On a Journey

John Radcliffe preached an excellent sermon 2 Sundays ago On a Journey. In it he spoke about the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. He quoted from Derek Prince who discovered the truth of the Father Heart of God in a new way when he was advanced in years.
He wrote this in his newsletter:

 Quotations from Feb 1998 Newsletter, by Derek Prince:
“My understanding of God was revolutionized by a personal experience, in 1996.
Ruth and I had been sitting up in bed one morning praying together, as we normally
do, and became aware of a powerful force at work in my feet and lower legs, and it
moved upward, until my whole body was forcibly shaking by it.  Ruth told me later
that the skin on my face changed to a deep red, but at the same time, I was aware of
an arm stretched out toward my head seeking to press down something like a black
skull cap upon me.  For a few moments, there was a conflict between these two forces.
Now, I find it interesting that the power of darkness came from the head down, the
high place down, but the power of LIGHT came from the low place up.  For a few
moments, there was a conflict between these two forces, then the power at work in
my body prevailed, and the arm with the skull cap was forcibly taken away and vanished.  Immediately, without any process of reasoning, I knew that I could now call
God, MY FATHER.  I had used the phrase “Our Father” for more than fifty years.
Doctrinally, I was clear about this truth.  I had even preached a series of three messages on knowing God as Father, but what I received at that moment was a direct personal revelation.  Let me share with you my interpretation of this experience.
I was born in India and spent the first five years of my life there.  Twenty years later,
after I was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, I became aware of some dark shadow from India that always hung over me.  I understood that it was one of India’s gods
who followed me through life, seeking to oppress me.   There was one particular way
that this god oppressed me.  Every morning, I would awake with a dark foreboding
of something evil awaiting me.  It was never anything prescise,  just some amorphous
darkness.  This unknown evil never actually happened, but every day the foreboding
was there.
After I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, the foreboding diminished in intensity, but it
never disappeared.  I did, however discover, that if I set my mind to praise and worship, the foreboding would lift from me, yet it always came back the next morning.
The day that black skull cap was pulled away, the foreboding vanished, never to return, and from that morning, it became completely natural to now address God as
Father, or my Father.  I now have a personal relationship, not just a theological position, and I’ve been enjoying this new relationship for about two years.
Ever since I was saved, I have believed that if I continued faithful unto the Lord, I
will go to heaven when I die, but I never really thought of heaven as my home.  After
that arm with the black skull cap was taken away, however; it has now become natural to view heaven as my home.  Shortly afterwards, I said to Ruth, ‘When I die, if
you want to give me a tombstone, you can just write on it two words.     GONE
HOME’.”

Questions to ask ourselves.

How do we get truth into our heart? What experience have people in our community groups had of head knowledge becoming heart knowledge? Encourage people to share.

What is meditating on scripture, how do you do it?

What would you encourage people to read and meditate on to help grow in wonder at the Father heart of God?

Consider praying as a group for God to reveal more of His Father heart.

God sows sons

I must have read it before, but I was taken aback when I heard Julian Adams preach from Matthew 13: 36-38. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom. We don't just speak seed in the form of the gospel, but we are God's planting. 

The prophet Isaiah saw the same thing, Isaiah 61:3, those that mourn in Zion were to be given a beautiful headdress, the oil of gladness, a garment of praise, the result being that they would be called ... the planting of the Lord. 

The Apostle Paul understood that bringing the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God was intended to provoke the Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah, to jealousy; Romans 11:11.

There is to be something about us that flows out of being the beloved Sons and Daughters of God that will speak to people. 

There is a wonderful picture of how being a beloved child changes things in the clip below.

Questions it may be helpful to ask in community groups.



Many Christians find it hard to believe that God delights in them, why do you think this is?

In the Message version, Matthew 3:16-17 is translated like this: The moment Jesus cam out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit - it liked like a dove - descending on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice:"This is my son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life." Can we say this is how God feels like this about us?
It might be worth looking at Romans 8:29, 1 Corinthians 15:49, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10.
The Mirror translation translates Romans 8:21 like this: All creation knows that the glorious liberty of the sons of God sets the stage for their own release from decay.
How is God going to use you where you live and work? This would be a good thing to pray about.

The ideas in these blog were worked out in a little more detail in a sermon I preached at Bexleyheath Community Church on 13th January 2013, it can be downloaded here