Word of Life

Word of Life.

Creating an atmosphere of anointing in your life!

“3And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.  4And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? 5For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me.” Mark 14:1-6

 Worship: – Worth-ship – Giving/ascribing worth to something.

-          The English word “worship” comes from two Old English words: weorth, which means “worth,” and scipe or ship, which means something like shape or “quality.” We can see the Old English word -ship in modern words like friendship and sportsmanship – that’s the quality of being a friend, or the quality of being a good sport.

-   So worth-ship is the quality of having worth or of being worthy. When we worship, we are saying that God has worth, that he is worthy.

-   Worship means to declare worth, to attribute worth. Or to put it in biblical terms, we praise God. We speak, or sing, about how good and powerful God is.

 Anointing – Simply means that you are serving under a supernatural power that is of not your own making. There is a power behind whatever you are doing.

 -    Worship involves our entire relationship with God: our words, our attitudes, and our actions. Our words may be normal conversation, songs or prayers. In any style of speaking, we can declare God’s praises and express our faith reliance on him.

  1. God wants worship not only on our lips, but also in our hearts.
  2. He wants our worship to be sincere — he wants to be the most important thing in our lives, that we are truly submissive to him.
  3. He wants our worship to affect our behavior, that we make sacrifices that we put to death the deeds of selfishness, that we seek justice, be merciful and humble, and help others.
  4. He wants us not just to obey him, but to serve in ways that go beyond specific commands. We are to worship wherever we go, doing all things to God’s glory, praying always, giving thanks always; never ceasing to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Our worship involves how we work, how we drive, and how we choose what to watch on television.

 

With this in mind, we need to realize that all that we do ought to be a sacrifice of worship before the Lord. This is what Paul tells the Romans in Romans 12:1 “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

The problem with us is that we think that worship is what we do on Sundays alone. I bet worship is in everything that we do. In this state, we cannot acquire the anointing or reach a realm that God wants us to reach in our relationship with him. God desires that we will all grow up and get into a deeper relationship with him everyday.

 Peter says “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” 1 Peter 2:2. Spiritual Growth will not come unless we desire it. It is something that we need to work on and always strive to achieve it.

 I know it is the desire of everyone of us to grow into deep intimacy with God. For us to get to that point where  we can say that I know God; I have been to his presence, I know how it feels to be with him; to have that deep conviction that  you are not a stranger before God, we need be like Mary.

 -    When we look at Mary, we see her coming to worship at the feet of Jesus. She was a sinful woman but yet, she knew, for me to touch the heart of God, I need to worship. We need to realize that Worship touches the heart of God. Myles Monroe & T.D Jakes say “If God could ever have a weakness, it would be to worship himself” and because he cannot worship himself, that’s why he created you and me so that we can worship him. She comes at the feet of Jesus, starts crying and wiping her tears with her hair and at the end, she anoints him with some expensive oil.

 -    Mary didn’t care who knew her or not. She didn’t care who was in the house; all she knew was that she needed forgiveness from Jesus and this could only be got through worshiping him. She knew that that’s the only way that she could draw the attention of Jesus to herself. Not through the use of her beauty, money, scented perfume or what – but her action of worship. What do you use to draw the attention of God to yourself?

  1. Giving
  2. Commitment.
  3. Reading many books
  4. Singing.
  5. Devotion etc

 -     There are several lessons that we can draw from Mary’s act and they will help us draw the attention of God to us and as prerequisite to house God’s anointing in our lives. 

  1. Repentance – God wants us to live pure and holy lives and walk blamelessly before him. Yet we are human beings and we are all candidates of sin. Nevertheless, we need to realize that we need to repent every time that we fall in sin.
  • This does not give us the guarantee to sin – the bible gives us a solution to sin. And Paul says flee from any appearance of Sin (1 Corinthians 6 – Sexual immorality.)
  • We need to realize that repentance is the only key to acceptance back into Gods family. John says in 1 John 1:8-10 that “8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” Mary got the forgiveness of her sins.

     2.    Obedience: – We are a very disobedient generation. For God to trust you with his anointing, you need to be obedient.

  • Many of us when God speaks to us, we assume and we do not act. Others we accomplish the assignment partially.
  • You need to know that Partial obedience is disobedience.
    • Saul and the Amalekites.
  • Obedience is better than sacrifice. (1 Samuel 15:22-23) The bible says “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  23 for rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” 
  • Disobedience can cause the Lord to reject you; and at the same time, lose your gifting as well.

   3.       Altars – What kind of an alter have you raised for God?

  • We need to realize that Altars invite the presence of God to come and dwell upon the built altar and the sacrifice thereof.
  • Altars represented the dwelling place of God in the Old Testament. Remember Noah in Genesis 8:21 “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man…”
  • Elijah and the prophets of Ball – 1 Kings 18:30-39. When he called upon the Lord, God answered in fire. Judges 6:17-30; Gideon demolished the altar built to Asherah and raised an altar for God.
  • We can raise several alters in our lives without knowledge. Ask God to help you see the altars that are not godly in your life and tear them down.

 4. Brokenness – Mary was broken before Jesus. We need to know that God uses broken vessels and a broken vessel can no longer retain its contents.

  • A broken vessel is powerless to withhold; therefore, it freely spills out all that is within it. This is the purpose of the breaking. It is not so God can take pleasure in our pain. No! The pain is part of the process when we are broken, but it is not the purpose.
  • Our mind, will and emotions are the ingredients that make the fragrance of life so valuable. We must be willing to break the box around our hearts to release our praise unto God.
  • Many worship inside the boxes of religion, pride, religious personalities or musical styles. Only through this process the pure love of a broken life will become the anointed fragrance of worship by which we can adorn our Savior. Worship touches the heart of God and it is so precious to Him.
  • Honest, untainted and real worship is the secret of touching the heart of God. It is something that pleases Him. In Isaiah 1, Jeremiah 6, God told the people “I am tired of your sacrifices. I am tired of your incense because you don’t obey My Word. You don’t follow My Word”. God was against those sacrifices. It is not that He is against all sacrifices. He was against the sacrifices that don’t cost us anything.
  • Let us not allow God to break us himself, instead, let us be broken before him and He will pick up the broken pieces of us and put us back together and mould us into the kind of a vessel that He wants. Let us not reach a point like Jonah was.

 5. Pay the price/Cost. – David was known as a man after God’s heart. You know why God loved him? He knew how to touch God’s heart and how to give his best to God.

  • David had vowed that he would not give god anything that would not have cost him something. “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” 2 Samuel 24:24
  • What does it cost you to love Jesus? Do you know that it cost Jesus His entire life in order to love us? Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for fragrant offering, a sacrifice and us to God.”
  • Mary broke the alabaster box that contained the oil and anointed Jesus. What is that that you value so much that you can’t let go for in exchange for God?

Amen!

May 31st, 2010 Posted by | Daily Inspirations | 2 Comments

What can I do for you?

29 as Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  31 The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 33 “Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”  34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.” Matthew 20:29-32 

There are times in our lives that we cry out to Jesus and we know exactly what our needs are; other times we think God knows our needs, still other times that we have no clue what we need, yet our spirit compels us to turn to the only source we know.  Why would Jesus ask this question of us?  Is it to test our self-awareness? Is it our motivation? Is it to test our understanding of who Jesus is?  Do we underestimate the ability of God to provide for us?  Are we even aware of our deeper needs, or do they get overshadowed by our inability to see past the surface? At times, we are so pressed in a corner by our needs till we are not able to see beyond the situation that we are in. But does this change the fact of who we are and the inheritance that we have in God through Christ Jesus? Certainly not!

                We need to realize that we serve a God who knows us. He knows our needs and what we want; yet He calls and waits for us to ask of him thus He can answer us. This is what the bible says in Matthew 6:8 “…For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” What an amazing father that we have. As I said, despite him knowing what we want, this is the call he makes unto us in Luke 11:9-10 and He says “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Jesus being our brother, a friend and God know us well; there is no need for you and me to beat about the bush when we go to him. All we need to do is go straight to God – OUR FATHER and tell him what we want.

Look at this example that Jesus gives. He says “What father among you, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him?” Luke 11:11-13 Our God; heavenly father is a just God and He gives us what we ask of him. If our earthly fathers do give us what we ask of them, how then will our Heavenly father do? The problem we have as believers is when we ask once, we stop it at that; yet Jesus says clearly, “how much more will your heavenly Father give… to those who ask and continue to ask Him?” When you knock a door, you do not stop until it is opened or you realize that there is no one in the house to open the door. But in the case of our heavenly father, the bible tells us that his ears are inclined to hear and hearken to our cry as his children.

Take a case scenario in John 5:2-9; Jesus comes on a Sabbath day to the sheep gate and He met a man who was lying there for 38 years. In Vs. 6, Jesus asks him a very simple question; “Do you wish to get well?” This was a yes or no answer but you realize that the man started giving Jesus a story of what has been happening the last 38 years that he has been lying there instead of answering the question that he was asked. This is apparently how we behave when we go before the Lord. We bubble out so many irrelevant words whereas God has told us clearly in his word that He knows what we need and all we need to do is ask of him; but in our asking, we ask the wrong way. Jesus said in Matthew 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” I totally love how the message bible puts this verse across. It says “And when you pray, do not heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over) as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. (Refer to 1 Kings 18:25-29). You should know that you are approaching your father and know that you have a relationship with him and that gives you and added advantage to how you address him. You can go before him without any fear because He (God) is your father.

One thing that we really need to check of whenever we go before the Lord to ask him of what we want is our Desire or motives. Just before this encounter with the two blind men in the scripture above, Jesus asked the same question of the mother of James and John (vs. 21). Her response was; ‘Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ Her desire from Jesus was for power for her sons.  How different that is from the request made by the blind men, who were seeking mercy and physical healing. We see a contrast between two brothers asking (here through their mother, in Mark’s gospel more directly) Jesus ‘expand my power,’ and two blind men who ask Jesus, ‘expand our vision.’ This is where the test of our motive comes. James says it clearly in James 4:2-3 that “You are jealous and covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask. [1 John 3:15.] [Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.”

When God asks you what you want him to do for you, be on your guard lest your desires overtake you. Let us have the spirit and the desire that was in the two blind men. They did not want anything more than them regaining their lost sight. Is the desire of your heart for power, influence, and domination?  Or, do we, like the blind men, recognize our poverty, brokenness, blindness – our need for God – and simply seek the mercy that Jesus so compassionately gives? Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”  How shall you respond?

Amen!

May 25th, 2010 Posted by | Daily Inspirations | 7 Comments

Take it by Force!

12And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12 (King James Version)

 12And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize-a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].” Matthew 11:12 (Amplified Bible)

 We are living in days when the world has changed a great deal. And as I said in my last devotion on Monday, it is the high time that we got ourselves ready for the end time and the second coming of Christ which has drawn more nearer than we first began this walk of faith. You will realize that everything that is being done and accomplished in the world today; there is some sort of Force exerted. Kingdoms and governments are being changed each and every day; the political arenas are charged with each camp exerting its own force, money and all the resources they have to see that their agenda goes through. In the business world, people have become so shrewd in their own way and everyone is seeking means and ways to make sure that they succeed in their businesses.

                Jesus spoke clearly to his disciples and told them that his greatest mandate from the father wasn’t to come on earth to eat, drink and make merry with them; he had a more important agenda – to advance the kingdom of God. He goes ahead and tells them that there is opposition in the advancement of this kingdom and whoever wants to be involved needs to be a man or woman of war – a violent man. John 10:10 says “The thief comes to steal, kill and to Destroy; but Jesus came so that we could have life and life abundantly”. It is this promise that the devil doesn’t want to see being fulfilled in the lives of the children of God of which you and I are. Jesus encouraged his disciples and told them that in this world they would be persecuted; they will be scorned, hated and all manner of things will be done to them; yet he promised them one thing and told them “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Jesus promised them peace and because He himself overcame the world, so shall we.

There are promises that God has promised us and can only be achieved by force. God has called us his sons (John 1:12) and we are joint-heirs in his kingdom with Jesus (Romans 8:15, 17) and thus we have the right to inherit all that is ascribed to us. But it is so unfortunate that you will realize that many of us as Christians, we are living an underprivileged life as well as living below the standard because we have not realized who we are and thus we have not claimed what is ours. Jesus speaking to his disciples in John 16:23-24, he tells them “And when that time comes, you will ask nothing of me [you will need to ask me no questions]. I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that My Father will grant you whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]. Up to this time you have not asked a [single] thing in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete.” Have you asked for what is yours?

You will realize that God knows what you need because that’s his word. David said in Psalms 139:4 that “Before a word is on my tongue 
       you know it completely, O LORD.” Before any word of prayer and supplication comes from your mouth, God knows it. In the same line, as much as God knows what you need, He will not do it until you ask of him. Remember what Matthew 7:7 says? Why don’t you apply the same principle and claim your inheritance? For this to happen, one, you need to know who you are. If you know who you are and what is rightfully yours, you will not struggle to ask what you need from your father. Daniel 11:32b says “they (people) that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” The exploits that these people will do includes possessing what is rightfully theirs. Daniel was a man who knew who he was and thus he would claim whatever he wanted from God and get it. Remember him praying for 21 days waiting for his answer which was blocked by the prince of Persia. His prayer was answered on the first day that he started praying.

Secondly, you need to have persistence or be persistent. If Daniel gave up after the first week, he wouldn’t have gotten his answer. It is persistence that made God send angel Michael to come and help the angel who was held up by the prince of Persia. (Daniel 11:13-13). You do not have to give up easily when your answer is delayed. This is the principle of knocking. Knocking indicates persistence and fervency – meaning that you are not ready to quit till the door is opened for you.  Remember the parable Jesus gave? In Luke 18:1-7, Jesus gives a parable to his disciples showing them the importance of being persistent in prayer. And this is what He says in verse 3 “And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him with a plea…” The bible says that she didn’t give up coming to the unjust judge till her plea was sorted. What makes you think that when you continually pursue after something or ask God for something severally that He will get bothered? Knock and knock the door till it is open-end for you.

Thirdly, people who inherit or take their possession by force are people who are not deterred by what they see physically. In your quest to posses what is yours, I want to assure you that the road will not be easy. You will meet with obstacles and it is up to you to decide whether they will hinder you from proceeding or you will use them as stepping stone to make you get nearer to your blessings. Rev. Elias Ndeda says “There will always be a refining crisis that will bring us to defining moment which will eventually empower us to step into greatness. You need to make up your mind to stand out and to be counted. There are things that life will throw at you that you will need to break through then break out of, only then you will not breakdown. You do not have to specialize your condition (what you are passing though), but to commonize it. For there has no temptation that has come to you but such as is common to all men.” It is up to you to decide how you handle the stumbling blocks that you meet on the road to possessing your blessings.

Caleb is one is one man who realized this and in Joshua 14:6-12, Caleb tells Joshua, “Now therefore give me this mountain, I am as strong this day as I was forty five years ago.” He did not see the Anakites who lived there as though they were a great hindrance to him inheriting the mountain as he was promised by Moses. Are you ready to fight for your inheritance? Are you strong as you first began or you have become weak along the way? Thirdly, people who take hold of their possessions see beyond the obstacles. In Numbers 13:30, after Caleb, Joshua and the 10 spies come back from spying the land, the ten spies gave a discouraging report to Moses and the children of Israel but Caleb silence them and said “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we are well able to overcome it.”  This clearly shows that Caleb saw beyond what the other men saw. You need to realize that whatever you allow your eyes to see is what you will use to measure yourself or perceive yourself in the same level. These men saw giants and they perceived themselves as grasshoppers in their eyes.

What is hindering you today to posses what is rightfully yours? God has not called you to live a mediocre or oppressed life. He came and gave you life and life in abundance (John 10:10b) and thus, you need to enjoy and live as a child of the king. Do you know who you are? Are you persistent? Do you see beyond the obstacles that you meet? If so, hang on there, you are in the right track to posses what is yours. Being violent to possess your inheritance doesn’t mean using physical tactics to acquire what is yours – No! It means that you are forceful in the Spirit. You will realize that Daniel and Caleb first waged war in the spirit before it was manifest in the physical. Daniel was in prayer for 21 days then he got his answer. The bible tells us that Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit and thus they were able to see them possessing the land despite the descendants of Anak inhabiting the land. He chose to be different. For you to be different, it has to start from your Spirit, then it manifests in the physical. How I pray this day that the Lord will enable you to have a different spirit that will be like that of Christ, Daniel and Caleb and thus; you will forcefully take what is yours.

Amen!!

May 5th, 2010 Posted by | Daily Inspirations | | 4 Comments

Do not Conform but be Transformed!

 “1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2

Wow! It’s a new morning, a new day in a new month in the year of our Lord Jesus. I thank God for whom He has been to me up to this moment in the year. T’was just the other day when we were sending New Year blessings to each other and now, the year is advanced and grown. What does this depict to you and me? It reminds us that the coming of our Lord Jesus is drawing nigh and nigh and the question remains: Are you and I prepared for his second coming? Will the son of Man meet faith in us when he comes back? (Luke18:8) We are living in a changing world everyday and if we are not very careful, we will find ourselves swallowed in the happenings of the world and we will find ourselves choked and eventually our faith will have died. (see Matthew 13:20-21).

In light of this; Paul urges us as brethren that we should continually be on guard and make sure that we do not conform to the world but we be transformed by the renewal of our minds. Paul was echoing the same words that King Solomon had said that we should “guard our hearts with all diligence” Proverbs 4:23. This is what Paul tells the Romans; “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:2. When Paul writes to the Romans, he knew that this was happening/would happen in our times. You will come to realize that what the bible speaks about is what was happening then and even today, it does still happen.

Did u know that in the English language, to conform means to change on the outside and to transform means to change on the inside? Paul used these two words very deliberately… "Do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" vs2. God desires that we are changed from within but the world is only interested on the outward changes. The world concentrates only on what is outward, which doesn’t last… but God desires that we are totally changed from within; from our soul, spirit and mind and this will last forever. As Christians, we should concentrate on what is inside of us… who we are, and what God created us to be… not on material things such as beauty, wealth, power, fame and our minds should be in tune with God’s will. Our way of thinking and how we see the world should be totally different from how the world views.

It is so unfortunate that many of us die when we have not reached or achieved our dreams; visions and purposes in life for which we were created for simply because at one point or another, we conform to the standards of the world rather than us being renewed each and every day to see things in a ne dimension and thus in the long run, we lose focus on what we are supposed to be focused on and our passion is quenched. Take a look at the people in the bible. Many of them were faced with severe challenges some of them warranting death if they did not comply or conform to what was demanded of them; yet they all stood their grounds and held on to what and in whom they believed and god saw them through.

Take a look and the four Jewish boys in Babylon; Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel also known as Belteshazzar in Daniel 1. When they are taken captive in Babylon, the king was looking for fin young men o serve in his palace and these four young men found favour and they were chosen. They were to be given a special diet with the delicacies that were being served at the kings table. The bible tells us that Daniel “determined in his heart that he would not defile himself by [eating his portion of] the king’s rich and dainty food or by [drinking] the wine which he drank…” Daniel 1:8. You will see later that they were healthier than those who were eating from the kings table. Yet they were feeding on vegetables and water. The four of them could have taken advantage and fed on the delicacies from the kings table bearing in mind that they had not had such food for a while since they were captives or slaves in Babylon yet, they were purposed not to conform.

In Daniel 3, we see them again still holding on. There is a fiery furnace that is lit and everyone who doesn’t bow to the image that the king had erected would be throne there. But they still remain focused. See what they tell the king: "Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up." Daniel 3:16-18 See the courage and determination in these young men but how many of us can dare to risk their faith nowadays and stand on their faith and risk their lives depending on God? They said… even if God doesn’t save us, let it be known to you that we will not serve your gods… you will realize that when most of us are faced with similar challenges in our places or work or life, we tend to give in fast so as to save our lives and we fail to trust in God.

As the story unfolds, we see that the eunuchs were not satisfied with the favour that these four young men were receiving. Little did they know that the favour was not from the king but from God. They go ahead and conspire against Daniel in regards to his prayer time. But Daniel unshaken, he goes into his house at his usual hours; opens the windows wide and lifts up his hands in prayer as he was used to. (Daniel 6:10.) How many of us compromise our Christian disciplines simply because there is something that has been said to us or someone has threatened us? Are you jobless and the only option you have so as to get that job is either to bribe or give in to sexual demands and offers so as to gain your job or retain the same job? It is time you got transformed and renewed and stood to your ground and on what and whom you believe in.

I could go on and on and speak of Esther. She decided that she wouldn’t be like another queen as others were. She stood in the gap for his people who were on the verge of being finished. She said… “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." Esther 4:16. She was not going to be deterred by the laws that were placed but she was ready and willing to die for her people rather than sit there and see them perish while she could do something. How many of us sit back and see our brethren suffering and perishing while we stand in a place where we are able to step in and help? Let us cease to be selfish minding of me, myself and I issues. Let us rise up and be counted upon. Look at Joseph. His masters’ wife saw the glory of God being radiated in his handsomeness and she wants to sleep with him; but Joseph knowing who he was he told her “my master does not concern with anything in the house because I am in-charge lest the food that he eats. I have access to everything I need and he has withheld nothing from me except you. How then, could I violate his trust and sin against God?" Genesis 39:8-9. Joseph could have taken the chance to sleep with Portiphar’s wife as there was no one to see them but he knew God in heaven was a witness to what he was doing.

How many times have we betrayed the trust that God has in us? How many times have you given in to demands that have made you conform to the standards of this world rather than you being transformed and transforming those around you? Jesus asked; will the son of Man meet faith in us when he comes back? (Luke18:8). Will God find you hold onto the faith when he comes back? Paul encouraged the Hebrews and told them: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.   Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3.

Are you ready to throw away anything that hinders you from being who you are in Christ? What are the things that entangle you that you are not able to hold onto this faith or make you compromise? What are the things that pull you back or draw you back to sin? What is that that separates you from your maker? Today, as you and I go on with the schedules of this day, I want us to answer this question that Paul asked: “Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword? For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35, 38-39.

Amen!!

May 3rd, 2010 Posted by | Daily Inspirations | , , | 4 Comments

   

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