WHEN WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

Matt 16v22: 'From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save their lifef will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?'

This shall never happen to you!" (Matt 16v22). Those very words were spoken by Peter to the Lord Jesus when the Lord told him that he must suffer many things and be killed. While, no doubt, Peter had good intentions in mind, the Lord didn't empathise with these, He didn't congratulate Peter for them or even recognise these intentions, rather he rebuked Peter sharply (v23). He even went so far as to let Peter know that in that instance, he was in fact doing exactly what the enemy wanted him to do, in trying to stop the will of God for Jesus' life (and essentially what God wanted to provide for His people in the long run in Salvation). Peter had short-term concerns in mind, that being the physical well-being of the Lord, while the Lord had long-term considerations in mind, that being the Salvation that the Father was wanting to provide through the sacrifice of His Son. Our concerns are often the same; we want a happy life now and to live in comfort and security every day, while the Lord is more concerned with our eternal destination and our eternal joy and life, and those things for others that we come in contact with. Our concern is to want a blessed Kingdom now (just like the disciples wanted), while the Lord's concern is a blessed Kingdom to come (Luke 9v58).

With the best intentions, we can often be as damaging to ourselves and to others as Peter was. We too can reason with ourselves that we should not have gone through the trials that we have, or that we should not go through the ones we are going through now. We too, can say the same for others, reasoning with ourselves that it is out of love that we are doing this! Notice how wrong we are to do that! If we do that, we in fact align ourselves with what the enemy desires, for the enemy would gladly preserve our flesh and our feelings if it means that he can corrupt our walk with God and attack our souls! We are often far too quick to want to live a happy life and one that is merely focused on 'human concerns' (v23), when God desires that we live a life after the path that His Son has trodden and one that follows after His Spirit. We are far too quick to want to live a life that is happy, rather than Godly. Notice what our Lord says about the path of life:

Matt 7v13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Luke 9v23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.24For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

As soon as trouble comes, we are apt to think that it's just the devil, the world, a certain man who brings it or a certain sin, and we rebuke the trial and the trouble without giving it a second thought. Did the enemy attack Christ through the elders and chief priests at the cross? Of course he did! Did that mean that Christ should've rebuked the way His Father was leading Him? Of course not! Were evil men attacking God's chosen when they attacked Jesus? Of course they were! Was it sin and the ways of the world that motivated men to crucify Christ? Of course it was! But did that mean that Christ should've avoided the cross? All of us would've been doomed if He had of! We prove ourselves extremely childish and even evil in our spiritual thinking if we believe that we should avoid every trial in this life, particularly the most difficult ones. God has His way in the whirlwind and the storm, and even amongst evil men in order to bring about acts of grace and judgment. Hardly any of the disciples of Jesus understood exactly what the Father was doing with Jesus when He went to the cross, but this didn't mean that the Father wasn't sovereign over it, and that He didn't have a plan for it. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts! We must be careful not to dismiss the ways and acts of God that we don't understand, for we may inadvertently find ourselves coming against the will of God and we may find that Jesus rebukes us for it.

And so, just unlike what Peter did to Jesus, we must be careful not to censure or stand opposed to what the Lord may allow or do to His own people for His good reasons. Job thought he was justified in saying that what happened to him was wrong, and as extreme as his trials were, he repented in dust and ashes when He saw the Lord and heard His voice:

Job 42:

1Then Job replied to the Lord:

2“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."

The Lord never told Job why He had allowed Satan and even His own hand to do against Job what He desired (Job 2v4-6), but that wasn't for Job to know (not while on the earth anyway). It was for Job just to trust that in all things, God is God, and we must trust Him and trust to His ways no matter what. That doesn't mean that we can't pray for certain things, but we must do so with an open heart, being willing to be led by the Spirit in all things and we must always, at the end of all our requests, leave our desires at the feet of His sovereignty. We mustn't presume to know what is best for ourselves or others, but in all things we must entrust ourselves to His way, no matter if that way is understandable to our human reasoning or not. For He has His own and our best concerns in mind; the only kind of concerns that are truly important.

TRUTHS FOR EVERY SEASON: PART 1

Sometimes it seems that only certain truths in God's Word are important for our lives. This is until God starts to do things that we don't understand and that we don't have a scriptural understanding for. In the Word, in a season of discipleship, miracles and the tangible presence of the Lord (because Jesus was with the disciples), what the disciples learnt and truly accepted of the Word got them through this time of blessedness. However, as soon as the cross came, and something they didn't get at all, being the judgment that was poured out on the Saviour, the disciples fled from Christ. After all, you can imagine them thinking; 'Why is the Son of Man being judged?' 'Why does the Son of Man have to be killed?' Why does He have to die?' 'Why does it seem as though wicked men are conquering His Church and His people?' 'Why are we suddenly in danger from this world when we thought Christ was our Good Shepherd and our Saviour?' These doubts and fears would've all come about because while the disciples had an understanding of certain truths of blessing, they didn't properly understand the harder truths that Christ had told them, and really it seemed that they didn't want to understand them (the irony being that if they had learnt them and accepted them, they would've been a source of great comfort to them).

This not-understanding, shying away from harder truths and truths that spoke of judgement and suffering to come, in the end backfired for the disciples, and they ended up fleeing the one they loved (or at least loved in part from the evidence of their fleeing Him). They loved to hear of truths and do things that revealed exciting things and things that fed them: they loved the feeding of the five thousand, they loved attempting to perform miracles, they loved talk of the Kingdom to come and to discuss their places in heaven next to Jesus, but when it came to all things cross related, suddenly their ears became dull, their hearts troubled and their ears became hard of hearing. They shied away from things hard to understand, and unfortunately it cost them and even cost the Lord in one sense; He having all his friends, except for John and two family members, leave Him alone.

Sometimes, because of the season we are going through, we tend to, even sometimes whether we know it or not, only come to learn certain parts of the Word or certain things about Jesus because that's all that we see as being relevant for us in what we are going through or what is happening around us at that point in our lives. We fall into the same trap that most of the disciples did. However, hard times will come, and times when God will judge the world and His People (for discipline: 1 Pet 4v12-18) and then on what secure a footing will we be scripturally? Will our faith be guarded by the kind of truth that is necessary for our spiritual house to remain secure? If we are open to, and actually go about learning the truths necessary for such things then yes, but if not, then we will find ourselves in a similar predicament that many of the disciples found themselves in. But if, like Noah, we are faithful to build our ark the right way; in the way that God intended by every truth for every season (the whole Word of God), then our boat of faith will float through the days that lie ahead.

GLOBAL TERRORISM ON ITS WAY

For a while now the Lord has put on my heart to pray and ask Him for the events that are going to take place in the future. So I've done this for a few years now and from time to time, the Lord has given me dreams or visions. Prophecy is to encourage the body of Christ, and the Lord gives His people information about the future so that when the things He reveals takes place, we might be strengthened in our faith, rather than weakened: 

John 13v19: “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am.

The weakness of our flesh is apt to cry out when bad things happen; 'Where is God in all of this?' But in fact the Lord is sovereign over everything, and He graciously reminds us of this through prophecy.

In 2013 I had two dreams from the Lord (both dreams are included at the end of this article) which revealed that terrorist attacks are coming, and one of the dreams seemed to indicate that they won't just be confined to one area of the globe, but that they will take place both near and far. The two dreams seemed also to indicate that they will be like the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and also smaller in nature. Not only this, but I also had a dream of a terrorist attack against Hillsong in Australia as well.

Not long after the first dream, the Boston marathon bombing took place. In more recent times, it seems possible at least that the Malaysian Airliner could have been taken down by terrorism as well. Not only that, but we have now, just in the last few weeks, seen the following:

'An offshoot of al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, has declared the territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria a "caliphate," or Islamic state, and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph or leader for Muslims.'
(http://www.christianpost.com/news/isis-terror-group-declares-caliphate-in-iraq-syria-nails-9-men-to-cross-for-rebellion-122474/)

So what seemed, at least before the Boston Bombings (which happened about 12 years after the 9/11 attacks), to be extremely unlikely in the natural, now seems quite plausible, and not far-fetched at all. But for the grace of God, more terrorist attacks will take place. This should not surprise us, as there will always be evil and evil men in the world and there will be times when darkness seems to reign, even if just for an hour. This kind of prophecy should not surprise us either, as even Jesus Himself spoke about extremely hard times to come when he spoke of the end times, even going so far as to say that if such a time were not cut short, no flesh would survive. He also spoke of wars and rumours of wars, and of Kingdom rising against Kingdom and nation against nation.

These things in and of themselves are obviously terrible and the death of anyone is tragic. Jesus came to save men's lives, not to destroy them! But all these things He is sovereign over, and He keeps His peoples' lives safe in His hands. Be mindful of His voice, and be mindful of these things in prayer, for this is what Jesus called us to do when He called us to 'watch'. And to be people who read the signs of the times.

THE 2 DREAMS I HAD IN 2013

(and that I put on Facebook or my blog that year):

1ST DREAM
(14/3/13)

It was an extremely vivid dream, so vivid that in the dream it felt like I was actually there and completely saw and felt everything that happened:

In the dream I was looking at two buildings that were high rise buildings, but a lot smaller than the twin towers (tall high rise buildings, but not gigantic). Then I looked and saw one airliner crash into one of the buildings and a massive explosion of flames, fire and smoke take place (just like on 9/11). As soon as I saw the plane coming it was like I knew exactly what was going to happen (like it had already happened before and was happening exactly the same way again). Someone else was with me at the time too. It was then that another plane hit the other tower in the exact same way (the same as 9/11 too), and another great explosion erupted.

Then I was somewhere else on the ground floor of another building. I was telling the people that they had to leave, that the upper levels were going to come down and crush them, but no one believed me. I implored them to leave but no one did, so I gave up trying and fled myself. It was then that one of the big towers collapsed and produced a gigantic and awe-inspiring mass of flames that came straight towards me. The flames completely destroyed the building I had been looking at, and didn’t affect me only because I hid behind something that acted as a shield big enough to protect my body. I felt the heat of the flames, but wasn’t burnt at all.

_________

2ND DREAM:

I dreamt that, from a distance, I saw a plane fly behind another building that was in front of it, and hit a building behind it. I just knew it had hit a building because dark smoke rose from where it must’ve hit. Then, from where I was looking, I looked up, and I was under a building that, low and behold, looked like it had been hit with a terrorist attack itself (the building looked like a bomb had exploded from within it and utterly decimated it; all that was left was a shell of a building, a building that only had its frame left, and even the paint had been severely damaged and was torn up).

(written on 5/8/13)

TERRORIST ACT COMING AGAINST HILLSONG

(I had this dream on the afternoon of the 17th March 2008)

Please be prayerful about this and about any future trips to Hillsong. Please pray for Hillsong and God's people! My prayer is obviously that this will never take place.

Dream:

I dreamt I had just been told by someone that a terrorist act had been committed against Hillsong. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and I thought it was a joke (I was really incredulous). I just couldn’t believe it, but it was true and I was handed a newspaper article. I was handed a newspaper article, and I was able to look ‘behind’ the current headlines, and look into the future news story of Hillsong being the victim of terrorism.

'WHAT NEXT?' OR 'WHERE NEXT?' THAT IS THE QUESTION

In our life's journey, we often ask ourselves the question, "What's next?" instead of the question we should be asking ourselves, which is, "Where next?" Unless we go and spend time with the Lord, in His presence and immersed in His Word and an attitude of worship, we'll never know what to do next, for it is very likely that we'll be following our own desire instead of the Lord's voice. If we follow ourselves, we'll never really know where we're going and we'll always wonder why we don't feel the Lord is leading us. Furthermore, it is likely that we'll never really be in the primary place the Lord desires for us because it simply wouldn't work if He was to lead us to that place. After all, if the Lord wanted to use us specifically to be His hands and feet for a particular task, and yet we don't, as the Word puts it 'cleanse ourselves' to be a vessel of honour, instead of dishonour, then we would simply bear bad fruit for others and for His purpose if we were in this state and involved in that task because we would be following the flesh instead of the Spirit (knowing that only death comes from the flesh). Similarly, if we aren't close the Lord, it's likely our heart isn't really full of love for Him or the things of Christ, and so if Jesus was to lead us in our lives to certain things He loves, we wouldn't want to be there anyway, which would suck the life out of whatever the Lord was meaning to give us through those things. The disciples weren't forced to follow Christ, and neither are we. At any stage we may start to wander off, though the Lord's Spirit will search us out and find us to draw us back to the fullness of Christ. However, we may foolishly waste time in the meantime, and frustrate ourselves with the fruit of emptiness and hopelessness; the very fruit we thought would bring us life (just as Adam and Eve believed and were thus deceived). Jesus is wanting us to ask ourselves 'Where next?' instead of 'What's next?' because of the danger of 'What's next?' is that we will likely be the ones to try and take control of our lives, instead of letting Christ drive and lead us. But when we ask ourselves 'Where next?' we'll go to Christ, and so our hearts will stirred and lit on fire for a love for Jesus, and that will mean that wherever we are led next, we will fulfil what the Lord intended for us to do from that place, and thus also be fed and satisfied in the way that Christ intended. To know Him as our life, is to know the life He intended for us, which is the only true life. 

The reason that God will always point us back to the question of 'Where next?' is because He is always wanting us to feel contented and fulfilled in Him, not in anything else, including just His gifts. He is the way, the truth and the life, and so in order for us to know the 'way' for any moment in our lives, we must know the truth of the fact that knowing Him is our life: 'When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.' -Col 3v4. 'I want to know Christ...' -Phil 3v10. When we content ourselves with experiencing Jesus Christ, then we, just like the Apostle Paul, will find that we will have life in any situation. Then, in this contentedness and experiencing of Christ, Jesus will place us and lead us wherever His Spirit is wanting us to go. This will include times of family and friendship, of ministry or journeying, mountain top experiences, valley experiences, and times of feeding and conversely, hunger, and also activity and non-activity, but in everything Christ will be there right with us, continuing to be our life. Our confidence therefore won't be in where we'll be next, what we'll be next and what we'll be given next or encounter next, but it will be in our unchanging Lord, who we know walks on water as well as He walks on land. With Christ as our Lord, He has shown us that He has enabled us to do the same thing in this life, and so it shall be as we continue to stick close to Him. Christ is our life, and will lead us on the paths of life. And if Christ is truly our life, we'll love wherever He takes us next.