Dwelling in God

‘God’ and ‘love’ are synonymous. Dwelling in God and dwelling in love are the same thing. Nothing will prevent God working out His purposes for you. So when you’re trying to figure things out, remember the context of the life He’s given you and what He’s done already. Will anything prevent God from blessing you? No. Is there any circumstance in my life that God cannot sort out for the good? No. He will make provision – God is love.

God is love. It is worth confirming to your heart constantly, the fact that God loves you because that’s who He is – He can’t but love, that’s His nature.

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1 John 4:15 - 16

‘God’ and ‘love’ are synonymous. Dwelling in God and dwelling in love are the same thing. You are a special human being because of what God has done in you. His love for you is so great that He sent His Son to earth to die for you.

Romans 8:28

All things work together for good to those who are the called, according to whose purpose? His purpose. When you become a Christian, your aims and ambitions are changed and your life is lived out for Him.

Romans 8:29

In a church you are brothers and sisters because you are united by that common purpose, to serve God and live according to His purposes.

Romans 8:31 - 32

There is no stint to God’s provision for you. It’s inevitable – you can’t stop it. For those looking for it, it’s on its way.

Romans 8:33 - 34

He is still involved in your life, minute by minute, constantly re-affirming what He has done for you on the cross.

Romans 8:35

Nothing will prevent God working out His purposes for you – He is love. So when you’re trying to figure things out, remember the context of the life He’s given you and what He’s done already. Will anything prevent God from blessing you? No.

Romans 8:36 - 37

The way He conquered things for you was that He conquered sin in your life. He took away the power of it and the outworking of it that was all wrong. Sin causes death but He conquered death. That is why the cross is empty – He was buried, put in a tomb and rose from the dead. Now Paul writes, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”. So when you are involved and immersed in God’s love, inevitably you are more than a conqueror, because God is love and there is nothing on this earth that can prevent you from being blessed by God; there is nothing that can get in the way of God’s love for you.

Romans 8:38 - 39

It’s impossible for you to be separated from God, who is love. If you let this sink in in your situation it makes things different because you see things from a perspective of God in your life, not of you trying to work out the circumstances in your life. I’m a Christian – a Christ-one, as a result of what He has done for me. Is there any circumstance in my life that God cannot sort out for the good? No. Is there any provision that He can’t make for my needs? No. He will make provision. Why is it that sometimes I want things to be done sooner that it happens? Let me confirm to you that the timing of God’s provision in your life will be perfect and inevitable and certain and sure. God is love, and the more you think about who God is, the more it is imperative that we are open to allow His provision to come forth.

Don’t be bitter, don’t regret, don’t think He has missed you out, don’t think, “He always blesses that person but never me”. Don’t think like that. Rejoice in what is happening to another person because you can see how faithful God is and who He is to them. You may say, “Well that is all very well but you don’t know the circumstances of my life”. I don’t but I know that these words are timely for you. Why are they timely? Because anything which causes us to realise once again that you are a child of God, that He has called you: He’s given you faith and you can confess Him as the Son of God; as we read in 1 John 4, it is a result of what He has done. By rights we shouldn’t be involved with Him, but He persevered, fulfilled what God wanted, went obediently to the cross, gave His life so that I could be preaching here, conveying to you who He is.

Sometimes things happen and it throws you: step back. Who is in control? God is. He has started in my life something eternal. Is He going to finish what He started? Yes, by taking us through circumstances where each time, it will be a discovery of how much He loves you. That is what He does.

For Paul, everything that happened to him was evidence of how God would provide for him through every circumstance – and the same applies to us.

The Good Shepherd

There is a huge contrast between those shepherds who are concerned only for their own interests, and the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Whatever our needs in life, if we hear His voice, we will find that He has already prepared the way.

Jesus was talking to the Pharisees after healing the man who was born blind. When the man returned after being healed Jesus had moved on, but later Jesus came and found the man again.

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John 9:36 - 41

Jesus told the Pharisees that if they were blind, they would have no sin, but because they claimed to see, their sin was still inside them. The Pharisees were kidding themselves. They didn’t see. The man born blind could now see and wanted to know the person who healed him.

The Pharisees were in positions of importance, linked to the Temple, teachers of the law, and they lorded it over other people. When Jesus spoke about shepherds, the Pharisees would have known what the Old Testament taught on the subject.

Ezekiel 34:1 - 4

The prophets – the shepherds – were only out for themselves.

Ezekiel 34:5 - 16

Ezekiel 34:23 - 24

Verse 23 prefigures the verses we will now look at, where Jesus said “I am the good shepherd.” There is one shepherd, the bishop of your souls. When He said that, the Pharisees and the others knew the background. There were shepherds who only lived for themselves. Their lifestyle was paramount; the people were not. Everything was geared to them, not to the people. God said, “I will seek them, will feed them, will provide for them.”

John 10 shows that what Jesus said resonated with His hearers.

John 9:41 – 10:5

Remember the context. He has just told the Pharisees that they were fooling themselves, convinced that they knew what they were doing and how to preserve their lifestyle. They said they saw, and therefore their sin remained, because they didn’t admit their need, they didn’t admit what was inside. The sheepfold - four walls with one door – anyone who doesn’t come in by the door is a thief. This would have hit the Pharisees between the eyes.

Jesus is far more interested in you than you know. He knows each of you by name, and He wants you to be aware that He is the Good Shepherd, that He does provide and has made every provision for your well-being.

John 10:6 - 7

Before it was a case that you had to go in through the door. Now He is saying He is the door.

John 10:8 - 9

This was a revolutionary thought to the people who were listening. Jesus was ascribing to Himself who He was. He was describing Himself. From our perspective, we can look back and see how things worked.

It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written yourself off, thinking you’re not good enough, thinking that your problems are too difficult to solve. He’s saying He is the door. You are safe – safe from the consequences of your sin, safe from retribution, safe because you have Christ’s life in you. Some of you have written yourselves off, but I want to confirm God is saying to you, “I am aware of you more than you know.” He loves you. Some of you have have wondered but He has heard your prayers and does hold your future in His hands.

The freedom will be there to go in and out to find the pasture. The sheep will be cared for. It even goes to the point where if the sheep were in danger, the shepherd would give his life to care for the sheep.

John 10:10

In verse 9, a man will be saved, go in and out and find pasture. By contrast, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. What a revolutionary thing Jesus was saying! And the Pharisees were listening.

John 10:11-16

There’s a direct link back to Ezekiel. And Jesus now extends this to include both the Jews and the Gentiles.

John 10:17-18

You’ll be saved, go in and out, find pasture. Sometimes, people ask about God’s guidance, and what is the right way for a person’s life. God is interested in you. And He’s so careful to get it right for you. He’s so careful that He’s sorted things out in advance for the best – the best way to fulfil the destiny He has for your life.

Isaiah 30:18 - 21

You’ll hear His voice. His sheep know His voice. You may think “But I’m not important. God won’t speak to me like that.” Why not? We’re talking about anyone here, you don’t have to be something special. He knows what you’re facing, and He knows that if you keep going forward, you’ll hear a voice saying ‘This is the way’.

In 1978 I went for a financial job in London. An agency sent me to see a Mr Low at National Mutual. They said the agency had sent me to the wrong company by mistake. I said, “Well, do you have a job?” And that’s how I got the job. God wanted me in National Mutual. If you’re moving, the rudder of a ship can be effective. If you’re stuck in dry dock, it won’t. You have to go forward, and you can trust God to sort it out. He specialises in providing for you because He loves you.

Psalm 37:4 - 5

Delight yourself in the Lord. “But my heart’s wicked”. How does that stack up? You’re a Christian. You’re delighting yourself in God. So He’ll create in your heart that desire which He will then meet. Everything will tie in. You have abilities and skills. Delight yourself in Him and He will give thee the desires of thy heart.

Psalm 37:5

Ephesians 2:10

He knows the future. Your times are in His hands. And your voyage of discovery in life is to rejoice in the provision of God for you in ways you never expected. He loves you. If any man hear His voice, he will find pasture.

1 Peter 5:6 - 7

Humble yourselves. Don’t make out that you see if you don’t. Be honest. Realise God is listening to you on the inside, and He has the answer already.

John 10:27 - 28

He’s talking to the Pharisees here as well. No matter what anyone says, no man will pluck you out of Jesus’ hand.

John 10:29

God is greater than all. There is no way He’s not in control and making provision for you.

John 10:30

I don’t know how you got here today or what you were thinking. Possibly you were wondering about your future. Jesus says to you today, “I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.”

He gives eternal life, which you experience now.

Holding forth the Word of Life

As Christians, we need to hold forth the word of life.

In the early church, God organised everything so that His word of life came upon a variety of people and changed them forever.

Acts 16:12 – 18

The damsel was a fortune teller and her masters were running a business through her and conning people out of money.

Acts 16:19 – 34

How did God get hold of that keeper of the prison? The keeper had carried out his job and locked Paul and Silas in prison. When the earthquake happened Paul and Silas had the opportunity to escape but they didn’t, which resulted in the keeper of the prison coming to them and asking what he must do to be saved.

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God Knows What He Is Doing!

God manoeuvres things in the circumstances of mankind because He loves us. God knows what He is doing in the affairs of man. He knows what He is doing in building His church. He knew what He was doing when His son went to Calvary.

Philippians 1:1 – 7

God does what He does at the time He does it for a purpose. There is no template of how God operates. He is faithful and He is love. God has opened our hearts and our minds for that word of life to come and dwell inside us.

Philippians 2:1 – 4

These verses are very practical. The people of Philippi knew how the church had started and the miracle that happened with the earthquake. Paul wanted them to hold forth the word of life. They needed to be aware of what God had done in their midst. God builds His church in His way and in His time.

Philippians 2:5 – 8

The reason why Jesus humbled Himself, was because He knew what needed to be done in order for the church to exist. For the joy that was set before Him he endured the cross. He went through everything for you and me and forgot His own reputation. Nothing matters other than what is inside of a person.

From generation to generation God communicates His life, because He loves us. What’s the future for us and our children? Our future is to bring praise to the One who has given us life inside. Our future is to communicate to others and allow Him to share his love to others through us.

Philippians 2:9 – 11

He’s alive. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His life is communicated to people and changes them on the inside. We are here at this time in our life, because He wants us to hold forth the word of life that He has given us.

What Is Your Foundation?

Philippians 2:12 – 13

It is God who is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Our standing before God does not change because of the current circumstances in our life. What is the foundation of your life? Where is your trust?

Philippians 2:12 – 15

Across the world there are people who can’t stand the Gospel and so we are to be as lights in the world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. We are going to hold forth the word of life, and recognise what God has done in our lives.

What’s the future of your life? To allow God to work in your life and to be obedient to Him. The keeper of the prison didn’t consider that putting Paul and Silas in prison would result in His salvation. How are you going to react to a new circumstance? What’s your foundation? Where are you going? There are people who are just waiting for that time when God’s life comes to them.

Philippians 2:16

Are you going to hold forth the word of life or are you going to let a circumstance turn you about? You know the miraculous provision of God and how God’s life was communicated to you. God is organising His church in His way worldwide. He knows what He is doing.

He’s a wonderful saviour and the church is His bride. There is nothing that can prevail against it. He went to the cross, took everything in Himself and died to it, so that sin could be conquered in your life. You don’t have to live contrary to God, your life can change. There was a reason for the miracle that happened in Philippi.

God is faithful. He is true. He is all love. He forgives you and me. He has forgiven you and me. Why? Because He is building His church.

We’ve only got one life. Let’s go forward, holding forth the word of life.