“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27 NIV)

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16-18 NIV)

As we are planted in love we are also planted in the Father’s comfort. Comfort should become the mattress of our lives, the resting place of his love becoming the source and root of who we are. When comfort is the foundation of our hearts love will be dominant in these times of change. 
 
As we read in Hebrews a few weeks ago, it will be the things that are made which will be removed through the shaking. Man made structures or responses will not stand as they do not have a firm foundation. The foundation for our lives is the Father’s love and therefore anything not built on that will be shaken and if it has no roots it will be removed. The stronger and deeper our roots go into love the less likely things will be uprooted and shaken out of our lives. 
 
The kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of love. It is not a kingdom of fear. When we live in fear we deny the power of love working in our lives and therefore we have a root system which is not secure. Fear will always lead us to look at the negatives, the what-ifs and the maybes. As we live in love so fear is driven out; the two can not exist side by side. When love comes, fear goes. If we build our lives on fear it is like the house built on sand and when the storms come (as they will) there are no foundations to hold the building up. When we build in love and on love we are the like house built on rock. The storms may come and lash against us but we are held by foundations that go down into the strongest force in the universe – the Father’s love. 
 
The kingdom of love can not be shaken. When change comes we live in an unshakeable kingdom if we are rooted and grounded in love. Living in love will produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are the natural and automatic by products of a life lived in love. No law will rise up against these as they are not the product of a life lived satisfying the law but a life lived in love where the Father’s own spirit within us becomes our motivating force. 

The full article can be downloaded here: http://www.afathertoyou.com/articles

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. (Psalm 27:1,4-5 NIV)

In times of change it is the force of that change that rocks the foundation of our life. The Father may not cause the change but he uses it to let the chaff be blown away. He uses it to draw out the gold in our lives and let the wood, hay and stubble be consumed. He uses it to leave us more pure and holy than before the season started. He uses it to take us deeper into him. He uses it to ensure that our lives are able to bear abundant and lasting fruit. He strips more of us away in order that more of him may be revealed. 
 
A time of change is an opportunity to re-evaluate our core values. What are the things that matter? What are the things he has given us to do? 
 
All too often as time passes we add things to our core values, maybe good ideas, maybe a slight deviation from the good works he has given us to do, maybe a broader path rather than the narrow one he first gave us. A time of shaking is an opportunity for those things to fall away so once again we live in the purity of the revelation he has given to us. To centre ourselves on him. 

The full article can be downloaded here: http://www.afathertoyou.com/articles

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.

He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” (Luke 5:36-39 NIV)

Whenever there is a move of God the old or the established is always threatened and the wine skin needs to change. Normally we ask ourselves the question “what should the wineskin be like” and this invariably leads us to create a structure. Instead we should ask ourselves the question “what is the new wine”. I believe we are in a day of the Father pouring his love into his children’s hearts so we know who he is and who we are. This is the revelation we have been entrusted with. The new wine is his love poured into our hearts. 
 
I do not believe this is purely for a season. We have had many moves of the Spirit, even in our lifetimes, and each one has waned with the church falling back into denominationalism and settling back into a religious form of duty and service. We have been refreshed for a season but the life has drained away as we have not had a container in which to hold it. 
 
What we are experiencing now, as the Father is revealed, is a completion and fulfilment of the Trinity working together as one in the life of the church. As Father is revealed so we become sons and daughters and so the true church is built. The foundation of this has to be love; firstly us being filled with his love and secondly us letting that love flow to a broken, hurting and wounded world. 
 
He longs for purity and holiness. Our post-modern view of Christianity does not like these words as they are taken out of context and portrayed as legalism. Purity and holiness are not legalism but they are the heart response of someone who values relationship. They are the response of a heart so filled with love that there is no desire to walk in a way which is ultimately in the opposite direction to where Father is leading. When we respond to love there will be nothing in our hearts that wants to walk any other way than that the Father is leading us in. 

The full article can be downloaded here: http://www.afathertoyou.com/articles

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26-29 NIV)

A time of change is often a season when things are shaken. This is not necessarily bad for us as it sorts out the wheat from the chaff, the God-made from the man-made, relationship from religion and the eternal from the temporary. 
 
John the Baptist describes Jesus as coming to gather the wheat into the barn and to burn the resultant chaff (Matthew 3:12). This is a separation of what is holy, real and genuine from what is pretence or false. It is the challenge of religion and the emergence of a family. John’s coming (and therefore that of Jesus) needs to be set in the context of Malachi 4 and Joel 2 which is the revelation of sons and daughters. It is the replacement of religion with relationship and the revelation of God’s eternal heart to show himself as Father. 
 
In this context change should not threaten us if we are living in the spirit of sonship. We are gathered into that safe place and held ‘in Christ’, we are at home in the Father.

The full article can be downloaded here: http://www.afathertoyou.com/articles

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.