Newfrontiers Together on a Mission 2009 talks now online

For those of you who couldn’t make the Newfrontiers Leadership conference this year all the talks are online and you can get them here

Also for those who’ve been asking about the session that I did on creating a culture that sees signs and wonders on the streets you can get it here

Enjoy!

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Divine Justice

Bill Johnson spoke one time on the theme of divine justice and it made me think about this subject and do a little study.

In Exodus 22:1-5 God lays out his principle for justice against theft. Basically the thief when caught must repay five to two times the value – depending on the value. The greater the value, the greater the repayment. Bill made the point that this points to a greater reality – God’s justice against the greatest thief Satan.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I’ve been mulling over that God is a God of justice – he loves to give justice. Numerous scriptures illustrate this (Matt 12v 18-20 etc)

But the best example is Luke 18

Luke 18:1   And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Here we learn that any delay is NOT an indication of God’s lack of heart for justice – the phrase ‘will he delay long over them’ is an indication of God’s tremendous heart. He longs for justice and any delay is no indication that God is uninterested or impotent. In fact this story does not explain why there is a delay. It instead teaches us two things. One – to remind us that God is a God of justice and will bring it about. Two – that the widow’s actions of repeatedly crying out for justice are a sign of faith. Jesus was concerned that this kind of faith must remain on the earth until he returns. We are not told why but perhaps the amount of injustice or the length of the delay would cause this type of persistent faith in the goodness and justice of God to shrivel up.

THE POINT. This is what God has been speaking to me about – and it applies to every area of ministry but especially to those who minister to the poor, broken, addicted etc. It’s this – whenever we lose someone to suicide or someone who was getting free goes back into drugs or even overdoses from drugs or whatever situation we face where we have loss, instead of questioning ‘why God’ we must use our pain and anger at the situation to cry out to our FATHER OF JUSTICE that he bring about HIS DIVINE JUSTICE. “Lord, give us two people set free from drugs for this one lost. Give us five clean drug addicts for this death. Give us three cases of cancer healed for this one lost. LORD we have been stolen from by a great thief and WE YOUR CHILDREN CRY OUT FOR YOU TO BRING YOUR JUSTICE BECAUSE YOU ARE GOOD AND YOUR LOVE ENDURES FOREVER AND YOU ARE JUST AND YOU SAID YOU WILL BRING JUSTICE SPEEDILY!

We should live in this place. Stand in this gap. Cry out for this breakthrough. I believe this is how we can help turn what the enemy has planned for evil into good.

So – whatever your situation, whatever your loss, whatever has been stolen or killed or destroyed. Cry out for divine justice today.