The Honeymoon That Never Ends

 

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)

When God does good to his people, it is not so much like a reluctant judge showing kindness to a criminal whom he finds despicable. It is like a bridegroom showing affection to his bride.

Sometimes we joke and say about a marriage, “The honeymoon is over.” But that’s because we are finite. We can’t sustain a honeymoon level of intensity and affection. But God says that his joy over his people is like a bridegroom over a bride. And he doesn’t mean it starts out that way and then fades.

He is talking about honeymoon intensity and honeymoon pleasures and honeymoon energy and excitement and enthusiasm and enjoyment. He is trying to get into our hearts what he means when he says he rejoices over us with all his heart. Jeremiah 32:41, “I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

With God the honeymoon never ends. He is infinite in power and wisdom and creativity so that there will be no boredom for the next trillion ages of millenniums.

WHY CHRIST CAME!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY JUNE 15, 2023.

SUBJECT: WHY CHRIST CAME!

Memory verse: "Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." (John 14 vs 6.) 

READ: John 1 vs 4; 3 vs 16; 10 vs 10; 14 vs 27; 16 vs 33; Luke 2 vs 10; Acts 10 vs 38:

John 1:4: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

10:10: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

14:27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

16:33: These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Luke 2:10: Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

Acts 10:38: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.

INTIMATION:

Jesus came to reveal and represent the Father, and as well show us the way to the Father. He is the visible, tangible image of the invisible God. He is the complete revelation of what God is like. To know Jesus is to know God (Colossians 1 vs 15 - 16; Hebrews 1 vs 1 - 4). He is our path to the Father. As the truth, He is the reality of all God’s promises. As the life He joins His divine life to ours, both now and eternally. 

Jesus Christ is the Creator of life (John 3 vs 3), and His life brings light to humankind. In His light, we see ourselves as we really are (sinners in need of a Savior). When we follow Jesus, the true light, we can avoid walking blindly and falling into sin. He lights the path ahead of us so we can see how to live. He removes the darkness of sin from our lives. When Christ guides you in His light, you will never need to stumble in darkness. 

Jesus came to bring salvation to mankind, and restore man to the glory he lost in the Garden of Eden, as well as restore divinity to man. God's Will of abundance for us was supreme until that fatal day Adam and Eve, our first parents, committed high treason against God by doubting His integrity, and believing God's permanent enemy—Satan. 

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. All evils are the works of the devil. But Jesus came to destroy all his works. Jesus, reading from the book of Isaiah, said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed: To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4 vs 18 - 19.) Jesus was proclaiming Himself as the One who would bring this good news to pass in our lives.

Jesus came to restore the supernatural back to man. In Mark 16 vs 17 - 18, the Scripture says, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” There are times when God intervenes miraculously to protect His followers. Occasionally He gives them special powers. This does not mean, however, that we should test God by putting ourselves in dangerous situations or try to tempt the laws of nature. 

Jesus came to bring unspeakable joy to the world. The demeanor of a Christian lifestyle is that of joy for what Christ has wrought for us in redemption, and the hope of living in eternity with God. Ultimate joy comes from Christ dwelling within us. Christ is near, and at His second coming we will fully realize this ultimate joy. He who lives within us will fulfill His final purposes for us. In First Peter 1 vs 8, the Scripture says, “Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” 

Jesus came to bring peace that passes all understanding to humanity. The result of one’s prayerful communication with God that is based on faith, is an inner tranquility that cannot be expressed in words. The end result of Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is deep and lasting peace. Unlike worldly peace, which is usually defined as the absence of conflict, this peace is confident assurance in any circumstance; with Christ’s peace, we have no need to fear the present or the future. Sin, fear, uncertainty, doubt, and numerous other forces are at war within us. The peace of God moves into our hearts and live to restrain these hostile forces and offer comfort in place of conflict. Peace comes from knowing that God is in control. Our citizenship in Christ’s kingdom is sure, our destiny is set, and we can have victory over sin. 

He came to give us life at its best. The life Christ gives now is abundantly rich and full. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of His overflowing forgiveness, love, and guidance. Jesus affirms that one is not only saved if he enters through Him as the door, but such a person will also comprehend and enjoy the fullness for which life on earth was meant to be. It is only in Christ that one understands, and thus receives those blessings that enrich and enhance living. “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue.” (Second Peter 1 vs 3.) 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You For the gift of Your Son, Jesus, to mankind. May all the reasons for His coming be fully expressed in the lives of us who believe, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How Much God Wants to Bless You

 

“The Lord will again take delight in prospering you.” (Deuteronomy 30:9)

God does not bless us begrudgingly. There is a kind of eagerness about the beneficence of God. He does not wait for us to come to him. He seeks us out, because it is his pleasure to do us good. God is not waiting for us; he is pursuing us. That, in fact, is the literal translation of Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.”

God loves to show mercy. Let me say it again. God loves to show mercy. He is not hesitant or indecisive or tentative in his desires to do good to his people. His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. That’s what he meant when he came down on Mount Sinai and said to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6). It’s what he meant when he said in Jeremiah 9:24, “I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

God is never irritable or edgy. His anger never has a short fuse. Instead he is infinitely energetic with absolutely unbounded and unending enthusiasm for the fulfillment of his delights.

This is hard for us to comprehend, because we have to sleep every day just to cope, not to mention thrive. Our emotions go up and down. We get bored and discouraged one day and feel hopeful and excited another.

We are like little geysers that gurgle and sputter and pop erratically. But God is like a great Niagara Falls — you look at 186,000 tons of water crashing over the precipice every minute, and think: Surely this can’t keep going at this force year after year after year. Yet it does.

That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him. The Niagara of his grace has no end.

HOW TO ENSURE THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 14, 2023.

SUBJECT : HOW TO ENSURE THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECIES!

Memory verse: "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare." (First Timothy 1 vs 18.) 

READ: Jeremiah 29 vs 11 - 13:

29:11:For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

29:12: Then you will call upon Me, and he shall go and pray to Me, and I will hearken unto you. 

29:13: And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart.

INTIMATION:

Prophecy is the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God, either written or spoken. It is the forth-telling of the will of God, whether with reference to the past, the present, or the future. Though much of the Old Testament prophecy was purely predictive, (see Micah 5 vs 2). However, prophecy is not necessarily, nor even primarily, fore-telling. It is also the declaration of that which cannot be known by natural means (see Matthew 26 vs 68). 

Prophecy signifies the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God through a human vessel, mostly prophets, whether with reference to the past, the present, or the future. (see Genesis 20 vs 7; Deuteronomy 18 vs 18; Revelation 10 vs 11; 11 vs 3). The apostle Peter confirms thus: "And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (Second Peter 1 vs 19 - 21.)

"Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by he Holy Spirit" means that Scripture did not come from the creative work of the prophets' own invention or interpretation. God inspired the writers, so their message is authentic and reliable. God used the talents, education, and cultural background of each writer; and God cooperated with the writers in such a way to ensure that the message He intended was faithfully communicated in the very words they wrote.

So whatever God says to you through the Scriptures or through a human vessel (in prophecy) is His plan for you, and as far as He is concerned, it is settled. But what many Christians don't understand is that most prophecies don't get fulfilled without the application of certain kingdom forces.

You don't watch prophecies, you war with them, until they come into reality. In fact, a prophecy may look like falsehood or mockery, if you don't know what it takes to make it happen. There are oppositions that have set themselves to block your access into your promise land, so you must do something to make that prophecy a reality. Just as the apostle Paul says, “For s great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (First Corinthians 16 vs 9.)

But to war with prophecies you go to God in prayers with the Word (or the prophecy), reminding Him of His commitment to perform what He has spoken. Then you turn to the enemy and declare what is written concerning you which forbids his activities around you. 

God asks you to "Present your case,....Bring forth your strong reasons." (Isaiah 41 vs 21.) "Put Me into remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted." (Isaiah 43 vs 26.) Take His Word back to Him. God is faithful and He cannot deny Himself. He is committed to do anything He has said. Note that there are two immutable things in which is impossible for God to lie—His nature and His Promise (His Word).

In Deuteronomy 2 vs 24, God said to the children of Israel, "Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look , I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, King of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it and engage him in battle."

God had given the children of Israel the land, but a devil somewhere is saying, "No, you can't have it." God's instruction to them was, "Rise up! Don't sit there expecting it to drop into your laps! Begin to possess what is yours. Contend with the opposition in battle, until you possess your possessions. This tells you that you don't wait for things to happen, you make them happen. The Bible says, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matthew 11 vs 12.)

From the passage we read today, God’s thoughts for us is clear; He has good thoughts and plans of a glorious future for us all, but He shows us how to bring them to pass;

"Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29 vs 12 - 13.)

That means, "When you wait and you don't see the things I told you of, come and ask Me of them in prayers." It takes intercession and seeking the face of God to see the fulfillment of the great plans and visions He had told you about. God has set an expected end before you, but you must call upon Him and seek Him with all your heart, if you want to enjoy it.

Any Word of God or prophecy that you have received and believed will surely bring forth when you apply the relevant force or power of prayer to it. The Word is a seed (Luke 8 vs 11); but no matter how precious any seed may be, without watering the seed, it will die in the ground.

Maybe you have sat down with that word too long. You can't keep on saying, "It will come to pass one day." Or keep saying, "Let the will of God be done," for without proper work nothing will happen. Rise up now and do what it takes to make it come to pass. Pray it down!

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so faithful, and has given us all that pertains to life and godliness. Endue me, O Lord, with the spirit of supplication and obedience, in constant fellowship with You, that I may be empowered to fulfill my destiny in Christ, and the word of prophecies in my life be fulfilled, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Who Killed Jesus?

 

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

One of my friends who used to be a pastor in Illinois was preaching to a group of prisoners in a state prison during Holy Week several years ago. At one point in his message, he paused and asked the men if they knew who killed Jesus.

Some said the soldiers did. Some said the Jews did. Some said Pilate. After there was silence, my friend said simply, “His Father killed him.”

That’s what the first half of Romans 8:32 says: God did not spare his own Son but handed him over — to death. “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Isaiah 53 puts it even more bluntly, “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. . . . It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he (his Father!) has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:4, 10).

Or as Romans 3:25 says, “God put [him] forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Just as Abraham lifted the knife over the chest of his son Isaac, but then spared his son because there was a ram in the thicket, so God the Father lifted his knife over the chest of his own Son, Jesus — but did not spare him, because he was the ram; he was the substitute.

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us and still be a just and holy God. The guilt of our transgressions, the punishment of our iniquities, the curse of our sin would have brought us inescapably to the destruction of hell. But God did not spare his own Son; he gave him up to be pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities, and crucified for our sins.

This verse — Romans 8:32 — is the most precious verse in the Bible to me because the foundation of the all-encompassing promise of God’s future grace is that the Son of God bore in his body all my punishment and all my guilt and all my condemnation and all my blame and all my fault and all my corruption, so that I might stand before a great and holy God, forgiven, reconciled, justified, accepted, and the beneficiary of unspeakable promises of pleasure forever and ever at his right hand.

GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIVES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JUNE 13, 2023.

SUBJECT : GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIVES!

Memory verse: "But go and learn what that means: 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9 vs 13.)

READ: Zechariah 3 vs 1 - 5:

3:1: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

3:2: And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

3:3: Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.

3:4: Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from Him.” And to him He said, “See I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

3:5: And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

INTIMATION:

Mercy is kindness or forbearance towards someone in one's power: a good thing regarded as derived from God. Mercy is God's nature, and is one of His profound ways of helping His people. God's mercy is forgiving, compassionate, withholding of the punishment or judgement our sins deserve. And because we can't do without help from God, His mercy endures forever.

King David, the man God described as; “a man after My own heart,” extensively utilized that nature of God. For instance, God was angry with David when he counted the people of Israel and sent a plaque among the people, such that seventy thousand men died in one day. But David cried out for God's mercy, which he knew would always answer for him and God was intreated. David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for His mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." (Second Samuel 24 vs 14.)

The passage we read today, the prophet Zechariah, had a vision of how merciful God is. In the vision, he saw the activities or accusations of Satan against the children of Israel represented by Joshua the high priest (He was Israel’s high priest when the remnant returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the walls). Satan accused (“opposed”) Joshua. Though the accusations were accurate because the children of Israel had sinned against God (the reason Joshua stood in filthy garments (sins), but yet God revealed His mercy, stating that He chose to save His people in spite of their sin. 

Satan is always accusing people of their sins before God (Job 1 vs 6). But he greatly misunderstands the breadth of God’s mercy and forgiveness toward those who believe in Him. God punished Judah through the fire of great trials, but He rescued the nation before it was completely destroyed, like “a brand plucked from the fire.”

Zechariah’s vision graphically portrays how we receive God’s mercy. We do nothing ourselves. God removes our filthy garments (sins), then provides us with fine, new clothes (the righteousness and holiness of God—Second Corinthians 5 vs 21; Ephesians 4 vs 24; Revelation 19 vs 8). All we need to do is repent and ask God to forgive us. When Satan tries to make you feel dirty and unworthy, remember that the clean clothes of Christ’s righteousness make you worthy to draw near to God.

There is a need to understand the place of God's mercy in our lives. It’s important also to note that what you are fighting against may not be the devil, or witches and wizards as you had thought; it could be something you had done, like David, that angered God. He can be intreated when you call for His mercy. Also, certain things may be responsible for where we find ourselves and we may not know what they are. You may know all that you are doing, but will not know all that is doing you. But the mercy of God will always answer for us when we cry to Him in prayers.

Maybe a curse was placed upon one of your forefathers, which you inherited without knowing. Some people have so much money but can't account for how it was spent. They have no land, house, or anything to show for all the money that passed through their hands, yet they are heavily indebted. Some don't even know what next to do with their lives. They just keep wandering about. They invest in all manner of businesses and never realize anything out of them. 

For some people, the things or habits plaguing them are like ancestral curses. They discover that things such as poverty, failure, marriage spell, immorality, drunkenness, lying, etc run through all their family tree.

If you find yourself in any of such predicament, you can cry for the mercy of God to severe you from them. You can say to God, "Lord, I don't know the cause of this thing, but You know all things. Whatever I may have dabbled into through carelessness or ignorance and which has brought this affliction in my life, Lord have mercy! Whatever may have come on me through the negative side of my natural background, let Your mercy prevail for me!" Plead the mercy of God against that mysterious affliction in your life and it will give up, and you will be free. 

It is God's Will to show mercy, therefore, His desire is to have mercy on us out of His Love nature, and not out of our ability to appease Him with our sacrifice. Hence God's instruction in Psalm 50 vs 15, "And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

God willingly responds with help when we ask. Perhaps there is some sin in your life that you thought God would not forgive. God's steadfast love and mercy are greater than any sin, and He promises forgiveness: "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is Your faithfulness."(Lamentations 3 vs 22 -  23.)

Prayer: Abba Father, You are Loving, and ever merciful. Like David, I prefer to fall into Your hands because I know Your mercy endures forever. Great is Your faithfulness. Let Your mercy, O Lord, locate me in my distress, even when I don’t know the source for my afflictions, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed,  Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

Help My Unbelief

 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

In the context of this verse, Paul is concerned that people were thinking of themselves “more highly than [they] ought to think.” His final remedy for this pride is to say that not only are spiritual gifts a work of God’s free grace in our lives, but so also is the very faith with which we use those gifts. “. . . each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

This means that every possible ground of boasting is taken away from us. How can we boast if even the qualification for receiving gifts is also a gift?

This truth has a profound impact on how we pray. Jesus gives us the example in Luke 22:31–32. Before Peter denies him three times Jesus says to him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus prays for Peter’s faith to be sustained even through the sin of denial, because he knows that God is the one who gives faith. So we should pray the way Jesus did — for ourselves and for others that God would sustain our faith.

Thus, the man with the epileptic son cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is a good prayer. It acknowledges that without God we cannot believe as we ought to believe.

Let us pray daily, “O Lord, thank you for my faith. Sustain it. Strengthen it. Deepen it. Don’t let it fail. Make it the power of my life, so that in everything I do, you get the glory as the great Giver. Amen.”