Dearest Saints.
I want to share different agendas all the time that God has taught me and continues to teach me. The reason why I may have knowledge of many things is definitely not because of any intelligence of my own, but most likely the exact opposite. I learned much from God of the many errors of my ways and the greatfulness of His loving correction in order to be positioned to realize the rich value and wisdom of His instructions. What I like doing in these series is to encourage you to share what God has blessed me with. When we don't share with others of what we have learned, we are like that wicked servant who hid his talent and failed to use it to be a blessing to one another (Matt 25:24-30). We all have a testimony and are highly valuable to someone else. There is not one Christian who can truthfully say that they are not valuable to be an encourager or inspiration to others, or just to be spoon-fed by others, for we are all called to be ministers of God (1 Pet 4:10). God ultimately strengthens us and gifts us in the first place, but we never fulfill our greatest potential to be a rich blessing to others until we learn to surrender to Him, acknowledge our desperate need of Him and believe that He is able to use us no matter what. My desire is to always seek to be an encourager for what God has done in my life. I cannot think of a better way than to share my personal testimony, which is why I was able to write a book in 2009 titled "The Greatest Builder for Our Life". Sharing the Word of my testimony with the Blood of the Lamb is what the Bible tells us that shuts the mouth of our greatest accuser (satan) as found in Revelation 12:11. So I would like to do just that, by showing how great and merciful He has been to me that will shut the mouth of the devil and to never allow his garbage of lies and accusations to be a dumping ground for you.
My testimony goes back to when I was an infant. At that time, I had a case of mild epileptic seizure of which I was put on heavy medication for the first 10-11 years of my life. During that time, I saw myself as inferior to the rest of my family due to the effects of that medication and how it often slowed me down in many ways and displaying violent tempers. As my siblings succeeded in every area of their lives, I saw myself falling behind more and more. This has caused me to become angry (not realizing I was angry with God for what seemed of a great injustice during that present time), with much bitterness and resentment. When my other siblings skipped grades and passed with honors and went on to further their education in Tech school and university with little effort, I struggled much just to maintain an average grade. The result of many of these caused me to receive that disgusting competitive spirit within me and become a fault-finder because I felt angry and inferior. I graduated high school that was anything to brag about my marks. I failed at several jobs badly and started my downward spiral of feeling more inferior, bitter and negative. Later on, there were several times in my early career that I succeeded very well, but because I was competitive, I became proud to flaunt my success to try to prove to myself I was not a failure afterall. Then, because I could not handle success due to my pride, I had taken a turn again for the worse. Maybe that is why God did not want me to succeed early in life because I was not able to handle it. This proves the truth of the Bible when it tells us that pride comes before destruction (Prov 16:18), which I can identify with. Every part of my life hit rock bottom. Of course, alot of people would argue, "Where was God in all of this?" Without going through trials to crucify the hardness of my heart and the flesh (like having a proud spirit, being competitive, being critical of others and many other sinful attributes), I would have continued to live in spiritual darkness and remain blind to Gods love and His ability for me to live the blessed life which He willingly suffered in order to give us. I often lived with negative results simply because I was living in ignorance to Gods Word. As one example, I was just accepting every negative word spoken against me and living that defeated life simply because I was listening to the lies of the enemy through many people and not listening to what God had to say. When I realized many years ago that the devil was the real enemy and had deceived me all those years, the Bible told me that he was already defeated. Then why was I living a defeated life? This was often the result of listening to the lies of the devil more than believing what God says about us. When I reached up to God and repented of this, and humbled myself for His much needed help, I declared with His help alone, to cast out the effects of every negative word by not ever accepting it anymore. Then I learned to use His Word boldly to declare His promises for me because I began to see who He really was and what He wanted to do for me. I know when I have been kicked by the one who was a defeated enemy, I learned to develope that fearless confidence in Him (Heb 10:35) and refuse to allow the enemy to rule my circumstances. I was desperate enough to tell God that I no longer wanted to live according to my passions and ambitions, but to live for Him and to use me mightily to live the way He intended for me to live, and live to be a rich blessing to many worldwide. When I learned the truth about the power of the tongue (Prov 18:20,21) from Gods Word, I chose to boldly declare His victory in what He accomplished through His Son for me, simply because of who He is and choosing to believe what He says and refuse to listen to anything else aside from Gods word which is living a lie. In my present life, I can strangely say that I am glad that God put me through unfavorable circumstances because I now understand how I was blind to having that arrogant, proud spirit that is an offense to God. I can now boldly declare that it is only by His Grace, Mercy, love and wisdom that turned my life around and am now much better off then had I not gone through what I had to go through. I can never declare that God is the greatest Restorer of my life had I not saw the need and how great He was able to restore my crumbled life in the first place. By His Grace, I have accomplished much greater goals than I ever dreamed, since my rebellious pride had been broken and I desire to live to glorify Him. Since I have become successful in many areas, it is a great liberation to hate pride and no longer accept it when I remember my severe trials and past failures. Therefore, I hope this testimony encourages you to know deep within that trials are not simply an unfortunate event, but it is God doing a much required work through you (more than you realize) to become the best you can be for His glory and be most useful to advance His Kingdom. I now realize how valuable His Word is because I can be a living testimony that His Word is TRUTH and everything He says is for our eternal benefit.
The longer we fight against God by grumbling in our circumstances, by not trusting fully in Him, we are going to remain wandering around the same stupid mountain in the wilderness that will just take us longer to enter in to the Promised land (living the blessed life) that He wants us to enter in to. Just like it took the Isrealites 40 years to wander in the desert when it could have only taken them 11 days simply because they harbored doubt and unbelief that caused them to be totally thankless, to grumble against God and Moses.
Be blessed to browse my updated blog and both websites. God bless.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
Saturday 18 February 2012
Monday 6 February 2012
To Seek His Face
Dearest Saints
God often reminds me lately about simply "seeking His face". I didn't know really what that meant. I heard someone explain it like this: "Rather than always quickly going to prayer and asking God to always do this and do that, we need to just simply have that wonderful intimate fellowship with Him". When someone put it this way, I realized that is what I needed to do more than ever. The Lord does truly want us to acknowledge Him to help heal the sick, heal broken relationships, help those in financial need and any other issues that may include employment and other agendas in ones life. Often times, when I look at my situation, I am reminded to stop and seek His face by acknowledging His love for me, His promises that He never leaves me, His wonderful care for me and to give Him thanks with an attitude of gratitude. Just like the prayer Jesus taught His Disciples when He first acknowledges His Father by starting His prayer model "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy Name". In His prayer, He first acknowledges His Fathers awesome holiness before He asks of anything from Him. Seeking His face is not something that is a formula of words or a structured agenda, it is simply putting aside quality time to speak with God from your heart, acknowledging His sweet presence and quieting our spirit to hear Him speak to our heart. I remembered one night in particular when I was outside in the outbacks of northern Botswana and with very little lights to brighten the atmosphere, you could easily see countless stars in the black of night and it was times like that, that I simply look up and smile and say how awesome are You O Lord. He tells us that the heavens declare His glory (Ps 19:1 and Ps 97:6). Just having this quiet time many years ago is one of those times I am able to remember because of having that special time to acknowledge His sweet presence and His awesomeness of knowing each star He has placed.
As I ponder this thought even now, if we are often frusterated and burdened with many cares that we carry around, we need to ask ourselves if we have spent the quality time with God to seek His face as we should? I see more and more that the world is often in need of entertaining ones self all the time that people can hardly go from home to work and back home on the bus without playing games on the ipod, watching a movie or being consumed with all sorts of reading material, wearing headphones on may different electronic gadgets that literally shuts oneself in their own world. I often believe there is a connection of many people having unrest and the result of their need of being entertained all the time who fail to seek Him and His presence because they are so consumed. I often hear that if the devil can't make you mad, he will make you "busy" with distractions. When I do spend quality time with God, by having no distractions to disrupt this tranquil time of peace, I am strengthen much more and enjoy the rich peace He gives us that surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7). The simplicity of spending quiet time with God is an awesome experience. When we go to pray and just quickly give God our "wish list" of things to do, we need to spend rich quality time with Him first. That is why God tells us to seek His face and not His hands (1 Chronicles 16:11). In other words, just to spend quality time with God rather than always just asking Him a list of "to do"s for us and/or for others during prayer. It is important to acknowledge His help in prayer, but I often experience many prayers of people just coming to God with just a "to do" list and forgetting to come in to His presence to worship and acknowledge His holiness, His beauty and goodness. When we spend quality time with Him, it is utmost importance that we do not overlook this. When we come with our list, He already knows what we need and He promises to meet our needs when we first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, by having that quality time with Him. When we get in to the works of the flesh, we become frusterated because we are relying on ourselves to make things happen. God continues to teach me to seek His face by acknowledging our need of Him, our inadequacy without Him (John 15:5) and asking Him to take the lead and ask Him to help us to simply obey the leading of His Spirit because He is the One who causes things to grow (1 Cor 3:7). I find that my day goes much better when I start my day first by inviting Him in to my conversation. When we come to God, let us seek His face and the beauty of His wonderful presence. By learning to receive His peace (which He came to give us in the first place), we need to know a couple of things for us personally, deep within:
a. That He is the fulfillment of perfect love who loves us perfectly (1 Cor 13:4-8). I find it helpful to read this and insert your name as though you hear Him speaking directly to you;
b. Know that He cares for you (1 Pet 5:7);
c. Understand that He knows best. When you acknowledge Him to answer prayer and the door closes, He has something better for you (Rev 3:7,8);
d. Know His omnipresence (that He already promises that He will not leave or forsake you) (Heb 13:5);
e. Know that no other power or authority has dominion over Him. However, it is often stopped by our unbelief or doubt of His love and care for each of us. Unbelief and doubt is a horrible detterent that literally stops the work of God on our behalf. Just like Jesus was unable to do any miracles in His hometown simply because of unbelief (Matt 13:58).
When we come to know deeply and personally of His loving and awesome attributes for us, we can effectively develop that strong confidence, deep inner peace within us, knowing He loves us and truly does care for us. We are only able to obtain this when we learn to spend quality time with Him first and foremost by seeking His face.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
God often reminds me lately about simply "seeking His face". I didn't know really what that meant. I heard someone explain it like this: "Rather than always quickly going to prayer and asking God to always do this and do that, we need to just simply have that wonderful intimate fellowship with Him". When someone put it this way, I realized that is what I needed to do more than ever. The Lord does truly want us to acknowledge Him to help heal the sick, heal broken relationships, help those in financial need and any other issues that may include employment and other agendas in ones life. Often times, when I look at my situation, I am reminded to stop and seek His face by acknowledging His love for me, His promises that He never leaves me, His wonderful care for me and to give Him thanks with an attitude of gratitude. Just like the prayer Jesus taught His Disciples when He first acknowledges His Father by starting His prayer model "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy Name". In His prayer, He first acknowledges His Fathers awesome holiness before He asks of anything from Him. Seeking His face is not something that is a formula of words or a structured agenda, it is simply putting aside quality time to speak with God from your heart, acknowledging His sweet presence and quieting our spirit to hear Him speak to our heart. I remembered one night in particular when I was outside in the outbacks of northern Botswana and with very little lights to brighten the atmosphere, you could easily see countless stars in the black of night and it was times like that, that I simply look up and smile and say how awesome are You O Lord. He tells us that the heavens declare His glory (Ps 19:1 and Ps 97:6). Just having this quiet time many years ago is one of those times I am able to remember because of having that special time to acknowledge His sweet presence and His awesomeness of knowing each star He has placed.
As I ponder this thought even now, if we are often frusterated and burdened with many cares that we carry around, we need to ask ourselves if we have spent the quality time with God to seek His face as we should? I see more and more that the world is often in need of entertaining ones self all the time that people can hardly go from home to work and back home on the bus without playing games on the ipod, watching a movie or being consumed with all sorts of reading material, wearing headphones on may different electronic gadgets that literally shuts oneself in their own world. I often believe there is a connection of many people having unrest and the result of their need of being entertained all the time who fail to seek Him and His presence because they are so consumed. I often hear that if the devil can't make you mad, he will make you "busy" with distractions. When I do spend quality time with God, by having no distractions to disrupt this tranquil time of peace, I am strengthen much more and enjoy the rich peace He gives us that surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7). The simplicity of spending quiet time with God is an awesome experience. When we go to pray and just quickly give God our "wish list" of things to do, we need to spend rich quality time with Him first. That is why God tells us to seek His face and not His hands (1 Chronicles 16:11). In other words, just to spend quality time with God rather than always just asking Him a list of "to do"s for us and/or for others during prayer. It is important to acknowledge His help in prayer, but I often experience many prayers of people just coming to God with just a "to do" list and forgetting to come in to His presence to worship and acknowledge His holiness, His beauty and goodness. When we spend quality time with Him, it is utmost importance that we do not overlook this. When we come with our list, He already knows what we need and He promises to meet our needs when we first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, by having that quality time with Him. When we get in to the works of the flesh, we become frusterated because we are relying on ourselves to make things happen. God continues to teach me to seek His face by acknowledging our need of Him, our inadequacy without Him (John 15:5) and asking Him to take the lead and ask Him to help us to simply obey the leading of His Spirit because He is the One who causes things to grow (1 Cor 3:7). I find that my day goes much better when I start my day first by inviting Him in to my conversation. When we come to God, let us seek His face and the beauty of His wonderful presence. By learning to receive His peace (which He came to give us in the first place), we need to know a couple of things for us personally, deep within:
a. That He is the fulfillment of perfect love who loves us perfectly (1 Cor 13:4-8). I find it helpful to read this and insert your name as though you hear Him speaking directly to you;
b. Know that He cares for you (1 Pet 5:7);
c. Understand that He knows best. When you acknowledge Him to answer prayer and the door closes, He has something better for you (Rev 3:7,8);
d. Know His omnipresence (that He already promises that He will not leave or forsake you) (Heb 13:5);
e. Know that no other power or authority has dominion over Him. However, it is often stopped by our unbelief or doubt of His love and care for each of us. Unbelief and doubt is a horrible detterent that literally stops the work of God on our behalf. Just like Jesus was unable to do any miracles in His hometown simply because of unbelief (Matt 13:58).
When we come to know deeply and personally of His loving and awesome attributes for us, we can effectively develop that strong confidence, deep inner peace within us, knowing He loves us and truly does care for us. We are only able to obtain this when we learn to spend quality time with Him first and foremost by seeking His face.
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
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