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

Prey FOR me!

1 Kings 17:4″You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

When we allow God to guide our provisions He ensures that the thing that is supposed to feast on me and my ‘remains’,  instead, prepares a feast FOR me! 

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 

Soulwinner

Romans 5:1(NLT )”Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”
Finding faults in someone is easy but letting them know that they’ve been made FAULTLESS is the true calling of a soulwinner. 

God bless 

Get In Touch!

Matthew 9:20-22 “ And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.”

Our God is REACHABLE!! No matter how crowded it can get, if we are willing to put out our hand in faith we will find that “His Garment” is accessible. The garment of Jesus was typically one of the Jewish attire, just as that of any other Israelite. It was inclusive of the tassels on the corners which consummated the law (Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them…”)  To the hurting woman the hem of Jesus’ garment represented the fulfillment of all the commandments that she knew she’d not been able to fulfill. After all, she’d been “ceremonially unclean” for twelve years until then and could not be declared as clean until she had made an offering for the cleansing which would require at least 7 days of not discharging any blood.

The woman recognized her need to get in touch with Jesus because she believed that if she would ONLY touch His garment she would be made well. Physical wellness, a sense of wholeness and well-being is most often a motive for reaching out to God. The sick and hurting have been known to throng to places that are great distances away and to experts that are almost unbearably unaffordable, just to receive healing in their bodies. But this woman had realized that her HEALING is both accessible and available at the stretching forth of her hand in faith. To the one who believes that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of ALL the commandments and that His garment (His righteousness) can bring salvation, their faith can and does relieve them of bodily suffering and restores them to perfect health (Romans 10:4 “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”)

The stigma that would have been attached to the disease the woman was carrying around for twelve years is at best unimaginable. She had to have been looked down upon for her “ceremonial uncleanness” by the society at large. We may be considered as outcast in the midst of our own people because of our circumstances and maybe people don’t want us near them for fear of contagiously acquiring our situation. It might be that we have reached out to people but haven’t found anyone who would want to take our hand or may be we have feared soiling others with our distasteful past and so have steered clear of them. But if we come into CONTACT with the “Living Word” we are purified. Jesus, ‘The Word who became flesh’ cleanses us from every defilement through His Word (John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”) Our spotlessness matters to Him because we are His dwelling place and He is the “Temple Cleanser” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”)

Twelve years of “Haemorrhoissa”- continuous menstruation would mean that for the entirety of that period she was unable to conceive a child. Her identity as a woman with child-bearing abilities was compromised. Her fertility was masked by her physical condition. We may possess the potential to be productive in something specific but if there is a constant outflow of our time and energy into other causes we are hindered from conceiving God’s purposed gifts for us. But today, if we are ready to reach out and experience the tangible presence of God in our lives and CONNECT with Him in faith, He is ready heal us of our infirmity and end barrenness in our lives (Exodus 23:25-26 “You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”)

Are we prepared to blindly reach our in faith and touch the hem of Christ’s Garment?(Mark 5:56 “..And as many as touched it were made well.” His Righteousness is easily accessible and available. Let’s Put our hands in the hands of the Man from Galilee.

God Bless.

 

 

 

 

 

Hang in Him!

John 15:4-5 “ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Every green living thing that was ever created abides by this law of nature with no exception: Life and fruit-bearing potential is channeled to a branch as a consequence of its being and remaining attached to the plant that is rooted to good soil and is well- watered. As long as a branch is firmly attached to the vine (lifeline), it continues to derive its sustenance to produce good fruit. Jesus tells His disciples in plain words that He is the mother-lode powering their ministries, their work and their lives and that if they are not careful to tap into Him and remain ‘connected’ they might burn out their fuel in no time. Today, it is time to check if we are still abiding in the Lord and if He is still a resident in us. Whatever our pursuit might be today, before we go out we need to come in to the presence of God and wait, reside, abide there to be boosted with the power and the confidence to be successful in our endeavors (Luke 24:49 “ Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high”)

It never happens that a fruit is so heavy that, under its weight, the branch bearing it is severed from the tree. Similarly, the blessings we carry, the fruit we produce, both natural and spiritual- our children, our prosperity, our spouses, our jobs, our ministries, our gifts cannot become so huge a part of our lives that we don’t have time or the inclination to abide in the presence of God as much as we need to (Matthew 19:21-22 “Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”)

Cleaving to the vine is fruitful, but cleaving to the fruit can become mortal.

If the fruit-bearing is so great that is could potentially cause a strain on the bond between the branch and the tree, it is the fruit which usually falls to the ground. If the focus is on the fruit there is actually more “effort” than “dependence” being displayed. When we are striving on our own to sustain what has been birthed out of our relationship with God we are falling into the trap of ‘self- dependence through self-preservation’ because we begin to think that we are ‘doing our best’ with what God has given us.It is in our best interests to remember that effort minus dependence on God in any sphere of life is nonproductive for a child of God and that we can produce the best only as long as we rest in Him. Although there may not be any immediately visible depletion in the vitality of the branch upon its detachment to the vine, death will slowly but surely catch up (Matthew 10:19 “ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”)

Abiding in Christ is just as important as having Him abide in us. Truth is, He is faithful to abide in us always but it is us who don’t remember that at all times (Matthew 28:20 “…And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”)  The awareness of the residence of Jesus in us is critical for our thriving and energizes our productivity. We need to recognize the PERSON OF GOD as living inside of us all the time. God is LOVE and it is this embodiment of Him that is required to be found in us, without Whom no matter how great or spiritual our actions may seem they will fall flat (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”)

James Hudson Taylor said, “The vine . . . is not the root merely, but all – root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we ever dreamed, wished for, or needed.” 

Can we choose to intentionally lean on the Lord and rest in Him today?

God Bless