It’s really handy to get such awesome nuggets of deep truth in ‘bite-sized’ pieces. Meanwhile, I have just wrapped up my ‘reflection month’ of February, the time of the year where I call my normal private devotional time to a halt and instead read over past reflections in my journal.

This is always a simply amazing process and I am bowled over ever year by just how much God has spoken into this sinner’s life. I though that it might be helpful to put what I found to be the most poignant things God revealed to me over the last 12 months into a ‘managing Monday’ style list of bullet points. (with a little editing of course.)

Some you may find amazing, some perhaps a little ho-hum, but if you are encouraged, remember 2 things. 1: I give God the credit for every one; these things only came to me in the prayerful space as I was meditating on the Scriptures. 2: This can be you too. In other words, this is what happens when we trust God that if we take the time out to pursue him intentionally in our own time, in private, he WILL meet with us.

So, here we go:

• I recognise that my heart is pre-disposed to idolatry and addiction.
• Negativity is really a lack of faith out loud.
• Encouragement is putting others first.
• Time with God is a response to his hospitality.
• We’ll never be at peace if we only ever seek God while we’re not at peace.
• You can’t trust God in one area of life and refuse to in another.
• Behaviour change is ultimately a Spiritual thing.
• What am I doing in the ‘midnight’s’ of my life? Worshipping or looking for an escape? (After reflecting on Paul and his friends in jail singing hymns at midnight)
• Faith is a fight because we want to be the hero.
• To the toxic mind, love (as biblicaly defined) looks toxic.
• The gospel asserts that in every context; before a real life, comes a real death.
• Satan also wants to blind us from our own salvation history.
• Who’s feet do I need to wash today?
• How long do we want our wilderness experience to be? 40 mins, 40 days or 40 years? The only difference? Obedience.
• Thought-through faith avoids two extremes: all trust in man’s logic on one hand and vague superstition(s) on the other.
• Real wisdom appreciates and incorporates the concept of mystery.
• Faith builds allegiance and allegiance builds faith.
• People adapt their view of God to their view of reality rather than adapting their view of reality in light of the Biblical witness of God.
• I had a mind picture: The idol of Dagon toppling before the presence of the ark; the presence of God.
• Out of fear-valley on to the rock of God-reliance.
• In the framework and thought-flow of the Gospel; resurrection is the only thing that makes sense as its pinnacle.
• Obedience is a refuge in times of confusion.
• Reflection is where Hindsight flowers into Insight that it may provide Foresight.
• There’s no excuse because there’s nothing to fear.
• Look to your front. Look to the future. Look to the risen Christ. Long long and hard at the very thing that challenges you.
• This morning I felt God say: “let me be your answer and supply.”
• Atheism and Religiosity have this in common: both reject the concept of mystery in seeking after predictability and control.
• “She is all these things because she is God’s” (In relation to Alycia.)
• We think that to know more is to be more like God, but Godliness is knowing what to do with it!
• The voice of God in my life is slowly extinguishing the lies of my enemy. The task is to be ok with the ‘slowly’ part.
• When I speak out God’s word I feel my soul lift.
• God does not need to complete his plan for our spiritual development, before he begins his plans for our ministry on his behalf.
• Careful only believing ‘heroes’. If your faith is tied to men, how can you be stable when men disagree?
• In order to win a war, you merely have to survive each battle. Grace has brought me safe thus far…
• What a blessing it is to be again struck with the truth of God’s Word.
• (In regards to Adam and Eve and the Serpent) Satan conceals himself as part of their usual environment. (An environment where none of the creature were yet considered dangerous.) What’s changed?
• You cannot perceive what you first cannot receive.
• No one who begins the journey of faith in Christ fails to receive the full fruits of faith in Christ.
• The accusation: “You’re faking it.”  My response: “No, I’m Faith-ing it.”
• What am I baptised (immersed) into now?
• God’s glory is inevitable, to the only choice is on which side of it we would be.
• The Biblical definition of victory is not a reversal/removal of circumstances, but rather a deeper relationship with God.
• August was awesome!
• Every success deletes one more future excuse.
• It’s not just that we are ‘attacked’ but that there is a ‘Demetrius the silversmith’ kicking up a riot within the flesh of each of us.
• Remember there’s maybe nothing stronger than the desire to define ourselves by what we can control.
• It’s not our job to do the ‘heavy lifting’ of transformation but to simply seek, trust and stand on God’s word.
• The way to ‘resurrect’ young people who have ‘fallen asleep’ listening to the Gospel, is to do exactly what Paul does in Acts; go down to where they are lying on the pavement and embrace them.
• If Satan can’t delete it, he’d have us forget it.
• I can’t find many times in the bible where it says experience = wisdom. There is however plenty of times where it’s humility = wisdom.
• Our problem is not that we’re unaware of God as much as we underestimate our need of him.
• The only alternative to repentance is self-deception.
• An uneasy conscience is the product of a repentance-less faith.
• Do I view the cross as something that enables me to live my life, or enables me to live God’s life for me?
• If God says to a Saul/Paul “get up,” then it’s reasonable that Satan would say “stay down.”
• Worship fixes everything.          If not the situation then our perception of it.
• As I trust God with each trembling step, my heart is being re-made.
• Before we know Christ’s resurrection, we must see our heart for what it really is….a Tomb.
• A curse of experiencing time moment by moment is that the only thing that often feels real is what was.
• The real source of misery is wanting to have life on our own terms.
• (Acts 24:24) The only thing that stops ‘Rome’ from beating Paul is the revelation of Paul’s citizenship. Our citizenship is a key point in spiritual warfare.
• The day is often an extrapolation of my quiet time.
• Anything short of resurrection is reversible. A Christian consumed by fear of turning back is a Christian that has not grasped the depth of the resurrection.
• Unmerited favour is the most useless thing in the world if it isn’t also mighty to save.
• The more you grasp after your own life, the more impossible resurrection seems.
• I resolve to glory in the cross before the eyes of men. 10 times as much again before the eyes of children.
• The Fear of the Lord, actually. That is at the core of relentlessness.
• Leadership in real time, belongs to those who do not succumb to fear.
• Faith driven obedience secures future discovery…secures future joy.
• Satan entices. God encourages.
• Wisdom > Focus > Clarity > Stability. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
• I used to see my quiet time as an accessory to life but  thru moments of darkness, God has taught me to recognise it as my lifeblood.
• Real truth must be revelation as it is seldom expected. It isn’t expected because our expectations are based on what we can already conceive.
• Satan is never more in control of people than when they believe they have it all under control.
• I’m happy to experience life as a constant drowning as long as time with God is my ‘coming up for air’. Christ is my air, necessary to life itself. The deep shift in my soul over my journey.
• All our understanding is informed by pain and sin. God’s is only informed by love and justice.
• Proverbs: conveying cosmic spiritual realities thru practical everyday examples since 400BC!
• Only God can heal because only God can fulfil.
• Real offering is giving the first fruits.
• At any time on this earth, faith allows me to say, these are the defining days of my life.
• The bible ends with a marriage not between two strangers but between two former enemies; Christ and his Church of redeemed people.
• Creation and Re-creation both begin with the thoughts of GOD.
• Relish the battle against the screaming, but dying flesh.
• When in doubt, don’t panic; get humble.
• Like man cannot serve 2 masters, neither can he live 2 lives.
• Pride and repentance are mutually exclusive. To repent in order to maintain status or position is no repentance at all.
• All the credentials in the world cannot buy a heart at peace.
• Our name is really just a container into which the sum total of our decisions are placed, hence why our name is or isn’t in the lamb’s book of life.
• In the midst of any trial, a precious gift is given; to choose worship when there may be no short term ‘benefits’.
• Beware the assumption that God can never feel 100% real and close 100% of the time. Those that discovered that this could actually indeed happen, usually found out amidst great suffering.
• What is impossible with men is possible with God.
• Being a good listener begins with the losing the need to justify myself. Ie; trusting Jesus.
• Risk being wrong in order to discover that you’re right.
• Our subjective experiences though important can be questioned by others, thus faith must rest on the unchanging and objective scriptures.
• Satan loves extremes. If he can’t portray God as a hard task master, then he’ll make him out to be a ‘Santa Clause’.
• Idolising our own plans sows anger at God.
• Faith asserts that the end of the world is (always) a new beggining for those who trust.
• The biggest lie in life: God created me in order to exclude me.
• It doesn’t matter what I receive from men, praise or condemnation. It only matters what comes from God for only that is eternal.
• Trial = opportunity for victory. Victory = Rediscovery of truth = deepening faith = fearlessness.
• To hear from God is to hear the most encouraging truth in the word: “This was not revealed to you Simon son of Jonah by men but by my father in heaven.”
• You cannot serve God and any other currency, including social currency. Love of one is hatred toward the other.
• Satan loves prayer-less action and action-less prayer.
• The name of the Lord is a fortress because it is revealed to be Imannuel; God with us.
• To resist temptation is to embrace the opportunity to deepen relationship.
• Spiritual degradation is a reality therefore spiritual renewal a necessity.
• When we say: “I’ve learned so much,” what we are really saying is “it’s made such a difference.” We may have only learnt one lesson but it has affected everything.
•  It is impossible to be truly self-aware without God as if you reject him as your reference point, you’re doomed to spend the rest of life comparing yourself to others.
• Faith is swapping the predictable but disappointing with the scary but amazing.
• To use our gifts for the glory of God results in the fulfilment of their purpose; the perception of him.
• When you’re ‘flying-high’ repent. When you’re ‘flying-low’ remember.
• Intimacy with God births appropriate intimacy in all other relationships.
• Faith: Re-memebering, Re-cognising, Re-appreciating, Re-applying and Re-cieving the love of Jesus.
• Common sense is common as it extends from the creator that made all.
• Before you have a relationship problem, you have a revelation problem.
• To realise that wisdom trumps strength is to commit to a life of prayer.
• To the unspiritual mind; what feels like rock is actually sand, but what feels like quicksand is the most solid of rocks.
• Grace produces courage, not excuses.
• We either invest in God’s promises or invest in worry.
• Impatience is the ultimate fear amplifier.
• Satan’s goal is not to merely make believers inactive but to extinguish our prayer life.
• Spiritual discipline is taking care my own ‘vineyard’ (Prov 24:30-31) The vineyard that others will eat fruit from.
• God often does his best work in times of greatest confusion.
• The fundamental reality and call of the Christian life is waiting actively.
• Patience provides room for love to grow.
• Temptation is Satan dressing up the pile of vomit to look like a banquet. Grace reveals and reminds me that as attractive as it looks, underneath it’s still vomit.
• The day I actually started to fully rely on God was the same day I realised I couldn’t simply ‘think’ my way to Jesus.
• Every time we engage in gossip, we rob ourselves of an opportunity to see God do a miracle in someone’s life.
• A culture of learning is crucial to a culture of candour, is crucial to culture of love.
• Where people refuse to be challenged to their core, gossip runs rife.
• You cannot lead people to what you are not doing.

Hope you were challenged and encouraged.

Bless ya:)