Jay Mitchell

“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”” John 20:22-23 NKJV This is a powerful verse. Here’s one reason why. My wife and I moved into a new house a few months ago and one of our prayers for this house was to have neighbours who God wanted to encounter. He did just that. We instantly connected with our neighbours. They are an awesome couple, Peter and Ann (not there real names). Peter was already a Christian, but Ann was not. After a few months of getting to know them, sharing our lives and the gospel, Ann decided to enter into relationship with Jesus. Awesome. But then more amazing stuff happened. Peter now desires to share his faith with others. He messaged me one night and said that he was talking all things God with a member of his band (the bass player) who professes to be an atheist and was about to pray fo...

“This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse." Luke 11:23 (Jesus talking on spiritual warfare) Last week I posted 'He Trains My Hands For War Part 1' which covered two points in relation to God preparing us for our mission and calling; - Responding to negative circumstances with faith instead of fear - Not giving up in the face of adversity.   There are 3 more to cover.      -  Get rid of that bad attitude .   “Training is used to test your physical ability but also to get rid of bad attitude.”  Yup, that’s right. The last two years God has been exposing my bad attitudes toward Him, my faith, other people and myself.  -  Control your fear, as in, fear God and not man . “You're going behind enemy lines, where it’s hostile and people want to kill you. We need people who can control fear.”  Ok, befo...

"Blessed  be  the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And  my fingers for battle—" Psalm 144:1  I believe that a massive part of a person accepting God's calling on their life involves what I call 'God training'. In the western world of Christianity, when you feel called to become a pastor (or something similar) you notice the pressure to attend a school for ministry training. I am not talking about this sort of training. There are certain aspects of accepting a calling that a ministry school is unable to teach you, and I want to point out just a few.  When I began on my mission to preach the gospel as a full time pursuit, I came across the verse that I started this blog with. ‘He trains my hands for war….’ And I asked God to train me because of reference to this verse "For we do not wrestle against  flesh   and   blood , but against principalities , against powers , against the rulers of the darkness ...

A couple of the most quoted scriptures I hear people talk about is Philippians 4:13 and 19; 13 goes “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and 19 goes “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” These are great scriptures and particularly the first one I believe as children of God we can apply to all areas of our life. I’ve only just really noticed the context of where these scriptures are found and I have been blown away. It is so revealing about God’s heart for the lost, His Kingdom and His heart for us as individuals. Faith and money…. such a hot topic in Christianity with a million different approaches from all walks of Christians. Jesus taught on the subject a lot and without apology drawing some hard lines on the subject many times (Example Matthew 6:24). Paul the Apostle also spoke on it a lot and the quoted verses apply to provision and position. So often we respond to God from a position of need...

Last Saturday I had the privilege of being invited to preach at a church in inner city Melbourne. It was on my heart to share with people some stories on times that I have shared the gospel with people. It was titled 'Your testimony and the Testimony of Jesus'. I want to inspire people to go out where ever they are, be it at work, school, university or in their own families and be confident to share the who Jesus is, what He did on the cross and how that has changed their lives. I have 5 points from the sermon that I wanted to share; 1.  It's important to share your testimony coupled with the message of what Jesus did on the cross.   One day I had my neighbours over for lunch. They were of the Sikh religion. As I was chatting to the husband about his faith, he would tell me about how he tried Christianity and that he didn't find value in it. We started to discuss bible verses and it was getting quite theologically involved. At that moment I was reminded of this v...

"Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” Isaiah 43. I praise You Jesus that You took care when You put me on this earth. This earth that so easily can ensnare me with sin. This earth were there is sadness, brokenness, disease and death, murder, hate, corruption, pain and loss. This earth where there are people born blind, deaf with deformities or where babies are still born. This earth where thieves steal, where loved ones die too young. You took care in designing me before You put me here.

A blog post for all those in Jesus. I personally testify of the joy, forgiveness, mercy and love of God, because of the cross; Jesus was born to bare our sin. He was tempted and didn't want to do what He was born to do. You might say 'he was born like that'.  Who He was inside, in His spirit, wrestled greatly with what His flesh wanted. He denied 'what He was born like' in the flesh and fought the desires He felt to sin so greatly that He said;