See God in What is Presently Happening and Translate Your Doctrine Into Practical Experience
These Psalms from 120 to 134 would be said or sung as people ascended the slopes of Jerusalem and I have subtitled the first four in the series as "Seeing God in things present", "Where to get answers", "Recognising proper goals", "Learning to wait" - and now, as I write about Psalm 124, "Translating Doctrine into Experience".
The writer of these Psalms understood what leadership was all about.
There is a developing progression here as we mature step by step.
It is never enough just to have a doctrine and a belief and a theology.
It has to become a practical experience so that we can serve the community and those around us, wherever they are.
As I write this piece, I am preparing to return to Kenya once again, where I will be serving and speaking and teaching out in the slums and back to the jungle areas too.
Doing that is never easy.
These believers had believed that Almighty God was on their side and after 70 years of Exile in Babylon they were now experiencing that the Lord God was on their side.
What they had believed was now part of their spiritual experience.
There comes that point where it is not enough just to believe in Jesus.
It is not sufficiently satisfying to have a theoretical faith in Jesus Christ.
It has to become a concrete experience.
Many people would like to have a testimony without a test.
Normally, you can tell quite quickly whether testimonies are real or just words.
We can speak about Jesus, and faith, and healing, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, easily or lightly, without having experienced certain things.
Words can come easily.
These men and women had seen God at work.
We only have to look at the detail in verses 6 and 7.
We can speak about being bold and courageous and strong, but then something can happen and we are either invisible or silent, or sometimes both.
Ezekiel was told to write down some words of the prophecy, and then God told him to eat the scroll.
What we preach or speak or testify to is significant, and then God can make us experience something of that within a few days, sometimes, even with a few hours.
The Psalmist is speaking about escaping.
We have escaped from our sins and out of that snare.
Jesus Christ came enabling us to do this, and this truth has to be translated into experience.
We have to put into practice what we believe in our hearts.
And, it is often when we look back, we can see His hand so clearly, and we can say, "Ah, that is what You were doing then!" These folks knew that if God had not been on our side, it would have been all over, because we could never have done it ourselves.
We would have been easily swallowed up by our enemies, devoured, chewed up and spat out.
Concerned leaders are able to teach this.
When you have gone through a rough patch it is then you can see what has really been happening in your circumstances, and that will deepen your level of leadership.
Sandy Shaw
The writer of these Psalms understood what leadership was all about.
There is a developing progression here as we mature step by step.
It is never enough just to have a doctrine and a belief and a theology.
It has to become a practical experience so that we can serve the community and those around us, wherever they are.
As I write this piece, I am preparing to return to Kenya once again, where I will be serving and speaking and teaching out in the slums and back to the jungle areas too.
Doing that is never easy.
These believers had believed that Almighty God was on their side and after 70 years of Exile in Babylon they were now experiencing that the Lord God was on their side.
What they had believed was now part of their spiritual experience.
There comes that point where it is not enough just to believe in Jesus.
It is not sufficiently satisfying to have a theoretical faith in Jesus Christ.
It has to become a concrete experience.
Many people would like to have a testimony without a test.
Normally, you can tell quite quickly whether testimonies are real or just words.
We can speak about Jesus, and faith, and healing, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, easily or lightly, without having experienced certain things.
Words can come easily.
These men and women had seen God at work.
We only have to look at the detail in verses 6 and 7.
We can speak about being bold and courageous and strong, but then something can happen and we are either invisible or silent, or sometimes both.
Ezekiel was told to write down some words of the prophecy, and then God told him to eat the scroll.
What we preach or speak or testify to is significant, and then God can make us experience something of that within a few days, sometimes, even with a few hours.
The Psalmist is speaking about escaping.
We have escaped from our sins and out of that snare.
Jesus Christ came enabling us to do this, and this truth has to be translated into experience.
We have to put into practice what we believe in our hearts.
And, it is often when we look back, we can see His hand so clearly, and we can say, "Ah, that is what You were doing then!" These folks knew that if God had not been on our side, it would have been all over, because we could never have done it ourselves.
We would have been easily swallowed up by our enemies, devoured, chewed up and spat out.
Concerned leaders are able to teach this.
When you have gone through a rough patch it is then you can see what has really been happening in your circumstances, and that will deepen your level of leadership.
Sandy Shaw
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