According to the Scriptures, every human being has an inherent understanding of what comfort is and learns to trust in God through comfort from a very early stage in their lives:

Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ I was cast upon You from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

Psalms 22:9-10 (NASB)

This is a creator’s touch, something He built into us. In these verses – written at a time of excruciating pain- David says that we learn to trust in the most intimate and comfortable of places and we, in our infant minds, ascribe that comfort to God.

Somehow people seem to lose that understanding through the contrary experiences of life afterwards. But that is not what God wants:

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

Isaiah 40:1

A long time after his own birth Paul speaks about the comfort that God gives him so that he can comfort others:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. ⁶ But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; ⁷ and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are partners in our sufferings, so also you are in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Comfort should be everyone’s experience who has a relationship with God. There are times He allows situations that make us feel distinctly uncomfortable. In those circumstances He wants us to know comfort from Him.

This is what many people call knowing His presence. The primary characteristic of God’s presence is comfort. This is the same comfort you felt when in the womb or on your mother’s breasts; that recognisable comfort that you inherently understand to be from God, the comfort you remember from that early time because you were created by God to remember it in that way – as from Him.

My father-in-law passed away in 2022. He was a dignified and very influential man. His life long employers called him the “Eminent Gris” of their estate and they gave him a grave in their own private family graveyard such was their regard for him. He was comforted on his deathbed by the presence of his grand daughters and daughters and passed peacefully to the other side. He was a man of peace who had that wonderful characteristic of thinking before he spoke and so guarded his own and other people’s souls:

One who guards his mouth and his tongue,
Guards his soul from troubles.

Proverbs 21:23

Those of us who are left to grieve his loss on this side of the great divide have known God’s comfort.

It is more than enough to know that comfort – God’s presence – in any situation. We learnt that when we were babies.

If you don’t know that comfort then ask yourself this question: Do I know God?

God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). He made us to know what that love feels like by creating a wonderful built in comfort which we have all known at an early stage in our lives.

If you have lost sight of that comfort and love, God wants you to find it again.

For He is our peace

who made the two one

and the middle wall of partition destroyed

the enmity

in His flesh

the law of commandments

in dogmas

He abolished

so that he might make the two

in Him

into one new man

making peace

and he reconciled the two

in one body

by God

through the cross

having put to death the enmity

in it.

And as He comes

He proclaims peace to you

to those far away

and to those who are near

because

through Him

both have a way

in one Spirit

to the Father.

Ephesians 2:14-18.

In the face of the stark historical fact of the Cross of Jesus Christ all divisions should cease.

God the almighty, the creator of heaven and earth came to earth as a dot, grew into a perfect, wonderful, lovely, righteous, holy man and then we crucified Him.

What are we fighting about that His death for us on the Cross does not reconcile? How can we, in the face of that deplorable fact lift our voices to do anything other than praise Him?

Jesus Christ the Son of God so loved that person you disagree with – and so loves you – that He endured agonies, abuse, shame, ridicule and failure to open up the way so you can enter heaven and spend it in peace with Him and your adversary.

Because of this I bow my knees

before the Father

out of Whom each family

in heaven

and upon earth

is named,

that he would give to you

according to the riches of His glory

with power

to be strengthened

through His Spirit

in the inner man

so that the Christ might dwell

through faith

in your hearts

in love

rooted and grounded

so that you might be strengthened

to grasp

with all the saints

what is the breadth and length and height and depth

to know the overthrowing-of-knowledge-love of Christ

so that you might be filled

into all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3: 14-19

Paul says elsewhere (1 Cor. 8:1-3) that if you think you know anything you are missing the point. Being convinced about anything other than the overwhelming love of God for your fellow man is going to mean you will be divisive. If, in all your dealings with others, there is not a consciousness that God knows better about whatever you are talking about than you or any other man does then you can miss what He might want to say to that person you disagree with. Whatever you think about anything, God knows better than you do what needs to be said at that time to that person. We have to let His love overthrow our opinions.

Paul’s prayer is not prayed enough by the church. If it were things might be different.

When Nora invited me to bring “a short devotion” to the meeting tonight I thought I had better know what that means.

Actually the word “short” is very inexact and to an analytical mind like mine that could mean anything. For instance, it is a short distance from here to the Moon in comparison to the distance from here to the Sun, and the distance from here to the Sun is a very short distance in comparison to the distance from here to the nearest star. So short is a relative term.

Recently, Olive and I were on a walk and I was rabbiting on about something as usual. I guess I was going on for what I might consider a short time, about 5 minutes, but at that stage that was too long for her.

So when I think about the words “a short devotion” I think about my life. Hopefully its devoted and doubtless it is short. So my life, and your lives, qualify as “short devotions”.

All this is really an elaborate excuse on my part for going on for as long as I want. I can call it short no matter how long you think it is!

Then I looked up the word “devotion” on that fount of all reliable information – the Internet. Here is a Merriam-Webster definition that suits my purposes:

“a religious exercise or practice other than the regular corporate worship of a congregation”

I want you to notice the words “other than the regular”. I think that is what you need and I think/ hope the Holy Spirit is agreeing with me in this.

So tonight I am going to get us all involved in some prophetic activations.

As an example of prophecy, here is something that an old Saint wrote over 150 years ago and which I believe he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He had Humphreystown House and this congregation, actually this evening, in mind when He inspired Charles Haddon Spurgeon to write this all that time ago. Because He can do that kind of thing. Here is the prophetic word of God to you all this evening:

“Saints are precious, and a congregation of saints is a treasure house of jewels. God is in the midst of saints, and because of this we… long to be among them. They are so full of praise that we feel at home among them ……. The sanctuary is the house of praise as well as the house of prayer. All saints praise God: they would not be saints if they did not. Their praise is sincere, suitable, seasonable and acceptable. Personal praise is sweet unto God, but congregated praise has a multiplicity of sweetnesses in it. When holy ones meet, they adore the Holy One. Saints … gather…. to sing His praise whose saints they are. A congregation of saints is heaven upon earth.”

[From C.H. Spurgeon: The Treasury of David, Commentary on Psalm 149 v. 1]

A multiplicity of sweetnesses.

But of course there is someone here who is trying to sour that sweetness – the accuser of the brethren. Someone pointed out to me recently that the accuser is not accusing us to God. God isn’t listening to him nor does He need anyone to tell Him about us.

No, the accuser is accusing us to ourselves and other saints to us as well, particularly the main speaker at the front. The devil is a liar, so no matter how clever he makes us feel about our discernment, always remember the source. The devil is expert at accusing the brethren, he shouts very loudly and he doesn’t care how he gets us thinking his way as long as he does. It is therefore very easy to find fault with people, especially other saints, and to be convinced in our own mind that we are doing God’s work of protecting His little ones when we do so – or some other such spiritual justification for our criticism.

If you work like I do in a precise engineering environment you are used to having to have everything perfect for it to work. Computer code and computers in general are usually unforgiving when it comes to mistakes.

But we are not God. Don’t listen to any accusations against me or anyone else in this room. Instead, rebuke the devil and submit to the still small voice within you. Just like on a radio, if you tune into the right station, that will completely exclude the devils mouthings.

When I was thinking about what to do tonight I realised quite quickly that there is nothing that I can teach you from the Bible. As Paul said about the Corinthians you are already full of His Word, filled with all knowledge and understanding. I think the most useful thing I can bring to you tonight is the opportunity to practice hearing and speaking God’s word to others.

²⁶ How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.  If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. ³⁰ But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. ³² And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. ³³ For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

I am going to leave out a couple of verses here for obvious reasons.

³⁹ Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. ⁴⁰ Let all things be done decently and in order.

You can ignore that last verse also since there is no way in this place of all places that you are going to start acting like the Corinthians that Paul was addressing. The bigger danger here is that you will do things so decently and in order that you will end up doing nothing at all!

The remainder of this blog contains material from McCollam, Dan. Basic Training for Prophetic Activation . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Kindle Edition.

First, you must earnestly desire to prophesy

Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1, NASB).

Don’t just embrace that this gift is for today; believe that the prophetic gift and grace is for you personally. Desire it. Dream about giving others powerful, accurate, prophetic encouragement. Some would say, “I don’t know if this gift is for me” or “I am not very prophetic.” Remember God’s dream—that every son and daughter would prophesy. God made that dream possible for you by pouring out His Spirit on all people. Do not in any way disqualify yourself. Embrace the grace that is yours through the sacrifice of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Instead, say to yourself: “I was created for this. This is my gift. This is my grace. I was made to prophesy.”

Break ties with any past negative connections with the prophetic.

Do not treat prophecies with contempt (1 Thessalonians 5:20).

Many people share that they have had a bad experience with those who have mishandled prophetic grace. Others have heard stories of believers being manipulated into marrying the wrong person, quitting a good job, or giving away their life savings through false prophetic guidance. You may have even grown up in a religious tradition that taught that these gifts were no longer for today, and anyone who practices these gifts is moving by the power of the devil. Thoughts like these, along with feelings of spiritual inadequacy, can leave us with contempt for prophecy. You need to break ties with those doubts, fears, and hurts. Mistakes have indeed been made in the Body of Christ, both through wrong practice and wrong theology. Nevertheless, it is time to forgive. It is time to heal. It is time to move on in our own God-given destiny. Don’t let the mistakes of others hold you back from being part of God’s dream. If you have had negative connections with prophecy, break them right now through repentance, forgiveness, and declarations of personal faith.

Ask for, believe, and receive the gift of prophecy.

For everyone who asks receives…(Luke 11:10).

You may ask, how do I know I will receive? Be confident in God’s Word which promises that everyone who asks will receive. Let’s expand the above verse from Luke.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (vs.10-13)

There are so many fear-of-receiving issues addressed in this passage. The first fear addressed is being afraid that you might not receive. God clearly answers this with the simple phrase, “Everyone who asks receives.”

The second fear God addresses is the fear that one could receive something evil from the devil when asking the Father for the Holy Spirit. God uses the common metaphors of the snake and the scorpion to represent the devil. He basically says that if you ask for something good from your Father in Heaven, He will not give you something from the evil one. You can be confident that when you ask for something good, God will protect that transaction. God is a certified secure site for heavenly transactions.

Finally, God addresses the fear that you have not been good enough to receive or that you don’t deserve this blessing. God’s gifts to us are based upon His goodness, not ours. God is a good Father who knows how to give good things to His children.

If you have never asked God for the gift of prophecy, then do so right now. Ask with confidence knowing that you will receive a good thing from a good Father. Begin to receive His gift to you by faith. You are receiving God’s grace to operate in a certain aspect of God’s divine character, power, and nature. Be assured in your heart that something very real and powerful is happening regardless of what you do or do not feel.

Act upon the gift and grace you have received.

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you (1 Timothy 4:14).

Fan into flame the gift…(2 Timothy 1:6).

Many people wait for some irresistible urge to use their spiritual gifts. God is not looking for robotic followers who have no choice but to obey the commands given. God has always been looking for family, friends, and partners. The supernatural is always God’s “super” and your “natural.”

McCollam, Dan. Basic Training for Prophetic Activation . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Kindle Edition.

As we do some prophetic activations tonight remember the following:

• The ABC of prophecy is “Always Be enCouraging”.
• Be brief.
• Be kind
• Be humble
• Be bold.

Activations

Prophetic Name

The first activation is going to be based on people’s names. I want everyone to break up into groups of 2-3. Prophesy something to someone else in the group that is based on their name. This can be something based on

• the meaning of their name, e.g. Naomi, beautiful
• a famous person with the same name e.g. Michael Jordan or
• some word that sounds like their name, e.g. Stan and Stand.

Try not to over think it. Remember God wants to bless the other person and you have the Holy Spirit in you. Quite often the first thought that you have is the right one.

Ok, do you want to do another exercise?

Favourite Bible Character

Each of you choose a favourite bible character, someone you admire in character and actions.

Now, introduce yourselves to the others in the group by the name of your favourite bible character.

Others should now prophesy over you based on that character. Look for prophetic insights as to why they relate to that character.

Assigned Identities

Ok, now I want you to get into pairs with people from different groups.

Each person should assign a new identity to the their partner by changing his /her name.

Prophesy over your partner why you would give them that particular name and describe its prophetic significance.

Someone I love had some good questions recently:

1. Life’s not free, why do Christians say it is free when it is not? You have to work to live.

I answered by saying that this life is not free in the sense she meant but that eternal life is free. If she died tomorrow morning or in the next few minutes she would go straight to heaven because Jesus died for her sins, past, present and future.

2. Ok, so why is it wrong for a Christian to commit suicide since we go straight to heaven when we die?

The point is valid. Christians are not afraid of death and, as Paul says in Philippians 1:23, to depart and be with Christ is far better than continuing to live in this life.

One of the reasons for not committing suicide could be that it would be painful but that’s not a strong argument, there are probably painless ways to go.

Another better reason why Christians (or indeed anyone else) should not commit suicide is because everyone lives in community. If you commit suicide someone else left behind will suffer loss. Potentially, though, that doesn’t apply to everyone (the very old for example, or those without friends and relatives). Either way anyone contemplating a quick exit from this earth would do well to consider the impact on those nearest and dearest to them.

However, as Christians, there are valid reasons to rejoice when someone, young or old, departs to be with Christ which is far better than living out your years here, especially if they are martyrs. The church has a long and glorious history celebrating those who were cut off in the prime of life or even as young people who died on the mission field or as a result of persecution. Many Christians celebrate the short life of Jim Elliott for example. In the nineteenth century many missionaries from Europe left for Africa in almost complete certainty of losing their lives very quickly to disease, wild animals or antagonistic natives. These days you could volunteer to bring the gospel to Afghanistan or other places in the Middle East and run a real risk of not returning. If you die that way then it is glorious normally. Certainly many of our brothers and sisters in many parts of Asia run the same risks and gain the same glory on a regular basis. Not being afraid of death and being prepared to die for the sake of the Gospel is a clear Christian prerogative (e.g. Rev. 12:11).

3. So why did God create the earth then?

My friend is a deep thinker. This question naturally falls out of the previous ones. If a short cut to heaven is the best approach to life then why is the daily toil and general tedium of life entertained by so many Christians?

I started by referring to a scene in Bruce Almighty. In the film, God (played by Morgan Freeman) gives Bruce (played by Jim Carrey) His job for a while. Bruce’s main concern is to win the love of Grace (played by Jennifer Aniston). At a pivotal moment in the film Bruce asks God why he can’t get her to love him without violating her free will? God replies, “If you find the answer to that question, let me know.”

God wants us to love Him. But there is simply no way to do that without them choosing to love freely. It makes no sense to say to someone “I love you” if you have no choice. So we are given lots of choices, starting with Adam and the forbidden fruit, and going right through to the many and various temptations to love money and the things it can buy today.

Life is a series of tests and choices. God wants us to choose life, love and truth, i.e. Him. The more we make the right choices in life, the more we fall in love with Him. If we love Him we will obey Him. If we obey Him we will be happy and fulfilled whether we live or die.

In Philippians 3:10-11, Paul also gave another good reason for continuing to live in this life in the same letter in which he says it is better to depart and be with Christ: to somehow to attain to the resurrection (out) from (among) the dead, i.e. the first resurrection (see Rev. 20). I deal with this idea in other blogs on overcomers.

We ended by praying Paul’s prayer from Colossians 1:9,10 “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way”

The answer is always to fall in love with God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then, out of that overflow, to love your neighbour as yourself.

The step from this world to the next is a transition from a place of limitation to a place of excessive freedom. It is from a place where weariness and pain are part and parcel of people’s lives to a place where such things are unknown.

The transition can be sudden or drawn out: In the context of eternity any amount of time is trivial though it may not seem so at the time.

If I draw a line representing my life to date and what is left to come, it disappears as soon as I add the infinite line that is called eternity to it.

So many people are concerned with this life and what may come in the “end times”. They spend hours, days, weeks and months of their lives trying to work it all out. People can get so concerned about their eschatology. But if your mind is on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father you won’t be so worried about your eschatology.

What is your life if not just a vapour, here one minute gone the next? How much better to be filled with joy for these fleeting moments, to place our hope fully on the grace to be given to us when Jesus is revealed, when we who are hidden in Him will be revealed with Him?

To transition well from this life to the next is better than to spend your time afraid of things that may never happen in this life. Many people have been predicting dire events and tragedies to come while comfortably enjoying food fit for kings in dwelling places which are better equipped than the most sumptuous palaces of even 100 years ago. Peace and security reigns in their societies where they walk the streets and countryside protected by the rule of law with the only real causes for fear being those they have invented within themselves.

And instead of being grateful for the blessings they experience every day they worry and cause others to worry about things that have not yet happened.

What if there are terrible things yet to come? How would worrying or trying to predict them help in any way? Surely, if they are so terrible then there is nothing you can do anyway? Would you not receive the grace required at the time you need it?

What did the early Christians do when faced with persecution, loss of life and property? What did those involved in the reformation do when faced with unimaginable tortures, disgrace and loss just because they didn’t wouldn’t pay the pope his “Peter’s pence”? What do our brothers in China, Myanamar, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and many other parts of the world do today?

I can’t remember any of them trying to encourage their brothers and sisters by saying “its going to get worse!”

If you call yourself a Christian and are on social media promoting negative conspiracy theories about dire events to come (or even those you believe are happening now). Stop. Please. You are not helping anyone. No amount of self promotion about intercession, knowing the times and spiritual warfare justifies it. We are not impressed by your knowledge and interpretation of the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures, events in Israel or your insights into the “woke” liberal left.

There are more important questions that need to be answered than those. How is your relationship with your wife and children? Are you in submission to your brothers and sisters in Christ in a healthy church (not just an echo chamber you have joined yourself to)? Are the fruits of the Spirit increasing in your life? Love? Joy? Peace? Patience?

Will you transition well? What is Jesus going to say to you when you meet Him? Well done good and faithful servant or depart from Me I never knew you? Or will there be a cloud of gentle, humble believers standing with Him that you can’t see because of the brightness of the glory surrounding them? A glory you missed out on because your mind was on earthly things?

Keep your mind on things above not on earthly things (Col. 3:2).