God cares for you and he will make sure your needs are met. Elijah was in need, he prayed to God about it and God provided for him in an amazing way. It was not a rich woman who fed him, but a poor desperate woman. When we are looking for help, we must allow God to show us how he will meet those needs.
You have enough to sustain you for life. The widow thought what she has was too little even for herself and her son. But the power of God through her obedience multiplied that meal and she was sustained for two years on that meal.
The food that is supposed to be a meal of death became a life sustaining meal. You will not die for food. Jesus told us not worry about the things of life, food, clothing and shelter. God will constantly supply you with all that.
The Role of Prayer
• Prayer defeats the devil. Matt 18:18 says whatever you bind on earth should be bound in heaven.
• Prayer empowers you to do greater things for God. If you don’t pray, obeying God will be very difficult for you. Jude 20
• Prayer makes the impossible possible. But prayer is not twisting the hand of God. What men say is impossible become possible through prayer. The prayer of Elijah turned a handful of flour to a two year meal.
• Prayer causes God to intervene in the natural order of things. James 5: 17 – 18 says Elijah was a man like you and I, but he prayed that it should not rain and it was so. He prayed again that it should rain and it did.
• Prayer guards against temptation. When we are in need, we are mostly tempted to do things that we should not do. But with prayer we will be able to resist.
• Prayer causes the answer of God to be revealed. Sometimes God answers our prayers immediately, but Satan prevents them from getting to us. Prayer opens the way for us to receive from God. Daniel 10: 12 - 13
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
NO CHRIST, NO PEACE
This is a common saying; we’ve all heard it before. Yet we find it difficult to live with this basic truth of life. Those of us who call ourselves Christians are just as guilty as the unbelievers. All over the world men and women are looking for peace. People are involved in many practices that are said to give them peace. Some of these practices are:
Transcendental Meditation: This is a way of the human being trying by his own effort to fill his mind with peace through thinking about peace.
Yoga: This is another form of meditation which people do to try to be in harmony with themselves.
New Age Religious Philosophies: These are new teaching coming out based on the principle that there is no God and man is capable making himself happy. Some of these people have been preaching on TV of late.
Charms, Amulet’s, Talismans, and Idols: We are well aware of these as they abound in our communities.
Doing good: There are those who think that doing good will give them peace.
All these lead to one thing: people who follow all these end up disappointed because in the end they destroy themselves. They fill themselves with demonic spirits that control and drive them towards the wrong.
There are those who even go for the ugly and unthinkable just to give peace to themselves. They sacrifice their fellow human being just for peace. But the more they struggle for peace, the more it eludes them.
Today we are being reminded once again that there is nothing in the world that we can do to get peace for our troubled souls, except in Christ Jesus. Jesus before he left this world said one thing to his followers. In John 16:33 He says “I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
Who is Christ?
Jesus is the son of God. He is God. He owns the world and everything in it. He died on the cross willingly so that those who believe in him will have peace.
What is peace?
The peace Jesus is talking about is not worldly peace that does not exist. It is peace that surpasses all other kinds of peace. It is total, complete in itself. It can only be found in Jesus. Only those who accept Jesus Christ will have this kind of peace.
In Luke 10:5, Jesus told his disciples he sent out that when they enter a house they should greet the people with peace, and if there is a man of peace in that house he will accept them.
The kind of peace Jesus is talking about is not just absence of fight; it means prosperity, wholeness, physical and spiritual. That is what is we find in 3 John 2 “Beloved, in regard to all things I pray that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
But we must know that physical prosperity depends on spiritual prosperity. And there cannot be spiritual prosperity without Jesus. It is only those who accept the message of Christ who will have peace. Christ and his message are one and the same.
The disciples Jesus sent did not go to the Gentiles, they went to the Jews, yet we can conclude in the words of Jesus that not all the people of who are called by the name of God accepted the message of Christ.
Today, it is still the same. Not all the people in the Church accept the message of Christ. Some are in the Church for other reasons apart from Christ; and the message is clear to them: No Christ No Peace.
The peace of Christ comes with humility. It does not come with pride. We see that in Galatians 6. Those who have the peace of Christ seek the good of their fellows, while recognizing the fact that they are human and capable of making mistakes. Those who make much noise about how good they are end up discovering that they are nothing. But when you have Christ, no matter what you are, you still have peace.
Let us conclude this message with John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Transcendental Meditation: This is a way of the human being trying by his own effort to fill his mind with peace through thinking about peace.
Yoga: This is another form of meditation which people do to try to be in harmony with themselves.
New Age Religious Philosophies: These are new teaching coming out based on the principle that there is no God and man is capable making himself happy. Some of these people have been preaching on TV of late.
Charms, Amulet’s, Talismans, and Idols: We are well aware of these as they abound in our communities.
Doing good: There are those who think that doing good will give them peace.
All these lead to one thing: people who follow all these end up disappointed because in the end they destroy themselves. They fill themselves with demonic spirits that control and drive them towards the wrong.
There are those who even go for the ugly and unthinkable just to give peace to themselves. They sacrifice their fellow human being just for peace. But the more they struggle for peace, the more it eludes them.
Today we are being reminded once again that there is nothing in the world that we can do to get peace for our troubled souls, except in Christ Jesus. Jesus before he left this world said one thing to his followers. In John 16:33 He says “I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
Who is Christ?
Jesus is the son of God. He is God. He owns the world and everything in it. He died on the cross willingly so that those who believe in him will have peace.
What is peace?
The peace Jesus is talking about is not worldly peace that does not exist. It is peace that surpasses all other kinds of peace. It is total, complete in itself. It can only be found in Jesus. Only those who accept Jesus Christ will have this kind of peace.
In Luke 10:5, Jesus told his disciples he sent out that when they enter a house they should greet the people with peace, and if there is a man of peace in that house he will accept them.
The kind of peace Jesus is talking about is not just absence of fight; it means prosperity, wholeness, physical and spiritual. That is what is we find in 3 John 2 “Beloved, in regard to all things I pray that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
But we must know that physical prosperity depends on spiritual prosperity. And there cannot be spiritual prosperity without Jesus. It is only those who accept the message of Christ who will have peace. Christ and his message are one and the same.
The disciples Jesus sent did not go to the Gentiles, they went to the Jews, yet we can conclude in the words of Jesus that not all the people of who are called by the name of God accepted the message of Christ.
Today, it is still the same. Not all the people in the Church accept the message of Christ. Some are in the Church for other reasons apart from Christ; and the message is clear to them: No Christ No Peace.
The peace of Christ comes with humility. It does not come with pride. We see that in Galatians 6. Those who have the peace of Christ seek the good of their fellows, while recognizing the fact that they are human and capable of making mistakes. Those who make much noise about how good they are end up discovering that they are nothing. But when you have Christ, no matter what you are, you still have peace.
Let us conclude this message with John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Word of God is the Source of Your Power
We all need power in order to live well in the world. There is no one who can survive without some level of power. There are many kinds of power:
• scientific power
• political power
• spiritual power
Of all types of power, the most important power is spiritual power. This is because whatever we see in the physical exists first and foremost in the spiritual realm. The science of today is trying hard to make us disbelieve this fact but it remains unchangeable.
To be able to succeed in this physical world, you should have a spiritual backing. That means you must seek spiritual power. If you rely on the physical, you will fail. The bible tells us that the arm of flesh will fail. You must seek spiritual power.
Sources of spiritual power
There are two sources of spiritual power. The source where you seek the power determines which power you get. If you seek power from the devil, you will get devilish power. Many people are after such a power.
They go to various places for it.
• Occult masters including what I call the Christian occult: lodges, and secret societies
• Fetishes and shrines
• Oracles and seers
When you visit these places for power you will get negative power. You will have to sacrifice your soul for such power. Because this type of power promises quick results, most people including Christians visit such places.
People kill others including their own children for this kind of power that does not last. This kind of power will leave you on the way.
The word of God, the true source of power
There are two basic forms of the word of God: as “Logos”, the word of God is that everlasting and eternal power from which all other things were made. The Logos is the word of God full of power. But this power, although mighty, is very passive. In the Logos is the full potential of Gods power. The Logos is God Himself.
The word of God as “Rhema” is the spoken word that makes the power in the Logos to become active and explosive as described in Heb 4:12. The Rhema is the manifestation of the word of God in a creative form. For us this is where we put the word into action.
The logos is the true source of power, the rhema manifests this power.
That is why the bible says in Deut 30:14, and Romans 10: 18 that the word is in your mouth. The true source of power is in your mouth as the logos. You must put it into action to see its power. Speak the word.
The work of the Word of God
The word breaks. Jeremiah 23:29 says the word of God is like fire and a hammer. It will break open all doors, breakdown all strongholds. But you must speak it to the situation. There is no situation that defies the word of God, unless you are praying against the will of God.
The word is like a fire. Nothing can resist it. It consumes. That is why no weapon fashioned against you will stand, so long as you have the word of God in you.
It is only by the word that you can defeat the devil. The Word of God silences the devil. The authority of God goes out with the Word of God. In the wilderness, during the temptation, the devil was silenced by the word of God.
Action
Get the word into your system. Don’t let it depart from you. Wherever you find yourself, the word must be near you.
Speak the word to the situation that confronts you. Don’t mind which versus you don’t know. Even if it is only one verse you know, that verse is enough to change your situation.
• scientific power
• political power
• spiritual power
Of all types of power, the most important power is spiritual power. This is because whatever we see in the physical exists first and foremost in the spiritual realm. The science of today is trying hard to make us disbelieve this fact but it remains unchangeable.
To be able to succeed in this physical world, you should have a spiritual backing. That means you must seek spiritual power. If you rely on the physical, you will fail. The bible tells us that the arm of flesh will fail. You must seek spiritual power.
Sources of spiritual power
There are two sources of spiritual power. The source where you seek the power determines which power you get. If you seek power from the devil, you will get devilish power. Many people are after such a power.
They go to various places for it.
• Occult masters including what I call the Christian occult: lodges, and secret societies
• Fetishes and shrines
• Oracles and seers
When you visit these places for power you will get negative power. You will have to sacrifice your soul for such power. Because this type of power promises quick results, most people including Christians visit such places.
People kill others including their own children for this kind of power that does not last. This kind of power will leave you on the way.
The word of God, the true source of power
There are two basic forms of the word of God: as “Logos”, the word of God is that everlasting and eternal power from which all other things were made. The Logos is the word of God full of power. But this power, although mighty, is very passive. In the Logos is the full potential of Gods power. The Logos is God Himself.
The word of God as “Rhema” is the spoken word that makes the power in the Logos to become active and explosive as described in Heb 4:12. The Rhema is the manifestation of the word of God in a creative form. For us this is where we put the word into action.
The logos is the true source of power, the rhema manifests this power.
That is why the bible says in Deut 30:14, and Romans 10: 18 that the word is in your mouth. The true source of power is in your mouth as the logos. You must put it into action to see its power. Speak the word.
The work of the Word of God
The word breaks. Jeremiah 23:29 says the word of God is like fire and a hammer. It will break open all doors, breakdown all strongholds. But you must speak it to the situation. There is no situation that defies the word of God, unless you are praying against the will of God.
The word is like a fire. Nothing can resist it. It consumes. That is why no weapon fashioned against you will stand, so long as you have the word of God in you.
It is only by the word that you can defeat the devil. The Word of God silences the devil. The authority of God goes out with the Word of God. In the wilderness, during the temptation, the devil was silenced by the word of God.
Action
Get the word into your system. Don’t let it depart from you. Wherever you find yourself, the word must be near you.
Speak the word to the situation that confronts you. Don’t mind which versus you don’t know. Even if it is only one verse you know, that verse is enough to change your situation.
The Lord Will Be Your Comfort
Comfort is relief from pain and agony. To those who are in pain, Jesus is your comfort. There cannot be true comfort unless there is some sort of agony. In Matt 5:4 Jesus says blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. That tells us something about the comfort that Jesus gives us. We can only be truly comforted if we mourn. There are people, many people, who are looking for the comfort of Jesus without mourning, without agony. It will never be.
It came to a time when the people of God were in great distress; when their sins drove them to captivity. When they came to their senses and mourn for their sorrows, the Lord sent his prophet to them with a message of comfort. For me, the times in which we find ourselves as congregation today does not differ from that of the Israelites.
Here is how we can obtain the comfort of God. It is specified in all the three texts of the day.
Making a straight path for the Lord
The path mentioned here refers to our lives. We must allow the Lord to straighten and smoothen our lives. Our lives are crooked in all aspects of it. There are valleys and hills in our lives. Unless those valleys are filled and the crooked straightened, there will be no comfort for us.
The Lord rebukes those he loves. We must be ready to accept the rebuke of the Lord before he can comfort us. Last week someone had a dream. In that dream it was clear that those who accept the rebuke of God will worship him better. The comfort of the Lord sometimes comes in a form of his rebuke. We cannot continue in our sin and wrongdoing, and still expect the Lord to Comfort us when those lifestyles bring trouble upon us.
For the past two weeks we have been in a certain mood in this congregation. When I read the passage I realized that God is speaking to us in particular today. Those who are genuinely mourning will surely be comforted. But those who thought that what happened was just one of those things, they are not part of this comfort.
We are all crying for the Glory of God. The Glory of the Lord does not come unless our lives are straightened and smoothened.
Repentance is key to the comfort of the Lord
We see in the third reading, and it was prophesied in the first, that the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was preceded by that of John the Baptist. The message of John the Baptist was repentance. That was how he prepared the way for the Lord who brought comfort and healing to many. There is the call on us to repent from our old way of life – full of greed and deceit if we want to have comfort from God. We cannot continue in our fornications, our adulteries, our drunkenness, our lies, our cheating, etc. and still expect the lord to comfort us. John the Baptist is still telling us today that we must repent before this year ends. Then we can be comforted. It is not enough to cry over your sins and go back to them. Repent and you will see the glory of the Lord. If you don’t you will be a spectator when the glory of the Lord appears. The Bible says all flesh will see it – some as partakers, others as spectators.
Holiness is indispensable
The Apostle Peter puts this in a dramatic and fearful way. The comfort of the Lord is on his second coming. It will be terrible for others. For him holiness is the only thing that will make you take part in the comfort of God. 2Pet 3:11 says we must be holy people who have dedicated our lives to God. Hebrews 12:14 says without holiness no one can see God. This includes the comfort of God.
The time has come for you to receive comfort from the Lord. Prepare a way for the Lord. Make straight paths with your lives. Comfort ye my people, says your God.
It came to a time when the people of God were in great distress; when their sins drove them to captivity. When they came to their senses and mourn for their sorrows, the Lord sent his prophet to them with a message of comfort. For me, the times in which we find ourselves as congregation today does not differ from that of the Israelites.
Here is how we can obtain the comfort of God. It is specified in all the three texts of the day.
Making a straight path for the Lord
The path mentioned here refers to our lives. We must allow the Lord to straighten and smoothen our lives. Our lives are crooked in all aspects of it. There are valleys and hills in our lives. Unless those valleys are filled and the crooked straightened, there will be no comfort for us.
The Lord rebukes those he loves. We must be ready to accept the rebuke of the Lord before he can comfort us. Last week someone had a dream. In that dream it was clear that those who accept the rebuke of God will worship him better. The comfort of the Lord sometimes comes in a form of his rebuke. We cannot continue in our sin and wrongdoing, and still expect the Lord to Comfort us when those lifestyles bring trouble upon us.
For the past two weeks we have been in a certain mood in this congregation. When I read the passage I realized that God is speaking to us in particular today. Those who are genuinely mourning will surely be comforted. But those who thought that what happened was just one of those things, they are not part of this comfort.
We are all crying for the Glory of God. The Glory of the Lord does not come unless our lives are straightened and smoothened.
Repentance is key to the comfort of the Lord
We see in the third reading, and it was prophesied in the first, that the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was preceded by that of John the Baptist. The message of John the Baptist was repentance. That was how he prepared the way for the Lord who brought comfort and healing to many. There is the call on us to repent from our old way of life – full of greed and deceit if we want to have comfort from God. We cannot continue in our fornications, our adulteries, our drunkenness, our lies, our cheating, etc. and still expect the lord to comfort us. John the Baptist is still telling us today that we must repent before this year ends. Then we can be comforted. It is not enough to cry over your sins and go back to them. Repent and you will see the glory of the Lord. If you don’t you will be a spectator when the glory of the Lord appears. The Bible says all flesh will see it – some as partakers, others as spectators.
Holiness is indispensable
The Apostle Peter puts this in a dramatic and fearful way. The comfort of the Lord is on his second coming. It will be terrible for others. For him holiness is the only thing that will make you take part in the comfort of God. 2Pet 3:11 says we must be holy people who have dedicated our lives to God. Hebrews 12:14 says without holiness no one can see God. This includes the comfort of God.
The time has come for you to receive comfort from the Lord. Prepare a way for the Lord. Make straight paths with your lives. Comfort ye my people, says your God.
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