The top 12 things I have learned from God the hard way.

It's rare that you'll find me so blatently speaking about God. I realise that most of the people I know couldn't care less about God or Christianity or Church but just for this one blog I thought I might make an effort to be a little bit less poetic and a little more straight.

These are a list of 12 things that God has taught me over the past seven years. They are personal revelations therefore they mean a lot to me and will probably not mean as much to you until God personally walks you through them. Enjoy.

1. Don't snatch. If God didn't give it to you, it's not yours to take... he will take it back. Just know that he has so many incredible things to give you (or perhaps that one amazing thing). You have to know though that sometimes you won't get them until the day you need them.

2. In our comfortable, self-serving lifestyle, it is often only the death around us (not the life) that forces us to realise and recognise our need for God.

3. You only get one lifespan, one moment in your entire existance to both recognise the beauty that is our creator and to begin a relationship with him. Make it count.

4. Think! Think for yourself. Reflect. Think about love and freedom and life. Let your mind twist through the God-borne complexity that is mercy & grace, liberty & salvation. Seek his answers and unearth his solutions. This kind of thinking is beautiful worship to God.

5. Jesus died not only for your salvation but also for liberation. The freedom he offers us is not only for after our death but also for today. Just know that liberation may not come wrapped in the packaging you were expecting.

6. Even though he is merciful & graceful, God still hates our sin. Overcoming sin however has less to do with self-discipline (although it plays a major part) and more to do with the building of a relationship with the Holy Spirit (being 'In Christ'). It is possible to be so influenced and inspired by the Holy Spirit that not only do you not feel the need to sin but you feel overwhelmingly passionate about doing only good (The fruits of the spirit).

7. The Bible talks about dying to your old life, or pouring your life out like a drink offering. This will seem incredibly hard and depressing until you realise that once you have given up that life, he replaces it with new life. This is often described as being comparitive to a prisoner being set free.

8. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are the kinds of things that God will develop inside of his people. It just happens, you can't force it or learn it from a text book. He will develop these things in you in his timing. These are the things that result from having the Holy Spirit in you, influencing you.

9. You have to be satisfied that God is the one who judges those who destroy the lives of others, the unjust and sinning people. God will always have the final say.

10. Sin is enslavement in disguise. True liberation begins in hearts that know they need to be right with God.

11. Mustards seeds are really really tiny but in time they grow, shooting roots, pushing up through the dirt becoming healthy plants, they then bloom flowers and drop seeds.

12. In the eyes of God, actively loving the people around you is just as important as the active worship of him. Infact the two are often spoken about together by Jesus.