Why we Should not Sin.

SIN DOES NOT AFFECT GOD, BUT IT AFFECTS US. God said he will not remember our sin no more. Therefore, when we sin we are the ones who will REMEMBER it, we are the ones who will FEEL CONDEMNED and we are the ones who will live with the GUILT.

When we sin, we give the devil a foothold to condemn and fill us with guilt; and guilt causes doubt and unbelief which hinders our faith and relationship with God. The times you feel that God is mad at you- this is the devil using your sin to condemn you. So when we are tempted to sin, remember we are only going to HURT OURSELVES, NOT GOD.

For now that we are born again in Spirit, our CONSCIOUSNESS HAS CHANGED, and is now more sensitive to God and less sensitive to sin. This is why even before we sin, we know that what we are about to do is not right, but sadly, we do it anyway.

We ALREADY have Favour!

I thank my God at all times for you because of the grace (the favor and spiritual blessing) of God which was bestowed on you in Christ Jesus
“[So] that in Him in every respect you were enriched, in full power and readiness of speech [to speak of your faith] and complete knowledge and illumination [to give you full insight into its meaning].

In this way [our] witnessing concerning Christ (the Messiah) was so confirmed and established and made sure in you That you are not [consciously] falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace [^[a]the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating in your souls by the Holy Spirit], while you wait and watch [constantly living in hope] for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and [His] being made visible to all.

And He will establish you to the end [keep you steadfast, give you strength, and guarantee your vindication; He will be your warrant against all accusation or indictment so that you will be] guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 

 God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.- 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 (AMP)

The favor of God WAS bestowed on us when, through Christ, we believed. There is nothing we can do to get it, only receive it. How exciting is this! Contrary to popular belief, favor is not so much about wealth or material possessions, but more of being found delightful, pleasurable and receiving kindness from God. This should be the end of striving to please God. We should rest in the knowledge that through Christ we have now (freely) obtained favour from God.

Mary was called highly favoured – as the chosen Mother of Jesus; Rachel was beautiful and well favoured, Joseph was also well favoured, Esther obtained favour in the King’s sight. Now, from the verse above, we have this same favour, (This is the year of the Lord’s favour) and more for we are sons of God! Rachel, Joseph and Caleb are good examples of what the favour of God means, but we are more blessed than them for with favour we also are dead to sin and can enjoy this favour without condition.

Favor is “Charis” in the Greek, which means Grace.

WERE enriched!. “Banange!”, do you see what this means? This same favour has enriched us with FULL power and COMPLETE knowledge. Let me break it down: The favour of God has given us full range of knowledge and power in all things! The KJV says is better “That in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge” What can defeat you, if you have it all knowledge? Nothing in creation!

Our reception of the favor of God in knowledge and power is a testimony that we have all the spiritual gifts we need. God says we are not lacking in any special endowment, who can say otherwise? Christ did not only come to save us from the wrath of God, but also to give us all the blessings and favor of God to live on this earth “while we wait” for Him to return. We do not need to wait to get to Heaven to live good lives, we have been given that life now, and we can choose to triumph or live in defeat.

How wonderful is our God. Not only has he given us favor, He has also guaranteed to protect us against the accuser or anything that comes against us and sealed us till Christ returns.

I will not water-down this last verse in anyway, for I know it speaks for itself.

So clearly we see from the above verses that God wants us to prosper and live a good life. Pain and suffering do not bring Him glory. We need to know what we have been given, receive it and  like the parable of the talents, with like enthusiasm invest to develop and grow all for the Kingdom of God.

Trees and Water

Today I was studying Isaiah 55 and I found my looking up the myrtle tree in verse 13. This  is an ever green tree that has deep roots but grows about 12 inches a year. In the context of this verse, God is telling the Israelites that they will come up as a myrtle tree.

The word of God is in many places said to clean us, as if water. Psalms 1:3 says we shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water; Jesus told the woman at the well that he has life giving water; John 1 calls Jesus the word, in John 15, Jesus says he is the vine. Naturally, we all know that water is essential for tress to grow. So I find it interesting that the tree and water symbols are used often to describe our dependence on Jesus.

Jesus (the word, the living water, the vine) sustains us (the tree, the branches) so we can produce fruit. Without him, all our works will count for nothing but with and in him, we will be strong ever fruit-producing branches that are ever green and even when in drought we shall not be afraid and shall always yield fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Isaiah 55:13-“Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name of renown, for an everlasting sign [of jubilant exaltation] and memorial [to His praise], which shall not be cut off.”

Psalm 1:3-“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8 [Amp]-“[Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.”

Finally!

Yesterday was my day of reckoning for all of my life.

I cannot, I know I cannot put in words the experience I had yesterday, but I am sure of one thing, and that is that I will remember it for the rest of my life.
God is truly truly truly amazing. I cannot imagine where I would be and what kind of life I would have had had I not known Him.

The scripture in Jeremiah:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…”
has never meant so much to me like it does now.

Yesterday I let go of the past, and are now looking ahead, with God (and B), we are moving ahead, to bigger, better things, a prosperous future. No more tears, no more pain, no more false joy.

…and He said “Let go and move on, do something you have never done!”

Ho ho ho… bring it on world, am ready for this, been preparing for this!

Oh what a day! What a day indeed!

God Bless you Father Raymond, bless you immensely!

Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

"Never was God so Godlike as when Jesus died upon the Cross! Never was Omnipotence so potent as when He died that men might live, crushing the old dragon as He bled, leading captivity captive while He was, Himself, bound to the accursed tree, casting death into an eternal grave..." CHS

God has done tremendous things and has displayed his power, and proudly so countless times in the Bible. We read of how He created the Heavens and the Earth from nothing, how He fed three million people for 40 years on food from above, how He destroyed those who disobeyed Him in a flood and how, (from the quote above) He saved mankind from death by demonstrating His love through the death of His Son on the cross. And it is not just the big things that He can do, He even has power over the little things: He takes care of the birds in the air, He ensures that the plants are blooming without effort (Math 6:26); and even He sent ravens to feed Elijah.

Now when we think of our problems for which we cry to God ever so often and doubt seems to over take us, let us remember the paragraph above, (the details of which we should read more on from the Bible). For be it, hunger, financial difficulty, a dwindling ministry, loneliness, little faith, addiction or any and all of our trials, - there is nothing too hard for the Lord.

Therefore, let us trust, believe and exercise our faith. Let us live in hope, love and joy knowing that everything and anything when put before our Father in Heaven, is possible because and through His Son Jesus Christ. Let us serve Him, rejoice in Him and live as free men in Christ, because out God is a big God, such that in times of trial and pain in our physical circumstances, we see, joy, victory and the glory of God reflecting through each and everything we do, think and say.

Written after a night of meditation on the fear of doubt creeping in from unfavorable circumstances regarding the very thing for which i am praying for for the last 10 days.

Priorities…priorities (Cont’d)

I have, for two days, been searching the scriptures, praying and meditating on how to seek God, and now I believe i have found the answer and it is this simple…God will help us to seek Him!

I believe that, there is not only one way, one written way in stone in which we can seek Him, because we all have a different relationship and experience with Him. All he needs from us is the expression of the desire, the hunger, the thirst for Him.

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” Jn 7

We need to go to God, heavy with a deep intense thirst for Him and He will satisfy our thirst- “and the water that I give them will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” For we may not know how to absolutely surrender to Him, we may not know what to do or not to do or even how to seek Him. However, we have the assurance that:

“it is God that worketh in us, both to do and will of His good pleasure” Phil 2

- This is what we should seek. As Andrew Murray says:

“...to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.”

Remember Abraham, all he did was believe, then God made him righteous:

“Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” Gen 15

He did not do anything, or use his intelligence to do good works. He simply believed in God’s promises and he received righteousness. Oh how I have searched for righteousness in the past thinking I needed work for it by my might! But if we only go to God, even with our feeble and fearful hearts and say “God I am willing, make me willing”. He will remove all our fears, and replace it with the boldness to say “I can conquer everything!”

God will help us to surrender, He can, and He will.

Priorities, priorities…

Jesus gave us our priorities in life. If we do nothing else, but first- Seek the Kingdom of God, and second- Seek the righteous of God, then all things- not some things, or a few things or most things; but ALL things, we be added to unto us.

In life, we need many things. We need basics like food, shelter, clothing- luxuries like love, cellphones, TV, Internet etc. Sadly we do not have enough time to do and have all we want to have. So we spend waste time chasing this and that. I know someone who keeps saying “life is hard”, and I keep telling him it isn’t. But come to think of it, how can life be easy when we want everything and have to get it ourselves? Of course it will be hard- very hard actually, especially considering man’s average potential.

Jesus knew this, and hence he said “Seek ye first the Kindgom of God”. As in, forget what u want, and need, and desire; seek the Kingdom of God- FIRST.

Priorities. We need to know what our priorities are. Before our husbands, parents, children, job, before anything- God’s Kingdom needs to come first. It is the No.1 Priority!

The question then is: How do we seek the Kingdom of God?