Episodios

  • Is God Still Speaking? // How Can I Hear God Speak To Me?, Part 1

    Is God Still Speaking? // How Can I Hear God Speak To Me?, Part 1
    Jul 14 2025
    Let me ask you a question – is God still speaking to us here and now Today? And if so – how? Well – what are the answers? If God is indeed still speaking, shouldn’t we be listening? Imagine what a difference it could make in our lives, to know His will for our lives. Now here’s a question that these days pretty much divides the church down the middle. Are you ready? Here it is. Does God still speak today? Whoa. The controversy that that little question creates, the division it creates, is huge. There are some who can tell you that the only way that God speaks today, the single only way, is through the Bible. Read the Bible, that’s God’s Word, that’s how He speaks. Then at the kind of opposite end of the spectrum we have Christians who claim to have seen signs and wonders, to have so called words of knowledge and prophecies over their lives. I even know one man whose pastor constantly claims to have visions of Jesus. Well, man, what do you do with that? How do we understand that? And then there’s little old you and me. And if you’re anything like me, deep inside there’s a desire that burns for God. Something that’s hard to explain, a hunger after God Himself, and a yearning that can’t be satisfied by a dry, academic, cerebral answer to the question, "Does God still speak today?" You won’t be dismissed by shallow responses either and nor will sensational claims quench the thirst I have after Christ Himself. And so that’s why this week and next week on the program we’re going to explore this question: "Does God still speak today and if so how?" I don’t know about you but I do hunger after God. I ache to know Him, to experience Him, to hear Him speak into my life and I know that there are many, many more people on this earth who feel exactly the same. I want to live my life out completely for Him; everything that I am, everything that I have; all my hopes, all my dreams to serve Him with the absolute complete lot. And it’s not because I’m some great guy. Believe you me, I’m not. It’s because I’ve tasted the sweetness of God’s love – "the many splendid love of Christ" as A. W. Tozer calls its. I’ve tasted His goodness and His joy and His peace and you know what? I want more. And so I want to hear my God speak because any relationship that means something, that has value to it, is based on communication. And not just one way communication, it has to be two way communication. A marriage is headed for divorce when there’s a stony silence between husband and wife. If all they do is to communicate on a transactional basis about the mundane things of life and they no longer communicate heart to heart, then friend, unless they do something about that their marriage is headed towards divorce. That’s because a rich relationship is founded on intimate communication. It’s true in a marriage and it’s true in our relationship with God. So the question is: is God still speaking today? Well, over the coming couple of weeks as we explore that, let me tell you where I’m coming from. In my experience God speaks to me and to others in many different ways. In fact I’ve grouped those into nine different ways that God speaks today. But experience, you see experience isn’t the be all and end all. We have emotions: they go up, they go down. Sometimes we’re at the top of our game and yet others days, well frankly, let's be honest, we’re off with the pixies. So whilst we may experience God speaking through prophecies, through signs, through dreams, all sorts of different ways, I believe with all my heart, the truth, God’s chosen way of revealing Himself to us, of providing us with a rock solid basis for understanding Him and understanding our experience of Him is His Word. This thing they call the Bible is inspired by Him, written through human beings for sure – each of the 66 books of the Bible are written in different times in history and under different circumstances and for specific purposes, but together those 66 books are the inspired Word of God. It is God speaking to the generations that have gone before us, and to us and to the generations that will come after us. And you see God never contradicts Himself. He never says one thing over here and does something else over there. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if anyone whether it’s me or anyone else, claims to have heard from God in a certain way, then: a. Does the Bible say that’s how God communicates with us, because if it doesn’t then friend, at the very least, I am very, very suspicious this person has indeed heard from God at all. b. If this person claims to have heard from God and acts on it or shares what God has allegedly said to Him or to her, is it consistent with the Word of God, the whole counsel of God? Because if God says one thing and some so called prophet comes up with some so called revelation that contradicts God’s Word, then forget it. That ain’t God talking...
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    10 m
  • The Joy of the Overflow // Full to Overflowing, Part 5

    The Joy of the Overflow // Full to Overflowing, Part 5
    Jul 11 2025
    There are so many good things out there in life. And it’s great to get our fill. But what’s even better, is when we’re so full of goodness – that we overflow – right into the lives of other people. I love to see other people doing what God made them to do. Being who God made them to be. It's awesome when they excel at that. A brilliant musician or a sports person or someone who's great at caring for other people. Someone who can just lead an organisation, somehow make it sing. It never ceases to amaze me how different we all are and how when someone discovers their unique gig, whatever that is, what a wondrous thing that is to behold. For me it leaves me in awe of God, His grace to let us have gifts like that. His imagination. His plan to bless each one of us through the gifts and the abilities of other people. Sometimes we get all silly and we compare ourselves to other people and go, "Oh well, I can't do that." Of course we can't, it's not what God made us to do. He made us to be, well you and me. To be and to excel at whatever He's gifted us in our DNA. In fact it's a real passion of mine. To see people living out who God made them to be and the plan that He has for their lives. And when we're right in that sweet spot there's just nothing better. That's why I enjoy doing what I'm doing right now. I'm custom made for this gig. A whole bunch of other things I can't do but I love, I love sharing the good news of Jesus with you. This week we're looking at Jesus' ideal plan for our lives. A plan to use us as the entry point for His flood-tide of blessing into this world. Yesterday we looked at this passage, I want to look at it again today. It's John chapter 7, verse 37. And Jesus is talking at a time of a festival where they celebrate the enactment in a temple of the flowing of the Holy Spirit into the land. He says: If anyone is thirsty (anyone, that means, you know that's for you and me right? This is an invitation) If anyone is thirsty (Are you thirsty?) then let them come to me (Says Jesus) and drink because whoever believes in me streams of living water will flow out from within them. By this He meant the Holy Spirit whom those who would believe in Him were later to receive. This picture for the "anyone" and the "whoever", for you and for me, is for God to fill us to overflowing. When we're thirsty go to Jesus and we drink and we believe and then rivers of living water, His Spiritual blessing flows out of us. The Bible says literally: From our bellies into the world around us rivers, a flood-tide of blessing. You know near the delta of a river, when there's a flood all the wonderful silt goes out into the land and makes the land rich and fertile and things grow and they come to life. That's the picture. It's almost like we're a channel, an entry point for Gods blessing, a vessel used in His service. When I look around at the people I know it never ceases to amaze me how different we all are. A friend of mine, Bob, who's a counsellor, he sits and listens to people and empathises and helps them think through and work through their problems. I couldn't do that. Another good friend of mine, Lawrie. He's a gentle man, he has a special ministry. When Churches are going through hurts, sometimes when they go through splits or they sack their pastor or whatever went on, his ministry is to go and to be their pastor for the next few months or even the next few years and bring reconciliation and forgiveness and healing into that place. It's a really special ministry. I couldn't do that. Another friend of mine, James, he's the baby boomer social director at our Church. He's always organising for us to get together or to go away for weekends and he ushers in a sense of community. He loves doing that, he's passionate about it. That's not me either. The people I really admire, teachers. I spoke recently at a gathering of 300 high school teachers. Now those people, I reckon they deserve a medal. I mean I definitely couldn't do what they do. You know by now I could be tearing my hair out, I could be feeling really insecure. Wow, I can't do any of those things that those other people can do. What good am I? Me, I just sit in a radio studio behind a microphone. How boring is that? But you know something, when I'm doing what God made me to do it's such an incredible joy. It is your decision and my decision to draw close to Jesus and to get to know Him and to be filled by His Spirit. And when we're thirsty to go to Him for our spiritual nourishment, that's the inflow, it's an awesome thing. I was worshipping at Church recently and it was such a delight to sing praises and to bow down my life before God but if that's all I did with my faith it would get boring. You fill up and you fill up and you fill up with God and you never spend any of that and you never let any of it flow out, I think we'd explode. You know where there's as much, in a sense, an even more delight for me? When I see those rivers of living ...
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    10 m
  • The Satisfaction of Being Full // Full to Overflowing, Part 4

    The Satisfaction of Being Full // Full to Overflowing, Part 4
    Jul 10 2025
    Ever been so thirsty you think you’re going to die. And then – then you have a deep drink of fresh, cool, clear, living water. Awesome. In fact Jesus talked a lot about water. I remember when I was training to be an officer in the Australian Army. We used to go out on exercises for weeks at a time, war games and we'd be fighting this imaginary army and learning, I guess, how to fight a war. Back in those days the army was heavily into water rationing. Two water bottles per man per day perhaps. And that was for shaving, washing, cleaning your teeth, cooking and drinking. So those hot summer months with all the physically heavy work that the battle entails, it was never enough. Many a time we'd finish an attack up a steep hill in the middle of the noon days sun or be digging a trench and all I wanted to do was to guzzle down a whole bottle of water. Of course you couldn't do that and I'd close my eyes and I'd imagine that I was swimming in a nice cool river with stacks and stacks of water. When you're that thirsty what you really want is water in abundance. You want to be filled to overflowing. This week on the program we're looking at what it means to be filled by God to overflowing. Not just half full, not just three quarters full, not just full to the brim but filled so that we overflow all His goodness and all His blessings and his Spirit. When we're really thirsty we have a deep longing to drink. It is such a satisfying thing when we drink. I mean our need for water is one of the most basic of all needs. 70% of the human body is water and after oxygen water is our most important physical need. You can't go for very long without water. The body starts closing down some of it's functions and depending on your condition you can be dead in just a couple of days. Or if you're stuck in a hot car without water you can be dead in a few minutes in extreme heat. It's interesting that when Jesus was talking about His plan for our lives He uses thirst and water to explain what He means. I think it's because it's something we can really relate to. He meets a woman, a Samaritan woman, at a well and He says to her: Everyone who drinks out of this water will be thirsty again but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring of water gushing up into eternal life. See life gets thirsty and this week on the program we've been looking at what it means to be filled to overflowing 'cause that's Jesus plan. No ifs, no buts. "Oh well, that’s not my experience'". Maybe not but its Jesus promise. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water I will give them will become in them a spring of water gushing up into eternal life. I wonder sometimes whether in life we don't make things just a bit too complicated. For me, faith is a simple thing. I read what Jesus says. I hear what God has to say to me and then you say, "Well okay, if that's from God that's what I'm going to believe even if my circumstances are screaming at me saying that's never going to be possible. You're never going to have a fountain of spring water gushing up in you." And every time my feelings or the things that are going on around me scream at me, "God’s a liar, God’s a liar, God’s a liar". I'm just going to pick up that Book and go to that passage again and read what Jesus had to say again. I'm just going to believe in Him and not all these other things. Now you might say to me, 'But Berni that’s unrealistic. I've been trying to have a life of peace and joy and abundance. It seems like forever and it's just not happening for me'. Look at His promise again friend. Let's read it. John chapter 7, verse 37: If anyone (not some special people). If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me (not just the special spiritual people). Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from them. By this He meant the Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus were later to receive. There are three parts to that promise. The first one is, "if you're thirsty get a drink". When life is dry and parched and empty, if anyone is thirsty. You know what anyone means? Anyone means anyone. Come to Jesus and He will fill us full of His water. A water that when we drink it, a living water, we'll never be thirsty again. The second thing He says is, "and whoever believes in me". You see, it's a faith thing. When He says, "whoever believes in me" that word "in" means literally "into". So it says whoever believes into me. You may have heard me say this before. I can look at a chair in the distance and believe that it will hold me and I'm believing in it. But if I want to believe into the chair I walk over and I sit down in the chair and I say, "you see, the chair can hold me". I've put my faith into the chair. My trust into the chair and so Jesus says, "...
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    10 m
  • Taking Hold of the Supernatural // Full to Overflowing, Part 3

    Taking Hold of the Supernatural // Full to Overflowing, Part 3
    Jul 9 2025
    Sometimes, it’s the things that we can’t see, that can have the biggest impact on our wellbeing. Our blood pressure. Our cholesterol levels. The supernatural realm. All things we ignore – at our peril. It's true that the things we can't see are often the things that end up ruining our lives. There are no symptoms for high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels but if we have either of them, well they dramatically increase our chances of heart attack and stroke. We can't see them, we can't feel them but when they hit the impact is devastating, often fatal. There are no symptoms for glaucoma before people notice they've lost a fair chunk of their eyesight. There are no symptoms for bowel cancer or cervical cancer until it's too late. The hidden things, the things we can't see, the things we ignore, they're often the ones that take people's lives. We know that's true physically, but it's also true spiritually as much as we might try to ignore it and deny there's a spiritual dimension to life. Makes sense, God is spirit and it's what happens in the spiritual dimension that impacts what’s going on here in the physical. I spent a greater part of my life trying to ignore the spiritual dimension. But if God is God, well there must be spiritual dimension. The Apostle Paul, and to me he's really interesting this guy, he has a real insight about this. Now remember Paul is as practical as practical can be. He's not some kind of airy fairy spiritual fruitcake. He's down to earth, he wrote almost half the books of the New Testament and by and large he dealt with really practical issues of life. But have a listen to what he says about the spiritual dimension in Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 10: Finally let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armour that God gives you so that you can defend yourself against the devils tricks because we're not fighting against human beings, we're fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. So put on all the armour that God gives you then when that evil day comes you'll be able to defend yourself and when the battle is over you'll still be standing firm. You see my friend, we can see people. The weather, we can see the weather. The stock market, we can see the stock market go up and down but Paul's saying here that that's all well and good but there's a spiritual dimension that you can't see. The devil is alive and well, he's full of tricks, there is a battle going on in the heavenly places for my soul and for yours. And he says, when that battle is over you're meant to still be standing. And the things that rob us, and not so much the things we can see, the flesh and blood, tangible, physical things here in this world. It's what's happening in the spiritual world, the unseen world. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world Writes Paul. Now that's hard to come to grips with. I mean in the west almost 75% of us believe in God yet less than a third believe in the devil. Whereas you go to parts of Africa or Asia and the demonic is alive and well. Idolatry and witchcraft and devil worship are all happening there. In the west though, let me tell you, you don't have to look too far to see the devils fingerprints on all sorts of things. Albeit it's a little more subtle. It's the hidden things in that super natural dimension that can end up killing us. Jesus said, we looked at it the last couple of days, John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come (said Jesus) that you may have life in all its fullness and all its abundance. You see, what Jesus is saying is the things that happen in the super natural dimension, the thief, the devil, that's what robs us of the life that Jesus has planned. A life in all its fullness and all its abundance. So, what do we do about it? You know when I pray I pray into the super natural. Sometimes I see spiritual attacks happening to me or the people around me and I pray to God about the battles happening in the spiritual dimension. When I claim that territory, that spiritual territory in Jesus name, the devil and his demons have to flee. At the name of Jesus every knee must bow, every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. My experience is that every time I wake up in the morning and I put my feet on the deck and I step out in Jesus name to live a good life or to tell other people about Him, the forces of spiritual darkness will come against me and it's all sorts of different ways that that happens. The first time I lectured at a Bible college, in just 200 metres that I drove from my house to the traffic lights I almost had three cars run into me. People just came out of nowhere to try and crash into me. Sometimes when we're close to a break through here in our ministry, maybe we're talking to a new radio station to take our radio ...
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    10 m
  • A Blockage from on High // Full to Overflowing, Part 2

    A Blockage from on High // Full to Overflowing, Part 2
    Jul 8 2025
    Fathers are funny animals. They want the best for their kids. But when their children rebel, when they don’t play the game, that blessing dries up quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. I was listening the other day to a well known actor, Alan Alda, being interviewed by an equally well known interviewer called Michael Parkinson in the UK. Now Alan Alda, of course, became famous as the character Hawkeye Pearce in the long running TV series MASH. Alda's now over 70 years old and he was telling us how a couple of years ago he was travelling in South America and he had the most incredible pain in his stomach. They rushed him to a Doctor who detected a blockage in his intestine. Now unless the Doctor operated immediately and cut that part of his intestine out he was going to die. When it comes to life and living blockages in any part of our body are almost always deadly. In our airways, in our bowels, in our eyes, something that can send us blind. And it turns out that spiritual blockages are just the same, they're deadly. Our lives can sometimes be full of tiredness and worry and we're running out of steam and we're running out of puff and our batteries are flat. Okay, sure we have our ups and downs but sometimes our lives seem to be on this downward spiral. Day after day after day we've got this sub-optimal thing happening and that reality in life can sometimes dominate our vision. We think that that's all there is, we think that it can't get any better but that reality stands in such stark contrast, let me say, to the promises Jesus made to us, if only we'd believe in Him. Have a listen to some of those promises again today. John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all its fullness, in all its abundance. In fact, literally in it's super abundance. Matthew chapter 11: Come to me if you're weary and burdened because I will give you rest (said Jesus). Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I'm gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. John chapter 7: If any of you is thirsty come to me and drink because whoever believes in me as the scriptures have said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus were later to receive. And then just before He was handed over to be crucified, John chapter 14, verse 27 He says to His disciples: Friends, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I'm not giving the way the world does. Don't let your hearts be troubled, don't let them be afraid. Jesus promised us super abundant life. Rest for the weary, drink fullness to overflowing for the thirsty, peace for the troubled. The problem is that it doesn't always work out that way in our lives and so either Jesus is a liar or there's something else. S D Gordon, around the late 19th or early 20th century wrote a fabulous book called Quiet Talks On Power. He's one of my favourite authors and he kind works on a similar premise to what I'm working on with Jesus' promises except he looks at it from a perspective of God's power and he says, "Look, the natural life as a Jesus believer is to have God's power to accomplish the things that God calls us to do." And he tells this great story at the beginning of the book about a blockage. He talks about a mid western American town in the late 1800's. It was a dry area and it relied heavily on water from a dam up in the hills. Water after all equals life – no water, no town, no life. Now the town grew and prospered and filled with people until one day the water pipes ran dry. People went up to the reservoir up in the hills and it was full but there was just no water flowing down into the valley to the town. No water – no life. So people began to leave the town and the tumble weed was blowing through the main street and it became a veritable ghost town. Then one day they received an anonymous note, somebody had sabotaged the pipes right up near the reservoir. Someone had put a small plug into the pipe and the authorities went up there and checked it and sure enough they found it. They removed that one small blockage and the water started to flow again. Life came back, the people returned to the town because that little blockage stopping the water from flowing had been removed. A small blockage can have such a huge impact. Can I tell you? There are so many people missing out on Gods abundance because of blockages in their lives. They may only be small, they may only be tiny compromises, "Well I believe in God but not in this area of my life. Well you know, I believe in God but I don't think He'll ever fill me to overflowing", some people say. There is a simple name for that, it's called sin. I know it's not a popular word. I know these days people say, 'Oh come on Berni, sin, that is such an old fashioned concept'. Maybe it is but it only takes the smallest ...
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    10 m
  • Abundant Life // Full to Overflowing, Part 1

    Abundant Life // Full to Overflowing, Part 1
    Jul 7 2025
    Let’s face it – life can be a bit dry. A bit on the parched side. Maybe we have an inkling that it shouldn’t always be like that, but somehow that can be so hard to believe. I don't know if this has ever happened to you but sometimes we feel like we're running out of steam. You know what I mean, whatever it is we do in life, at home or at work or maybe at some community group, we give and we give and we give and little by little it saps our energy. All that giving drains us. And even if we have a bit of a holiday to recharge the old batteries somehow emotionally, even spiritually, there's still this tiredness, an emptiness, a sense that, well I'm not sure if I have a whole bunch more to give. You're a mum with a difficult teenager or a sick child and maybe juggling a job. Or you're a dad, the bread winner if you like and you've been grinding away at this job for what seems like an eternity and one day you wake up and the river has just run dry. There is just nothing left to give. It doesn't have to be a full blown burn out you know, even though that happens sometimes, there are so many people out there living, let me call it a sub-optimal life. A life that is not everything it could be or should be. People who are tired and listless. People with a sense that life is drifting or just slipping by. People who are stressed and carrying around these heavy burdens worrying about this and that. Fears a big problem you know amongst men and women and it all starts to affect your health and your sense of well being and we don't sleep well. And it seems that all we can do when we open our mouths is to whinge and complain about this or that. You'd be amazed how many people on paper have everything you could hope for. You know, a good family, a loving husband or wife, great kids, a career, a job, financial security. Yet they're living lives of stress and worry and fear. I called it sub-optimal living or you can just call it unfulfilled or you can call it stressed and tired and irritable. Call it whatever you like but it's a life where it doesn't seem to be what it's meant to be. Now I'm not talking about the different seasons we go through in life, we all know we go through seasons, we all go through ups and downs and summers and winters and bright sunny days and cold howling brutal days. I'm not so much talking about that up and down. I'm talking about this ongoing sub optimal inner life, whether or not the circumstances on the outside are good or lousy. I'm talking about having a life inside that's worth living. I was challenged the other day by a good friend of mine, Max. Now let me tell you about Max. Max works with me here in the studio. He's a silent partner in all these radio programs. He produces hundreds of programs each year with me. Max would have to be one of the most preached out guys on the planet earth. I mean he's involved in other ministries, one called Ellel Ministries, a healing ministry that does great stuff. And Max gets preached at day after day after day after day after day, bless him. Over a cup of tea and toast with honey the other day he says to me, "Berni, you know you talk as though having peace and joy in your life, 24 x 7 is a normal thing, like everybody should have that? Well ... maybe God's done some amazing things in you and fast tracked stuff so that you can be some high flying preacher but maybe it's not like that for the rest of us." That really challenged me. It really got me thinking. Is that what I believe? You see I see myself as just an average Joe Blow who gets behind a microphone and shares Jesus with people. Am I talking about something that's realistic or is it a pipe dream? Am I talking about reality? You see I spent the first 36 years of my life without God. At least I hadn't turned my life over to God. I did it all on my own or so I thought. I was competent, I was surgically ruthless as a businessman yet I had no real joy in my life. Now I met Jesus along the way when I was about 36 years old and I decided to take to heart what He said. I didn't want a religion, I was after a relationship. Not a bunch of rules, it had to be something real, something that worked. And that's why today I'm working in this ministry called Christianityworks producing these radio programs. The bottom line is, if Gods real and Jesus is who He said He is, He has to make a difference in my life and so I read about Jesus and what He said and just accept Him with simple child like faith. I think that's the key. Some of the things He had to say really struck home for me. John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief (talking about the devil) comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come, says Jesus, (get this) that you may have life in all it's fullness and abundance. In fact the word that John uses there for abundance literally means "super abundance". We just don't have a word that's an equivalent in the English language. And then again in Matthew chapter 11, verse 8. Jesus said: You who ...
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    10 m
  • When the Rubber Hits the Road // Blessed to be a Blessing, Part 5

    When the Rubber Hits the Road // Blessed to be a Blessing, Part 5
    Jul 4 2025
    It’s easy for someone to say, “You should be a blessing to other people.” But what if we’re too busy, or we just don’t have anything to bless other people with? Really – then what?!! When we talk about God’s blessing, what we discover is that it's a two sided transaction. Jesus made it really clear that when God blesses us, the whole point is that we're meant to be a blessing to other people. We are blessed to be a blessing. People sometimes ask me, "Berni, what does that mean? I mean, let’s get practical here, what does it mean for me to be a blessing to someone else?" That’s a good question. I don't know what sort of life you lead, some people lead extremely busy lives and other people lead quiet, even lonely lives sometimes. Whichever end of the spectrum we're on, the notion of us being a blessing to other people can seem, well, kind of impossible. How could that ever be? Throughout the program on the week, we've been talking about living out God’s blessing in our lives. God is a god of blessing, you can see that right at the beginning, Genesis, chapter 1, that story of the whole of creation. God created it all, he gave it to you and me, we are co-owners, joint owners in creation because God said, "Here it is, it's all yours, I bless you with it." And then, just a chapter or two later, in that book of Genesis, we see Adam and Eve. God’s given them the whole garden and blessing and they've got a relationship with God and then they do the one thing that God tells them not to do, they turn their backs on God. And as a result they usher in suffering into the world. The rejection of God, the rejection of God, has consequences but still God has a heart to bless us. We looked the other day at the prayer of Jabez, if you've missed any of these programs hop onto our website, www.adifferentperspective.org and you can listen to it again and we saw how Jabez went to God and asked God specifically for his blessing. And then Jesus puts blessing into perspective, he says it this way. He says: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. You can read that in Luke, chapter 6. For with the measure that you use it will be measured to you. You see Jesus said being blessed, and blessing other people are two sides of the one coin and if you really want to live out God’s blessing, sure go to God and ask him for his blessing and say, "Lord, bless me." And then let that blessing pour out through you to other people around you. You know when we're close to God we have so much to bless other people with. The danger is though, that we talk in concepts and theory and not in practical realities. What does all this mean? Okay, I accept that God is a god of blessing. Okay I accept that it's a two sided transaction, in from God and out through me, but how does all that work? Can I share again how it works in my life? Over the last dozen or so years I've been walking closely, but let me say imperfectly, with Jesus in my life. I make mistakes just like you do, I have good days and bad days and I'm hoping that where I am now is much closer to God and looking much more like Jesus than it was five years ago. And I've learned about God’s blessing in two ways. Firstly, through His Word the Bible and I thank God I have had some really good teachers, and secondly, by living it out in my life and seeing that it's actually how life is. What God and what Jesus talk about in the Bible, is actually how it happens and when Jesus promises something like: Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured to you. When Jesus says something like that, they're not just idle words, these are the words of God. He means this stuff and so what I'm sharing with you today is just my experience. You may have a different experience and other people will have different experiences but when it comes to God’s blessing pouring out through us, I only know one way to share that with you and that’s from life itself. The one thing that makes my world go round – everything else revolves around that – is the time I spend with God each morning. Before you tell me you're too busy to spend time with God, if you're that busy then I would suggest you don't have time not to spend with God. What happens to me is that I pray and I read God’s word and He speaks to me, sometimes He gives me impressions, sometimes there's a chapter in the Bible I'm reading and it leaps out at me and I walk away from that half hour or forty five minutes or hour with a peace and a calm delight that I can't put into words. For me it happens early in the morning because I'm a morning person and everyone else is in bed and it's a wonderful time for me. Now, okay everyone’s different, some people aren't morning people, for some it will be late at night, for ...
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  • Blessing In, Blessing Out // Blessed to be a Blessing, Part 4

    Blessing In, Blessing Out // Blessed to be a Blessing, Part 4
    Jul 3 2025
    One of the things that Jesus always managed to do – was turn everything on its head. Love your enemy, is just one of his startling sayings. And the same is true, when He talked about God’s blessing. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a man called S D Gordon. Sometime in the late 1800's or early 1900's he wrote a book called Quiet Talks on Power. In that book he uses a simple and powerful example to describe the consequences of expecting all of God’s blessings to flow into our lives without letting any of them flow out again. He uses the picture of the Dead Sea. Now the Dead Sea is that body of water where all the rivers flow in but none of them flow out and as a result it's dead. Nothing can live in it, not a thing; no fish, no plants, no birds, and the water is incredibly hard and brackish. He makes this point in his book, that if we expect all of God’s blessings to flow in and none of them to flow out then our lives become like the circumference of that Dead Sea. It's an interesting point. This week on the program we're talking about God’s blessing, getting it balanced, and a powerful understanding of exactly what God means by blessing and how it works in our lives. Now our generation is born to consume. We are consuming the planet right down into the ground, we just can't help ourselves. I know lots of people who try and buy their way to happiness. Hey I used to be one of them. God blessed me with a new car, God blessed me with a salary increase, and I’m going to believe God for more. No doubt God does those things. God’s blessed me with things that I've needed along the way and even things that were just kind of ‘icing on the cake’ kind of things because he felt like it. Now that's nice but they're not the main thing. The Bible says: The love of money is the root of all evil. I regularly speak on this subject because quite frankly our failure to get a grip on what God means by blessing is one of the greatest maladies in society today and let me say it really bluntly, even amongst God’s own people, people who say, "Yep, I believe in Jesus." If we think that God’s blessing is all about stuff flying to us and stopping there, we're missing the whole point. Over this week we've seen that God started His plan for blessing right from the beginning, right from creation. You know he created all of creation and then he created male and female, man and woman, and he gave everything to them and said, "Here, it's yours. Bless, prosper, go for it, it's all yours." But it didn't take Adam and Eve long to interrupt that blessing. They rejected God, they turned their backs on him and so now we live in a fallen world. We're living out the consequences of humanity's rejection of God. Why is there suffering? Why is there pain? Because way back then we turned our backs on God and you and I, we've done it too, in our own ways we've turned our backs on God. And yesterday we saw that for blessing really to be a blessing, for Gods blessing really to be Gods blessing, it has to flow in and out. Now I want to continue on with that a bit more today and unpack it a bit more. If you were with us yesterday you heard me read this passage from the 6th chapter of Luke: Blessed are you who are poor because yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now for you'll be satisfied. Blessed are those who are weeping now because you'll laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject you because of me. Rejoice in that day, leap for joy because great is your reward in heaven for that’s how their fathers treated the Prophets but woe to you who are rich for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you for that is how their fathers treated false disciples but I tell you, listen to me, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. You see, this is the heart of Jesus; this is the heart of God. It's not to have a whole bunch of wealthy people running around saying, "I'm wealthier than you." It's not about people having a big party and say, "Life’s good." While there's poor and hungry and starving out there. It's not about fame and fortune and recognition. We're missing the point. Particularly, let me say this, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others, we are blessed in order to be a blessing. You know something? it's like a double sided book-keeping transaction. And when you're doing book keeping (if you've ever studied book keeping) double sided entry into the book, if the two sides of the ledger don't balance, the whole thing’s out of whack. And it's a bit like that with God’s blessing. If we think it's all about God pouring his material blessing into us, even his spiritual blessing into us but us then not sharing that out, the whole thing ...
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