Jesus – Page 4 – Removing Barriers Releasing Potential

Are you useful?

Building on from my last post……

2 Peter 1:3 ~ 7 (AMP) ~ Character qualities to develop in life.

³For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] everything necessary for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through ^[a]true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ⁴By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. ⁵For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), ⁶And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), ⁷And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.

Living as children of the light.

I don’t know about you however, during these uncertain times when we have perhaps been challenged by the way we live, think, act and feel, asking myself am I living as a child of the light? Perhaps we have thought more about our priorities in life and want to reconfigure, maybe we have allowed fear and uncertainty to gain a grip.

Dare I say it, that for some we have not sought God or His word and allowed the world’s thoughts, behaviours or attitudes to gain a hold? I am sure we have all been challenged; I have personally been challenged during this time of lockdown with covid-19. There have been times when I know I have got a bit angry, frustrated and a bit selfish, nevertheless with God’s grace I am being challenged and changed. How fabulous to have the Holy Spirit work within us, to bring us into alignment with His word and to walk as children of the light.

Five steps to measure ourselves by?

There are five steps or principles that we should be aware of and which affect and effect the way in which we see ourselves and how other see or perceive us:

Principle 1 ~ Mirror (1 Samuel 25: 1-42)

The first person we should examine is ourselves before we look at others.

Coping with difficult people is hard ~ how do you, cope with yourself.

We see people as they are ~ but as we are!

Through a lens we see others like we like to see others.

Destination & destiny ~ people keep moving, as they believe the next move (destination or destiny) will be the final move!

If you can’t fix problems where you are ~ you can’t fix someone else’s!

What do you do if you see someone you did not want to see?

Big issue ~ if you cannot get along with you, you will not get along with others.

Examine yourself.

How well do you know you?

How much to you like/love yourself. (James 2:8)

What do you see in the mirror ~ does it reflect Christ likeness, if not what steps are you going to take to improve you?

Ring the bell

**In these uncertain times, it would be useful to keep reminding ourselves who we belong too and keep ringing the bell.**

The Test of Three

From time to time most of us get caught up with gossip and rumours that impact our wellbeing and mental state.

Why do people get involved in gossip and rumours?

People get involved in gossip and rumours for many reasons such as to feel superior, for attention, out of envy and out of anger or unhappiness.

Why? Some people like to feel superior or want to be noticed generally don’t feel good about themselves and feel better when they put others down. In other words their self-esteem is low and by getting involved in worthless conversations they feel they have a place or position with others. However they also do it for attention because they will for a short time be the centre of attention. Furthermore they may do it out of anger or because they are unhappy, they might feel a sense of power out of seeing others suffer. That is why people get involved in gossip, rumours and slander.

Continue reading “The Test of Three”

God’s Coffee

How often do we as individuals strive to get the best? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have the best, my question is, in doing so, do we strive, get anxious, get stressed and look to the container rather than what’s inside.

The bible tells us in;

1 Peter 5:7 (AMP) Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.’ In short who do we rely on ourselves or God, hey I’m sure you will all say God!

Empowerment 5 ~ Empowered Individuals

This is the final piece in the jigsaw where we will briefly look at “Empowered Individuals”.

The Empowerment (Trust) Matrix

Low trust Entrenched in Bunkers Caged Eagles

High trust Flying Blind Empowered Individuals

Low Enablement High Enablement

The goal of all organisations/churches and its leaders should be to get as many people as possible into the empowered performer category ~ the lower right quadrant.

The message is obvious for those who want to build an empowered organisation/church: reduce the number of people who are entrenched in bunkers, flying blind or caged eagles. Increase the numbers who are fully trusted (EMPOWERED).