The Lord is my Shepherd

The Lord is my Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6 KJV

1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 

he leadeth me beside the still waters. 

3. He restoreth my soul: 

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: 

for thou art with me; 

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

5. Thou preparest a table before me 

in the presence of mine enemies: 

thou anointest my head with oil; 

my cup runneth over. 

6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 

all the days of my life: 

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Every action word will God cause us to do if we can see, accept and allow Him to be the Shepherd of our life by handing ourselves over to the Holy Spirits leading and therefore allowing Christ to live his risen life through us, for as in Leviticus 26:12, God promised His chosen one's of which we also are by faith thus: 

"I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people."

This confession that the Lord is my Shepherd is my portion in Christ Jesus. 

Because I know and trust God as the Shepherd of my life, I will always confess my lack of want and the other things He supernaturally causes me to do in appreciation and faith, and will therefore always see it's manifestation in my life and those He has sent me to. 

In Jesus name.

Amen.

The Road to Obedience (2)

The Road to Obedience (2)

The human nature we were all born with is the fallen nature all mankind inherited from the original sin of disobedience of our forefather, Adam. 

A disobedient nature that is predestined to always have the propensity to crave for and follow Satan's manipulation of this fallen world and therefore perpetually fall into sin. 

The Road to the obedient nature that is ours in Christ Jesus, which is a supernatural inclination to obey God's Word, His will and His ways which is His good, pleasing and perfect will for our lives, that far outweighs any outcome we can ever decide for ourselves, is based on choices we make on a moment by moment basis; to let the dictates of the Spirit of God rule our thoughts, speech and actions rather than our innate human desires, that are diametrically opposed to God's will for our lives.

The Road to Obedience requires a moment by moment, conscious effort to imbibe God's word by meditation and prayer so that we beat our bodies and make it our slaves, and by so doing subject our flesh to the dictate of God's Holy Spirit resident within us, so that we may not be disqualified from the ultimate prize of making heaven as a result of our lack of self control. 

God's promise of our deliverance from disobedience, that we can anchor our hope on and keep confessing till we begin to see it's manifestation in our daily lives as in Ezekiel 36:26 to 28, goes thus: 

26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 

27. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 

28. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

In this ironclad promise that God made, He not only assured us of: 

1. giving us His Holy Spirit which is the only remedy that can empower us to overcome sins allure, to reside in us but also that 

2. He will - by Himself, supernaturally cause us to follow His decrees and be careful to keep His laws that we may fulfill His hearts desire of being His people, like the people of Israel are and He will indeed show Himself to be our God. 

Why, you may ask? 

Because the God who gave the command is the only one that can ensure it's fulfilment, simply by our faith in His pronouncements concerning it, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "The one who calls us is faithful, and he will do it."

Ezekiel 36:26 to 28 however is a Covenant as in many other pronouncements God has made concerning His promises to mankind, and as a result requires an action on our own part, which is not only for us to have total believe in his capacity to bring what He has said to pass but also to constantly feed His resident Holy Spirit within us, with His Word so that the Holy Spirit will constantly have the upper hand over our fleshly desires to ensure our victory over sin, the world and the devil. 

Receive the grace for obedience as you consciously feed your spirit with God's Word, as you ought, in Jesus name. 

Shalom

The Road to Obedience

The Road to Obedience (Empower your Spirit).

When we can wrap our minds around the concept that Obedience to God begins and ends with our understanding of God's paramount hearts desire, which is to have a loving personal fellowship with each and every one of us - His creation, throughout our lives, and we then cultivate that relationship on a daily basis, then and only then can we begin to master our ensuring our bodies are obedient to Him. 

Obedience to God's will and His ways is by no means anything we can achieve by our own will-power or anything we can come up with by ourselves.  

There's only one road to Obedience for all who are serious about living the overcomers life that Jesus Christ wrought for all mankind on the cross. 

Just as Jesus Christ overcame sin, the worlds evil system and the devils manipulation over His creation, that the sinful nature we were born into would be done away with, so also can we overcome   the evil desires of our flesh by empowering God's Spirit within us to subdue our innate sinful nature.

In Psalm 119:1 to 3, it is written: 

1. Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. 

2. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart  

3. they do no wrong but follow his ways. 

From this we can deduce that the Road to Obedience so that we do no wrong but follow God's ways, as is His will for us and that should also be our ultimate hearts desire, is thus: 

1. To seek him with all our heart, by constantly meditating on His statutes that we may be abreast with what He desires we do per time, and 

2. To keep his statutes by choosing to walk according to His law of love concerning our relationship with Him and  our fellow men,, rather than following our selfish fleshly desires, that we may be blameless. 

I'm sure we all remember the account of the time our Lord Jesus visited Martha and Mary, and how Martha well-meaningly went about dutifully preparing to entertain the Lord in a grand style but was annoyed at how her sister Mary chose not to help her but instead sat at the feet of Jesus, that she may learn from his wealth of wisdom.  

If we can, then I'm sure we can also recollect the reply the Lord gave Martha when she confronted Jesus about his lack of concern of how Mary wouldn't help her wait on him, as their guest. 

Jesus, in his reply to Mary gave this profound reply to not just the shock and amazement of Martha but to many, like I, who came across the story when he said in  Luke 10:41to 42, “Martha, Martha,” you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

This helps us understand that God's command as recorded in Psalm 110:1 to king David, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” is all we'll  ever need to adhere to as disciples of God, to overcome and win the battle we are all facing against our sinful nature, the world and the devil. 

In Leviticus 19:1 to 2, it was also recorded that Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." 

While this, like many other commands God expects men to adhere to, may seem outlandish and a mission impossible to a lot of us because of our inordinate belief in the sway that sinful nature holds over  mankind, the truth is that as in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, "the one who calls (us) is faithful, and he will do it."

We have to believe that the God who gave the command also has the ability to empower us to attain the level He desires us to operate in, only then we can truly be rest assured that our complete confidence in God's word concerning His desire for us to perpetually choose to live in obedience to Him and His Word will be matched by His empowerment through His Holy Spirit,  resident within us to be faithful to His Commandments. 

Shalom!

True FASTING

True FASTING. 

How one should fast has been a controversial issue for generations and still is in our time.

Some of us are conversant with the biblical account in Esther 4:16, of how queen Esther told her uncle Mordecai to gather together all the Jews so that they could fast for her. 

She commanded them not to eat or drink for three days, night or day.
She led by example letting the people know that she and her attendants would fast as they did, willing to lay down her life for her people, at all cost.

God rebuked the people of her times who had gone against the type of fasting he had laid down for them when he said according to Isaiah 58:5 thus:
"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?"

I was brought up by my parents and the local Church I attended to believe that fasting was a time period of sacrifice when one would: 

1. Abstain from eating or drinking in order to deny one's flesh of it's natural cravings but instead feed one's spirit with the Word of God so that one's Spirit would be empowered over one's flesh, to subdue it and bring it under the control of God's Word, and 

2. Pray and meditate on God's Word in order to know Him and His Word more and gain revelation about issues that was bothering one and therefore the empowerment one needs to overcome them.

True fasting however, as God has prescribed for mankind, that goes beyond what a lot of us have been taught, made to believe and practiced, can be appreciated by going through what God prescribed through his prophet in Isaiah 58 verse 6 to 7 and verse10, so that we can understand exactly how God would have us go about fasting, in a way that is acceptable to Him, so that the inherent blessings may accrue to us for our accurate and faithful participation.

In Isaiah 58: 6 to 7 and 10, it is aptly written thus:
6. “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
10. and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Most of us have been erroneously taught to fast by humbling ourselves before God, merely asking for the blessings God has already promised to provide for us, while leaving out the significant role God desires we do on behalf of the needy and oppressed to obtain those blessings.

True fasting, of frequently spending out of what we own, on behalf of others who are not as privileged as we are, as prescribed in Isaiah 58 requires that we:

1.) deprive and spend ourselves on the behalf of the hungry and

2.) satisfy the needs of the oppressed at our own expense,

so that, in turn God will:
- cause our light to rise in the darkness,
and
- our night to become like the noonday;  which has to do with us getting revelations from God concerning gray areas in our lives that we are having difficulties in, and negative issues we were experiencing before being dealt with and oberturned by the Lord, as a result of our faithfulness in fasting.

Now that we have been enlightened about what true fasting is, let us ensure that when we fast by abstaining from eating or drinking in order to deny our flesh but instead, praying and feeding our spirit with the Word of God, the end result of our sacrifice will be that needs of the hungry and oppressed around us, are met by us, as God has prescribed, so that in turn God Almighty will meet our needs and wants, and bless us as he has said He would do for our faithfulness.

Shalom!

Uncommon FAITH

Uncommon FAITH

It was uncommon faith that our forefather, Abraham had, that allowed him to dare to put the faith of the next generation of his family and more importantly the fate of the promise God had made to him which was the purpose of his existence, into the hands of the senior servant in his household, with only an oath, made in the name of God from the servant as a guarantee. 

In the days of our forefather Abraham, the practice of intending couples courting themselves for a while to get to know themselves better, in order to find out whether they were compatible with each other or not, was almost nonexistent in the Jewish culture. 

Parents almost exclusively had the sole right to choose the spouses for their sons and daughters and even those who were allowed to make their choice had to get the approval of their parents for a marriage to take place.

So I believe that any one who is conversant with the Jewish tradition that existed those days can understand the gravity of the risk Abraham took in charging his servant with the life-changing task of finding a suitable wife for not only his beloved and only son, Isaac but for the only child of the promise God made to him to make him the father of all nations. 

When I first came across the account of what Abraham did in entrusting the task that could alter the future of his lineage, and indeed the nation of faith all over the earth that he was supposed to be the patriarch of, for good or for bad, and was able to grasp the magnitude of faith Abraham must have had in his servant, who was not of his blood line and was not said to have been recommended by God to Abraham, I still did not in anyway agree with what he did, talk less believe that I or any other parent in their right senses could ever fathom attempting such a mind-boggling, dangerous and potentially life-altering feat. 

However, as years passed and I came to the understanding of the enormity of the love God had for mankind and how God found Abraham worthy, out of all the men of his time to be bestowed with the privilege to be blessed and named the father of all nations because God saw his heart and his propensity to be faithful and Abraham in turn, dared to have complete confidence in God's call upon his life, to leave all he ever knew for the unknown, my shock and disbelief soon turned to admiration and total respect. 

Even though Abraham made his own mistakes along the way, one of which was so monumental and world-changing, that it brought enmity between mankind that exists till this day, it takes a man who has walked with God as faithfully as Abraham had done, to have the magnitude of faith in the Almighty to trust God to use someone not of his lineage to accomplish God's eternal purposes for his family and indeed all mankind.  

Apart from the questions the servant asked Abraham with regards to issues that may arise while trying to accomplish the strange task, I believe that the faith Abraham had in his servant was partly due to the fact that Abraham had constantly taught the servants in his household the way of his God, effectively to the point that their actions showed that they had the same love for him and the God in whom he served, and as a result Abraham in turn had complete confidence in God to grant his servant the wisdom to carry out the daunting task of finding a suitable wife for his heir. 

In fact, Abrahams faith in his servant can be likened unto the opportunity God granted Gentiles like you and I to be grafted into the family of faith, which was at one point in time a privilege that was exclusively for the Jewish nation. 

This uncommon type of faith is the complete confidence God expects us all to have, with regards to what God can accomplish through our fellow men, if we would but only dare to teach them about the loving ways of our God, that they too may have the privilege we too were afforded by those who introduced and taught us the Faith. 

Receive grace for uncommon faith due to the truths of God's Word that you now know as a result of this message, in Jesus name.

Amen! 

THE CURE FOR LACK

THE CURE FOR LACK.

DO YOU NEED FISH? 

THEN CHANGE YOUR PROFESSION. 

Are you in need of anything that will provide you with a livelihood?

Are you in need of work or a business that will help you perpetually provide for your needs and even that of your family members?

Then change your profession. 

Accept the call of jesus on your life by changing your job description to the one he gave his disciples and indeed all who would dare to live by faith and follow him. 

Simon Peter's profession before he followed the call of Jesus, that he fish for men rather than for fish, was that of a fisherman. 

The account of how Simon was called by Jesus can be found in Luke 5:1-11. 

Simon's first encounter with the Lord was when Jesus used his boat to preach to people. 

When Jesus entered the boat and asked Simon to put out a little from shore, Simon agreed without any hesitation because that day he and his fellow fishermen were washing their nets after working hard the previous night, without being able to catch anything. 

When Jesus had finished speaking, he told Simon to put out, this time, into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon then agreed to the Lord's request because the Lord said so and not because he wanted to, after intimating the Lord about their inability to catch anything overnight. 

As a result, Simon and his companions obedience to the Lord's command led them to catch so much fish that their nets began to break and their boats began to sink. 

After Simon had come to the Lord in  realisation, fear and submission as a result of the miracle Jesus had just performed in their midst, Jesus changed his job description and also commissioned Simon and his companions to fish for people from then on.

In obedience to the Call of the Lord, they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything that they used to sustain their livelihoods and followed him.

When Jesus had left the seen, after his crucifixion, death and burial, it happened that one day as recorded in John 21:2-19, Simon Peter called Thomas, Nathanael, James and John Zebedee, and two other disciples to join him in their former profession as fisherman and they agreed to go with him.

That night they caught nothing like what happened the night before Jesus called them to catch men rather than fish. 

Early in the morning, Jesus had to call out yet again to them, as he stood on the shore, to throw their net on the right side of the boat with the assurance that they would catch fish if they did so.  

It happened that when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish they caught.

After Jesus had called them for a breakfast of bread and fish he then asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

Simon then replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” 

After which Jesus then commanded him thus, “Feed my lambs.” 

The word "these" in Christ's question to  Simon refers to Simon's propensity to go fishing and resume his former job description as a fisherman rather than the new Job Jesus had given to him, of being a Fisher of men that would in turn provide for his livelihood. 

The proof that we are disciples of Christ can be seen in the times we choose to obey the call of Jesus to fish for men on a daily basis, apart from engaging in any endeavour in order to sustain our livelihoods, like catching fish or any other business we were into before we were called to the Ministry of Christ Jesus. 

In Matthew 6:32 to 33, we are warned not to run after "these" things like pagans do, having in mind that our heavenly Father knows that we need them. We are commanded to rather seek first the establishment of God's kingdom and his righteousness in our hearts and minds and that of our fellow men, and as a result all "these" things that Jesus was trying to warn Simon Peter and indeed all Christians about, with regards to how we would be able to sustain ourselves in life, will be given to us as well.

The call of Jesus, that we be fishers of men is a lifetime call that must be adhered to on a daily basis. 

It is the Ministry of Jesus and as a result if we choose to be his followers, we must therefore pattern our daily lives after his.

Let us refuse to live in uncertainty any longer because of our disobedience to our primary assignment in life. 

Fish for men as much as you can daily, not out of duty but out of genuine love for the lost as you once were, so that the Almighty will also make you the Supernatural fisherman He purposed you to be, to not only provide the Word of God to people around you but to also meet their material needs by the riches He endows you with as a result. 

Receive the Grace to abide by the truth that what you now know has empowered you with in Jesus name.

Amen.