Previous pastoral articles
The Need for Protection - The Secret Place in God
by Pastor Paul Mulani
"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His dwelling He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock" (Psalms 27:5).
Did you know that there is a secret place in God that those who love Him can take shelter in? I personally look at it just in the same way as our president has a security service that most people know very little about. You see, since we are kings and priests (1 Peter 2:9), we are afforded high level secret service protection that our enemy knows nothing about. This is what I want to share with you today - what it is and who gets it.
"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me . . . ," says David in Psalms 27:5. It's amazing that the person who talks a lot about the secret place of God's hiding in the Bible was David. Now among all the other points of strengths that David had was the fact that he was a fighter. He fought battles after battles and the Lord always gave him victory after victory. But David was more than just a fighter in a military sense. He was a man of God who saw deep in the Spirit and understood how the spiritual translates into the physical and how the physical most of the times manifests the spiritual. David knew that even as a strong fighter, he needed the protection of God, both physically and spiritually.
Most of the time when we talk about protection we are thinking of the physical. But do you know that spiritual protection is very important? You see, we human beings, being both spirit and physical operate in two realms - spiritual and physical. However, our spiritual is very limited and we tend to see things more from the physical than spiritual. Our greatest enemy though is spiritual and has the advantage of seeing both the spiritual and physical realms while we are limited to mostly the physical. No wonder we need to be hidden by God from the enemy.
So what is this trouble he's talking about here? It could be any trouble caused by the devil, mostly using evil people bent on harming us. However, in Psalms 31:20, he talks of another type of trouble. He says, "You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; you shall keep them secretly in a pavillion from the strife of tongues."
Every time I read this I am reminded of the story of the prophet Balaam and King Balak in Numbers 23, 24, and 25. Balak was so scared of the children of Israel but had very little he could do to stop their advance that he employed the services of Balaam the false prophet. Balaam had such powers on his tongue that whatever he said came to pass - mostly in form of curses. Balak wanted him to curse the children of Israel so that he could be able to defeat them in war. However, since the children of Israel were pure before God, Balaam could not curse them. Instead he found himself speaking blessings like, "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of the KING is among them. God brings them out of Egypt, He has the strentgh like wild ox. For there is no socery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel, How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel . . . ! (Numbers 23:21-23,; 24:6).
Now the fact that words are powerful is evident by the fact that God did not allow Balaam to curse Israel. God intervened every time Balaam opened his mouth to curse them and turned the curses to a blessing instead. If evil words are of no effect God would have allowed them to come out against his servants the Israelites but He kept them safe in His presence such that no evil word would come out against them.
Tongues are powerful and they are one weapon the devil uses against God's children. You see, the tongue of the unregenerate is easily available for the use of the devil to accomplish his destructive purposes. James says in James 2:6b that the tongue ". . . sets on fire the course of nature and it (the tongue) is set on fire by hell." The tongue is set on fire by hell. In other words, the destructive fire that is started by the evil words actually orgininates from hell.
The Bible says that the tongue is a weapon. It says in Isaiah 54:17, "No weapon forged against you shall prosper, and every tongue that arises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me," says the LORD.
To experience this protection, however, you must learn to dwell, not just visit but dwell, abide in the LORD. The Bible says in Psalms 91:1, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Amighty." This is one reason why David wanted so much to remain in the presence of God. He says in Psalms 27:4, "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 Him in His temple." Then he says in the next verse the reason for this, "For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavillion; in the secret place of His dwelling He shall hide me; and set me high upon a rock."
If you want continued divine protection, remain in the LORD, dwelling in His presence and enjoying His beauty. The LORD will protect you from dangers that you don't know that they even exist - the arrow that flies by day and the pestilence that walks in darkness (Psalms 91:6).
Living your life with a Divine Mission and Purpose
From Jericho to Jordan
“Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here please, for the LORD has sent me to Jordan." But he said, as long as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So two of them went together” (2 Kings 2:6).
(I have to apologize because last week I could not conitnue with our weekly exhortation because of our move to Silver Spring. We thank God that it is now done and we are settled and ready to continue serving the Lord)
We have been following the life of Elijah in his last days as he was sent by the Lord from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and now to Jordan. We saw how each of these places was very crucial in Israel's history of redemption and by extension, very important to us today as believers. The Lord made Elijah revisit all these places before his departure, not just for himself but I believe, for us today as well. So this week we'll see Elijah as he parts the waters of the Jordan river and then ascends to heaven and how it applies to us today.
It amazes me that when the Lord took the children of Israel from Egypt they had to cross over huge waters, the Red sea. Notice they didn't have to. They could have used another route but God made them to. It says in Exodus 13:17, "Then it came to pass, when Pharoah had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the philistines, although that was near; for God said, 'lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt." Likewise, when Joshua was ready to lead the Israelites into their inheritance, they had to cross over the Jordan river. The incident is described in Joshua 3:16-17, "that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam . . . and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until the people had crossed completely over the Jordan."
Both of these incidents were nothing short of miracles that only God could perform. As a matter of fact, Joshua put it this way, "By this you shall know that the Living God is among you, and that He without fail drive out from before you . . . " (Joshua 3:10). The miracle was not just to exalt Joshua (Joshua 3:7) but also for the sake of God's people - to know that He is with them and they can trust Him to fight for them.
Jordan is the place of the miraculous, the supernatural walk with God. Friends, although God created the natural, He is not bound by it's laws because He is supernatural and if we are walking with Him faithfully, there are moments that we'll experience the supernatural in our lives. As a matter of fact, I believe we can walk with God so much that the supernatural is not strange to us because we are used to our God. When Elijah faced the Jordan river, he wasn't shocked as on what to do. Compare Elijah's reaction with Elisha as the two men faced the challenge of the impossibility ahead of them. Elijah didn't seem to be bothered while Elisha was crying to God for help (2 Kings 2:8 and 2 Kings 2:14).
Friends, if need be God will command the sun to stand still (Joshua 10:12-13) so that His purposes for your life will come to pass. The Lord will accomplish what concerns you if only you believe Him and walk with Him (Psalms 138:8). As we walk with Him from Gilgal (new life) to Bethel (lifestyle of worship) to Jericho (spiritual warfare to possess our inheritance) to Jordan (the place of the supernatural), we will have lived our lives in fullness before the the Lord takes us home as He did Elijah.
One more thing to say before I wrap this up. Elisha, who would inherit a double portion of Elijah's spirit was with him all this time. He refused to leave Elijah even though Elijah urged him to. After every place they went, the Bible records that "and the two of them walked together." At last when they crossed the Jordan, verse 9 and 10 of the second chapter of 2 Kings records, "And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, 'Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?' Elisha said, 'Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." So he said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so." Look at Elisha's steadfastness in hanging on with his mentor. I believe when Elijah kept on urging him (Elisha) to remain behind he was actually testing him to see whether he really was worthy of the annointing. That's why he told him that the annointing will depend on whether he will stay with him (Elijah) all through until he saw him raptured to heaven. Elisha did stay the course and did indeed receive a double portion of Elijah's spirit.
Let me say this, many Christians go to church but have no mentor for their faith. It's important to have a mentor to help you grow in your faith. If you don't have one you can ask the LORD to guide you to one. Once you have a mentor or spiritual father/mother, stick with him or her and remain steadfast. It's interesting that all this time Elisha used to follow Elijah and serve him. That's all his ministry was! He was faithful in little and as a result God entrusted him with much. Be faithful and steadfast in where God has called you to. Don't be discouraged because it seems like you've been doing this forever! Your time is coming. There can be no Elisha the prophet when Elijah is still there or Joshua the commander when Moses is still there. However, if you are faithful to the end, God will lift you up in the end.
From Bethel to Jericho
“Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here please, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho." But he said, as long as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So they came to Jericho” (2 Kings 2:4).
We already saw last week how Bethel represents a lifestyle of worship and so we'll continue here and move on from Bethel to Jericho just as Elijah was commanded by the LORD.
Jericho was the city that was walled all around. It is said that the walls were so thick and wide that chariots could be driven on top. These were the walls that kept the city from her enemies and Joshua with his military men were ordered by the LORD to match around it once each day for seven days and on the seventh time blow a trumpet of victory (Joshua 6:4,5). The LORD gave it to Joshua in accordance to the Word of God as recorded in Joshua 6:20.
Jericho stands for warfare or conquest. A lifestyle of worship leads us to moments of spiritual warfare whereby we take over what the the devil has taken captive but actually belongs to us as our inheritance. Your spiritual inheritance might have walls that need to be brought down or might have giants that needs to be defeated (Joshua 14:6-13). Don't be afraid of the walls or the giants. The LORD has given it to you.
You'll notice that although the city was doomed (6:17), Joshua had to do his part of obeying the instructions of the LORD to take it. In the same way, many are the promises that God has made for us that we have to take them through Spirit-led warfare. There are non-believers that the devil has blinded their eyes that God wants to use us to free them up. As we live a lifestyle of obedience, the LORD will guide us into which "cities" we need to take, spiritually, that is.
Now remember that some cases will look humanly impossible but all that we need to do is walk with the Master and totally obey his instructions. The instructions might look foolish but they do work. Don't start using your human arguments about how thick the wall of resistance is. Like the LORD told Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, "It's not by might nor by power but by His Spirit, says the LORD," so should we remember that all that we have to do is to obey His Word.
"Trust and obey, for there is no other way," just as the old hymn says! Trust His Word even if it doesn't make any sense to you. Someone said that there is a very thin line between faith and foolishness. They look the same but have big diffferences in results - faith produces great and eternal results. Look at what the mother of Jesus told the servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee when they ran out of wine, "Whatever He says to you, do it" (John 2:5). I think all of us could use this advice from Mary the mother of Jesus today in our very own situations. Whatever He says in His Word, do it. Don't argue with with. Don't confess otherwise. The Bible says that His Word is forever fixed in heaven (Psalms 119:89). The question is, "Is it fixed or established in your life or do you question it?"
I like what the late Kenneth Hagins used to say about the Bible. He used to say that "the Bible says, I believe it, and that settles it." I say Amen to that. If the Bible says I am healed then I am healed. Praise be to God! I am not going to confess anything differently.
This was the same lesson Peter learned after they had been fishing the whole night and caught nothing. Jesus came and told them, "launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch" (Luke 5:4). Without expositing ths passage too much, let me point out something briefly. Peter, knew very well that Jesus was a carpenter and not a fisherman and that he was actually the one who was a fisherman. On the other hand, Peter also had been with Jesus and knew that he was more than a carpenter. Aware of this fact, he decided to obey the LORD. This is how he responded to Jesus, "Master, we have toiled the whole night (by the way fish are caught best at night than during the day) and caught nothing but at your Word, I will let the net down" (v. 5). Hallelujah! At your Word! They went ahead and did what the Lord had told them even though it made no sense and the results were amazing! The Bible records that "they caught so much fish that their nets were breaking . . . so they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they begun to sink." Woouh! Can you imagine being blessed so much that you don't have enough space to keep the blessings and even your storage breaking because of blesings! This can happen when you walk in obedience to His Word without doubts.
Remember Jesus is the CREATOR of the fish that Peter was trying to catch and the fish listen to their creator. If He tells them go into your net net, they will go. Likewise, don't forget that Jesus is the CREATOR of the very jobs you have, the very silver and gold you are looking for and creation listens to it's CREATOR. Do what He says!
Peter learned a lesson he would never forget. Later, he sees Jesus walking on water and without hesitation he makes a request to Jesus, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." So Jesus said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus" (Matthew 14:29). Hallelujah! We need to have a growing faith like Peter's. After what Peter saw in the above mentioned incident of catching fish, he applied his faith in walking on water and he did. You can walk on "waters" of the miraculous in your exciting journey with Jesus. Just learn to obey like Joshua.
Now before you rush to try and walk on water, please note that Peter first sought the Word or the command of the Lord. He didn't just see Jesus walking on Water and then decided to imitate him. He first sought the Word of the Lord. Likewise, we need to seek the Word of God for our lives. Don't just do something just because you saw Chepsi or Mutua doing it. Beseech the LORD for His Word in your situation and then act on it and great will be the results.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart," Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:5, "and lean not in your own understanding." This is the only sure way for being victorious over Jericho and receiving your spiritual inheritance
Week of January 18 - 25, 2009
Living your life with a Divine Mission and Purpose
From New beginnings to a lifestyle of worship
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“And it came to pass, when the LORD was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal” (2 Kings 2:1).It’s important as the year begins to purpose to live it with a divine mission. Do not just exist and or face things as they come but rather purpose to be led by God for the mission He has for you. He definitely has a mission for you otherwise He would not have allowed you to see this year. I want to share with you some thoughts about God’s purpose for us as we look at the life of Elijah before He got raptured to heaven.This incident is recorded in 2 Kings chapter two. As we look at this second chapter of this book you’ll notice that Elijah was on a divine mission. Four cities or “places” are mentioned – Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan. As he moved from each one of them to go the next he would tell Elisha, “. . . the LORD has sent me to Bethel or Jordan, or Jericho.” He didn’t just go to these places but went there because God had sent him. Let me ask you, are you where God wants you to be? Could it be possible that where you are currently is not where God wants you to be? Could that be the reason, like Saul in the Bible, why God doesn’t speak to you anymore? (I sam. 28:15). Notice this was right before Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. Why would God want Him to visit these places before he left the world? Though the reasons are not stated in the Bible, we know that these were very symbolic places in the history of God’s redemption of Israel and by extension also very important to our spiritual lives as believers today (1 Cor. 10:11). A look at each of these places will reveal a wealth of spiritual truths that we can use to help us in our own spiritual journey this year.
Gilgal – the place of New Beginning (Joshua 5:5-9)
This was the place that the LORD instructed Joshua to circumcise the children of Israel in order to really become sons of the covenant. You see, only the people who were born in Egypt were circumcised but all those born in the wilderness during the forty years of their wandering were not. Most of those who came out of Egypt died in the wilderness and therefore the only people left were the uncircumcised ones. In other words, the people Joshua was dealing with had not yet entered personally into a covenant with God, other than through their forefathers. Now the time had come for God to do something new with them and that’s why He instructed Joshua to circumsize them. After they were circumzised God told Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day” (Joshua 5:9).It’s important to realize that any work of new beginnings originates with God, not man – no matter how hard we try. The children of Israel, including Joshua, were in that wilderness all throughout their lives and yet they could not do anything new by themselves until the time that God spoke and told them to get ready. When you realize this, it’s very important to jump on any Word of God for our lives because we don’t want to miss anything He’s telling us, and especially since we can’t “manufacture” any genuine move of God. When the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Word of God or starts a work of revival in us, it’s important to co-operate with him immediately.Another important thing to note is that any genuine work of God involves repentance. Right now there is a talk of “change” everywhere, especially in the political circles. But it is important to realize any change coming from God involves repentance first. It involves moving closer to God and His ways, anything short of that is not from God. One of the most consuming attribute of God is holiness. God is holy and therefore any change that He initiates will involve holiness. Realize the children of Israel had to be circumcised, an Old Testament way of renewing their covenant with God and becoming the people of God. Today we don’t focus on the mutilation of the flesh but the mutilation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and this involves repentance.Bethel - the place of worshipAs God does a new work of repentance in our lives, we need to move from there to the next level. Elijah moved from Gilgal to Bethel. As was the case with Elijah, the LORD is sending us to Bethel and we need to move from Gilgal, the place of repentance and new beginning to Bethel, the place of worship!Our first encounter with this name is in Genesis 12:8. It reads, "And he (Abraham) moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the West and Ai on the east, there he built an alter to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD." Sometimes later we read in Genesis 13:3, "And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai."
Bethel is a place of worship that the LORD is calling each one of His children to get there. It's not a physical place but a spiritual state that we need to get to. "True worshippers," Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:23b, "must worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." Did you hear that? The Father is seeking! So you are not the only seeking to get to Bethel, the Father is seeking you! Hallelujah! In other words, you can get to a certain level in your relationship with Jesus that you are worshipping Him in the Spirit in your spirit regardless of what is going on around you. That's what was happenning with the apostle John - even in exile and imprisonment, surrounded by harsh enviroment, he could say "in the day of the Lord I was in the Spirit" (Revelation 1:10).
Jacob, Abraham's grandson, came to learn of this lesson later. When he was running away from his brother Esau, It says in verse 11 of Genesis chapter 28, "So he came to a certain place and stayed there the whole night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down to sleep." This certain place was Bethel but he didn't know. It was at this place that he had a dream of a ladder reaching heaven from the earth with angels going up and down on it (Jesus will quote this ladder way later in John 1:51 in reference to Himself through the cross - the only way to unite heaven and the earth). When he woke up from his sleep after the dream he said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know" (Gen 28:16). Now you don't have to be like Jacob! You can know and be sure that the LORD is in Bethel, your spiritual place of worship. The record continues to say, "And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:29). Praise the LORD! Bethel is the gate of heaven. It is awesome. It is wonderful and God wants you to get there. He wants you to move from Gilgal to Bethel and build an alter of worship there.
This is what David must have desired when he said in Psalms 27:4, "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 upon the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He will hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock." Did David want to literally dwell inside the temple building all the days of his life? Obviuosly Not! David was a king, not a priest. What then did he mean? He must have desired the continious presence of the LORD through a lifestyle of worship.
Years later when time came for Jacob to leave his uncle Laban, God appeared to him and told him to go back to Bethel and build an alter there to worship God (Genesis 35:1). The point I am trying to make is this: God cannot continue doing any work in us or through us if we are not in a state of worship. We have to seek to be worshippers, and by that I don't mean singing worship songs in church but rather a lifestyle of worship in which we are surrendered to the LORD daily in our lives. Seek to move from Gilgal to Bethel. Won't you?
(To be continued on Monday next week)
Week of January 11 - 18, 2009
The Devil's Three Deadly Compromises I call them the devil's because as you'll see shortly, compromises are actually the devil's. We are just caught in between a great warfare that some of us don't understand what's going on. God not only saved us but wants us sanctified, purely for Himself. "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy,” the apostle Paul wrote, “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). Somewhere else Paul writes, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality."To "sanctify" is basically to set apart. That means we are set apart for Christ - for His use, enjoyment, purpose and glory. God doesn't want to share us with the devil - using the world.You see, once you are saved the devil knows that he's lost you. However, he knows there is one thing that he can do to make you less usable by God, hence never attain to your destiny. He entices us using the world and sin, his own tools, to defile us so that he can lay a claim on us.These are the same strategies that he tried to use against the children of Israel during their deliverance from Egypt. Moses went to Pharaoh with a declaration from God, "Let My people go so that they may serve Me.” When Pharaoh realized that he was going to lose his slaves, he put up three proposals to Moses – they are the same tactics Satan uses today and we can learn a great deal from them:1. Be saved but be worldly. "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God in the land" (Exodus 8:25). Did you hear that? Go sacrifice or go worship, or go serve the LORD but in the land of Egypt. You can be saved but stay in the confinements of Egypt. Since Egypt is a type of the world, the devil makes the same proposal to us, "Be saved but it's ok to be worldly. Everyone else is doing it, you know. You don't need to be different, you'll look funny or radical." This is a proposal that the devil has succeeded a lot. He has gained a lot of ground in many a Christians' lives.You see the devil knows that when we are worldly we cannot be useful and effective in our witnessing and we are in danger of eternal destruction, like Lot in the Bible. Worldliness is not something out there but something in ourselves. It's our attitude towards God and sin and it's deadly if not dealt with. Someone said that it's one thing for a ship to be in the sea but quite another for the sea to get into the ship. Worldliness is the world getting in us. It's a tool the devil uses quite a lot.What was Moses' response? "It's not right to do so," he said in verse 26. We need to know that it's not right to be worldy.2. Be saved but be close to the world, spiritually, that is."Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away... " (Exodus 8:28b). Pharaoh must have missed them. Didn't he? The devil doesn't want you to go very far away into God. He doesn't want you very far away from him and into the things of God. He can't do anything to your salvation (unless of course you allow him to) but he would like you to remain a baby Christian. He would not want you to be sanctified. You see the more sanctified you are the farther away you are from the world and the devil, of course not in the sense of physical distance but spiritually. It's like the story I heard of a child who fell from his bed at night when he was sleeping. When asked what happenned, he replied, "I think it's because I lay down on my bed too close to the edge." That's what many Christians have done - got saved but stopped right there - too close to the edge of the salvation. Friends, it's easy to fall down!We need to work out our salvation in order to grow. We get far from the world and the devil, spiritually that is, by growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit and by the Word of God. "Sanctify them with the truth, Thy Word is the truth," Jesus said in His prayer in John 17:17.3. Be saved but remain poor as a sign of spirituality.
"Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, 'Go serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you" (Exodus 10:24).For a long time I used to believe that God wants His children to be poor - that poverty is part or a sign of spirituality; that to be spiritual is to just focus unto the "things above" and not the "the things below." Please get me right because I am not trying to say that this is necessarily wrong (I mean focusing on the things above and not on the things below) but I believe it's our understanding of the "things below" and "things above" that matters. I don't believe by "things below" he is talking about material things but rather materialism, not the world but worldliness. You see, God loves the world. Actually He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten son to die for it (Jn 3:16). The word "world" here is used in the sense of unregenerate people. God loves the world in this way and we are to love the world in this way - the people in the world, that is.The question therefore is, is it God's will that His children be poor in order to be spiritual? Absolutely not. That is actually a lie of the devil. It's one of the compromise proposal of the devil. Be saved but let me hold back your possessions, the devil argues. I believe one way that the devil does this is by making Christians believe the lie because what you believe and confess is very important. It's actually what you receive.
However, in addition to believing and confessing the right thing, we need to pray for the protection of our possessions as Ezra did in Ezra chapter 8 verse 21, "There at Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journery for us and our children, with all our possessions." In addition to their protection and that of their children, they prayed for the protection of their possessions. We need to pray for the protection of our possessions - jobs, business, savings, etc. However, we can't pray for their protection if we are not giving in tithes and offering uno the LORD, especially the tithe. To pray for the protection of your possessions while you are not tithing is a vain thing. This is because God has already promised a curse on any Christian who robs Him of the tithe and He can't rebuke the devourer for you" (Malachi 3:11).
So what was Moses' response to Pharaoh's compromise? "But Moses said, You must also give us sacrifice and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God" (Exodus 10:25). Moses demanded from the Pharaoh (in our case, the devil) that he release their possessions. For what purpose? For the work of God, for worship and praise, for serving God. We need our possessions to serve God with. If we leave back our possessions to the devil he's going to use them against God's work but if we have them, we'll use them for the work of God. That's what the children of Israel did. They used the same possessions that they got from Egypt to build the tabernacle later, a place of worship.
Don't buy into the lie of the devil. This year being the year of restoration, I pray that you'll get back all that God has given you in order to serve Him!
Week of January 4 - 11, 2009
The Principle of First in achieving your goals this year
As every year comes to an end and another one begins, we tend to evaluate our resolutions and come up with new ones or try to improve the old ones that in most cases we have not succeeded in attaining to our goals. We feel bad that we haven't achieved and yet deep in us we know we can't afford to give up. We keep on trying and trying and trying. Why do we fail though? Could there be something that we are not doing right? I want to propose to you as you begin this year that your suscess this year will depend on how you work on your priorities in life. We want to succeed but many times our priorities are not right. We need to look at what is called "the principle of first." This principle states that we need to try and work on the most important things (the things that matter the most or first things first) and the rest will fit into place. There are three that I want to share with you as the year begins:
1. Seek the interest of the kingdom of God first before yours.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." What are "these things?" In the preceding verses, especially in verse 31 he mentions them. He says, "Therefore do not worry saying, 'what shall we eat, or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. For your heavenly Father knows that you need them." These are legitimate needs, not just wants, and our heavenly Father knows that we need them. Let me say this again, your heavenly Father knows that you need, not just want, but that you need them. Therefore there is no point to worry about them. Someone said that worry is actually a form of faith. The only difference is that it is a negative faith. We believe in the problem or challenge more than we believe in God.
We are not to spend our time worrying about these things because we have a Father who not only is able to give to us these things but also He wants and desires intensely to give them to us. So what should we do then? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He promises us that "all these things" shall be added unto us." It's His promise and He cannot lie. The problem is many times we invert that promise and seek these things first instead of the kingdom of God.
2. Honor God with your possessions first.
Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor the LORD with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." In verse five of the same chapter we are told to "trust in the LORD with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding." The greatest evidence that we really trust in the LORD is how we spend our possessions. Because how we spend our time and money is a sign of what is important to us, it follows that if God is important to us, if we are seeking the kingdom of God first, if we are trusting in God, then we will honor Him with our possessions.
The children of Israel were required by the Law to give the first fruits, (not leftovers) of their harvest to God as a way of honoring the God who had delievered them from bondage in Egypt and daily sustained them. Except the wine that Jesus made at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, in almost all other areas, the first of everything is usually the best and that's why God wants us to honor Him with the first and the best. If you have a new job, honor the LORD with the first income. If you received a promotion or or a business deal, honor the LORD with your increase. If you got married or have a first child, remember to honor the LORD.
3. Remember your First love.
It says in Revelation 2:4, "Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Did you know that you can work and labor for God out of a routine and yet your love for Him have grown cold over time. This church of Ephesus was doing that. It says in the previous verses that they were working and laboring very hard for Jesus. They persevered and not only were they very doctrinally sound but very apologetic (a theological term that means in defense of the gospel). But yet this Christians' love for Jesus was cold. They were lacking that first love.
There are many similarities between our relationship with Jesus Christ and a relationship between a man and a woman in marriage. Both begin with a sweet first love and a commitment to yield our lives to each other. We yield our lives to our spouses and commit to each other to love and cherish and be faithful. We do the same things with Jesus at the time of our regeneration because Jesus is the bridegroom and we are the bride. But do you know that just like our love for our spouses can grow cold so can our love for Jesus?
So what can cause our love to grow cold in our marriage relationship and by comparison our love for Jesus? As I reflected on these I came up with several causes:
a. Getting used to one another. There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. We human beings in our fallen nature have a tendency to easily get used to something very easily no matter how glorious it may be. The children of Israel got used to the miracle of provision from heaven - not just "Kentucky chicken" but imagine heavenly chicken - and they started grambling to God. Imagine how we used to speak highly of this person, how we adored them so much that we were in danger of idol worship and yet now they taste and feel and look bad. Please let's not transfer this attitude to Jesus!
b. Not Doing anything. Did you know that all that you have to do to ruin a relationship is simply not to do anything. Stop the flowers, the sweet "I love you's," the going outs, the spending time together, etc. Don't do anything and soon distance will start growing between you. The same thing applies to Jesus. You don't need to commit a sin to backslide. All that you need to do is not to do anything. Just like all that you need to do to be "sloppy" is not to exercise your body, in the same way, all that you need to do to be sloppy spiritually is not to do anything. What I am saying is that if you don't work on your relationship with Jesus your love will soon grow cold. You have to work on prayer, reading His word, regularly attending fellowship of believers, giving and witnessing your faith, etc. Let's work out our love for Jesus.
c. Distraction from our focus. Other people or even other things can distract us from our spouses. This can cause us to start comparing our spouses with other people and disatisfaction starts creeping in. Every person is unique and we should never compare our spouses with anyone else. In the same way, the devil is always working hard to distract us from our focus on Jesus so that we can start looking at other "false objects of love" to our hearts. We need to keep our gaze on Jesus, the Author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:3).
d. Work and business of life. You have to remember that these Christians in Ephesus were laboring hard for Jesus and yet they were not in love with Him. It's very easy for your relationship with your spouse to be affected by your work although the reason you are working so hard might actually be for the purpose of providing for the same spouse. Although working for God is very commendable, the Lord is looking for our love for Him. Remember your first love that you had for Him and then labor for Him with the same love! In other words, let your labor be out of your being in love with Him and not out of convenience or commitment only. Paul put it this way, "The love of God compels us . . . " (2 Cor. 5:14). As you practice the Biblical principle of first you will see things fitting into their God-ordained shape. Happy new year!
(This article is an excerpt from Pastor Mulani's message on the first sunday of the year 2009. Click to watch the whole sermon)