Truth is, we don’t have to stay in that place of insecurity and doubt. We can live with confidence in every arena of life regardless of how life may look right now. It comes back to our convictions in God and his Word in our lives.

I find such confidence from knowing that God has spoken into my heart specific things for the details of my life. I can live with a fresh and joyful outlook on life because I know that God is for me and not against me. I can enjoy each day knowing that God has already gone before me and made a way even if I can’t see it nor understand it all.

Confidence comes from knowing God and who you are in Him! Leonard Ravenhill once said, ‘He who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by man.’ How can man or circumstance be intimidating when we come into a deep realisation of who our Father really is.

My prayer for you is that you would know the hope to which God has called you and you would encounter the reality of who God is at the core of your being. Out of that place of revelation you can live with an abundance of humble confidence.

The Oracle!

Genesis 28:16 ‘Surely, the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. How awesome is this place.’

Too many of us are always thinking about what we lack rather than what we already possess. It’s so easy in our culture to allow lack and discontentment to rule our lives rather than thanksgiving and gratitude.

Could it be that you are right in the middle of your miracle unfolding before you but because you are so distracted by your perception of lack, you are, unfortunately, missing out?

In the bible, Jacob, son of Isaac, was on the adventure of his life but it took a dream from God to wake him up to the fact that he was in the middle of a miracle, the Promised Land.

What does God have to do in your life to wake you up to the truth that his presence is with you and that your miracle is unfolding before you? Never judge your life by circumstance alone but realise that there is more happening behind the scenes than what you can see with your natural eyes.

The Oracle!

Proverbs 14:23 ‘In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.’

Most of us have dreams for our lives, the issue is have we put in the work to see the dream realised. What separates the dreamers from the believers is the believers toil and toil and toil until they see their dreams come to reality. Faith apart from works is dead.

Talent counts for far less than the will to see the process through to completion. I’ve seen too many talented, anointed and gifted people throw away their gift because they were not willing to put in the work required to develop it to its fullest potential.

One of the challenges of ageing is you look back with regret at things you wish you had have seen through to completion. As you mature you learn that if you just had of stuck to your guns and kept turning up, you most probably would’ve realised your dream. However, it’s never too late. No matter your age or situation in life, you can do something about the dream beating in your heart.

It’s called WORK! Humans seem to do almost anything to get out of work and yet when God put Adam in the Garden in Genesis 1-2 he called him to work it and steward God’s creation. God’s called every one of us to a sphere to work in and steward for his glory and the extension of his kingdom. What’s your sphere and what are you doing within it?

Are you merely talking the talk or are you actually doing the work required to flourish in that environment? The world is filled with talkers, what we need to see is a generation of doers rise up and actually put in the hard yards. You can’t expect a harvest if you’ve never sowed any seeds. It’s time to stop talking and start working! Let your work do the talking when it really counts.

The Oracle!

Satan’s whole agenda is to steal, kill and destroy anything that resembles the life of God’s Spirit in you and at work in our world. Never has there been a more important era of human history than now to know, think and speak God’s truth about ourselves. We are bombarded daily with hundreds of mixed messages. Deciphering God’s truth can be a challenge without being intentional.

Satan is an anchor that is always pulling you back down from heading out into the adventure that God invites all of us onto. If you entertain the negative thoughts, words and opinions that weigh you down too long, it will become your new norm and limit your capacity to believe for God’s impossible to work in your world.

The challenge is if we haven’t undergone a renewed mindset then we don’t so easily distinguish between the lies of the enemy and our own thoughts. The truth of God’s Word really does set us free and we need to immerse ourselves in a daily diet of God’s truth so that we will not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Pay attention to the messages you entertain in your brain and heart on a daily basis. As you think, so you are. What negative self-limiting ideas have you allowed to preoccupy your thinking? It’s time to uproot and replace with God’s truth!

The Oracle!

Galatians 6:9 ‘Don’t grow weary in doing good, for in due season you’ll reap, if you don’t lose heart.’

I’ve been thinking a lot about this verse in recent days. The reason is I’m training to compete in the Melbourne Ironman Triathlon in 2014. It’s a gruelling multi-sport, one day event that is filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth as competitors complete a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42km marathon run just to finish you off.

Each day that I train for this event, as well as several half-Ironman races leading up to the big kahuna, I constantly have to keep coming back to this verse and remind myself to never give up. Every time I swim, bike, run, lift weights, eat healthy and focus on recovery, I have to keep the big picture in mind and remember that although I may endure pain and suffering for a moment, the end result of crossing that finish line is well worth it.

The Psalmist said it like this, ‘Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.’

The Apostle Paul in several of his letters used athletic imagery to point to spiritual principles relevant to all of us in the race of faith. Perhaps the most famous words Paul used in this context is 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. In summary Paul calls us to run the race of faith to win… Don’t run merely to finish but finish well. To do so requires focus and discipline, no matter what discouragement or temptation comes our way.

Running the race of faith requires us to get over our petty excuses and focus ourselves on seeing the race God has called us to right through to the very end. Everyone at some point thinks and feels like quitting and sadly some of us do and spend years living with the pain of regret. Don’t give into your flesh but stay the course. It will be worth it in the end, even if you’ve got to grit your teeth and push yourself through the discomfort.

God’s watching and perhaps your refusal to never give up could lead to your finest hour.

The Oracle!

Exodus 13:21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

Wow! I love this verse of scripture. Here is a beautiful picture of God leading his people through night and day seasons by going before them in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. The people weren’t left without a witness to follow and this must have been so encouraging for Moses in his leadership of what sometimes was a group of very difficult people to lead.

In our lives, we can too easily get distracted by the opinions and voices of the crowd. The crowd can have far too much influence in our lives than what God wants or intended. There will always be someone out there who thinks they know best for you and who has a wonderful plan for your life.

It’s in these moments, that you and I need a conviction that heaven has spoken and that God is going before us to make a way in both dark and light seasons of life.

What about you? Are you following the crowd or the cloud? God loves you and wants to lead you in such a significant way. Stay focused on the cloud before you.

The Oracle!

Imagine a blank A4 piece of paper folded a dozen or more times into a very small square and placed in your pocket. You carry it around with you day after day, year after year until finally you die. Imagine standing before Jesus and he has in his hand that little screwed up and folded up piece of A4 paper in his hand. Jesus then proceeds to unwrap the tiny A4 square piece of paper until it’s completely unfolded to a full piece of paper.

He looks at you in love and says to you, ‘You settled for this little square corner of life, when I called you to stretch, grow and live and contribute far more than you could have imagined.’ How do you think you might feel in that moment. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking, ‘Oh Crap’.

The pain of regret is the worst pain of all. It’s never too late to change. It’s never too late to pursue that dream. It’s never too late to say sorry or forgive or believe again. But you’ve got to make a decision to stop living on the periphery and start living in the bullseye of what God has really called you to.

The Oracle!

Thank God for his grace, favour and love but don’t think this means you don’t have to take practical responsibility for your life, health, relationships, finances and work.

We are living in a day and age where, unfortunately, some people walk around with a victim mentality, misunderstanding God’s role in their lives, blaming others for their circumstances and in a quandary as to why life isn’t working out as they expect.

Unfortunately, some believers fall prey to this mindset and their lives downward spiral to the point of spiritual paralysis. Life is always moving in one of two directions, towards God or away from God. Interrupt negative momentum in your life by thinking of yourself and life with sober judgment.

Stop making excuses as to why you can’t do something and take responsibility to change the theme of your life. God’s grace is there to empower you. His word is there to fuel your faith and His Spirit is there to sustain you across the finish line of whatever it is you are pursuing in Him.

The Oracle!

Being still is a lost art and therefore must become a spiritual discipline that we employ on a regular, if not daily basis in our lives. I’ve been a very busy person all of my adult life. Running here, heading there. Meeting this person, going to that event. Some of it was very productive, some of it was a waste of time.

In the midst of all the busyness, there is one thing I’ve never regretted and that is being still and listening to God. In fact, I would go so far as to say, my most defining moments have been directly shaped and influenced by what has happened in these God conscious moments.

Early on as a young Christian and pastors kid, I observed and embraced the benefit of a traditional ‘devotional time’ with God. However, even though I enjoyed it, it became more of a chore to be completed rather than something I longed to do. Not the healthiest place to be spiritually.

There is something missing in our lives when we just read the bible to find something to pass onto others or to make ourselves feel better about ticking it off the list. I think we should develop over time a growing passion to actually just sit and be still with God and learn from him.

He is longing to spend time with you. He is longing to tell you some special things about yourself and your life that you actually need to hear. Will you make time today just to stop and listen to his voice or will you put it off again until tomorrow. Have you discovered that tomorrow has a funny way of turning into next week, next month and next year.

Just stop and be still. The world will keep on spinning. The bills and demands will be there tomorrow but this moment with God won’t be. The only thing you’ll carry into eternity is your relationship with God or lack of. It’s not what you do that matters but what you do out of what God has put into your heart to do. How will you fully discover that if you don’t stop and be still and know that He is God?

I leave you with the eloquent oracle of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.’

The Oracle!

I’m writing this as I sit in an event that had a speaker that really struggled and turned me off very quickly.

All of us have sat through speeches at a wedding, funeral, party, church service or significant corporate event and either squirmed in our seat or been captivated by the dynamic or lack of words, ideas and images that poured forth from the individual talking.

When given an opportunity to speak publicly, in whatever capacity, we should consider it a privilege and thus take it seriously. Why? Because for a minute, 10 minutes or an hour we have an opportunity to influence people in one of the most effective ways available to us.

History has revealed to us that speaking, preaching and teaching has been the core vehicle used in every culture to transmit important and life changing information. It’s never going away, no matter how far technology advances. Why? Because someone will always need, require or desire, someone else to communicate to them important information.

If the Gospel is worth communicating, it’s worth communicating well. The letter of Romans in the New Testament exhorts those with the gift of speaking, to speak as the Oracles of God.

How do we speak as the Oracles of God?

Speak after Preparation - Impromptu speaking can work effectively if the individual is very sharp on their feet and has had years of training but 99% of the time you will need to prepare. Time fails to fully articulate all of the insights and principles needed to learn how to prepare for speaking thoroughly but a well prepared talk, speech or sermon is better than an impromptu one. Experts tell us it takes about 10,000 hours to become world class at any skill or task. The best time to start preparing for speaking is now. Read, study, record thoughts and ideas on paper and remember a sermon gets better with age, just like a good wine. Talk out your thoughts and ideas for your talks with a loved one or any passer by that will listen to you. Just talk. The key to great speaking is preparation, preparation, preparation.

Speak with Clarity - If it’s unclear in the pulpit it will be mass confusion in the pew. Work hard to keep it simple and keep it clear. Forget about being clever. People don’t remember clever, they remember clear.

Speak with Passion – Your topic could be on ‘Stamp Collecting’ but if you speak about it passionately, people will listen to you. Passion attracts an audience and people respond to passion. If you’re going to speak, please speak with passion.

Speak with Insight – We don’t need more information, we need insight that will help crack the code of people’s hearts. Insight comes from reading between the lines. Insight isn’t always obvious, it’s never on the surface, it’s hidden and you need to search it out. It requires you to think hard and it requires inspiration. Inspired thinking comes from a real, tangible relationship with Gods Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspires our thoughts and brings to our minds and hearts ideas and revelations that end up in books, sermons and human hearts. Pray for insight, study for insight and record your insights. Why? The world needs them. We’ve got enough unhelpful information. We are saturated with information. We need insight.

Speak into the Context - Speaking to an audience is never in a vacuum. Understand the context of your speaking engagement. The audience, the venue, the expectations, the outcomes and hit the target.

I really believe if you put these tips into action you will become a better speaker and maybe impact someone’s life.

The Oracle!