Turn To See

John 20:15-16 “ “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She TURNED and said to him in Aramaic,“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). “

Is it possible that the thing you are crying over is actually over and you don’t know it yet?

It was so with Mary Magdalene.  She had reached such a high point in her grieving and was so immobilized by it, that she couldn’t even recognize the Man in front of her to be the One who she was crying over. Jesus, the Risen Lord, stood in her sight as the living proof of the invalidity of her grief and yet Mary could not reconcile it with what she was seeing with her eyes. Are our eyes so clouded with tears that we cannot see that our prayers are being answered, are we mourning over unfulfilled promises, when they are in fact, fully-fledged out and asking us “who is it you are looking for?”

We can get so overwhelmed by what we see or know in the natural that it becomes impossible for us to comprehend when the supernatural occurs, even if it has been promised to us by the infallible word of God. Such was what happened with Sarah, that when she considered her body that had lived out its natural purpose and the age of her husband, she laughed at the promise God gave Abraham, that He would surely bless them with a son within the year (Genesis 18:11-12 “Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”“).

It’s a natural reaction, right? ….Well, should it be?

Mary crying at the grave side, is such an obviously expected behavior, that it should have surprised her when she was asked why she was doing it. I believe that Jesus was calling her attention to how she was perceiving what was happening around her, just as the Lord addressed Sarah’s hidden laughter (Genesis 18: 13-14 “The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son””). You see, we are called to be spiritual beings. But when we try to process things as natural men and women, there is a gap in our understanding which can result in our perceiving things of the spirit incorrectly or partially and emoting to the confusion we see rather than the confirmation that it is  (1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”)

YOU CANNOT SEE THROUGH THE FLESH WHAT CAN ONLY BE SHOWN TO THE SPIRIT

Please look at this image below:

What God speaks to us can look like this if we try to understand it in the natural. Just like an encrypted email can only be opened by the recipient who has the password given to him by the sender because of the confidentiality that he enjoys with him, the heavenly secrets can only  be accessed by the children of God who commune with Him in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit and He made us to be spiritual beings who discern things in our spirit and not in our flesh. He gave us the Holy Spirit to aid us in this endeavor. (John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,…”) The real question is: Are we sometimes anxious, depressed, angry, fearful, doubtful or weary because we have been trying to reconcile the very real challenges we are going through with the promises of God based on our human interpretation and failing ? If we have, then we need to know that there is a disconnect in our life with the divine, because THE DIVINE CANNOT BE COMPREHENDED AT THE LEVEL OF THE HUMAN; NO MATTER HOW INTELLIGENT THE SAID HUMAN IS.

It is our own fleshly knowledge that veils our hearts. This veil is manifested as the grief in Mary’s heart that she wished for the body of the crucified Jesus while standing in the presence of His resurrected self and it is manifested as the defeat in Sarah’s heart that she dismissed the supernatural blessing as impossible. I wonder if we too are looking into an empty grave while the Lord is calling to us. I wonder if we too are standing behind a DOOR and listening to what God is speaking, instead of  meeting Him face to face (Genesis 18:9-10 “They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.”) Our spiritual eyes can be opened wide enough to believe God only when we are truly facing Him. It was when Jesus called our her name that Mary TURNED to Him and realized the risen Lord (John 20:Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).”)

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 ”  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit“

When we turn to the Lord, we are are truly unveiled and guess what: not only is our understanding about spiritual truths clarified but we are freed from disappointments caused by our fleshly interpretations and our very countenance begins to reflect His glory. No more weeping in grief or laughing in disbelief, just boasting in the goodness of God, unveiled in Christ Jesus.

GOD BLESS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

I am CARRIED!

ISAIAH 46: 3-4 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

So often when we feel like we are teetering on the edge of a cliff, we forget that – God, He has got a grip on us like none other! And it’s not like He’s just getting the hang of it…. He has been carrying us, safely ensconing us in His loving arms from before even we were conceived. Even before your parents decided pink or blue, and painted the room with soothing pastels, God chose you for Himself and carefully wove every particle of your being together to create what He already had begun bearing in His mind. We were conceived in His mind first before we were even a tiny embryo feeding off our mother’s sustenance from inside the womb and He already has a record of how every season of our lives is going to turn out (Psalm 139:15-16 “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” ).

He has promised us that He is the same God who first carried us, Who will also carry us until the very end. He prepared us, not so He could drop us when we are being too difficult to handle, but to bear us up in Him. He does not walk away when we are stubborn, He does not leave us stranded where we are, rather there is nothing we can do that can make Him give us up. It has always been us who have given up on God. It’s been us who have denied Him when it was inconvenient for us, but never Him. So we have no reason to fret or freak out, because He is always with us, upholding us in His righteous right hand (Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”).

When we make the resources and references we have carry us and not God who is the Source of all things, we will feel suspended of all support when the resources dry out or when there have been bitter experiences with flaky people and untrustworthy cords that frayed at the slightest hint of a flame. (Job 6:13 “Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?”) Unless we recognise that it’s God’s hands that keep holding us in place, where ever we are, and not any human or man made works or the works produced thereof, we are constantly in danger of feeling let down.

Let us rest in the knowledge that God is our potter and we are the clay in His hands, and He has never once taken His hands off of us.

God bless!

Good & Faithful Servant

 

1 Corinthians 4:1-2 “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”

God’s servants are watched!! When we are faithful to God in doing His business, our Father in heaven who watches over us celebrates declaring us “good and faithful servants” and those who witness our works will witness our ‘intact testimony ‘– An intact testimony is faithful to the faithfulness of God in our lives.  It cannot be planned and executed with intelligent manipulation or organised efforts, but it is a genuine consequence of God at work in us and His grace toward us (2 Corinthians 1:12 “ For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God….”).  It is impossible to be found faithful in what we do for God without consistence in dependence and intimacy with God because it is only our relationship with Him that produces the fruit of His Holy Spirit in us, and faithfulness is a WHOLE PART of it! (Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”)

Loyal ‘Kingdom pursuits’ are self evident because they are the direct outcome of faithfully submitting to the Holy Spirit working in us and not the outcome of our own creative controls. They will not just be eloquent talks with religious stunts but will actually be the voice of God endorsed by the manifestation of the power of His Spirit. When one is serving God with integrity, in whatever be the capacity, his intentions are to inspire the faith of others in His Master Whom he serves through the service rendered, and not toward adding followers to his own fan base (1 Corinthians 2: 4- 5 “and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”). 

The works of a good servant of God also bear some classic hallmarks by which they can be identified! Everything that is said and done will boast the name of Jesus Christ and will be a tribute to the Father God  (Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”) When one pursues to serve God faithfully, whatever one does will be out of sincerely fearing God and revering His wondrous work  (1 Samuel 12:24 “ Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. “)

We can be sure that we are faithfully answering our calling when we take our orders only from the Caller and His appointed agents. Nothing and nobody else must have an influence on how we execute what God has called us to do.

The action or inaction of anyone else should not force any reaction from us that is not faithful to the calling with which God has called us .

It is a serious mistake to get ‘under pressure’ from any external or internal forces  and and work anything, however good it may seem, outside of the context of what the voice of  God has instructed us (1 Samuel 13:11-13 “Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I FORCED myself, and offered the burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. “)

God is always willing to approve our labor of love. Yet, how we please God with what we do has little to do with what is in our hands and more to do with what is in our hearts. If our desire is to meet God’s standards in the work we produce we must also be humble enough to be open to correction and discipline from Him and seek to perfect what we present unto Him, otherwise we are in the peril of opening ourselves to diverse devises of the devil (Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”) There is world of difference between being rewarded for work done in bondage and work done is son-ship. Worldly accolades can earn us brownie points with our earthly bosses whom we slave for, but with God we serve as sons and daughters rather than as slaves. For those who are faithfully carrying on about their Father’s business and work alongside Him under His authority, He has reserved an INHERITANCE and given them unreserved access to it (Luke 15:29,31 “but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends…. And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. “)

Shall we then put our hands to the plow and serve in a Kingdom befitting manner, never turning around and always be found faithful to the Faithful One! Whatever He has entrusted to us whether small or big, seemingly significant or insignificant let us do it faithfully because when we do He will entrust us with more… (Matthew 25:23 “ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’) What a promise!!

God Bless

 

 

 

 

The Passion behind Compassion

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. “

If there is a quest for the source of the desire for expressing love or the root of the passion behind compassion, it would end at finding Jesus Christ who is the personification of love and who came down to explicitly express the Father’s compassion toward a dying world and the deep seated yearning in Him that none should perish (1 John 4:8-9 “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”) God Himself is the author of love and the express image of it.  And our capacity to love anyone or the will to be compassionate toward anybody has its genesis in Christ Jesus, who through His Spirit cascades love into our hearts (Romans 5:5 “… because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”)

Compassion is one expression of love just as mercy, grace and empathy might be. Has it ever happened that we’ve tried to show God’s love to some one, comfort someone in their pain, encourage someone is their backsliding, teach someone a spiritual discipline and somehow the action back fired or set in motion completely chaotic events? If we were to honestly check ourselves in that situation, we’d find that we had reached out  because of the enthusiasm of the flesh rather than the urging of the Holy Spirit. When our compassion is led by the prompting of the Holy Spirit within us it won’t have that effect (1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace”). Identifying the driving force or the passion behind our acts of love and kindness to one another is of paramount importance because if we are not careful to direct our actions according to the leading of the Spirit, then we are in the perilous position of switching to default mode- acting to satiate the lusts of our flesh which can have unwanted consequences (Galatians 5:16-17 “ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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”).

 It is with the very intent of equipping us with the ability to fulfill the greatest commandment- to love God and to love others that Jesus Christ promised us ‘Another Helper’ (John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”). When not directed by the Spirit, our motivation to show love and offer comfort comes from unconsciously exalting ourselves. We think of ourselves to be in a better position, more enabled or simply wiser than the one we are reaching out to and somehow what is so holy and pure to God as love, comes out as condescension along with a need to be identified or graded for the benevolence. The office of any ministry for God is primarily service. To love someone with God-kind of love requires humility. Only a humble heart that is prepared to serve another can truly love and exhibit the right kind of compassion, without personal goals. God came down from His throne in heaven, was born as an infant much like the rest of us and served His life on a platter to show His love for us (Philippians 2:3-8 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross“). 

The passion behind our compassion is Christ Jesus, Himself (1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”)  

Being a Christian is not standing on a pedestal, feeling self sufficient in our own ways and exhorting others who may not have fully climbed up yet, with passionate speeches. Rather it is in the going down and accepting that it is the grace of God alone that uplifts us and desperately depending on the Spirit of God to direct our compassion toward people with solid actions (1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”). 

God Bless

God Of All Comfort

Isaiah 66:13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

When we picture God as God the Father, it is natural to visualize Him in a perfectly paternal way as the Planner, Provider, and Protector. But we are also promised in the Word of God that we will receive a kind of nurturing care in God’s hands that is like that of a mother to her new born. Actually, even more mindful than that is He in His compassion toward us (Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”) When we think of the Lord as compassionate we expect the expression of such a compassion to take the form of readily available soothing arms to hold us whenever we are hurting, lonely or in need for such an affection. But today, we are encouraged to have a bigger understanding of the greatness and timelessness of the love and the motherhood of our Abba Father, which is not just about hugs and kisses to make a boo boo go away but it is about the Great I Am using his own body to provide comfort to His people as nursing mother does her child!

The comfort of a mother’s arms paint a picture of a mother holding close to her bosom her child to satisfy every last bit of hunger and thirst that  the child was wailing because of.  Just as a mother cannot biologically turn away from the cry of a child but is compelled to attend to it so urgently because her body responds to that plaintive call even before her mind can process the situation, God cannot and does not miss the sincere cries of His people, instead He hastens to hear us and cannot help but respond in His great love for us (Psalm 66 :19-20 ” But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!”)

Because we so often cry out against our situations and tear up about this thing, that thing or the other in our prayer, we might anticipate that our God who is the prayer answering God would rush toward us like a relay race runner with the answer like a baton which He would pass to into our outstretched waiting hands so that we can grab it and run forward without even looking back. Sometimes we simply want God to quiet our tantrums by handing us the exact missing pieces to fit the puzzle that we scattered all over the place- meet the immediate need with an immediate feed. But then no mother treats her child’s requirement like a drive thru fast-food joint does its customer’s order. A mother takes the time to read her child’s face and knows what her child is really hungering after, even without being told and feeds her child accordingly and certainly not with anything junk if she can help it! So does our Lord. He knows that though we may be famished and all cried out, our prayers don’t need breaded answers, rather a supernatural provision that comes not from the ground up but heaven down, the living Word which when we consume ravenously we would be satiated in a more real way (Deuteronomy 8:3 “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”)

We are not simply at the receiving end of the maternal care and nurturing at the hands of our God but are called to be an extension cord to whoever needs plugging into His love. The nursing mother comforting her infant with the warmth of her own body is also a divine display of how our God, the Balm of Gilead, intends for His body, the church, each and every one of His own chosen people who have received loving kindness at his hands to be the source of comfort for all the ailing and wailing who are in desperate need of soothing (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”).

God Bless

 

 

God made us FLINT-STONES!

Ezekiel 3:9 “I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

There’s such a might in the provision of God’s grace for His people that allows us to give ourselves in perfect submission to His will and in doing that to still stand upright in the midst of unrepentant hearts. Through the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit, God prepares the spirit-man that resides inside of each of us with such immense strength, which our physical-man embodies as a boldness in our right-standing with God that won’t bend under the pressures of the shake-downs that the world puts us through (Ephesians 3:16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man”)

When we put ourselves in the hands of our maker and know that He is molding us, we ought to expect that there will be a time and place where He will position us that will truly showcase His handiwork to every one that comes in contact with us, even when the viewers have got their blinders on (Acts 13:47 “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.””). While our original disposition is weak in itself to carry the weight of God’s call to its fulfillment in the face of the disobedience that reigns all around us, the Lord gives us sufficient grace that causes us to become flint-faced because if we are any less tough than that we would break under the pressure in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…”). To obey God and speak faith when everything around us speaks defeat, failure and discord with God, is to swim upstream and against the tide and it requires so much resistance that it is only the love of the Father, grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, quite literally and not just a pronouncement, that can uphold us.

The God-given steadfastness is provided to us to submit to Him and to His sovereign will. When we desire so much to hearken to His voice and do His bidding then He gives us the ability to  drown out the cacophony that surrounds us.However, there is a stark contrast between this resoluteness that is birthed from the Spirit of submission from the stubbornness that comes from the pride of being passionate about the things of God. Our Lord Jesus demonstrated His submission to His Father’s will in that He was focused in His path and nothing could distract Him from His purpose (Luke 9:51 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”) That Jesus would be given the grace to persevere in His divine mission upon the completion of which He would be lifted up to be seated at the right-hand of the Father was prophesied of Him years before His birth (Isaiah 50:7 “But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.) The strength that we require to fulfill God’s plans for us has been pre-deposited in our lives from the foundations of the earth by the choice that He made of calling us “in Christ”. It is God’s placement of us “in Christ” that makes us sharper and harder than flint so that we don’t flinch when the world happens to us (Ephesians 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love”)

Today’s “rebellious house” is more than just an atmosphere of unbelief and disobedience to God. It is also in the prevalence of deception even among the so-called people of the faith. There’s a lot of feel-good factor involved in the attitude of worship that doesn’t allow for the Holy Spirit  to really penetrate the hearts of God’s people. It is in such a setting that the Lord prepares His own chosen children with anointing to help them be discerning and remain genuine (1 John 2:20-21 “ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”)

God Bless.

 

 

 

 

Off-loading the right cargo

Jonah 1:5 “Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.”

There are times when God allows a gale to blow over our lives, not to topple us over but to sever some associations that might have climbed aboard and lying dormant somewhere around. The reason is not that they’re wrong associates but that their purposed destination is quite different  to where we are headed and God does not want us to facilitate someone’s disobedience however passive the facilitation may be. 

GOD BLESS 

Robed and Postioned for Favour

Esther 5:1-2 “On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, in front of the king’s quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.”

The favour of God cannot be earned or learnt but is a free gift (Romans 9:16 “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy”). While it is available to all of us in His kingdom, the favour of the King of Kings is availed not by what is done but by what is donned, not by the passion we have but in the position we take. It was the royal robes and the place that Esther took in the presence of the King (both of which queen Vashti had refused to do and was banished),that caused him to identify her as his queen and hold out his golden sceptre to her. Quite similarly, the only thing that causes God’s children to gain His audience is the vestment we put on and the boldness with which we enter His inner sanctum.

The royal robes represent the the bridal attire. For the church it is being robed with Christ Himself (Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself.”) Just as Esther’s humble beginnings were exchanged for her royal apparel which was bestowed upon her by the King’s virtue, so also the Lord, our Bridegroom, purges our past with His Word and clothes us with His glory to make us presentable to Himself (Ephesians 5:26-27 “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”)

There are occasions when the garment doesn’t appear glorious to the naked eye but it is given to us so that we are re-aligned to receive His favour (Genesis 38:14-15 “she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.”) But if we are confident that He alone is our robe then it won’t matter what it looks like from the outside because we will be the carriers of His favour from the inside that will one day be revealed openly (Genesis 38:25-26 “As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I…..”)

The entry we have gained into the presence of God is but Himself. He is the gate, the door, the entrance and we take a favourable position in King’s sight because of entering through Jesus Himself (John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”) When we are found in His sight to be in Jesus- the entrance, we find His favour and are not subject to the punishment of death which might be the fate for everyone else according to the law (Esther 4:11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live… ”) The children of God are not just allowed, rather are invited to come into His presence because Jesus both became and paid the entrance fee and went before us to receive us to Himself (Hebrews 6:19-20 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”)

It is sometimes difficult to see ourselves as standing in a position of favour, especially when we can look compromised (2 Samuel 11:2-4 “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers, and took her;..”). Bathsheba’s vulnerable position caused King David’s steps to falter for which she must have endured much scorn and revile, but God used her position to bless the lineage of David and through the fruit of her womb came the ancestry of the much awaited messiah, Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:6 “….David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife[a] of Uriah.”) What the enemy means for evil, God can and does turn it around for our good. He causes us to trade our ashes for beauty.

So let us drape ourselves with His righteousness and be posted in Christ and know that is just that which will cause us to be identified as His bride, and His golden sceptre of favour will be held out to us.

God bless