Author: missionspaul

As mentioned before there are clear examples of James being influenced by the words of his brother and Lord, Jesus, especially his teachings on the poor and the oppressed in society. Drawing much from the Sermon on the Mount James expands more fully and does not hold back in the challenge he brings.

We live in an unjust world. It always has been since the beginning of time. We only have to turn on the news to see it. We will do so today and it will be there again, injustice.

Times though have always been bad, and what we read here with the people James is writing to, is a similar situation. They’re living in an unjust time. Being treated unjustly.

So begins the encouragement.

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.” (James 5 v 1-6)

James is following the style of writing that Jewish culture would teach. ‘Now listen” or “Come now..” This could make us think James is speaking to the rich he is warning. But he isn’t. He is using a rhetorical device used by the OT prophets. This wasn’t James speaking in a way that would call the people to repentance so much, but rather an encouragement to God’s people, an encouragement not to fear those that threatened them. James is saying as if it were “don’t become like them, for they are on dangerous ground.” James doesn’t pull any punches which gives us an understanding of the pain that these people have caused.

There is misery coming. All will face justice. There will be a time when everyone has to face justice. The people hearing James would have been pleased to hear that. That justice will come and those persecuting will have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

He is saying misery is upon you, already what you have is wasting away. Your wealth is rotting. What you counted on you are losing. Your clothes are being eaten by moths. Your gold and silver are corroded. James is giving an imagery of what they think is all powerful is not so. Not even the gold which they think is unable to rust will last. They are not as secure as they think. Your flesh is eaten, meaning that not only their possessions but they themselves will be destroyed. They face death, and not a blessed hopeful one either.

Why? They hoarded their wealth, living in luxurious self-indulgence. Being wealthy isn’t wrong. But these were people who didn’t use their wealth for others and they have absolutely no thought of using it for God and His kingdom. And they were treating people awfully.

They have mistreated people. They became fat off other people’s efforts and they treated these people poorly. They overworked and underpaid them. They defrauded those who worked for them.

They have murdered the innocent. In the Jewish world to deprive a person of what they are due is equal to killing them. The murder is probably something to do with the framers ending up in prison because they could not pay the land-rent to their wealthy landowners because these very same people were defrauding them of their wages.

It is akin to the terrible suffering of the brick-factory workers of India and Pakistan who end up generationally held by what was at the beginning a small loan taken out by a late relative but due to the horrendous percentage interest means it will be generations before the family are freed, if ever.

God has heard the cry. God – the Lord Almighty. The real power lies with him, not with those who abuse, who mistreat, who lie and hurt. He is the all-powerful one. The Lord Almighty hears the cry of the harvester. He hears the cry of the sexually and physically abused. He hears the cry from those suffering under a terrorist regime. He hears the cry from those who are struggling due to being a financial slave to the loan-shark. He hears the cry of those who are trafficked across the world.

He hears your cry, James says.

Today, He hears our cry too. We have a God who knows what it is like to suffer, and who did not want a world of suffering for us. He meets us in suffering doesn’t abandon us.

We live in an unjust world and it can be really tough at times. But you can do this, you can thrive and flourish because it is not all that it seems. Justice will come and justice will prevail.

I learnt these strange 2 letters in my first church.
I had a lovely man who was my usher.
But after every Sunday morning I would ask him, “Are you okay to welcome people into the church tonight Harry?” His reply was “Aye, D.V.”
It is the Initials of the Latin words Deo Volente, meaning God willing. I don’t think Harry knew any other Latin! Yet these 2 letters would put me in a spin during the afternoon wondering who would be on the door if D.V. was in the negative!
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”(James 4 v 13-17)

God knows. It is used often as a blasphemous response to not knowing ourselves what will happen. But it is true. This is what James is challenging the people on.

The plans had no mention of God and yet only He knows and we certainly do not. To boast of what is going to happen is to sit where God sits, just like when James said earlier regarding our judging of others. Dr Michael Moseley (TV presenter/author) went for a walk on his holiday and never came back. We could all create a list of celebrities and people we know who just didn’t know when they got out of bed it would either be their last or that it turned out the way it did. Death is closer to life than we realise. People can suppose a lot and yet they can be wrong. I remember a colleague giving his vision talk to his church and stating they would be a 500 strong church within 2 years. The church of 12 people were very excited to hear this even though they never saw it. The church are not there now.

We are living in times of the most amazing declarations. Themes for conferences are often presumptuous boasts to actually outdo the other conference across the road. They may mention God but they may not have checked beforehand to see if He approves.

D:Ream, a Northern Irish pop group had a number one song in 1994 with the title ‘Things can only get better’. I am sure if you know the song you have started to hum the tune right now!

I love these kind of opportune songs. The start of political conferences or presidential runs there are usually these kind of upbeat visionary songs that indeed things can only get better. The above was because ‘I’ve found you’ though they are usually played to firmly suggest ‘you’ve found me’!

Every Pastor and Church are familiar with vision statements, looking ahead to see what is before us, a time to imagine the impossibility becoming possible. But we are foolish to presume anything.

God is in charge. When you make plans are they flexible?
I love how Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message,
“Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.” v15.
I do love this! I like putting the onus on the Master.
I am content to say I am doing His will and if I survive I will do some more.

Remember the rich man story from Jesus who built bigger barns?

The ground of a rich man gave him an abundant harvest and so he took life easy.

The barns of the abundantly rich man were too small, so he worked only because he wanted to live for himself.

He built bigger barns for himself..

But he was a fool.

That night his life was taken from him too easily.

This rich man actually was a poor man.

Those who have most usually appear to have the least if they are only thinking of themselves.

Those who are powerful struggle to get on the floor.

Those who have done it all don’t usually do it now.

Those who treat others harshly have lost grace for their own lives.

Live for self and there is no legacy when life is soon over.

Instead of taking life easy make life easy for someone else and you will know what it is to be truly rich.

If you know what is good and you know you can do good, then do good. If you don’t it will be taken from you.

Deo Volente!

One of the news headlines yesterday was that a man called Joey Barton, a football manager, was ordered to pay Jeremy Vine, a TV and radio presenter, £75,000 for defamatory and slanderous comments.

Can you imagine if we were ordered by some Divine court (who sees everything we have ever said) to pay fines for every slanderous defamatory words we have spoken about other people? No one would have any money would they?!

In a final section James once again doesn’t mince his words. He says that no one in the Church should speak in a harmful way about another.

“Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbour?” (James 4 v 11-12)

Why should we not slander others?

• When we begin to sit in judgment on another then we have moved away from the main focus of being a good person ourselves. We have stopped looking at how we are doing regarding the standards of living set out by God and have focused on the other and how they are not being who they should be. Read the words again. God is the only who can sit in judgment because He has given the law/the standard for life. When we slander, accuse or defame we are taking on a role we were never created to take.
• When we speak against another we put ourselves out of step with God. When we huddle together to pass on confidential information (another word for gossip) and which then destroys someone’s reputation there is someone missing in that huddle, God, He is not there.
• We forget who we are. Who are you? That is the rhetorical question and the answer is certainly not the Judge.

Tough words for all of us.

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” -Saint Augustine

I think we genuinely need more people in all spheres of society but definitely in the Church, who will stand up and say that one of the hallmarks of their life is that they are lowly in their thinking of themselves. The axis of their worldview is that they recognise the value of others above their own value. They are humble.

A consecrated heart is a humble one.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4 v 7-10)

So we are getting into practicalities. There are things we can do that takes us into humility and it is that process that becomes a journey of consecration.

James gives us a helpful list:

1. Submit and to do so voluntarily. To say, ‘Your will be done in my life.’ It is the idea of a soldier awaiting commands from his superiors. ‘Lord whatever you want for my life you can have, I lay down my own desires.’ It is to say, ‘I lay down who I am and what I am to do your will. I submit to you.’
2. Resist the devil. To resist the promptings of the god of this world that tell us to stand up for ourselves. It is only to those who have submitted to God are they then commanded to resist the devil. When we submit to God we become objects for the devil’s attention. He will do anything he can to water down our commitment, to pull us away. His darkness will even try and impersonate the light to fool us. He hates your desire for consecration. Resist and he will flee.
3. Come near to God. Something that didn’t get said in past generations and still today with the world religions. But because of Christ the promise is that He will draw near to us. Surely this coming near means prayer and worship.
4. Wash and purify. Figuratively speaking of repentance which enables us to turn away from commitments and loyalties other than that of God. Living like this James says makes us double-minded, our focus is divided.
5. Grieve, mourn and wail. James is saying don’t be self-centred, wrapped up in your own desires for an easy life, don’t be complacent but be aware of your sin before God for only then can you reach out for grace. James wants us to exchange our laughter and joy with mourning and gloom. Let us not dismiss everything of the past. Their prophets of old lived their lives speaking these words as they looked at the sin of their nation and the people of God. Our generation also needs to draw from our ancestors their approach to life especially sin.

James closes this section with a quote which has to be based on the words of Jesus who encouraged us all into a life of humility, ‘for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’

In closing I have tried to live by 4 principles:

1. Selfish exaltation leads to public humiliation.
2. Open demonstrations of humility lead to public exaltation.
3. How you treat people and how you view yourself has eternal consequence.
4. Think less of me, see less of me, speak less of me.

You know what it is like when humanly we are jealous. It so consumes us that the very person we are jealous about, the very person we loved, we now hate. It’s self-centred jealousy, because it’s about us, how we feel, how we don’t have what we want. 

The consecrated heart is free from this jealousy. Yet it also has experienced a jealousy that many don’t understand.

God has it. He is jealous.

God’s jealousy is so utterly different and utterly beautiful, it will blow you away. James knows it.

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us^[b]? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” (James 4 v 4-6)

It’s a strange concept to get our heads around; God being a jealous God. It’s actually a thought that perhaps we’d rather not think about, because it could be offensive or too confusing. Why? 

Because everywhere else in the Bible, jealousy when not referring to God is negative. We’re told not to be jealous. Jealousy leads us into wrong thoughts, wrong actions. And yet God is regarded as a jealous God and this is supposed to be seen as a good thing. 

But this is because God’s jealousy is so different to ours. There’s a bad type of jealousy and a godly type. We as humans experience a jealousy that to be honest is rather an ugly trait. It’s a jealousy that unites itself with envy.

It’s so different from godly jealousy. We see a glimpse of godly jealousy when Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11). He says to them that he is jealous over them with a godly jealousy, because he promised them to one husband, to Christ, and now they were being led astray and Paul is upset with them, angered by their behaviour, but in a good way, it’s out of such love for them, that he wants them to be completely dedicated to Christ, for their sakes. He’s jealous that they are turning from Christ. His heart is consecrated and he is operating in the jealousy from God.

It is an angered love, and it stays loving. It’s not about him. It’s about them.

Godly jealousy remains loving whereas bad jealousy kills love.

He is wanting the best for you. He is wanting intimacy, so that when you go the way of the world, the way of worldly wisdom, He is jealous, but it’s not self-centred, it’s all about you. It’s because He wants the best for you. The greek word for jealous, zelos, means burning heat. So intense is God’s love for us. It’s passionate, and cannot bear to see our hearts being drawn to other things. 

How can we respond, how can we heed what James is saying? 

How do we do this life? How do we live up to that devotion to God and not the world? Are we a lost cause? Within our desire for consecration will we ever know this?

‘But he gives more grace’ v6.

James quotes Proverbs 3:34 “He mocks proud mockers but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.”

He gives grace to those who recognise their own frailty and weaknesses.  To those who end up at the cross. 

And God says he is ‘YOUR God’. I am the Lord your God – Ex 20

There’s this intimacy here. And it’s because of this intimacy that ‘YOUR God’ went to the cross. He gave himself so that the jealousy he has over us, when we befriend the world, doesn’t lead him to destroy us or hate us or kill us, like bad jealousy would, no his jealousy takes him to the cross where he dies for the one that rejects him.

The consecrated heart knows this. It has experienced the angered love of God that stays loving.

In every walk of life to become what you want to become then you must decide first what you will stop doing. It is not about doing something new as much as not doing what you are doing now. The examples are endless: but if you are really trying to get out of debt but still carry and use your credit card and do not change your spending then you will remain in debt. If you are wanting to be healthy but are still feeding on the wrong foods then you will remain unhealthy. We have to carry around in our lives the important two words, DO NOT.

James has these two words at the forefront of his mind in this next verse:

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4 v 4)

The consecrated heart has a commitment towards God which carries a Do Not towards the world.

James says, ‘DO NOT be a friend of this world because if you do you will become an enemy of God.’

He is warning the people about the battle that is ever present. The battle of friendship with the world v friendship with the Spirit. To be honest, they were facing the same struggles as we face today. They were making the same mistakes that we make today. 

And James doesn’t mince his words, he makes it very clear how he feels. He calls them an ‘adulterous people.’ He’s saying you can’t have it both ways.  

Friendship with the world, which basically means, assessing things by human standards, or by dedicating oneself to material things, cannot be your master. It’s not meaning a contempt for the world, but James is saying you can’t let it control you, you must use the things of the world and allow it to help you serve others, not be it’s servant. 

Obviously when James says to the people they’re ‘adulterous’ he isn’t meaning literally. When we are being mastered by the world we are committing spiritual adultery because our relationship with God is likened throughout the Bible to one of a husband and his bride. 

In the OT it is Israel as the bride and in the NT we see the Christian thought of the Church as the bride. 

God’s heart breaks when we serve the things of the world, when we follow the world’s systems and wisdoms over God’s, the covenant is broken. 

The problem has always been that the people of God do not completely reject God but they compromise their walk with Him.

Is the Holy Spirit happy living in me? Is He comfortable alongside me? Is He in charge or do I use Him? How much time do I spend thinking about the Spirit in me? When I speak is He speaking? When I write my statuses on social media is He writing them? When I accuse is it Him who is accusing?

The consecrated heart carries a DO NOT in order to remain consecrated. The consecrated heart is not a friend with ego; it yearns but not through eyes filled with ambition which desire more and work hard to be noticed; it does not reach out for the poisonous fruit to become someone. The consecrated heart makes choices in what it sees; what it desires; who it walks with; how it speaks; these are big choices and in order to make them it has to decide that friendship with God is more important than friendship with the world.

When I joined Elim as a Pastor there were 2 national names, one had an amazing children’s ministry, the other was a sought after Pastor.
Yesterday I was talking to a couple who had attended the funeral sadly of the sought after Pastor. It wasn’t really a Christian funeral, in fact one of the eulogies came from a work colleague who said “when he started at work he told us he was a Pentecostal Pastor but then he became one of us” he then quoted something that he was well known for which wasn’t fitting for any Christian.
At the same funeral my friends met the amazing children’s minister that was. He was not the man that he once was. He was no longer national, nor a minister, nor working with children.

What makes man and woman move from such places in God to become shadows of who they were? What do they think about when they’ve walked away? Do they still pray? Do they rubbish their experience of God? Did they have anything to walk away from?

The consecrated heart means these questions will never be asked of us.

I was reflecting recently with another minister on an incident that took place within a Church. A woman member entered into such a fight of words with another woman that the Pastor had to open a full investigation into the matter. It took him days and weeks to sort it out. We “will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4) has been taken over by refereeing what James calls ‘fights and quarrels’. How many Pastors have cut short their prayer time and their preparation for preaching to deal with fights and quarrels? Eugene Peterson calls them ‘appalling wars and quarrels’ and he is right to do so. I don’t have to survey retired Christian leaders to know that on looking back on their ministry life they have had to spend or shall I say wasted so much of their life on sheep biting other sheep.

James is pondering why. He knows why. It is what lies behind the surface. It is the state of our hearts. It has always been and always will be about the state of our heart and whether it is consecrated. Though hidden the heart can be seen, every day, it comes to the surface and it reveals whether it is consecrated. James is sure of this.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4 v 1-4)

A consecrated heart may have unfulfilled desires but they are controlled. The causes for these wars within the Church are not what is based on who is right or wrong. There is a root hidden which is producing such bad fruit. You have heard of righteous wars. Holy wars. Jihad exists in the Church. These wars are the ones that the Holy Spirit apparently has asked us to start. James says they don’t exist. They are started by our own desires which are not controlled. They lead to killing and again we are reminded of the Sermon on the Mount and maybe James does this purposely when Jesus used killing for the condition of the heart displayed in anger (Matthew 5: 21-22). This may seem over the top by James. But he is wanting us to see the utter destruction that takes place when our hearts are not consecrated and our desires are out of control.

A consecrated heart is a praying heart. Whereas the world in its unfulfilled state grabs for its desires the consecrated heart brings its desires to God. We wait before Him with desires unfulfilled and more importantly we bring the reasons for those desires to Him also. What do want? Why do we want them? James will encourage us later in this letter to ask God. He wants us to seek God. He believes in the power of prayer. I wonder how many have not received what God wants to give because instead of asking they have entered into a battle for their rights. How sad to see such immaturity.

A consecrated heart is aligned away from self. How many prayer requests are about you? How many are about God? How many are about others? If you examined your prayer life what would the ratio be? James says prayer is not about asking selfishly for your desires in order to ‘spend what you get on your pleasures.’ Prayer is to align oneself with the will of God and we know His purpose is to love. We already know from James about the royal law of loving God and loving others. Our prayers can be wasted on ourselves and because it is so difficult at times to know whether this desire I have is righteous or not then perhaps it is better to focus more on aligning our lives with God and not getting things from Him?

I remember saying to two Christians who used to walk together but then entered into war with each other, ‘Can you please both go away and hang on the cross for a while.’ They didn’t want to do that. They would rather preach about the cross than hang on it. It didn’t end well.

A consecrated tongue comes from a consecrated heart.

So how do we know if we have a consecrated heart? It is by what flows out of our lives. What are the decisions and what are the reasons behind those decisions that we are making? And James has a list that we need to think on.

“But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3 v 14-18)

Bitter envy – This is not being jealous of other people’s lives. James is continually thinking of our relationships with God and others being very closely linked. This bitter envy or jealousy is the thought of someone else rising above you to do what you are doing, taking over from you, being used by God equal or even better than you.

Selfish ambition – The words translated refers to those who are more than ready to fight for their rights if they feel threatened by someone. They are quick to make sure their position to be weakened in any way. ‘People don’t walk over me, I’ve got my rights’. The desire to be seen, respected, to get to the top by pushing every door possible open.

Boastful – To explain away the wrongs you have committed and to even boast that the wrong committed is not as bad as the wrongs committed against you.

Denying the truth – Being out of step with the Bible and a manipulation to fit our lives is the pathway of self-deception.

But there is a divine wisdom thank God! This is how we know we have a consecrated heart.

Pure – It clears our vision to see God at work in everything we do.

Peace-loving – We don’t start the arguments or maintain them. When Divine wisdom fills our hearts then peace-loving enters which helps heal relationships rather than tear them apart.

Considerate – It is to be tolerant of people where their behaviour is perhaps different to ours.

Submissive – Being open to reason. It is the opposite of stubborn. A willingness to be persuaded. Can you give serious thought to an opinion or a plan that differs from yours without feeling threatened or getting angry?

Full of mercy and Good fruit – A compassionate attitude with actions that naturally flow from it. It is not just to feel for those who suffer but it is towards those who have brought the problems on themselves and to go towards them with mercy, this is the good fruit.

Impartial – Unwavering believers faithfully sticking to the principles in the Bible regardless of the circumstances. The person is decisive and not afraid to make those decisions based on God’s Word.

Sincere – Not hypocritical, not wearing masks or pretending to be what you’re not. You’re not deceptive but completely and simply honest.

It is quite a list. It is what flows from a consecrated heart. When the Divine wisdom impacts our hearts this is what doesn’t flow and what does flow. It may not last long and we will need many encounters of God throughout our lives to remedy this. But James says this is the evidence.

My vertical relationship with God will always be demonstrated by my horizontal relationships.

A consecrated tongue comes from a consecrated heart. That is what James has been writing and now he gives us an understanding of the state of our hearts. He uses the word ‘wisdom’ and we need to go to the source of wisdom to understand what James means.  

God is always and at all times wise. In fact there is not a moment when He is not all-wise. Wisdom sees everything not only as the whole but every intricate detail of the whole. But it is more than that. For what I have described is knowledge and wisdom is higher than that.

Through what Jesus Christ has done for us, God is taking every detail of our lives, all the circumstances with their twists and turns and is working them for His glory. This is His wisdom. Whatever the circumstance that you are in right now perhaps hard at times to understand is not too far or too difficult that God is not already working His wisdom, fashioning the you from this situation.

So as we look at the wisdom of God we understand that to be wise is to make the right decisions and to have the right attitude behind those decisions, in every detail and moment of our life.

James writes,

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” (James 3 v 13-15)

So there is a wisdom from God and a wisdom that isn’t from Him.

There is an earthly wisdom. It is horizontal and it is inward. It views everything through the filter of oneself. It is about my success, my standards, my motives, my attitudes, my methods, me, me, oh and also, me.

There is an unspiritual wisdom. It is not of the Holy Spirit. It focuses only on the soul. The 3 functions of our soul: the will, intellect and our emotions must be directed by our spirit which was created to be in direct contact with God. In the order of God’s kingdom our souls direct our bodies but our spirit (which God constantly moves upon) masters our soul. If the primary focus of my life is my soul (my will, intellect and emotions) then not only will that dominate my body but it will negatively impact my spirit (my contact with God). Jesus reversed soulish living so that it is possible to be restored to the original kingdom order.

There is a demonic wisdom. It seems hard to believe that James is actually only speaking to Christians here. Is it possible that Christians can be driven by a demonic wisdom? James says so.

So how do we know if we are consecrated? It is by what flows out of our lives. What are the decisions and what are the reasons behind those decisions that we are making. And James has a list that we need to think on. That’s for tomorrow. For today let us surrender the wisdom of our hearts and commit them to not be about me; not to be soulish; and not to be about knowledge but lifestyle for even the demons have great understanding of God.

Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

Church-goers have been singing this hymn since 1897. We sing similar ones every Sunday.

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

Read this again.

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

Why is this important?

Because it is the source of what comes out of our mouths.

Can you imagine a Church that does not grieve the Holy Spirit set in the context of how we speak to one another or about each other?

Can you imagine a Church that copies God and loves like He loved us at the cross?

Can you imagine a Church which pleases the Lord because out of our mouths flow kindness?

Can you imagine every Christian’s social media posts, texts, emails, phone calls, coffee meetings are filled with gracious words?

Can you imagine this for you?

How can our mouths boast? How can we talk about ourselves so much? How can we attribute what we say as from the Lord when it is all about us? If we were banned from ever talking about ourselves what would we say? Would the world be a quieter place if we were banned from talking negatively about anyone?

For the formation of Christ to be seen and known in our lives then it will happen through our speech and for that to happen it will be birthed in our hearts.

What would it look like if every word that came from a Christian’s mouth was not for their gain or for the demise of others but for Jesus Christ and the good of other people? We could and if we did then perhaps we would see consecration.

The central message of James is indeed this whole point. The heart.

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (James 3 v 13-16)

If God is truly moving in a Church then we will hear a different sound. What is the sound of your life?

We can hold to a sound that has embedded in our life for many years. It was born in hurt and pain and it crystallised and the words that flow now flow from that place. We need to unlock our heart. We need to change our prayers. We need to use new vocabulary. We need to search again. We need to focus on something new of the nature of God. He is a God of new things. A new day has to be a new sound that comes from a heart that is healed.

James will have much to teach us. But today surrender your heart to Him and move into a new sound for your life.