JOYOUS MINISTRY
Devotions, Ministration, Inspiration,Prayer, Motivation
Monday, 29 June 2026
Every day in the God's Word
The Powerful Root of Practical Love
The Powerful Root of Practical Love
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. (1 John 3:14)
So, love is the evidence that we are born again — that we are Christians, that we are saved.
Sometimes the Bible makes our holiness and our love for people the condition of our final salvation. In other words, if we are not holy and not loving, we will not be saved at the judgment day (e.g., Hebrews 12:14; Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:10). This doesn’t mean that acts of love are how we get right with God. No, the Bible is clear again and again as Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” No, when the Bible says that we are saved by faith but that we must love people in order to finally be saved, it means that faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.
So, love for others is a condition of future grace in the sense that it confirms that the primary condition, faith, is genuine. We could call love for others a secondary condition, which confirms the authenticity of the primary and essential condition of faith which alone unites us to Christ, and receives his power.
Faith perceives the glory of God in the promises of future grace and embraces all that the promises reveal of what God is for us in Jesus. That spiritual sight of God’s glory, and our delight in it, is the self-authenticating evidence that God has called us to be a beneficiary of his grace. This evidence frees us to bank on God’s promise as our own. And this banking on the promise empowers us to love. Which in turn confirms that our faith is real.
The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life. That’s what I want too. Which is why I am a Christian.
There is a great God of grace who magnifies his own infinite beauty and self-sufficiency by fulfilling promises to helpless people who trust him. And there is a power that comes from prizing this God that leaves no nook or cranny of life untouched. It empowers us to love in the most practical ways.
Sunday, 28 June 2026
Every day in the God's Word
EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!
SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2026.
SUBJECT: WORDS WORK WONDERS AS WELL AS BLUNDERS!
Memory verse: "You are snared by the words of your mouth; You are taken by the words of your mouth" (Proverbs 6 vs 2).
READ: Psalm 19 vs 14; 141 vs 3:
19:14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer
141:3: Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.
INTIMATION:
Words can work wonders, but they can also work blunders! Do you realize that multitude of people fail in life because they speak failure? They fear failure and allow their fear to overcome their faith. What you say locates you. You will not and cannot rise above your own words. If you speak defeat, failure, anxiety, sickness, and unbelief, you will live at that level.
Neither you nor anyone else, no matter how clever, will ever live above the standard of their words (conversation/confession). This spiritual principle is unalterable. If your word (conversation/confession) is foolish, trifling, unpractical, or disorganized, your life invariably will be the same way. With your words, you constantly paint a picture of your inner self. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12 vs 34).
As believers, what we say is what we usually get. The confession of our mouth is our possession. The affirmations of the truth, as contained in the Word of God, should ring from our lips constantly. We are told to hold fast to the truth without wavering. The penalty of wavering in our confession is that we deny ourselves God's promises and the performance of them (James 1 vs 6 - 7). Christianity is called the 'Great Confession.' All the things we are identified with in Christ—salvation, healing, deliverance—are dependent upon our confessing the Lordship of Jesus with our lips from a believing heart (Romans 10 vs 8 -10).
If you think back on your life, you will probably agree that most of your troubles have been tongue troubles. The Bible says, "Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles" (Proverbs 21 vs 23). Numerous troubles are caused by an unruly tongue! Words spoken in the heat of the moment; words of anger, words of harshness, words of retaliation, words of bitterness, words of unkindness. These words produce trouble for us.
Beloved let us make these our prayers now: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19 vs 14). "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips" (Psalm 141 vs 3). It's really important that we let God help us overcome our unruly speech habits, for our words can work blunders and get us into trouble. A negative confession can produce negative results.
Confession is made with the mouth, not only for the good things God has promised us, but also for sickness, defeat, bondage, lack, and failure. Refuse to have a bad confession. Refuse to have a negative confession. Repudiate a dual confession, when you are saying at one moment, "With His stripes I am healed" (Isaiah 53 vs 5) and at the next moment, "But the pain is still there."
Go to higher level of living in the kingdom of God. Believe that you are who God says you are. Think that way. Talk that way. Act that way. Train yourself to live on the level of what is written about you in God's Word. Do not permit your thoughts, your words, or your actions to contradict what God says about you. Although you may not master positive confession in a day or even a week, you will learn it as you continue to walk in it faithfully. Because God has said it, we should boldly say the same thing!
Avoid careless speech because it is a vicious habit. When one realizes that his words are the coin of his kingdom and that his words can be either a cursing influence or a blessing, he will learn to value the gift of speech. The word is a seed (Luke 8 vs 11), and if spoken from a poisoned mind, it is a disaster. An idle word spoken aloud may fall into the soil of someone's heart and poison his entire life. Learn to control your tongue.
James wrote that the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! (James 3 vs 5). On the average, a person opens his or her mouth approximately 700 times a day to speak. Like David, we should wisely asked God to keep us from speaking evil—even when undergoing persecution. Jesus Himself was silent before His accusers (Matthew 26 vs 63). Knowing the power of the tongue, we would do well to ask God to guard what we say so that our words will bring honor to His name.
Every word and thought of ours would be examined by God first, and we will give account of them in the day of judgement (Matthew 12 vs 36). Ask God to approve your words and reflections as though they were offerings brought to the altar. As you begin each day, determine that God’s love will guide what you say and how you think.
Prayer: Abba Father, let the light of Your word so shine in my heart that I may, at all times, speak Your love that is poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Let my speech be salted with lovely and caring words that I may earn Your approval, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.
PRAISE THE LORD!
Enduring When Obeying Hurts
Enduring When Obeying Hurts
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)
What faith performs is sometimes unspeakably hard.
In his book Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II.
At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die!” he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing.
What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus was carried and sustained in his love for us by “the joy that was set before him.” He banked on a glorious future blessing and joy, and that carried and sustained him in love through his suffering.
Woe to us if we think we should or can be motivated and strengthened for radical, costly obedience by some higher motive than the joy that is set before us. When Jesus called for costly obedience that would require sacrifice in this life, he said in Luke 14:14, “You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In other words, be strengthened now in all your losses for Christ’s sake, because of the joy set before you.
Peter said that, when Jesus suffered without retaliating, he was leaving us an example to follow — and that includes Jesus’s confidence in the joy set before him. He handed his cause over to God (1 Peter 2:21) and did not try to settle accounts with retaliation. He banked his hope on the resurrection and all the joys of reunion with his Father and the redemption of his people. So should we.
Saturday, 27 June 2026
Every day in the God's Word
EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!
SATURDAY JUNE 26, 2026.
SUBJECT: THE SPIRITUAL WAR!
Memory verse: "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (Ephesians 6 vs 13.)
READ: Second Corinthians 10 vs 3 - 6:
10:3: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
10:4: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
10:5: casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
10:6: and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
INTIMATION:
We are merely weak humans, but we don't need to use human plans and methods to win our battles. God's mighty weapons are available to us as we fight against Satan's strongholds. The Christian must choose whose methods to use-God's or the world's. The Scriptures assure us that God's mighty weapons-prayer, faith, hope, love, God's Word, the Holy Spirit-are powerful and effective (see Ephesians 6 vs 13 - 18)!
These weapons can break down proud human arguments against God and the walls Satan builds to keep people from finding God. When dealing with people's proud arguments that keep them from a relationship with Christ, we may be tempted to use our own methods. But nothing can break down these barriers like God's weapons!
In tho scriptures we read today, the apostle Paul uses military terminology to describe this warfare against sin and Satan. God must be the commander in chief, and even our thoughts must be submitted to His control as we live for Him. Spirit-empowered believers must capture every thought and yield it to Christ.
When exposed to ideas or opportunities that might lead to wrong desires, you have a choice. You can recognize the danger and turn away, or you can allow unhealthy thoughts take you captive. You capture your fantasies and desires when you honestly admit them to the Lord and ask Him to redirect your thinking. Ask God to give you the spirit of discernment to keep your thoughts focused on His truth.
In this world we must live in a physical body. However, this does not mean that our desires are directed toward satisfying the lusts of the flesh. Our warfare is spiritual, and thus, we fight a spiritual war with Satan, though we live in the flesh. Since the Christian's battle is against the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places, the weapons of our warfare are spiritual. The power of the Christian is strong against the works of Satan because the power of his weaponry originates from God, not man,
Through the power of the Word of God one is able to cast down false philosophies and theologies of men. Error is cast down when men seek truth. The Christian is in a war with the deceptive beliefs of witchcraft, false science, false religions, and man's ignorance of the truth. It is the work of the spiritual leaders of the body of Christ to build up the body in the truth in order that members not be tossed to and fro by the onslaught of false teachings that prevail in the minds of the deceived.
We must anchor our faith in God and His Word to lead a triumphant spiritual life here on earth. True faith is not based upon reason nor upon things that men can see unless the thing they see is the Word of God. Our faith should not be based on wisdom (sense knowledge) of men but on God's ability. We cast down reasonings (arguments or imaginations), for men have deified reasonings. The great reasoners of the world and the great philosophers of the world have gained the ascendancy over the human mind. And that is human’s greatest undoing in working with God and walking in His ways.
Philosophy has never given anything of any value to the body of Christ—the Church. What we call our Christian philosophers are often men who denied the miraculous and the supernatural, always wanting to explain it away through sense knowledge activities and reasonings.
But unfortunately, the ways of God are beyond finding out; it’s beyond man’s reasoning ability; “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 21 vs 33.) It’s foolishness to start reasoning on God’s ways—His thinking and planning. His knowledge and wisdom are far greater than any human’s.
Therefore, we are to cast down imaginations or reasonings, everything that sense knowledge has exalted against the Word of God, and we are to bring into captivity our thinking so we will think God's thoughts instead of man's thoughts. So we will be inspired by the Word of God rather than by the word of men. And only in so doing that our faith life is solidly built in accordance with God’s ordinance.
Prayer: Abba Father, You have given us all that pertains to life and godliness in Christ-the Word. You have armed us to effectively triumph in our spiritual warfare with the evil one. Give me the grace and enablement to continually fight Satan's strongholds in the power of Your might, engaging him with Your weaponry available to me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.
PRAISE THE LORD!
A Hiding Place for the Helpless
A Hiding Place for the Helpless
How abundant is your goodness, which you have . . . worked for those who take refuge in you. (Psalm 31:19)
The experience of future grace often hangs on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we doubt his care and run for cover to other shelters.
For those who take refuge in God, the promises of future grace are many and rich.
None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22)
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (2 Samuel 22:31)
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7)
We do not earn or merit anything by taking refuge in God. Hiding, because we are weak and need protection, is not a work to commend our self-sufficiency. All it does is show that we regard ourselves as helpless and the hiding place as a place of rescue.
In all those promises I just quoted, the condition of great blessing from God is that we take refuge in him. That condition is not a meritorious one; it is the condition of desperation and acknowledged weakness and need and trust.
Desperation does not demand or deserve; it pleads for mercy and looks for grace.
Friday, 26 June 2026
Every day in the God's Word
EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!
FRIDAY JUNE 26, 2026.
SUBJECT : BELIEVERS BATTLE WITH THE DEVIL!
Memory verse: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (First Peter 5 vs 8.)
READ: Ephesians 6 vs 10 - 18:
6:10: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
6:11: Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
6:13: Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
6:14: Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
6:15: and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
6:16: above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
6:18: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to the end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints;
INTIMATION:
Our adversary, the devil, is relentlessly on a mission of attack on the children of God. He walks about seeking who or what to kill, to steal, or to destroy among the children of God. The attack is imminent for the followers of Christ whom the devil perceives as lost by him. Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has been tempting people to sin. The battle with Satan is a difficult, ongoing struggle. If we obey Jesus and align ourselves closely with God’s purposes, Satan can have no power over us. Receiving Jesus Christ, that is, embracing the kingdom is eventually a huge loss to the devil, hence his destructive tendencies toward followers of Christ. In the vulnerable state of Christ’s followers, the devil comes to attack in various manners.
In the Christian life we battle against “principalities and powers” (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by the devil, who is a vicious fighter. These are not “flesh and blood” but demons over whom the devil has control. They are not mere fantasies—they are very real. We face a powerful army whose goal is to defeat the body of Christ. To withstand the attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of His armor. All believers and the whole body of Christ need to be armed. As we do battle against “the ruler of the darkness of this age,” we fight in the strength of the body of Christ, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.
Beneath the surface of the routine of daily life, a fierce struggle among invisible spiritual powers is being waged. Our main defense is prayer that God will protect us from the evil one and that He will strengthen us. The following guidelines can help you prepare for and survive satanic attacks: (1) Take the threat of spiritual attack seriously; (2) pray for strength and help from God; (3) study the Bible to recognize Satan’s style and tactics; (4) memorize Scriptures so it will be a source of help no matter where you are; (5) associate with those who speak the truth; and (6) practice what you’re taught by sound spiritual leaders.
Although we are assured of victory through faith in Jesus Christ, not through our own efforts. we must engage in the struggle until Christ returns, because Satan is constantly battling against all who are on the Lord’s side. We need supernatural power to defeat Satan, and God has provided this by giving us His Holy Spirit within us and His armor surrounding us; the truth in God’s Word, God’s given righteousness in Christ, the gospel of peace, the spirit of faith, our salvation in Christ, and engaging the Word of God in prayers. We should not relent but persevere to the end because our adversary never relents. If you feel discouraged, remember the promise of Christ to be with us up to the end of age (Matthew 28 vs 20).
We are living in the last days, and Satan’s work has become intense. Even though the devil is very powerful, as we can see by the condition of our world, he is always under God’s control. One of the reason God allows Satan to work evil and bring temptation is so that those who pretend to be Christ’s followers will be weeded out from Christ’s true believers. Knowing that the last great confrontation with Jesus is near, Satan is desperately trying to recruit as great an enemy force as possible for his final battle.
When you take away your focus off the Lord and lower your guard, you become vulnerable to the devil’s attack. Such times are when you focus on your feeling, weakness, or troubles; focusing on your circumstances, instead of focusing on Him who controls circumstances. We all have areas where temptation is strong and habits are hard to conquer. These weaknesses give the devil a foothold, so we must deal with our areas of vulnerability.
Prayer: Abba Father, I submit totally to You. Let not the devil's machinations take away my focus on You. In all things You are my God, my Shield and Buckler. In You I live, and move, and have my being. Give me the grace to walk in Your strength and guidance always, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.
PRAISE THE LORD!
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