long as I am trusting Him for ‘today’, I know my tomorrows are safe in His hands. So let’s rejoice in both this first day of the New Year, but let us not forget to rejoice in every day He makes and gives us to enjoy. Each one is a precious gift from our loving Creator.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for this new day and this New Year. Help me to live each and every day of the year, knowing that You have made it and that, whatever happens, my times are utterly safe when they are committed into Your hands. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Most Truthful Thing I have Ever Heard!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 9:13, NIV
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

This Christmas season a very unusual phenomenon has been seen on British television - a new dramatised version of the nativity in which the writer has portrayed the core truth of the incarnation as fact, as opposed to fiction! Tony Jordan is better known for writing scripts of a much more earthy nature for one of the UK’s longest-running soap operas, Eastenders. In normal circumstances he could not have been expected to have to have done such justice to what the Bible teaches.

The brief from the BBC was to write something pretty wacky about the nativity. He says that when he started on the project he didn’t believe in the nativity story. But the more he thought about it he realised “it would be a travesty to take the most beautiful story in the history of the world and turn it into a cheap gag.” So he began reading the story for himself and researching the facts of what the Bible says happened and he made a few surprising discoveries – both about Jesus and about himself!

When asked by the Daily Telegraph reporter about believing in the fact of the Virgin Birth, Jordan replied, “If you accept that Jesus is the Son of God, why would you not believe that Mary was a virgin, and that God must have had some hand in the impregnation?” And he followed this comment by saying, “The only thing I know for sure is that the words I read as coming from Jesus Christ are the most truthful thing I have ever heard!”

It’s no surprise, therefore, that the Editor of the Daily Telegraph headed his own comments on the article by the words ‘A born-again Nativity.’

We are living in an age when the facts of Christmas are no longer politically acceptable. The decorated tree in the White House is called a Holiday Tree! And it is reported that of all the cards on sale in British supermarkets, less than one per cent have any relationship to the facts of the Christmas story! These are days which are increasingly dark spiritually and in which it is becoming more and more costly to personally adhere to Christian truth, as the normal standard for faith and conduct. But in the midst of the darkness a shining fact remains – when people, even professional script-writers such as Tony Jordan, approach the Scriptures with a desire to know the truth, that the God of Truth will reveal Himself to them.

The virgin birth is, indeed, a sign to the whole world that God is with us. The incarnation tells us above all else that God loved the world so much that He gave His only son that we might have everlasting life (John 3:16). To know that we are loved is the deepest and most intimate need of every member of the human race. You ARE loved – the nativity story declares that one glorious fact above all others. It’s easy to love someone who we know loves us, so absorbing this astonishing truth for ourselves is the beginning of the most exciting pilgrimage of all – loving Him, who first loved us, and walking together with Him for the rest of our days.

Prayer: Thank you Lord, that the truth of Your Word still has its ancient power to challenge the hearts of men and women. Help me, this Christmas, to read afresh the Gospel stories and be freshly impacted by the most truthful things that have ever been written. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Best Medicine

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 28:9 and 13, NIV
“If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable . . . he who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

All of us have memories of childhood, when our mothers had the impossible task of persuading us to swallow foul-tasting medicine. I know I have! I didn’t really want to know that it was ‘doing me good’ when all it did was make me pull my face in a disgusted grimace. The only consolation was the sugar cube I was given to suck, as a ‘reward for being such a good boy’! In my heart I knew my Mum wouldn’t ever harm me. But nevertheless, whenever the medicine bottle came out, I always tried to avoid the inevitable nose-twitching dose and turn away from what was best for me.

God is like both the ‘best Mum’ and the ‘best Doctor’. He knows what’s good for us, even if we don’t like it. And He knows that the safest and the best way for us to live is within the provisions of His law. This is the place of blessing. And by choosing to live according to the ways of God, we keep the doors closed through which the enemy can attack us. Paul warned us not to do things that would give a foothold to the enemy (Ephesians 4:27). The Psalmist put it this way, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:7).

So, if we know what the Word of God says, and we deliberately choose to live in a way that is contrary to the path of blessing, we shouldn’t be surprised if we are no longer living in the reviving presence of God’s Holy Spirit, but are on a downward path away from that highway of holiness that Isaiah talked about (Isaiah 35:8), and which the foolish will avoid. Yes, the Bible talks about the foolishness of those who walk away from His law and His way.

Our Scripture for today also tells us that when we actually choose to ignore the law of God, our prayers become detestable to God. In Isaiah 1 God says that in circumstances like this “even if you offer many prayers I will not listen” (Isaiah 1:15). People often ask me why God doesn’t answer their prayers. There can, obviously, be many reasons for this, but I am increasingly aware that the message of this proverb could be one of the most important words in Scripture for today’s worldwide community of believers. When we stop walking in the ways of God – our prayers no longer reach the heart of God. And isn’t this a simple outworking of a divine principle that we will be treated according to how we treat others?

God has spoken to us through His Word, and if we choose to turn a deaf ear to what He has already said, are we not simply telling God to treat what we say to Him (our prayers) in the same way that we treat what He has said to us? Perhaps we all need to look again at our lives in the light of God’s Word and repent. For this is what God’s Word also says: “Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow . . . if you are willing and obedient.” Isaiah 1:18-19.

Prayer: I am sorry Lord for expecting you to hear and answer my prayers when, in so many ways, I have not responded to the things you have already said to me. Please forgive me for the times when I have ignored your law and gone my own way. I choose to turn back to you now, and ask that you will forgive me for the contempt with which I have treated your living Word. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Eternal Riddle!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100

John 11:25-16, NIV
Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do

you believe this?"

Jesus sometimes gave emphasis to his teaching by talking in riddles. A riddle deliberately poses a problem in terms that seem to be confusing, but which make the hearer think. A riddle often depends for its success on two different meanings of the same word.

Martha`s brother, Lazarus, had just died. In these verses, Jesus is making Martha think about what happens to a believer in Him after death. He poses a riddle for her to work out by saying that whoever believes in Jesus will live, even though he dies, and then saying that whoever believes in Him will never die. How confusing! How is it possible to both die and never die at the same time?!

The solution to the puzzle lies in two very different meanings of the word death - one is physical and the other is spiritual. All people were born into the death which is the inheritance of the human race because of the fall - both spiritual and physical death. For a believer, however, physical death is no longer the end. It is the beginning of a new era of life. But for an unbeliever, physical death is indeed a disaster - for it marks the end of the years of grace when someone may choose to become a believer.

For a believer, therefore, physical death is a gateway, a gateway to Life. So, even though believers still experience physical death, for them it is not to be feared. To be in Jesus means that even though one day our physical body will cease to function, we will never die. We have Jesus`s word for it! What wonderful news. Even though Jesus did raise Lazarus from his physical death, it was only for a season of time. When he died the next time he would go through that glorious gateway of Life!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that in You I have eternal life and that I need not fear physical death. Increase my concern, Lord, for those I know who are not believers, so that I can play my part in introducing them to you, that they may also come to know the truth. In Jesus` name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | What Shall I Wear Today?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Colossians 3:12, NIV
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

When we get dressed in the morning we have a choice over what clothes we are going to wear. We probably think about what we are going to be doing, and then choose appropriate clothing for the occasion. If we have an important appointment, then we will probably choose the best clothes out of the wardrobe. If we are simply having a day around the house, doing our own thing, then we will probably choose some favourite old clothes in which we will feel relaxed and comfortable.

Paul uses the analogy of clothing to give us some idea of what we as Christian people should wear each day – not on our physical body, but as clothing for the person we are. Earlier in this chapter Paul talked about clothing that would be inappropriate for Christians to wear - indeed, he said there are some things we should get rid of from our wardrobe altogether and never even consider wearing. They are the clothes that should be put on the bonfire (put to death) because they belong to our carnal earthly nature.

Things such as immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, for example(Colossians 3:5), shouldn’t be given hanging space in the wardrobe of our life. They are not appropriate for Christians to wear, whatever it is they may be thinking of doing. There are no occasions when it would be right to choose them as the clothing for the day! They won’t bring blessing into our own life, or anyone else’s. Paul also told us (in verse eight) that we must get rid of such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from our lips. And then adds that we mustn’t lie to each other either. All of these things will not only be incompatible with our desire to serve Jesus, but they will also give the enemy entrance to our lives. In another passage, when Paul is saying similar things to the Ephesians, he says, ‘Don’t give the devil a foothold!’ (Ephesians 4:27).

Sometimes the clothes of worldliness can seem very attractive – especially when we feel sorry for ourselves and feel in need of comfort. At times like this we need to throw ourselves wholly on the Lord who is the ‘God of all comfort’ (2 Corinthians 1:3) and not resort to conduct that would attract the devil’s attention! When Jesus was preparing people for days of great testing, and urging people to flee from all that surrounds them in the world, He said, ‘Remember Lot’s wife’ (Luke 17:32). She looked back with longing to all that she was leaving behind and paid for her sin with her life. It can sometimes be very costly to choose the world’s clothing!

Let’s determine before God that we will get rid of all the clothing from the wardrobe of our life that would cause us to behave shamefully and fill the hangers with appropriate clothing for followers of Jesus to wear at all times.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to carefully assess the clothing that’s hanging in the wardrobe of my life. If there are things there that I know shouldn’t be worn by a follower of Jesus, help me to clear them all out and only fill my wardrobe with the clothing which comes from the fruit of the Holy Spirit being at work in my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Camp Hope

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Colossians 1:13-14, NIV
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Along with millions of others around the world I have been glued to the television screen as I watched the first of the Chilean miners emerging from the darkness of their prison, 700 metres below the ground. The sight of these men, for whom there seemed to have been no hope of rescue, has had the world fighting back the tears of emotion and joy, as these remarkable scenes unfolded before our very eyes. These were moments of extraordinary drama, as their families greeted the men who had been totally incapable of rescuing themselves. As they emerged from their rescue capsule, into the glaring floodlights of media publicity, they were hugged by the President of Chile.

These were amazing pictures which will become part of unforgettable world history. Never before have so many men been rescued from being so long underground. These were men who, after 69 days in their prison of rock, had been rescued from certain death and given another chance of life. It was as if they had been born again. As I watched these dramatic scenes developing through the Chilean night, I was deeply impacted by the living parable that was unfolding before my very eyes.

Man’s condition was so like that of the trapped Chilean miners. Since the fall of man, the whole of the human race has lived out its spiritual existence in the darkness of a prison, from which there was no possibility of escape. There was nothing the miners could do to effect their own rescue. All they could do was wait – first to be found alive, and then to be rescued. Those dramatic pictures that eventually emerged, of men surviving in the blackest of black holes, perfectly illustrated the condition of fallen man, existing, but without hope.

The miners were totally dependent on rescue from above. It took over two months to drill a hole wide enough for a rescue capsule to descend through the rock to the darkness of their prison. Then we saw the first miners enter the rescue capsule, one at a time, and be lifted from ‘the dominion of darkness’ into the light of freedom at the top of the San Jose (Saint Joseph) mine, now renamed by the Chilean authorities, and the world’s media, as Camp Hope.

Joseph was the man whom God chose to rescue the Children of Israel from death by famine. His brothers condemned him to death, but God raised him up to the highest position in the land, and through him Israel and his family were saved. Joseph became the picture of ‘Hope’ for God’s people, and Jesus became the picture of ‘Hope’ for the whole of humanity.

Isaiah prophesied that ‘the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned’ (Matthew 4:16). Man was incapable of rescuing himself from his self-imposed darkness. Like the miners, he had to wait for rescue from above. And when that moment came, it wasn’t the world’s media who were watching in awe, but the angelic host who gave ‘glory to God in the highest’ as they sang their praises and gave the good news to the Shepherds of Bethlehem.

The President of Chile waited at the surface for the first rescued miners to step out of the capsule. But the President of Heaven, Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ‘manned the rescue capsule’ Himself and stepped down to earth to show man the way of escape.

Joseph’s brothers tried to kill him and mankind did kill Jesus. But the cross of despair was renamed Camp Hope when God raised Him up on resurrection morning! The rescue capsule to take man from the realm of darkness to the Kingdom of Light can, like it was for the miners, only be entered one at a time. To choose to be rescued is a personal decision, but, as the writer of the Hebrews so accurately expressed it, ‘How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?’(Hebrews 2:3)

The miners were ‘living in darkness, in the land of the shadow of death’. Today they have been given a chance to live a new life, freed from their underground prison. One of them expressed it so powerfully when he said, ‘We were with God and the devil underground – and God won!’ All of humanity outside of Christ is ‘living in darkness, in the land of the shadow of death’. God gave man a way of escape, so ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ (Hebrews 4:7). Just as there was great joy on the surface of the mine with the rescue of each and every miner, Jesus said ‘there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents’ (Luke 15:10). What an amazing rescue! What a Saviour! Hallelujah!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the amazing rescue of the Chilean miners and for the new life they now have to look forward to. But thank you even more, for your amazing rescue of mankind and that there is a way back to God from the darkness of sin. Help me never to forget what Jesus did for me on the cross, when the hill of Calvary became Camp Hope for lost humanity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | A Great and Terrible Day!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Malachi 4:5, NIV
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah, before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes."

The whole world will be looking in on Johannesburg on the 11th July. There is tremendous expectancy and excitement about what will happen in the World Cup Final. On that day more people will be watching South Africa than on any other day in history!

For the two teams contesting the final, all the years of preparation, training and competition will reach their climax. They will have successfully battled through all the early stages of the competition to have the privilege of stepping out on the pitch in the final of this, the greatest of all football competitions. For the players and their managers it will be the defining point of their careers. It will be the ultimate highlight for all their fans and supporters across the world. All the honour and the glory of their country is at stake – to say nothing of the massive financial rewards for the winners. When the referee blows his whistle to start the game, just ninety minutes of soccer action will stand between both teams and potential glory.

I had no idea before the competition which two teams would make it through to the last match of the competition, to compete for the famous Jules Rimet Trophy. But there is one thing I did know and can absolutely guarantee – it will be both a great and a terrible day! You may well ask how the same day can be both great and terrible at the same time. The answer is obvious - for the winner it will be a great day, but for the loser it will be a terrible day!

To have battled for so long and so hard to get to the final, but then to lose the last match of the competition will be an awful experience. For the losers it will be a terrible, terrible day. But for the winners it is going to be the greatest day of their footballing lives. Players will hug everyone in sight and kiss their winner’s medals, golden reminders of the trophy they’d always dreamed of winning. They will celebrate that moment long into the night and for months and years to come! For the rest of their lives, they will look back on their achievement with pride and joy.

Yes, the same day will be both a great and a terrible day. Which one it is will totally depend on which side you’re on! The Bible says nothing about football, but it does talk about a great and terrible day. Right at the end of his prophecy, Malachi says that when the day of the Lord comes it will be a great and terrible (or dreadful day) – but it will be the same day! And whether it is a great day for you, or a terrible day, will also totally depend on whose side you’re on!

For those who know and love the Lord every day is a great day. For those who continue to reject His love, every day is a terrible day, for to die without knowing Him will have terrible consequences. And let’s never forget that the prophecies about Jesus coming the first time were all fulfilled. And that the whole universe is waiting, not for the World Cup Final, but for the prophecies about His second coming to be fulfilled as well – as they surely will be. We have no idea when that will happen, but one thing I can absolutely guarantee is that when it happens it will be both a great and a terrible day!

May I urge you to heed Isaiah’s advice and ‘seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.’ Then, he says ‘let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon’ (Isaiah 55:6-7).

I pray that the World Cup Final will be a wonderful event, but, as you watch the match, remind yourself of the fact that there’s a day coming of far greater significance even than the 11th July. I pray that, for you, when Jesus comes again it will be a great and not a terrible day!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that as a believer in You I can look forward with joyful anticipation to that day which will be both great and terrible, depending on whose side you are on. I am so grateful for the gift of salvation and the new life You have given me. Help me, Lord, to live every day ready for that moment when You come again or You take me to be with Yourself. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | When Loss is Gain!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 3:7-9, NIV
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.\"

On January 26, 1905, the superintendent of the Cullinan mine, in South Africa, Frederick Wells, came upon a reflection in the dirt. He picked up the otherwise dull stone, nearly four inches long, and, almost accidentally, discovered the largest diamond ever found. This amazing stone turned out to be a perfectly clear, colourless diamond weighing 3,106 carats.

Taking the name of the owner of the mine, the Cullinan diamond was sold to the Transvaal government for £150,000, with the finder of the stone, Frederick Wells, receiving 3,500 pounds as a reward for the precious discovery – a huge sum back in 1905! This enormous diamond was cut into several exquisite diamonds, most of which now adorn the Crown Jewels of England, having been presented to King Edward the Seventh as a 66th birthday present.

The value of the Cullinan diamonds would today be almost beyond price. They are the sort of treasures that people can only dream of. Yet even if it were possible for you to buy and own such amazing treasures, they would be totally valueless to you at the moment you stopped breathing at the end of your days! At that moment the value to you of everything you have and own reduces to zero and will become totally irrelevant! At that point the only treasure that will be of any interest or value to you, will be that which you can take with you beyond the grave.

And the only treasure that we can own in this life which is of value to us in the next, is our relationship with Jesus. He is the ultimate treasure, the utterly precious One. The One who left the riches of Heaven’s glory to show us the way to the Father. It is beyond belief to me how the majority of the world will spend all their time and energies in the acquisition of treasures that are only of value while we have life and breath, and will spend virtually nothing on discovering the surpassing greatness of Christ Jesus.

Paul got his sense of values exactly in the right perspective. What would be the point of owning the Cullinan diamond, he would have said today, if it became the focus of your existence and you took your eyes off Christ. For it is only those who are found in Him that will have any eternal treasure – everything else is rubbish by comparison. Yes, we can own and appreciate the things of this world while we are here, but let’s never forget that they are irrelevant when we stand before God at the end of time. If Jesus is not the treasure in our heart then, we will bewail the years when we sought earthly treasure at the expense of Heavenly blessing.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for all the wonderful things you have created in this world for us to have and to enjoy. But help me Lord, never to value them more highly than I should and to take my focus off Jesus, the only treasure that is valuable in this world and the next. In His Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | What a View!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Ephesians 2:6-7, NIV
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us, in Christ Jesus”

A few years ago we were ministering in Alaska – that most amazing and wonderful of American States. Not only was I able to take advantage of being there to have a ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure of fishing for salmon, in the most prolific salmon waters of the world, but we were taken in a light aircraft on the most adventurous flight of my life! I’m not sure I would choose to go again, but I’m sure glad I went once!

Mount McKinley, at 20,320 ft, is the highest mountain in North America. The summit was first climbed in 1913, almost a hundred years ago. It lies at the heart of Alaska. There is only one way that people like me can ever get close enough to the top of such a mountain to enjoy its spectacular views – and that’s by climbing into a light aircraft, equipped with skis as an alternative landing gear to wheels. As I looked at the plane on the ground, and then at the distant mountain, I did question whether or not this was a bridge too far, for someone with not much of a head for heights! But it was too late, we’d booked, we climbed in and were off!

It was the most incredible, unbelievable and wonderfully hair-raising journey I will ever take! We were soon above the snow line, flying over glaciers, made of ice hundreds of feet thick; trusting our pilot, believing he knew where he was going and how to get back; flying, it seemed, straight at a wall of rock, only tilting the wings at the last minute to escape into open air as we climbed higher and higher; finally we landed in the snow on the highest possible glacier that the tiny plane could reach. We were alone ‘on top of the world’ – it was an unforgettable experience.

As I look back on that amazing trip, and think about today’s Scripture, I realise that what we experienced is nothing, when compared with the view God gives us from his perspective, not just of the view from one mountain, but of the whole world. His perspective is not limited by either man’s aeronautic abilities or his human understandings. He is not just looking at the physical, but at what is happening in the spiritual realms also. He sees the way man, in his pride and self-sufficiency, is trying to solve the problems of the world, without reference to the only One who can give you a right perspective on how things really are.

The world desperately needs to get in ‘God’s light aircraft’ and see things from His viewpoint. But there is a problem – in order to get His perspective on things, man must first humble himself. It is only then that we can have lift-off, for the Word of God promises that He will then lift us up (James 4:10). As our leaders seek to tackle the world’s problems, we need to pray that they will humble themselves, so that they may get God’s viewpoint on things and start to tackle the real issues with the supernatural insight we get from being seated with Him in the heavenly realms.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that in You we have the enormous privilege of being able to see the world from a right perspective. Help us not to focus our attention only on what we can see in the physical, but to see the reality of the spiritual warfare which is pulling at the hearts of men and women. I pray that You will raise up leaders in the world who will have the courage to humble themselves, so that, in and through You, they will have a right perspective on the world as it is and the actions they need to take. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Hidden Treasure

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Colossians 2:3, NIV
“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

The magnificent Forth Railway Bridge inspired me as a child. I had a jig-saw depicting this amazing double-cantilevered steel bridge across the River Forth, just north of Edinburgh in Scotland. I loved the picture and did that jig-saw time and time again. It wasn’t for another ten years that I first crossed the bridge that had inspired my childhood imagination. The sound of the train changed as the powerful steam engine started out across the bridge and pulled us northwards into the heart of Scotland. High above us were the great central towers that supported the cantilevered steel. Far below us were the grey-blue waters of the River Forth. I will never forget my first crossing of the Firth of Forth!

This extraordinary construction has now been carrying about 200 trains a day across the River Forth for one hundred and twenty years. More than 55,000 tons of steel were used in its construction and over eight million rivets were used to hold all the steel plates together. The bridge was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward the Seventh, who drove home the last gold-plated, rivet! The bridge is still in remarkably good condition and looks set to last at least another hundred years.

While everyone photographs the structure, and thrills to the sight of trains crossing this great river divide, there is a part of the bridge which is never seen, but which, to me, is the most important part of the bridge. Largely hidden from sight and buried deep beneath the river bed are 18,122 cubic metres of solid Scottish granite. These are the foundations of the piers which support the steel. They are unseen and unmoving, but they never stop working. They are always there making it possible for all those trains, with their thousands of passengers and thousands of tons of freight, to travel north and south day after day, year after year. It’s the hidden foundations which make the bridge safe.

Not only, as a child, did I enjoy my Forth Bridge jig-saw, but I enjoyed all the different ways in which my Mum and Dad put foundations into my life. And as I got older I realised they could only have done that for me because, in turn, foundations had been put into their lives when they were young. The foundations were out of sight, they were hidden treasure. When I was much older I began to appreciate how many other people had been enabled to cross into the safety of knowing Jesus, because of the solidity of the foundations that had underpinned the life of my parents.

As I look at the Forth Rail Bridge today, realising that it is the hidden rock which bears the load, I am reminded of a song we used to sing as children, ‘Build on the Rock, the Rock that ever stands’. Jesus is the only foundation that is sufficient to withstand all the pressures and storms of life. The Forth Bridge was built to withstand the extremes of weather that can be experienced on the River Forth.

If our lives are built on the Rock of Jesus Christ, not only will we be secure, but we will be constructing a bridge with our lives, which will withstand all of life’s conditions and enable many, many others to cross over into the safety and security of knowing the Saviour for themselves. And one generation after another will be blessed by the way you, your children and your children’s children demonstrate the reality of the hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge that Jesus gives to each of those who know and love Him and build their lives on the Rock!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that you desire to build such solid foundations into us, that whatever life throws at us we will, in Your strength, be able to remain firm and secure on the one and only foundation for life that can carry the load. Help me to so build on the Rock that my life becomes a bridge, across which others can go and find the Saviour for themselves. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | All of Human Life is There!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 1:10, NIV
“My Son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them”

I try and keep myself abreast of the national and international news. I find that almost every day there are things happening in the world which provide powerful illustrations, backing up the truth of the Word of God. One British Sunday Newspaper used to advertise itself by saying ‘All of human life is there’. And that is a very accurate description of what you see in the daily media reports via the press, the internet and TV.

Over the past months I have been impacted by the tragedies that can happen to so many young people, as they grow through their teenage years, finding out the hard way that not all of human life is as attractive or as worthwhile as they first thought. In the lives of so many we are seeing the generational consequence of family disintegration, lack of parental discipline and dispensing with all moral guidelines of godly living. The concept of right and wrong seems to have virtually disappeared from education and training.

When one generation ceases to trust the God they were brought up to believe in, the next generation ceases to teach any form of morality to their children. The end result is that the third generation is like a rudderless ship trying to find its own way on the high seas of life, without any respect for authority or desire to learn from the experience of others. Instead of the previous generation having a godly and disciplined influence on today’s children and youth, this third generation is only willing to learn from themselves – they think they know best and will not listen to the advice or influence of others . Rebellion has become their modus operandi.

I wept this morning for a lost generation, as the face of an eleven year old girl, Britain’s youngest Mum, stared at me out of the newspaper. She had sex while drunk at a party, doing what all the others were doing. And I grieved with the parents of a teenage girl whose body had just been found in a field. Then I read a sober report telling of the damage teenagers could be doing to their brains when they get together and ‘binge-drink’. The legacy of rebellion is not pretty.

What we are seeing is a whole generation of youth being led, through peer pressure, to do what everyone else is doing, without restraint or thought of consequence. Many are being enticed to join in the supposed fun and live the rebellious dream. For many it will be too late when they find out the broken and evil reality that lies behind the enticements of the enemy. If only the advice of today’s Scripture had become their rule for life from an early age.

The enemy constantly entices people to follow him. He uses the pressure of others to lead us into things that we should have said no to. Let’s not just look at the things I’ve written about here, however, and shake our heads in disgust, but let’s take a long hard look at ourselves and see where we have succumbed to the enticements of others. Now is the time to come back to God and put our own house in order.

Prayer: I am sorry, Lord, for the times in my own life when I have been enticed into doing wrong things. Please forgive me for listening to the voice of the enemy and not listening to You. Help me, Lord, not to fall into this trap again – show me when I’m being enticed and give me the courage to say ‘No’. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Upside Down Thinking!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 30 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 29:16, NIV
"You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? "

Imagine this scene! A famous artist spends weeks, probably months, carefully constructing with his brushes a beautiful painting on a canvas. Little by little the image takes shape, the colours of the background and then the detail of the foreground emerge. Then, when it is finished, and the picture is finally unveiled for all to see, people are amazed at its beauty. Who gets the praise? The picture or the artist?

What a stupid question, you may well say! The artist created the painting, he gets the accolades from all the critics who marvel at his workmanship. No-one congratulates the painting on creating itself. All the praise, rightfully, goes to the artist for what he has done. Isaiah poses a similar situation in respect of a pot having been made by a potter. The vessel cannot say to the potter that you did not make me. Or tell the potter, “You know nothing”!

But the arrogance of man is such that instead of science being seen for what it is – an amazing journey of discovery of the incredible world that God has made – the underlying belief of many scientists, especially those who influence education and the media, is that the world made itself without the aid of a creator! I’ve not noticed any of these famous names walking into an art gallery and congratulating a painting on having painted itself or telling a pot how well it made itself.

I do find it hard to understand how such wise men, who wouldn’t be so stupid as to say such things to a painting or a pot, are so blinded to the fact that that is exactly what they are saying to the universe and everything in it. I believe that God shakes his head in disbelief at the supreme arrogance and ignorance of otherwise clever men and women, who are like a pot saying to the potter, “You know nothing!”

Prayer: Lord, I ask that you will open the eyes of men and women to recognise who you are, so that when they see the amazing pictures you have created for us to enjoy, they will once again worship the Artist and not just praise His paintings. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Satan’s Traps!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 16:25, NIV
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

Rabbits have been eating all the best plants in our garden. I love seeing the rabbits, but they are doing a lot of damage. So I went on-line the other day to look for a rabbit trap. I found exactly what I wanted – a trap that would lure the rabbit into a small cage, then a gate would spring into place trapping the rabbit inside. On the same website I saw a modern mouse trap. In this particular trap, some attractively smelling bait is used to lure the mouse into a dark hole. The bait is positioned on a spike between two electrified points and as the mouse gets hold of the bait with its mouth a powerful electric shock kills the creature instantly.

Both the mouse and the rabbit trap depend on the fact that neither animal has any idea what’s going to happen next. All they are doing is following their instinct to look for food – and unfortunately for them, they are looking in a dangerous place. If they knew what the end would be, they wouldn’t dare venture into such dangerous territory.

Proverbs 3:7 warns us not to be wise in our own eyes, thinking that we know what we’re doing and don’t need to take advice from others, and especially from God and His Word. The problem with human wisdom, that is separated from the wisdom of God, is that all too often we get it so very wrong. The enemy has had thousands of years of practice learning how to deceive human beings into his traps. If you’ve never read ‘The Screwtape Letters’ by C.S.Lewis, please get hold of a copy and read it carefully. It is an amazing masterpiece of very remarkable writing, which exposes the ways in which Satan lures mankind into his carefully engineered ‘people-trap’.

Being in the ministry of healing and discipleship has, sadly, given me many, many opportunities of hearing the stories, from men and women all over the world, of how they were lured into wrong relationships, or to put their money into crooked business deals, or into occult practices or dozens of other different possibilities. This is exactly how Satan works. He attracts us with something that seems good at the time, but which, in reality, is very bad. We don’t think carefully through what we’re doing, believing things are OK and suddenly we discover that our own ideas have let us down badly. Then Satan springs the trap.

May I urge you to always prayerfully consider the consequences of all the choices you make. I read recently the tragic story of a young woman who thought drugs were great ‘for kicks’. She knew what she was doing, she would say. But once she had tasted the soft drugs, she wanted the harder ones, then she started injecting, and today all her mother can do is put flowers on her grave. What seems right can, literally, end in death. But the death that is more to be feared than physical death, is that which comes when people are trapped by Satan for eternity. And that should be of the greatest concern to each one of us.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, not to think that my wisdom is greater than yours and as a result follow pathways that, as the writer of this proverb, indicates, will end in death. Today, I choose to follow You, Lord Jesus. I am so grateful that You are the way, the truth and the life. Amen.

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Devotional Message | When the enemy seeks you out!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

2 Samuel 5:17, NIV
‘When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed King over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him.’

David had been anointed to be the future King by Samuel when he was not much more than a boy. The years had passed and now the position of Kingly authority, which Samuel had set him apart for, was now his. Judah and Israel had been united under his leadership and he had been installed as king and anointed again into his God-prepared office. He was now in charge, with all the authority of God behind him to rule and reign in the land.

What a great moment that must have been for David, as he realised that everything he had been made for was actually happening. The problem, however, with getting into the place of God’s appointing and anointing is that you are now at your most dangerous to the enemy! The Philistines had not forgotten that King David was the one who had defeated Goliath and, as a result, all the Philistine armies were defeated also. So the moment news of David being established on the throne reached the Philistines, they didn’t send him a gift and a congratulatory note, but, instead, prepared their armies to go and search for him. They went in full force to try and deal David a fatal blow.

How the Philistines behaved in this instance, is a picture of how the spiritual enemies of God’s people have always behaved. Satan hates it when believers get themselves into the place of their calling and destiny. For then they are at their most dangerous to the enemy strongholds. Satan fears what damage they may do to his kingdom. So he works out a strategy to attack us and find those places of vulnerability in our spiritual defences.

As you read the rest of this story you see how David didn’t act on his own understanding, but enquired of the Lord what he should do and, as a result, he defeated the Philistines twice in quick succession. The key lesson for us from David’s experience is that we must always enquire of the Lord about what we should do – in all and every circumstance. His wisdom is such that even if the enemy thinks he has a means of destroying what God is doing through you, God always has a strategy that will give you victory. The key is simple, take time to listen to God and then act faithfully in obedience. The Philistines were defeated when David did this and David’s victory is a great encouragement to us to hold our ground when we are under threat of attack, knowing that God wants to give us the victory.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, when the enemy attacks, to always seek your face and ask for your help. I need to know your strategy for dealing with the enemy so that I will remain in my place as a loyal soldier of the King of Kings. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | A Matter of Choice

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Joshua 24:14-15, NIV
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua gave the people of God three choices – you can either vote for the gods of Egypt, the gods of the Amorites or the Lord! No, it wasn’t an election, but the people were being challenged by their leader to make a choice and there were three obvious choices they could make. ‘Who are you going to serve?’ Joshua asked. He also made it very clear that as their leader, there was no doubting the choice he was making – he, and all his household, were going to serve the Lord.

When a nation elects a political party to govern their country, they have to live with the consequences of their choice. And similarly, when we choose which ‘god or gods’ we are going to serve, we have to live with the consequences of that choice also. The election of a political party only gives them power for a relatively short period of time. But when we choose the gods that we are going to serve, the consequences can go beyond the realms of time and affect our eternal destiny as well.

So, as the British people, right now, are going through the process of deciding who they are going to vote for at a General Election, I’d like to encourage you to be thinking about something far more important – the choices you make which can affect eternity as well as time. The gods of Egypt and the gods of the Amorites had been proven to be false gods, but the problem with false gods is that they are attractive, because they can be made to fit in with whatever lifestyle or morality you would like them to have. It’s easy to follow a god which lets you do whatever you like, without reference to whether or not that is either good for you or right. False gods always distort the truth and sell you a lie.

The Lord is not a false god, He is the living God whose love and laws provide the boundaries of safety for the whole of mankind. If we choose to follow and serve Him, we may sometimes find that His Word says ‘No’ to things our flesh would want to say ‘Yes’ to. But serving false gods can be a bit like voting for a god who encourages us to say ‘Yes’ to the things that will destroy us from the inside out and eventually rob us of life itself.

It’s not only time to seek the Lord, it’s time that those who know and love Him should be voting with their feet and turning away from the gods of this world and keeping their focus on the Lord - and Him alone! His is the very best government for our lives, under which we will be secure for time and eternity.

Prayer: Thank you Lord God that You are totally trustworthy and that Your love and Your laws provide all those who choose to follow you with security for time and eternity. I choose, this day, to love and serve the Lord! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Fire and Billows of Smoke

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Acts 2:18-21, NIV
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

God has flicked his little finger and the world has been thrown into chaos! As I write these words the United Kingdom and much of Europe is entering its third day as a ‘no-fly zone’. A minor volcano has erupted in Iceland and thrown millions of tons of fine ash into the atmosphere. This silica ash turns to liquid glass in the heat of a jet engine, seizing the engine and making it incredibly dangerous for jet aeroplanes. No airline would knowingly take a plane through such a cloud. The effects would be catastrophic.

So the world – or, at least, Northern Europe which is covered by this almost invisible cloud of fine ash – has been brought to a humiliating stand-still, costing the airlines alone over 150 million pounds per day. As the Daily Mail said, ‘Even a modest rumbling in the underworld is enough to throw a gigantic spanner into the works of modern life!’ Mount Laki, a much larger volcano in Iceland erupted in 1783. According to a recent Cambridge University study, the after effects of this eruption killed over 10,000 people in England alone. If Laki were to erupt today, flying would be banned in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, not just for a few days, but for months, bringing the whole world to its knees.

I wonder what the Apostle Peter thought about the words of our Scripture for today, which he quoted from the prophet Joel on the Day of Pentecost? The days he was talking about, the last days, are the days we are living in. How do you interpret the heavenly signs and wonders, including ‘fire and billows of smoke’? The pictures of the erupting volcano can only be described with these exact words – fire and billows of smoke are throwing the ash thousands of feet into the atmosphere. Insurance companies are excusing themselves from paying out on travel policies as this is declared by them to be ‘an Act of God’!

As I read how the world is sensibly not flying through the ash cloud because of the great danger. The Lord turned me to our Scripture and then spoke to my spirit a lesson that I will never forget. This is what I sensed the Lord saying:

Because of the danger to aircraft and the life of passengers and crew, no-one would even consider flying through such a dangerous cloud. But every day the people of the world are flying through clouds of spiritual darkness, immorality and sinful lifestyles, without any thought whatsoever as to the damage it might be causing them. The volcanic ash will only seize the engine of an aeroplane, the spiritual cloud of darkness will bring down to destruction the souls of men. The eyes of the world have been blinded, by the god of this world, to the consequences of living in rebellion to the living God, and not walking in His ways.

I sensed the weeping of the Heavenly Father as He looked at a world that listens to the warning messages from the scientists and weathermen, but ignores the messages that were given to the world by His only Son and the prophets of God. I found myself praying that in these days there will be those who see what is happening and start to ask the right questions. And that when they read of the ‘fire and billows of smoke’, that have brought nations to their knees, they will turn to the God who answers the cry of our heart when, in humility, we fall to our knees in repentance.

Prayer: Lord, during these awesome days, I pray there will be many who will see the signs in the sky, turn to You in their hearts and begin to cry out to You for answers to the issues and problems of their lives. Help me, Lord, to always remember how dangerous it is to ‘fly’ through clouds of sin, knowing that to do so seizes the engine of my soul, and prevents me from fulfilling my destiny. I come to you afresh today in repentance and ask you to forgive me for all my sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Temporary or Permanent?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 13;14, NIV
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

When D.L.Moody, perhaps the most effective evangelist of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was about to die, his final words to those who sat at his bedside were: “Earth is receding, heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day!”

No-one worked harder all his life for the glory of the King while he lived in his earthly tent in this temporary city. But no-one was more certain of the permanence of the place he was going to. He was looking forward to enjoying the glory of God, in the city that is to come for all those who are trusting in Jesus. Jesus is the only One who ever walked this earth who had been there, could give us a first-hand account of its reality and who promised to go back there and prepare a special place for each one of us, in the place where He would be (John 14:1-4).

Every other religious leader that there has ever been has had to speculate about what lay beyond the grave. Jesus is the only one who never had to speculate about Heaven – it was His home before He came to earth and dwelled among us for a season. It was more real to Him than anything else. So much so that in His final time of private prayer on earth, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was excited at the prospect of returning to share in the glory He had with the father before the world began (John 17:5).

The enemy tempts us to look at the world’s realities and focus our attention on them and cling on to them as if they are secure and permanent. But the reality is that for everyone who has died, earth’s securities proved inadequate for the journey that lay ahead of them and the graveyards of the world are adequate testimony to the fact of what we read in Hebrews that ‘here we have no enduring city’! It has always seemed strange to me that most people focus all their attention on trying to secure their earthly future, even though they know that it cannot go on forever, and put off till it’s too late their preparations for the destination that will be permanent and eternal.

I am praying as I write these words that we will be personally so impacted by the significance of this verse from Hebrews, that we will determine to live out our days in this temporary home in fellowship with the One, who came from Heaven, and witnessed so powerfully to its permanence. He is the only way to Heaven and He will be our guide when we get there!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for telling us so clearly about the realities of the place You had come from, and for so blessing us with the fact that You want us to join You there in a permanent city! Help me to live out my days in this temporary city, not only blessing You by being obedient to Your word, but realising that to live like that also equips me for the joys of eternity with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Our Blessed Hope

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Titus 2:11-13 , NIV
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ

I am writing this devotional immediately after returning from a mission trip to South Africa. As we were driving towards Johannesburg airport, on our way home, the clouds were heavy and black. Suddenly there was a hole in the clouds and the brilliance of the sun’s rays shone through. It was a dramatic moment and inevitably we began to think of how the world’s darkness will one day be penetrated with the light of eternity when Jesus comes again.

God has a strategy for eternity and He is watching and waiting, as the years roll by, for that moment when He has gathered into His Kingdom all whom He has planned to be with Him in the heavenly realms. One day the one who is the Blessed Hope of believers from all the centuries will burst through the skies of time with the brilliance of eternity. It won’t then be like a local black cloud being penetrated by the rays of the sun, but all the world’s darkness will be shown up for what it is as the sun of righteousness returns from glory to gather His bride to Himself.

In the meantime Paul urges us to always be ready for when that moment comes, for there will be a generation that’s still alive on the earth when Jesus returns – and it could be ours. The best way to get ready for His coming to us or, if we die first, for our going to Him, is to heed Paul’s advice in our reading and continually say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and live godly lives – living as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, while here on earth.

Having found salvation in our Saviour, the enemy never ceases to try and throw us off course and limit our potential through disobedience to God. None of us know either the day or the hour when Jesus will come again or the day or the hour when our earthly lives will come to a close. But if we always live as if today is our last day on earth, we will always be able to give Satan a ‘No’ when he tempts us and we will remain focussed on living for our Lord and serving Him every day of the rest of our lives.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that we can look forward with great anticipation to Your coming again. Help me to always live as if your coming is imminent and to have the courage to always say No to the enemy, when he tempts me to sin. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Lord’s Victory

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 21:30-31, NIV
There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for battle, but victory rests with the Lord.

When the Lord goes out to battle, there is no scheme or strategy of mankind that could ever succeed against Him. Ever since the fall of man Satan has schemed and battled to gain the upper hand in the heavenly realms, through leading mankind into deeper and deeper sin. But the ultimate conclusion of history is already secured, because Jesus personally overcame Satan and all his works at the cross.

Mankind may do whatever he wants to promote his own abilities and make man himself the object of his own idolatry, but all that man does when he declares himself wise in his own eyes is demonstrate how foolish and deluded and insignificant he really is! As the Psalmist said in Psalm 19 ‘the heavens declare the glory of God’. The whole universe is in the palms of His hands.

People may think they can ignore God’s commandments, as has been happening on an ever increasing scale through the passing of increasingly ungodly laws by the governments of the world. People may think they can make vast amounts of money through very ungodly means without consequence, but ‘a fortune made with a lying tongue is a fleeting vapour and a deadly snare’ (Proverbs 21:6). But people and governments forget that one day there will be a reckoning and those who have despised the law of the Lord will hang their heads in shame when they realise what they have done and what judgment they have brought upon themselves.

So, as you think about the Scripture for today, I pray you will want to give thanks for the ultimate victory that Jesus won at Calvary and resolve never to stand against God in any way – victory always rests with Him!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, never to take a stand against You in anything. I recognise the futility of thinking that man can ever overcome You in any way. Please forgive me for the times when I have done things in rebellion against You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Did You Get the Message?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Nehemiah 8:8, NIV
They read from the book of the law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

People often use the phrase which forms the title to this devotional – it doesn’t mean, did you receive a letter, a phone call, an email or a text? It means, "did you understand what I was saying to you?" The problem with much teaching is that the people hear the words but they don’t get the message! They don’t understand what it means or how to apply the teaching to their own lives.

Many years after the people of Israel had been defeated, and taken as prisoners into exile, Nehemiah was called by God to go back to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. He knew that they had lost their protection and covering as a nation because of their sin. He really got God’s message about the situation. ‘I and my ancestors – we have sinned,’ he said (Nehemiah 1:6 GNB).

Then after the wall had been rebuilt and the people were reoccupying Jerusalem he knew it was important that the people should rediscover for themselves what the law of God actually said. They wouldn’t want to go into exile again! So Ezra the prophet was told to get out the book of the law of God and tell the people what it contained. So he built a pulpit (Nehemiah 8:4) so everyone could hear what he said and ‘get the message’. Then the Levites, also, explained it to the people, so there would be no doubt about what it meant.

As soon as the people understood it, they immediately began to repent of their sins and there were many tears. But it wasn’t just a day for tears, it was also a day of joy. For God rejoices when His people ‘get the message’ and start putting His Word into practice and, as Nehemiah said, ‘this day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Nehemiah 8:10).

Throughout the history of Ellel Ministries, and on every Healing Retreat and training course, we have sought to explain what the Word means to people at their point of need. Many times there have been tears as they have realised the mistakes they have made or the bitterness they have carried for so many years. But when people truly got the message of truth and applied it in their lives, there was always joy to follow, as they discovered that the joy of the Lord became their strength for life’s future journey. It’s worth ‘getting the message’ and really learning to understand what God is saying to us today through His Word.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Help me to understand it so that I can ‘get the message’ that You are proclaiming to the world and live it out in my own life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Getting Back on God’s Wheel

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 18:1-4, NIV
‘This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him’.

I love the parables in the Word of God – pictures that speak a pure message of truth right into the heart of man. Many times God has spoken to me personally through the ordinary things of life – never more powerfully than when I, as a young man, started to restore an old car. After doing many hours of work I discovered that the steel frame (the chassis) on which the car was built was bent. I was heart-broken, but at that very moment I suddenly became aware of the voice of God speaking into my spirit!

He was saying, “You could restore this broken car, but I can restore broken lives.” And then He asked me a question I’ve never forgotten, “Which is more important - restoring broken cars or restoring broken lives?” At that moment of time I wanted to say ‘the car’! But I knew that was the wrong answer. It was at that moment that God birthed in me the vision for what eventually became Ellel Ministries. I found myself looking at that broken car with the eyes of the spirit instead of the eyes of the flesh and in a flash the whole direction of my life was changed.

Jeremiah had a similar experience when he went down to the house of the potter. He saw the potter making a vessel on his wheel. Then, as so often happens, the shape of the vessel was spoiled in the potter’s hand. But did the potter throw the clay away? No, he simply reworked it on the wheel and started again with the same clay to reshape it into a good vessel. We may see the broken car or the spoiled vessel and think they are useless and good for nothing. God looks and sees the potential that they still have and He rejoices when they are restored or reshaped and put back into service in the Kingdom of God.

You may be feeling rather like a spoiled pot or a car with a broken chassis, but may I encourage you to lift up your head and rejoice, for the restorer of souls is at hand – and He wants your life to rejoice once again with a new sense of purpose. Face the issues in your life, with Him, which have caused the damage and then give Him permission to put you back on His ‘wheel’ and see what the Master Potter can do.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You are the master restorer. Help me, Lord, to see the places where I have made mistakes so that together we can put things right. Then, put me back on Your wheel and reshape me in the way that best fits Your plans for the rest of my days. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Trust is Hard

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 2: 6-7, NIV
(Christ Jesus) who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.

Have you ever struggled with the issue of giving Jesus total control over your life? I certainly have. It goes against all our natural inclinations and desires to hand over control to another person. Especially someone we can’t see!

Why would you want to lose control? Why would you become totally vulnerable to another person? Supposing they took advantage of you and used what you have given of yourself for their own benefit? Suppose you lived to deeply regret the fact that you entrusted yourself to someone else?

I’m sure these feelings are at least partly God-given and right. Jesus did not entrust Himself to certain people. Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men (John 2: 24). Trust has to be earned. Forgiveness may be given whether it’s earned or not – and usually it isn’t - but trust is something quite different. You have to deserve to be trusted. It can’t be demanded or required. A person must earn trust.

So what about trusting Jesus? Has He earned our trust or not? Today’s verse tells us all about Jesus. Even when He had something wonderful (equality with God) He didn’t mind losing it for the sake of helping us. He never grasped or tried to gain anything for Himself. Even things He was fully entitled to, like equality with God.

Far from insisting on His own rights or benefits, He actually let go of every good thing He had, quite freely and from His own choice. He became less and less. He became a servant, and then a condemned criminal suffering torture on a cross. He didn’t take advantage of His privileged position, but gave everything up, in order to rescue you and me.

He’s not suddenly going to start being selfish and demanding now, is He? Instead, won’t He love and bless you (and me) more and more, as we give him more and more of ourselves?

Prayer: Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You didn’t even take advantage of Your privileged position of being equal to God, but laid Your life down for me. Please help me to trust You completely. Please heal me of all the pain from people I trusted in the past who have hurt me. I choose to release and forgive them and move on. I give You my hurting, lonely, weak self and thank You for giving me so much of You, Your wonderful, kind, patient, generous and accepting love. Amen.

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Devotional Message | God’s Strategy for His Victories in My Life

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

2 Samuel 5:24-25, NIV
As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam tress, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army. So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer'.

The moment David was anointed King over Israel he became a target for the enemies of Israel. In those days the Philistines were the chief enemies of God’s people, especially since the battle between Israel and the Philistines, in the days of King Saul, when David successfully killed Goliath with his sling and the first of his five smooth stones. There was no doubt that amongst the Philistines, David was probably the most hated of men. He had removed from them their champion, Goliath, and now he was King.

So the Philistines went up against King David ‘in full force to search for him’, (2 Samuel 5:17). But David was wise enough to ask the Lord what to do and as a result of hearing the Lord’s instruction, and then being obedient, the Philistines suffered a major defeat (2 Samuel 5:20-21). But before long the Philistines tried again. David might have thought ‘I’ll do just what the Lord told us to do last time’ – but if he had done that, he would have been defeated. David enquired of the Lord again what to do and God gave him a different strategy – to circle round the Philistine army and attack them from behind.

Then the Lord gave David the specific instruction which is our Scripture for today. Don’t move until you hear a rustling (the sound of marching) in the tops of the trees – and when you do, then move quickly. Once again David was obedient to the Lord and had another major victory.

There are four vital lessons out of this story. The first is this – whenever you face a difficulty, and don’t know what to do ‘Ask the Lord’. Secondly, when you know that God has spoken, obey. Thirdly, don’t presume that what happened last time will happen again – always go back to the Lord for his advice, even if circumstances look the same. Then fourthly, there will be times when you may need to wait for a sign from the Lord that now is the time to act.

If we carefully apply these vital lessons from the Word of God in our daily battling against our spiritual enemy, then we can be confident that He will go before us, as He did for David, and lead us into His victories.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are a God who answers the prayers of your children, when they look to you for guidance as David did. Help me, Lord, to be careful to listen to what You are saying to me, so that I will not fall into the traps of the enemy in the way I conduct my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | No Secrets from God!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 29:15, NIV
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?'

It seems very obvious that there is nothing in all of creation that can be hidden from God. There is nowhere in the universe we can go to escape His presence. He is everywhere – and how I praise God that He is everywhere. The world would be a pretty scary place if there were places where it was impossible to be in touch with Him. It’s not difficult to find a place where your mobile phone is out of reach of a signal – but it’s impossible to find a place which is out of reach of God.

And yet people behave as if this obvious fact is not a fact at all. They harbour secret sins in their mind, hide their ungodly behaviour from others, somehow or other thinking that if nobody else knows about it, then God doesn’t know about it either! We reduce the vision of God to that of physical humanity and are deceived by the enemy into thinking that there will never be any accounting for hidden works of darkness.

But the truth is that one day there will be an accounting. Everything that was hidden will be exposed for ‘nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account’ (Hebrews 4:13). And when that happens there will be nowhere for us to hide. I have come to realise that hidden sins stack up like secret bricks around our heart. The more bricks there are the more our heart is hidden from the love of God and the more artificial our relationships become with God and everyone else. Eventually we would finish up with a hardened heart and an artificial personality.

There is only one solution – repentance at the foot of the cross. There is only one solvent that can melt the hardest of hearts and that’s the love of Jesus. But not even the love of Jesus can melt away the hardness, if we don’t own the reality of what we’ve been doing and come before him in repentance. Better to shed genuine tears of repentance here, and experience the love of Jesus melting away the consequences of forgiven sin, than to try and keep things hidden and suffer the wrath of God in eternity. An open heart before God is quickly healed!

Prayer: I am so sorry, Lord, for the times when I have been deceived into thinking that I can hide things from you. Please forgive me, and help me to face reality about the hidden things of my past and live my life as an open book before you in the future. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Be Wiser Than Your Enemies!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 119:97-98, NIV
O how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.

Wisdom and knowledge are very different. Two different people could look at exactly the same sets of information and come to entirely different conclusions. The problem is this – our understanding varies according to both our perspective and our experience.

We may think we know what a familiar mountain looks like, but when we see that same mountain from a different direction it looks entirely different. It’s all a matter of what our perspective is. We may set out to climb the mountain a certain way, but discover it’s impossible to approach the summit from that direction. Whereas the man with experience of having climbed the mountain before, may set off in a direction that looks longer, but he will always get there first, because he has learned from experience.

The problem with life is that we can look at all the circumstances prevailing around us and be at a loss as to what is the right thing to do. Our knowledge is limited, our perspective is not perfect and we have limited experience. What we lack is the wisdom to know what to do. We may have the facts but we don’t have the understanding as to what to do with the facts!

But there is One who has all knowledge, and His perspective on events and circumstances is always just right. The Lord is not limited by the horizons of our own experience. On our journey through life we desperately need to be taking our instructions from Him. No wonder the Psalmist was able to say ‘your commands make me wiser than my enemies.’ When we hear and obey His voice we will always be on solid ground.

His wisdom is essential if we are going to make our way through this fallen world, in which the enemy of souls is constantly wanting to trip us up and take us off course. With His wisdom we will always be wiser than our enemies – as we acknowledge Him, He will make our paths straight and show us the way to go – every step of the way.

Prayer: Father God, I confess that many times I have depended on my own knowledge and experience and have not listened to your voice or taken note of what you have said in your Word. Help me, Lord, to look up to you for the wisdom that passes all human understanding so that I will be wiser than my enemies and experience your blessing on my path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Copying Dad

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Ephesians 5:1-2, NIV
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

In our early years we learn the most by copying our parents. We watch what they do, take it into our mind, think about it and then we imitate them. Often it is a huge shock to parents to see just how closely their children have been watching and copying them – and it seems as though the children find it easier to copy the bad things than the good things! What Mum and Dad do becomes the example they will follow.

God intended that the way godly parents conduct themselves would teach their own children about godliness. But what He didn’t intend was that mankind would use their free will to rebel against God and thereby conduct themselves in ways that are far from godly, thus introducing their children to the rebellious ways of their parents.

Paul was well aware of the problem in the Ephesian church. There was a lot of very ungodly behaviour which he was drawing their attention to in his letter. Then he tells them that there is only one way to put things right – to forget the ungodly lessons they have learnt from ungodly parents and start imitating their heavenly Father – the only Father who will always give us a good and right example to follow.

But if we’ve never seen God, how is it possible for us to imitate Him? The answer simply lies in the character and nature of His Son. For Jesus is a perfect imitation of His Father. When we look at Him, we can know exactly what the Father is like. And if we take our standard of living from His example, as opposed to the defective examples that many of us have had to follow, then He will build in us, and then in our children, an image of love – that sacrificial love which Jesus had for all people and which is constantly drawing people to Him and then to the Father.

When we imitate Him, our lives will be a fragrant offering to Father God, which will bless Him and then be a blessing to all with whom we are in contact for the rest of our days. We all have a wonderful Dad we can copy – and it’s wonderful to have His Son as our Brother!

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for showing us just what Your Father is like, so that we will know what a wonderful Heavenly Dad we all have. Help me, Lord, to do what Paul says and imitate Him, so that our lives will be a fragrant love offering to God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Walking with a Limp

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Genesis 27:41, NIV
Esau held a grudge against Jacob, because of the blessing his father had given him.

The English word, grudge, is so expressive. It sounds exactly like it’s meant to. Not very nice! Show me a person who is carrying a grudge against someone else, and I will show you a person who is limping through life with a serious disability. The extent of that disability is directly related to how deep and bitter the resentment is in the heart of the person who is bearing the grudge.

Esau bore a grudge against Jacob for the way he lost his father’s blessing. Jacob did not behave well and had cheated his brother. As a result Jacob had to be on the run for his life for many years, because of Esau’s grudge and his murderous anger. It destroyed the rest of Esau’s life too, and robbed him of so much.

The fundamental issue at the heart of carrying a grudge is always unforgiveness. When unforgiveness grows in intensity and become hatred, it turns into a grudge, and a person with a grudge can then turn in his anger against whoever has hurt him, sometimes even in violence. When a serious crime has been committed the police will always look for a motive for the killing. When they find it, so often they uncover a long-held grudge which has eventually become an uncontrollable force in the person’s life leading to them committing a crime.

I feel the Lord very specifically directed me to this Scripture for today, because there will be people who are reading this devotional who are carrying long-held grudges against certain individuals who, like Jacob did to Esau, have hurt them, robbed, them or cheated on them. What has happened is fact and cannot be changed. But there is one thing that can be changed – and that’s your attitude towards the person or persons involved. Carrying a grudge against them can only ever create more problems for you.

Unless you forgive, that grudge will be like a developing lameness in your character and personality, which will eventually rob you of your capacity to live and enjoy life. And it could even lead you to do something that you would forever regret.

I realise it may be hard, but may I encourage you to live the Lord’s prayer, and forgive, as you would want to be forgiven. Allow Jesus to take the pain and the hurt and trust Him with the outcome – and watch Him heal your limp as the change in your heart releases you from the bondage of the enemy – and, even, brings His blessing into the life of the person who hurt you. That is what Jesus did for us – won’t you do to others as you would want Him to do for you? Carrying a grudge is always destructive. Forgiveness is always life-transforming.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to forgive anyone against whom I’m carrying a grudge. I don’t want to be limping through the rest of my life because of the attitude of my heart. I do want to live the reality of the Lord’s Prayer. Help me to overcome the resistance of my own carnal nature and walk in your ways. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Father’s Delight!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 37:4, NIV
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Don’t you just love the promises of God?! Like any good dad, He rejoices to bless His children. He wants them, whenever possible, to know and to enjoy His provision and his blessing in their lives. But there’s a condition attached to the promise – it’s a simple one – first delight yourself in Him.

Now what does that mean? First and foremost it means you must know Him and love Him. You cannot delight yourself in someone you don’t like or love! If you have an idea that God’s not loveable then you will probably have had some difficult experiences in life, especially when you were young, that have made it difficult for you to trust and love God. God is able and willing to heal those as we forgive those who have hurt us.

Then, when you really love someone, it’s your joy and desire to find out what will bless them. And as you do so you discover that you are getting blessed yourself, and the things that you desire change, so that you are looking for those things that will be a blessing in your relationship with God. It’s in this process that we discover the amazing dynamic taking place that the desires of our heart have become the things that God wants to bless us with.

Yes, there are often tough times in life as well – but if our relationship with the Lord is right, then He will sustain us through the tough times and even then, we will discover the amazing truth that our desires, at those times also, are those that will bring joy to father God – and those things that bring joy to Him are also the things that will bless us the most!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your amazing love and that you delight to bless your children. I choose, Lord, to delight myself in you and trust you to then give me the desires that you fill my heart with. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Playing on the Beaches

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 13:14, NIV
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

On Boxing Day 2004, thousands of people were enjoying themselves on the beaches of Thailand. It was a glorious day for holiday makers from all over the world, who were enjoying a Christmas break in a warm and inviting climate. Conditions were idyllic when, quite suddenly, the sea began to go out exceptionally quickly. People were fascinated and confused by what was happening. Boats, that a few minutes earlier were bobbing happily on the water, were now stranded on the sand.

A few informed people knew what was happening and began to flee the beaches and head off inland as fast as they could possibly go. But the majority were left playing on the empty beach. Far out to see the biggest wave that anyone had ever seen was gaining momentum, as the sea was simply responding to the consequences of a huge, underwater earthquake. Even when the huge wave could be seen approaching the beach, it was beyond their comprehension and people had no idea what to do. The majority were just swept up in an unstoppable torrent of water. On that day about 250,000 people lost their lives in the biggest tsunami the modern world had ever seen.

This is all fresh in my mind because I’ve just watched a film made up of the video clips from the cameras of those who were caught up in it all. The frightening suddenness of the tsunami was totally overwhelming. But as my wife and I watched the unforgettable images of disaster we realised that not only were the pictures a record of unparalleled disaster, but they were also a parable for an unthinking world.

None of us have any idea when Jesus will return, or what traumas the world will have to endure before that great and terrible day when God winds up the clock of the ages, but right now it feels as though the tide has gone out on the beaches of life and the world’s people are playing on them as if there’s no particular problem. They don’t see the terrible consequences that will one day come, as a result of the hidden earthquakes that are shaking the world’s financial, political, religious and moral systems. In recent months the world’s financial systems have been severely shaken. The tide is going out and it seems as though a world shaking tsunami is gathering momentum.

There is only one place where mankind can be safe when such a ‘tsunami hits the beaches’ and that’s to be hidden in Christ. He is our only absolute security, for, as our Scripture for today says, we don’t have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Christ has gone on ahead. he is preparing a place for us. He is our, and the world’s, only hope. How important it is that we know who we are trusting in, and that we pray with greater intensity and urgency for the people who are playing on the beaches, ignorant of what is happening.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that in You I have absolute security and that even though we have no enduring safety, in You we have eternal security. Open my eyes, Lord, to the needs of those around me so that I may use every opportunity to warn those who are unconcerned about the need, to urgently find their place in the Kingdom of God – where believers will dwell in our eternal and enduring city. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Grow Up!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Ephesians 4:14-15, NIV
Then we will no longer be infants . . . instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him, who is the Head, that is Christ.

Children don’t behave like adults! They have so much to learn when they are very young. It is only little by little that they grow in understanding and behaviour and develop their character and potential in God. Everyone is so happy to see the children grow up like this to maturity. That was God’s desire and intention from the beginning.

But if a person should remain a child, way beyond the years of childhood, it would be obvious to everyone that something was seriously wrong. How sad it is that so many people in the Body of Christ do remain like children in matters of faith and doctrine and living the Christian life, but hardly anyone seems to notice!

It is vital that those who are the Pastors (shepherds of the sheep), should be encouraged to speak the truth in love to people, so that they will take up their responsibility to grow up in Christ, teaching them how to grow to maturity as believers and disciples of Jesus. For if they don’t, the witness of the Body of Christ to the society in which we live will always be weak and less effective than God intended.

Each and everyone of us is an evangelist to our friends, neighbours and family. It’s so important that our witness to them, should be one of Christian maturity and love. Jesus called us to follow Him and that also means being an agent for the King as we represent His Kingdom on Planet Earth!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to recognise those areas of my Christian life where I have not grown to maturity, so that I can grow up and be more effective witness for the Kingdom of God in the community in which I live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Waiting in Hope!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Micah 7:7, NIV
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.

When I was a child, Christmas Day was the most exciting day of the year. My brother and I would wait in great expectancy for Christmas morning. But it wasn’t just us who were excited. Mum and Dad were just as excited as they watched with great pleasure and joy at our reactions when the annual pillow-case was opened long before dawn. I can remember even now some of the childhood gifts that made the greatest impact on me!

For hundreds of years God’s people had hung on to the promises of the prophets. One day they knew there would be an astonishing event that would transform the world, when God himself would fulfil the expectations of the waiting people and their Messiah, God their Saviour as Micah described Him, would come.

But as the centuries rolled by and the people of God went through times of great distress, you can understand their constant questioning of God as to when it was all going to happen. But each time one of God’s prophets spoke out what was on the heart of God, it seemed as though the promised coming of the Messiah was still on God’s agenda. And that was what Micah was saying in our verse for today – ‘I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour.’ He’s still coming!

Just as children feel that Christmas will never come, but eventually it does. God’s people thought Messiah would never come, but then He suddenly did. We have so much to rejoice in and give thanks to God for. Sadly, most of the Jewish peoples didn’t recognise Him when he came. But today we are seeing a new day dawning, with more and more Jewish Messianic believers joining with the Gentile believers and together worshipping our Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

I pray that this Christmas will be a time of great rejoicing for you and your family as you look to the One who is Saviour and Redeemer – the one who opened up the way for all God’s children to enter once again into relationship with Father God. Just as my parents rejoiced at how we loved our presents – Father God rejoices when we welcome His Son – the greatest gift the world has ever known!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that your promises were gloriously fulfilled in Jesus. Thank you that this Christmas awe can celebrate the fact that Jesus came and that we can look forward to the time when He comes again. Thank you for the joy of knowing the One who is God my Saviour. In His Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | True Discipleship

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

John 8:31, NIV
To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.

There’s a certain pride in men, and maybe in some women as well, that wants people to believe they can do things, without anyone else telling them how to do it! Commonly, for example, people will set about assembling a piece of equipment without first reading the instructions. Eventually when all their efforts have failed and somehow or other the equipment doesn’t look or function like it should, they will dig out the instructions and start again!

Sadly, many believers adopt a similar approach to living the Christian life – they try and work it out for themselves, without reference to the instruction manual. Often, it’s only when things seem to be getting really out of order that people begin to think they may have got something wrong. And by the time that happens there could be serious problems in their life.

Many people look to Jesus for the freedom He has promised, thinking that, as believers, such freedom is theirs by right. They can’t understand why God isn’t answering their prayers! Our Scripture for today contains one of the most important keys to the problem. Of course, it’s true, that Jesus wants people to know His freedom and experience His healing. Jesus says as much when he clearly states that ‘the truth will set you free’.

But before that, He equally clearly says there’s a condition attached to the freedom He promises, and that is ‘if you hold to my teaching’. Or, in other words, if you read the instructions and put them into practice in your life! A disciple is not just someone who believes in the truth, but someone who obeys it. And that is the vital point that Jesus is making.

As believers we can expect God to honour the promises in His word, but only when we fulfil any conditions that are attached to them. In order to fulfil the conditions, we first need to know what they are – or read the instructions! The Bible is God’s instruction manual for the human race – if we ignore it our pride will always get us into trouble!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You not only want us to know Your freedom, but You loved us enough to teach us what it means to follow and obey You. Forgive me Lord for my pride of wanting You to bless me when there are things in my life which are not in line with Your will and purposes. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Are You Lost?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

John 14:5-6, NIV
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.”

Sometimes life is a bit like an unknown jungle or a maze!

In the jungle, there are tall trees rising up out of heavy undergrowth, interspersed with many different tracks and pathways and, apparently, no signposts. I once watched a film, telling the story of what happened to a boy who was lost in the forests of the Pacific North West. Whichever way he looked, all the pathways through the forest looked the same – there was no indication whatsoever as to which was the way out. From ground level the jungle is an impossible barrier to escape from.

In many of our great houses, the gardeners built a maze of thick, high hedges, for the entertainment of the family and visitors. The more complicated the maze the harder it was to get to the seat where you could rest in the middle of the maze. But once in, there was only one way out and it’s easy to get trapped.

If you are high up, however, you can look down on the jungle or the maze, and see at a glance which is the right way to go to get out of the mess you’re in. And if you’re on the ground and have a mobile phone, the person who is high up, looking down on you, can easily direct your steps, so that you know exactly which direction to go at any moment of time.

Long before man invented the mobile phone God showed man how He could speak directly into the hearts of His children. He didn’t need a phone, but we did need to have our ears of the spirit open to listen in to the communication channel we call prayer. He is high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1) and from His vantage point He can see everything that’s happening. No matter how thick the jungles of life may be or how complicated the maze seems to be, we don’t need to be lost.

Jesus expressed this wonderful truth so simply, but powerfully when He said to Thomas “I am the way!” It’s not a pathway we need to follow – it’s a Person – a Person who can see the way ahead and who longs to speak to His children and give them the benefit of His wisdom and direction. He has promised that He will show us His way for our lives. One of the songs we used to sing at our Church Youth Group was:

‘My Lord, knows the way through the wilderness,

All I have to do is follow!”

The words may be simple, but they are incredibly profound. Following Him requires us to humble ourselves, submit to His authority in our lives and walk in obedience – and we will find then our way out of the jungles or the mazes of life.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you have promised to show me the way. Help me to have my ears always open to listen to your voice so that I can know where to put my feet on my journey through life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | A True Word

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Revelation 22:6, NIV
The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

If you know a word can be trusted because it is true, then you can stake your life on it. I once crossed the notorious Morecambe Bay sands on foot.

They are notorious because when the tide comes in across the sands, it can travel at the speed of a galloping horse and many is the walker who has been caught out by the incoming tide, sometimes at the cost of his own life. A few years ago some Chinese cocklers were gathering the cockles from the sands at low tide and a number of them died because they had misjudged the speed with which the water was coming in.

But the sands are not just dangerous because of the incoming tides, Morecambe Bay has many areas of quicksands which will not hold the weight of a person, and it is very easy to be sucked down into the sands. Some have never been seen again!

So how did I get across the sands safely? Because I was being taken across by Cedric Robinson who knows the sands and their dangers so well that he has made a successful career of guiding walkers across the Bay. When Cedric says walk here, you know it’s safe – he’s crossed the Bay hundreds of times. His word is trustworthy.

When the angel spoke to John, and John wrote it down, you can know that the testimony is trustworthy because it’s true. Many people have tried to discredit the prophecies of Scripture, but as the centuries roll by, more and more events demonstrate the truth of the Word of God. We can trust what God says in His Word.

This world is coming to an end. There is still time for people to find their Saviour, but for how much longer? No-one knows, but one thing we do know, Jesus is offering the free gift of the water of life now to all who come to Him (Revelation 22:17). His word can be totally trusted and revelation tells us He is coming again. Hallelujah!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that Your word tells us the truth about your first coming and the truth that You are coming again. Help me, Lord, to so live that I will always be ready for when that moment comes. Amen

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Devotional Message | Has God Moved Your Heart?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Ezra 1:5, NIV
Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites – everyone whose heart God had moved – prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

If you are gathering a group of people to share in a task together, what sort of people do you want on your team? Would you like to have people who didn’t want to be there, but who were helping you out of a sense of duty? How about people who didn’t really agree with what you were doing? How about those who were full of pride and were always wanting to do their own thing, instead of what was needed to be done?

How about those who would say ‘Yes’ to your face, but then go off and have a quiet sleep somewhere? And would you like to have people who talked about you behind your back, always trying to undermine your leadership? I’m sure you could think of a few other categories of folk that it would not be good to have on your team!

The job in hand was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. God only wanted people on Ezra’s team who really wanted to be there – and not because Ezra had asked them to join the team, but because God had already spoken into their hearts, and they wanted to be there because this was their place of calling in Him.

I’d rather have a team of unskilled people who are willing to learn, but whose hearts are totally right towards God, than a team of experienced and skilled folk who didn’t want to be there. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus was selecting the disciples, who would form the foundational team for the Church, he didn’t select anyone who had prior skills at teaching, leading prayer meetings or any of the other things that church leaders might do. He chose those whose hearts God had moved to respond to the call, ‘Come, follow me.’

If God has called you to something, and you really know it’s God, then go and do it with all your might. And if you are a leader always look for those whose hearts God has moved, to join you in the task – they are the ones who will faithfully give their all for the sake of the Kingdom.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the privilege of sharing with you in the work of the Kingdom of God. Help me always to do those things that you have called me to do, with all my heart and all my strength. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Give Thanks – and Speak It Out!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 107:1-2, NIV
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this – those he redeemed from the hand of the foe.

I recently saw a most amazing piece of video, taken in one of the game parks of South Africa. A young buffalo was attacked by a pride of lions on the edge of a watering hole. The lions were about to drag the baby buffalo away for a good meal when suddenly, out of the water, sprung a huge crocodile, which grabbed the other end of the baby buffalo! At this point the traumatised baby was being pulled in two directions – by a lion that had it by the head and by a crocodile which had its rear end! It looked an impossible situation for the young buffalo. It was either going to be food for a crocodile or food for the lions.

But suddenly a whole herd of buffalo appeared on the edge of the watering hole. The emergency signal had gone out and the whole herd came at a gallop to rescue one of their own. To see a large lion being tossed into the air on the horns of a buffalo was an amazing sight. The crocodile lost its grip and slid back into the water and the young buffalo gave itself a shake and went off shielded on all sides by the herd. It was a totally extraordinary rescue act in what seemed an impossible situation!

As I watched that video I suddenly saw myself as that young buffalo, being targeted by all the powers of darkness who were wanting to pull me in all sorts of directions and rob me of my destiny, even my very life. Then over the horizon I saw my Redeemer, surrounded by the hosts of Heaven come to my rescue. He tossed the enemy (the roaring lion of 1 Peter 5:8) aside as if it was powerless, and all the powers of darkness fled before Him and I found myself being comforted by the angels as I walked away from the scene. I had been redeemed!

And I sure wanted to tell everyone what my Redeemer had done for me. I wanted to shout it out that the roaring lion had been defeated by the Lion of Judah and that ‘Leviathan, the gliding serpent, the monster of the sea (the crocodile)’ (Isaiah 27:1) had been defeated by my God. And that He had redeemed me out of the jaws of death. Yes, ‘let the redeemed of the Lord say so’ – let’s not be shy about celebrating the most amazing deliverance in the history of the world, when the Lord rose in triumph, victorious over death and all the powers of darkness.

Prayer: Thank You so much, Jesus, that You are my Redeemer - the one who rescued me from all the powers of darkness, from the roaring lions and from the leviathans that would want to attack me. I am SO grateful and want to tell the world what You have done for me. Amen.

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Devotional Message | Is it Time to Get Moving?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Deuteronomy 1:6 and 8, NIV
The Lord your God said to us at Horeb, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites” ... See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession.’

I was once given some wise advice – stay where you are until the Lord moves you on. But when He pushes, get moving! The fact is, if we stay put when the Lord has said Move, we will always miss out on God’s best for us.

The time had come for Moses to move on in his extraordinary pilgrimage through the desert with two million Israelites – God had a purpose, great blessing and a destination for them. Sadly, they all missed the blessing by refusing to do what God had said. As a result they spent forty years wandering through the desert wilderness before they reached their destination.

I will never forget talking with an elderly man, who told me all the times that God had spoken to him about leaving his business job and responding to the call on his life to be a missionary. It was a very sad tale. For as he told me the story I was thinking about all the things he could have done for the Lord, had he been obedient - and all the eternal rewards he had missed out on, by staying put when God had said move. His ‘desert pilgrimage’ had also been forty years, and a bit more.

I often think about that man and I pray now, that as you read this short devotional today, you will take the opportunity to make sure you are in the place of God’s calling and appointing, or whether this might be a time when God is saying to you ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain . . .’ It’s great to stay put if God has said this is your place. It’s just as great to move on when he says "move". If God is encouraging you to move, pray for the wisdom of God so that you will be sure to end up at the right destination – in God’s timing and not yours.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you love me enough to give me a push when I need to move on. Help me to always be listening for your gentle voice so that I can know from you what it is you want me to do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Broken but Loved

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 34:18, NIV
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

I once knew a man who always had eyes for those who were hurting. He would look out for people who were the ‘underdogs’ of life. People who had little going for them in life and who had few natural advantages. He would come alongside them and make friends.

God had shown him that his mission in life was to be a friend to the people who had no friends, especially young people with their lives before them. The Lord showed him how to be generous to those who had very little of their own resources and to understand that these young people were just as precious to the Lord as the high achievers, who had got it all together and knew where they were going.

Many of those young people were rescued from a life of rejection and inner pain, by a man who believed in them and simply loved them into life. Where did he get such love from?

There is only one possible source – the God who inspired the Psalmist to write the words of our text, was also at the centre of this man’s life. Jesus may not at this time be walking this Earth physically, but He is, in and through the lives of those who truly love Him. For if we really do love the Lord, then we will also really love those who, for whatever reason, are disadvantaged. Annie Flint’s poem sums this up so well:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way

He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

So when you read in the Word of God passages like this, about God being close to the brokenhearted, you can certainly rejoice, but don’t forget that God may be asking you to be God with flesh on and show the world what God is really like!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care about every single human being, and that all are equally precious to You. Forgive me for not being ‘God with skin on’ for some of the people I’ve met. Open my eyes to see people with your eyes and Your understanding and respond to them with Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Blessing of a Godly Rebuke

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 15:31-32, NIV
He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

Some of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned came through making mistakes. I had parents who loved me enough to rebuke and correct me when I got things wrong – especially when I had done something deliberately, knowing it was wrong! I never felt as though I was being punished unfairly when I was ‘told off’ in love. While I didn’t like the experience, I knew it was just and fair and for my own good.

Once, however, at school, I was punished for something I hadn’t done and I felt the deep pain of injustice on the inside. There was nothing I could do to prove my innocence and I had to take my punishment – a compulsory cross-country run, followed by a prefect on a bicycle! But even today, although the person who punished me unfairly has long been forgiven, I can still sense the feelings of injustice I had at the time.

Correct and fair discipline is good for us. We can learn so much through the experience of being rightly corrected. I fear that in our very liberal society, we are growing a generation of children who will not have the privilege of becoming wise through loving rebuke. We are sowing a wind, and in time we will reap a whirlwind of consequence.

God is the very best of fathers. He knows when we need encouragement and also when we need the rebuke of love. He doesn’t want us to miss out on learning the vital lessons of life – and even when He rebukes us, it is a form of encouragement! There may be times when He uses the events of life to bring His discipline into our circumstances. When that happens, let’s not rebel against His love, but thank Him that He really cares for us and carefully note the lesson He has been teaching us, so that the discipline will contribute to our growing in maturity.

Prayer: Thank you Father God, that You love me enough to bring correction into my life when I need it. Help me always to remember the lessons You teach me in love, so that I may grow up into the maturity of really knowing and serving You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Small in Size, Big in Influence!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

James 3:3-4, NIV
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

James is using these two powerful illustrations about a horse and a ship, as a parable to speak to us about how potentially dangerous a very small member of the body – the tongue – can actually be. On the rare occasions that I have ridden a horse, I found that I could, indeed, direct the horse with just a gentle pull on the reins. And on the even rarer occasions when I’ve visited the bridge of a ship, I have been amazed at just how easily someone could turn the wheel, which controlled the rudder, and which then changed the direction of a huge vessel.

James tells us that the tongue has the potential to be like a spark starting a forest fire, or to corrupt the way of life of a person so badly, that it is like hell fire, or full of deadly poison. What a reputation the tongue had in James’ estimation. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of saying the wrong things on occasions and wishing we could take back the words we have said. But that’s one thing we can never do.

Was James over-reacting? For surely the tongue can be a source of great blessing as well? Of course it can and if I were to stop and think for a moment I could remember many wonderful moments when people spoke things into my life or teachings that I had heard, or words of encouragement and love, such as from my Mum or my Dad. But I can also think of times when people said very cruel and uncalled for things and caused much damage and pain.

But let’s not blame the tongue for what the mouth speaks. In reality the tongue is a neutral, physical part of the body! All the tongue does is express the thoughts that we have in our mind. The mouth speaks what the heart is full. So it’s what’s in the heart that really matters – if we guard the mind from thinking evil thoughts, then the tongue won’t speak evil things.

Perhaps we would all do well to speak less and listen more – so that, when we do speak, the tongue will not be in danger of letting us down by saying ungodly or untruthful or unkind things. Perhaps, also, we should consciously be praying that the Holy Spirit will fill our mouth with good things so that the words we speak will always be a blessing and an encouragement to others. We do not want to be guilty of starting fires with wrong words or of steering the ship of our lives onto ‘the rocks’, so that our vessel will be wrecked.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the power of speech and for the wonderful way you gave us to be able to communicate with each other. But Lord, I want to confess, there are times when I’ve said wrong things and hurt people. Please forgive me and freshly anoint me with your Holy Spirit that my tongue will always be a blessing and never be a curse on anyone else’s life or cause damage to my own. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Greatest Gain on Earth!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 Timothy 6:6-7, NIV
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

“I made £29,000 from £400 in four months!” So screamed the bright red letters on an envelope which came in the mail this week. Inside were details of a great new betting programme which was ‘guaranteed’ to make money for the enthusiastic gambler! I didn’t waste much time reading it, but it did make me think about the vast number of people there are in this world whose contentment is only measured in how much money they are making and how they’re making it.

The love of money, says Paul, is the root of all evil - not money itself, but the love of it (1 Timothy 6:10). For the love of money is the beginning of idolatry. And idols will always demand their allegiance – and they never bring contentment. If you make money your goal, it will become your god, and you will never be satisfied with what you’ve got (when and if you get it), as it’s the process of making money that is the real idol. So, once you’ve got what you wanted, you have to try and get more to satisfy that inner addiction to your false identity as a money-maker.

On the other hand, godliness is something we cannot achieve by our efforts, it is only achieved through submission of our wills to the will of God and allowing Him to change us from the inside out. You will never see a mailing advertising £10,000 worth of godliness at a bargain price! It cannot be bought.

To be content with godliness is an extraordinary blessing, for therein lies the key not only to life on earth, but life in Heaven. For as our Scripture reminds us, no matter how much money we have we cannot take it with us – any of it! But godliness goes with us. It is the currency of Heaven and we can’t leave it behind. So a godly person has every reason to be content. They have treasure in Heaven that the gamblers on earth could never gain – even if they broke the bank of Monte Carlo a thousand times over!

Let’s fix our eyes on gaining treasure in Heaven and be content with whatever material goods we have here on Earth.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for reminding me that godliness is the real treasure of life. Help me not to focus on things I cannot take with me when I die, and be content with your provision for my needs here on Earth. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | An Undefendable City

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 25:28, NIV
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

Not long ago my wife and I visited Hadrian’s Wall – that huge stone wall which crosses from the west to the east of northern England. It was built by the Romans to protect this furthermost border of the Roman Empire from the wild and dangerous Scots, who lived in the hill country beyond the wall! As I looked at this amazing structure, much of which still stands strong and wide today, after nearly two thousand years, I imagined how difficult it would be for invaders to cross the wall in the face of the constant patrols of Roman soldiers, who paraded up and down the wall, twenty four hours a day.

There are many ancient cities in the world also, which are surrounded by high strong walls as a defence against invading armies. It was news of the broken down walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:3) which moved Nehemiah’s heart, as he prayed for his home city and his people. The news that the walls were still broken down and the gates burnt brought him to grief. He knew God was calling him to do something about it. Nehemiah’s book covers the whole story from beginning to end, of how God used him to take on and complete the task and thus restore the safety of the city. Without complete walls, the city was defenceless.

Our Scripture today likens the broken down walls of a city to the broken down walls of a person’s life. Control of our conduct and behaviour is a vital protection against the invasion of the enemy into our lives. Paul explained very carefully in Galatians 6:7-8 how there are consequences for not living a life which is self-controlled and in godly order. The fact is, that a city with broken down walls is undefendable – and equally, a person’s life which is out of control, is also undefendable.

Without the Holy Spirit none of us will have the strength to resist the attacks of the enemy – we all need that spirit of self-control that the Lord will give us if we ask Him. The problem is that many people enjoy too much the things that come in through the gap in our defences, and the Lord can’t help us win a battle which we actually want to lose! Let’s first pray that God will give us the desire for all the gaps in our defences to be filled in and then ask Him to show us how to do it. Then our lives will be strong and effective for Him – and what’s more, we will be more blessed than we ever dreamed possible!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to identify those areas of my life where there are gaps in the defences of my soul. I choose now to want to have defendable walls, so that the enemy will no longer have access to the centre of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | How’s Your Soul Getting Along?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

3 John 1 and 2, NIV
To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

I’ve just been to watch a football match. My home town team, Blackburn Rovers, were playing Aston Villa in the Premier League. They were not expected to win, but, amazingly, our team came out on top, over a team that are much higher up the league than they are. It was a great win. Before the game, I’d seen the jubilant Aston Villa supporters almost dancing towards the Rovers ground at Ewood Park. They were expecting to win and at that time were feeling great.

But when the match was over the Villa supporters were stunned into silence. Their physical behaviour reflected how they were feeling about their surprise defeat. The Rovers supporters were, of course, jubilant. They were on top of the world. Their team had won and they were going home happy. And so was I. But the Aston Villa supporters were as sick as the proverbial parrot!

This was only a football match, but as I looked at the demeanour of the two groups of supporters I was reminded that how we feel physically, is often directly related to the condition of our soul – to how we are feeling about other things. John totally understood this truth when he wrote to his friend Gaius. He was concerned for Gaius’ health, and so he prayed that Gaius’ body would be as healthy as his soul.

I’ve often had to pray for people who have been ill for a long time. Sometimes with conditions which don’t seem to be responding to any form of medical treatment. At times like this I remember John’s comment about Gaius and start asking a few leading questions about the condition of their soul. Time and again I have quickly discovered that the person has been very unhappy for a whole variety of reasons. Sometimes because of rejection, at other times abuse, occasionally because of betrayal or some form of damaging relationship breakdown. Often there has been bitterness and unforgiveness in the heart against other people. Truth exposed opens the door of healing for the heart.

It never ceases to surprise me how often people get physically healed, when the inner conditions of the soul are brought to the light and have been properly dealt with before the Lord, according to the ways of the Lord revealed in His word. If only our souls could always be kept in good health, I suspect that many of the conditions that people struggle with might also get healed!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for showing us that there is sometimes a relationship between how I am feeling on the inside and my physical health. Help me to always be sensitive to the inner voice of your Spirit so that I may not allow situations to develop in my soul, that might make me ill. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Canalside Drama!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 40:1-3, NIV
‘I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in God.

This morning I watched as a drama unfolded before my very eyes! I was out walking our dog, Harris, when I noticed a cow stuck in the mud on the other side of the canal. It was deeply embedded in the mire, totally unable to move. Immediately, I set off to tell the farmer, but my desire to help was like a prayer to God when he says, ‘Before they call I will answer’ (Isaiah 65:24). For I then saw that the farmer was already on his way!

A tractor was coming across the field, headed straight for the stranded cow. No human effort alone could have got this large and heavy cow out of the mess she was in. So the farmer put a strong rope round the cow’s neck and attached the other end to the front of his tractor. Then, reversing gently away, he pulled the cow out of the mire and dragged her to safe ground. It was rough treatment, but for the cow it was salvation! The cow was very muddy and obviously exhausted, but could now recover from her ordeal in safety.

As I watched the scene unfold, I was reminded of our scripture for today. The whole of the human race was sinking deep in the mire of sin. No human effort could lift humanity out of the mess. Because of the weight of its own sin, mankind was sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. It needed a Farmer with a ‘divine tractor’ to come and take charge.

But instead of the Farmer putting the rope round our necks, it was Jesus who endured the ‘rough treatment’ for us, so that our feet may once again be placed on a rock of certainty. When He rescued us the mud of the world covered us. The cleansing flow of the blood of Jesus is all we need to be cleaned up and released into living a new life with and for Him.

As I watched, the rescued cow struggled to its feet again, to carry on grazing in the field. I realised that the muddy hole was still there and the cow would now have to be careful not to fall back in. The enemy of souls hates it when God’s children are rescued and, like the cow, we must constantly be on our guard not to fall back into the enemy’s mud. Let’s resolve now to stay on the rock and build our lives on the security of His love. And may there be many who will be amazed at what God has done in our lives and as a result choose to put their trust in Him.

Prayer: Thank you for the lessons you show us from our experiences in life. Thank you for rescuing me from the miry clay and for putting my feet on the rock. Help me to stay there, anchored by the security of Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Beginning of Wisdom

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 9:10-11, NIV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

Everyone would like to live longer! Here in this scripture is one of the primary keys for extending the days of our life. But it is not a key that too many people want to use, for using it requires a determination to make sure that God has priority in all of life's choices. The carnal nature and the ways of the world are always opposed to the ways of God and obedience to the Word of God is always at odds with the desires of the flesh.

I frequently hear or read of people whose lives were tragically terminated in needless accidents from drink and driving, or through drugs or a disease that was contracted as a result of their sexual lifestyle. It is easy to see how such people would have lived a lot longer, if a holy fear of grieving the God who loves them had been the motivation of their life choices.

When people know and love the Lord and have a knowledge of Him and His ways, then they will want to carefully plan their lives according to the will of God - for this will be their desire and their joy. And as Nehemiah said, "the joy of the Lord shall be your strength". (Nehemiah 8:10)

When we truly walk in the ways of God, then the days of our life are surely in the hands of the Lord, but if we choose to walk in the paths of the enemy then we are using our free will to give Satan authority over our destiny. For example, Proverbs 6:22-23 tells us that those who go down to the house of the adulteress (or adulterer) are treading a pathway that leads to death. And in Psalm 91 we read that it is those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High who are under His protection, for He becomes their "refuge and fortress".

I passionately believe that when we live in the holy fear of the living God, and walk in His ways, then we are denying the enemy the opportunity to shorten our days through the law of sowing and reaping being applied in our lives (Galatians 6:7-8). None of us can determine just how many our days shall be, but it is good to know we can extend them by taking seriously the scriptural encouragement to live godly lives.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to always make godly choices in my life so that my days will be extended and the enemy will not be able to use my sinfulness to undermine the work of God in my life. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Folly of Worthless idols

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Jonah 2:8-9, NIV
Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.

Jonah was in the belly of the fish. He lay there with seaweed wrapped round his head, having the ride of his life in an under-water roller-coaster from which there was no escape. It’s amazing how being in impossible situations changes the intensity and urgency of your prayer life. Repentance comes easily when the only obvious solution to the problem is imminent death and an earlier than expected appointment with one’s Maker!

There was no doubt that Jonah was seeing things from a new perspective – very different from the perspective he had when running away from the appointment with destiny in Nineveh, which God had planned for him. Anything which comes between a servant of God and the God he is serving is an idol.

Jonah did not want to go and preach to such a wicked people. The idol in Jonah’s heart was selfishness driven by fear. But it was a worthless idol - and as a result he was now forfeiting all the grace that would have been his, if he had obeyed God first time round and gone to Nineveh.

“Oh God – I’m sorry. I’ll make good my vow to serve you! Whatever you want, I’ll do! Even go to Nineveh, Lord. But God, it’s rather difficult just now – I’ve got a bit of a problem. There doesn’t seem any way off this roller-coaster. Is there anything you can do about it?” And with that the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah up onto dry land. Jonah’s premature appointment with his Maker had been postponed.

There are so many lessons in this amazing story, but the most important one for today prompts me to ask the question, “Are you running from any of God’s plans and purposes for your life?” If so, may I encourage you to get on your knees before God, deal with any worthless idols that have stood between you and obedience, and look to God for His grace as you ask Him how to put things right between you and Him.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for this amazing lesson from your Word. Help me to examine my own heart and see if there are any ways in which I have been running from your calling upon my life. I want to put things right – please show me how. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Devotional Message | Living Water and Crack-free Cisterns!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 2:13, NIV
My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

There were many different things that God’s people did when they turned their back on the living God – the list of sins that would be needed to describe all their ungodly activities would have been very long! But when, through the prophet Jeremiah, God began to speak words of rebuke, he reduced all their sinful behaviour into just two categories.

Firstly, they had deserted the only source of living water and secondly, they had tried to generate their own ‘water supply’ as a substitute for the living water that flows from the heart of God.

In Israel, underground cisterns were vital for the storage of water for use during the dry season. Without a good cistern people would die through lack of water. A cracked cistern was useless, water would flow into it alright. But the water would all leak away through the cracks so that when the water was most needed, there would be no water there.

God uses this picture to speak to His people about what they had been doing. He uses the need for physical water as a parable of the need for the living spiritual water, which sustains God’s people through all the ups and downs of life. The first sin of God’s people was to decide that they wanted an alternative source of supply, so instead of constantly coming back to the only source of living water, they did what mankind has tried to do throughout history – they built their own cistern, which embraced everything from idolatry to sexual immorality. They finished up believing that good was bad and bad was good and going in the opposite direction to the ways of God.

God had provided for them everything that was needful for living in covenant relationship with the God who had created the world and everything in it. But pride in the heart of man will always want to build an alternative way, and say it’s better than what God provided in the first place. Ultimately this is the foundation for every alternative belief system, false religion or moral order that has ever risen up in the heart of man and practised on the face of the earth.

It’s easy to look at the people of Jeremiah’s day and ask, “How could they?” But all we need to do is look at our own generation and see that 21st century man is no different. Part of the reason why I believe God put the vision for Ellel 365 into my heart was to ensure that within Ellel Ministries there’s a constant flow of living water from God’s Word and that people are able to know how to build a cistern in their own lives that is sound and without cracks.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to only ever want the living water which flows from your heart to the heart of man. And give me the determination to rebuild sound and crack-free cisterns in my own life, so that the Water of Life will always be available to me throughout my days – even in seasons of drought. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | The Naked Truth!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Ecclesiastes 5:13-15, NIV
“I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him. Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labour that he can carry in his hand.”

Recently there was a terrible robbery. An elderly and very wealthy couple were murdered in their home. Their wealth had been hoarded and, as referred to in our scripture, it had brought awful disaster upon them. Another person with great personal wealth used his money to make more and more money and amass a fortune. But in a great financial crash much of what he owned disappeared overnight. Wealth that could have been used to provide for the family, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, restore the hurting and broken and build the Kingdom of God was lost in a moment of time. People store money up as if they and their money will be there forever, trusting that their wealth will always be their security.

It always amazes me how blind people can be, to the very salutary and very obvious truth that is at the heart of today’s scripture - we can take no more out of the world than we brought into it! Money is a great servant, but a very bad master and when God gives the increase to the labours of our lives, we have a great responsibility to ensure that whatever these resources prove to be, they are a servant and not a master. No wonder there is so much in Scripture about the blessing that comes from godly giving and warning about how the love of money can become a root of all kinds of evil.

It’s not wrong to make money, but when money becomes an idol, the god of this world can start paying some very ungodly wages! As one commentator said, ‘Treat money like your God, And it will plague you like the devil!’

John Wesley got the balance right when he said of money, ‘Get all you can, save all you can and give all you can!’ If we have a healthy attitude towards giving it away, it will never become an idol and the more we use our money as a servant of the living God, the more money God will entrust us with to use for his glory. There are people who die exceedingly rich but, sadly, possessing little treasure that will be useful to them in the world to come. There are others who may die poor, but the riches of their lives have gone ahead, and for them there will be great treasure in Heaven!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all the resources you have entrusted me with. Help me to use them wisely throughout my life and never to focus on how much treasure I have on earth, but on how much spiritual treasure is laid up for me in glory! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Wholesome Thinking

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

2 Peter 3:1, NIV
“Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.”

Recently I was praying with a group of friends and skimming through my Bible at the same time looking for inspiration. Suddenly my eyes lighted on our verse for today – a verse I had never noticed before, even though I must have read it many times!

In this verse Peter was telling his readers the somewhat unusual reason why he had written his letters, not to urge them forward to some great act of spiritual commitment, or to correct their sinful actions, or to teach them some important new truths – even though all of these are implicit in different parts of his letters - but to stimulate them to wholesome thinking.

Peter knew what he wanted to do – he was concerned above all that God’s people should understand a principle that would stand them in good stead for the rest of their days. Practical advice on a particular issue is often important and valuable – but if you can teach people a principle to live by you have given them advice that will hold true for hundreds of occasions.

Everything we do in life – whether it be good or bad – always begins with a thought. Then as we think about it, we decide to do it and finally we involve our body in the action that began as a thought. Now, if our thinking is always wholesome, then it’s obvious that the actions that follow will also be wholesome. But if in our minds we dwell on the ungodly, the unwholesome, the crude, the selfish and the greedy, to quote but a few possibilities, then our consequential actions will also be a reflection of what we’ve been thinking. What a contrast between the two sets of actions!

Peter’s advice holds good for us now. No wonder Paul encouraged us to take every thought captive, for if we control our thinking then our ways will truly be guided by the Lord into the ways of righteousness and the ways of blessing.

Prayer: Help me Lord to always think about godly things and to stop myself thinking about the ungodly so that my actions will be in line with whatever is pure and holy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | A Hole in the Ground!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 7:15-16, NIV
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head.

When I opened yesterday’s newspaper I couldn’t help but laugh. I was looking at the pathetically humorous picture of a young elephant that had fallen through a drainage cover on a road in Thailand. The elephant was completely helpless, unable to move, trapped by its own weight and staring up its trunk with a pair of huge eyes that simply said, “How did I get myself into this mess?” Don’t worry, they did, eventually, get the elephant out!

But as I looked at that picture, my smiles slowly disappeared as I realised this was a picture of many people I have known over the years, who have done exactly what the Psalmist was referring to in our scripture for today. They have nurtured ungodliness in their life, often over a long period of time, until the weight of their ungodliness has been too heavy for the flimsy spiritual ground on which they were standing.

They have been digging a hole for themselves and suddenly the covering gave way and they fell into the hole which had now become a pit from which there was no way out. Everything had recoiled upon themselves and they became victims of their own behaviour.

I stared at that pathetic picture of the elephant for quite a while and began to re-examine my own life. I realised afresh that there is no way any of us can get ourselves out of the pits we have dug for ourselves.

At that point our only way forward is total honesty, full repentance and total dependence on the forgiveness and mercy of the God who sent His Son into the pit of sinful Earth, to rescue all those who look to Him for deliverance. It is only Jesus that can lift us out of the pit and set our feet afresh on the rock of our salvation. What extraordinary love our Saviour has – we love Him because He first loved us.

Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, for your extraordinary love – that even when we fall into the pits we have dug for ourselves, you long to come and set us free. Thank you that you never reject the ‘broken and the contrite heart’ of those who look up to you from the pit, with eyes of repentance, desperate for the forgiveness of their Saviour and the security of His love. Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Arise O Lord in the Darkness - Teaching CD's by Jim Graham from Arise Conference

Devotional Message | The Hope and Anchor!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Hebrews 6:19-20, NIV
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

Last weekend we drove through a small village in the north-east of England. I rarely take notice of the names of pubs , but I was suddenly impacted by the name above the door of this particular village hostelry! The Hope and Anchor. As I drove on I began to think about the enormous spiritual significance of the hope we have in Jesus Christ as the absolute anchor for our lives in time and eternity.

I doubt if any of the patrons, who were going in and out of the pub for a pint of beer, thought anything about the meaning of its name - or even where it came from. And, to be honest, I can’t think of the names of any other pubs which have their origin in Scripture! But this one certainly does.

The writer of the Hebrews was drawing attention to the certainty of God’s promises. The God who fulfilled his promise to Abraham, is the same God in whom we trust. Abraham waited patiently and the promise to him and Sarah was fulfilled. In verse 12 we are reminded that those who wait in faith and patience ‘will inherit what has been promised.’

God’s promises to us, who know and love the Lord Jesus, culminate in spending eternity with Him. When Jesus died, the curtain of the temple was torn apart. The way beyond the curtain, that separated the people of God from the holiness of God, was opened up for believers in Him, for both time and eternity. Jesus went before us and has entered on our behalf. He is our certain hope and our absolute anchor – it is He who gives us security beyond understanding, an anchor that cannot be moved whatever storms may rage around us. Amazingly, even the name of a pub can give us cause to be thankful and be an inspiration!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you opened up the way for each one of us to both know You and to enter into the eternal joys of Heaven with you. I choose to trust and depend on you as the anchor of my soul. Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living in the Promises - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Spiritual Laziness

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 24:30-34, NIV
I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man

The Bible is full of parables – from beginning to end. We ignore them at our peril! This one speaks very directly to the sin of laziness and the writer reaches the correct conclusion from what he saw – that the man who sleeps when he should have been working will soon end up in poverty. This message is obvious, the advice in the message is life-saving.

In the work that we do, however, we come across many people who may be very diligent in working for money, but are careless about the way they live their lives. They know there are issues they need to address, the weeds that have dulled their sensitivity to the voice of God and the broken down defences (the walls), through which the enemy has gained access on many occasions. But they have ignored the obvious signs and carried on regardless of the dangers all around them.

They say to themselves – one day, I’ll get to it! But, spiritually, they behave like the sluggard in the parable who never attended to the essentials when caring for his vineyard. Just as surely as the physically lazy man will end up in poverty, the spiritually lazy person will soon become vulnerable – not to armed bandits, but something much worse! For, as Peter tells us so graphically, in 1 Peter 5:8, “the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour”.

Let us not follow the example of the ‘vineyard sluggard’, but choose now to get out of our chairs and tackle any vital issues we have been putting off, before it’s too late.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that your word reminds me of the need to be diligent in the ’vineyard of my life’ Help me to see where the weeds are growing and the walls are broken down and do something about them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Earplugs of the Spirit!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Deuteronomy 1:6, NIV
The Lord our god said to us at Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance . . .’

There are times and seasons in life. Sometimes it is right to patiently wait on God and serve Him faithfully in one place. But even when that happens it is vital that we are constantly listening to His voice and not sinking into the deafness of complacency. If we are staying put somewhere it should only be because we know that’s the place God still wants us to be at.

A time without major change is not a time when we should stop listening to God for new directions it should still be a time when we are constantly knowing God’s encouragement to stay where we are. We need to keep the spiritual telephone line open so that when the moment is right to move on, we clearly hear God’s voice and are ready to obey.

From time to time I have met people who have stayed in one place in their spiritual life for much longer than God intended. Complacency, laziness and being at ease have become earplugs of the spirit. Their attentiveness to the voice of God has diminished and they have not heard or recognised God’s voice when it came.

Our scripture for today, in which God was giving instruction to all of Israel to break camp and get up and go, is an encouragement for us all to review our lives and make sure we are still in the right place. It may just be that the time has come to break camp and advance, and begin to conquer new territory for the Kingdom of God. Sometimes it is fear of the future that makes people switch off from God. But if He truly is the one who knows what is best for each one of our lives, what have we got to lose from trusting Him and, at least, asking for his affirmation that we are still in the right place. It just could be that there are some exciting times ahead for you!

Prayer: Lord, I only want to be in the place in my life that is in harmony with your plans and purposes. I choose to remove the earplugs from my spirit - please show me of any changes that I need to make. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living in Vision - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Profound and Thankful Gossip!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 8:38-39, NIV
Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you’. So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

A seriously deranged man, who had inhabited the graveyards of Gadara, had been wonderfully healed and delivered by Jesus. This man, who formerly had been a threat to anyone who went near, was now restored and in his right mind. Naturally he wanted to become part of Jesus’ travelling party.

But Jesus had a different message for him. Go back home and tell all the people you know how it is that you are now well. Tell them what God’s done for you. Let the good news spread. This way many more people will hear and believe the good news.

Jesus said to the man, “tell how much God has done for you.” The man told the people “how much Jesus had done for him.” He took out the word ‘God’ and put ‘Jesus’ in its place! Without realising what he was doing the former demoniac was making a profound theological statement – he was actually declaring that this man Jesus, who had healed him, must, therefore be from God! For his instinctive belief was that only God could have healed him like that. He was speaking the truth – only God had the authority to deal with the highest powers Satan could muster against humanity, and if Jesus had that authority then he can only have got it from God.

A congregation that prays for healing, and sees God at work among their people, should also be an evangelising church. The world out there needs to know the truth about God, but how will they hear unless God’s people speak out into their community what God has done? Fear often keeps people from telling the truth – they are afraid of what people will think.

My guess is that people will be more interested in hearing some outrageously good news than we realise. The church needs to let the world know that God is alive and well and Jesus is still healing people today. So, if God has done something for you, do what Jesus told the former demoniac. Don’t just keep that good news as a closely guarded secret inside a ‘holy club’ we call ‘church’. Get out there and let the world around you know. Do a bit of gossiping of the good news!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to use every opportunity to tell others about what you have done for me. Open my eyes to see the need in others to know the truth about you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Honest and Dishonest Dealing

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Deuteronomy 25:15-16, NIV
You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.

The Bible contains some very surprising things. Here’s one of them! In these instructions to His people, God makes a direct correlation between honesty (or lack of it!) and how long people might live. Superficially, what possible connection can there be between selling someone short and the length of time your body is able to live?

Such things make no sense at all if you only think in terms of the body as existing in isolation and independence from the person whose body it is. But from Genesis to Revelation there is a message that runs right through the whole of the Bible – sin has its consequences, and those consequences can be worked out through the flesh. Paul described it as a law of sowing and reaping in Galatians. Our spirit, soul and body are all different dimensions of the same created order. What happens to one, affects the others.

When a trader gives short measure through using false weights, it is a form of stealing. The trader is making a conscious choice to ignore the voice of God within (the conscience) and then to involve the whole being in the deception. There is another divine law which says that how we treat others is the way we ourselves will be treated. So, if a trader sells his customer short, it makes total sense that his life might as a result be shortened! What happens in reality is that when we choose to act deceitfully like this, we are turning our back on the protection of God (remember it was Daniel’s innocence before God which kept the lions’ mouths closed - Daniel 6:21).

Deceiving others for our own selfish gain gives the enemy greater access to our lives and he is a thief and a robber. It’s better to always deal honestly in all our relationships and never to cheat anyone out of what is their right. Satan will just use the rights we give him to steal from us. Zaccheus got the message loud and clear. When Jesus challenged him over collecting more taxes than he should have done, he undertook to repay people four-fold (Luke 19:8). Jesus considered stealing from others a very serious issue. So should we.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to remember any times when I have not been fair and honest in any of my dealings. And then give me the courage to put things right before You and with whoever it is that I’ve wronged. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Healing through Deliverance - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Radical Discipleship

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Acts 19:19-20, NIV
A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas (pieces of silver). In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

Becoming a Christian is not just a case of looking forward to Heaven when we die, but it’s also choosing to separate ourselves from former things in our lives here on Earth which were ungodly. If we try and live for God without separating ourselves from the things of the enemy, then they will become a curse on our lives which may, even, drag us back into the ungodliness of our former lives.

These converts to the faith owned some very valuable things – the books which gave them the knowledge to practise sorcery. It was these that gave them the ability to earn money through what they did. Knowledge is power and can be converted into wealth when others want what we’ve got! These books were valuable, but they were also evil – they made no attempt to sell them, not even to give the money to the poor, for whoever had got hold of and used these books would be trapped into the enemy’s control. Radical action was needed – a good bonfire!

It’s vital that we are just as radical with ungodly things in our own home. Leave them there and they are a source of spiritual danger. But if we choose to follow the same path as these new Christians in Ephesus, and destroy any of the works of the evil one that might still be in our possession, then we will not only be freed from their power, but also know God’s blessing on our lives.

In Ephesus, it was this that witnessed so powerfully to the surrounding people – and as a result the word of the Lord spread through the region. Many times I have watched as people destroyed such things and then entered into the joy of the Lord as a result. God always honours those who honour Him by being obedient to His Word.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to identify anything in my home which should have been got rid of. I do not want to give houseroom to any of the works of the enemy. I choose to cleanse my home of all the works of darkness. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Healing through Deliverance - The Foundation and Practice of Deliverance Ministry

Claiming the Ground - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | God’s Confirming Word

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Habakkuk 2:2-3, NIV
‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets, so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation waits an appointed time . . .’

I have often been so amazed at the way God uses Scripture to confirm the guidance and visions that He puts into your heart. Just over a year ago, I had a very clear vision that God wanted Ellel Ministries to publish an online training school, so that the foundational teaching, which has been so instrumental in blessing people wherever the work has been established, could be available to people anywhere in the world at the click of their computer mouse!

When God speaks like that you begin to look for confirmation that this really was from God, for you don’t want to be spending a lot of time and energy in developing something that was only a good idea, and not God’s idea. In September last year, when I was visiting Ellel USA, one of the team handed me a piece of paper with the above Scripture written on it. She said the Lord had given it to her for me personally.

I was totally amazed when I looked it up. ‘ Make the revelation plain . . write it down on tablets.’ The revelation of an online training school certainly had to be written down, otherwise there would be nothing to communicate. In Habakkuk’s day a tablet meant a wax covered piece of wood on which a message could be scratched. Today’s tablets are computer files. ‘So that a herald may run with it’. The herald is no longer a man with legs, but the internet which can send the messages on computer files to every country of the world in seconds.

I was stunned as I read this message from the Lord to me, delivered by a person who had no idea what I was thinking about at the time. This was God’s very clear confirmation to me that the vision for what was to become Ellel 365 really was from the Lord. Just over a year later Ellel 365 has become a reality and as of this week you can now go to www.em365.org and be part of the vision’s fulfilment.

God is amazing. He really does use His Word to speak to us in the twenty-first century!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that you continue to speak to your people through your Word. Help me to read it with the understanding that comes from Your Spirit, so that I can hear Your voice speaking into my heart to confirm those things that are of You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Whose Plans Are You Following?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 146:3-4, NIV
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground on that very day their plans come to nothing.

It’s a sad but true fact, that all plans that have their origin in man come to an end when the life of the planner comes to an end. So the psalmist encourages us not to put our trust in men who cannot save us.

So, if even princes can’t be trusted, who can we trust? Well, when you look at the plans of God that unfolded throughout the Old Testament and then into the New, we see that God’s plans were continued from one generation to the next. Prophecies spoken about Jesus were fulfilled. Those visions that had their origin in God and not man did not die, but were taken up in a sort of spiritual relay race down the centuries. One person after another took up the baton of faith and continued to fulfil the purposes of God. Take a look at Hebrews chapter 11.

There is an important lesson for us here at a personal level. If we are following our own plans for our lives, then their potential will be limited. But if we are following God’s plans and walking forward in the vision that comes from Him, then we can be absolutely sure that nothing of what we do for the Kingdom in this way will ever be wasted. What we achieve for Him will build on what others have done and in time others will build on what we do.

So, be encouraged, listen carefully to the heart of God and measure His heartbeats against your own – are they in tune with each other? If they are, never fear, you are building for eternity and not just for time and one day the treasure you have laid down will be waiting for you.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to walk in your ways and to listen to your voice. I want my life to be lived in the plans that have their origin in you and not to waste my life doing things with no future! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - New Online Training School

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter and Fiona Horrobin

Devotional Message | Are you a Finisher?

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Colossians 4:17, NIV
Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord’.

There are many interesting spiritual lessons in the little greetings that Paul includes at the end of his letters. Here is one. He is adding a personal message for an individual, who is described in Paul’s letter to Philemon as a fellow-soldier.

We have no idea why Paul felt this personal message was necessary, but the most likely thing is that Archippus was a person who was good at starting things, but not so good at carrying them through to completion. If that’s the case, then he is typical of many people, even in the body of Christ, who get really excited about something new, but show little enthusiasm for persevering with what’s already on the go!

It’s exciting when God calls us into something, but it’s not so exciting when we discover that there is a considerable amount of work to be done in order to realise the potential God has opened up for us. The fruit of our calling does not appear out of the sky, delivered by an angel, like a bit of Hollywood magic! It has to be worked for through loving obedience to the One who called us into His service.

I love reading the biographies of those who did persevere in missionary service. Recently I read about Charles Cowman who founded the Oriental Missionary Society; and Wilfred Grenfell who transformed the spiritual environment of Labrador as a missionary doctor. Get hold of their stories and read them and be amazed at how much they achieved through perseverance. Our instant-fix society doesn’t like the idea of 40 years of service – that’s what it took Wilfred Grenfell to fulfil his destiny. But it’s through determined perseverance that the Kingdom of God is built.

If Paul was writing a letter to you – what would he say? Would he have a message for you like he had for Archippus?

Prayer: Lord, help me to persevere with the things that you ask me to do. I don’t want my life to be marked by many new starts but with nothing ever finished. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Paul's Favourite Recipe!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 Corinthians 16:13, NIV
'Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

Do everything in love.'

We all have favourite recipes - often for food that we loved when we were young and which we still love today. My Mum used to make pancakes as a weekly treat for the family. Whenever she was busy at the stove, with the pancake mixture in her hand, I was there, probably with tongue hanging out, waiting for the first one off the cooker - it was always the best! Surprise, surprise - I still love pancakes today. But none, of course, are quite as good as the ones Mum used to make!

A recipe is a simple list of ingredients, with some basic instructions of what to do with them. If you follow the instructions carefully, you are guaranteed success. In this verse of scripture, Paul is giving us a very simple recipe for success in the work of the Kingdom of God - a recipe which all who count themselves disciples of Jesus Christ will want to follow.

The instruction to 'Be on your guard' is a caution to always be alert to the traps of the enemy and the distractions of the flesh. It's so easy to get off course when we forget the need to guard what God has entrusted to us.

Then Paul urges us to 'stand firm in the faith'. Standing firm means don't move from what God has told you to do until the work is done. In verse nine of this chapter Paul says 'a great door for effective work has been opened to me, and there are many who oppose me'. It is true that when God opens a door, the enemy will raise up those who will try and stop you walking through it. We must stand firm and not be diverted from God's purposes.

Then he tells us to be 'men of courage'. Courage means determination to push through all obstacles, knowing that if God has said it, then it will happen. It's so easy, when you see obstacles, to be tempted to give up. People of courage don't give up, they press on.

Finally he says, 'be strong'. Sometimes we don't feel very strong, we may even feel weak! But when we press on, even though we may feel weak, then we experience the extraordinary strengthening of the God who makes us strong in the midst of our weakness.

And Paul sums it all up by saying, 'Do everything in love'. What an example to us Jesus was! Even when He was being nailed to the cross He said, 'Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.' What love!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to walk in the steps of Jesus and always show love to people, even when they are opposing what you are doing. Then give me the courage to press on to victory. Thank you for Paul's recipe for success. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Online Training School

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Beyond Comprehension!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 103:11-12, NIV
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

I don’t think the Psalmist could have had any idea of the significance of what he was writing in these amazing words. All he could do was see the stars in the sky, without having any idea as to how far they were away, or, much more significantly, without any understanding of the fact that there is no limit to space beyond the stars. Without realising it he was saying that there is no limit to the love of God!

Then as far as the points of the compass are concerned, the north pole and the south pole are specific points on the surface of the earth. The distance between them is measurable. But not so, the east and the west! The distance between them is infinite. What an incredible picture of what God, in His love and mercy has done for us - he has removed our sins an immeasurable and infinite distance from us!

There is no limit to the love of God and no way for forgiven sins ever to catch up with us. God has dealt with them for all of time and all of eternity. I just love the Gospel message that is so dramatically illustrated by God’s creation.

Next time you look at the stars or fly round the world in a plane - just take a few minutes to marvel at our amazing God. He’s out of this world!!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for me – for showing me such love and for dealing with my sin so comprehensively. You are amazing! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter and Fiona Horrobin

Devotional Message | Setting a True Course

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 2:7, NIV
He holds victory in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Right now I am spending a lot of my time writing the daily notes for Ellel 365, the new on-line training school from Ellel Ministries that will be launching on the 1st July. Throughout this school my heart’s desire is to help people know how to walk in the ways of God, for if we truly walk on the path that He has laid out for us, then there are many, many promises in the Scripture of God’s blessings for His children.

All those blessings are an outworking of God’s covenant love. This one verse alone promises victory (in the battles of life) to those who are upright – that means those who deliberately make godly choices when facing temptation. Then we are promised a shield of protection if our walk is blameless. What does that mean? I believe it simply means that when our heart’s desire is always for God’s Kingdom authority to be established in our lives, that the angels of God will rejoice to be there for us - just as they were for Jesus in His wilderness experience being tested by the devil.

When setting sail for a long voyage, the most important thing we need to know is how to navigate. If we cannot set a true course we will be lost at sea forever. When we set out to be just and fair in all we think, say and do, God promises us His wisdom as we plot the course of our lives.

What tremendous blessings come from our walking in the ways of the Lord. Psalm 19:7 expresses the blessings in terms of revival! All over the world many of God’s people are crying out to Him for revival. But God’s Word tells us that we can have personal revival wherever we are – all that God looks for is the heart that is turned towards Him and a will that has chosen to respond in obedience to His love!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to consistently choose to walk in your ways so that I may know your guidance and direction in the course of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 - Ellel Ministries Online Training School

Devotional Message | Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 58:4, NIV
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Fasting is a good and valuable discipline. When the heart is rightfully in tune with God, it is a precious means of focusing our attention on God as we curtail our appetites for other things. Fasting sharpens one’s intercession and makes one spiritually more aware of the voice of God. Even the Bible can seem to come more alive as the Spirit of God quickens God’s truth to our own spirit.

But fasting, like every other act of religious discipline which is done with a wrong motive, breaks the heart of God, making people look pious and holy to men, who, in reality are far from it. Jesus reserved some of his harshest words for the Pharisees who made a show of religion, but who’s hearts were a million miles away from being in a right relationship with God. In Isaiah Chapter 1:15 also, Isaiah had to tell the people that God will not even listen to their prayers, because their hearts were so far from Him.

There are times when I have prayed with individuals about the problems they were having in their lives and often I have been forced to ask myself why their prayers in the past had not already been answered by God. For, surely, God loves His children and would long to hear the cry of their hearts and answer their very reasonable prayers.

But then God has led me to lift a particular stone, covering an area of their lives that was in darkness. And suddenly it all becomes clear as once again the question of the Psalmist comes into sharp focus, where he says in Psalm 24:3-4: “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord.”

If we are looking to God to hear and answer our prayers, let’s be sure we have got the basics of godly living in place, before we try and impact the throne of God with disciplines such as fasting.

Prayer: Lord, I want to have clean hands and a pure heart. Please expose darkness in my life so that I may clean out the dirt and come to you in repentance for forgiveness and cleansing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Dynamic Praying - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Honesty IS the Best Policy!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 16:12-13, NIV
Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness. Kings take pleasure in honest lips, they value a man who speaks the truth.

This past week in the United Kingdom, we have witnessed the most extraordinary scenes in our Houses of Parliament. Members of Parliament (MPs) have been rushing to pay back money to the Government that they should never have taken!

All MPs are rightfully entitled to claim for necessary expenses in doing their job, but for years there has been a culture of dishonesty in the seat of government. Many MPs, of all political parties, have been caught red-handed claiming money by way of expenses which had nothing whatsoever to do with the job they were doing. And the nation is outraged.

These people, who are responsible for putting laws into place which other people have to obey, have been systematically and dishonestly milking the system for their own benefit. But now they’ve been exposed (by a national newspaper), they are all desperately trying to pay the money back, thinking that if they pay it back they can get away with keeping their reputation. Never before have I seen such public hypocrisy.

I fear for our nation when such unrighteousness is at its core. As our scripture for today says, thrones (governments) are established through righteousness. The converse of this is that governments are destroyed by unrighteousness.

But before we all get on our very high horses and come down with a heavy hand of judgement upon these men and women, who have certainly acted without integrity (not all MPs are implicated, many have acted with total honesty and not claimed moneys falsely), let us examine our own hearts.

Is it not possible that there could be many things in our own lives (things we think about, say or do) that are ungodly? And I wonder how we would be behaving now if a ‘Kingdom Newspaper’ were to publicly expose these things for everyone else to know about? My guess is that we might be moving very quickly to try and put things right!

One day, at the end of time, everything will be exposed. So perhaps we should all learn from this sad episode in our parliamentary history and seek to put things right in our own lives now, and not wait for the public exposure of eternity. In that way our lives, our families, our churches, our cities and even our nations can be established in righteousness – and be strong.

Prayer: Lord, we are sorry for the deceptions operating in both our nations and our private lives. I ask that you will forgive me for the hidden things in my life, and help me to put things right now, simply because you tell us in your Word what is right and what is wrong, and not because we have been forced to act because someone else exposes the reality. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Keep On Track

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Proverbs 1: 10,15 & 16, NIV
My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them . . . do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into sin.

The word ‘entice’ means to tempt, or to lead astray. It carries with it all the connotations of exciting, but ungodly activities. Things which fascinate the carnal nature and which, if we are honest, all of us can be vulnerable to from time to time. Everything from greed to lust, and a whole lot of desires between these two extremes, can get stirred up when enticement is in the air!

In these very testing days, when many people are struggling to hold things together financially, and many are having to fight a sense of despair, enticement is especially dangerous. People look for some form of ‘comfort’ or ‘escape’ from the pressures they are enduring and are that much more vulnerable to temptations when they come – whether that temptation comes in the form of making money, having a wrong relationship or simply indulging in selfish and unproductive activity.

When times are tough, whether the season is totally personal to you or part of a national or international situation, the enemy will always try to take advantage of what’s going on, to entice you into something ungodly. He tries to stand in the place of God and be a source of comfort, not telling his victims that his sort of comfort will always prove to be false comfort.

When John penned the letters from Jesus to the seven Churches, recorded in Revelation 2 and 3, each one highlighted issues and problems that needed dealing with in the churches, but then ended with strong words of encouragement to endure and overcome. Jesus knew that, in testing times, the enemy would want to rob them of their inheritance. So, I urge you not to let anyone be used by the enemy to rob you of your inheritance in God – press on, win through and keep running the race of life!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to recognise the enticements of the enemy when they come and then to endure and overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of my destiny in God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

God's Amazing Grace - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | In His Time

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Job 1:21, NIV
The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

The past few days have been difficult days. One of our long-serving and very much loved team members is no longer with us in an earthly sense, but he is still very much with us in a spiritual sense. He is now joined to Christ in eternity and we are joined to Christ in time. Jesus is the bridge between one side of the curtain and the other.

It seems especially difficult when someone is suddenly taken from us - it is such an unexpected shock for those who are left behind. And yet there was such a deep assurance that our brother’s life was totally bound up in God. And in those circumstances, in spite of all the difficult questions that immediately spring to mind, it is easy to say Amen to the words of Job. Words that were spoken by him when he got news of the death of members of his family. He recognised that life came from God in the first place (The Lord has given) and that life, therefore belongs to God, and the moment when we go to be with the Lord for eternity (the Lord has taken away) is, therefore, totally within his loving control. So we have no grounds for rejecting the God of love, when we lose a precious loved one, even though at that moment we cannot understand what He has done.

Of course there are the questions. Of course there is the pain and the grief and, even, a sense of anger at what has happened. But when our feelings are laid before the Lord at the foot of the cross, any sense of anger is dissipated by the overwhelming love of Jesus, who allowed His life to be taken, so that we may have ours back. And the Father who saw the death of his own Son, longs to put His arms of comfort around you. He totally understands.

And for our brother, he is now more alive than he has ever been. Many times he will have sung those words, “Now, my heart’s desire is to know You more.” Today, his prayer has been answered. The Lord has given him his heart’s desire. And I have no doubt that he is at peace that God knows best. So we can say with Job also, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”

There will be many of you who understand first-hand the pain of loss of loved ones. As you put your trust afresh in the God who knows and understands, allow Him to also be the God of all comfort for you personally (2 Corinthians 1:3) and look to him for deep comfort, for inner healing and for his refreshment for life’s journey.

And for each of us, I pray that times like this will serve to remind us to both pray for the bereaved (Jesus said, “they will be comforted” Matthew 5:4) and of the importance of living every day, as unto the Lord, till either Jesus comes, or takes us also through that curtain which the world calls death, but which is simply a transition from life on earth to life in the glorious presence of our wonderful Redeemer.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for the lives of all our brothers and sisters who have been called home before us. We thank you that for those who believe, there is an eternity of joy to look forward to. We truly can bless the Lord and praise His name. Amen.

Grief and Bereavement - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Righteousness - the Key to the Nations

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 33:12, NIV ; Psalm 144:15, NIV; Proverbs 14:34, NIV
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.

Righteousness exalts a nation.

We are living in days when our nation, like many other nations of the world, is going through its toughest economic times in living memory. Commentators are having to stretch back into the dark days immediately after the second world war to see their like. With borrowings far in excess of what is prudent, and the government having had to resort to printing more money than is economically supportable, talk of a generation in debt and, even the spectre of national bankruptcy, are fuelling the fires of fear in the minds of the people.

It would be easy to make party political comments about all this, some of which may be accurate, but ultimately none of the political parties have shown any interest in looking at what the Word of God actually says about the situation - or asking if there is any connection between the state of the nation and the moral bankruptcy which is now the foundation of our society. In most of our western nations there has been a systematic removal from the rule of law, of the spiritual principles and the commandments of God which are the requirement for the success of a nation.

The psalmist summed it up so succinctly in our first two scriptures for today. Both a nation (as a whole) and the people will only know blessing when God is the Lord of that nation and the Lord of the people. During the second world war Churchill (Prime Minister) and the King (George VI) called the British nation to prayer (to the God of the Bible). As a result, at the time of Dunkirk the beleaguered British forces had a totally miraculous deliverance from the beaches of France. Later, commenting on this and other amazing victories, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: 'Why has God preserved us? We may, and we must, believe that He who has preserved our land in a manner so marvellous, has a purpose for us to serve in the preparation for His perfect Kingdom.'

God preserved us then, because the leaders of our nation turned to God and made Him Lord. If we want to know how to get back on track, then the writer of the Proverbs gives us the answer when he says that “righteousness exalts a nation”. How I pray that God will raise up leaders in our nations who will not be afraid of the voices of those who would tread the downward path of moral compromise. People who would remember the lessons of history (for a nation that forgets its own lessons will only have to fight the same battles time and time again) and in humility confess the bankruptcy of man’s pride and choose to walk in the paths of righteousness. Only then will the nations we belong to be exalted and know God’s protection, security and blessing. Only then will we be able to re-discover the purposes of God for our nations.

Prayer: O God, our help in ages past, we cry out to you now to speak to the leaders of our nations, that there will be raised up in each nation those with a fearless voice to declare that it is only living in the righteousness of God that will exalt the nation. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Arise O Lord in the Darkness - Teaching By Jim Graham from recent Arise! Conference

Arise and shine for your light has come - Teaching by Peter Tsukahira from the recent Arise! Conference

Devotional Message | More Than Sparkling!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

John 4:13-14, NIV
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water i give him will become in a him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

We live in an old house. The oldest part of it was probably built about 400 years ago. Shortly after moving in we needed to do something about the paving at the front of the house. It was in a very bad condition and needed to be dug up. One of the workmen put in his spade at a certain point and it disappeared down a deep hole! Little by little they removed the ground at that point and suddenly, much to everyone’s surprise they realised that we had been walking over and parking our cars on top of a deep well! With a long piece of measuring string I discovered that there was over 50 feet of fresh water in the well!

Today we have an old-fashioned hand pump and can pump up as much water as we could possibly need whenever we want it. The construction of the inner walls of the well are such that it must have been there a very long time - it was probably the only source of water when the first house was built on the site.

Over the years I have watched the level of water in the well very carefully - no matter how dry the weather, the level never varies. I can pump hundreds of gallons out of it and within a very short space of time the well has been replenished. Beneath the ground there are hidden springs and it seems impossible to pump the well dry.

The spiritual water that Jesus was talking about to the woman in John 4 is very much like that. We may draw on the sustenance that comes from the water of life, and see how our lives can bless others in a dry and thirsty land, but the supply never runs out - and it is the very best quality water you can find anywhere - even better than the most exciting of sparkling waters you can find anywhere on the planet! When we know Jesus and are filled with His Spirit, the well of our lives is fed by a secret underground spring of this wonderful water, which will flow and flow and flow. No wonder Jesus was able to say to the woman at the well that you will never again be thirsty.

If right now you are feeling very dry, ask Jesus to show you anything that is blocking the flow of His Spirit into your life, deal with it and then invite the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh and for the rest of your days be a source of His ever-present supply of the water of life, that will always satisfy your spiritual thirst and never run dry.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for showing us how to be constantly refreshed by the flow of your Spirit through our lives. Help me to be ever-conscious of others who are stretching out for “water” in a dry and thirsty land, be willing to share this wonderful truth with them and be a means of God’s wonderful grace to them all. Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Arise and Build - Teaching By Peter Horrobin from recent Arise! Conference

Devotional Message | Risen from the Dead!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 John 4:14-16, NIV
And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

These letters were written at the end of John’s life. He had been an eye-witness to the events on resurrection Sunday. He wanted his readers to know that what he was saying was not only true, but could be totally depended on. John will have seen Thomas thrust his finger into the wounds of Jesus and heard the excitement of the two who ran all the way back from Emmaus, having seen the Lord!

These were events that could never be erased from his memory and it was absolutely vital that new believers in Jesus caught the validity of John’s experience from the lips and pen who had proved over a long life that what Jesus had said and done was true and that He really was the Saviour of the world.

The resurrection was not just a story that John and the other disciples had concocted. The strength of his words, “We have seen and testify” come down the centuries with the force of conviction of someone in the witness box in a court of law. And just as powerfully, John could testify to the fact that down the years he had found the risen Lord Jesus to be totally trustworthy. There wasn’t a hint of doubt in his witness statement. He knew that he knew that he knew. Jesus had been raised from the dead and was alive and could be trusted.

And today, as we celebrate with thanksgiving the victory of the cross, the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God and the glorious resurrection of the Son of God, let us determine to be like John and put our trust in this same Jesus, for as John said in verse 15, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God.” What a privilege, what a joy – to be alive in God - both for now and throughout eternity.

Prayer: Dear Father God, Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gift of Your Son. No words can fully express the inner joy of Your salvation. But I do look forward to telling you face to face in Heaven! In the Name of the risen Lord Jesus, Amen.

Arise! Conference Teaching CD's

Devotional Message | This is Love

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 John 4:10, NIV
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The hastily buried body of Jesus’ lay in a borrowed tomb. A Roman guard outside. The disciples were in a state of shock and disillusion. Surely, it wasn’t all meant to end like this? What about those words to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)? And those words of comfort to Mary and Martha about the death of their brother Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)?

It’s easy to imagine what they must have been going through as they remembered all the things He had said and done during those precious three years. The disciples were naturally caught up in all the emotions and activities of the moment. It was far too soon for them to be thinking through the theology of what was going on at that very moment!

But towards the end of His life, the Apostle John summarised the experience in the simple words of our scripture for today - words that embraced everything that the old covenant sacrificial system had anticipated, but which now had brought that era to an end with the most extraordinary and only complete sacrifice. At that very moment Jesus had become what John the Baptist prophesied (John 1:29), “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus had died in the place of every sinner. He was right at that moment enduring the hell of separation from Father God and atoning for our sins. He was suffering in your place and mine. Hallelujah, what a Saviour.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for paying the price for my sins, for being willing to accept the punishment that should have been mine. As I dwell on your amazing love, help me to be willing to walk in your footsteps and gladly serve you all my days. Amen.

No Other Way - Teaching CD

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Sensational News!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 John 3:8, NIV
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

I read a book recently which was attempting to describe what the work of the cross was all about without any reference to the devil. It was a bit like trying to describe a game of soccer without mentioning the idea of a goal! Some things are just not possible!

Satan’s last temptation of Jesus was to challenge him to use his powers to flick out those Roman nails and come down off the cross. At the last, the devil’s last attempt to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat was to try and stop Jesus from laying down his life voluntarily, without ever having come under the authority of Satan, the god of this world. For if Jesus were to die now, then there would be nothing that could prevent the resurrection. The curse of death could only fall on those who had come under the influence of sin. And here was Jesus, totally sinless, about to die! Satan, death and hell were about to be defeated.

Satan had failed. What a nightmare for the god of this world. Jesus was about to overcome death, and from that moment onwards anyone who would choose Jesus as their Saviour, and come under the covering authority of the Son of God, would also escape the judgment of death.

Today has always been known in the calendar of the church as Good Friday. I feel like screaming from the housetops that it’s not just GOOD Friday. For in reality it’s totally stupendous, unbelievably wonderful, out-of-this world, sensational, miraculous, beyond comprehension Friday! As the old hymn says:

“There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin,

He only could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in!”

Prayer: Dear Father God, Saying thank you seems a totally inadequate response to such incredible grace. We are so very, very grateful that on this special day we can remember with joyful thanksgiving the most important act there will ever be in the whole history of the world and the universe. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Why did Jesus have to Die 1 - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Eye-Opening Truths!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 119:18-20, NIV
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.

I have just bought myself a new Bible. For one reason I am beginning to find that the small print of my present Bible is something of a challenge when preaching - so the larger print version is a great help. But there is another reason also, my present Bible is now so well marked that I am sensing it is time to start again on a new adventure with God and His Word.

For me, getting a new Bible is scary, for I wonder how I will cope without all the familiar and well-loved markings I read and use so often. But then, it’s also got to the stage where there are so many markings that these are what get my attention and I’m in danger of missing other precious truths contained in the unmarked verses!

So, I’m praying the prayer of the psalmist and asking God to open my eyes afresh, so that as I read my new Bible He will open my eyes to new aspects of the wonderful truths He has hidden in His Word. For, as the psalmist says, we are strangers on earth – we are living in a world that has been sold out to the devil and for the time being we live, move and have our being in his domain. As God’s people we are not in tune with the ungodly objectives that consume so much of our fallen world. We are desperately in need of His revelation and truth.

It is into this world that God has come - with both His written Word (the Bible) and His Son – the living Word, who became flesh (John 1:1-5). With His written Word to guide us in the laws of God and the living Word to redeem us from the hand of the enemy, we are a very privileged people. If only the leaders of our nations (and even God’s people) were as consumed with wanting to live according to the laws of God as the psalmist was!

Prayer: Help me Lord, as I read your Word, to see the things that you have hidden there for our benefit and blessing, and live according to your laws. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Life According to the Book - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Talking to Oneself!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 103:1-2, NIV
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits.

As I have mentioned previously, people who talk to themselves are sometimes thought of as being not quite right in the head! But there is a form of talking to oneself that is very Scriptural and very necessary!

Each of us has three different dimensions to our being. Our body is obvious - a little less obvious is our spirit and our soul, but they are vital to our understanding of how God created us to function in relationship with Him as human beings.

God is Spirit, and our human spirit is made like God so we can have relationship and fellowship with Him. When God speaks to us as believers we become aware of His Spirit impacting our lives. It is here in our human spirit that we gain spiritual understanding from Him and here, also, where many of our most important decisions have their origin - such as choosing to serve God and make Jesus Lord of our lives.

But then action has to be taken to convert what we now understand in our spirit into the reality of human experience, decision making and action. In our Scripture the Psalmist is doing just that. He is speaking directly to His soul and telling it to get into line with his spiritual understanding - for it’s time to worship God.

Many people never come to a place of walking in holy obedience because they think that God should do it all for them, as if by a bit of spiritual magic! But if that were to happen God would be over-riding the freewill He has given us. We have to choose holiness – and then we have to tell our flesh-life (our soul and our body) to come into line with what is God’s best for our lives.

So, David’s spirit is bringing his soul, and then his body, into rightful subjection to his spirit for that is the way that the joy of the Lord (in our spirit) becomes the strength of God (in our flesh) to believe for and do the works of the Kingdom. That’s how vision becomes reality.

Prayer: Lord, help me to live in a God-centred spiritual relationship with you – and then bring all that I am into a place of joyful obedience, so that your true purposes may be known and fulfilled in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God's Power for the Body of Christ 1 - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Walking and Leaping!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Acts 3:10, NIV
They recognised him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

Everyone knew the crippled man. He was a permanent fixture at the gate Beautiful. No doubt he had his regular donors who always gave him money as they entered the temple. It was a good spot to beg for money. But on the day he asked Peter and John for money they declined to give him any, but gave him what they had! In the name of Jesus they healed him and people were filled with wonder and amazement.

When I was very young a missionary friend of my parents was invalided home from missionary service in Nigeria. She was suffering from cancer and the tumour was growing progressively larger as her last days approached. The doctors gave her about three weeks to live. She had left behind a thriving mission work amongst leper children and the greatest agony of her heart was not that she was soon going to meet her Lord, but that the children back in Nigeria needed her.

All the mission supporters were praying for her - including my Mum and Dad, but not even they were ready for the news when it came. News, not of her passing into the presence of her Lord, but that the tumour had miraculously and completely disappeared overnight. Instead of preparing for her last days on earth, she got up and wrote letters to all her prayer supporters telling them what God had done. Her wish had been fulfilled, the hearts of the children crying for their adopted ‘mum’ had touched the heart of the Father. He had stretched out His hand and touched her dying body. She was totally healed and lived many more years to serve the Lord. Everyone was totally amazed.

I understand just what the people must have thought when they saw the crippled man, no longer begging, but dancing with joy! When Peter and John were hauled before the high priests to give an account for what had happened, they were able to testify to the fact that it was through the name of Jesus that the cripple man had been healed, but that there is an even greater miracle that is available to all from the hand of the same Lord Jesus - the gift of salvation.

The physical miracle gave them the opportunity to tell of how this same Jesus wants to heal our broken hearts and restore us into relationship with the Father and enjoy Him forever, in time and eternity. All healing is a witness to the salvation that Jesus won for each one of us on the cross. the One who heals is also the One who saves!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for the miracle of healing - and that the even greater miracle of salvation is available now to everyone who chooses to believe and receive the Saviour for themselves. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Arise! Be Healed. - Teaching from recent Arise! conference in Blackpool

Devotional Message | The Kiln of Eternity

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Jeremiah 18:5, NIV
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Sitting on my shelf is a mug without a handle. No, the handle isn’t broken, it just never existed in the first place. At the age of 11 I was really proud of this mug. It had been shaped on a wheel in pottery class at school by my own hands, without anyone else’s help. It is hardly ‘fine china’! The walls of the mug are so thick you would find it difficult to drink out of it. Putting a handle on it was way beyond my skill level at the time.

And so it remained – a fired clay mug without a handle, glazed in a dull grey colour and singularly unattractive and unusable. But when I look at that mug today, I can still remember the joy I had when I showed that ‘ugly mug’ to my Mum and Dad and gave it pride of place. It was beautiful, it was mine and no-one was going to tell me what it really looked like! Mum and Dad played the part magnificently! And what’s more, inscribed on the bottom of the mug and fired into permanence by the heat of the kiln, is my name. It unquestionably belongs to me.

There is a huge difference, however, between a trophy mug such as that, which is shaped in a few minutes before being put in a kiln and our lives. The vessel of our lives is constantly being formed on the wheel of life. The wheel never stops spinning until that day when the ‘clay’ is taken off the wheel, and the vessel is fired in the kiln of eternity? As the wheel of life spins we have the capacity with our free will (something real clay can never have) to either resist the hand of the Master Potter and make what WE want of the vessel or to humbly submit to the Potter’s loving hands and say, “Lord, make of me what YOU will.”

As I read our Scripture afresh today, I began to ask myself whether I would be satisfied with what came out of the kiln if the Great Potter were to take me off the wheel of life today? It was a very salutary few moments. In Jeremiah 18 God is warning the people that if they continue to mess up their lives (and nation) the day will come when he will forcibly destroy what they have made on the wheel of life. It’s always a tragedy when God’s judgment falls in this sort of way. But God is merciful, and very long-suffering, and His patient voice comes down the centuries today, to say to you, ‘let me remake the vessel of your life in a better way, while there is still time.’ All that is required is humble repentance, followed by acceptance of what He then does with our lives as a result.

What wonderful news – the Master Potter is always waiting to apply his firm and loving hands to the clay of our lives and reshape them according to His loving purposes. And then He wants to inscribe His name on the clay as a sign of who we belong to. What an opportunity! What security! What a Saviour!

Prayer: I am sorry, Lord, for the times when I have wilfully resisted your loving hands. I invite you now to apply the pressure of love on my life and reshape me in the way you know is best for me. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Our Covenant God - Teaching CD

Healing through Creativity - Course at Ellel Centres

Devotional Message | Truth Declared

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

John 18:37-38, NIV
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked.

It is only Jesus whose life and words have the authority to define what truth is. He is the only man who has ever lived who’s perceptions remained undistorted by Satan, the god of this world. All those who are interested in knowing truth will ultimately come to Him - either in this life, gladly, or when they face Him as judge.

Jeremiah described the human heart as being ‘desperately wicked’ (Jeremiah 17:9). It is out of the heart that deceptions flow. In recent months I have been surprised, and even shocked, at the times when I have heard people say things which were clearly and obviously wrong, but which they passionately wanted other people to believe was the truth. It’s amazing how self-interest and a desire to protect one’s own reputation changes a person’s perception of things that have happened - even to the extent that people can finish up calling good evil and evil good.

At the heart of all self-interest is pride. None of us like’s to admit anything that will diminish our reputation in the eyes of others. We see that process being worked out at every level of society - from national and international government right down to the individuals we know, and sometimes know well.

One might have thought that inside the Body of Christ we would be exempt from such behaviour. But, sadly, that is far from reality. Even believers can try and protect themselves by giving people a distorted view of their behaviour and the reasons behind their decisions. Pride, self-protection and fear of losing one’s reputation all contribute to ungodly motives arising from the heart, which can even malign others in order to try and keep ourselves from being exposed.

It is only Jesus that could say without any danger of self-deception, that what he says is true. That’s why we must listen to Him. It is only as we choose to walk in His ways, and allow Him to expose the inner, hidden motives of our hearts, that we can expect our lives to carry the loving authority of the Saviour. He knew exactly what He was doing when He gave His life for you and me. He, who is truth was being sacrificed for those whose hearts have been deceived. If only our world leaders would once again recognise Jesus for who He is!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for showing the world and showing me what truth really is. Help me to always filter what I say through the net of your love – so that the things that are untrue will be eliminated and my life will be a demonstration of unconditional truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Truth and Freedom - Set of Teaching DVDs

Devotional Message | When waiting is safer than acting

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 27:13-14, NIV
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

David had many enemies and he faced many battles. At times he was on the run and situations seemed hopeless. But throughout all his trials and difficulties he never forgot the lessons of his early years. Lessons he had learnt while looking after the sheep. The Lord was close to him and he learned to be able to trust that inner voice of God which had been his steadfast defence on so many occasions. God had showed him what to do when defending his flock from the lion and the bear. David had learnt by experience that he could really trust the voice of his God.

David’s words, from today’s Scripture, were not just religious words without serious meaning – they were his own lifetime experience. He was passing on his experience of God to others and training them in the fact that even if things look pretty black, God can be trusted and it is better to wait for God to act than to act hastily and turn away from trusting in Him.

Many years ago I was in the middle of a business crisis. I was under personal physical threat and my business was on the edge of bankruptcy. It would have been easy to turn my back on God and blame him for my problems, when in reality the mess was a result of my own mistake. But God heard my cry and on the very day that my accuser began to threaten my very life, God delivered me from him in the most miraculous of ways. I felt like a bird that had been released from a trap – I was free, I could fly again. God had given me another chance.

I have never forgotten that experience. It is etched on my memory for ever. I learnt in the extremes of near disaster that to be strong and wait for the Lord is not just good advice – but on some occasions, it is life-saving advice! As I am writing this, I am conscious that some people reading this Seed of the Kingdom may well be locked in a difficult situation with no obvious way out. May I encourage you to put your trust in the Lord, who delivered David on so many occasions out of the hand of his enemies, and wait patiently for Him to act.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you are a God who hears and answers prayer. Help me to be patient as I wait for you. I choose to trust you in a new way today and look forward to your answer to the cries of my heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Explaining Covenants - Book by Tom Marshall

Forgiveness, God's Master Key

Devotional Message | Different Vessels for Different Uses

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 64:8, NIV
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

This week I walked through a huge store, absolutely filled with different specimens of pottery. Every single design was unique. And every item had a specific use. As I looked at this overwhelming display of man’s creative ability, I began to think of how it illustrates the creativity of God in the vast breadth of design and function on display.

Many will have sung Christian worship songs which express this theme, with words such as “You are the potter, we are the clay” – recognising that God is the Master Potter and we are His creation. But many of the people who have sung these songs may still be wishing they are like someone else. Some walk through our doors looking for help on Healing Retreats. They see someone else’s looks or gifting and then see themselves negatively as a result. They then feel inferior and before very long depression and even despair can follow.

It is easy to forget that God did not make us to be like anyone else, he made us to be the person we are. Each one a very much loved special creation. The world idolises certain people and the rest of humanity seems to want to copy the “stars”. But God doesn’t want us to be like anyone else – He rejoices when we are content with who we are and seek to fulfill the destiny that the Master Potter had for each one of us.

It is as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus that an extraordinary miracle takes place – in our character we become more like Him – and in our humanity we become more like the person God intended us to be in the first place.

Prayer: Thank you that as the Master Potter, the works of your hand are always perfect. Help me Lord to so walk in your ways that I both reflect your true character to the people around me and grow into the person Father God intended me to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Living in the Freedom of the Spirit - Teaching CD

Life's Decisions - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Snow Blanket!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 1:18-20, NIV
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This week the whole of the UK descended into snow-clad chaos, as the heavens deposited mega-tons of the white stuff on an unexpecting world! By 10.00am on Monday morning two snowmen and an igloo had sprouted in my grand-children’s garden. They were loving what children love everywhere. I can remember 1947 (just!) and 1963 (well, I cycled up the River Thames!) and when I mention those years, to those also old enough to remember, they nod their heads with a smile of approval as they reminisce about the great cover-ups and freeze-ups of years gone by!

As I looked at amazing photographs of our land dressed in white, my mind turned to this Scripture. What an extraordinary picture these words paint of what God does with our sins, when we choose to come before Him with a repentant heart. He covers our sin! What an incredible difference it makes to every single day of our lives to know that our sin is covered!

I will never forget that first day of my new life - I was nine years of age when I was born again. Everything was totally different - it was as if there had been a massive snowfall covering my sin and making everything in my young life totally new.

And then there is the following promise, that if we are willing and obedient we will then ‘eat the best from the land’. People can sometimes be obedient, but with unwilling hearts! It’s willing hearts that are responding with gratitude to the forgiveness of such a loving God. Unwilling obedience, or straightforward disobedience, bring grief to the heart of God for it means that the children God loves so much, will miss out on His best for them.

As we see the snow, let it be a constant reminder to us of God’s mercy and love. But let it also be a constant encouragement to be willing in our obedience to Him, as we walk forward through whatever difficulties we may be facing.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that when I come to you with a repentant heart you cover my sin as the snow covers the land. Help me Lord to always respond to your amazing love with joyful obedience. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life DVD series - Teaching Series by Peter Horrobin. Ideal for Home Groups.

Devotional Message | The God of ALL Comfort

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

2 Corinthians 1:3,4, NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

We can only give away what we already have. It’s no use offering somebody something they need, if we don’t have any to give! That is so obvious it is hardly worth stating!

But when it comes to being of real help and comfort to others, people can find themselves with an empty tank and nothing to give from the heart. They may go through the motions of doing the right thing, but somehow or other the most important ingredient is missing.

There isn’t one of us who hasn’t gone through tough times and faced difficult problems, and in this verse Paul is encouraging us to learn how to draw our deepest level of comfort from the Lord himself, who is described here by Paul as the God of ALL comfort. He is the one who understands our deepest sorrows, our most severe rejection, our most painful bereavement. He knows from experience what it is to suffer such personal pain and trauma. He went through it for us.

So Paul encourages those of us who are seeking to be mature in Christ, to draw on the love tanks of heaven and be personally comforted by Him. In that way our own love tanks will be full and we will have an overflowing resource to give to those who may not yet be in the same very blessed situation of knowing the Lord of Glory well enough to draw directly from Him. If we have been filled with His comfort, we will always have plenty to be able to give to others!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to so draw on your love that my heart will always be comforted by your presence with me. Please help me to keep my eyes open for those in need of your comfort so that I can share the blessing with them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

God is my Comforter - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | The Breath of God

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Job 32:8, NIV
But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

Have you ever wondered how it is that man is so clever? How it is that mankind is such a creative genius? Why is it that all men, the good and the bad, the born again and the atheist are all capable of such amazing intellectual achievements?

The answer lies in this amazing verse from the book of Job which tells us that the very spirit of man is indeed the breath of the Almighty – and that it is this which gives man his understanding. So all of the human race is benefitting from the creative genius of Almighty God, the Creator of all things. There is nothing creative that man does that does not draw on the ability to understand things that comes from God himself. Every great book, every amazing painting, every intellectual achievement, every technological breakthrough – in every case the source is the genius of God, whether people recognise it or not!

But having said that, isn’t it extraordinary that so many people, who have such creative and intellectual ability are, at the same time, so stupid! As the Bible says, it is the fool that says in his heart that there is no God. Their eyes have been so blinded by the God of this world that in their enthusiasm to deny the existence of the Creator they cannot see that without the Creator they couldn’t do anything – not even write a book to try and prove that God does not exist!!.

Right now there are some 800 buses in the UK carrying the slogan “There is probably no God!” And then they say something like – so go on, enjoy yourself! They imply that if you believe in a God you cannot enjoy yourself. What utter nonsense! True joy only finds its source in the Creator – as Nehemiah discovered, the joy of the Lord was his strength. Those who do their own thing and have no fear of God become wise in their own eyes, lose their sense of spiritual reality and demonstrate the foolishness that is expressed by those who don’t t recognise the amazing truth in our Scripture.

An old hymn says, “Breathe on me breath of God, have done with lesser things”. Let us rise up as men and women of God. draw on the understanding He gives to His children and move on from the lesser things to become the dynamic, creative and joyful Kingdom people that give such pleasure to their Creator.

Prayer: Lord, we pray for all those who are influenced by the arguments of those who deny your existence. Open their eyes to see the foolishness of denying you and show them the Saviour who loved and died for them so that they can Know Father God for themselves. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Life is for Living - Teaching CD

Join us at the "Arise" Conference in February

Devotional Message | None Lost!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

John 18:7-9, NIV
Again, he asked them, “Who is it you want?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” “I told you, I am he,” Jesus answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

Over the past two days a new world hero has emerged from the icy waters of the Hudson River, New York. I watched live on television on Thursday night as a crashed US Airways plane was struggling to remain afloat on the surface of the water. It's thought that the plane had run into a flock of geese shortly after take-off and both engines failed as a result.

Without any power from the engines, the pilot nevertheless managed to bring the plane down in one piece and do a text-book emergency landing on water. The emergency doors opened one by one and within minutes all the passengers and crew were seen standing on the slowly submerging wings of the aircraft or in life rafts. Ferry boats in the area came rushing to the aid of the stricken plane and its passengers. No-one who saw it happening will ever forget the emotion of realising that, instead of watching a horrendous disaster, we were witnessing a miracle take place before our very eyes.

When every one of his passengers and crew were safely off the plane the Captain personally walked the full length of the plane twice to satisfy himself that not one of the passengers who had committed their lives into his care remained on board. Every single person was saved – not one was lost. The Captain was undoubtedly an amazing hero.

As I listened to the news report of the Captain’s incredible feat of landing a powerless plane safely on the water, and then personally ensuring that no-one was lost, I could not avoid turning to this Scripture and thanking God from the bottom of my heart that Jesus is the Captain of my soul. He is the Captain of every single person who has committed their lives unto him. And just as he was careful to ensure that the lives of none of those who had been given into his care would be lost in that Gethsemane encounter with the Roman soldiers, he is equally concerned for you and me right now.

Yes, one day there will be a time to die a physical death. But what joy to know that in Christ, the Captain of my vessel, I have a Redeemer who did even more than walk the length of the plane to see that no-one would be lost. He gave his life that we may be saved and was then raised again from the dead by Father God. Hallelujah, what a Saviour! What a Captain we have on board!!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that all those lives were saved from the Hudson River and for the Captain of the plane who did such an outstanding job. But thank you even more that you, Lord Jesus, died that I might live and that as Captain of my life I know you are caring for me every step of the way home to my final destination, the security of life with you in eternity. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Shepherd Love CD

Devotional Message | The Eye of the Lord

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Deuteronomy 23:14, NIV
For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

The Hebraic understanding of life tells us that everything we do is either directly or indirectly an act of worship. If we are doing those things that please God, then God rejoices to bless us with his presence. But if we are doing things that are shameful, then ultimately we are worshipping the god of this world and it is not surprising that God would turn his face away from us at that time.

When my children were young it was always necessary to keep a close eye on them when they were adventuring. For what was great fun for them could also take them into a place of danger. There were many occasions when a watchful parental eye led to a loving, but warning, call and on some occasions it was that watchful eye that prevented a potential disaster. What would have happened if the parental eye was turned away at a critical moment? The consequences could have been too awful to contemplate.

In this Scripture we read how God says He will turn away from anything indecent that is found in our “camp” – that could mean our home, our activities, our holidays or wherever we go. What a challenge this is to keep ourselves pure in heart motive and action. Jesus put it this way, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8). We generally interpret this verse as meaning that because our eyes are pure we will be able to look on God, who is holy. I am sure that is a correct interpretation, but could it also be that the impure in heart will not be able to see God, because He is not looking at them? And he is having to look away from them because of the impurity they are nurturing? You cannot look into the face of someone who is not looking at you!

If God’s eye is not upon us, we are in danger of losing the protection of our Heavenly Father. What an encouragement this must be to keep ourselves pure and not allow the lust of the eyes to lead us into dangerous temptations.

Prayer: Lord, I need your loving care and protection. I choose to not only walk in your ways but to seek after purity with all of my heart so that indecency will not cause you to turn your eye from me at any time. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Healing & Destiny - Teaching CD

No Other Way - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | The Locked Door

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Revelation 3:20, NIV
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

This is one of the most well-known verses in Scripture. Thousands of evangelists have used these words, from Jesus’s letter to the Church at Laodicea, to close the deal, as it were, when making an appeal for people to accept Jesus as their Saviour by opening the door of their heart to Him. Countless millions must have come into the Kingdom of God, impacted by the Saviour’s words. I thank God for every single one of them.

There is, however, a big but about how this Scripture is often used! For, the message to the Church at Laodicea was to believers, not those who were outside the fellowship of the Church. This verse was, in reality, an appeal from Jesus to Christians to give Jesus access to all of their life. The Church at Laodicea thought it was rich, but the devastating words spoken to them in verse 17 said that far from being rich (in God’s eyes), they were poor, blind and naked!

Sometimes our perception of things is distorted by our own sinfulness, greed, pride and even arrogance, as was the case with the Laodiceans. An important prayer for each of us to pray is “Lord, open my eyes – that I may see things as you see them.” I rejoice that so many people have come into the Kingdom of God, challenged by evangelists to open the door of their heart. But I do wonder what would be the effect on the Church if all believers responded to the Lord by giving Him access to every area of their lives? It is well said that if Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.

I believe miracles would happen in all our churches, and even our nations, if we were to respond enthusiastically to the knocking of the Saviour on the door of His Church, turn the key in the lock and welcome Him in – giving Him His rightful place. What a challenge that is for each of us as we look to Him as the source of Life (in all its fullness) for 2009.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you still knock on the door of our hearts, even when we have turned our back on you in the past. I want you to be Lord of my whole life and I invite you to come in and reign in every area of my being. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kingdom Choices - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | God's New Year Resolution!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Philippians 3:13-14, NIV
One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Every day we depend on the memory of things we have learned about in the past. Without memory none of us could ever function. We would constantly be asking the same people what their name is, but then we wouldn\'t be able to remember our own name either! And we would be permanently lost, not knowing where places are - and we could never go out, because we would never be able to remember where we lived in order to get back home! Life would be totally chaotic. It doesn\'t take much thought to realise that memory is one of the most important facets of our God-created humanity. We cannot, literally, forget what lies in the past for, if we did, life would become intolerable.

So, in this very important Scripture, Paul cannot be telling us to forget the past by wiping our brain clean of its memories. But he is telling us not to so dwell on the events of the past, that we fail to live in the present and we miss God\'s best for our future.

Some people begin the New Year by making New Year Resolutions. They think of things they would like to change - such as their weight - or things they would like to do in the New Year. But most such resolutions are long forgotten within a matter of days of having made them. Soulish enthusiasm for something new will never stand the test of time.

But what would happen if all believers approached the New Year with a different question and asked God what were His plans for them? And then we spent some time with God waiting on Him so that we could listen to His still small voice? We would then have fresh vision for the year ahead - and if it is vision from Him then we wouldn\'t run out of soulish energy in no time at all, but we would discover His sustaining power, enabling us to press on toward the goal He has put before us.

For Paul, his days on earth were coming to an end, but even in those conditions he wanted to make the most of whatever time he had left, so that he would not be found wanting when His call heavenward finally came. What an encouragement Paul is to us to redeem all the years that are to come, not dwelling on what has been (in the past) but rejoicing in what is to come, knowing that what He envisions, He will also enable!

Prayer: Lord, above all, I need to hear your voice leading me into the year ahead. With allmy heart I choose to follow and serve you and press on towards the goal you have put before me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Living the Life - New Book and DVD Series by Peter Horrobin

Join us at ARISE in February

Devotional Message | Chosen to Wait!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 2:29-32, NIV
"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, dismiss now your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

Simeon and Anna were elderly. They had gone to the temple daily all their lives and other than the daily worship of God, there was only one item on their agenda. Look at all the babies that were being brought to the temple to be presented to the Lord. I can easily imagine them looking intently at every one, asking the same old question of the Lord, day in and day out! "Is it this one?"

There had always been an assurance in their heart that they wouldn't die before they saw this special baby being presented. But until that day the answer had always been "No". Today was different. There was a quickening in their spirit, an assurance in their heart and then they found their lips speaking out words that only God could have given them. Their eyes had seen the very salvation of God and they had held this babe from heaven in their arms.

And so they told the world, and all subsequent generations, that the promise of the prophets had been fulfilled. Salvation had come, the Light for the Gentiles, the glory for Israel - people could now look forward to redemption. Simeon and Anna were only asked to do one thing by the Lord - provide prophetic witness to the identity of the child in Joseph and Mary's arms. But every generation of believers since has always remembered what they said and did!

What an encouragement that must be to us - to watch and wait patiently for the fulfilment of the destiny God has for each one of us. He may have many things for us to do or, like Simeon and Anna, there may only be one major responsibility planned for us, but our faithfulness will bring great blessing - even to many generations.

Prayer: Thank you for the faithfulness of Simeon and Anna. Help me Lord to remain faithful to you in all things as I await the fulfilment of my own destiny in God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Living the Life - Book by Peter Horrobin

Fulfilling our Destiny - CD Set

Devotional Message | Today's THE Day!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 2:11-12, NIV
"Today in the town of David, a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Isaiah had prophesied that when the Messiah came his arm would rule for him, but that he would also tend his flock like a shepherd. In this prophecy (Isaiah 40:10-11) we see two different aspects of the character of Jesus - Jesus the King who will rule and Jesus the Shepherd who will care for the sheep.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Scripture tells us that there were two sets of unusual visitors - first there were the Shepherds, who had both heard the angels telling of the birth of Christ and seen the hosts of angels praising God in thanksgiving. Then there were the Kings who brought their rich gifts and bowed before the baby who was also a King, but whose authority far outweighed that of any earthly king. In a remarkable way, these two visits to the baby Jesus reflected the prophecy of Isaiah, both the shepherds and the kings came and acknowledged that they were bowing before a far superior Shepherd and a far greater King.

As we celebrate, with great thanksgiving, the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, let us never forget that this baby grew to become that great Shepherd of the Sheep who cares deeply for everyone of His lambs, even you and me. But that He is also reigning as King of Kings and that ultimately all authority rests in His hands.

So whatever the situation the world is in, He is ultimately in control. And whatever situation you may be in personally, He is still the Good Shepherd. Try and spend a few minutes this Christmas thinking about your life and choosing to let Him reign in your life as King and bringing to Him, as your Shepherd, all the concerns that are pressing down upon you. He is sufficient for all these things.

Prayer: Thank you Father God for Jesus, the most amazing Christmas gift anyone could ever receive. Help me to mark this Christmas season with a new understanding of how precious Jesus is. In His name, Amen.

Devotional Message | God With Us

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Matthew 1:22-23, NIV
All this took place to fulfil what the Lord said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel", which means, "God with us."

There are many names and phrases used to describe the Son of God, all of which have great meaning. He is Sovereign Lord, but he's also the Good Shepherd. He is Redeemer and Prince of Peace. But of all the many wonderful names you will find in Scripture, for me the most beautiful and amazing name is "Immanuel". Matthew is careful to tell us that it means "God with us".

Every other religion, through which mankind tries to express their journey to find God, is an expression of man's search after his creator. The heart of the Christian message is that God came to seek us out! When Jesus the Son of God, walked this earth we were able to see and experience the character and nature of God Himself. Jesus was the literal fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy. He was GOD WITH US! Mankind had the incredible privilege of seeing the evidence for God firsthand.

And the Gospel writers told us all about it. These are their first hand accounts of a life-changing experience. They walked with Him, talked with Him, shared so much with Him. He was the real thing, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. he was Immanuel.

But the miracle of the Christmas story is not that He was Immanuel, but that He is Immanuel - today. And as John reminded us in his Gospel, as many as receive Him have the right to become children of God, and that includes you and me (John 1:12). For those who have come to know Him, Jesus is constantly Immanuel - God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We can be utterly secure in knowing that the God who made the universe cares enough about each one of us to walk with us through every season of life, whatever we are going through just now. I just love this amazing Christmas message.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for showing mankind what God is like. Thank you that the love and compassion you gave to all men and women is there for me as well. I'm so grateful that because of you I can know God for myself and can look forward to an eternity of joy sharing in the blessings of Heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Devotional Message | Getting Dressed!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Romans 13:14, NIV
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Have you ever heard someone exclaim, while looking at a wardrobe bursting with clothes, "I've nothing to wear!" It's the sound shopkeepers love to hear. For, without fail, such an exclamation is often followed by a trip to the local clothing store to find that perfect item for today's need.

There is, of course, a huge difference between the clothing we need to make ourselves physically presentable and the clothing we need to adorn our life and character. The world is full of attractive and tempting offers - not just of physical clothing, but of activities which are a substitute for the very best spiritual clothing that's available. The sinful nature is constantly being drawn to things which have their source in the temptations laid for us by the god of this world.

In these past twenty years, much of my life has been spent in helping people to see that the things they have been choosing from the wardrobe of life have not been edifying and, tragically, have produced bad fruit in their lives. The clothing has been inappropriate and often very dirty and has had to be removed. But no Christian needs to exclaim "I've nothing to wear" for, as Paul expresses it so succinctly in our reading - we have the incredible riches of Christ at our disposal and if we clothe ourselves in everything that He is we will never be lacking in beautiful things with which to clothe our life and character.

Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for the beautiful clothing represented by your life and character. Help me to get rid of those items from the wardrobe of my life which are dirty and unedifying and always clothe myself with the very best you have provided for me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

NEW Living the Life - DVD Series

NEW Intercession and Healing - Book by Fiona Horrobin

Devotional Message | God Has a Plan!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Micah 7:11, NIV
The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.

When the prophet Micah wrote these words, the land and the people were in devastation. God had not spared his own beloved people from the consequences of their own sins. There was always a day of reckoning. Even today, when we live in days of New Covenant grace, we are not exempt from the consequences of our own choices. As Paul reminded the Galatians (6:7-9) there is an unchangeable law of sowing and reaping!

But God did not stop loving His people when they sinned and even though they had turned their back upon Him for a season, the consequences of their mistakes eventually had the effect of bringing them back to God in repentance. Repentance is always the beginning of hope and the doorway to God's ongoing plan for His people.

God has not changed His character. He still loves His people even when they make mistakes. And, as in Micah's day, God looks forward in anticipation to a time of rebuilding once more! So if you are looking at a scene of personal devastation, or praying for someone who's going through a tough time, remember, God is a Redeemer. He can see beyond the mess, He has a plan - and if we put our hand afresh into His, then we will soon be able to see what God can already see and discover the plans of God for our lives.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you always have a plan for each one of our lives. Help me to see beyond the circumstances and to trust you so that there will be a new day of building walls and extending boundaries in my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Living the Life - NEW BOOK by Peter Horrobin

Understanding Leadership - Book by Tom Marshall

Devotional Message | Total Security

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Romans 8:38-39, NIV
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The other day Sky News introduced its headlines with these words, "All the wealth of the world is helpless against nature's force and power." Fires were raging out of control in California, destroying thousands of homes - many being the multi-million dollar homes of the very wealthy. A state of emergency had been declared in four counties and fear had clearly and understandably gripped the whole community as the wind took sparks from one location to another. Wealth was no protection from the destructive power of fire out of control.

For those whose security is in their possessions, the world has no answers to those who have lost everything they had depended on in disasters such as the Californian fires. None of us can know what may happen on any day of our lives. Disaster could strike at any moment. Fires, accidents, crashes, sicknesses, relationship breakdowns are happening all around us - none of us can be totally insulated from the possibility of something happening to us.

So how can we cope when bad things do happen? Paul has the answer in the words of our Scripture by reminding us that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. As long as our ultimate security is in Him, we have nothing to fear! And the security we have is not an insurance policy that can be bought by the wealthy, not even all the wealth in the world! It has already been paid for by Jesus on the cross. Even in the face of disaster, for those who know Jesus it is still "well with their soul"!

Prayer: Thank you Lord that my eternal security does not depend on earthly wealth. I pray that those who suffer because of earthly disasters may come to know the One who can save them from a far greater disaster in eternity. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Our Covenant Keeping God 1 - Teaching CD

When Life Gets Tough - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | The Eternal Riddle!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

John 11:25-16, NIV
Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do

you believe this?"

Jesus sometimes gave emphasis to his teaching by talking in riddles. A riddle deliberately poses a problem in terms that seem to be confusing, but which make the hearer think. A riddle often depends for its success on two different meanings of the same word.

Martha's brother, Lazarus, had just died. In these verses, Jesus is making Martha think about what happens to a believer in Him after death. He poses a riddle for her to work out by saying that whoever believes in Jesus will live, even though he dies, and then saying that whoever believes in Him will never die. How confusing! How is it possible to both die and never die at the same time?!

The solution to the puzzle lies in two very different meanings of the word death - one is physical and the other is spiritual. All people were born into the death which is the inheritance of the human race because of the fall - both spiritual and physical death. For a believer, however, physical death is no longer the end. It is the beginning of a new era of life. But for an unbeliever, physical death is indeed a disaster - for it marks the end of the years of grace when someone may choose to become a believer.

For a believer, therefore, physical death is a gateway, a gateway to Life. So, even though believers still experience physical death, for them it is not to be feared. To be in Jesus means that even though one day our physical body will cease to function, we will never die. We have Jesus's word for it! What wonderful news. Even though Jesus did raise Lazarus from his physical death, it was only for a season of time. When he died the next time he would go through that glorious gateway of Life!

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that in You I have eternal life and that I need not fear physical death. Increase my concern, Lord, for those I know who are not believers, so that I can play my part in introducing them to you, that they may also come to know the truth. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Coming Home - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

God's Christmas Gift - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Come Over and Help Us!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Acts 16:9, NIV
During the night Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us.

God shows us the way ahead in so many different ways. If there is something happening right before our eyes that needs our help or involvement, then God doesn't need to give us a vision . We simply need to act responsibly in simple obedience to the love of God which will always constrain us to do what is right. We don't need an instruction to help someone who has fallen, or share our food with someone who is hungry. Those are things we should do without being asked - they are part of the standing orders for the Body of Christ.

But at other times, God may want us to do something "right out of the box" - something we couldn't possibly have known about in the natural. It's at times like this that God uses different methods to get our attention. Sometimes it's an inner and insistent voice. From being a young child I learnt from my Mum and Dad how important it was to recognise this inner voice of God. Later in life there were a couple of occasions when God spoke to me like that and I was instrumental in saving someone's life.

Then there are those rarer occasions, when God uses more than the "still small voice" on the inside. He gives a clear vision. This is what happened to Paul when he was in Troas. In his vision a man from Macedonia was calling for help. It was Paul's obedience to this vision that took the Gospel into Europe for the first time. The most significant moment in my own pilgrimage was when I was starting to rebuild an old car, but the chassis frame was bent. As I looked at it God spoke to me and said, "You could repair this broken car, but I can restore broken lives. Which is more important?" It was that word from the Lord which set me on my life's calling to bring healing and restoration to hurting and broken people.

When God does speak clearly to us, He doesn't over-ride our free will. It is up to us to choose what we do. But when we obey, we will always discover that His way is the path of blessing and fruitfulness.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you are a God who speaks - that you are a Father who loves to show your children the way to go. Help me to be always listening for your voice and give me the courage to do those things you ask me to do. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Living in Vision - Teaching CD

Healing & Destiny - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | The View from the Top!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Habakkuk 3:19, NIV
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

In order to see the view you need to get up high! I am always fascinated at how different things appear when you can look down on them. Situations which looked difficult from below can suddenly look very different from an elevated perspective.

I recently went on a long walk with my son and his family. The four young grandchildren were full of energy, even when their Dad led us to the top of a steep hill - easier for them than for me! But when we got to the top, the view was worth every one of the many uphill steps we had climbed. As I looked down on the valley below, and out to the sea in the far distance, I realised afresh that God's view is always from the high places. There is nothing hidden from his sight and as long as we remain in Him, then we will be able to see things from his point of view.

A deer has no difficulty in climbing the heights and jumping over obstacles. It is a perfect picture of how we need to be in God. Energised by Him, he enables us to do more than we would have thought possible. Gaining the heights is sometimes costly and time consuming, but the heights God has prepared for us are always achievable when he envisions us.

God is our strength, He makes our feet like those of a deer. He enables us to go on to the heights, see things from His perspective and overcome the obstacles the enemy puts in our way.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to always stay close to you, where I can see things from your perspective. Help me to trust in you when I am challenged by the road ahead and to receive your strength for whatever obstacles I have to overcome. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Just Cards Direct - Support Ellel Ministries by buying your Christmas Cards here

Devotional Message | The People Have Spoken!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

1 Timothy 2:1-3, NIV
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

The American people have spoken. The most expensive election in history is now over. For the next four years the first ever black President of the United States will preside in the White House. It is certainly a historic moment. One half of the nation is elated, the other is generous in defeat. Whether you are pleased or disappointed with the outcome is not now the issue, it is the responsibility of believers to pray for those people who have been given authority to lead our nations.

Such is the world-wide influence of the United States that it is incumbent on all of us, irrespective of our nationality to pray for the new President-elect. Even though he is untested in office, he is already, by election, a world leader and, as citizens of the world, the injunction of scripture is to pray for him.

But, as today's Scripture reminds us, the issue that is ultimately on God's heart is not just who should be President, or what his policies are, but that men and women the world over should come to a knowledge of the truth. It is sometimes hard, in the middle of political campaigning, when so many things are said with an underlying motive of promoting one candidate or the other, to discover exactly what is the truth about anything!

The ultimate truth about Jesus, however, is unequivocally revealed in the Word of God. As Jesus said, he is the way, the TRUTH and the life. We cannot either vote him into or out of office. His position is above all governments. He is King of kings and Lord of lords and the ultimate government of the heavens and the earth is upon his shoulders. What a relief to know that He who is truth, is in charge and that the greatest desire of his heart is that people should come to know Him.

So, as we pray for all the leaders of the world, let us never forget in our praying that the affairs of men are in the hands of God and that the heart of our intercession should always be that men and women the world over will want to choose who is Lord of their hearts and that they will make the right choice in the only vote they can ever make that will transcend all the the governments of time and change our destiny in eternity.

Prayer: We pray, Lord, for all the world's leaders, especially those who have responsibility for our own nations and the new President-elect of the USA. We ask that the decisions they make will ultimately serve your purposes of drawing people to the Saviour so that they can make the right choice in their hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen

Leaders are for Leading - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

Life's Decisions - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Talking to Oneself!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 103:1-2, NIV
Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Talking to oneself is sometimes seen as a sign of senility - the sort of thing that people do when they are beginning lose control of their senses! Not so in the Bible. There are many places when it seems as though the Psalmist, for example, is talking to himself, but in reality he is a very long way from losing his senses. He is doing the most sensible thing he could possibly do!

Let me explain. God has given us a spirit, a soul and a body. It is with our spirit that we are most able to commune with God and with which we are most sensitive to him. All of us, however, have trouble with that soulish part of our being which always seems to want to go beyond or outside of God's best for our lives. Even the Apostle Paul was struggling with this when he said that he knew what was right, but often found himself wanting to do what was wrong! So it is with you and me. Our spirit and our soul seem to be at war with each other. The only way forward is for the spirit to take charge and tell the soul what to do.

That is exactly what David is doing in our reading. He is telling his whole inner being - everything that's within him - to praise the Lord. For he knows that when we are doing that we can't be going wrong. Then he says to his inner being - don't forget all the benefits that come from God. It's as if David's inner being must be objecting to doing what his spirit is saying, so the spirit has to remind the soul of all the blessings that have come from God through obedience to Him!

Let me encourage you to "do a David" and remind yourself of all the blessings God has brought into your life. What a wonderful way to ensure that your whole being keeps on track with God and continues to both love and serve Him all your days.

Prayer: Help me Lord to remind my inner being of your wonderful goodness, so that everything I am will want to both love and serve you. In Jesus name, Amen

The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth - Book by Peter Horrobin

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Devotional Message | The Importance of Wholeheartedness

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

2 Chronicles 25:2, NIV
Amaziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.

Amaziah was a King whose reign was affected by mixture - the mixture of wanting to get it right by doing those things that would bless the Lord, but at the same time thinking that he also knew best and would choose to do things his way when it suited him. This is a recipe for disaster.

Wherever you find people in Scripture telling God that His ways are not the best ways, you will soon find that the end result is never good. Arrogance and pride are never a good substitute for humility and obedience. Verse 20 of this chapter says it very plainly, "Amaziah, however, would not listen".

The real issue for Amaziah was an unwillingness to come under authority. As King, he was in charge of the country and God was his ultimate authority. But in his pride he turned away from the Lord and eventually it cost him his life (verse 27). The rebellion at the root of his lack of wholeheartedness eventually destroyed him. Very few of us are in Amaziah's privileged position as an absolute King, with only God above us! But we are all accountable to God for our choices and to those God has put in authority over us.

A friend of mine once tried to tell the head of his Bible School what he believed God was asking him to do. He actually wanted to do what suited him! It was not a good plan and the Principal told him so. But my friend chose not to submit to the authority he was under. It was the worst decision he could have made and it very nearly cost him his life! God saved him from disaster in this case, but it was a much needed wake-up call from God. Humility and obedience, even sometimes when it doesn't seem to suit us, are vital characteristics of the life of a man or woman of God.

Prayer: Help me Lord to remember the lesson of Amaziah and choose to walk in humility and obedience before you all my days. In Jesus's name, Amen

Healing through Deliverance - NEW Combined Volumes 1 & 2

The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Gaining Credits!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Genesis 15:6 & Hebrews 11:8, NIV
Abraham believed the Lord, and He credited it to him for righteousness..

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

When people start studying on some training courses, they proceed by gaining credits towards their eventual qualification. These credits are valuable, for without them they will not gain whatever qualification it is they are needing to get.

The good news is that we can't earn credits to be qualified for entry to Heaven - all the necessary 'credits' were won for us on the cross by Jesus. But in terms of our personal pilgrimage through life and the fulfilment of our destiny, there is an eternal reward for God's people (1 Corinthians 3:14) and we still need to understand the 'credits principle' learned by Abraham, so long ago. We all need to learn how to hear from God, and then exercise faith in what God has said by being obedient to His word.

Abraham's faith and subsequent actions brought great blessing - not just for himself but also for all the generations after him. What amazing fruit there can be in each of our lives when we seek Him and in faith do His will. We may not always know in advance what the consequences might be (like Abraham), but when we look back on life from the viewpoint of eternity, we will see how God's blessings always follow faithful obedience.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the lessons we learn from Abraham and other characters in your word. Help me to be a person of faith who always has the courage to follow you, even when, sometimes, we may not be able to see the end from the beginning. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Kingdom Choices 1 - Teaching CD

Moving into Your Personal Destiny - Series of 3 Teaching CDs

Devotional Message | The Best Recipe!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

2 Timothy 3:16, NIV
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be throughly equipped for every good work.

My mother had a favourite recipe. It always worked and produced the most wonderful cake in the whole world - at least in the world in which my brother and I were brought up. We loved it! The recipe was highly dependable and well proven.

The more often you have tried something and it has proved reliable, the more you are able to depend on it and then recommend it to others. Word of mouth recommendation is always the best possible advertising for any product. Well, the older I have got, the more confident I have become in the truth and value of Scripture. Experience has demonstrated its dependability. I strongly recommend the recipe! What incredible ingredients it contains.

I look back now on the years of youth, when through daily reading of the Scriptures God got His word into my heart. I would not want to live now without having constant access to that daily source of the richest treasure. I often say, "if you get it in, the Holy Spirit will get it out!" Paul was absolutely right when he referred to the Scriptures as being vital for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. If we would only listen to that gentle voice of the Spirit speaking to our hearts through the Scriptures, and act accordingly, then we would indeed be thoroughly equipped for every good work and be saved from many wrong choices and bad decisions.

I pray that you will always look to the Scriptures as the primary input into your life. The Word of God will make you wise!

Prayer:Thank you Lord for your precious Word. Forgive me for the times when I have ignored the truth it contains. Please help me, as I read it, to understand what it says, and listen to what you are saying to me through your Word today. In Jesus, Amen

Life According to the Book - Teaching CD

Living in the Promises - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Some Trust in Horses!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 20:7 & 8, NIV
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

The world financial markets are in meltdown. Banks are being propped up with massive amounts of government funds. There is even talk of governments going bankrupt. People's lifetime savings are at risk. Insecurity and fear have become the ruling spirits of politics and business. What we see happening around us is unprecedented in our lifetime. Every day seems to be worse than the next. We cannot watch the television news without wondering what greater disaster might be lying round the next corner.

In the United States we are just weeks away from a new President. Whoever wins will bring change at the top and no-one knows how the new incumbent of the White House will react to the developing situation and what further changes they will bring. The institutions and governments on which the world has depended are now distinctly unstable.

It is in times like that this that we need to know that our eternal security is not in the uncertain treasures of the world's currencies, but in the name of the one who is above all temporal powers and whose treasure is of eternal value. When the "horses" of the world's systems are brought to their knees we can still be at peace, confident that whatever happens in this world is not a surprise to God and not a reason to lose faith or let fear control our hearts.

Yes, these are tough and challenging times and the enemy of souls will seek to use his weapon of fear to shake the confidence of believers. Whatever happens, don't let him rob you of your peace in God and be encouraged by our Scripture today to rise up, stand firm knowing that God is still on the throne of the universe and we can trust Him.

Prayer: We pray today that in the midst of the world's confusion and even despair, God's people will continue to put their trust in the living God. Also, that those who do not know Him will turn from their fear and insecurity and run to the only One who can be trusted and depended on for both time and eternity. In Jesus, Amen.

A Godly Response to Stress, Failure - Teaching CD

Life is for Living - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | He's Watching Over You!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 1:6, NIV
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

We all need encouragement! Today's Scripture is such a strong word of encouragement for God's people. The Scripture says that if you choose to walk in God's ways, He promises to watch over you! Of course, God can see us wherever we are and whatever we are doing - for we cannot actually escape from either His presence or his knowledge of us. But the words here, translated as 'watch over', mean much more than God seeing us or being aware of what we are doing. They contain within them a powerful promise of loving protection.

For example, a beach is a wonderful place for children to enjoy playing in the sand. But it is also a place of potential danger from the sea, or even from other people on the beach. So Mum and Dad would not only be seeing their children playing on a beach, but they would also be watching over them - meaning that they would be constantly aware of all that is happening around the children, looking out for any potential dangers and at all times be in a state of readiness to move quickly to act in case of danger. This is a perfect picture of what to "watch over" means. The parents see what is happening - but they don't see and do nothing, they see and also act if the children are getting into danger and need help. They are watching over their children.

God's promise to those who choose to walk in righteousness is that He will watch over us just like this. In the first Psalm we read that people who walk in His ways will be like a tree that is planted by a river, that always has fresh sustenance from the water and as a result produces wonderful fruit. Fruitfulness is a sure test of real spirituality. To be fruitful we need to be drawing water from the river of life. We do this by choosing to walk in His ways. The choices we make have a direct effect on both our protection and our fruitfulness. Father God is a good gardener - he loves to watch over His fruit in each one of our lives - including yours.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the wonderful promises in your Word. Help me to always make the right choices and walk in your ways so that my life may be very fruitful and that I may know your loving protection as you watch over me. In Jesus, Amen

Fruitful and Gifted - Teaching CD
The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | A Great Fish!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Jonah 1:17, NIV
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights."

I was once fishing in the Indian Ocean. I had fished all day in difficult waters. The swell on the sea made it difficult to keep upright and I had been very sick. But a fisherman always pushes through, whatever the conditions, in the hope of landing that catch of a lifetime.

Suddenly, my rod bent double, there was a gigantic pull and I was into my first fish of the day. Little by little I wound up a huge musselcracker from the depths of the sea. I could see it coming to the surface through the transparent blue waters. I was close to landing my fish when from deep down a huge shadow was seen moving quickly towards the boat. At the last moment the shadow turned sideways and what at first looked like a shadow turned out to be one of those great white sharks that frequent the shores of South Africa - my musselcracker was a tiddler by comparison!

With extraordinary precision, the shark closed its teeth on my musselcracker, neatly severed the head and carried on its way with a late afternoon snack in its mouth. In a state of shock I wound in the fish head, hanging there from the hook as an abject reminder of the fish I nearly caught!

I will never forget that great fish - just as I'm sure Jonah never forgot his great fish, for very different reasons. Jonah had run away from God, but circumstances brought deep repentance and God's provision got him back on track. Your circumstances may seem beyond your capacity to resolve - but remember Jonah's great fish. God's remedy could not have been planned or even imagined by Jonah, but when it came it was a total solution. If you feel that you are swimming in deep water out of control, remember Jonah! Put right anything that needs to be dealt with before God(and man) and look for God's total solution!

Prayer:Thank you Lord for your total solution to Jonah's problem. Help me to remember that you are the same God today as you were then and to always believe for your solution to every situation. In Jesus, Amen.

When Life Gets Tough - Teaching CD

Healing Through Deliverance - Book by Peter Horrobin - NEW COMBINED EDITION

Devotional Message | His Light Will Never Go Out!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Isaiah 60:19, NIV
The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory

One day, all those who know and love the Lord will experience the glories of heaven. They will see all that God has prepared for His saints and will rejoice at the amazing salvation that Jesus won for us on the cross - salvation from everything with which the enemy would want to condemn us and salvation to everything that the Lord almighty has in store for the saints of God.

While this is wonderful news for all believers, the cry so often goes up from the hearts of men and women here on earth, "O God, where are You? I need your help now!" The psalmists were pretty good at expressing their pain and need to God. When you are going through a tough and dark season it is sometimes hard to see where the light is.

Just before the work at Ellel Grange began in 1986, the team did a teaching and ministry weekend at a church in Yorkshire. God did some wonderful things in the people as they began to apply the truths of the Word of God to their real-life situations. At the end of the weekend we gathered together to pray - our hearts were full of praise and gratitude to God as we looked back at the amazing experience we had all been through. But we then had to go home! I for one was very apprehensive for at that time we did not yet have the money to buy Ellel Grange, but we were committed to the purchase! Stretching before us was an unknown pathway.

Then, as we prayed, God brought our Scripture for today into sharp focus. I could hardly speak as I tried to read the words. There were tears in my eyes as I realised the enormity of what I was reading. All we needed to do, as we pushed forward into the unknown, was to trust in this wonderful promise - however dark and dangerous the pathway seemed to be, God Himself was promising to be our light by both day and by night. We suddenly realised that if God had led us thus far, then we had nothing to fear. He had promised!

That was 22 years ago. God has been amazingly faithful ever since - year in and year out. What God had done on that weekend in Yorkshire, became a wonderful encouragement as we trusted Him with everything we had. So, let Him be your light in the darkness - His light is an everlasting light. It will NEVER go out.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for your faithfulness to your promises. However dark the pathway may get, I want to trust you with everything I am for the rest of my days. In Jesus, Amen

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Kingdom Choices - 1 - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | God's Deposit!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory.

I once bought a wonderful old car. It was exactly what I was looking for. I put down a deposit in order to secure the car for when I could collect it. Even though it wasn't fully paid for, it was now mine - the deposit was enough to ensure that when I went to collect the car it would still be there. People often put down a deposit on something they want to buy to secure it for when they can come and pay for it.

A few weeks ago the oldest member of our Ellel Grange prayer team went to be with the Lord. He had joined the team 23 years ago, right at the beginning of the work, just before his seventieth birthday! God had put a wonderful deposit of the Holy Spirit into his life and he served the Lord with great effectiveness all his days. As I was meditating on his fruitful life - and how much we will miss him - I was drawn to this scripture and I realised that God now had full possession of the life into which he had placed a deposit so many years earlier!

It is so encouraging to realise that when a saint passes into the glorious, immediate presence of the Lord, the fullness of what God had planned when he put the deposit into their life has now been realised. Full restoration has taken place, the shackles of the sinful nature have been left behind and the joys of eternity are now theirs. What a wonderful and glorious Gospel!

A friend with whom I was sharing the good news once said to me, "If I believed what you believe, I would be willing to crawl on my hands and knees across a field of broken glass to tell just one person about Jesus!" Praise God, all I had to do was sit with him at his hospital bedside and introduce him to the Saviour. On his last earthly bed he discovered the gateway to eternal life. A couple of days later he was discovering the blessings of God's deposit in his life. One day, I'm looking forward to sharing fellowship with him.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that the deposit you have placed in my life is a guarantee of your ownership and that one day I will know the fullness of sharing eternity with you. In Jesus, Amen

Grief & Bereavement - Teaching CD

Healing for the Bereaved - Teaching CD

Devotional Message | An Early Harvest

Seeds of the Kingdom — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Luke 18:16, NIV
But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’

My Father, Fred Horrobin, was ten years of age when he went to hear a children’s evangelist speaking at a local church for five nights.

There was no transport and as Fred walked the two miles home, along country lanes, a battle was being fought for his soul. He knew what he wanted to do, but he was battling with another voice telling him what he would miss if he gave his life to Jesus. The battle was still being fought as he climbed into bed.

But when morning came he was sick. He was too ill to go to the final meeting. So he wrote a little letter to Hudson Pope telling him he wanted to know Jesus, but didn’t know how. The message was delivered by hand. The evangelist could easily have sent a message back saying he would pray for him. But Hudson Pope was a harvester – the time had come for gathering the crop! He knew this was a critical moment in young Fred’s life.

So Mr Pope set out on that cold winter’s day to walk the two miles to go and visit Fred. He was determined not to cause any spiritual hindrance in Fred’s life. He didn’t want anything to stand in the way of one small boy finding Jesus for himself. And so, sitting by the sick boy’s bed, he gently led Fred to the Saviour, and at the age of ten my Father’s salvation was secured.

Hudson Pope didn’t consider his own tiredness or personal interests as important. Gathering the harvest was what mattered to him. Helping children come to Jesus was his life’s calling.

I still have that letter my father wrote – with Hudson Pope’s handwriting at the bottom confirming the day on which my dad was born again. He was only a child, but his salvation was totally real. For the rest of his days he served his Saviour and, as a result, I, too, came to faith in Jesus at the age of nine. I remember kneeling by my bedside with my dad and inviting Jesus into my heart. How I thank God for Hudson Pope’s diligence in sharing the Gospel with a young boy and introducing him to Jesus.

Action Line: Make a list of all the young children you know personally, especially members of your family, and start praying for them to find a real faith in Jesus while they are young.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for seeing the potential in every child. I pray especially for all the children in my own family that they will come to a personal faith in Jesus at an early age and choose to serve the Lord all their days.

Healing Through Deliverance - Book by Peter Horrobin

Evangelism & Healing Teaching CD

Ministering to Children Teaching CD

Devotional Message | Sowing through the Tears

Seeds of the Kingdom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Psalm 126:5-6, NIV
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

Life is not always easy. For some it’s incredibly hard. Believers are not exempt from the realities of living in a fallen and hostile world.

I have often had to pray with people suffering from the consequences of traumas which had happened to them or their family - traumas such as those caused by accidents, redundancy, sickness, poverty, violence, premature death and even war.

I recently looked at a gravestone in a country churchyard. I was impacted by the two names on the stone. They were brothers, both of them killed in action during the First World War. Their father was the minister of the Church. I wonder how he coped with the double tragedy of having to bury both his sons, while at the same time declaring the glorious truths of the Gospel to his people? There’s no doubt that many times in the rest of his ministry he would have been sowing in tears.

Our Scripture today encourages us to keep on sowing, even through tears of pain or personal distress. For those who keep on sowing, with forgiving, thankful hearts, will one day see the harvest that comes from their sowing.

It is not only the witness of our words that matters, it is also the witness of our lives. It’s easy to be dynamic for God when everything’s fine. It is quite another thing to maintain godliness in the face of crisis and pain. But it’s the witness of our lives at times such as these which can have the greatest impact on the lives of others.

When a Christian policeman was shot dead in Manchester, people were shocked by the news. But it was the forgiveness offered by his family, and their Christian witness, that made headlines next day in the papers! And on the following Sunday, the cameras followed them to Church. They continued sowing – even through the tears.

Action Line: How do you react when things go badly wrong? Is it time to say sorry to God for allowing difficult circumstances to blunt the effectiveness of your Christian life and witness?

Prayer: Help me Lord to keep on sowing the good seed of the Kingdom, even when times are hard. Thank you Jesus that you did not give up when people turned against you. Amen

Healing for Victims of Accident and Trauma - Teaching Course
Frida - Chosen to Die, Destined to Live - Book
The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | Good Ground!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Matthew 13:22, NIV
But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Ground varies in quality. Seed sown in good ground will produce a larger harvest than similar seed sown in poor quality soil. Jesus illustrated His parable of the sower by talking about ground that was hard, ground that was stony, ground that was full of thorns and thistles and finally good ground, which would, of course, produce the best harvest.

When you look at ground, the difference between good and bad ground is obvious and we can choose where to sow. But not so with human beings! Some of the most unlikely people may eventually turn out to be very good ground.

None of us would have thought that John Newton, the notorious, blaspheming slave trader could possibly be good ground. But when the power and presence of God changed his life he was totally transformed and became one of England’s greatest hymn writers. He understood the message. His life was good ground. He learnt from personal experience just ‘how sweet the name of Jesus sounds, in a believer’s ear.’ It meant, for him, the difference between a lost eternity and the second part of his life which produced enormous fruit for the Kingdom of God.

John Robinson, now a member of an Ellel team, was once a gang member in the shadow lands of teenage rebellion and rejection. When he heard the message, he understood it and now has a remarkable story to tell of how God changed his life. His life was good ground.

The point is often missed that in this remarkable parable, Jesus defines good ground not by what it looks like from the outside, but by whether or not the hearer understands the word. It’s not our job to judge the quality of the ground – it’s our job to sow the seed!

The sower scattered his seed on all types of ground. So must we. Who knows what God has been doing in the heart of a person, making them ready to receive the seed and understand the message at a critical moment in their life? If we fail to sow the seed, that moment may be lost.

Action Line: Start praying for the young people of your community. Among them will be some John Robinsons who will truly understand the message. But how will they hear unless someone tells them?

Prayer: Help me Lord to be always ready to sow the good seed of your Kingdom into the lives of those you show me. Forgive me for judging the potential of a person by the outside appearance. Amen

Evangelism & Healing - Teaching CD
Healing through Deliverance - Book by Peter Horrobin

Sacrifice of Love - Worship CD

Devotional Message | Seeds of the Kingdom!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

2 Corinthians 9:10 NIV
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Yesterday, as part of our testing, a sample devotional was accidentally sent to all our subscribers in advance of today's launch date.

This is the first daily devotional from Ellel Ministries International. After many years of talking about it, at last we’re doing it! We pray it will be a blessing to our many friends around the world as various leaders Leaders and Associates of the ministry bring words of inspiration, encouragement, challenge and topical comment, centred on the Word of God.

The name we’ve given to this daily devotional is Seeds of the Kingdom. A seed contains within it both the gift of life and the power of multiplication. The Kingdom is, of course, the Kingdom of God.

Our objective is that each devotional will contain within it life-giving truth, which will bring Kingdom reality, and which God will multiply in the lives of His people as they apply this truth.

The potential in even one seed is huge. In Jesus’ parable, He talked of a hundred-fold increase. Christian history is littered with stories of how faithful sowers of seed even transformed nations, through the influence of those won to Christ as a result of their seed sowing.

The Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 were opened in a spectacular display, before an estimated television audience of four billion people. The world’s eyes were on China and her remarkable achievements as a nation. But God’s eyes were surely more closely focussed on many millions of believers in China who found the Lord Jesus as Saviour through times of great opposition and persecution and have been building the Kingdom of God.

Who could have known what God was doing two centuries ago when three young men sowed the seed of the Kingdom into the life of Hudson Taylor’s grandfather? Two generations later the young Hudson Taylor was called to go to China as a missionary. He became the founding father of a huge Missionary Society and a Chinese church, numbered today in tens of millions. What an amazing God we serve. Be encouraged and keep on sowing the seed.

It may not be until you’re in eternity that you discover what God does with the seeds you sow. It’s your job to keep sowing – it’s His to give the increase. As God gives you the seed to sow, may He enlarge your harvest of righteousness.

Action Line: Spend a few moments thanking God for all those who have sown good seed into your life.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for those who have sown good seed into my life. Help me to be constantly aware of opportunities to sow into the lives of others. Amen

Steps to Life - Teaching Series on CD

The Parables of Harris - Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Healing Through Deliverance - Book by Peter Horrobin

Devotional Message | From Death to Glorious Life!

Seeds of the Kingdom — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

John 12:24-25, NIV
“I tell you the truth, except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life,”

I can understand why some people have a love-hate relationship with Jesus. They love it when He said things they like and which give them comfort. They love it when Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28). They love it when, talking about Heaven, Jesus said, “I am going to prepare a place for you”. (John 14:2). They love it when they realise that because of Jesus, their sins can be forgiven.

But then they hear Jesus telling people to forgive their enemies, to give away what they have to others and then to take up a cross in order to follow Him! Suddenly, it seems, Jesus is no longer such a welcome friend. His teaching cuts right across the desires of the flesh.

After all, there is only one purpose for a cross – and that’s to cause death! Not an attractive proposition at the best of times. And yet, the cross is at the heart of the Gospel – for without death, there could be no resurrection and without the resurrection there could be no eternal life.

Our Scripture for today illustrates this vital principle. Just as a grain of wheat has to give up its own life before there can be multiplication, it is only as we choose to live for God, instead of ourselves, that we can enjoy amazing Kingdom multiplication. Our life, our time, our money and all our possessions are ultimately a gift from God. How we use them is up to us. But if we desire our lives to bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God, then first we must choose to die. We must learn to love the things we want to hate!

Action Line: Think about the things Jesus said which, if you are really honest, you don’t like. Ask God for His grace and understanding so you can learn to love all that Jesus said.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you were willing to take up your cross that I might live. Forgive me Lord for the times I forget that everything I have belongs to you. I pray now that my whole life may, as good seed, be sown into this world, producing a large harvest for your Kingdom. Amen

The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth - Book by Peter Horrobin

No Other Way - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

The Shepherd & the King - Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin