Devotionals

Isaiah 64:8, NIV
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

This week I walked through a huge store, absolutely filled with different specimens of pottery. Every single design was unique. And every item had a specific use. As I looked at this overwhelming display of man’s creative ability, I began to think of how it illustrates the creativity of God in the vast breadth of design and function on display.

Many will have sung Christian worship songs which express this theme, with words such as “You are the potter, we are the clay” – recognising that God is the Master Potter and we are His creation. But many of the people who have sung these songs may still be wishing they are like someone else. Some walk through our doors looking for help on Healing Retreats. They see someone else’s looks or gifting and then see themselves negatively as a result. They then feel inferior and before very long depression and even despair can follow.

It is easy to forget that God did not make us to be like anyone else, he made us to be the person we are. Each one a very much loved special creation. The world idolises certain people and the rest of humanity seems to want to copy the “stars”. But God doesn’t want us to be like anyone else – He rejoices when we are content with who we are and seek to fulfill the destiny that the Master Potter had for each one of us.

It is as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus that an extraordinary miracle takes place – in our character we become more like Him – and in our humanity we become more like the person God intended us to be in the first place.

Prayer: Thank you that as the Master Potter, the works of your hand are always perfect. Help me Lord to so walk in your ways that I both reflect your true character to the people around me and grow into the person Father God intended me to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Living in the Freedom of the Spirit – Teaching CD

Life’s Decisions – Teaching CD

Isaiah 1:18-20, NIV
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This week the whole of the UK descended into snow-clad chaos, as the heavens deposited mega-tons of the white stuff on an unexpecting world! By 10.00am on Monday morning two snowmen and an igloo had sprouted in my grand-children’s garden. They were loving what children love everywhere. I can remember 1947 (just!) and 1963 (well, I cycled up the River Thames!) and when I mention those years, to those also old enough to remember, they nod their heads with a smile of approval as they reminisce about the great cover-ups and freeze-ups of years gone by!

As I looked at amazing photographs of our land dressed in white, my mind turned to this Scripture. What an extraordinary picture these words paint of what God does with our sins, when we choose to come before Him with a repentant heart. He covers our sin! What an incredible difference it makes to every single day of our lives to know that our sin is covered!

I will never forget that first day of my new life – I was nine years of age when I was born again. Everything was totally different – it was as if there had been a massive snowfall covering my sin and making everything in my young life totally new.

And then there is the following promise, that if we are willing and obedient we will then ‘eat the best from the land’. People can sometimes be obedient, but with unwilling hearts! It’s willing hearts that are responding with gratitude to the forgiveness of such a loving God. Unwilling obedience, or straightforward disobedience, bring grief to the heart of God for it means that the children God loves so much, will miss out on His best for them.

As we see the snow, let it be a constant reminder to us of God’s mercy and love. But let it also be a constant encouragement to be willing in our obedience to Him, as we walk forward through whatever difficulties we may be facing.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that when I come to you with a repentant heart you cover my sin as the snow covers the land. Help me Lord to always respond to your amazing love with joyful obedience. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life DVD series – Teaching Series by Peter Horrobin. Ideal for Home Groups.

Nehemiah 7:1, NIV
After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed.

Lessons from Nehemiah – Day 6

At last the work was completed in 52 days! What an amazing achievement. When the enemies heard about it they were afraid because they realised that the work had been done with the help of God (Nehemiah 6:16).

Even the enemies knew that this wasn’t just a natural work but a supernatural one. The key to this fantastic accomplishment was prayer. Seven times in this book we read that Nehemiah prayed to God.

Secondly Nehemiah planned very carefully. A vision will stay a dream unless there’s a workable plan. Thirdly Nehemiah protected and encouraged his workers, always pointing them to God’s power and might.

Finally he was steadfast, committed to finish the task. Nehemiah was focused on completion and was not distracted by the enemy’s schemes. We have to be completer/finishers – not just enthusiastic starters. Even when the going gets extremely tough, we have to fight on to complete the work God has given us to do.

Prayer: Dear Lord, Help me to learn the biblical principles from Nehemiah and help me to apply them in my work and service for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Finishing Well – Teaching CD

Nehemiah 6:2-4, NIV
They were scheming to harm me, so I sent messages to them with this reply ‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’ Four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same answer.

Lessons from Nehemiah – Day 5

Nehemiah’s enemies had tried ridicule, sending open letters, and physical attack. Now they tried a false accusation of treason, which would have carried the death penalty. Basically they were saying, ‘If you know what’s good for you, Nehemiah, you’ll come down from your wall and negotiate with us, because we have the power to get you killed.’ They wanted him off the wall at all costs.

Four times they sent him messages and each time Nehemiah refused to come. This is intimidation at its worst. The enemy will use whatever will work on you and me to see us climb down from the wall we’re building for God – to stop the work going forward. We should never negotiate with the enemy, never compromise, never listen to his schemes. He plots against us. If Nehemiah had come down and met them, they would have murdered him.

This was an awful time for Nehemiah but he consistently refused to go and he said ‘No’ to the enemy. We have to learn that we’ll never be able to say ‘Yes’ to God until we’ve learned to say ‘No’ to the enemy.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to recognise the enemy’s schemes against me today. Help me to say out loud to the enemy, ‘No!’ So that I can then say, ‘Yes!’ to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Join us soon at the “ARISE!” conference in Blackpool.

Nehemiah 4:14, NIV
Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight…

Lessons from Nehemiah – Day 4

As the rebuilding of the wall progressed well, the enemies stepped up their attack. Nehemiah’s workers had to work with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. When one was attacked the trumpet would sound, and all the workers would run and help the one under attack.

What can we learn from this? Wherever we are doing a great work for God we will come under attack. Nehemiah tells them: ‘don’t be afraid, don’t let fear control us – remember the Lord who is great and awesome……….and fight.’ God will do His part but we still have to do ours. We can also learn that God calls us to be inter-dependent.

When you are under enemy attack, have you learned to blow the trumpet so that your brothers and sisters can come and help you and protect you? Then, when they are being attacked, will you go to help them? We need each other in the Body of Christ.

Whatever the enemy does to attack God’s work won’t succeed. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ Today let’s say with Nehemiah: ‘Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight!’

Prayer: Dear Lord, Help me today to continue to build the wall that You have given me to build, and not to be distracted by the enemy. Help me to remember that with You on my side I’m always in the majority. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

2 Corinthians 1:3,4, NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

We can only give away what we already have. It’s no use offering somebody something they need, if we don’t have any to give! That is so obvious it is hardly worth stating!

But when it comes to being of real help and comfort to others, people can find themselves with an empty tank and nothing to give from the heart. They may go through the motions of doing the right thing, but somehow or other the most important ingredient is missing.

There isn’t one of us who hasn’t gone through tough times and faced difficult problems, and in this verse Paul is encouraging us to learn how to draw our deepest level of comfort from the Lord himself, who is described here by Paul as the God of ALL comfort. He is the one who understands our deepest sorrows, our most severe rejection, our most painful bereavement. He knows from experience what it is to suffer such personal pain and trauma. He went through it for us.

So Paul encourages those of us who are seeking to be mature in Christ, to draw on the love tanks of heaven and be personally comforted by Him. In that way our own love tanks will be full and we will have an overflowing resource to give to those who may not yet be in the same very blessed situation of knowing the Lord of Glory well enough to draw directly from Him. If we have been filled with His comfort, we will always have plenty to be able to give to others!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to so draw on your love that my heart will always be comforted by your presence with me. Please help me to keep my eyes open for those in need of your comfort so that I can share the blessing with them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Living the Life – Book by Peter Horrobin

God is my Comforter – Teaching CD

Nehemiah 3:12, NIV
Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters.

Lessons from Nehemiah – Day 3

In 1986 I was asked to speak on chapter 3 of Nehemiah at the house group we ran in our home. I read that the residents of Jerusalem built their part of the wall outside their own homes, and I sensed God was asking me to build the wall for Him outside my own house. I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but then I read this verse – that Shallum repaired the next section with the help of his daughters! It was quite unusual in those days that women would be used and that’s why it deserved a special mention.

It struck me – God uses women! God would use me to build the wall for him outside my house. The very next day the local Anglican Minister rang and asked if he could visit our house group, as part of the plan for Christians from different churches in our area to get to know one another. At our house group meeting I shared what I sensed God was saying to me from this passage. The Anglican Minister told us that there was a small church building near my house which was available if we wanted to use it.

This was to be the building used to begin a new Fellowship in our area. After I had attended the Ellel Ministries 9-week school in 1993, I invited Peter Horrobin to come and conduct a weekend conference for this Fellowship, which had moved into Frensham, two miles away, by then.

That very weekend Pierrepont School in Frensham went up for sale, and God asked me to take Peter to see the school. Then in February 1995 Ellel Ministries purchased Pierrepont School and Peter asked me to be the Centre Director for the work there. So fourteen years later, in 2008, I’m still building that wall for God ‘outside my own house’.

Is God asking you to build a wall for Him somewhere – even outside your own house?

Prayer: Dear Lord, Help me to be wholly available to You to build the wall for You close to my own home and to be ready today to listen for Your voice and to be obedient. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Training with Ellel Ministries

Fruitful & Gifted – Teaching CD

Nehemiah 2:19-20, NIV
But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it they mocked and ridiculed us.

‘What is this you are doing?’ they asked. ‘Are you rebelling against the King?’

I answered them by saying, ‘the God of heaven will give us success.’

Lessons from Nehemiah – Day 2

With the blessing of the king, Nehemiah was given leave of absence from his job. He was also given timber from the king’s forest so he could return to Jerusalem and start building the beams needed for the gates and the walls of Jerusalem and his house.

Enemies soon arrive when we start building something for God! Often they start with mocking and ridicule. This happened to Nehemiah. But he was confident that God would continue to give him success with his vision – to see the walls rebuilt.

God-given vision will always be opposed by the enemy. Satan often uses people who feel threatened by servants of God. This was the case here. How do we respond to mocking and ridicule? We need to know that there’s enemy activity behind this, especially if it’s aimed at getting us to give up!

‘If even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!’ they sneered. Mockery and ridicule can make us feel inadequate for the task ahead and, as our work for God is slandered, something in us wants to agree that someone else could do it better!

However, the point is that God has called us! We have to answer like Nehemiah – ‘the God of heaven will give us success.’ This is about God’s work in us; He alone will empower us and sustain us. ‘I can do all this through Christ who strengthens me!’

Prayer: Dear Lord, Please help me to know that You will always give me the strength to do Your will in my life. Help me not to agree with the powers of darkness or with the lies of the enemy but help me to ask for Your help today in the difficult tasks I need to undertake. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Living in Vision – Teaching CD

What are Your Giants? – Teaching CD

Job 32:8, NIV
But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

Have you ever wondered how it is that man is so clever? How it is that mankind is such a creative genius? Why is it that all men, the good and the bad, the born again and the atheist are all capable of such amazing intellectual achievements?

The answer lies in this amazing verse from the book of Job which tells us that the very spirit of man is indeed the breath of the Almighty – and that it is this which gives man his understanding. So all of the human race is benefitting from the creative genius of Almighty God, the Creator of all things. There is nothing creative that man does that does not draw on the ability to understand things that comes from God himself. Every great book, every amazing painting, every intellectual achievement, every technological breakthrough – in every case the source is the genius of God, whether people recognise it or not!

But having said that, isn’t it extraordinary that so many people, who have such creative and intellectual ability are, at the same time, so stupid! As the Bible says, it is the fool that says in his heart that there is no God. Their eyes have been so blinded by the God of this world that in their enthusiasm to deny the existence of the Creator they cannot see that without the Creator they couldn’t do anything – not even write a book to try and prove that God does not exist!!.

Right now there are some 800 buses in the UK carrying the slogan “There is probably no God!” And then they say something like – so go on, enjoy yourself! They imply that if you believe in a God you cannot enjoy yourself. What utter nonsense! True joy only finds its source in the Creator – as Nehemiah discovered, the joy of the Lord was his strength. Those who do their own thing and have no fear of God become wise in their own eyes, lose their sense of spiritual reality and demonstrate the foolishness that is expressed by those who don’t t recognise the amazing truth in our Scripture.

An old hymn says, “Breathe on me breath of God, have done with lesser things”. Let us rise up as men and women of God. draw on the understanding He gives to His children and move on from the lesser things to become the dynamic, creative and joyful Kingdom people that give such pleasure to their Creator.

Prayer: Lord, we pray for all those who are influenced by the arguments of those who deny your existence. Open their eyes to see the foolishness of denying you and show them the Saviour who loved and died for them so that they can Know Father God for themselves. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Life is for Living – Teaching CD

Join us at the “Arise” Conference in February

John 4:23, NIV
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

This verse makes me wonder how we get to be true worshippers. I believe that as we hunger for more intimacy with God, His Spirit beckons us to come closer and then we can really start worshipping Him. We need to remove ourselves from centre stage and put God in His rightful place. We must focus on giving Him the honour that He deserves.

I sometimes picture believers, in every time zone around the world, who are praising our eternal God. I think the Kingdom of God must need more people who are first worshippers, rather than workers. If workers don’t focus on Jesus as their reason for working and don’t find their reward in Him, they will become disgruntled. They won’t feel that their contribution is sufficiently appreciated. But those who have worshipping hearts become sacrificial servants in their work.

Psalm 103 tells us not to forget all God’s benefits. We can think of past answers to prayers, our present provision and joys, and all there is of God that we have yet to experience. But in the light of who He is, our worship can never be big enoughand our passion can never be intense enough.

Charles Spurgeon said: ‘The Lord always deserves to be praised for who He is Himself, for His works of creation and providence, for His goodness towards His creatures and especially for the tremendous act of redemption and all the marvellous blessings flowing there-from’. He says, ‘Learn to practice the eternal Hallelujah’.

God is here with us – He is hereforus. When we still our hearts before Him He will sing over us, because worship is relationship (‘The LORD, your God, is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.’ Zephaniah 3:17). Our love relationship with God flows both ways, from us to God and from God to us. But we can never praise God enough. Even when we get to heaven and it will be our whole focus for eternity, how can we ever praise Him enough?

Prayer: Father, I want to worship You. You are ‘the living God’. Teach me to become the kind of worshipper that You seek – one who worships You in spirit and in truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Explaining Worship – Book by Jack Hayford