December 15, 2021 - Advent Week 3

 

 

 Liam and Raewyn, Countdown grocery store cashier, chatting after healing prayer! 


I think reading today’s scriptures there’s so much richness in it that I’d love to touch on, but for the sake of not rambling on too long I’ll just talk about one of my thoughts. 


By knowing who God is and receiving the things Jesus has done, it makes walking in obedience accessible and not out of reach when we hear Him speak. 


The Lord is so merciful and so gracious. No matter how much we mess up, He still calls us to Himself. I mean if you look at Israel, time and time again they walked away from God and continued to break covenant with Him. In Isaiah 9 it says that they were led astray and stopped seeking after the Lord refusing to return to Him. Yet we know the end of the story! “God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.” (Psalm 49.15) As we look forward to Advent and Christmas time, we know that Jesus comes as a REDEEMER. And He can only do that because He gave up His position in the Heavenlies to come to us as a man. He came in the most vulnerable way - “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” (Philippians 2.6-8). 


See Jesus knew who God was; he knew his loving Father, and he knew he was called to bring us back into oneness with the Father, sacrificing himself to make up where we lacked in the covenant. Jesus walked out in obedience to the will of his Father when he heard him speak. Wrath and love were to be reconciled on the cross. 


If I look at my own life, by seeing God’s faithfulness, I know when I step out in obedience, he won’t let me fall short. 


The past few months I have been leading an outreach team of young adults all around New Zealand. Every morning we would pray to hear the word of the Lord for that day, and step out in faith knowing God would show up. One example specifically was in a town called Whakatāne (pronounced faka-tah-neigh). That morning the Lord spoke about healing and Matthew 9.23 - which says “everything is possible for one who believes”. It was my turn to cook dinner with one of the students, Liam, and we had to run to the grocery store before cooking. While at the check out we got in conversation with the cashier and she mentioned how masks are the worst for those who have to rely on lip reading to get by. We found out that she was industrially deaf. Conversation kept moving on, and I felt that still small voice of Holy Spirit reminding me of the words we had got in prayer at the beginning of the day. We then told the woman that we’ve seen Jesus heal before and he could do it again right now, then we asked if we could pray for her. “I’ll try anything was her response!” The Lord says anything is possible for those who believe, and we all believed his words so we stepped out in obedience! And even though people were lining up at the register behind us, that didn’t stop any of us. Liam prayed a couple times, and when we went back to hear how she was. She said it was bliss! The constant ringing that was there before was completely gone. There was such hope in her eyes and we said “THATS JESUS!”


We know who God is; He’s healer, he’s faithful, he’s a man of his word. And we receive the things Jesus has done; coming to earth as a man to sacrifice himself and redeem all the brokenness of humanity. So by hearing his voice, we walked out in obedience and saw him show up!

 

- Joelle Wills

 


 

Popular posts from this blog

December 1, 2021 - Advent Week 1

Image
      O nce again the cycle of the year rolls back to Advent. Each cycle has its beauty and trials. Advent is from the Latin Adventus meaning a coming or arrival. What in your life is coming or arriving in your life to make your life different? I always think of the advent of spring and waiting for the arrival of the flowers, warmer weather, longer days and new life.   Advent is when Christians await the arrival of our King. How are we preparing for the arrival of Christ? In your home getting ready for a guest to arrive takes time and preparation so all will go well when the guest arrives. For me getting the house clean and ready, spending time thinking about what will make my guest comfortable and welcome. How will the house be decorated, how will I dress, will everything be ready when my guest arrives? Today’s scripture from Amos 3:12-4:5   tells of how the Israelites were far from ready from being what God wanted them to be.   They kept sinning and wanting to co
Read more

December 24, 2021 - Advent week 4

Image
    Galatians 3:23-29; 4:6-7 23  Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24  Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26  for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. 4 6  And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7  So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. [1] As our advent season of preparation draws to a close,
Read more

December 3, 2021 - Advent Week 1

Image
             SEEK THE LORD… Who Are You Seeking? – Mark Lawrence   Amos 5:1-17 American artist Mark Lawrence specializes in Bible verse inspired contemporary Christian abstract paintings. On his website Lawrence says, “I am driven by a mission and a vision to share God’s Word with the billions of searching people who need Jesus in their lives". I have to admit that I was not familiar with the first of today’s readings or the history behind Amos’ call or what it had to do with Advent. But what was clear to me is that four times in this short passage we find the word “seek” - three times it is used as an encouragement and one time as a warning. As I read and re-read these verses, I came to realise that this was the center of the Holy Spirit’s message to me that day and I hope you can glean something from these my ramblings. We are in the first week of Advent and it is the week of “Hope” or prophecy. This fifth chapt
Read more