RECENTLY, I HAD A DREAM
I do not dream much, or if I do I do not remember them. This one was significant to me, although I can actually now only remember 2 words that were in the dream. I will try and articulate what I believe the Lord said to me through the dream, I believe it was a truth that I was to share through my blog as well.
In the day and age we live in, our walk with the Lord, can be a little fragile at times, because of the pressures and stresses that are part of modern living. The Lord so graciously helps us by sending along many opportunities for us to receive blessing and encouragement,, that why we say so often “without Him I can do nothing”.
The first word that stood out to me was CONSUMERISM. We know that we are living in a prosperous generation, and so many just seem to consume themselves with all the privileges and benefits that are available to us. The thought came to me, that there is such a thing as CHRISTIAN CONSUMERISM, where Christians just consume and enjoy all the blessings that God sends their way, but do it all in a very selfish way, not using the blessings for a higher purpose.
You might say, doesn’t the Westminster Confession say “The chief end of man is to glorify God and ENJOY Him forever” it sure does and it is a completely true statement, I don’t think though we are truly glorifying God if we selfishly just consume God’s blessings without using them as a stepping stone (or spring board) into a deeper relationship with God. Acts 3:19 tells us that God sends “times of refreshing” from the presence of the Lord, and oh how we need them. The whole verse says as believers we must firstly have an attitude of repentance that will produce these times of refreshing. We need to continually have a:
Change of mind
Change of direction
Change of attitude
Change of affection
If we are to receive this refreshing.
Often these times of refreshing come with manifestations, some of you will have heard of for example “The Toronto Blessing, which has impacted literally millions of people, but immature leadership has often just encouraged the manifestations, and not challenged believers to use the blessing to press into God more, and enter a deeper walk with Him.
Let me give you an example,I was in an Anglican church just outside of London England, some years ago, the church had been dramatically touched by the Toronto Blessing, but 10 years later, many people in the service at a given time would simply start shaking. I personally believe that we must move past the manifestations but use the “refreshing” to take us forward in our relationship with God.
UNLESS THE MANIFESTATIONS CAUSE CHANGE IN OUR CHARACTER IT IS SIMPLY CHRISTIAN CONSUMERISM.
The second word was CULTIVATE. I feel the Lord said, I am sending these blessings to you to help you cultivate and deepen your relationship with Me. We all agree we need all the help we can get to move from our “position” as a believer, and move forward into the growing “experience” of appropriating our inheritance in Christ.
Let me remind you that the Word of God says:
We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
We must PRESS toward the mark to receive the prize.
We must draw near to God, then He will draw near to us.
We must seek first (make our no.1 priority) the rule of God in our life.
So please hear me, I fully endorse all the special “times of refreshing” that come from the presence of the Lord, , but we MUST NOT CAMP THERE, but use these blessing to cultivate our relationship with the Lord, so take every opportunity to receive prayer, but see it as a springboard into a deeper walk with God.
In 2015, despite all the pressures, all the temptations, all the stresses we have available to us, all we need to live a holy, victorious pure life.
I regularly ask the Lord to help me with my motives and attitudes, to check my heart on the “why” I do things, I do not want to camp, but constantly move forward in the plan of God for my life.
I trust this blog is a challenge and encouragement to you.
