Shepherding and the Voice of God

While studying I started on a fascinating chain of thought that I need to put down in writing so here's another 'welcome to my thought process' blog. Good luck reading it!!!

Ok. In John 10 (which we covered in leaders lifegroup for those playing at home)Jesus says the following (New Revised Standard Version):

4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Having pondered these verses a lot both in pastoral care study and in lifegroup recently they were fresh in my mind. Then I read John 8:47 today:

"Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”
Or, in the New Living Translation:
"Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to the words of God. Since you don't, it proves that you aren't God's children."

So we have Jesus first saying that one of the ways we may know whether or not someone is from God, or is one of His children, is by whether they hear from God / listen for God's words gladly. Then Jesus states that He is the good shepherd and that the sheep follow Him and KNOW HIS VOICE - indeed they will run from the voice of a stranger.

Now hearing the voice of God and knowing that one has heard Him is a very touchy topic amongst Christians today. Some people claim He does not speak having said all He needs to through the bible, others claim He speaks through coincidence and scriptures only, still more claim the bible is irrelevant as God speaks to them continuously. Yet here in scripture it states quite clearly that to be considered a child of God we must be listening to - not just for but to - God's voice, and that we will accordingly run from strangers.

I started pondering what it's like to be a Christian and yet to not know God's voice - I won't say not hear God because I firmly believe God speaks continuously to all people Christian and non-Christian. Without being able to recognise the Shepherd life must be very confusing. I think we resort to following the general consensus around us - watching what the other sheep do and following their lead. Because we are unaware of the Shepherd calling our name and the direction and guidance He is providing we place far more value on our friendships and mentors and their advice and suggestions. So much so that we follow their lead even when we aren't completely comfortable and can no longer SEE the Shepherd or FEEL the effects of His presence. We follow other shepherds (i.e. other religions and leaders such as Buddhism and Islam) and get caught up in their flocks because we don't know what our Shepherd sounds like. They tend to look similar as they wear the same clothes and give similar instructions, but they lead us in the wrong direction and their promises of Heaven and our destinies are confusing and costly.

Knowing our Shepherd's voice and understanding some of what He is saying to us protects us and gives us a much more reliable connection with Him than simply seeing and feeling the effects of His presence. Listening to Him builds relationship.

I'm sure I could extend this and extend this but I'd actually love to hear your questions and comments on this topic. Do you know God's voice and if so how did you come to recognise it and can you describe it to others? Do you think it's important to hear God / listen to God? Is this an issue today? Do you feel comfortable talking about this? Could you help a friend come to recognise God's voice? Got any queries on or around this topic you'd like me to ponder and blog on?

I believe this topic is incredibly important and relevant to all of us today and I can't wait to see what you think!!!

Beauty = Love

A friend asked me the other day why does Beauty = Love above the picture of the sky on the right hand side? Well my thoughts are as follows: God created everything in this Universe with US - humans - in mind. He made it all good, He made it beautiful. There was no need or necessity to make it beautiful or pleasing to us and yet He did so and I personally get a lot of pleasure from God's handiwork. Therefore, to me, this combines to say that all that is good and beautiful was made in preparation for us via love.

Hence: Beauty = Love.

Blessings!

Blogging Blogging Blogging

I do love blogging its extremely addictive in a non-harmful way - providing one does it in moderation!!! In the last 24hours a few of my friends have been accessing my blogs for the first time - most often when I've been present via chatting or actually while I've been in the room and hearing people's various comments has been quite intriguing.

Some people simply won't even look at the blogs cos they can't see the point, others will read but not have any opinion, more still will read and talk to you in person but not comment, and then there are the commenters! We are all so diverse!

So why do I blog? Well, as I've put in my profile/intro thingy, it helps me process and think things through as I type. Also I've been learning a LOT at bible college and at church and I want to toss ideas around and see what people find helpful. But mainly I love to get further input into my thinking. If I have a discussion the benefits are there but limited by what I recall and who is present. If I blog then the comments are visible for all and can build discussion.

I must admit that I shamelessly advertise my blog - I want to hear as many points of view as possible and I think that its important to share what I have learnt. Sometimes I get squeamish about sharing but hey its all learning right! Oh and if you ever have a topic you'd like me to blog on let me know...

And being accountable I put God first this morning - but I didn't have to be up very early. The challenge is tomorrow morning when I need to be out of the house by 8.25, hmmmm

Commitment?!!?

Undercommitment and overcommitment. I think that two of the biggest problems amongst leaders today and facing leaders today are represented by these two words. Finding the balance between the two seems to be exceedingly difficult.

They came up a little in leaders lifegroup tonight and when asked for solutions I don't think we really got anywhere fast! I know my tendency is towards overcommitment. If I'm going to do something then I want to do it well and to focus on both big picture and small details. Yet I also know a lot of people who won't commit to anything and will do the bare minimum to get by while grabbing as much as they can out of the commitment. Leading those types of people is frustrating as heck and exceedingly draining. Likewise leading overcommitters is challenging as they will do anything asked of them but then start to disappear under their commitments and so can't be relied upon to stay healthy and committed for the entire journey.

So how do we address this - primarily in our own lives, and then in the lives of those we are shepherding??? Prioritising is whats shouted at me by my advisors and yet everything from my vantage point looks equally important...

Except God.

I have learnt that seeking God first results in everything falling into place.
I have also learnt that His priorities and mine don't necessarily line up and I need His input daily to fall in line with Him rather than imposing my steps on His.
I have learnt that going back to basics really does work.
It's not pat responses.
It's truth.

It's also hard work and discipline!!!

At the end of the day I don't think we will ever learn to get the balance right - things change every day that affect our balance! God however balances everything perfectly and knows whats coming before we do - it makes much more sense to pass everything over to Him. I know lots of people are not morning people and don't pray in the morning or like to read their bible then (me being one) but God has the ability and willingness to work with us to change our ways of being, if we ask Him to. I really feel challenged to try the 'mornings with God FIRST' approach to try and address this area of my life and I challenge you to do so too. Undercommitment stunts our growth and holds us back from experiencing lifechanging transformation. Overcommitment prevents us from doing what we do with excellence and being able to finish the race with heads held high. Where do you fit in?

Prayer - focus in queston

Silly me, I've managed to reset my body clock so that now - coming up to midnight - I am the most awake I have been all day. Oh well.

As I was praying in the prayer meeting before church tonight I was quite challenged by the way we pray for our city and nation and world and also what we pray for in those areas. I love that Eastside always includes mission in the services - its a great way to both partner with God in reaching out and also leep our eyes focused outward even as we build our inner selves in the service. However.

We tend to pray that God would move through those areas, we focus on praying for the non-christians the majority of the time, we are quite abstract. I was really challenged on this. God has sent us to reach the lost. He has already gone to them - they just can't see Him and don't recognise His presence. Our job is to bring in the harvest, to BE God and Show God and Bring God to those who can't see and don't know.

So I'm left wondering - should we be focusing on the non-christians or the Christians? I think that we should still pray the prayers we do at the mo but I'm wondering if it isn't even more important to lift up the Christians worldwide, nationwide, citywide, churchwide. To ask God to change us and challenge us to see the lost in our daily lives and to take some risks. To ask God to partner with us as we go - instead of to ask God to move and then go where HE leads.

Going, and praying on the move, has been a huge theme for me this year. It's a lesson that God has been teaching me both through the way my life is going and also through speaker after speaker. Alongside 'perception' 'going first' has been a steady theme that has deepened in meaning, intensity, and applicability.

So question time! What do you think about the way we pray? Do you 'partner' with God? Is there a value in praying and what is it for you? What is intercessory prayer and do you do it? Do you have any themes God's been speaking to you about repeatedly? Can you share them with others? Have they changed your life? Why is it God sometimes seems to beat us overthe head with the same message over and over and over...?

Head thumping?!!?

Grace

Listen to the words and let them sink in - this is truly a meaningful song.

The way of the dance

Dance. I love to watch people dancing and last year before the Oscars I attended the dance lessons put on at church. Besides being fun I found that I learn a lot about how I operate - especially in regards to God.

Due to the lack of men (surprise surprise!!!) I was one of the gals who danced the men's role. It was all about leadership and guidance and I found it very easy. However then I had to swap into the women's role later on and boy oh boy was this a challenge. I couldn't seem to relax and follow guidance. I wasn't able to 'listen' to my partner's guidance in the form of gentle pressure, intuition and letting go of my preconceptions of the steps and following his. When it came to changing the pattern to avoid a hazard or go in a different direction I would stuff up time and time again. However when I relaxed let go and stopped trying I was fine and we danced gracefully.

Today I was reading about how it is possible to see following God's will as being in a dance with God. Instead of seeing God's will as a set plan or target where we aim to hit 'the' spot, or seeing His will as a vague direction with everything being premissable but not everything beneficial, viewing His will as a dance allows us to understand how to both follow Him and yet have an input in the direction of our own paths. If life is a dance with God then we enter into it with Him as our lead partner. He is in intimate relationship with us, not distant, and is leading us through a predetermined set of steps, as we go though we can chat away and He both listens and responds to our requests and comments. However when we mess up by trying to lead or mistaking His guiding He can still guide us on - possibly in another direction, but still leading us in the intended pattern. If an obstacle comes into our path He can lead us around it, or, we can do our own thing and bump into it - but He can still move us on again. We can do our own thing and yet when we come back we can still enter into the dance with Him in confidence that we have not missed our calling but rather that He will guide us into different but still good paths.

How do we know where He is guiding us? By following His prompting through our perceptions and thoughts about things we know are not just from us, by testing these promptings against scripture, by being aware of our circumstances and what people around us are saying, by making decisions and discovering if we have peace. However most of all we discover where to go by going. Its much easier for a partner to guide us in dance if we are actually moving!!!

When learning to dance you can watch everyone around you dance, you can study the theory of dance, you can even have others explain to you where to move and how and THINK you can dance. But you must actually start to try to dance before you can be sure - and even then you will probably have to be stopped and started a few times and fall over after moving in the wrong direction entirely, before you get it right. When we learn to follow His lead and relax and dream big but still attend to His directing then life becomes far less stressful and more enjoyable. I know I struggle with giving up the lead in my life but when I do the dance is a sheer delight!

I am

“I am not what I ought to be.
I am not what I want to be.
I am not what I hope to be.
But still,
I am not what I used to be.
And by the grace of God,
I am what I am.”

John Newton (1725-1807)
Author of the hymn Amazing Grace

Distractions

I am really struggling with discipline in all areas of my life currently. Partly because I am absolutely exhausted with BCNZ courses all wrapping up tomorrow and so trying to complete everything means I'm up till 2am and beyond so my defences are naturally lower, and partly because I haven't been practising remaining on task much this semester in general!

Distractions come from all sources, friends, bodily requirements, God! However I read something recently that made me think, Joyce Huggett said that when praying we will automatically be distracted - especially if we are unused to silence. To counteract this she suggests that we incorporate distractions, acknowledge them, and then dismiss them. If a bird is singing praise God for the bird and consider the wonder of the song and then return to what you were originally praying aboout. If the neighbours kids are yelling... If your tummy is rumbling...

So blogging for me has become a distraction eliminator! I acknowledge I have an interesting thought, write it down, and then dismiss it. Sounds crazy but I actually lose more time pondering it and trying to avoid the thought than I do writing it down and posting it online. Got any other distraction busters to share with me?

Blue - Breathe Easy

Amazing what's available on the net! here's the song I just wrote about...

God speaks to me through music! one?

Ok so I'm sitting here in an exhausted state of being trying to write an essay on why hearing God is spiritually essential and basically providing a how to guide. I also have i-tunes playing in
the background as I need to have a constant source of distraction otherwise my brain distracts itself! Anyway I'm listening to the boyband Blue of all sources and the song 'Breathe Easy' comes on. It's actually one of my all time favourites and so I cranked the sound up and started actually paying attention.


No I
I can't breathe easy
I can't dream yet another dream
Without you lying next to me
There's no way

Out of my mind
Nothing makes sense anymore
I want you back in my life
That's all I'm breathing for
Tell me why
Tell me why


So, ignoring the blatantly boy-girl relationship aspect to the words, the words just suddenly hit me. We are God's dream - His purpose even? He has done so so much for us and is crying out to us to return to Him. We cause Him such huge pain and yet such great delight. Even when we seem to come closest to Him our eyes are constantly caught by idols - money, relationships, materialism, pride - the heartbreak must be intense. And yet He still sings us lovesongs through creation and quietly whispers into our souls, He bails us out time and time again. I know if a guy cheated on me that would pretty much devastate me - even more so if he had committed his life to me. To have him then come back and ask forgiveness only to repeatedly leave me to come crawling back would really really break my heart. I don't know if I could keep taking him back. Yet God does. Jesus knew what it was to be tempted and yet stayed true. I can't help but feel He was speaking to me - tell me why? tell me why? Is it worth it? I LOVE YOU! Come back, never leave me, you are my dream.

Oh!

I have a love affair with the sky. Somehow it doesn't matter the time of day or night, the weather or the colour, the sky captures me. I can stare at it and be lost in the wonder and beauty of God no matter what else is going on in my life. Sometimes I have to stop driving I get so distracted. Last night I came out to find the most amazing cloud formations and it took me aback. I realised it had been over a month since I had last taken the time to stare at the sky in adoration and praise God for His amazing amazing creativity and love. It's very easy to start taking things we love for granted when we don't have 'time' to stop. and pause. and wonder.




So today please, for His sake, spend time adoring and marveling at the love story written all around us. Do it for Him and I promise you will always be the one to gain!

Changing!

Why the lovely format and colour changes?!?! Well I am intermittently getting my red colour back in my computer screen at home (don't ask me why its been gone cos I don't know but I just got a new screen and am occasionally getting the red showing through?!?!). Accordingly I realised there was ORANGE in my template and as I detest orange I changed it. Which means everything else changed too. Oh well.

(Sorry Rick its just GROSS)

Welcome to my thinking process

This feels a little weird - I'm a night blogger so to be sitting here in the middle of the day and not be procrastinating about something else well its weird. However I also process and think as I write, its something Pastor Clive picked up on with me early on at staff meetings, I find it easiest to respond if I have written notes. Even with exams I have always had to have a computer to type rather than a writer (due to my muscle etc. problems in my hands) cos I just can't seem to put things in quite the same way verbally. (Yes I am justifying shush!).

Anyway the reason I am needing to process is cos I've just got back from church - specifically the ordination of Simon Moetara as a Pastor and Teacher of the Apostolic Movement. After the ordination Simon and Rachael, along with quite a few others, were praying over those of us who felt we are called to fulltime ministry. Simon said one phrase that has given me much pause 'you have set yourself aside for God just as He has set you aside for Him prior to your conception' (wording may be out - meaning is the same).

Somehow that's been playing in my head every since - that I have set myself aside for God.

I have knowingly surrendered my life to God, it often is a daily thing. I have chosen to obey Him. I have a strong confidence that He has called me to be a Pastor within His church. I am doing all I can to grow into that and walk into that. But 'set myself aside', the words somehow resonate within me.

As I write this I now know that its true. I have, in a process I have largely been unaware of, been slowly dedicating all that I am and all that I have to God. I have been setting myself aside, moving away from those things and people that are not of Him and have an unduly large influence on my life, and focusing on God in all aspects of my life. But sudddenly that phrase means even more. It means I now love myself enough and am confident enough in His love for me and delight in me that I consider myself acceptable for His service. It means that I know that in Him and with Him in me all things are possible and I am free to be what He created me for. It means that I now accept that He did set me aside before conception for His delight and love and friendship and service and partnering and oh the list goes on!

Don't get me wrong I don't belive that I am this amazing superwoman or that I am better than everyone around me- NO! Rather I am beginning to grasp just how amazing I am because of Him and therefore, as a result of this awareness, I have a far greater understanding of who others (including YOU) areand how amazing you all are too! By the by I'm really over the false modesty thing we are amazing we do reflect God and He delights in us so...

This really has turned into a ME ME ME blog but hey - I'll post it for your interests sake if nothing else you may have a better understanding of how I tick =).