God is not Moody

 Are you in a bad mood sometimes?

That's normal for us humans, but God is not a moody person.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Jas 1:17 NIV

Our love may fluctuate with our moods, but that doesn't affect God's love for you one bit.

We are mortal beings. Our biological nature is weak and changeable, but in your mortal body is an immortal spirit.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 2 Co 5:1–2 NIV

This life on earth is a time of learning and testing. We can learn to live with an awakened spirit by living in close fellowship with God's Spirit.

God has given you supernatural means of communication to grow beyond your flawed nature.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jn 7:37–39 NIV

If you have given your life to Jesus, you can expect Jesus to flood you with the Holy Spirit. You may drink if you are thirsty.

But don't draw back like many conservative Christians. Jesus wants to bless you much more.

When you are flooded and filled with the Holy Spirit, God will be a wonderful companion and guide.

Some conservative Christians don't want to seek a new experience with the Holy Spirit. They say they were filled with the Holy Spirit when they were converted.

Some Pentecostals do not want to seek more blessing because they have already been baptised with the Holy Spirit.

But Paul taught plain language.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, Eph 5:18 NIV

The original Greek text is clear that Paul is not talking about a one-off experience, but about a way of life.

You can ask Jesus to fill you with his Holy Spirit every day.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Lk 11:11–13 NIV

Partnership With God

It is very important that we recognise our human limitations.

As a human being, I am only a very flawed part of a world that has been badly corrupted and mismanaged by my fellow human beings.

As a human being, I can only partially resist the corruption of this world with great effort and willpower.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Rom 8:26–27 NASB95

Despite all my endeavours, I remain a human being who is not fit to live in the presence of the holy God.

As a human being, I cannot save the humanity around me because I myself need salvation.
Jesus told his chosen apostles:

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

The apostle Paul reminds us:

… it is not that we are so competent that we can claim any credit for ourselves; all our competence comes from God. 2 Co 3:5 NJB

God created you to enjoy a close relationship with Himself.
He loves you completely. His love is so warm and tender.

He wants you to stay safe and secure in His beautiful love every hour of your life.

This is such a sweet experience but God not only wants to give you joy but also the fulfilment of a meaningful life with Him.

He wants to give you a share in His great mission to save the world.
God is calling you into partnership with Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

You cannot even begin to work with God without a close connection with Him through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Ac 1:8 NIV

This power enables us to heal the sick, bring people to faith in Jesus, and minister to drug addicts.

But we must always be aware that this power is not ours, and we cannot minister without the help of Jesus himself.

‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28 NJB

Our goal is to bring people into intimate fellowship with Jesus through God's love so that they come to know God as their Heavenly Father.

This makes no sense if you yourself do not live in close fellowship with God.

Friendship with God

 The angels are perfect servants and we can never be perfect servants because we are not flawless here on earth. Nevertheless, God is looking for people like you and me. He wants to be your friend. You can become his friend too.

We all want to have good friends. Jesus is the best of all friends. He will always remain faithful to you. But God also wants to have good friends. .

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. Jn 15:15 NIV

If you learn to trust Jesus deeply and intimately, he will share the secrets of his heart with you.

As faithful Jews, the disciples had learnt a lot about God. They knew Bible texts by heart. Some of them were already disciples of John the Baptist before they met Jesus.

Then they met Jesus. From that moment on, everything centred around Jesus.

I write blogs in German, even though my first language is English. God has commissioned me to do missionary work among German speakers. I am not flawless in German, but I have learnt German well.

How can you learn a foreign language really well? Through concentration! You have to focus intensively on the new language.

How can you know God well? Spend time paying close attention to His word and His presence.

The disciples became Jesus' companions. They followed him.

But you can also have companions without experiencing a great friendship. You can be travelling on a tourist bus or a cruise ship. Your companions are often just acquaintances.

For many Christians, the church is like a bus or a ship. Jesus may theoretically be the captain, but who has an intimate friendship with the captain?

Jesus invited the disciples to be his personal companions.

• Imagine the captain on a cruise ship invited you to eat at his table every day.

• Imagine that the Queen of England has invited you to live in her palace and eat at her table three times a day.

• Imagine you are a keen musician. Johann Sebastian Bach or Paul McCartney wants to invite you to live in his family home and be his student.

You are a friend of God if you know what God is doing.

How can you know what God is doing?

Only if God himself reveals or explains it to you.

How can you be sure that you are actually hearing God's voice? When you seek God's presence with all your heart, when you understand the Bible as a personal message from God.

You are my friends if you do what I command. Jn 15:14 NIV

God speaks to you because He loves you and He wants to have an intimate relationship with you.

But God also wants to help you and enable you to live a heavenly life.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28 NASB95

If you really know Jesus personally, you will experience peace with God, not as a theological doctrine, but from your own experience.

God Makes Himself Small

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Lk 2:11–12 NIV

What is the message of Christmas?

God makes Himself small and weak because He wanted to be one of us, because He wanted to be close to us, because He wants to be close to us, because He loves us infinitely.

When he grew up and became a strong man, Jesus still renounced his unlimited omnipotence.

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Php 2:6–8 NIV

He raised the dead, but Elijah and Elisha had already done this in the Old Testament.
He stilled a storm, but Moses parted the Red Sea.

Of course, the prophets did not perform these miracles themselves, but God performed the miracles through their faith.

Jesus worked these miracles as a man, through his faith, as an example for us.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. Jn 14:12 NIV

What Jesus did as a human being through his faith, we can also do as human beings through the faith that God gives us.

God made Himself small so that we could live in close fellowship with Him through faith, so that we as small people could have access to His unlimited power and love.

Hiding from God

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Ge 3:8 NIV

We are often like Adam and Eve. God wants to go for a walk with you and with me.

He also wants to have a deep friendship with you, but you hide.

We all hide sometimes.

Some hide behind intellectual objections or philosophical systems of thought.

We study theology and want to understand God as a concept, but no longer know him as Father and Friend.

Some hide behind activities in the church.

They want to prove themselves as good Christians and be recognised. But God does not want good Christians, but dear children and friends.   

Some strive for Bible knowledge and hide behind Bible texts.

But Paul said:
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Co 8:2–3 NIV

Jesus also said:
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,

yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Jn 5:39–40 NIV

Some hide behind virtue and righteousness, but Jesus wants nothing to do with self-righteousness.

Some hide behind humility. They think and perhaps even say: ‘I am nothing, I can do nothing.’

Jesus told us about one such negative person.

“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
But the Lord condemned the man who only appeared to be humble. Mt 25:24–25 NIV

What is true humility?

Jesus is our role model. He was and remains today the Eternal Son of God, God the Son, God who knows everything and understands everything.

But then he made himself small, weak and vulnerable. The Eternal Son of God became a human baby.

Jesus became like you and me, small, with limited intelligence. He had to grow up and learn step by step, just like us.

But he was totally open to his Heavenly Father. He lived in communion with the Father.
We can learn humility from the Christmas story.

We are all like Adam and Eve, who did not trust God, who did not believe God's word, who did not follow God's instructions.

We are all like Adam and Eve, who were ashamed and tried to hide in God's garden.

But you cannot hide from God. He sees everything and still loves you unconditionally.

He wants to find you in your hiding place, but not to punish you, but to love you and set you free.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Mt 11:28–29 NIV

Have you ever felt the need to meet God in person but felt as if God was trying to hide Himself from you?

Is it possible that God is not hiding Himself, but that you are hiding yourself from Him?

But perhaps sometimes God hides Himself, not so that you will not find Him, but so that you will seek Him and then find Him.

Knowing Good from Evil

We must know the difference between good and evil, otherwise we will be lost. But how are we to learn this?

Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognise the difference between right and wrong. Hebrews 5:14 NLT

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17 NIV84

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4–5 NIV84

God created Adam and Eve. He made them in God's image, innocent and without defects of any kind. God placed them in a beautiful garden where nothing was tainted, nothing could be sick. 

Adam and Eve were designed to be happy and immortal.

But there was a problem. Lucifer, the highest archangel, had already become evil by abusing his freewill, and he had recruited a host of rebellious angels to his demonic army.

Because Adam and Eve were to rule the new earth, they needed knowledge of this battle against evil spirits, but God had not explained everything to them in the beginning.

God's first priority for the first humans was different. Their first priority was to get to know God Himself better. They needed to learn everything step by step from God Himself.

The fruit of the forbidden tree would instantly give the same knowledge of good and evil that God Himself had, according to Satan.

Did Eve understand this? The concept of ``evil'' would be completely incomprehensible to Eve if God had not explained some of it to her beforehand, but God had only taught the basic steps.

We are not called to know everything at once and always be right. We are called to know God Himself better and better as our Father, Friend and Guide.

There are police experts who are trained to identify counterfeit money. Do you think they study many specimens of forged currency? No. They study real banknotes in the finest detail.

We have only one way to recognise and reject everything that is against God. We can find this way only in close communion with God Himself.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3 NRSV

… we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 NRSV

If we do not cultivate this close personal fellowship with God from the beginning, we will lose our way in life.

We can rely on our own Bible knowledge. Bible knowledge is indispensable, but without fellowship with God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will only become dry and religious like the Pharisees who persecuted Jesus.

This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

... but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17 NIV84

During his earthly lifetime, Jesus challenged his disciples to follow him. This often literally meant going around with Jesus himself.

We can no longer walk with Jesus physically, but He has offered us His Holy Spirit to be our companion and guide.

If you want to hold fast to God's Word without being daily acquainted with the guidance and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, you will gradually become dry, lifeless and merely religious.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14 ESV

If you are a woman, you can also hold on to this promise.

This letter from Paul was written for the church in Rome. According to Roman law, sons were the heirs of the father but not daughters. When Paul implicitly includes Christian women here, we are to understand that women are equal in God's eyes.

 

YOUR SPIRITUAL DECISIONS CAN MEAN LIFE OR DEATH FOR MANY

CHRISTIANITY IS A PERSONAL TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THE GOD WHO LOVES YOU. 

Ephesians 2:8 (TLB) Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God.

• You may belong to a family or a church but your FIRST priority is to know and love HIM, the God who loves you.

The second priority is to discover who HE created YOU to be and to find fulfilment in DOING what He designed you to do.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

For many people, involvement in church activities is the main thing in Christianity. 

• Some church leaders help people to discover their callings and release them into a life of spiritual adventure. 
• Sadly there are others seem to think the purpose of most Christians is to help build church organisations of which they are the leaders.

Bless others by discovering who you are. Find out who you are created to be and what your Creator designed you to do.

• Some Christians are especially gifted and called to build up other believers in their local congregation. 

• Others have a special calling to build up believers in their workplace, on the Internet, in their extended family or in their city.

• Others have special gifts to win unbelievers to faith in Jesus Christ.

• Others have gifts to change the thinking and work practices in workplaces, companies or even whole industries. 

• Some have gifts in politics, media, science, or intercession. They have God given gifts which can prevent wars or win wars, change nations or redirect civilizations.

It is so important to know where you are primarily called to serve.

• John Wimber had an apostolic gifting to plant and lead a major spiritual movement. He was also an amazingly gifted personal evangelist. Thousands came to faith in Jesus Christ through contact with him.

• When he was converted to Christ, he was working as a manager of popular singers and entertainers. He was a genuine Christian convert and committed himself to attending a weekly prayer meeting in the church where he was a member. 
• Then he was offered the job of managing The Beatles on a tour of the USA. He turned it down because he felt obliged to attend weekly meetings in his local church. 

What if he had managed The Beatles and God had used him to win them to Christ? 

How many millions could have been influenced for Jesus instead of being seduced by drugs, Hindu mysticism and empty youth culture?