I love surfing. Riding a gigantic pulse of oceanic energy is a singular experience. It manages to somehow be both thrilling and calming at the same time. There is a peace in the zone where you become part of the wave; part of something so much bigger than you. I am pretty sure God created surfing. 😉
But surfing for
me, has also become a perfect analogy for how to journey well with Christ. I have
been prompted to share this with my friends on two occasions in the past couple
days so I thought I would share it with my e-family as well.
To ride a wave you have to put out effort to catch it but after that the wave provides all of the energy for your movement. To catch the wave, you have to paddle fast enough to be in sync with it as it is breaking. It requires positioning, timing and keen observation. You have to observe where the wave is breaking and which way it is breaking and how fast it is breaking and adjust your position and paddling speed to merge your path with that of the waves’.
The Holy Spirit moves in our lives not unlike the waves in the ocean. The Sprit is ‘breaking’ at some point in our lives, meaning that She is working on something, at some particular point where our flesh needs to yield to Her Spirit. The part we play is to get in sync with where the Spirit is at work in our lives. It requires effort, but the effort is mainly to recognize where that point is and get ourselves aligned with it.
There are two
ways in which we can be out of sync.
We can be sitting in the ocean just bobbing as waves pass us by, hoping that we will be supernaturally swept along without doing anything. This is carnal living. No awareness of, response to or alignment with the Spirit. Disengaged, lazy Christianity.
We can be expending great amounts of energy paddling and paddling out of step with the wave, all in our own effort. This is religious activity; works of the flesh. A lot of action but not by the power of the Spirit.
The entirety
of my Christian walk can be summarized in me trying to get this balance right.
Too little effort versus too much effort. The right kind of effort (relational
effort to be in sync with Him) versus the wrong kind of effort (religious
effort to achieve spiritual advancement). I’ve been on both ends of the
spectrum. I’ve also tasted catching the wave and what a joy that is! That place
of being smack plumb in His will. That place of rest in His arms in the midst
of activity. That place of being at peace with your imperfections, not trying
to be anything for anybody yet convicted daily to grieve when He is grieved and
changing day by day because we feel His grief so deeply at the core of our
soul. That place where our whole motive is to stay on the wave; to stay in sync
with Him because the disconnection from Him is like death. It is death.
So, stay in
sync with the Spirit my friends!
Surf’s up! 🤙
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
As believers, we are taught to be careful of what we let into our minds, and rightly so. What we ponder has the power to influence our lives for better or for worse. However, while an attitude of vigilance or attentiveness is necessary, often what we are motivated by is just plain fear. We are afraid of being led into error by false teachers and false prophets and false doctrine… you get the idea. Our fear of the false sometimes seems to be greater than our hunger for the truth.
Fear is from the enemy. It is the tactic he uses to keep us from reaching our full potential in Christ. God has so designed His church that each part supplies something that the others need for their growth and maturity. The church when functioning properly is like a delicately balanced ecosystem where each part supplies a need and each person/assembly is in some way connected and dependant on the others. The big challenge is that for this to work, we need to be open to receiving from people that are different.
I’m talking about people from different churches or different denominations or just someone who sees God differently than we do. Most of us are possessed with a peculiar type of arrogance that leads us to believe that we have THE truth or that our church is THE best or that our denomination’s doctrinal stance is THE right one or that our interpretation of scripture is THE right interpretation. Viewed through those lenses, anything different is dangerous, false, and possibly even heretic.
This is the enemy’s playground. He has us right where he wants us; steeped in self-righteousness, viewing all ‘others’ with suspicion and judgment. “Don’t listen to him, he’s not from our church!” “Don’t read that, it’s from another denomination!” “They are new age!” “She is a liberal Christian!” Religious leaders feed this nonsense as they sling mud at each other either in a mistaken belief that they are protecting the flock or in a perverted desire to keep their congregational numbers.
I propose that no person or church has perfect theology (a highly probable proposition since no person is perfect). I further propose that every Christian and every denomination has something that we need in order to be complete in Christ. To access this treasure that God has put in earthly vessels it is prerequisite that we are open to being influenced by others who think differently to us.
I am not saying that we believe and receive anything that anyone feeds us, but I am saying that we need to be willing to listen, willing to be wrong and willing to change. Guarding ourselves from error is not accomplished by isolating ourselves from different views or placing our trust blindly in our pastor or priest to keep us on the right track. This is actually the formula for deception and cultic tendencies! At some point in every believer’s life, something erroneous is going to come from the pulpit and if the believer has not been training his/her discernment muscle, he/she will be deceived. Avoiding deception has less to do with only receiving from one human source and more to do with receiving personal guidance from the Heavenly Source.
Counterintuitively, we are kept on the path of truth by exercising our mind and spirit regularly through being led by the Spirit as we walk through life, discerning from the buffet of offerings that are displayed along our path. You will encounter pathways that lead away from Christ but you will also encounter pathways that lead to a deeper dimension of God. It could be in the form of a book, a podcast or a visit to a friend’s church. Only the Holy Spirit, the One entrusted to lead you into all truth, knows the path you ought to take.
Don’t let fear trap us in a life of stagnant immaturity where we are turned inward, protecting the little flame clutched in our hands. Instead, let Christ lead us into a life lived expansively, openly, shining our light and receiving from others until our compounded conflagration sets this world ablaze with the glory of God!
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Talking to my ex-wife is not one of my favourite things to do. Our conversations are usually about the children and invariably something is my fault and I feel like I’m being berated (although she says that’s her normal voice). The calls normally go much longer than I enjoy talking on the phone (which is already painful for me). Having said that, her concern for her children is genuine and sometimes what she says has truth to it.
For me,
listening for what God is saying through my ex-wife is a mortification of my
flesh. It almost literally hurts. However, I am convinced that these
innocuous everyday human interactions are some of the most powerful spiritual
work that we do! It is in these trenches that we build patience, humility,
long-suffering; the outworking of a love for others that transcends how we are
being treated and our selfish self-interests.
I still have a lot of flesh to crucify…. I do not always handle it well. I sometimes forget to take a breath and ask for the Helper to hold me in that moment when the flesh begins to sizzle on the altar. Often, I jump out of the flames of purification. It’s painful man!
I am convinced that we underestimate just how necessary this work, this crucifixion of our flesh, is to our intimacy with Christ. It is nothing less than spiritual worship. If we want more of Christ in us, the flesh has to die.
This is why I
am of the view that:
People who isolate themselves or their hearts from deep relationships will not grow past a certain point in their relationship with Christ. You cannot say you love a God you have not seen and you do not love the brother you have seen.
Loving the people close to you in a very specific way is more important and more difficult than loving those afar off in a more general way. It is much easier to appear nice to your church or your office than to deeply love your spouse and children.
Loving those right in front of you is deeply spiritual work. It is a spiritual imperative to remain open and vulnerable, risking hurt, victimization and betrayal for the cause of Christ, our hope of glory, being made manifest to and in those around us.
God, in His wisdom,
has ordained His glorious light to dwell in fallible human beings; the church. If
we want to love like Him, if we want to become mature enough to hold His
fullness, we must be able to reverence the Christ in the imperfect person.
I believe we have sorely neglected this spiritual discipline. There has been a great percentage of the sermons that I have listened to that is nothing more than the pastor complaining about wrongs done to him. And many leaders have isolated themselves as a reaction to this type of betrayal. There are also many church members who press the eject button, leaving their church, when they suffer betrayal and hurt. Any real long-term relationship will at some point lead to offense and hurt. It is at that point the work truly begins… Love or leave? Forgive or forget it? Pursue love or protect self?
We rob ourselves of our own growth in Christlikeness when we refuse to do the work of mortification of self in the context of our relationships. There is no resurrection without crucifixion!
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
I recently did a guest post on the Godly Chic Diaries. June (the author of Godly Chic Diaries) produces wonderfully uplifting content. She has been awarded and featured for the Top 30 Positivity Blog 2019 and top 100 Christian Women Blog 2019. So head on over and check out her blog!
Newsflash!
There are fake Christians. Yep. This is no surprise I’m sure. There are lots of
people who call themselves Christians but within that group there is a
subset that I refer to as the true disciples of Christ. So how do we
tell the sheep from the goats or the wheat from the tares? Let me introduce you
to the Acme Christian Test.
But before I
do that, sniffing out fake Christians doesn’t in itself seem very…well..Christian
so let’s change the question… How can I tell if I’m a real Christian? I’m so glad
you asked. Here’s how:
I’m going to
bring together a few concepts from the bible that hinges on this passage:
John 15:1-8
1 “I
am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch
in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine;
you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears
much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does
not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches
are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for
you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and
so prove to be my disciples.
Voila! I’m
sure you see verse 8 jumping right out at you. Jesus’ disciples bear much fruit
which is proof (evidence) that they are:
Connected to the vine (Jesus), and;
Being pruned
Let’s focus
on the fruit first. What is this fruit? For that we will turn to another
passage:
Galatians 2:22-23
22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there
is no law.
So, the first
part of the test of a real Christian is to ask yourself if you are exhibiting
the following qualities:
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control
Spend some
time on each word. Do some introspection. I find that some of them make me
wince a bit (or a lot) while others I feel I’m ok with. That last one, self-control,
always makes me cringe. Ouch. But we need to be bearing all the fruit
not just a few.
However,
bearing fruit is not enough, we also need to be pruned. The second part of the
test is to ask yourself if you have been increasing in these qualities. We
may all start at different places so a snapshot of a point in time is not
really the acid test. Let me illustrate. If I came from a really bad home
situation where all the examples around me contained very little of these qualities,
I might be quite impatient. Maybe it’s so bad that a single badly chosen word triggers
a violent response from me. On the other hand, if Jane was raised in a
wonderfully loving home it might take quite a lot to even get her to become
angry. Now, Jane and I both convert to Christianity at the same time and after
a year through the work of the Holy Spirit I’ve stopped beating up people, but
I still get angry pretty easily compared to Jane. But the comparison with each
other is irrelevant. The true comparison is with our former selves.
The true
disciple is in a constant process of transformation that leads to more and more
fruit. Jesus calls it pruning so that we bear more fruit. All true disciples (branches
that bear fruit) are pruned. So, you want to know if you are a true Christian? Look
back and examine yourself. Do you have more joy, more peace? Have you become
gentler, kinder? The moment you stop growing is the moment you were a
Christian. You see, a person living in constant contact with Christ cannot help
but be transformed. Relationship with Christ changes you at the most
fundamental level.
I have found
that these are not the questions that trouble most Christians and that
troubles me. We are caught in a quagmire of doctrine and religion. The fake
tests for fake Christians are for the fake fruits:
Church/mass attendance
Bible verses memorized
Doctrinal accuracy
Spiritual gifts
What church/denomination you belong to
Not going to parties
Political affiliation
None of these
are fruit. They are not evidence that you are being transformed by Christ. They
are not even evidence that you have any relationship with Christ. Measuring
yourself by such external attributes leads to destruction:
Matthew
7:15-23
15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are
ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are
grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So,
every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. 21 “Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many
will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And
then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.’
Every day I
have to ask myself, am I a real Christian?
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
If you are interested in accelerating your spiritual growth why not try our Spiritual Growth Foundation Course? It’s our introductory online course at it’s completely FREE!
Let me take you on a trip; a power trip. According to a study by social
psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram H. Raven in 1959, there are 5 types
of power used within organizations:
Coercive
Power: This type of power relies on threats or punishment to force compliance
against a person’s will. Use of this type of power is destructive, leading to
unhealthy and unproductive behaviours within the organization.
Reward
Power: This form of power is based on the idea that as a society we are more
inclined to do things well when we are getting something in return. The problem
with this form of power is that when the reward does not have enough perceived
value to others, the power is weakened. One of the frustrations when using
rewards is that they often need to be bigger than the last time if they are to
have the same effect.
Legitimate
Power: This type of power is based on a person’s role or position. This is a
weak form of power as it only lasts as long as the person has the title or when
they are operating in an official capacity.
Referent
Power: The leader in this form of power is often seen as a role model. This
power emanates from a person that is highly liked and people identify strongly
with them in some way. Celebrities often wield this type of power.
Expert
Power: This form of power is based on in-depth information, knowledge or
expertise. The rarer and greater the demand for the expertise, the more power
the person wields.
The challenge leaders’ face is to organize people in a coordinated
effort toward the achievement of some goal. This necessitates giving directions
and delegating tasks. Leaders must use some combination of these types of power
to achieve their objectives. What we have realized over the years is that some
forms of power are more effective than others in creating sustainably
successful results. Leaders who rely heavily on legitimate and coercive power breed
compliance at best and undermining behaviours at worst. Successful leaders rely
more on referent and expert power. While this has been well understood but
woefully under-practiced in secular circles for years, I am continually
surprised at the prevalence of unhealthy leadership paradigms and practices
within the church world.
The Christian world seems hell bent (pun intended) on subscribing to
legitimate power as THE paradigm for the church. Typical church structures are
very hierarchical with the pastor/priest at the top and unquestioning
submission to authority required right down the chain of command. I would have expected the church to have the
best leaders! I mean Jesus is the most influential and charismatic leader who
ever walked the planet! So much so, that according to a Pew Research Center
2010 survey there are approximately 2.8 billion people on the planet who claim
to still be following Him!
What I’ve come to realize, unfortunately, is that most people do not
understand the culture of the kingdom when it comes to power. THE #1 principle of
the kingdom when it comes to power is that God
is not trying to force us to comply with His will but He is wooing us like a
lover into an amazing partnership. The #2 principle is that God is determined to give His power away
to the furthest possible person and the widest possible group. If we
remembered these two principles, we would do church completely differently.
Jesus was the embodiment of this kingdom principle. Motivated by love, He
left His all-powerful mantle in heaven and came to earth for the sole purpose
of giving us power over sin, death and the devil. He allowed death to overpower
Him for 3 days so that, when He ascended back to the highest position of power
over all power, He could bring us all up there with Him! Consider that!
Consider that the omnipotent God became a frail little human and subjected
Himself to a humiliating death so that we lowly dust creatures could walk in
His power! His heart is that not one should perish but that all should have
abundant eternal life. Yet, the choice is ours; He will not put out His hand to
coerce us to follow Him.
If you spent time with Jesus and took note of what He did what, would
you see?
You would see Him training a group of 12 people who would finish the
work He started and whom He would be excited to see do greater works than Him. Do
we do that?
You would see Him teaching, healing, delivering and feeding thousands.
Caring for the physical needs and internal hearts of others. Do we do that?
You would see Him passionately and consistently confronting the leaders
who are controlling, dominating and abusing people from their religious
positions. Do we do that?
You would see Him eating meals and washing the feet of a man who He knew
would give Him up to be killed. Do we do that?
You would see Him interceding for forgiveness for a people that murdered Him unjustly. Do we do that?
How we use our power is the hallmark of our knowledge of Him. Do we know Him?
Joyfully,
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
In all Christian denominations, communion is celebrated in one form or
another. In the Catholic faith it is celebrated at every mass. In others, it may
be weekly or monthly. No matter the frequency, there is something sacred about
this practice of drinking His blood and eating His body as Christ commanded. However,
as sacred as it is, there is more. There is a mystery; a deeper communion to
which we need to surrender daily… hourly.
However, it requires letting go of the lie of separateness. If His
Spirit is in us, then we are never separate from God; always in communion with Him.
Yet why are we are always seeking to get to some state where we are one with
Him? Aren’t we the body of Christ? Yes! Somehow, spiritually, we are the very
body of Christ! Somehow, we can partake of the life of Christ. In fact, we are
called to share His entire life throughout time and space!
We share in His suffering:
Colossians
1:24
Now I
rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still
lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is
the church.
Romans 8:17a
Now if we are
children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we
share in his sufferings
We share in His death:
Romans 6:4a
We were
therefore buried with him through baptism into death
Colossians
3:3
For you
died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
We share in His resurrection:
Romans 6:5
For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united
with him in a resurrection like his.
Colossians
3:1
Since,
then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
We share in His glorification:
Romans 8:17
Now if we
are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if
indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
We will share in His second coming:
Colossians
3:4
When
Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
These are amazing truths! I do not want us to come away from these scriptures
feeling that all that they mean is that we must be like Christ or that it is
all symbolic. I believe that the life of the Christian is so united with Christ
that we reach out across time and space and partake with Him in His suffering,
death, resurrection, glorification and second coming. As we commune with the
eternal Christ now, we inherit all He ever was and who He ever will be because He
exists in eternity!
We are called to eternal communion with Christ! Right here, right now…
He is here.
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Matthew 28:20b
And behold, I am with you always, to
the end of the age.
I have often associated the state
of bliss with a feeling of euphoria or deep contentment. A blissful moment is
one where I would think, “I could just stay in this moment forever.”
Over the years, different things
have triggered this feeling for me. It’s currently carnival time in my country
and I can’t help but remember one such moment early in the morning chipping to
an infectious rhythm behind a music truck for J’ouvert. The first orange
streaks of sunrise washed over faces full of joy and bodies covered in paint
moving in unison to the music. Time slowed. The celebrations in the street
seemed a fitting compliment to the sunrise. Both seemed to overflow with a joy of just
being alive. Pure energy. Pure vibes.
Another time I remember was at the
beach with my three kids. We were just frolicking in the waves. We were all
children and the ocean was our playground. We ducked waves and dived into the
surf. We splashed each other and pinched each other’s toes pretending to be a
crab or a fish. When a particularly big wave came we all screamed in mock fear
or pretended to be Hulk and smash the wave. We were jubilant. We were alive.
For me, moments like these make
life worth living. They somehow remind me that I don’t just exist, I live. I
have always been in pursuit of a blissful life.
One online dictionary defines bliss
like this: Bliss is a state of complete
happiness or joy. Marriage is often associated with this joyous feeling: people
who are married and still in love are described as living in wedded bliss.
Another common association is heaven or paradise, as in eternal bliss.
Bliss is a state of complete joy…
That is exactly what I’m after; complete joy! Yes, I have had and continue to
have the blissful moments described above but I’m not satisfied with moments
of bliss. I want a state of bliss;
perpetual bliss if you will.
It is this quest that has led me
inexorably to Christ. In the presence of God I find pure bliss. Sometimes people
ask me incredulously why I’m not going to any parties or not having sex. I’m
guessing that they don’t understand what could be worth giving up those
blissful moments. And I totally know where they are coming from because I’ve
been there, and had I not experienced what I’ve experienced, I would still be
there. But having tasted the goodness of God… Oh my! I can’t get enough!
That’s why I have no interest in
religion. It’s just not attractive to me. It has nothing to offer me. I’m not
interested in looking righteous or avoiding some future hell. Religion is dead.
But Jesus Christ offers life and life more abundantly than we’ve ever known. It’s
like when He rose from the dead, the life force that rushed into His body
exploded in the earth, overflowing to every heart that would receive it.
Every time I think of Jesus and
reach out my heart to His, He floods my soul with peace and love and joy. He
makes even the bad days better and the times playing with my kids or dancing
and singing in worship to Him are ten times sweeter. I have found that bliss comes with doing what you were born to do. I
was born to dance, born to play, born to love and be loved but most of allI was born to worship God. I’m a Christian
hedonist pursuing eternal heavenly bliss.
Join me,
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
Some of the
most interesting Proverbs for me are the ones that start with the statement, “Three
things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:” or “Under three
things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up:” The lists of
spectacles that come next have always intrigued me. As I came across these sayings
again last week, two in particular stood out in a fresh way; “the way of a man
with a virgin” and “an unloved woman when she gets a husband”.
I wondered
what it was about these two things that the writer saw that was so wonderful
and mysterious and earth-shaking? The wonderful mystery of sex I understood
right away but I was not really getting the significance of the unloved woman getting
a husband.
Then I
reflected on my past romantic relationships and it hit me; women have a deep
desire to feel treasured; to be loved above all other women. When this need is
met a woman blossoms and it truly is beautiful. I am not by any means saying
that I was a great love-er by the way. Far from it. Perhaps I should have had
this revelation earlier in life because I believe if we men really understood
this, we would be amazed at the difference it would make in our relationships. Maybe
we would feel the earth tremble. Lol.
Similarly,
when I went back to the verse about the man with a virgin I saw that it dealt
with the deep need of men to know that they alone are the objects of their wife’s
desire. Sex is as important to men as love is to women. I wonder if more women need
to appreciate this truism?
So wives, I
encourage you, make your man feel like a stallion. Tell him and show him how
much he does it for you, regularly. It’s biblical! And husbands, I encourage
you to tell your woman you love her every day. Take the time to find out her
love language and make her feel treasured beyond compare.
OK coming back to my bible study… God had more to say. Because I thought about all those men and women who have not yet found a partner and asked, “What about the deep need of those women to feel loved and treasured God? What about those men with the unfulfilled need to be respected and admired?”
I believe His answer was this: “I am the ultimate fulfillment of all your needs. I am the love that is beyond compare and the pleasure above all ecstasies. My love for you is too wonderful for you and beyond your understanding. My love for you makes the earth tremble.” I believe there is complete wholeness in God. Maybe we will not fully experience it until the bride of Christ, the church, is united with Jesus Christ Himself… but even a taste of the love of God is beyond anything this world has to offer!
Joyfully,
Copyright 2019, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
