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!

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

Hiding in Glory

Psalm 91:1 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”

Mankind has been seeking a hiding place to harbor deepest fears and darkest secrets since the first Adam sinned and lost the glory covering (Genesis 3:7-8 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden”). Adam hid himself from God and from the ensuing judgement that would arise as a consequence to his sin and even today people are hiding from God. The real force against which we need to hide ourselves is Satan and his temptations, for he’s constantly on the lookout for a target who will fall prey to his charms (1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”) The enemy’s intent is that we take one step in disobedience and blow our God-given cover and hide from one another and from God Himself instead of in Him!

It is no wonder then that when one thinks of a hideout, they think of a dimly lit or a non-or illuminated, desolate place where no one is likely to discover them. Some are cleverer still and hide in plain sight by displaying their guilt and shame as nothing more than a mundane occurrence in this big bad world where everything goes and no one would give them a second glance. For those of us who know the good news that Jesus won us back our glorious garment, we also know that we are reinstated to our original hiding place:GOD (Ephesians 5:27 “ that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”) The presence of God is better than any other safe-house we can think of on our own to take cover from the principalities and powers of darkness, because in that place is the resounding echo of a victory that has already been won. There is a tune of our escape being at hand in that atmosphere that is not available elsewhere (Psalm 32:7 “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.”).

It may be called “shadow”, but it is actually radiant with God’s power.

The very Person of God and His presence to which we are freely given free access to because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, is not a dark dungeon nor is it empty. It is marvelously incandescent with God’s glory and brimming with His awesome power (Habakkuk 3:3-4 “God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.”) Such is the hiding place God wants us to seek, where the pursuer will be blinded by His light and completely undermined by His omnipotence and so will not be able to touch us.  It is also where God’s glory varnishes us to face our challenger (Isaiah 49:2 “..in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.”) He invites us to abandon our worldly and self-made hideouts and make Him our refuge. He desires above all that we tuck ourselves under the fetters of His wings instead of trying to be self-reliant or making war and violence our bunkers or using offence as our defense (Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”)

Our God, seeing that He fashioned us after His own self, has also bequeathed unto us the ability and the means to be a sanctuary to others who are needy and has placed a mighty calling over us that we should be the fetters to His wings taking in a shelter-seeking brother or sister.  For such a ministry as this, He promises that He will light our way and His glory will be our sentinel (Isaiah 58:7-8 “when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”)

Men of the earth seek refuge to protect themselves from harm’s way (that usually means other men of the earth) and hire the services of armed personnel (again, other men of the earth!) in whom they put their trust to guard them. Buildings have watchmen, people have personal bodyguards, even national leaders have entire departments paid with public monies entrusted with the security surveillance and safekeeping of their lives. But, only the children of God can truly identify the real enemy (Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”) and also be completely aware that the target of such an enemy- our flesh, is dead, and what life we have is securely hidden in God with the Only Undefeated One – Jesus Christ, and that it is continually preserved in glory (Colossians 3:3-4 “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”)

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Boast in Christ Not in Past

2 Corinthians 10:17-18 “ “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

We can be boastful without even meaning to. That’s the fact. Humility doesn’t come by accident. It is not the default position of the heart to be humble. If it is our desire to do the will of God, our heart must first, consciously, take the right position- an inclined posture leaning on His works, His testimony, His words of wisdom. Or else, we stand at risk of making a move or speaking a word that can unintentionally be self-serving or self-appraising (Psalm 119:36 ” Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”).  When we are constantly watching reruns of the past from which Christ Jesus has rescued us, it ceases to be boasting about God and turns into boasting about ourselves, even with the ‘Hallelujahs’ and the ‘Praise the Lords’. It is like looking at a picture in of you in a roller-coaster and remembering the ride and not the guy that opened the gate and let you out. 

The tendency to pat oneself on the back arises especially when we take a trip down memory lane. Oh those days! We see the great gulf between the ‘Where-I-had-been’ to the ‘Where-I-am-at’, and our heart swells with inadvertent pride. A splendid opportunity to accredit God with the logistics really! (Psalm 40:2 “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”) Sometimes, we reminisce about how lengthy the trials had been and how tricky the mazes were out of which God’s righteous right hand has navigated us.When we love telling tales about our own wicked past, we are indulging in a perverse glorying in the suffering or in the ignorance that was part of us in the past. If we are talking about “the bog” more than “the Rock”, we need to know that we are ‘gossiping’, because it is a story about someone that has died to those works (2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”)

Our humility is in the boasting of God’s work that is alive in us, that is producing a new fruit in us everyday, not in the dead works that we have walked out of (Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— “). The difference between boasting in Christ and boasting in self is how often we remember what He is doing over and over again in us versus what we did once upon a time.  We are called to count our blessings, His benefits, and not keep the books of the losses before that. When we do this we truly enjoy the rewards of God’s approval- we soar high in His commendation of who we are in Him  (Psalm 103:2-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”)

We need to be careful of what memories we choose to relive and what we choose to keep in their graves. If what God has chosen to forget is something we choose to remember, isn’t that prideful? And He has chosen to remember our past no more for His name’s sake. There is no glory to God in our resurrecting the dusty old bones from the closet (Isaiah 43:25 ““I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”) If we insist on doing it we need to be aware that we are idolizing our ‘has-been’ and actively blocking our visibility of the ‘will-be’ plans of God for us. That is why God asks that we let go of the past and look forward (Isaiah 43:18-19 ““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”)

Today is a great time to quit looking in the rear-view mirror and get the wipers going on the windshield ahead and put the gear on God’s Drive into our future.

God Bless.