Thursday, June 28, 2012

Intimacy vs familiarity

God loves to have an intimate relationship with us. But are we having an intimate relationship with Him?

I think many a time some of us may have gotten too familiar with the teachings taught that we forget how blessed we are to be able to receive the gospel, week in and week out, freely. Are we getting "tired" of hearing the same o' preachings? Are we getting complacent and too familiar with the sermons preached? Are we taking the privilege of been able to hear the good news preached for granted?

Maybe we have unconsciously taking all that we have listened to on a weekly basis for granted. We think it is nothing new as we think we have already heard of it sometime in the past. There is no fresh revelation shared behind the pulpit. There seems to be no new revelation of Jesus Christ and His finished work at the cross.

Wake up! What's needed is not necessarily "fresh" revelation of Jesus Christ but a revelation of Him and His finished work afresh. We need to be reminded of His finished work at the cross day in day out. We need to practice His presence all the time. We need Him to be intimately involved in our every dealing. We need Him! Period.

For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to die at the cross that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Wow! What kind of love is this that the Heavenly Father would sacrifice His only begotten to die for the world? That's the lavish love of our Abba Father!

He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us at the cross so that all our sins are forgiven, once and for all. Jesus took the punishment for all our sins upon Himself so that we shall no longer be punished for any sin or transgression that we commit. The payment for our sins has been more than paid at the cross for Jesus Christ is more than our payment. He actually overpaid for our sins.

We are made the righteousness of God in Christ for what Jesus had done at the cross some two thousand years ago. It is the Lion of Judah who was hanged at the cross. It is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed on our behalf at the cross. It is His precious blood that made us whiter than snow. It is His body that has healed us from all forms of diseases and pains. It is Jesus and Jesus alone at the cross. He was crucified in the midst of two thieves.

He is always in our midst. He loves to turn things around for our good. He wants to make right what is not. His desires for us are thoughts of good and grandeur. He wants us to live life to the fullest. Full of His life in us! For without Him, we can do nothing. He is the center of our lives. He is our all in all!

When Jesus was walking on earth, His disciples were basically with Him all the time. Yet, on a few occasions they seemed to be far away from Jesus. For example, when Jesus calmed the storm after His disciples cried out to Him while He was sleeping at the stern of the boat they were in, they were all in awed. They seemed to be so amazed by what their Master had done. Yet, the centurion knew who Jesus was and only asked Jesus to speak the word for his servant to be healed. Jesus marveled at his faith. He knew the Lord though he was not with Him all the time like His disciples.

It is an intimate relationship with Abba Father that He loves. It is the heart knowledge of Jesus and His finished work at the cross that He sees and treasures. Draw close to God for it brings Him delight when we are close to Him. Hallelujah!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Jesus Christ is always with you

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. - Joshua 1:5

When God swore He will never leave nor forsake His people, He meant it with a iron-clad guarantee! A double confirmation that He will always be with us. He loves us so much that after Jesus Christ was crucified at the cross, He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us so that He can be our very present help in times of need. The Holy Spirit is not any less than Jesus the Son or God the Father. He is the third party in a tripartite God.

Under the law, the Holy Spirit will come on a king, priest, prophet, deliverer, and even the disciples and will leave once the assignment was completed. That was how the Holy Spirt operated under law. But under grace, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell in us forever! He will never leave nor forsake us. He comes because of the finished work at the cross by Christ Jesus and a prove that we have been justified.

But that's NOT all. We are talking about Jesus and Abba Father not leaving us nor forsaking us! The Lord Jesus is always with us. We can practice the consciousness of Jesus' presence in our lives. See Him getting involved in our every thought, speech, and action. See Him taking over challenging circumstances. For we are resting upon His shoulders and He is ever so willing to carry us on His shoulders.

The word tells us when Jesus was at Lazarus' tomb that the Heavenly Father always hears Jesus' prayer and Jesus proclaimed loudly for the sake of those that were around Lazarus' tomb. Today, the loving Abba Father always hears our prayer. He loves to hear from us and to commune with us every moment of our lives! If only we would come to Him every moment of our lives. I know it may not be possible to always talk with Abba Father all the times while we are at work or involved in other endeavors, but we can, whenever possible, speak in tongues. That's heavenly language that we can use for building us up.

I know there may be times where we feel and think God is far far away from us. We sometimes think that our thoughts, deeds and speeches are not perfect and as a result of that, we dare not draw near to Abba Father. Know this truth, our closeness to Abba Father is not dependent on our thoughts, deeds and speech but based on the finished work at the cross by Christ Jesus!

It is the precious blood of Jesus that was shed at the cross that qualifies us to be one with God. It is Jesus' resurrection on the third day after His crucifixion that justifies us. And because He took all the curses at the cross, we are ridiculously and irreversibly blessed! We are blessed with the blessings of Abraham.

Beloved of the Lord can always draw near to God anytime, anywhere. The Lord loves to be intimately involved in our every dealing. Be conscious of Jesus' presence in your life and see how He turns things around for our good. Hallelujah!

Friday, June 22, 2012

You can only depend on God

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, " With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26

Without men, God will not. Without God, men cannot.

Yet men still think they are their own captains of their own ships. Truth be known, men, in and of themselves, cannot do anything without God! We think we are able and capable through the experiences or trainings that we have garnered. We think we can will our way through all obstacles. There is a saying, "If it is to be, it is up to me!". O, how wrong could it be?

I am not saying we do absolutely nothing but to do things with the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit. It is not inactivity but God directed activities! And when we do God directed activities, there will be Godly results. We don't strive to produce the desirable outcome but work out what's within and the result will be there. For only God can put us at the right place and at the right time.

God's divine's timing is always perfect. He will make all things beautiful in His time and all things will turn out to be good for those in Christ. Do remember it is God who gives the increase. Our bosses may be a channel where God's financial blessing flows to us but it is not the only channel. If your boss is not rightly giving you your due compensation, God can change your boss. I mean there may be a literal change of your superior at work or you may end up with another company, or even starting your own.

When we come to the end of ourselves, that's when God's grace can flow unhindered in and through us! As long we think we still can do something about a difficult situation, a challenging problem, an problematic issue, or just dealing with our kids, God's grace will be hindered. But when we totally depend on His grace, all things will turn out for our good!

It is only when we are completely emptied of our own self-efforts to improve ourselves do we see ourselves flowing mightily in the grace of God. It is a flow and the outcome if it is fruit, Godly result. The blessings of the Lord make one rich and no toilsome labour can add to it. That's what God wants all these while. He loves us so much and it brings Him great joy when we allow His grace to flow in and through us mightily for He loves to do miracles in our lives through Him. He loves to bless us with more than enough. That's our loving Abba Father.

When we let go and let God, there is an unspeakable peace within. This is a peace which surpasses all understandings that will keep our hearts against all anxieties and fears. Keep practicing the consciousness of the presence of God in our lives and be in the flow of God's living rivers and see outcomes which are beyond our wildest dreams! Hallelujah!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I have a rich inheritance in Christ!

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:19

The bible says my God shall supply. Oh, what a personal provider my God is! The word says my God will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. O! How rich my Lord Jesus is will be measure of the riches and abundance of the providence I have in this world. For as Christ is, so am I in this world! I have Jesus Christ in my life!

Material riches is not the only blessing that I have received from Christ Jesus. But make no mistake about the truth that God wants me to be financially prospered. He wants us to be blessed in every aspect of our lives. He wants our souls to be prosperous and be in good health as our souls prosper. He wants us to be so blessed that we become a blessing to those around us.

We are blessed with the blessings of Abraham. Abraham was healthy and wealthy. He lived to a good old age one hundred and seventy five. Abraham also had lots of livestock and gold and silver. That was financial prosperity.

God wants us to be blessed in every area of our lives. He wants us to be in the pink of health. It will not be glorifying to God if His people are sick and poor and broken. It is His covenant at stake when Christians are sick and poor for He is rich God. However, when things happen, what are we believing at that time? Are we having a wrong belief about God or the right belief about God when things happen?

The doctrine that we receive determines our belief system. Are we seeing God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as a loving God who is ever ready to help us and to lift us up or are we perceiving a demanding God who is always on a sin hunt? For how we see God will drastically determine our belief system which will dictate our corresponding actions.

If we think God is a miser and always demanding from men, then we will always be working for our blessings. We will always be doing things to please God. We will probably be self-centered for that's how God is been perceived. We may be even working hard at our salvation. Nothing can be further from the truth!

God is a loving God! For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us at the cross so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but has everlasting life. God wants us to reign in this life and not the eternal life that follows when we meet Jesus face to face. He wants us to put our trust in Him even when situations are heading southward. He wants to deliver us out of every pit that we put ourselves in. He wants to prosper and bless us beyond our wildest dream! For He will give exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think of. So ask big and God has to top it. Dream big and God will still supply with more than we can dream of.

It is better to put our trust in God than to put our trust in men. Keep believing God and His word and see His wondrous working power manifesting in our lives. Hallelujah!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Jesus is the Answer

In the midst of a storm, there is Calm. In the midst of a challenge, there is Victory. In the midst of sickness, there is Healing. In the midst of fear, there is Peace. In the midst of bondage, there is Freedom. In the midst of sorrow, there is Joy. in the midst of sin, there is Grace!

Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself at the cross some two thousand years ago to die on behalf of us. He took our place of sin so that we can have His position of righteousness. He was made sin at the cross so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Christ! At the cross, the divine exchange has taken place and Jesus declared, "It is finished!". The redemptive work is completely complete!

What does it mean to be deemed then? Simply put: Jesus is the Answer to our every issue. First of all, Jesus Christ has made us the righteousness of God in Christ when we accept His gift of salvation. We are redeemed from eternal damnation. We can have the zoe life of God. All our sins are forgiven, past, present and future. The precious blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us from our sins whither than snow. It is a continual cleansing. We can never fall into sin any more than we can be called Big Mac when we visit McDonalds.

I am not referring to our deed, thought, and behavior. We will never be perfect in these aspects. But we are made perfect as far as the punishment of sin is concerned for Jesus Christ has borne it all at the cross. God will never punish us for our sin anymore and He declared our sins and lawless deeds, He remembers no more! God cannot lie. The bible does not say God will not lie, it tells us God cannot lie!

Rest assured in our salvation by the blood of Jesus. That is the most important redemptive work Christ has accomplished at the cross. With it, comes the rest of the promises in the bible. If God has not withheld Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to die for us at the cross, what more will He through Christ freely gives us all things to enjoy!

If fighting a terminal disease is the concern, know that without a shadow of doubt, Jesus has already provided the healing. He is Healer Himself. The bible tells us whosoever came to Jesus was healed. It didn't say we have to look to our faith to be healed. The bible says by His stripe, we are already made whole. In fact, when we look at Jesus, faith becomes unconscious. To help us further, Jesus instituted the Holy Communion. The more we partake of the Holy Communion, we more we are been made whole, complete.

If dealing with financial lack is the challenge, know that at the cross Jesus was made poor that we through His poverty shall me made rich. The rich in the context is financial prosperity. The bible says we are to be the head and not the tail, we are to lend and borrow. How then can be the head and the lender if we are dead broke. Jesus wants to provide us with more than enough for us to be a blessing around our loved ones. He wants us to prosper and be in good health as our soul prospers.

If mending a relationship is the issue, know that Jesus at the cross restored a son to His mother. Jesus wants to be the center of our relationship. In a marriage setting, Jesus is the third party to hold the marriage in a three cords strand which is unbreakable. He loves to see us at peace with our loved ones and those around us. He even tells us to love our enemy. That's the Jesus in the bible.

Regardless of the need we may have, look to Jesus for He is the Answer to our every need. He is a practical God. He may give us the wisdom to get out of certain predicament. He may put us at the right place and at the right time with the right people. He may give us an idea to get us out of debt. He may show us how to live life healthier. Whatever the case, the Holy Spirit will guide and lead us to a life of victorious living for we are called to reign in this life! Hallelujah!