Category: Devotions

HE IS RIDING

My God is nearer to me than sometimes I realise.

Psalm 68 tells us God is never dormant.

HE IS RIDING, v4-6 is the time of the presence of clouds.

The clouds of life are the vehicles for carrying His presence.
v5 The clouds of having no one to guide and instruct you and you feel vulnerable and unprotected.
v6 The clouds of loneliness and of feeling trapped.

But the presence of clouds is not the condition for our praise, but the confirmation of our praise.
We praise because of His name, ‘The Lord’, which is the name in Exodus 3:15 when Moses stands before the burning talking bush and hears ‘I AM’. It is hard to understand the meaning of this name. But to know that ‘I will be all that I AM in every situation’ comes close.

HE IS NEARER THAN YOU THINK.

That time of the year again! If you like me and like my blogs then have a look at this and if you like then help me!
https://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Hudson-Walks100km

HE IS RISING

My God is nearer to me than sometimes I realise.

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Psalm 10:1

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? Psalm 22:1

When God seems not to be there, He may be the nearest He has ever been.

Psalm 68 tells us God is never dormant.

HE IS RISING, v1 is the time of the presence of an enemy provoking you.
You need to pray ‘God arise in my situation’. Not ‘my’ enemies but ‘his’.
It is not what opposes ‘me’ but ‘Him’ that is important.
Some enemies are important, they need to stay. We need to know which.
For the presence of an enemy in your life can be the greatest means of GRACE ever experienced.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “You do not need anything more to deal with the enemy that I am never going to remove.”
“My unconditional love, kindness, Grace is enough.”

The presence of an enemy in your life can be the greatest means of POWER ever experienced.
2 Cor 12: 9 being too weak to remove an enemy is the time when you are the strongest.
So why do we pray God arise (Psalm 68:1)? It is because the things that should not be there are removed and what He wants there remain.
Therefore the focus of our praying is not to get the enemy out, but to get God in.
HE IS NEARER THAN YOU REALISE!

That time of the year again! If you like me and like my blogs then have a look at this and if you like then help me!
https://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Hudson-Walks100km

HE CAN CHANGE MY SITUATION

My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done.

Exodus 14

They were trapped between the sea and Pharaoh. Do you know this situation? You cannot go forward and you cannot go back. So often we try to escape.
God says ‘Move on!’.

We all know God will make a way where there is no way.
But what some don’t know is that though God opens the way for a change in your situation, you need to walk in it.
Walking through a miracle can be a frightening experience. It takes great faith.
Problems will still be in front of you and if you want to continue to see a God who can you will need to face those problems.
Many do not move forward because they think they cannot.
But that is only in your mind.
You serve a God who can.
Some will say the timing is not right.
But that is used often because we think it is too difficult or our mind says it is impossible.

What do you think cannot be done in you or your situation?

HE CAN!!!

That time of the year again! If you like me and like my blogs then have a look at this (cut and paste) and if you like then help me!
https://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Hudson-Walks100km

YES HE CAN CHANGE YOU!

My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done.

You may be the person waiting for the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-37.
This person is always left with enough life to be revived again, v30.
Your enemy would love to do the last rites over your faith. Some of you may have wept over what has been robbed from you, such has been your grief, that you have forgotten what is left.
Your joy, passion, power and boldness. Stop the pity party. Grab a hold of what is left and be what God says you can be. How?
Your miracle is not in what you lost but in what is left.
Think of creation.
Adam was a man but until the breath of God came upon him he was not living, Genesis 2:7
Potential is not enough. We need the power to reach our potential.
We need God to breathe upon us so that we can live. So that our ministry, gifts, calling, relationships can thrive and be. That they move further than being a form of what they could be.

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

A potential army but not a working one. What good is this?
v1-2 you must be willing to confess your situation, “I am bone dry!”
v4 you must again turn to God’s Word.
v5 you must hear your potential.
v7 you must be ready for some uncomfortable shaking and rattling to get you free from complacency.

But God can get you into being what you can be, v10.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8
Has the Holy Spirit blown on you?

HE CAN CHANGE ME!

HE CAN CHANGE ME

My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done.

Whenever God speaks, breathes or touches then the person or their problem is never the same again. There is an immediate change.

Whether it be for God to bring into place what is not …
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” Genesis 1:3

Or to get a demonic oppression off you …
“With the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:4

Or whether it be to change you into a person of courage …
“Saul accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched.” 1 Samuel 10:26

… God can do what sometimes you think cannot be done.
God can work a miracle in your life today.
He can bring about change in your service and situation.

HE CAN CHANGE ME
You may be the prodigal son/daughter, Luke 15: 11-32
The prodigal is someone who knew God, who worked for Him, used of Him, spoke with Him, lived closely with Him but chose to leave all that for a life away from Him.
Within that prodigal the gifts of God and God’s call for that person to become all that they can become, though now weakened, pressed down and held back is still there.
The prodigal always knows the way home. Along that path back home they will meet, ‘My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done’.
He will restore them, change them, bring them back into service, equip them and cause them to become all that they can become.

God can do this for you.

It’s not over

2 Samuel 4:4
(Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.)

I was dropped.

I didn’t fall on my feet like others do.

I was overlooked by man.

But it’s not over …

What an encouragement!

The dove

An American newspaper asked, “what in your opinion is the chief danger, social or political that confronts the coming century?”
The reply came, “In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell.”
The question came in the Salvation Army’s newspaper, War Cry. It was replied to by the founder General William Booth on the 5th January 1901.

John 1: 32-34
Have we lost what the General thought we were in danger of losing?
What has happened in some places is that the Church has continued without the dove.
To remain means not just staying but to endure and to stand against opposition.
The dove remained on Jesus.
The fact is a Church can continue whether or not the dove leaves or remains. The Christian can also.

Is the dove remaining?
(Found within a 15th century French book)
God be in my head and in my understanding
God be in my eyes and in my looking
God be in my mouth and in my speaking
God be in my heart and in my thinking
God be at my end and in my departing.

Make sure the dove remains.

Can people see the Spirit in us?

I am being reflective this morning. I have more questions than answers.
I’m thinking about the Holy Spirit.

John 1:32-34

Can people see the Spirit in us?
I recently asked someone if I could trust a certain leader in a certain country. “Oh yes, he is baptised in the Spirit and speaks in tongues” was the reply.
Is that reply meant to put my mind at rest?
Can I trust that person now?
What did the reply really mean?
How has the experience changed them?
Do they know God more?
Have they come to understand who they are?

Can people see the Spirit in us?
How do we become truly spiritual people?
Is that what we are?
If we are spiritual then why is so much centred on things? On stuff? On improvements to our life and what we want?
How can we be spiritual and superficial at the same time?
We proclaim one thing and behave another.
We search after dramatic spiritual experiences but we are apathetic to daily spiritual experiences.
That search has meant we have travelled across the globe through our TVs, books, CDs and the Internet …. The presence of God is OUT THERE.
BUT if we are baptised into the Holy Spirit then surely that is a journey of going WITHIN?
The dramatic spiritual experiences are found in the health and wealth that God brings. But it produces apathy in worship and discontentment in what we have and who we are.
Those with the least in terms of health and wealth seem to be the most joyful. They have something of heart not head.

Can people see the Spirit in us?

But still …

Judges 8:4
This is a short word to inspire you to have ‘but still’ or a ‘yet’ in your life.

(The Jordan river was the largest watercourse in Palestine. It was a psychological barrier for the people as it was a huge risk in crossing it. It spoke of a transitional move from one experience to another).

Gideon refused to be discouraged by the people of Succoth and Penuel who refused to give him and his army food.

Instead he stayed focused.

Crossing the Jordan, exhausted, in fear, maybe sickness, disturbed by many questions perhaps.
But it does not matter how you are when you cross, what matters is this: are you still in pursuit?
Are you still becoming all that you can become?

BUT STILL …

Though the fig tree does not bud, but still I will rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk 3:17

JESUS CHRIST DID NOT ENTER ….,

Hebrews 9

v11 …. a man-made tabernacle but a perfect one.
HE AVOIDED THE POLITICS OF RELIGION AND SMALL-MINDEDNESS.

v12 …. through the way where others bore the sacrifice.
HE AVOIDED THAT WHICH COST HIM NOTHING LESS THAN HIS ALL.

v24 …. a copy of the real heavenly place but he entered Heaven itself.
HE AVOIDED REPLICAS OF THE REAL THING.

v25 …. into repeated actions but a once and for all act.
HE AVOIDED REPETITIVE DUTIES BASED ON DRY RELIGION.

What are you avoiding?