This spirit is not new. It is beyond time and space and it is everywhere in the world – we saw it screaming obscenities at the Sydney Opera House last week. It has been seen all throughout human history in ancient and modern times. Hamas is but one of the major manifestations of this principality. It is demonic.

Why? That is THE question! Why is the prince of the kingdom of Persia so fanatically determined to kill Jews?

Last week’s attack on Israel from the terrorist group, Hamas, has triggered a fresh outbreak of end times speculation. This seems to happen every time there is a serious clash in the Middle East involving Israel. That’s understandable, I guess, but this latest conflict is major and has triggered even more heightened speculation than usual. Some “commentators” reckon this could be “it”.

As I shared breakfast this morning and engaged in conversation with Ps Tony our talk ranged across many different themes. Prominent in all this was the eruption of violence in the middle east, and the upheavals and unrest all around the world including in our own land of Oz with The Voice tensions running high, and so on. And a feeling of…

There are other manifestations from the “second heaven” we see on the earth, too. These are bad. They’re inspired by demonic powers and principalities unseen by us…

A group of faith leaders were able to prayerfully make a difference back in 2000. Thousands of Christians and pastors can make a difference today – while we have today. But we all have to act.…

Baptism is no mere ritual, it is an “enactment” by faith of the believer, of an eternal redemptive truth, in such a way that our former life is gone – God designates it as dead. He sees us differently now. The old me is dead. The new me is…

Jesus was talking about the same thing as the psalmist had realised – one human soul is worth far more than the whole universe. God’s scale of values. There is a very different scale of values in God’s economy of things. In that scale of values we human beings are…

And this deeply grieves me – to see our nation so now divided. And worse, if the proposed change comes into being, is to have our constitution – which is for all Australians – forever divided also. The division would be enshrined in law that no parliament can change.

There is very good reason for God’s apparent slowness, I think. I would rather have this slowness guided and held by God’s faithfulness, than the swiftness of my ignorance of how things really work. Imagine that carnage?

The fourth year is the same, too. Apparently, nothing is happening despite all the watering and fertilising going on. Then towards the end of the fifth season green shoots suddenly break through the surface of the earth and begin to rapidly grow - sometimes as much as a metre in a single day…

There is something gentle and precious, and enduring and delightful about walking with God. We keep pace with God, and He with us …

But demons do not die. Yes, their time will come – Jesus, Himself, will deal with them. For now the church must be strong, righteous and courageous in intercession and prophetic declaration against all demonic influences without fear or favour. Through the work of the priests of God – the church – who must stand against demons and evil practices in their day, The Restrainer (Holy Spirit) works to ensure…

This is serious business. Now, I am not suggesting here that every Christian has to follow this ancient Israelite consecration process. That ancient ritual was for Moses to apply to the priests back in the day. The same process doesn’t apply today – but the same principle still does…

And flowing from all that angst is an ever-growing stream of frustration, stress and anger. Each day more encroachment is fuel for that fire. All kinds of “forced errors” are being made by people who would never otherwise contemplate such behaviour or choices. In some of these scenarios irreparable damage is being done to souls and relationships – our nation. What do the people of God do in such a world…

See what exactly? All Josh can see it a well-fortified city with massive walls and towers, all locked up tight, apparently impregnable, and God says, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands …”. Let’s really understand this….

I am deeply concerned that the proposed legislation will be weaponised by postmodern wokeists , educationists and social engineers who will scream loudly against Christian views on a whole range of issues. Church websites, social media pages and so on are clearly being targeted here. Why do I think this? I simply observe the current behaviour of…

Well, I’m not talking about pleasant distractions here. No, I am a bit cheesed off with the torrent of useless distractions that come our way each day and which cause us to lose focus, waste time and resources, and which keep us behind schedule and far from reaching our goals.

Out there in the world everyone is busy creating their own reality in which to live. Well, that’s what people think they’re doing a lot of the time, whether consciously or unconsciously … We build our little worlds and live in them comfortably. This is reality, so we think. But then a life storm hits us and the little world we have created collapses and, suddenly, a bigger, much more real reality imposes itself on us, if I can phrase it is clumsily as that …

When Jesus makes claim to the areas of our lives we have not yet surrendered to Him, it is because at that very place we are incredibly vulnerable to a worsening of our condition, and eventually demonic bondage. Right there we can plead with Jesus to away, or we can plead with Him in genuine repentance to set us free.

A lot of apocalyptic narrative and prophecy in Scripture is difficult to understand. Descriptions of things seen in prophetic visions by the likes of Daniel, Ezekiel and the Apostle John are so fantastic and overawing that they defy proper and precise description. But one of the things I have come to learn…