Friends with God

"So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."   

                                                                                                      Exodus 33:11    NKJV 

How would you like to be on a first name basis with God? One of the requirements for this is to spend time with Him. The more time you spend with someone, the more you become like them. The term, 'Face to face', is a figure of speech that means 'Openly and Honestly'. To be friends with God requires openness and honesty. We have a choice to be like this or to be worldly.

To be friends with the world is to take on the values of the world. It leaves God out of the equation. The is why the values of today are not good. Children grow up learning their parent's values; if these values are the wrong ones, this may lead them to have no respect for anyone. This is why there is so much trouble on our streets today; they are coming from worldly values and God doesn't fit into them at all. Friendship with the world is hostility (enmity) with God James 4:4. Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world, makes themselves an enemy of God.

As believers, we are in the world but not of it. Jesus has made us and calls us, His friends John 15:15. Just let that sink in for a moment. If you believe in God, He believes in you and calls you His friend. However, for the intimacy of being face to face with Him, there is a need to give up self. Galatians 2:20 tells us:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.'

This is called being 'totally sold out for God,' you live in the world but are not of the world's system, you are of the heavenly system and live 100% for Jesus. It is hard to live up to this standard but God helps us every inch of the way. Really, what we are saying is that, you have made a decision to serve Jesus and not man. Therefore your values are heavenly ones. 

Living in such a way, draws people to you because what they see in you, they need. They have tried everything else and it hasn't worked. They need Jesus and you have the ability to offer Him to them and help them to be friends with God too.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

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Don't grumble, God may be doing a new thing

"Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."     

                                                                                                Exodus 14:11-12   NKJV 

The Israelites had a short memory. They had been pleading with God for deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians; now that they had this freedom, they were grumbling and criticising. Mind you, let's be honest, how many times do we get into this mindset when things don't go the way we would have liked them to? We are so ready to grumble, moan and criticise at times.

God is doing new things in people's lives. This was what he was doing in the lives of the Israelites but, they couldn't see it. No matter how uncomfortable it was to be held captive in Egypt, it was their comfort zone, they had become used to it. Now Moses was leading them out into the unknown and they were frightened of what lay ahead. 

When God does new things in our lives, fear will always try to stop us, but we need to do it anyway. We must never allow fear to control us, God will honour us as we go ahead. It is better to 'do it afraid,' than not at all. The Israelites had to learn to abandon their slave mentality and take on the freedom that was being offered them and, it is the same with us.

When new things are ahead of us, we need to see this in a new way. We need to envisage what is ahead, the advantages of going forward into a new beginning or a change in life. New things are always a bit scary, this is natural. However, if we know that God wants us to do this, we have to trust Him with it all.

Is this happening in your life at the moment? Do you feel that God is doing a new thing for you? If so, straightaway, your comfort zone will not like it much and will cause you to doubt and ask questions that are unanswerable at this time. Check your heart, if it is pounding with the excitement of it all, yet there is still fear there, it is probably God's will that you go forward. This is where the 'do it afraid' term comes into practice. We do tend to know deep within us that it is right to go ahead, but this doesn't stop the fear.

Count the cost and ask what you have to lose by going ahead. It may be costly but it also may be so rewarding.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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Anything you can do, I can do better

"For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rod."                                                    Exodus 7:8-13   NKJV 

As God had directed Moses, he and Aaron went to Pharaoh to demand that he release the Israelites from their captivity. To demonstrate God's power, Aaron threw down his rod before Pharaoh and, as God had said, it became a serpent. However, Pharaoh was unimpressed and called for his magicians who did the same. This would have been very intimidating for Moses and Aaron to witness; but God is greater, because Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, together with the serpents and this caused Pharaoh's heart to grow hard. v10-13.

This is a true demonstration of the power of God. The devil may believe that he has the power but, he is deceiving himself; God is greater. This is encouraging for us. When we are standing in faith for something - perhaps someone's healing, our faith can be shattered by someone coming up to us and telling us that we have it wrong, 'Nothing will happen, it's a waste of time, God doesn't heal people today'. Just ignore them because to become engaged in a debate about this, may lead to others joining in and before you know it, you are confused and bewildered and more than likely, quite frustrated.

Well-meaning people will say things such as this to you and, many of them are believers. The important thing is, we are not out to prove anything. It is not a game, it is life as we know it. If God says this is how it is, then that is how it is. We have nothing to prove, we know God can do whatever He chooses. He may not always act in the way we ask or expect Him to do, but He is very able.

Paul and Silas had nothing to prove when they sat in a very dark and smelly cell in stocks and chains. They trusted God so much that they sat praising Him, and they were released. Likewise, as Jesus hung in agony on a cross, there was nothing He needed to do to prove anything, even though He was asked by the crowd to do so. He trusted His Father and God raised Him up three days later.

Whatever, we face, God is able to help. We should never fall to intimidation, we are the children of the Living God; we belong to Jesus and, He knows what He is doing. The devil may say it can't be done; Jesus says it can.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

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Who is the real you?

"Then Moses answered and said, 'But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ' The Lord has not appeared to you'."    Exodus 4:1    NKJV

James Thurber created a fictional character called Walter Mitty and wrote a small book entitled THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY. It was so popular it became a film. Mitty is a meek, mild man with a vivid fantasy life. In a few dozen paragraphs, he imagines himself a wartime pilot, an emergency-room surgeon, and a devil-may-care killer. Although the story has humorous elements, there is a darker and more significant message underlying the text, leading to a more tragic interpretation of the Mitty character. Even in his heroic daydreams, Mitty does not triumph, several fantasies being interrupted before the final one sees Mitty dying bravely in front of a firing squad. In the brief snatches of reality that punctuate Mitty's fantasies, the reader meets well-meaning but insensitive strangers who inadvertently rob Mitty of some of his remaining dignity. Mitty had no trust or faith in his own ability, therefore he had to imagine that he was one of his heroic characters accomplishing great things. His whole life was built on make belief because he was so insecure.

Here we see something opposite with Moses. God, the creator of everything, chose Moses to go into Egypt and lead the Israelites from captivity into freedom in a new land. However, we witness Moses pleading with God telling Him that he was incapable of doing such a thing. He was basically saying to God, 'What can I do Lord; I'm a nobody, You need a somebody.' God didn't need a somebody at all, He needed Moses who may have classed himself as a nobody but, who God could turn into a somebody if he trusted Him.

Moses could have been thinking, 'I don't doubt You Lord, it's me I doubt. I doubt whether You can do it in me.' He was wriggling but God was having none of it. 'What is that in your hand?' He asked Moses. He told Moses to cast his rod on the ground and it became a snake. After various other examples of how God could bring this all about, Moses used the, 'I'm not eloquent Lord' card v10. He was saying that he wouldn't be able to negotiate with Pharaoh. Aaron, Moses brother, was finally chosen to accompany him. Moses was insecure, He would have sooner had someone else do the job than himself. 

At least he was honest with God, A Walter Mitty type would have imagined himself speaking great words with Pharaoh and leading the Israelites to freedom on the first visit. However, imagination, fantasy and daydreaming get a person nowhere. But they do cause a lot of problems for other people. Their imagination can run wild, where they see great conquests. However, in the end, nothing has been achieved and devastation can follow.

You may be insecure and if you are, then admit it and seek help from God. He is the one that builds a person up. Be yourself, not a copy of someone else or a copy of your imagination daydreaming of great exploits but not actually putting your feet down into the water. You are important to God, but not when you are full of fantasy and daydream. Meditate on God's Word and ask Him to give you a Spirit of power, love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

Two things are evident here:

(1)  Are you insecure and tend to copy someone else rather than believe in yourself?

(2). Do you daydream and fantasise about great exploits but never really achieve them?

Talk to God abut these things.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

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Are you spiritually dry?

"Son of man, can these bones live?"                          Ezekiel 37:3    NKJV 

The Valley of Dry Bones is a most popular scripture to read but, like other scripture, is one where there is always something to be found and learnt. Here, the Lord placed Ezekiel in a valley that was completely filled with dry bones. It must have seemed a most eerie place to be. God then asked him a very difficult question to answer, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' Ezekiel  gave the only answer that he could, 'O Lord God, You know.' In other words Ezekiel was saying, 'only you know the answer to this Lord.'

God then told Ezekiel to speak to the dry bones, commanding them to live. Rather reluctantly, I would think, Ezekiel did so and there was a great rattling sound as the bones came together and a body was formed over them. However, they just laid there with no life. This can happen to each one of us in the church today. We may know God's Word through and through, being fully conversant with it and yet, there is something missing - the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit. We may have the word but we need the Spirit too. God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath and when he did, the bodies were totally filled with the Spirit of God and stood and were ready for action.

The bones had the word but lacked the breath; when they received it, they came alive and, that is how it works for you and I too. Our bones may be dry and our hope can be lost and we can feel cut off (v11). But when we receive the Word accompanied by the Spirit, there is a Spiritual Revival within us; we come alive, stand and are ready for whatever may come our way. When one of them are missing, we cannot function properly. When God's people have the Word and the Spirit, they have a living experience of His reality in their midst, rather like the bones in the valley. 

Perhaps you may have felt dry of late and are wondering what has happened. You seem to have lost your 'zing'. Let me encourage you to ask God to fill the void that is there and give you a Spiritual Revival and allow the fire of the Holy Spirit to anoint your bones once again:

'Lord, I have felt dry of late and need the fire of Your Spirit to ignite me once again. I have the Word, now may I receive a refilling of Your Spirit so that I have fire in my bones. I ask in Jesus' name. Amen'

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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There is nothing to fear when God is here!

"Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."     

                                                                                                 Ezekiel 1:28    NKJV

Ezekiel's message to the Israelites, exiled in Babylonia, was God is with you. He is in Jerusalem and He is in Babylon. In fact He is everywhere. God provided a rainbow for Noah, informing him that, He would never again flood the earth. The rainbow would be God's sign of peace. Here, He was doing the same. Ezekiel saw the likeness of a man on a throne surrounded by fire and the colours of a rainbow. This was the sign that Ezekiel needed to inform the exiles that God was with them and, would rescue them.

God's appearance is everywhere around us, it's just that we don't always see it because of distractions, such as trouble and strife that envelop us wherever we are. If we could only just stop for a moment and call on Him, we would discover His everlasting presence, alway ready to reassure us and help us overcome each difficult moment.

Have you ever stopped and thought just how powerful the flood was. It covered the whole earth. Mountains were covered over and that would include the very high ones such as Mount Everest. Nothing could be seen except water. To Noah and the others, it must have been an awesome sight. If Noah's belief in God had not been as strong as it was, the sight of all this water would have overcome him. It must have been scary. To receive such a comforting word from God, that He would never again flood the world, must have been so welcome to Noah and his family.

God still operates the same way today. In times of peril, He sends us His peace. We may not always see it, but His rainbow of reassurance is all around us. There is nothing to fear when God is here. Things may appear dark all around but, when we call on Him, our situation is covered in brightness with the likeness of the Lord.

Are you tempted to be frightened by life events at times? It's a naturall reaction. However, think again, as Christians we are not natural, we are supernatural and this is very different. Try to remember this when next you are tempted to feel scared. God is all around you; He will never leave.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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Ask Me and I'll tell you!

"Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.'    Jeremiah 33:3    The Amplified Study Bible

The rule of thumb is, when you want to know something, you ask someone. If you don't ask, you usually do not find out. We may think we know it all but, we don't and to think we do is foolish. Some people who are in some kind of authority fail to ask questions because they feel they are expected to know the answer. However, we can't know everything and it is better to be honest about it than pretend.

Therefore, God tells us to call on Him and ask - ask Him the way forward; ask Him how this will work, how to do a particular thing and even ask Him about our future. Charles F Stanley comments: 'Throughout the bible, God promises to speak to His children - but we must listen for His voice. To listen actively, we must come before the Lord expectantly. We must eagerly anticipate Him speaking to us.' To add to this, I would emphasise the need to display good attending skills - really listening to what is actually being said, feeding back part of it and generally showing God or whoever, that you are really listening.

We miss so much when we fail to ask God things. He has so much He wants to tell us and even show us. We ask Him for certain things but when we don't receive them, we assume that it was not God's wish. However, there may be a reason, He may have agreed but at the time, it remains hidden from us until we give a little more to Him or do a certain thing. If we don't listen properly, really going deeper, it may be lost. This could be the reason why you have not received what you have been praying about. Ask Him if there is something blocking your request or if, you need to do something first. He will show you. However, be open to the fact that what you ask for is not for you. Whatever, He will tell you if you ask.

It is good practice to just spend time with Him asking Him for nothing but just enjoying His presence, You don't even have to speak, just enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, words are not enough and we do better to just sit and enjoy, wait and listen. You may get far more out of this than doing all of the talking.

Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

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