Day 6: Field of Thought

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)



Our field of thought is like the Garden of Eden. There is so much good fruit to enjoy, and yet we feel compelled toward the forbidden. One of the reasons God destroyed the world by flood is because man’s imagination ran rampant with evil. God said of men before He flooded the earth, “...every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5).
God calls us to fix our minds on the good, pure, and praiseworthy, but we dwell on failures, offences, inconsistencies, inappropriate desires, and the things I don’t have and wish I did. The yield of these fields satisfies our temporary hunger, but who do we become after the feast? You are, after all, what you eat. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...” says the proverb (Proverbs 23:7). Our conversation always gives it away. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. Listen to yourself and you will know what you are thinking.

Ask the Lord to reveal any strongholds in your thought life. Seek His grace to tear down old thought patterns and build new ones that will be pleasing to Him. Praise Him for His intervention and reordering your innermost thinking.

Consider: Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45

Day 5: Spiritual Observation Towers

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)

Constant observation assures intimacy with your subject. The more you look, the more you will see. Real science is based on this principle. Astronomy, for example, uses telescopes in observation towers to view the vastness of the skies. Biology uses microscopes to observe the intricacies of complex mini systems that make up organisms. We learn more by observation, and we can do more. Meditation, the act of rolling a thought over and over in your mind, is, in effect, spiritual observation. It allows you and me to observe the truth of God from different points of view, helping us to grasp it more profoundly and latch on to it more firmly. Our contemplation of God’s word is our first step towards fruitful living.

Make the psalmists prayer your own: “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and observe thy word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” (Psalm 119:17-18).

Consider: Joshua 1:7-8; I Timothy 4:15

Day 4: It's Time to Refocus

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2)

Refocusing, after we have had our minds eye set on earthly objects for a lifetime, is a serious challenge. Habits, especially mental habits, are deeply engrained in our personality. They define, to a point, who we are and what we are likely to do. Familiarity, even in thought, just feels right to us. Why change? We need a compelling reason, if we are going to begin to reset our sights.
God, through the Prophet Isaiah, gives us a convincing argument: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) Think of how much we will miss out on, if we don’t raise our sights to heaven through God’s word.

Seek God to make His thoughts and ways known and clear to you. Ask Him to draw back the curtain that separates heaven from earth. Pray that He teach you how to apply kingdom principles to earthly circumstances. Be thankful for heavenly perspectives on everyday life.

Consider: Psalm 19

Day 3: Can it be by Chance?

“The Sower soweth the word.... And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:14, 20)

Does the sower sow indiscriminately? Does he plant his precious seed by chance? Does the seed have a chance, if it is sown by chance? Jesus’ parable predicts doom for the seed that is sown in unprepared soil. The seed has to be coupled with soil which is conducive to its growth and production. Why waste seed in useless soil? Solomon, in Proverbs 17:16, said it amply, “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?” We may have the best teachers and go to the finest schools, but it will avail us nothing if our hearts and minds are not prepared for the instruction we will receive.

Ask the Lord to teach you to appreciate the importance of heart preparation. Ask Him to help you to wait patiently in solitude. Seek Him to accomplish the task for the things He desires to plant in your heart at this time. Thank Him for His abiding peace.

Consider: Jeremiah 18:1-6; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi: 3:1-3

Day 2: Curing Double Vision

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24). Please read the whole passage (Matthew 6:19-33)

We can’t look in two directions and we can’t serve two gods. Decisions take place at the crossroads. We must choose who we will serve. Look up at the birds and over at the fields; they’re fed and clothed. God provides. Why serve a “lesser god”? Choose God and His ways and you get the rest. Choose the rest and you lose it all.
God wants our hearts to be unencumbered by the things of this life. He made us for Him alone. He claims the throne of our hearts exclusively. Double vision crowds our hearts. There are too many voices pulling us in too many directions; we’re overly occupied. Double vision clears up and our hearts are unburdened when we clear the room-the chamber of our hearts.

Ask the Lord for clear vision, the grace to see Him without being obscured by temporal distractions. Make your choice clear before Him in prayer. Assure Him that you are surrendered to Him and His care. Show Him your gratitude.

Consider: Psalm 37:5; 55:22; Philippians 4:6-7; I Peter 5:6-7

Day 1: Lower the Blades

" For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." (Jeremiah 4:3)

The blades cut deep into the earth. Again and again, they cross the field tearing into the hardened, weed filled ground until the furrows are finally formed. It's tough work, but it always precedes planting, and it ensures the harvest. If we plant in weed laden fields, no matter how good the seed, the result will always be the same: fruitlessness. Let the spirit plow your heart until He breaks every clog and removes every weed; until you are prepared for the holy seed.

In prayer, ask the Lord of the harvest to plow your heart, to remove the obstacles, and prepare you for His planting. Tell Him you are willing. Thank Him for His grace and mercy.

Consider: Jeremiah 23:29; Hosea 10:12; Hebrews 4:12; James 1:21; 1 Peter 1:23

Paving the Way...

Too often we allow our hearts and minds to become clouded by the cares of this life. When the clouds accumulate, our visibility greatly diminishes. We lose sight of the sheer vastness of the open expanse of the sky above and the inspiration it breathes. We feel closed in, as though we've lost freedom. Limitations press upon us and possibilities seem to disappear. How long can we remain in the darkness?

We need the winds, the winds of God to blow once again in our lives. When He blows, hope awakens with every gust that rushes past our faces. The spirit moves in our hearts to drive doubt, fear, sorrow, and distraction away. As the clouds break, our gaze lifts to behold Him who dwarfs the heavens. Through His touch, our hearts revive. We are prepared to dream the dreams of God again. Set your sights on Him.

As we enter into this time of prayer and fasting, please join us for daily meditations and feel free to post comments.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NIV)

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him" but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

The Supreme Climb

I just started catching up on My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers and read yesterday's passage. I thought I would post portions of it seeing at how spot on he is in regards to our class discussion last night. Please feel free to comment with your thoughts. Also, click on this link, myutmost.org, to read the daily passage from the book.

God's command is - Take now, not presently. It is extraordinary how we debate! We know a thing is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it at once. To climb to the height God shows can never be done presently, it must be done now. The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually. Beware when you want to confer with flesh and blood ie. your own sympathies, your own insight, anything that is not based on your personal relationship to God. These are the things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham (when told to sacrifice his son Isaac), did not choose the sacrifice. Always guard against self-chosen service for God; self-sacrifice may be a disease. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential order of God for you is a hard time of difficulty, go through with it, but never choose the scene of your martyrdom.

If you are not living in touch with Him, it is easy to pass a crude verdict on God. You must go through the crucible before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because in the crucible you learn to know God better. God is working for His highest ends until His purpose and man's purpose become one.

Don't Mess With Assyria

Here is a Very Cool 10 minutes archaeological piece by PBS on the Assyrian conquest of Lachish, which, as we know, was the people group who lived in Nineveh. This gives a window into the reliability of the scriptures and also the nature of the Assyrians. What was the most interesting part of this video?

Also, just in case you missed a class, here is the link to the Jonah Series at LifeChurch for your personal viewing enjoyment. It is also good to review them. I usually have the priviledge of watching them 5 or 6 times and I still find myself being reminded of things that I had forgotten.

Who Is Your Nineveh Part II

Here is the interesting part about Nineveh. When Jonah took it upon himself to with hold forgiveness from that city, he stepped into a prison of unforgiveness and bitterness. Here we find an amazing truth about Christianity. If you do not forgive, you cannot be forgiven ... you have just stepped back into the concentration camp and have closed the door. Why, because you have forgotten that BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED. We are not God, and anytime we act as God ie. when we do not offer grace to others when God has offered grace to us, we once again crucify Christ and make His sacrifice of no effect. That is why when Jesus taught us how to pray he said "forgive us our sins AS we have forgiven those who have sinned against us." Meaning if we don't forgive them then we won't be forgiven.

Remember the guy in the previous post. His name was Sgt. Skinny Sisk (Actual Picture) and here is the rest of his story. "My career after the war was trying to drink away the die-hard Nazi that I went up into the Bavarian Alps and killed. Old Moe Alley made a statement that all the killings that I did was going to jump into the bed with me one of these days and they surely did. I had a lot of flashbacks after the war and I started drinking."

"Then my sister's little daughter, four years old, came into my bedroom while I was hungover and she told me that Jesus loved me and if I would repent God would forgive me for all of the men I kept trying to kill all over again. That little girl got to me. I put her out of my room, and then I bowed my head on my Mother's old feather bed and repented and God forgave me for the war. I was ordained in the latter part of 1949 into the ministry. The Lord willing and Jesus tarrys I hope to see you all at the next reunion. If not I'll see you at the last jump. I know you won't freeze in the door."

When he unmercifully killed Germans, especially outside of the normal rules of war, he became a prisoner of anger and unforgiveness. The only thing that freed him was repentance before almighty God, and that grace he received changed his life from that point on. No matter how bad the city becomes let us never forget the unconditional love that God has for us and NEVER refuse to show that love and grace toward Nineveh, lest we willfully reenter the place of unforgiveness and death that we were once rescued from.

Who Is Your Nineveh? Part 1

We studied the brutality with which the Assyrians oppressed and conquered the surrounding people groups during the time of Jonah. They are actually believed to be the first civilization to commit genocide. All of us agree that Jonah's apprehension that God would show mercy on this city carried some merit.

I just finished reading Band of Brothers, which is a book about a paratroop infantry division during WWII. At the end of the book, the troops were celebrating the end of the war, when one of the soldiers heard a tip that an SS officer involved in creating the concentration camps was hiding out in a barn. Without telling a commanding officer who would have probably made him a prisoner of war, the soldier hunted him down and shot him. I felt a sense of satisfaction as I read the story. Justice was served... And then I thought of our friend Jonah, and I thought about the heart of God, and I thought about my heart.

Who is my Nineveh? Who are those people in my life that I think deserve what they are getting? Who are those people that just bother me, and I could care less about what they are going through? Who are those people that I have no compassion for and I am hardened toward? Those people that drive us crazy, irritate, hurt, repulse, bother ... They are in our workplaces, they are in our families, they live on our street, and they sit next to us at church. We wouldn't say it, but we think we are better, we act as their judge. We are Jonah, and they are our Nineveh.

What would our world, church, lives look like if we came before God and prayed for our Nineveh's, and asked our merciful Father if He would do for us, what He did for them. I think He would be pleased. After all, we were His Nineveh.

3 Versions of Jonah

Because I want to make Jonah as relevant as possible to everyone in the room, I have included 3 methods to visually watch the story. .

1. Lego Jonah (warning - graphic content with Lego dismemberment and Play-Doh whale vomit)

2. Jonah - A Veggie Tale Movie (the full length Veggie Tales Classic to enjoy with popcorn)

3. Jonah Flash Version (an interesting 4 minute version for the class academic)

I recommend everyone watch the last one since it has some pertinent historical information.

Come Unto Me

"Come unto Me." When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through. You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing. The Holy Spirit will locate the one impregnable thing in you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him. Oswald Chambers

I was pondering where to begin this discussion. It seems like we covered a lot of major issues last night in class. As I read My Utmost for His Highest this afternoon, I could not help but think of our friend Jonah.

Jesus said ..."Come unto Me." Sounds simple doesn't it? I mean who doesn't want to come to Jesus? Why would we want to go anywhere else? Isn't that the place of mercy, healing, blessing, peace, perfection, life, love, wisdom, fulfillment ...?

It was impossible for Jonah to come to Jesus unless he did the one thing he did not want to do. Think about that. Jonah could have offered sacrifices, went to church, prayed, fasted, wept, gave, served, taught classes, led small groups, pastored, but he could never move on with God until his will was bent in obedience to God. So many times we try to "manipulate" God by doing good things rather than the one thing He has asked us to do. God will not allow us to move forward, unless we have done what He has already asked. Lets learn from the story of Jonah and stop running from God and start running to Him. What is standing in the way of you being able to Come unto Him?

Oswald ends his devotion with this, "How often have you come to God with your requests And yet you go away with nothing, whilst all the time God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus - "Come unto Me."

Also, please take this opportunity to write about what you took from the class. Also feel free to pass along any info that you found on Jonah so the rest of the group can benefit from it. I will be posting some online study materials and resources soon.

George Mueller's Keys to Hearing From God

George Mueller - Click to read his biography

Successes
- He sincerely sought God's direction
- He waited patiently on God until he had a word from God in the Scripture.
- He looked to the Holy Spirit to teach him through God's Word.

Mistakes
- Lacking honesty of heart
- Lacking uprightness before God
- Impatience to wait for God
- Preferring the counsel of men over the declarations of Scripture

How he entered into a heart relationship with God and learned to discern God's voice

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nin-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He wil do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

5. Thus, 1. through prayer to God, 2 the study of the Word, and 3 reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly.