God Isn’t Gloomy

 

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10–11)

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). The implication of this text is that God has the right and power to do whatever makes him happy. That is what it means to say that God is sovereign.

Think about it for a moment: If God is sovereign and can do anything he pleases, then none of his purposes can be frustrated. “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:10–11).

And if none of his purposes can be frustrated, then he must be the happiest of all beings.

This infinite, divine happiness is the fountain from which the Christian (Hedonist) drinks and longs to drink more deeply.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression, like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected?

Could we join David and say, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1)? I don’t think so.

We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, or maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor.

But that is not the way God is. He is never out of sorts with frustration or discouragement. And, as Psalm 147:11 says, he “takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.” So the aim of the Christian Hedonist is not to avoid this God, not to run from him, or tiptoe through the living room lest his gloominess become anger. No, our aim is to hope in his steadfast love. To run to him. To be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy his fellowship and favor.

The All-Satisfying Object

 

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

The quest for pleasure is not even optional, but commanded (in the Psalms): “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

The psalmists sought to do just this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1–2). “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

The motif of thirsting has its satisfying counterpart when the psalmist says that men “drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights” (Psalm 36:8 NASB).

I found that the goodness of God, the very foundation of worship, is not a thing you pay your respects to out of some kind of disinterested reverence. No, it is something to be enjoyed: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). Taste. Taste! And see.

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).

As C.S. Lewis says, God in the Psalms is the “all-satisfying Object.” His people adore him unashamedly for the “exceeding joy” they find in him (Psalm 43:4). He is the source of complete and unending pleasure: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

IN PRAYERS WE BECOME COWORKERS WITH GOD AND OTHER BELIEVERS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 01, 2022..

SUBJECT : IN PRAYERS WE BECOME COWORKERS WITH GOD AND OTHER BELIEVERS!

Memory verse: "We then, as workers with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” (Second Corinthians 6 vs 1.) 

READ: Second Corinthians 5 vs 20:

5:20: Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God we’re pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

INTIMATION:

Through prayer we are coworkers with God; your spirit is contacting the Father. Your spirit is reaching other human spirits through the Father. Through prayer your spirit connects to the spirit of other believers.

In First Corinthians 5 vs 4, the apostle Paul enumerated this revelation in the relationship in prayers when he said, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” The apostle Paul was telling the believers gathered together in their meeting that his spirit, and the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit will be with them in their deliberations.

As indicated in our memory verse, we are workers with Jesus Christ. It is in the realm of the recreated spirit that we become utterly one with Jesus Christ, and entered into the holy priesthood (First Peter 2 vs 9; Revelation 5 vs 10). You can be God's voice, His spokesman, His ambassador, His under-ruler, in Jesus' Name, through the Word in your lips. You become God's Will toward Satan ruled world through your prayer life.

Therefore, in the spiritual exercise of prayer, we become so utterly ruled and governed by the Word and the Holy Spirit that we become masters of demons and of their works. The Word on our lips in prayers is the same as the Word on the lips of Christ. We cast out demons with the Word. We pray for sick folks and the diseases leave them. Weakness is destroyed by the strength of God. The very life of God flows out through our lips. 

Remember what Jesus said in John 7 vs 38 - 39: "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman in John 4 vs 10, used the term "living water" to indicate eternal life. In the Scriptures, John 7 vs 38 - 39 above, the same term referred to the Holy Spirit. The two go together; wherever the Holy Spirit is accepted, he brings eternal life. 

Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence in the believer that comes from our inner life of prayer, and there gushes forth a torrent of the very life of God that speeds on its way to that who is in need. The Holy Spirit is God's promise or guarantee of eternal life for those who believe in Him. It is that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that dwells in you, and that Spirit will also quicken your mortal bodies (Romans 8 vs 11). 

Our prayers bring the very presence of God upon men, and any circumstances, in any part of the world. In prayer we are cooperating with Him, and He, through you in prayers, is ruling the demons and evil forces all over the world.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for making us kings and priests to reign on earth. Endue me with the excellent spirit of prayer, in communion with You, and working with other believers to rule the world with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

EFFECTIVE AND WINNING PRAYER IS BUILT UPON THE WORD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2022.

SUBJECT : EFFECTIVE AND WINNING PRAYER IS BUILT UPON THE WORD!

Memory verse: "God is not a man, that He should lie; Nor a son of man, that He should repent: Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23 vs 19.) 

READ: First John 5 vs 14 - 15: 

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 Him." 

INTIMATION:

There cannot be a real prayer life that is not built upon the Word. The Word is the source of all faith. A real prayer life is a Word life. It takes the Word back to the "Owner." The Owner is the same as the Word (John 1 vs 1). Jesus gave us the key, He said, ".......the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwells in Me, He does the work" (John 14 vs 10). The works He did were not His, but His Father's. He did the work by speaking the Father’s Words.

Therefore, prayer built upon the Word is you speaking the Word of the Master; presenting His Word to Him, and asking Him to perform same. And He said, “...For I will hasten My Word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1 vs 12). God’s Word is so sacred that He magnifies His Word above His name (Psalm 138 vs 2). Locate the word relevant to your situation and present it back to Him in prayer, rest assured of His performance, and it will come to you as a testimony.

In Isaiah 1 vs 18, the Lord says, "Come now, and let us reason together......" God's Word assures of victory in every circumstance as a child of God. God has urged us to come now and reason with Him in His Word; returning to Him with His Word saying; "You said this, and You will perform it." 

Also in Isaiah 41 vs 21, the Lord asks us to "Produce your cause, says the Lord; bring forth your strong reason......" These strong reasons are in His Word. The strong reasons are His promises enumerated in the Scriptures. Locate them, and present them back to Him in prayers, and patiently wait for the performance. Though it might tarry, but it is sure to come (Habakkuk 2 vs 3).

The Bible in Numbers 23 vs 19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” The Word of God is proven, and forever settled in heaven. God says what He means and means what He says. And His Word stands forever (Isaiah 40 vs 8).

God has assured us of the efficacy of His Word, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which ai sent it” (Isaiah 55 vs 11). 

In Romans 3 vs 4, the Bible says, "....let God be true but every man a liar...." There are two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6 vs 18). These two immutable things are God's nature and His promise (His Word). God embodies all truth, therefore, He cannot lie. Because God is truth, you can be secure in His promises; you don't need to wonder if He will change His plans.

Our confidence is then built on our believe (faith) and assurance of performance of His Word. In the passage we read today, the Bible says, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked Him." (First John 5 vs 14 - 15.)

Faith is an essential in our prayer life. Faith is believe in God and His word. Jesus assured us that "all things are possible to him who believe" (Mark 9 vs 23). Why is it so? Because, certainly “there will be a performance of those things which were told her (or him) from the Lord" (See Luke 1 vs 45). Therefore, know that you are blessed who believes His Word, for God you believe is infallible, and nothing is impossible with Him (Mark 10 vs 27). 

Prayer: Abba Father, there is none like You; perfect and never changes. My absolute trust is in You. By Your most Holy Spirit, build Your Word in me that I may live an ever victorious life by living according to Your Word, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Most Liberating Discovery

 

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 3:1)

No one had ever taught me that God is glorified by our joy in him — that joy in God is the very thing that makes our praise an honor to God, and not hypocrisy.

But Jonathan Edwards said it so clearly and powerfully:

God glorifies himself towards the creatures also [in] two ways: (1) by appearing to . . . their understanding; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. . . . God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . .

[W]hen those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it. . . . He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This was a stunning discovery for me. I must pursue joy in God if I am to glorify him as the surpassingly valuable Reality in the universe. Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. Indeed the very essence of worship — being glad in the glories of God.

We have a name for those who speak their praises of God when they have no pleasure in what they praise. We call them hypocrites. Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matthew 15:7–8). This fact — that authentic praise means consummate pleasure and that the highest end of man is to drink deeply of this pleasure for God’s glory — was perhaps the most liberating discovery I have ever made.

BE PERSISTENT IN PRAYER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2022.

SUBJECT : BE PERSISTENT IN PRAYER!

Memory verse: "Pray without ceasing.” (First Thessalonians 5 vs 17.)

READ: Luke 18 vs 1 - 8:

18:1: Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray, and not to lose heart,

18:2: saying, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.

18:3: Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’

18:4: And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 

18:5: yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”

18:6: Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.

18:7: And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry day and night to Him, though He bear long with them?

18:8: I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth?”

INTIMATION:

Praying brings us before God in communion with Him. Humbly being at all times in the presence of God is the secret to continual triumph of the believer, hence the reason to pray at all times. Though we cannot spend all our times on our knees, but it is possible to have a prayerful attitude at all times. Emphasis here is not on a continued action of prayer, but on a continued attitude of prayer. This attitude is built upon acknowledging our dependence on God, realizing His presence within us, and determining to obey Him fully. Then, we will find it natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, and short prayers. In other words, the Christian should be in a state of mind that he can at all times take part in the action of praying to the Father. 

It is the desire of the Father that His children approach Him in prayer. Prayer is the natural response of those who recognize their need for the help of God in their lives. To persist in prayer does not mean endless repetition or painfully long prayer sessions. Jesus’ lesson in the passage we read today is that if an unrighteous and unconcerned judge would act upon the persistent requests of a pleading woman, then certainly the persistent pleas of the righteous to a concerned, loving, and merciful God would attract His response to the pleas of the righteous. Consistent prayer means keeping our requests continually before God as we live for Him day by day, believing He will answer. 

Faith is essential to prayer. Faith is the recognition of the faithfulness of God, and it engenders our committing ourselves and our matters to Him. Sometimes you think that God will not hear you because you have fallen short of His high standards for holy living, but if you have faith, and have trusted Him for salvation, you should know that God has forgiven us and He will listen to us. When we live by faith, we are not to give up. God may delay answering, but His delays always have good reasons. Faith shouldn't die if the answers come slowly, for delay is not denial, and it may be God's way of working His Will. As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith, and hope.

God not only welcomes us in prayer, He is waiting for us to pray. The godly—those who are faithful and devoted to God—should know that God is waiting for them to approach Him in prayer and should be confident that God listens to their prayers and answers at His own time (which is the best timing). Some other times you grow tired of praying because it seems God is not answering you, but a Christian's persistence in prayer is an expression of faith that God answers prayer. Always be confident, and know that God is present, always listening, and always answers in the best ways known to Him, and unknown to us.

A praying attitude is not a substitute to regular times of prayer, but should be an outgrowth of those times. Too often we pray glibly and superficially. Serious prayer, by contrast, requires concentration. It puts us in touch with God’s will and can really change us. Without serious prayer, we reduce God to a quick-service pharmacist with painkillers for your every ailment. However, the Holy Spirit, being the sole interpreter of the needs of the human heart, makes His intercession therein. Inasmuch as prayer is impossible to man apart from His help (Romans 8 vs 26), believers are exhorted to pray at all seasons in the Spirit (Ephesians 6 vs 18; Jude 20). 

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace for persistent prayer, as a demonstration of my absolute faith, and dependence on You in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Make War with Unbelief

 

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:16–17)

When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4).

When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7–9).

When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6); and, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Join me in this battle! Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. Unbelief in the promises of God is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Paul said in Ephesians 6:17. The shield by which we quench Satan’s fiery deceits is faith (verse 16) — faith in that very word of God. So take up the shield in your left hand and the sword in your right hand, and let us fight the good fight of faith.

Take up the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit for help, lay the promises up in your heart, and fight the good fight — to live by faith in future grace.