Be a Part of GOD's Plan

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do, Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him and shall bless themselves by him? (Genesis:18:17&18)

What a great privilege enjoyed by Abraham! It's as if the Lord didn't want to execute His plan without getting an input from His friend, Abraham!. If Abraham enjoyed such a close relationship with the Lord, we are called to have an even more closer relationship than him because we are His sons and daughters through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even today, He is looking for people with whom He can share His heart before executing His plans on this earth.

The wonderful thing here is that the Lord gives an explanation for revealing what is about to come to Abraham. So, why did He reveal it? For Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him and shall bless themselves by him. He revealed it not because of the past or present state of Abraham, but because of what he will become - the future state of Abraham. What a wonderful Father we have! In his past, Abraham was an idol worshiper, at present he is a barren man doubting the promises of GOD. But in the future he is not going to be same and that's what the Lord was looking upon. The Lord deals with us not because of our past or present but because of our future. After all, He sees the end from the beginning! He knows the potential that is within us and He knows what we will become in the future.

Do not stay away from GOD thinking about your past or present state. He is ready to reveal His ways and plans to you inspite of how bad your current state of affairs maybe. All He is expecting from you is to have a close relationship with Him. It's up to us to become a part of GOD's plan.

Blessings!

Know His Promptings, Promptly!

Moved (Prompted - emphasis mine) by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, (Luke:2:27&28)

Now, Simeon had a promise from the Lord that he won't die without seeing the Messiah. Having received the promise, all Simeon had to do was to wait you would think. While waiting is a part of the process we all had to go through when we have a promise from the Lord, the most important part during our period of waiting is to be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If Simeon hadn't been sensitive enough to the prompting of the Spirit, he wouldn't have come into the temple courts on time to see Jesus, thereby seeing his promise getting fulfilled. Promise is followed by promptings. The word prompt means "of an event or fact) cause or bring about (an action or feeling)". The promptings of the Holy Spirit brings about an action within us that will take us closer to the promise or like in Simeon's case -a promise getting fulfilled. Promise is the destination; promptings are directions.

The promptings of the Holy Spirit are exclusively for an individual. While prophecies and promises may come through another person, the promptings of the Spirit can be experienced only by the individual concerned. Samson's life serves as an example. Judges:13:25 says "the Spirit of the Lord began to stir (prompt -emphasis mine)him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol." In the beginning of chapter 14, we read about how Samson went to Timnah and fell in love with a Philistine woman. When he wanted to take her as his wife, his parents weren't fond of his idea. Judges:14:4 says "His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel." The Spirit of the Lord had prompted Samson and not his parents. Naturally that's the reason they resisted his idea at first.

Learning to know the promptings of the Lord can be cultivated only by having a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit. The more we get to know Him, the more sensitive we will get to His promptings. It will be a slightest of nudge in our spirits that requires immediate action. Let us learn to know his promptings, promptly, by spending time with Him!

Blessings!

Kingdom or Nothing

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life [his blessed life in the kingdom of God]? Or what would a man give as an exchange for his [blessed] life [in the kingdom of God]? (Matthew:16:26)

Nothing can be given as an exchange for the blessed life available to us in the kingdom of GOD. This isn't the life in heaven after death that we often think wherever eternal life or kingdom of GOD is mentioned. Jesus was talking about the blessed life right then and now. It is on going. Every born again believer has the eternal life in the kingdom of GOD, which is happening on earth right at this very moment. We will realize the value of the blessed life in the kingdom only when we start to experience it. It's a life full of health, happiness, provision, financial security and in short an abundant supernatural life.

The life of Esau serves as a wrong example of a person who traded the blessed life for a single meal and paid dearly for it. He is listed as an example we ought to be careful about not imitating in Hebrews:12:16&17 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. 

The real incident is listed in Genesis:25:29-34 where a tired and famished Esau comes home and begs Jacob for some stew. Jacob refuses and lures Esau into selling his birthright for stew. True to his name, Jacob deceives Esau into selling his birthright for a single meal. He wasn't going to die as he thought he would if he doesn't eat right away. At that moment, all Esau wanted was to eat and his birthright doesn't mean a thing to him. Sometimes, even in our lives when the going gets tough instead of holding on to our birthright (blessed life in the kingdom of GOD) we are deceived by the devil (just like Esau was deceived by Jacob, the deceiver) into trading it for something less. For example, when we are sick, we don't access the healing that is available to us, but we are deceived by the thought that it is from GOD for a mistake that I made. It applies to every situation in our life. We are trading our birthright whenever we are walking in sickness, poverty, frustrations and in short a sorrowful life. Let's be careful and get rooted in the Word of GOD to enjoy and see the kingdom of GOD manifest in our lives fully. When we start to experience the kingdom of GOD in our lives, we will never trade it for anything.

Blessings!

Fire Power

I was meditating on a few instances from the Bible where it is quoted as GOD Himself came down to earth! The first one is from Genesis:18:20&21 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” The Lord had come down as a judge to decide what kind of judgement had to be brought upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had they been found guilty of sin. He did find them guilty and brought fire upon the whole city.

The second one is from Exodus:3:7&8 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Here the Lord decided to come down as a deliverer on hearing the cries of His people.

The third one is from Genesis:11:5-7 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Here again, the Lord came down to earth to stop people from becoming self reliant instead of trusting the Lord.

All these three instances are from the Old Testament, so it begs the question, what about today? Does the Lord come down as a deliverer, judge or in some other form to fix broken things on earth? He did once in New Testament, in the form of Jesus, who came and took the sins of the whole mankind and made us righteous. But today, He has made us, His believers to be like Him to perform His functions of delivering people from darkness and bringing fire upon cities (not a fire of destruction but a fire of revival by the outpouring of Holy Spirit). GOD need not come down everytime like in Old Testament days, since He has given us the same authority and power by the in dwelling of His Spirit in us. In Acts:10:38 we read about Jesus how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. We are called to do the same. Let's ask the Lord to be fill us with His power, so that we can represent Him in the right way and transform cities by bringing a fire of revival.

Blessings!

Just Do It

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Luke:5:5)

Walking by faith requires simple obedience whether it makes sense or not. Jesus asked Simon Peter to cast his net at the same place where he toiled all night and returned empty handed. Casting the net at the same place where you have caught nothing is foolishness in fishermen's dictionary but it was doable. The Lord always asks us to do something that is doable. Things that can be done with our ability and he never asks us to do something that is beyond our capacity. When we do things however foolish it may seem, we are openly declaring our trust in Him. That's when faith kicks into action and brings the miracle.

There are a couple of other incidents from the Bible where people blindly obeyed the Word of GOD and saw astonishing miracles as a result of it. We read about the widow at Zarephath in I Kings chapter 17. Elijah, the prophet asked her to make a small loaf of bread out of the flour that she had kept to prepare a last meal for herself and her son before they could die. Is it doable? Yes, but does it make sense? No. Still the widow did as instructed by the prophet and she never ran out of flour after that.

We read about the first miracle performed by Jesus in John chapter 2, at the wedding in Cana. When they ran out of wine, Mary told the servants to do what Jesus tells them to do. Jesus asked them to fill the jars with water and then just to draw it out and serve it to the guests. Is it doable? Yes, but did it make any sense? Of course, no. Still the servants did as they were told and when they served, it wasn't the water they filled but it had turned into wine. A wine better than the one they had ran out of. Next time, when the Lord tells us to do something which doesn't make sense, lets not reason it out with Him. Just do it!

Blessings!

Revelation is the Solution

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew:16:17&18)

Jesus asked the disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter answered correctly not because of his own intellect or his experience of walking with Jesus daily, but it was revealed to him by the Father Himself. What made GOD reveal this truth to Peter instead of the other disciples? Because if we look at the characteristics of Peter, he is always the one who takes bold initiatives and is not afraid to get in front of the line of fire. Those traits along with his eagerness to give Jesus an answer made him the apt candidate for receiving the revelation from GOD.

Daniel was another person with eagerness and hunger for GOD. When Daniel stood before the king to interpret his dream he said "As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind." (Daniel:2:30) The revelation came to Daniel because he was eager to solve the problem rather than run away from it and not because he was intellectual. What maybe hidden from scientists and economists, the Lord will reveal it to us if we are willing. We ought to be eager to solve the problems faced by our society at large and not to shy away from it. When we are eager to get problems of this world sorted out, the Lord Himself will provide the solution to us through revelations.

David is another one. Goliath is the problem that everyone in Israel was trembling about, but not David. He was so eager to get him out of the way that he started inquiring the men in the battlefield about the reward for killing him. The Lord responded to David's eagerness by helping him defeat the Philistine. The next time you face a problem in your family, workplace or neighborhood ask the Lord for the specific solution so that through you His name will be glorified.

Blessings!