The “I Will” of God

 

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There are mornings when I wake up feeling fragile. Vulnerable. It’s often vague. No single threat. No one weakness. Just an amorphous sense that something is going to go wrong and I will be responsible.

It’s usually after a lot of criticism. Or maybe after a lot of expectations that have deadlines, and that seem too big and too many.

As I look back over about 50 years of such periodic mornings, I am amazed how the Lord Jesus has preserved my life. And my ministry. The temptation to run away from the stress has never won out — not yet anyway. This is amazing. I worship my great God for this.

Instead of letting me sink into a paralysis of fear, or run to a mirage of greener grass, he has awakened a cry for help and then answered with concrete promises.

Here’s an example. This is recent. I woke up feeling emotionally fragile. Weak. Vulnerable. I prayed: “Lord help me. I’m not even sure how to pray.”

An hour later I was reading in Zechariah, seeking the help I had cried out for. It came.

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There will be such prosperity and growth for the people of God that Jerusalem will not be able to be walled in any more. “The multitude of people and livestock” will be so many that Jerusalem will be like many villages spreading out across the land without walls.

Prosperity is nice, but what about protection?

To which God says in verse 5, “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord.” Yes. That’s it. That is the promise. The “I will” of God. That is what I need.

And if it is true for the vulnerable villages of Jerusalem, it is true for me a child of God. That is how I apply the Old Testament promises to God’s people. All the promises are yes to me in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). There is a “how much more” after every promise for those who are in Christ. God will be a “wall of fire all around” me. Yes. He will. He has been. And he will be.

And it gets better. Inside that fiery wall of protection he says, “And I will be the glory in her midst.” God is never content to give us the protection of his fire; he aims to give us the pleasure of his presence. I love the “I wills” of God!

PUT YOUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS FIRST!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 02, 2021.

SUBJECT: PUT YOUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS FIRST!

Memory verse: "One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27 vs 4.)

READ: Luke 10 vs 38 - 42: 

10:38: Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.

10:39: And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 

10:40: But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

10:41: And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

10:42: But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

INTIMATION:

We should have our priorities right, knowing that the spiritual, which controls the physical, should take precedence in all we do. It is good to care for our physical needs. However, the spiritual needs of man are always more important. One must not use the service of physical needs as an excuse to neglect the spiritual food that is more important. It is for this reason that Jesus advised us thus, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6 vs 33.) Our priorities should be determined by what is most important at the time.

To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness means to put God first in your life, making Jesus the Lord and King of your life. He must control every area —your work, play, plans, relationships. You must fill your thoughts with His desires, to take His character for your pattern, and to serve and obey Him in everything. Emphasis here is that we desire that the will of the Father be done on earth in our hearts, as it is in heaven. God’s righteousness comes through one’s submission to His will. Seeking the kingdom of God, therefore, must be always be first. God will take care of those who seek Him first. 

People, objects, goals, and other desires all compete for priority. Any of these can quickly become most important to you, if you don’t actively choose to give God first in every area of your life. Our greatest desire should be to live in the presence of the Lord each day of our lives. Sadly, this is not the greatest desire of many who claim to be believers. Many substitute commitment and obedience to God with busywork in form of Christian services, especially in the church, which, to a large extent, is self-serving—wanting to be seen as workers in His vineyard while their heart is far away from Him.

Consider Mary and Martha in the passage we read today, on this occasion they were both serving Jesus in their house, the One they both loved. But Martha was very busy with the household chores while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to His teaching. Martha didn't realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting her guest. As at the time Jesus was present in the house, Martha’s priorities were wrong. She was busy doing a needed and good work. However, the situation demanded a change in her priorities because the end of Jesus’ ministry was drawing near. It was a time to listen to Jesus for the last time.. 

Though Martha’s works were good but were not to her best interest. She got so busy that she found it hard to relax and enjoy her guests. Her service to Jesus degenerated into mere busywork that was no longer full of devotion to Him. The personal attention she gave her guests should be more important than the comforts she tried to provide for them. She was overwhelmed by her wrong priority of placing physical needs above spiritual needs. 

Our work for the necessities of life takes second place to that which is above this world. When material things are in their right priority, they become spiritual in the sense that we consider such to be blessings from God. When material blessings are used for the work of God, then they are a blessing to many. The rich man who continually focuses his material blessings toward the propagation of the gospel is a blessing to the kingdom of God. 

What is really important to you? Is the kingdom only one of your many concerns, or is it central to all you do? Are you holding back any areas of your life from God’s control? As Lord and Creator, He wants to help provide what you need as well as guide how you use what He provides. Only in seeking first the kingdom of God can one maintain the correct priorities of the Christian life. It is when one places God first in all things that God takes care of the one in all ways. 

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace to adequately prioritize my needs, placing You and my spiritual needs first in my life, that I may serve the interest of Your kingdom first, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Devastated and Delighted

 “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

What would the doctrines of grace — the old Puritan term for the Calvinistic teaching of God’s sovereign grace in our salvation (TULIP) — what would those doctrines of grace sound like if every limb in that tree were coursing with the sap of Augustinian delight (that is, “Christian Hedonism”)?

Total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to God’s beauty, and deadness to the deepest joy.

Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed, as the overflow of God’s joy in the fellowship of the Trinity.

Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for God’s people by the blood of the new covenant.

Irresistible grace is the commitment and the power of God’s love to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights.

Perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God not to let us fall into the final bondage of inferior pleasures, but to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of fullness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand forevermore.

Of those five, unconditional election delivers the harshest and the sweetest judgments to my soul. That it is unconditional destroys all self-exaltation (that’s the harsh part); and that it is election makes me his treasured possession (that’s the sweet part).

This is one of the beauties of the biblical doctrines of grace: their worst devastations prepare us for their greatest delights.

What prigs we would become at the words, “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6), if this election were in any way dependent on us. But to protect us from pride, the Lord teaches us that we are unconditionally chosen (Deuteronomy 7:7–9). “He made a wretch his treasure,” as we so gladly sing.

Only the devastating freeness and unconditionality of electing grace — followed by all the other works of saving grace — let us take and taste such gifts for our very own without the exaltation of self.

THE WORD OF GOD!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 01, 2021.

SUBJECT : THE WORD OF GOD!

Memory verse: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1 vs 1.)

READ: John 1 vs 1 - 5:

1 vs 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2: He was in the beginning with God.

3: All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

4: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5: And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

INTIMATION:

The Word of God is special revelation from God of Himself, and is the solemn declaration of His Will. And the Will of God is the expression of God. The Bible in First Samuel 3 vs 21 declares thus, "Then the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the LORD." The Word of God is the same with God (John 1 vs 1). It is an agent of creation (Psalm 33 vs 6), and by it all things are created (Genesis 1 vs 3 - 26). It is also the source of God's message to His people through the prophets (Hosea 4 vs 1), and it is God's law which is His standard of holiness (Psalm 119 vs 11).  

The Word of God is Christ (Revelation 19 vs 13), and Christ is God, and was with God in the beginning. God is everlasting, so is His Word (First Peter 1 vs 25). The Word is also a seed (Luke 8 vs 11). It was the seed (the Word) that God planted and it germinated into all that were created. The Word also, is a spiritual revelation of God, and living in the Word is living in Christ. He is the perfect teacher, and in Christ's life we see how God thinks and therefore, how we should think.

The Bible is the comprehensive Book regarded as the ultimate authority on the subject of the solemn declaration of the Will of God—the Word of God. It contains the engagement entered into between God and man. These declaration is called Testament and the engagement is known as covenant. The Bible is the ultimate authority detailing the engagement entered into between God and man, either that with Moses (as expressed in the Old Testament) or that instituted by Christ (as expressed in the New Testament). 

The Bible has been with us for more than two thousand years, and the early books of the Old Testament have existed almost twice that long. It's enduring life attests not only to its great spiritual treasures but also to its amazing stories, astonishing miracles, and intriguing facts that continue to grip readers today. Even today, the modern scholar or scientist is hard-pressed to provide a logical, natural explanation for the events described in the Bible. We must rely on the Bible authors' interpretations to shed light on otherwise inconceivable happenings. Their confident understanding of these events points us beyond ourselves to consider the One who created all things.

Obedience of the engagement as well as observance of the declaration, is doing the Will of God, and obeying the Word of God. Living the life of obedience and observance, guarantees a partnership with God in living your life on earth and ensures an ever profitable and classic living, and ultimately receiving the crown of life, that is, living with God in eternity after life here on earth.

The Word of God is called title "the Word of life" (Philippians 2 vs 26). And “the Word of live” is the combination of the two declarations in John 1 vs 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and in John 1 vs 4, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." It has been established that the Word of God and God is one (John 1 vs 1). Since God and the Word is the same, the Word is as effective as God. God is life, therefore, His Word is life and the life was the light of men (John 1 vs 4). 

Prayer: Abba Father, let Your Word dwell richly in me, that I may obey You, and observe to do all that is in Your Word. Let the light that Your Word gives illuminate my path of life, that I may dwell continually in Your presence, and partake of the fullness of joy in your presence, and the everlasting pleasures at Your right hand, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

He Does All That He Pleases

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

This verse teaches that whenever God acts, he acts in a way that pleases him.

God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. He is never backed into a corner where his only recourse is to do something he hates to do.

He does whatever he pleases. And therefore, in some sense, he has pleasure in all that he does.

This should lead us to bow before God and praise his sovereign freedom — that, in some sense, he always acts in freedom, according to his own “good pleasure,” following the dictates of his own delights.

God never becomes the victim of circumstance. He is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice. He is not mocked. He is not trapped or cornered or coerced.

Even at the one point in history where he did what in one sense was the hardest thing for God to do, “not spare his own Son” (Romans 8:32), God was free and doing what pleased him. Paul says that the self-sacrifice of Jesus in death was “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). The greatest sin, and the greatest death, and the hardest act of God was, in some profound way, pleasing to the Father.

And on his way to Calvary, Jesus himself had legions of angels at his disposal. “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18) — of his own good pleasure — “for the joy that is set before him,” as it says in Hebrews 12:2. At the one point in the history of the universe where Jesus looked trapped, he was totally in charge doing precisely what he pleased — dying to glorify his Father in justifying the ungodly, like you and me.

So, let us stand in awe and wonder. And let us tremble that not only our praises of God’s sovereignty, but also our salvation through the death of Christ for us, hang on this: “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.”

WHY YOUR PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY AUGUST 31, 2021.

SUBJECT : WHY YOUR PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED!

Memory verse: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.

" (James 4 vs 3).

READ: First John 3 vs 21 - 22; 5 vs 14 - 15

3:21; "Beloved, if our hearts does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

3:22: And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

5:14: Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us.

5:15: And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

INTIMATION:

Sometimes we may pray to God for something and receive no answers, because our faith and confidence may have been dampened by our unclear conscience. Your conscience may have been smeared by unconfessed sin, thereby impacting negatively on your confidence in God. If your conscience is clear, you can come to God without fear, confident that your requests will be heard. But if you have doubts, expect to receive nothing from the Lord.  The apostle James says; "But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1 vs 6 - 7).

Sometimes we ask for the wrong things or with wrong reasons. And this is the obstacle that blocks the prayers of the materialist. He ask for riches that he can consume upon his own lusts. God answers those prayers that are expressed to Him with unselfish motives. He is always ready to grant our needs in accordance to His promise. He created us for His own purpose and desires, and not for ours. He knows our needs even before we ask them (Matthew 6 vs 8), and He is ready to provide those needs at His own appointed time, and in accordance with His plan and purpose for our lives.

When we communicate with God, we don't demand what we want, rather we discuss with Him what He wants for us. We must ask according to His will, for God does not work contrary to His will in answer to prayer. If we align our prayers to His Will, He will listen, and we are sure of receiving answer to our petition. We must ask upon the condition that we are obedient to His will, for God works through the lives of those who are carrying out His work in the world. God does not grant requests that violates the principles of His kingdom. 

For instance, Jesus Christ taught us thus; "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5 vs 44). When you pray to God to kill your enemies God will not answer such prayer because it is outside the Will of God. Though your enemy may die for incurring the wrath of God for evil they committed but not from an answer to your prayers.

The other reasons why we don't receive answers to our prayers include: 

1. When we ask for knowledge beyond our ability to understand or accept. For instance, in Judges 13 vs 17 - 18, when the Angel came to Manoah (the father of Samson) and his wife to announce the birth of their son Samson, Manoah wanted to know the name of the Angel of the Lord. The Angel responded "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?". The Angel was saying that his name was a mystery and beyond understanding and too wonderful to imagine. Manoah asked the Angel for an answer he wouldn't have understood.

2. When you have not followed God's previous directions, answers to your prayers may be hindered. If you don't fulfill the responsibilities God has already given you, then don't be surprised when He does not give further guidance. Saul did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, When Saul prayed to God, he didn't receive any answers again. (Study First Samuel 15, and 28 vs 16-18).

3. When God may be directing you to a greater purpose in your life. David wanted to build a temple for God which He refused because God was planning to do something even greater in David's life than allowing him the prestige of building the temple. (Study Second Samuel 7 vs 8 - 16). Have you prayed with good intentions, only to have God say no? This is God's way of directing you to a greater purpose in your life. Accepting God's no requires as great faith as carrying on his yes. 

4. When you are not keeping God’s commandments (John 8 vs 29). When one lives an obedient life, however, he can know that God is working in answer to his prayers.

5. When you are not doing the things that are pleasing to God. We would assume, therefore, that God does not answer the prayers of those who willingly live a rebellious life against His will. 

Prayer: Abba Father, I desire to do Your will always. By my strength I cannot prevail. Give me the grace to be obedient to You and to do the things that please You. Holy Spirit, my Senior Partner, help me to pray aright, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Lion and the Lamb

 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” (Matthew 12:18–21, quoting Isaiah 42)

The Father’s very soul exults with joy over the servant-like meekness and compassion of his Son.

When a reed is bent and about to break, the Servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals. When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left, the Servant will not pinch it off, but cup his hand and blow gently until it burns again.

Thus the Father cries, “Behold, my Servant in whom my soul delights!” The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion.

When the angel cries out in Revelation 5:2, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” the answer comes back, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

God loves the strength of the Lion of Judah. This is why he is worthy in God’s eyes to open the scrolls of history and unfold the last days.

But the picture is not complete. How did the Lion conquer? The next verse describes his appearance: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Jesus is worthy of the Father’s delight not only as the Lion of Judah, but also as the slain Lamb.

This is the peculiar glory of Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son — the stunning mingling of majesty and meekness.