Public Spectacle

Colossians 2:15 “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

It’s the hour when the called out priesthood of the Lord of Hosts is once again reminded of the time when God made a public spectacle of His love by giving His Only Son Jesus to die on the cross for us. How often do we remember this when we absently comment on someone’s common mistakes or intentionally launch into a diatribe over the great injustice done by another- that the Lord not only took a stand to cancel every one of our merited condemnations, but has also taken His rightful seat to continue advocating on the behalf of the entire world? (Romans 8:33-34 “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”)

We live in a day and age when it’s possible to make known our views, opinions and judgements on any given topic or person, simply at the touch of a finger. The technology in communication which reinvents itself every nanosecond to supposedly bring people closer together, has endowed mankind with the power to raise an applause for one and an outcry against another, making anything and everything a sensational news item. There are several platforms on which the most mundane mistakes and the most private misdemeanors recieve avalanches of undue attention from across the globe. We, as the church of God, need to make the difference in the way we use these channels, by categorically manifesting the love of God at every given opportunity, because that is exactly what Jesus did- every time a group of people looked down on someone’s misdeeds, Jesus turned up to embrace that very person in full view of everyone (Luke 19:5-7 “And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.””)

What Jesus did in that moment looking up at Zaccheus, was actually directed at the crowds that surrounded Him. Instead of pointing a finger at Zaccheus’ malpractices or demanding a public apology for his unethical means of money-making, Jesus simply made a scene of His reckless love for the sinner-man! He set the perfect example to show that we who are called to be in the business of building each other up in love shouldn’t be tearing each other down (Galatians 5:14-15 “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”)

Christian exhorting is NOT mudslinging a miscreant with an audience watching. It is the private dealing with a sibling, done in utter meekness and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, with a heightened awareness of the ONLY God-desired outcome- to bring home the prodigal (Galatians 6:1 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”) And for those of us who would persist in unveiling another’s mistakes, the Lord admonishes that we first look into our own closet (John 8:7 “.. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”) An anonymous writer has rightly said, “for often he who is first to find fault, is the very one who has first transgressed.”

God bless

I am NO VICTIM!

PSALM 34:10 “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

If your relationship is with your SUPPLIER is good, you’ll never have bad inventory. Suffering lack is not for those of us who are aware of our own identity as the sons and daughters of the Most High God (Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will”).

The children of the King of Kings are not victimised by the fluctuations in the economy. We who know the portion of the promises in store for those who worship God and belong to Him (Psalm 112:1-3 “Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.”), also have the perfect perspective from heaven that fully convinces us of God’s ability to keep His commitments (Jeremiah 1:12 “Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it””). Only with such clairty in the line of our spiritual sight, do we confidently and consistently go to the throneroom everyday, not to beg and plead for a morsel, but to sit at His table and eat from His hand what we know has been prepared freshly just for us (Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread”).

Being God-provisioned is way beyond getting our daily dietary requirements met by God. It is a lifestyle acquired by those who put their belief in the faithfulness of God’s love and choose to rest in Him and in His strength. It’s a place where He joyfully arranges free-flowing food, drink and favor in their lives as an expression of His manner of love toward them (Psalm 36:7-8 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”)

God delights in lavishing His love and care upon His own ‘flesh’- for that’s what we are (Ephesians 5:29 “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,”) and He doesn’t find any ask too difficult to fulfill (Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”). The question about the needy and those suffering lack is never about God’s ability or inclination to provide for those that are His, rather it is always about will He be asked, as fathers are by their children. It is those that don’t go to the Father by rightful sonship that often complain that God is partial to some while ignoring others, but the reality is that the Abba Father has never turned away anyone who has lifted their eyes unto Him and asked of Him. It’s delusional to think that created beings know how to bless those that they beget and that He who is their Creator wouldn’t do infinitely more for those that He handcrafted and that depend on Him (Matthew 7:9-11 “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”)

Yes, we are previleged in Christ and we fixate on Him with our lives rotating on the axis of the cross, but we do so for far more than just a filling, and only those that truly seek Him enjoy the enormity of the feast that He has laid up for those that have RSVP’d to His invitation, and trust us – ‘the bread’ is just the sides!

God bless!

Let Him Shine!

John 3:21 “But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.

When the spot light is not on what Jesus is doing then we need to hit the brakes at the stop light in what we are doing! It’s time to reassess…. Is it STARDOM we are after or God’s KINGDOM?  Let not our good works become the show-stoppers. We are called to be the entourage-setting up and campaigning for Jesus Christ,  our Lord, the Real Celebrity to take the centre stage. We need to LET HIM SHINE!! 

God bless. 

Excellence In Pursuit of Me!

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord [always doing your best and doing more than is needed], being continually aware that your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose]. [AMP]

There is a tendency to associate the term “Excellent” with nobility or ‘worthy of admiration’. But to define it more accurately would be to say that excellence is supremacy or above ordinary. All that the Lord God has ever made is nothing short of excellent- think ‘CREATION’!, and all of heaven sings praise (Revelation 15:3… “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!”). Whenever God ordains His children to embark upon a project, He endues them with His own Spirit that enables excellent work to proceed out of them for His glory- think Noah and the Ark, Bezalel and the tabernacle, Solomon and the temple (Exodus 31:3 “and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship”).

Excellence is not a skill that we cultivate. It is the Person of God who affiliates with us!! 

Therefore, because it is the Spirit of Excellence from God that guides our hand, it is both possible and principle that our plowing in the Lord’s field be of excellent nature. It would do us well to remember that if we don’t allow ourselves to be pursued and infilled with excellence from God, mediocrity has pursued and possessed us. Mediocrity is not backsliding. It is simply not growing. We often mistake lukewarm with growing cold. It is not that there is no heat, but that the heat is not turned up to a fiery crackle. If we settle for where we are at, what we are currently doing in the Kingdom of God without raising the bar in our “seeking of God”, we are lukewarm and the spirit of mediocrity is at large within us and God is not for mediocre, He is the God of Excellence- El Elyon (God Most High) (Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”)

The proof of the pudding lies in the eating and therefore we must grow to expect potential opportunities at every turn in our daily lives and ministry in which we will be tested for the excellence of Spirit that the Lord has invested in us. Daniel was a mighty prophet who had several such moments to showcase his excellent spirit, which caused him to find favor with kings (Daniel 5:12 “because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation”).  It is the portion of every believer to have the indwelling Spirit of God. Daniel did not only possess an excellent spirit but he also walked in the power of that spirit. Too often we are passive in the area of consciously subjecting  our own spirit to the Spirit of God, resulting in the allowance of the flesh to have a mind of its own. For the excellence of God’s Spirit to be evident we must be ready to walk in and work under the anointing purposefully at all times (Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”)

The Holy Spirit can only work with spirit, not with the flesh because they are in constant conflict with each other (Galatians 5:17 “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”) We generally tend to perceive ourselves as physical beings possessing the Spirit of God within us, the flesh being attributed with the source of our personality (example: Adam- is Canadian, is male, is a father, is a believer and possesses the Holy Spirit inside him). However, if we plan to excel in the godly work we set out to do, our outlook needs to change. We need to recognize that we are spirit-beings, under the influence of the Spirit of God who works His excellence in our desire and in our ability to do His work, and that we have been given physical bodies to carry out that work. All we need do is “Drive Under the Influence” of the Holy Spirit without “unbelief” which can reveal itself in our cribbing and stubbornness every time we hit a speed-bump on the way (Philippians 2:13-14 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing”)

Shall we then surrender to God, and seek Him in every attempt that we make to do His work. For in the Kingdom business we cannot achieve His targets with our strenuous efforts and our will-power, but only by His mercy that chases us down! (Romans 9:16 “ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”)

God Bless

 

 

GET HIGH: Submit to Summit!

When we are ready to surrender what seems good in our sight to God,  He will surely elevate us to reach His best! 

GOD BLESS