Dearest Saints,
While we need to be humble to allow the power of God to work mightily through us, we also need to have that courageous and bold confidence in the Lord. Being bold in the Lord in an arrogant way is seeking to have His power to benefit with yourself in mind. Having that true spirit of being courageous and bold in the right way is delighting to see the power of His goodness work through you to represent Him favorably and to be a blessing to others. When a person believes they are being selfish by being confident in the Lord and knowing how much He favors us, this is false humility which is a form of pride. False humility is the same as pride because people are trusting in their own judgment and opinions rather than simply believing and receiving the truth of what He tells us to believe. So when we fail to be bold in Him, we have that form of false humility which is having a proud spirit, because we believe otherwise when He tells us to be bold, courageous and to fear not. It seems contradictory that God tells us to be humble, yet at the same time, to be bold. We need to be bold by having that fearless and courageous confidence in the Lord simply because we highly trust Him alone to help us in every endeavour because He wants us to rely on Him for everything. When we put our confidence in Him, we can trust Him personally to help us make every decision to lead us down the right path when we acknowledge Him (Prov 3:5,6). We are righteous before Him when we have confidence of His divine protection, even when we may be threatened by life's challenges. We are told to put no confidence in the flesh (ourselves or relying solely on other people, Governments, etc), so that we allow Him to be our Refuge, which He encourages us to do so. When it comes down to it, we always have confidence in something, in someone or another. When we have true confidence in Christ alone, that means we should never have any place by having confidence in anything or anyone else. Just like the Bible talks about God and mammon. You either love one or love the other. You cannot love both, nor can you love neither. The Bible tells us that we either love one or the other. The same thing holds true, that we either put our confidence in flesh (ourselves, our jobs, our status, our material possessions, etc) or we put our confidence in God. You cannot have confidence in both or neither (read Matt 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Here is a test to determine this; when we are more afraid of losing our jobs, etc., we are actually putting our confidence in our workplace, employers or organizations to support us more than relying on the One whom we should look to as our Provider. When we fret about being lonely and thinking we may never marry (for those who are single), we end up putting confidence in someone else to satisfy our needs rather than trusting God who is truly the only One who is able to satisfy our need, having that inner joy and peace that the world can never give. When we fret about losing our identity when we think of work or no longer being a part of a social group, or losing our status, we tend to identify more about who we are by what we accomplish, what we do or what groups or organizations we belong to instead of simply knowing our true identity in Christ. It all comes down to finding out if we are more fretful or worried about certain areas of our lives or having that rich inner peace by being confident in Him. We need to continue to build our confidence in the One who loves us more than anyone or anything else could ever do (John 3:16).
We are justified when we have that bold confidence in Him, because He tells us that the Righteous are as bold as a lion (Prov 28:1). Being righteous is being in right standing with God because we choose to believe what He tells us, regardless of what we think. The works Jesus tells His Disciples is simply to believe in the One whom the Father has sent (John 6:29). He also tells us in Heb 4:16 that we need to approach His Throne of Grace boldly (having confidence in Him) so we can receive His much needed Grace and Mercy which we desperately need at all times whether we realize it or not. Having that bold confidence starts with knowing how much He loves you because of what He Himself willingly went through for you and me personally. I like the song that reminds me if I should forget His love for me, just remember what He went through the Garden of Gethsemane and willingly went all the way to Calvary for me. I find it important that we need to speak boldly that Jesus loves me because He went to the Cross and laid down His life for me!! He loves me with an everlasting love. He loves me like no other friend. When we speak these words and other promises of His loving Word to ourselves, it is important to speak them audibly with confidence to yourself because I find that we believe more of what we say about ourselves than anyone else. By our words, we are either justified and acquitted, or we are condemned and sentenced (Matt 12:37). When we receive Him (who is that perfection of love) for us personally, we can walk boldly and confidently in Him because it is receiving that perfect love (that Only He has perfected) is able to cast out every fear (1 John 4:18). For perfect love casts out all fears. Walking in true humility (knowing our inabilities without the Lord) while having that bold confidence of knowing Him, knowing who we are as His Children, His inheritors and receiving the fullness of His love for us, we will be ever so strong in the Lord which He encourages us to be (Eph 6:10). Walking in the power of His Spirit always lives under the rule of love for Him and for one another. Just like operating in the gifts of the Spirit (prophesying, speaking in unknown tongues, gift of miracles, gift of discernment of spirits, etc (read 1 Cor 12:4-12) everything is to be under the rule of love. As an example, I always say that love is not the exception to anything, but is always the RULE for everything. Therefore, whatever we learn about the Word and how we can have more of Him in our lives, love is always the rule for everything in order for His power to work effectively through us.
When we walk in true humility, having the true characteristics of being strong in the Lord, having bold confidence in Christ and allow the rulership of His love to work through us, the power of God is able to do exceedingly beyond our expectations because we simply believe His promises that He truly does love me (insert your name).
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/
Friday, 25 May 2012
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Power Through Humility
Dearest Saints
I realize more and more that if we want the power of God to be evident in our lives, we need two essential ingredients. First, we need to be humble before God. It seems as though when we talk about humility, I believe alot of us get the wrong impression of humility as though it is a negative emotion to pursue, by thinking lowly about ourselves and just accepting every negative comment anyone may say of us. There is a big difference between humiliation and humility. Humiliation is receiving everything negative about our character, ability which brings about discouragement. Anytime we become discouraged by any form of humiliation is always from the enemy and has nothing to do with true humility that God talks about. On the other hand, true humility which God tells us to develop is having that grace and peace of being honest about our weakness before God while at the same time that allows His power to work supernaturally through us in ways beyond what we normally could ever do in our own strength. When a person is not truly humble before God, they are simply deceived. Because the Bible tells us that without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). And the Bible only speaks genuine truth to us. We just need to have the wisdom to be humble enough to receive it. When we come humbly to declare the truth about ourselves with a humble spirit, we open the door for His power to work mightily through us simply because we do not allow our own natural strength or natural ability to get in the way of His supernatural strength and ability that works effectively in our lives. True humility confesses this promise: that without God , we can do nothing. But like Paul himself says: That I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). Having this spirit of humility allows us to always appreciate God, knowing who He is, knowing how God richly loves us, is able to always help us in our time of need and care for us in ways we could never do in every detail of our lives. When we are humiliated (which only comes from the enemy), as a Child of God, we DO NOT have to accept any lies from any man or devil who speaks contrary to the Word of God. Humility does not accept any words spoken from lying lips, but with wisdom, a humble Christian accepts His instrucations and uses the authority He has given to each of us by rebuking the lies of the enemy who tries to bring us down with his lies. By confidently believing His Word is having humility before God because we believe the authority of His Word no matter what. True humility comes by only accepting and speaking the power of Gods encouraging Word over us and being submissive (being humble) to receive His loving Words and instructions for our lives. True humility the way God intended for us to have never be allowed to ever hang your head low, but holds our head high that allows to shine His light through us without allowing us to have any arrogance. True humility always considers His way regardless if it makes sense to us or not. We become proud when we think our way is better than Gods way because it may not make sense to us. That is why we are to become as a Child because a Child believes his father no matter what. A child does not have to always try to figure things out when his/her father says something. When we stop to consider how God orchestrates the universe, creates every living thing, sustains every life and all things are held together by the power of His Word, who are we to question God? That is why being proud and arrogant is becoming as a fool (if I may use that term). Another aspect of true humilty is to consider the advice of others and stop ever thinking our opinions are the only ones that matter. Humility values the advice of others. Just like when God tells us to forgive others, we need to do just that instead justifying ourselves, especially when we know is contrary to His Word. Humility is willingly accepting His instructions, even though our flesh would like to think otherwise. One of the greatest characteristics of humility is being thankful to Him in all ways, even in tough times. Also being thankful to others. True humility also regards others greater than us in a balanced way. I say that in a "balanced way" because I know I can have the habit of taking things to the extreme. Therefore, when we think more highly of others, true humility does not put ourselves down because of it. If we expect to have the confidence of Christ within us like He tells us to be, we need to demonstrate that by walking with confidence and having that positive attitude knowing that He loves and cares for me and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. Again, its always a matter of having balance. For differing weights are an abomination to Him, when we take everything to the extreme (Prov 16:11; Prov 20:10 and Prov 20:23). Being humble allows the power of God to work within us. When we are not honest before God about being humble and our total inability, we are simply deceived. Being humble in a balanced way allows us to invite His Spirit to enable us to do far greater works. The reason why there are many people who seem to have more of the power of God working in their lives than others is because they humbly confess their inability and invite His Spirit to enable them. Thats why Paul mentions that when he is weak (by admitting his inadequacies), he is then strong (which allows the power of God to do much greater work through us) 2 Cor 12:10. Being proud is a roadblock to allow the power of God to work on our behalf. It's also the same that when we confess our faults one to another, our land (lives) will be healed rather than trying to hide your weakness to pretend to be "holier than thou". However, I find it important when we share our faults one with another, that we share only with those whom we can trust and are mature in the Lord. Without having true humility before God, you can never expect the wonderful working power of Gods Spirit to work mightily through you. If you want the power of God to work through you, we need to simply be honest and make our confession known to God that we can do nothing without His help and invite Him to lead us and direct us in every area of our lives because He is far greater than any of us and He knows best about everything! People are never strong in the Lord because they themselves have a strong character, but because they express their need of Him that invites His Spirit to work mightily through them. Another key ingredient I find absolutely necessary along with humility is having that bold confidence in Him which I will continue on next. 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/
I realize more and more that if we want the power of God to be evident in our lives, we need two essential ingredients. First, we need to be humble before God. It seems as though when we talk about humility, I believe alot of us get the wrong impression of humility as though it is a negative emotion to pursue, by thinking lowly about ourselves and just accepting every negative comment anyone may say of us. There is a big difference between humiliation and humility. Humiliation is receiving everything negative about our character, ability which brings about discouragement. Anytime we become discouraged by any form of humiliation is always from the enemy and has nothing to do with true humility that God talks about. On the other hand, true humility which God tells us to develop is having that grace and peace of being honest about our weakness before God while at the same time that allows His power to work supernaturally through us in ways beyond what we normally could ever do in our own strength. When a person is not truly humble before God, they are simply deceived. Because the Bible tells us that without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). And the Bible only speaks genuine truth to us. We just need to have the wisdom to be humble enough to receive it. When we come humbly to declare the truth about ourselves with a humble spirit, we open the door for His power to work mightily through us simply because we do not allow our own natural strength or natural ability to get in the way of His supernatural strength and ability that works effectively in our lives. True humility confesses this promise: that without God , we can do nothing. But like Paul himself says: That I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). Having this spirit of humility allows us to always appreciate God, knowing who He is, knowing how God richly loves us, is able to always help us in our time of need and care for us in ways we could never do in every detail of our lives. When we are humiliated (which only comes from the enemy), as a Child of God, we DO NOT have to accept any lies from any man or devil who speaks contrary to the Word of God. Humility does not accept any words spoken from lying lips, but with wisdom, a humble Christian accepts His instrucations and uses the authority He has given to each of us by rebuking the lies of the enemy who tries to bring us down with his lies. By confidently believing His Word is having humility before God because we believe the authority of His Word no matter what. True humility comes by only accepting and speaking the power of Gods encouraging Word over us and being submissive (being humble) to receive His loving Words and instructions for our lives. True humility the way God intended for us to have never be allowed to ever hang your head low, but holds our head high that allows to shine His light through us without allowing us to have any arrogance. True humility always considers His way regardless if it makes sense to us or not. We become proud when we think our way is better than Gods way because it may not make sense to us. That is why we are to become as a Child because a Child believes his father no matter what. A child does not have to always try to figure things out when his/her father says something. When we stop to consider how God orchestrates the universe, creates every living thing, sustains every life and all things are held together by the power of His Word, who are we to question God? That is why being proud and arrogant is becoming as a fool (if I may use that term). Another aspect of true humilty is to consider the advice of others and stop ever thinking our opinions are the only ones that matter. Humility values the advice of others. Just like when God tells us to forgive others, we need to do just that instead justifying ourselves, especially when we know is contrary to His Word. Humility is willingly accepting His instructions, even though our flesh would like to think otherwise. One of the greatest characteristics of humility is being thankful to Him in all ways, even in tough times. Also being thankful to others. True humility also regards others greater than us in a balanced way. I say that in a "balanced way" because I know I can have the habit of taking things to the extreme. Therefore, when we think more highly of others, true humility does not put ourselves down because of it. If we expect to have the confidence of Christ within us like He tells us to be, we need to demonstrate that by walking with confidence and having that positive attitude knowing that He loves and cares for me and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. Again, its always a matter of having balance. For differing weights are an abomination to Him, when we take everything to the extreme (Prov 16:11; Prov 20:10 and Prov 20:23). Being humble allows the power of God to work within us. When we are not honest before God about being humble and our total inability, we are simply deceived. Being humble in a balanced way allows us to invite His Spirit to enable us to do far greater works. The reason why there are many people who seem to have more of the power of God working in their lives than others is because they humbly confess their inability and invite His Spirit to enable them. Thats why Paul mentions that when he is weak (by admitting his inadequacies), he is then strong (which allows the power of God to do much greater work through us) 2 Cor 12:10. Being proud is a roadblock to allow the power of God to work on our behalf. It's also the same that when we confess our faults one to another, our land (lives) will be healed rather than trying to hide your weakness to pretend to be "holier than thou". However, I find it important when we share our faults one with another, that we share only with those whom we can trust and are mature in the Lord. Without having true humility before God, you can never expect the wonderful working power of Gods Spirit to work mightily through you. If you want the power of God to work through you, we need to simply be honest and make our confession known to God that we can do nothing without His help and invite Him to lead us and direct us in every area of our lives because He is far greater than any of us and He knows best about everything! People are never strong in the Lord because they themselves have a strong character, but because they express their need of Him that invites His Spirit to work mightily through them. Another key ingredient I find absolutely necessary along with humility is having that bold confidence in Him which I will continue on next. 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/
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Whom to Put Our Hope
Dearest Saints
With so many pressures and cutbacks that the Government is creating, great pressures are being put on people everywhere. Those that are most affected by these pressures are those who put their trust in the wrong resources, whether it includes other people, workers, our career or Government, etc. This reminds me where God tells us that worldly sorrow brings forth death (2 Cor 7:10) because it negatively affects people more when we put our hopes in anyone or anything else other than God. When people put their hopes and trust in a commodity, organization, Government or resource other than God, sooner or later, every one of these resources and agencies are going to fail each of us. When they do, people become angry, discouraged and distraught because they put their hope and expectations in someone or something that is anything but stable. Also, when people put too much expectations on other people or organizations to provide their needs, they are the ones who tend to become more angry because their level of expectation is far greater when those whom they put their expectations on are not able to meet their high expectations. Just like the term that I once heard about "Cognitive Dissenence". This term is based on the level of how much a person expects and the actual outcome of that agenda. This may be related to couples in marriage or our careers or anything else one may put high hopes and expectations towards. The level of Cognitive Dissenence reflects the outcome of a persons attitude. When Cognitive dissenence is greater, people tend to become more upset because their level of expectations were much too high to the level of the actual outcome they encounter. People who put their trust in someone or somethings modestly will not become as intolerable as those who always demand higher results from others all the time. When a person accepts other people and realizes and accepts the faults of others, they have a calmness of understanding by being realistic when others are quick to point the fault of others. What we need to do is to put our hopes and expectations in the One who will never fail us, which is Christ Jesus and Him alone. I know there are alot of people who would question this, but I want to ask this: Who/what are you putting your hope and expectations in? Are we truly humbling ourselves before God, or our we blaming God or others from the events happening in our lives? If we are, we need to face ourselves in the mirror and point the finger at ourselves by always asking the question, what can I do to improve the situation? I realize more and more that there will never be a time or place in our lives when we think we know anyone enough to be able to judge them, because we never know the deep truths of why people act the way they do. That is why only God is able to be the Judge who always judges righteously.
It has often happened in my past where I was critical of someone when I soon found out afterwards why people are the way they are, and when I realized I was judging them harshly, I felt sorrow for them instead and often felt bad for mis-judging them. It reminds me when we judge critically, we always mis-judge because we can never be in a place where we can rightfully judge, which is why God is displeased when we judge and we will be judged equally by the One who is the Righteous Judge. However, we are called to judge circumstances, not people because God does tell us that we are to judge all things (1 Cor 2:15).
When we stop allowing ourselves to be offended and realize that our oppressors are the real victims and pray for them, it is a liberation of following the awesome wisdom of God who is the One who knows all things and what is the best medicine for our very soul. Following His awesome wisdom, loving instructions and having a high value for His Word will always inherit peace that surpasses all understanding, joy unspeakable and full of glory. His Word will give you beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning a garment of praise instead of heaviness (Isa 61:3). We may not understand why things happen the way they do, but that's OK. When we are told to be like a Child, a Child doesn't always understand his/her father, but they always trust and believe their father cares and loves them and a Child always believes their father knows what is best for them regardless. By putting our hopes in the One who truly does love and care for us, in the end, will never disappoint without ever having any regret. Regret always comes later to those who choose to do things their way when it contravenes the loving wisdom of His instructions.
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/
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Focus on Jesus
Dearest Saints.
I was talking to a long time friend of mine this past week, who once walked with the Lord and has since backslidden and no longer going to Church or being an active participant living as a Christian. He mentioned that him and his wife had a bad experience with a Church they were involved with many years ago. That the leaders of the Church they once belonged to, actually shunned them because they chose to make a decision that was by no means ungodly, but the Church did not approve of. The actions of the Church were most ungodly when they would turn around the other way when some of the elders and leaders of this church would see this couple in the distance. They basically disassociated themselves from this couple who are my friends.
It's most unfortunate that often times, when disagreement comes with one another, that the leaders of some Churches or Christians who may have been walking with God for many years act very ungodlike when we are told to be imitators of Christ (Eph 5:1). Can you imagine for one minute if Christ, who knows when He Himself disapproves of us doing certain things, that He would forever turn His back on you and me? Yet, that is the way many Christians act and that should not be the case. What kind of account are we going to give the Lord because we turned off many people because of the way we acted that is often no different from the world when we should be representing who Christ Himself is. By living the life of love and living out the true meaning of what love is as mentioned in 1 Cor 13:4-8, no Christian will ever be justified by acting with contempt with one another no matter what. Although many people within the Church may have caused many others to turn from Christianity while those of whom have been offended by the Church leaders or any Church members, we are to remember that we need to fellowship one with another to Worship our dear Lord, who alone is worthy. We go to a worship service and meet together with the Church to worship the Lord. I find that many people who have left the Church and Christianity itself is the result of focusing much of their attention on the leaders, or their denominationalism or the hierarchy of the leadership of their Church when they should put their focus on Jesus instead, because He alone never fails. When one may get turned off from one another, we need to maintain our focus because when we set our mind of following the loving counsel of Christ, we should never turn away from the One who lived a life of uncompromising and unparallelled love for each of us.
When I look back on my life, I was often overwhelmed by the circumstances of life. I used to fret and complain when I focused my mind on my circumstances rather than turning my mind and heart to Christ and being reminded how He willingly gave Himself up so much by leaving Heavens glory to come to earth in the form of a Servant and often being despised, ridiculed and forsaken by His followers and ultimately, to a most inhumane suffering and death of the Cross when He did that for me personally (including each one). The problem is when we get our focus off of Him, His love for us and end up putting our expectations on man, Government or other circumstances which ends up causing us to be bitter and resentful because we put our hope in someone or something that will eventually fail us. This is when people leave the Church because they fail to set their heart and mind on Christ. No man or any other source can ever take the place of Christ and when we focus our mind upon Him, I believe we are motivated by His love. For His joy is truly our strength (Neh 8:10), and we receive that when we keep our mind and heart fixated upon Him.
God is true to His Word because I am living proof of it in so many complex situations in my past. There were times I didn't understand why, but God had to put me through the fire so that I would take my affections off from worldly ambitions and be made most useful by Him. Many times, Gods answer came clear after the fact, when He knew all along what was best for me. I needed to be strong through those times by maintaining my trust in Him because He loves me, cares every detail for me and He knows and wants the best for us.
I want to encourage you that no matter what, don't get trapped by putting your expectations on anyone else or any other source other than God alone. Because He alone is the only One who will never fail you. Just think when the Saints experienced the death of Christ, they thought it was all over and the enemies rejoiced. But little did they realize that what seemed to be the greatest day of hopelessness and despair, this day was in fact the biggest day of victory, and the manifestation of that victorious celebration came only a few days after what seemed inevitably a great loss. Remember, the darkest part of the night comes just before dawn. Like the celebration of Resurrection Day soon came after the day Christ was crucified. Compared to "Good Friday", it was when I was at my lowest times in life that worldly ambitions that once had me bound were broken off and that was the day that I was set free. Then came the "resurrection" of rising up with Christ that I was able to enjoy a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him because of what we considered very unfavorable circumstances.
I hope this encourages you to refuse to give up, be determined by His Grace to live to His glory by keeping your heart upon Him and what He suffered, endured and accomplished for you personally. And by His Grace, be determined not to be dominated by our circumstances simply because He has Risen!!
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
I was talking to a long time friend of mine this past week, who once walked with the Lord and has since backslidden and no longer going to Church or being an active participant living as a Christian. He mentioned that him and his wife had a bad experience with a Church they were involved with many years ago. That the leaders of the Church they once belonged to, actually shunned them because they chose to make a decision that was by no means ungodly, but the Church did not approve of. The actions of the Church were most ungodly when they would turn around the other way when some of the elders and leaders of this church would see this couple in the distance. They basically disassociated themselves from this couple who are my friends.
It's most unfortunate that often times, when disagreement comes with one another, that the leaders of some Churches or Christians who may have been walking with God for many years act very ungodlike when we are told to be imitators of Christ (Eph 5:1). Can you imagine for one minute if Christ, who knows when He Himself disapproves of us doing certain things, that He would forever turn His back on you and me? Yet, that is the way many Christians act and that should not be the case. What kind of account are we going to give the Lord because we turned off many people because of the way we acted that is often no different from the world when we should be representing who Christ Himself is. By living the life of love and living out the true meaning of what love is as mentioned in 1 Cor 13:4-8, no Christian will ever be justified by acting with contempt with one another no matter what. Although many people within the Church may have caused many others to turn from Christianity while those of whom have been offended by the Church leaders or any Church members, we are to remember that we need to fellowship one with another to Worship our dear Lord, who alone is worthy. We go to a worship service and meet together with the Church to worship the Lord. I find that many people who have left the Church and Christianity itself is the result of focusing much of their attention on the leaders, or their denominationalism or the hierarchy of the leadership of their Church when they should put their focus on Jesus instead, because He alone never fails. When one may get turned off from one another, we need to maintain our focus because when we set our mind of following the loving counsel of Christ, we should never turn away from the One who lived a life of uncompromising and unparallelled love for each of us.
When I look back on my life, I was often overwhelmed by the circumstances of life. I used to fret and complain when I focused my mind on my circumstances rather than turning my mind and heart to Christ and being reminded how He willingly gave Himself up so much by leaving Heavens glory to come to earth in the form of a Servant and often being despised, ridiculed and forsaken by His followers and ultimately, to a most inhumane suffering and death of the Cross when He did that for me personally (including each one). The problem is when we get our focus off of Him, His love for us and end up putting our expectations on man, Government or other circumstances which ends up causing us to be bitter and resentful because we put our hope in someone or something that will eventually fail us. This is when people leave the Church because they fail to set their heart and mind on Christ. No man or any other source can ever take the place of Christ and when we focus our mind upon Him, I believe we are motivated by His love. For His joy is truly our strength (Neh 8:10), and we receive that when we keep our mind and heart fixated upon Him.
God is true to His Word because I am living proof of it in so many complex situations in my past. There were times I didn't understand why, but God had to put me through the fire so that I would take my affections off from worldly ambitions and be made most useful by Him. Many times, Gods answer came clear after the fact, when He knew all along what was best for me. I needed to be strong through those times by maintaining my trust in Him because He loves me, cares every detail for me and He knows and wants the best for us.
I want to encourage you that no matter what, don't get trapped by putting your expectations on anyone else or any other source other than God alone. Because He alone is the only One who will never fail you. Just think when the Saints experienced the death of Christ, they thought it was all over and the enemies rejoiced. But little did they realize that what seemed to be the greatest day of hopelessness and despair, this day was in fact the biggest day of victory, and the manifestation of that victorious celebration came only a few days after what seemed inevitably a great loss. Remember, the darkest part of the night comes just before dawn. Like the celebration of Resurrection Day soon came after the day Christ was crucified. Compared to "Good Friday", it was when I was at my lowest times in life that worldly ambitions that once had me bound were broken off and that was the day that I was set free. Then came the "resurrection" of rising up with Christ that I was able to enjoy a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him because of what we considered very unfavorable circumstances.
I hope this encourages you to refuse to give up, be determined by His Grace to live to His glory by keeping your heart upon Him and what He suffered, endured and accomplished for you personally. And by His Grace, be determined not to be dominated by our circumstances simply because He has Risen!!
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
Saturday, 18 February 2012
The Word of My Testimony
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/
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/
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/
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Standing for Justice - Gods Way
Dearest Saints,
I sense more and more that a great injustice is coming against Gods people through mis-understanding. Often times, when we become offended we are giving the devil access in to our situation that allows him to control over many areas of our lives. The devil and his angels can only be effective to work against us to the measure we allow him. We are told not to give him a foothold or an entry way in to our lives or any of our situations, which means that he cannot have any access unless we allow him access (Eph 4:27). I have come across lately that people are allowing themselves to become easily offended when we should be standing our ground against the enemy who is infiltrating his ways in to many Christians lives when we shouldn't allow him to. One area I see taking place is when we separate ourselves from other Christians because we have allowed ourselves to become offended. We need to stand against the real enemy (satan) because he will do whatever he can to bring strife, division, factions, separation between Gods people, when we shouldn't allow him the power to do so in the first place. It's just like that wolf that wants to separate a sheep from the rest to make his final attack. When we see ourselves becoming detached, we need to not only be promoters of love, unity, peace, but at the same time, we need to stand strong against the enemy not to allow strife, factions or division to come between us by coming to Him in prayer and interceding one for another. Christ tells the Disciples that a kingdom cannot stand when it is divided (Matt 12:25) and the enemy often weakens the Church when we are not vigilant to pray for unity. We need to know who the enemy is and stop seeing everyone else as our enemy and join forces in love, prayer, unity for Gods power to move through His people and pray against injustice (all that goes against Gods Word and His will). Afterall, this is Gods will, which should also be our will. The injustice I often see not only affects ourselves, but affects the body of Christ and ultimately, it is an injustice against Christ Himself when we forsake aggressively being a Peacemaker. Some instances of injustice that comes against Gods people and against Christ is when we fail to encourage each other (Heb 3:13), when we fail to pray one for another when we see a Brother or Sister in need. God forbid that I should fail to pray one for another. We also fail when we are not strong to take courage in the Lord when He often tells us to be strong because we know His love for us.
When Moses sent out the 12 spies to spy against the land of the enemies of God, only Joshua and Caleb had that fearless courage to come against the enemy not because they were strong in themselves, but they had the confidence that the Lord was with them because they knew how much God loved them and they knew who they were in Christ. God saved Joshua and Caleb because they were the ones who wholly followed the Lord because of it (Num 32:12). We need to have more Joshuas and Calebs today in our Churches, that sees the work of the enemy and have that bold confidence in the Lord to come against and defeat the enemy in our midst who often comes against us. When we see negativity or separation coming between Brothers and Sisters, we cannot afford to become offended which only allows the enemy to have dominion in our midst, but we need to recognize this spiritual thief that tries to come against Gods people by standing in the gap by boldly praying Gods will to be done, which promotes love, peace and unity that protects and brings deliverance. When I see how the enemy destroys families, we need to cry out for Gods Justice to prevail. The injustice is when we see family divisions taking place and we fail to cry out to God for His Justice (Love, mercy, peace, unity) and boldly declare this because I believe He paid every price to give us victory in every area of our lives. Although my wife is still unsaved, I see her as a victim of the real enemy who continues to blind her. As God was revealing to me, I need to declare His Justice for my wife so she will no longer be a victim of the enemy and come to know Christ personally and live the blessed life that Jesus suffered so that we may have. In Isa 59:4, God tells us that none calls out to Him for Justice or pleads for His Truth to prevail. I know Justice will eventually prevail because God tells us in Isa 89:14 that the foundation of His Throne is Justice and Judgement, Mercy and Truth goes before His face. When I look at my past, I feel God has received injustice from myself when I have allowed the enemy to have dominion because I failed to stand in the gap and call out for His Justice (to pray one for another, to fight for my family and to do my part to allow God to fight our enemy). So rather than coming against our spouse, Brother, Sister or others, we need to call out to God for His Justice to prevail so that they will receive the blessings of God and not be a victim of the real enemy, satan. Gods Justice ALWAYS promotes love, peace, unity and prosperity in every area of our lives. A great injustice is when we do not believe or doubt that His blessings is for us or doubt that He will help us. This is a great injustice against our Lord because of the tremendous price He paid so we can live a life in victory (2 Cor 2:14) and in abundance (John 10:10b). I asked God to give me courage and boldness, having confidence in Him (Heb 4:16; Heb 10:35; Prov 28:1) to help me stand in the gap for one another when we need to do that and refuse to allow any offense to come upon me. We cannot stand in the gap for each other when we allow ourselves to be offended in any way. We need to say like Jesus did to tell satan who worked through Peter and say to him: Get thee behind me satan, for you are an offense to God. I believe we can add our family and Church members to that sentence. Even though he spoke to Peter, he directed His rebuke to the real enemy, satan. I believe allowing ourselves to be offended is a weapon for our enemy to be used effectively that weakens the power of God in our lives and within our Church. When people have said bad things against me, I ask God to remove any offense from me and start praying for that individual because God tells us in Proverbs 19:11 that it is to our glory that we overlook all offenses, because we are aware of who the real enemy is. Instead of the devil becoming a great enemy against us, we can become a greater enemy against him when we submit to Gods will and do what He would require us to do.
Standing against injustice Gods way is not coming against one another, but against the real enemy one for another when we desperately need to do this more than ever.
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/
I sense more and more that a great injustice is coming against Gods people through mis-understanding. Often times, when we become offended we are giving the devil access in to our situation that allows him to control over many areas of our lives. The devil and his angels can only be effective to work against us to the measure we allow him. We are told not to give him a foothold or an entry way in to our lives or any of our situations, which means that he cannot have any access unless we allow him access (Eph 4:27). I have come across lately that people are allowing themselves to become easily offended when we should be standing our ground against the enemy who is infiltrating his ways in to many Christians lives when we shouldn't allow him to. One area I see taking place is when we separate ourselves from other Christians because we have allowed ourselves to become offended. We need to stand against the real enemy (satan) because he will do whatever he can to bring strife, division, factions, separation between Gods people, when we shouldn't allow him the power to do so in the first place. It's just like that wolf that wants to separate a sheep from the rest to make his final attack. When we see ourselves becoming detached, we need to not only be promoters of love, unity, peace, but at the same time, we need to stand strong against the enemy not to allow strife, factions or division to come between us by coming to Him in prayer and interceding one for another. Christ tells the Disciples that a kingdom cannot stand when it is divided (Matt 12:25) and the enemy often weakens the Church when we are not vigilant to pray for unity. We need to know who the enemy is and stop seeing everyone else as our enemy and join forces in love, prayer, unity for Gods power to move through His people and pray against injustice (all that goes against Gods Word and His will). Afterall, this is Gods will, which should also be our will. The injustice I often see not only affects ourselves, but affects the body of Christ and ultimately, it is an injustice against Christ Himself when we forsake aggressively being a Peacemaker. Some instances of injustice that comes against Gods people and against Christ is when we fail to encourage each other (Heb 3:13), when we fail to pray one for another when we see a Brother or Sister in need. God forbid that I should fail to pray one for another. We also fail when we are not strong to take courage in the Lord when He often tells us to be strong because we know His love for us.
When Moses sent out the 12 spies to spy against the land of the enemies of God, only Joshua and Caleb had that fearless courage to come against the enemy not because they were strong in themselves, but they had the confidence that the Lord was with them because they knew how much God loved them and they knew who they were in Christ. God saved Joshua and Caleb because they were the ones who wholly followed the Lord because of it (Num 32:12). We need to have more Joshuas and Calebs today in our Churches, that sees the work of the enemy and have that bold confidence in the Lord to come against and defeat the enemy in our midst who often comes against us. When we see negativity or separation coming between Brothers and Sisters, we cannot afford to become offended which only allows the enemy to have dominion in our midst, but we need to recognize this spiritual thief that tries to come against Gods people by standing in the gap by boldly praying Gods will to be done, which promotes love, peace and unity that protects and brings deliverance. When I see how the enemy destroys families, we need to cry out for Gods Justice to prevail. The injustice is when we see family divisions taking place and we fail to cry out to God for His Justice (Love, mercy, peace, unity) and boldly declare this because I believe He paid every price to give us victory in every area of our lives. Although my wife is still unsaved, I see her as a victim of the real enemy who continues to blind her. As God was revealing to me, I need to declare His Justice for my wife so she will no longer be a victim of the enemy and come to know Christ personally and live the blessed life that Jesus suffered so that we may have. In Isa 59:4, God tells us that none calls out to Him for Justice or pleads for His Truth to prevail. I know Justice will eventually prevail because God tells us in Isa 89:14 that the foundation of His Throne is Justice and Judgement, Mercy and Truth goes before His face. When I look at my past, I feel God has received injustice from myself when I have allowed the enemy to have dominion because I failed to stand in the gap and call out for His Justice (to pray one for another, to fight for my family and to do my part to allow God to fight our enemy). So rather than coming against our spouse, Brother, Sister or others, we need to call out to God for His Justice to prevail so that they will receive the blessings of God and not be a victim of the real enemy, satan. Gods Justice ALWAYS promotes love, peace, unity and prosperity in every area of our lives. A great injustice is when we do not believe or doubt that His blessings is for us or doubt that He will help us. This is a great injustice against our Lord because of the tremendous price He paid so we can live a life in victory (2 Cor 2:14) and in abundance (John 10:10b). I asked God to give me courage and boldness, having confidence in Him (Heb 4:16; Heb 10:35; Prov 28:1) to help me stand in the gap for one another when we need to do that and refuse to allow any offense to come upon me. We cannot stand in the gap for each other when we allow ourselves to be offended in any way. We need to say like Jesus did to tell satan who worked through Peter and say to him: Get thee behind me satan, for you are an offense to God. I believe we can add our family and Church members to that sentence. Even though he spoke to Peter, he directed His rebuke to the real enemy, satan. I believe allowing ourselves to be offended is a weapon for our enemy to be used effectively that weakens the power of God in our lives and within our Church. When people have said bad things against me, I ask God to remove any offense from me and start praying for that individual because God tells us in Proverbs 19:11 that it is to our glory that we overlook all offenses, because we are aware of who the real enemy is. Instead of the devil becoming a great enemy against us, we can become a greater enemy against him when we submit to Gods will and do what He would require us to do.
Standing against injustice Gods way is not coming against one another, but against the real enemy one for another when we desperately need to do this more than ever.
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/
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