LET US BUILD

“And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.” (2Chronicles 14:6)

Some people wait for opportunities to come their way, some look for them. However, best of all, some people actually create opportunities for themselves. In part, the story of King Asa teaches us how we can create opportunities for ourselves through our relationship with God.

In 2Chronicles 14:2, we read that “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.” In verse 3, we read that “he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.”

In verse 4, we read that “He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment.” In verse 5, we read that “He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.”

King Asa’s actions are a recipe for success at any time. He did four things: (1) he committed himself to a life of obedience to God by faith, and (2) he backed it up by relevant actions - pulling down strongholds which are an offence to God in his life; (3) he devoted himself to serving God, seeking His face in prayer and worship; and (4) he went the extra mile to please God by even removing the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah.

As a result, God created opportunities for him to build and to prosper. When you do what God is pleased with, He will create opportunities for you to build and prosper.

In verse 7, King Asa said to Judah, "Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side." So they built and prospered." (2Chronicles 14:7)

There is no shortcut to godly success. If anyone wants to prosper in the way God approves, the recipe is there in the Word of God. Everyone you can think of in the Bible that built and prospered through their relationship with God followed the same path.

God is a faithful God. When you follow the path that He approves, you are sure to end up in victory and prosperity. The problem is that people want short cuts. People can’t stick to God for long – they find the reason and the season to wander away. People can’t wait the time – for them God is slow, God is late and God is never on time. People can’t stay where they are planted – they uproot themselves and shove off. People can’t accept that God knows best and His plans are best for them.

Worse of all, people are not willing to play their part! Faith requires correspondent actions, such as submission, humility, faithfulness, obedience, patience, generosity, persistence and serving the Lord in your local Church. This is too much for some people. Unfortunately, no Christian can build and prosper without these correspondent actions of faith.

When you are ready to walk with God, you are ready to build and prosper! May the Lord bless you as you journey with Him. Amen.

OFFER ALL YOUR LOAVES TO GOD

“But He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they found out they said, "Five, and two fish." (Mark 6:38)

The story of how the Lord fed thousands of people on five loaves of bread and two pieces of fish is well-known. Let us look at five important loaves that we all have which we can offer to God through Christ Jesus in demonstration of our love, our obedience, and our faith.

Our first loaf is our life. Although Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour forever, He does not force Himself on anyone. He gives everyone an open invitation. When we accept that invitation, we can no longer do whatever we like with our life. We have to surrender to God so that our life can be controlled by Him.

There is no way we can succeed in our relationship with God until Jesus is truly fully in control of our life. No matter how many other loaves we offer up to God, it is actually pointless if we did not offer Him first our life. God wants us to be people who live exclusively for Him and for Him alone. Have you offered God the loaf of your life?

Our second loaf is our love. One major sign that we have offered God our life is that we will love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. When we truly love God, there will be such a great passion in our heart to obey Him and to serve Him. We will be very generous and faithful towards Him, towards His house and towards His people. When you look at the way you spend your money and the way you spend your time, can you say you have offered God the loaf of your love?

Our third loaf is our trust. Although people come to Church it does not mean that they actually fully trust in God. To trust God is to depend completely on Him, to believe in His word, to have unshakeable confidence in His goodness, His greatness and His grace. For most people trust is not a simple thing when it comes to trusting in God. It is the greatest challenge that they actually face in life. However, when we trust God, we can genuinely experience the peace of God that passes all understanding when life is tough. When we trust God, it will show practically in everything that we do. Have you offered God the loaf of your trust?

Our fourth loaf is our worship. To worship is to spend time exclusively in prayer, in praise and adoration of God. In order to worship, we have to break off from our own daily routines, and spend the time exclusively in the presence of God, giving Him our wholehearted worship. If we do not make time for God, we discover that we spend our time on many other types of activities which have no direct or even indirect focus on God as our Maker, our Redeemer and our Sustainer. God does want our worship, our whole worship, it is during worship that we give the best time to God, the best attention to His word, and we make Him the sole focus of our life! Have you offered God the loaf of your worship?

Our fifth loaf is our work. Our work is our vocation in life, our employment, our paid or unpaid job. Our work is whatever we do using the skills and wisdom that God has given us. Our work is everything that we do with particular attention and detail – something that requires our time and our effort. The Bible teaches us that whatever we do we should do it as if for the Lord. Have you offered God the loaf of your work?

May the Lord bless you according to the loaves that you offer generously to Him. Amen.

YOU ARE SURE TO BREAK THROUGH

“Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly; and she said, "How did you break through? This breach be upon you!" Therefore his name was called Perez.” (Genesis 38:29)

Perez is named as the ancestor of David and of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ruth 4:12-18). He is one of Judah’s twin sons by Tamar (Genesis 38:24-30). Tamar’s story is one of tragedy. She was a foreigner who married an Israelite. She married twice into the same family but the men who were brothers were not godly people. They died and left Tamar a widow.

Judah, her father in law, whilst coping with the bereavement of his own wife – the mother of her two sons who had died - decided to have sexual relationship with a prostitute. This was not expected of him but he was going through a very lonely time and he chose a short cut that he was not supposed to choose. The “prostitute” that he slept with turned out to be Tamar, her own daughter-in-law!

How will this tragic story end? This was a very serious family mess. Most families have a mess that they keep away from people – either because the mess is not big enough like Tamar’s mess, or they have learnt to give their mess to God to deal with for them.

There is no perfect family. In fact, all families have their own mess in one way or another – challenges that they are facing; struggles that they are coping with; poor finances, family conflicts, domestic difficulties, personal problems, issues where they are expecting God to show up for them in order to be able to raise up their hands in praise.

How will your story end? Well, consider Judah and what God did for him when he turned the mess of his family over to God. For every mess, there is a message of victory; a message of protection; a message of provision; a message of deliverance; a message of God’s faithfulness is always waiting for us when we turn our mess over to Him.

Judah is the great ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the great grandfather of King David. God still has plans for those who are in mess if they determine to stay with God and not quit; if they choose through time to believe in God for an outcome that proves His name, messy people will soon find that they are the type of people that God blesses amazingly!

You are sure to break through like Perez did in such a fashion that when God has done it even you yourself will ask, “How did I break through?” This is how everyone breaks through:

Stay with God
No matter the circumstances you face, stay with God. All other alternatives end in disappointment. Stay where you are planted, every tree that is planted in the right soil eventually flourishes, even the Chinese bamboo tree. Do you know it takes many years for it to even germinate and many years for it to flourish? However, once its growing season begins, no-one can stop it! And it grows into a surprisingly big, very big bamboo tree! Your growing season may be late or delayed, but surely it is coming!

Stay in the Word of God
Whose report will you believe? The world is full of gloomy news. Are you going to be depressed by the situation in the world at large, the situation in your family, the situation at work? Happiness never comes by worrying about it. Actually, joy is killed when you constantly worry about your life or the life of those that you love. Can you try and switch off and bury all your hopes in God’s promises for the rest of your life? Believe God’s report: He says He has plans for you – good plans, to give you a future and a hope!

Stay in Church!
Look at what God is doing in your Church and join in and be part of God’s family through what you do for God and His local family which is your Church. No Church is perfect – every Church has its strengths and weaknesses but still Jesus says the Church is His body and He died for the Church. While there are no perfect leaders, God gives pastors the responsibility of leading His work in the Church. Stay close to your Pastors, let them be able to count on you and when they pray for you, indeed, you are sure to break through!

May God bless you with a definite breakthrough this year!

SPEED UP YOUR BLESSINGS

"And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God…” (Deuteronomy 28:2)

No matter the country or the culture, God’s word does not know any barriers. God’s word is not limited by age or gender and it is meant for everyone. If anyone is willing to listen to God and consider and respond in the right way, the word of God will produce a beneficial outcome, no matter the culture or country that they are located in, and no matter their age or gender.

The blessings of God are not what you work for. They are not wages that you receive because you have laboured all day long for them. Wages are paid according to the contract that is set. But the blessings of God shall come upon you and overtake you, only because you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

If blessings are slow to flow, it is not that God is slow to bless. No, the speed of your blessings is tied to the level of your obedience. Obedience has the following important ingredients:

Compliance
To comply is to accept the criteria that God has set out for those who claim that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour. There are certain standards that God expects us to comply with. They are not negotiable. We are simply to accept them and live by them. Perhaps, the simplest example of such standards is the Ten Commandments.

Don’t think that God has swept those commandments aside. He wrote them out Himself and they remain for ever the ten statements that God personally wrote.

Agreement
This word means “concord” or the absence of strife and dispute and argument, particularly, in relation to the right path to take in life. God has set for us a particular direction – our journey is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Our path is to follow the example of Jesus in seeking out the preferences of God daily and following them.

The Bible teaches us that two people cannot walk together except they agree (Amos 3:3). In life, we find it difficult to say “Yes” to everything that those who are in authority over us consider to be right, which is to be expected. After all, human beings can get it wrong! However, when it comes to our relationship with God, we must constantly say “Yes” to all that He says.

Submission
This word means “surrender”. You give up your rights; you come under the control of the person to whom you have surrendered. It is a very hard thing to lose your independence, and to accept that your life will only be in pattern with the word of God. However, it is impossible to grow in our relationship with God until we have totally surrendered our will to Him.

In life generally, you cannot succeed much if you are unwilling to learn how to submit. In fact most of the relationships that we have are underpinned by our understanding of submission. Success in life often comes at a price: submission!

Respect
The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10). That fear is not the same thing as the fear that we have when we face murderers or burglars or rapists, or such other wicked people. The “fear” here is much more about respecting God, reverencing Him, honouring Him, worshipping Him and serving Him because He is God. He is our Maker. He is our Heavenly Father. He is our Parent!

Duty
Obedience also means duty. We have an obligation to listen to God and act responsibly in accordance to His instructions. It is our duty, our task, our function, our responsibility to listen to God and to respond positively. When we do so, we are clearly showing that He has the ultimate right to decide for us and that we have resolved to conform to His just and gracious requirements. The Bible teaches us that God’s requirements are not burdensome! (1John 5:3) Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light!” (Matthew 11:30)

Let blessings overtake you, obey the Lord!

GRACE IN THE WILDERNESS

“Thus says the LORD: "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness -Israel, when I went to give him rest." (Jeremiah 31:2)

The wilderness is a symbol of times when things go wrong, when things seem not to be working out, when things are difficult and challenging.

However, as we can see in the experience of the people of Israel, the wilderness is a territory we all have to cross in order to reach our “promised land”. In this sense, the wilderness is not our final stop it is a place of temporary stay, a transitional situation, a crossing through. The key word is “crossing”, we are crossing through.

Unfortunately sometimes, our attitude can make the crossing longer, make our stay not temporary but seemingly permanent, and the transition is no longer transition, it is a process of settling in the wilderness.

It is painful to settle in the wilderness when you are only meant to pass through. This is what happened to the children of Israel when a “crossing through” that should not last longer than forty days turned into forty years! As a result, they moved from wilderness into wilderness, not knowing any other life for many years. At least they lived in seven wildernesses.

“Wilderness situations” happen to us from four sources:

The general ebb and tide of life – wars, famines, pestilences, economic booms and blues, etc.

The choices that we make, even a good choice can produce challenges, how much more a bad choice! Abraham obeyed God and came to Palestine, only to face Pharaoh and Abimelech. He chose Lot to enjoy the blessing of God with him, only to find out that Lot wants everything, not a share!

The impact of other people’s lives upon our own life: some people cross our path in life and we are blessed, some bring such burdens and chaos that we are left drained and discouraged. Some children make our life easy as parents, some make our joy disappear overnight and make us wonder whether it is right to have children at all!

The choices that God makes for us – life is not easier simply because God is in charge! Rebekah was handpicked for Isaac through the agency of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 24:44), and Saul was chosen for Israel (1Samuel 9:15-17). When the apostles were told to get into a boat and cross over to the other side by the Lord they did not reckon they would face a storm! (Mark 6:45-47)

What should we know when we are in the wilderness? We should know that God offers us grace in the wilderness. Without the grace of God we will never be able to survive the wilderness. “Grace” means kindness, favour, mercy and leniency. God doesn’t stand aloof from us when we are passing through difficult times. In fact, if we can turn towards God at such times we will discover that He has already made a provision of His bottomless grace to meet our wilderness needs.

The grace that God offers also includes various practical blessings. For instance, God offers us deliverance from the enemy, miraculous provision, helpers along the way, healing when required, companionship and guidance. Without such blessings, we will be hopeless when we find ourselves in a wilderness!

Are you in a wilderness? Be encouraged, God is there with you. Receive His grace!

BELIEVING THROUGH

“So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.” (Matthew 21:21)

Many of us are aware of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ that we must pray without getting weary, praying until we receive the answer to our prayer (Luke 18:1). However, prayer is like a coin with two faces – one face is about praying through, the other face is about believing through.

For some believers, praying without getting weary (which means praying until something happens) can be very challenging, very difficult especially because sometimes it means praying over a particular issue for a long time before the result comes through; sometimes your praying comes to a natural end when something contrary to your prayer happens. For instance, say, you are praying for someone that is ill, instead of getting better it can happen that they even get worse during the process and die. Practically your praying has come to an end in such a situation. You have got to come to terms with the fact that God has chosen an option that you did not pray for.

You can see that prayer is not for those who do not have a concrete relationship with God. If you do not have an established relationship with God, a relationship that is based on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, you are likely to find prayer very tiring, boring, ineffective and time wasting. However, if you know that through Jesus Christ, God is now really your heavenly Father you will not only enjoy praying to God, you will also be confident that your prayer matters to Him.

As we grow in our relationship with God, we become very certain that we must pray through and also believe through. So what is this “believing through”?

Believing through means you have no doubt at all that God will use your prayer according to His own purpose. What you want when you pray is not just your purpose but God’s purpose. God’s purpose is God’s will, and although it may not immediately bring us satisfaction, God’s will is always the best in every situation. Behind every sincere prayer is the saying of Jesus: “Not according to My will, Father, but according to Yours!” (Luke 22:42)

Believing through means you have no doubt at all that God will use your prayer according to His own plan. A plan is a diagram of what will happen. For instance, a house plan is a diagram of what type of house will be built. God’s plan, for instance, was to take Joseph through betrayal, slavery and imprisonment before he could become the governor of Egypt. The diagram was painful but necessary. No matter how Joseph prayed, he had to accept the plan of God for carrying out his prayer concerning this matter. Again you must accept that God’s plan is best for you as you pray.

Believing through means you have no doubt at all that God will use your prayer according to His own ways and means. God has various ways (or methods) and means (resources) dealing with our requests. The “ways and means” is how God carries out His plan. Most times God’s ways and means are integral to the kind of plan that He has for us, as we see in the example of Joseph. If you really want your prayer life to be remarkably effective, you must stop wrestling with how God answers your prayer. Remember, Zacharias asked the angel Gabriel, “How?” and he was rebuked for lack of faith (Luke 1:18-20).

Believing through means you have no doubt at all that God will use your prayer according to His own schedule. Whether we like it or not, God does take His own time for doing things! God rarely moves according to man’s timetable yet in divine wisdom all His plans are carried out in synchronisation with man’s timetable! This is why God told the prophet Habakkuk, “You must wait for me even if it seems I am late getting there. I will not be late, I will arrive on time!” (Habakkuk 2:3b) You won’t enjoy your prayer life much until you have the confidence that the timing of God is excellent and that He genuinely rules in everything that concerns you, when you pray to Him (Psalm 22:28; Daniel 4:25-26).

No wonder, the Lord Jesus said, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9:23) Notice the emphasis is not on if you can pray (many people can pray!). The emphasis is on if you can believe. Why? Because only very few people believe! "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." May God make the impossible possible for you as you believe on Him no matter what you are faced with! Amen.

THE SHADOW ON THE SUNDIAL

“Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.” (Isaiah 38:8)

Hezekiah was a righteous person in the sight of the LORD. Whilst it is true that our righteousness cannot save us, we are required to walk before God blamelessly. In other words, we cannot just say there is grace to cover us when we sin, we must not abuse the grace of God.

Our relationship with God when we think about the relevance of grace is similar to the relationship between a wealthy father and his son. No matter how rich you are, you really do not want your children to waste your wealth. You want them to spend wisely and work hard as well.

The same thing goes with grace. Our heavenly Father loves us to enjoy His grace but not abuse it. He requires us to be righteous. In fact, the Bible states that “without holiness, no-one can see God.” When you do what God requires, you are covered deeply in His grace and you can expect astonishing favours. This is what happens to Hezekiah.

Hezekiah had fallen ill and his illness was terminal. He prayed fervently to God but the reply that God gave him through the prophet Isaiah was very negative: Hezekiah was told that his time was up, he was going to die. What will you do if you wanted good news but got bad news from God?

We can learn from Hezekiah: “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” (Isaiah 38:2-3) The bad news only made him draw closer to God. Hezekiah simply persevered in prayer and handed his situation over to God afresh.

Bad news will come our way as the Lord wills, no matter how righteous we are. However, when we draw closer to God despite our pain, He is more than able to reach out and pour His grace into our life afresh.

Each day is a fresh day to draw closer to God. Each situation is a fresh opportunity to hand over our situation to Him. In the letter to the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit encourages us to “…come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

As Hezekiah prayed, the LORD listened to his pleas and granted him additional years. The LORD told him he was healed. The news was too good to be true – Hezekiah therefore requested some form of assurance that what God had told him would come to pass. He asked for a sign to prove God’s word: he asked for a longer day and God moved the day backwards 10 degrees to assure Hezekiah he was healed.

There is nothing that God cannot do to give glory to His name as we pray. No matter the situation we face, if we can bend our knees and turn our face towards God in prayer, God is more than able to perform an amazing turnaround. The key ingredients are:

1.
Being where God wants us to be – make up your mind to remain where God has called you and do not allow anything to move you out of place. A lot of people get moved out of place, and therefore out of favour, because they want their own way, not God’s way!

2.
Doing what God requires – determine that you will walk in obedience to God. Obedience requires courage and consistency. Obedience requires repentance when you fall short of what God requires. Obedience quickens faith and releases God’s favour.

May the LORD perform a turnaround in your life and bring back the shadow on your sundial. Amen.