Preparing for year 2011

The year 2010 is coming to end and this is the last week. It is worth giving glory to God for keeping you safe and in good health throughout the year. If this year has been a rough one for you, God wants you to rely completely on Him so that you can have a smooth sail through the year 2011.

Many people struggle with habits and addictions. They however make up their minds that from the New Year they will be better disciplined. They then decide to make a “New Year resolution”. This resolution, most times do not last for more than 6 months. You may be wondering by now and asking the question, “What is the way forward”?

There is a truth that many people find difficult to accept. The truth is that man does not have any power to change his ways. Power only comes as a gift from God to anyone who believes in Jesus as his Lord and saviour.

John 1:12 - “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”.

If you are willing to live a life that you were born to live, then you need God’s help. He is very willing to help you. He wants you to come into a close relationship with him. As soon as you accept Him as your Lord, He comes to reside in you.

John 14:23 - “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”.

As soon as the Lord comes to live in you, you are required to be completely dependent on Him. He wants you to come to a place of total abandonment in him and this is a place of rest. Allow Him to live through you so that you can leave that life that you are struggling with. He wants you to die to self and rely completely in Him.

Acts 17:28a - “For in him we live, and move, and have our being”

The above scripture has the ability to reproduce itself in your life as you meditate on it all the time. There is power in this verse of scripture to renew your mind and transform your life. “In God you live, in Him you move and in Him you have your being”. Even when you are still struggling with your habits, do not stop meditating on the word of God. The word of God will start changing you from the inside and the way you think starts to change. Within a short time, your transformation will be evident to everybody.

Year 2011 is your year of complete breakthrough. Once you are born of God you have already overcome the world. Through your faith in Christ you already have victory over all your circumstances. Have a wonderful and prosperous New Year.

Enjoy the blessings of God

The Best Gift

Wow its Christmas again! As you know, the Christmas period is a very colourful time of the year. The streets and shopping malls are well decorated and there are bright lights everywhere. Many homes are also decorated and the Christmas tree is usually placed in a corner in the living room. Under the Christmas tree are the gifts that children believe that Santa has brought for them.

A lot of people are now on a shopping spree. Most of them would have finished buying gifts for their loved ones. The last minute shopping is usually for groceries and of course the “Christmas turkey”. Every year people exchange gifts. I am sure you have spent some money in buying gifts for your loved ones. What kind of gifts are you expecting this year?

Cast your mind back to last year Christmas. Can you remember how much you cherished the gifts that you received? Where are the gifts now? Do you still cherish them as you did last year? Have you noticed that after the New Year, the excitement of Christmas dies down and life continues as usual?

It will be nice to imagine receiving a gift that you can cherish forever. This kind of gift must be of “great value”. You may think that this gift is pure gold or diamond. As a matter of fact, it’s far much better than that. I received this gift twenty- two years ago and I have always cherished it. This gift changed my life. This gift is with me everywhere I go. I feel contented with it and I have since had peace in my heart even in times of challenging situations.

John 3:16 -“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

The gift that I am talking about is actually God himself. He came to the world in the form of a person whose name is Jesus Christ. He came to sort out the problem of sin once and for all. Sin has brought a lot of problems to the world. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and the human race has since inherited the nature of sin.

Romans 3:23 -“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.

The penalty for their sin is death. It is not possible for any man to save you because every man was born a sinner. That is why the Saviour of the world had to be born of a virgin woman; so that there won’t be any contamination from the seed of man. Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for your sin by dying on the cross. It was your sin that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. Once you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sin and you confess Him as your Lord and Saviour, you will receive the free gift of salvation. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for all your sins past, present and future.

Romans 6:23 -“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Once you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour, you become righteous in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21- “For He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.

You can make the best decision of your life today by accepting the best gift. You must realise that you are a sinner and that you need a saviour. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for you to bring you back into a relationship with God. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and saviour and you will be saved from your sins.

Romans 10:9 - “That if you will confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved”.

Enjoy your gift and do not let it slip away from you. This is the best gift ever. Have a wonderful Christmas and spread the good news.

Enjoy the blessings of God

Seek first the Kingdom of God

This is a very common statement from the bible which is often quoted by the body of Christ. Every man on the face of this earth has been asked to seek the kingdom of God for all their needs. Everything we need to enjoy life and live a godly life can only be found in the kingdom of God. Seeking the kingdom of God is finding out the will of God and doing it. For example, if you want to find out how something works, you need to follow the manufacturer’s manual. It is the will of God for you to be saved, so find out how to be saved from His book.

Salvation means deliverance from sin and death. The consequences of sin are sickness, poverty, rejection, addiction, condemnation, slavery, bitterness, hatred, all the works of the flesh and ultimately death. Sin is man’s nature and the only solution is found in God.

Matthew 6:33 - “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”.

There is no righteous man on the face of the earth. God is the only one who is righteous. God in the person of Jesus Christ however became sin for you. All your sins were put on him on the cross and he paid the full penalty for your sin by dying on the cross. Righteousness is a gift from God and so cannot be attained by your performance but by what Jesus Christ has done. The righteousness of God is a gift which is received by faith in what Jesus Christ has done. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Seeking God’s righteousness is having trust and confidence in Jesus. You have to be fully persuaded that Jesus is all you need and you totally rely on him.

Romans 3:22 - “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference”.

Seeking the kingdom of God is remaining in relationship in him. He becomes your shepherd according to Psalm 23. When the Lord is your shepherd, you cannot lack any good thing. When you are focused on God, you won’t need to struggle to get your needs met. When you seek after things, you end up spending unnecessary time and effort. You become stressed out and sometimes you don’t get the best from what you have laboured for.

The Lord is omnipotent and omniscient. He knows where the biggest fishes are and how to catch them. Seeking God makes your ear sensitive and you are able to hear him clearly as he leads and guides you.

Psalm 32:8 - “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which thou shall go: I will guide you with My eye”.

There is peace for those who put their trust in God. Good health, prosperity, power, wisdom, long life etc are all found in Him. When you are in Him, all these things are yours to enjoy.

Isaiah 26:3 - “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you”.

The devil cannot stop you from seeking God’s kingdom if you so desire. This is because the word of God cannot be broken. Nothing can separate you from the love of God

Romans 8:35,38-39 -“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come”. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

The devil might stop you from getting things, but he cannot stop you from getting God. Once you are totally dependent on God, those things you desire will start to follow you. The things that follow you cannot be stopped by the devil because the word of God cannot be broken.

Matthew 6:33 - “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”.

To conclude, as long as you are seeking God’s kingdom, blessings will continue to follow you and the devil will have no power to stop these blessings. Quit seeking things and start seeking God.

Enjoy the blessings of God

Be Motivated by His Love

God wants everything we do to be motivated by the knowledge of His love for us. Love is the nature of God, it is His character. He demonstrated His love towards us by becoming a man and dying on the cross of Calvary. He did not do this to show off his greatness, nor his power but His action was motivated by His love.

John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

For many years until recently, I have tried to please God by my doings. I was praying to Him, worshiping him, serving in the church in order to show how much I love Him. I never realised that I cannot really love Him until I know how much He loves me. The more the revelation of His love for me, the easier it would be for me to love Him. This is the message that I heard Arthur Meintjes teach this week and it has been a wonderful revelation to me. God wants you to come into a deeper relationship with Him because this brings about more revelation of His love for you.

1 John 4:10 - “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”.

Two weeks ago, I heard the voice of God clearly during a time of worship saying “be still and know that I am God”. Since then, I have been learning to depend on him and allowing him to live through me. I am now coming to the understanding that when I learn to rest in God, the revelation of His love comes with ease. It is written that God is love (1John 4:16), so knowing God is knowing His love. God wants us to live our lives with the understanding and experience of His love. He wants all our actions to be based on his love and also for us to know that we exist because of His love for us.

Acts 17:28 - “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

It is a good thing to be committed to the work of God. However, this can be frustrating if you are trying to do this in the flesh and by your own ability. You might feel compelled to please God by being involved in church activities. Church activities are good but God wants a growing relationship with you. It is through this relationship that He would be able to work through you. Allow God to do the work through you while you rest in Him. This is because you are a “human being” and not a” human doing”. Stop restricting yourself but rather feel free in Christ, as He is the only one who can take the weight of your burdens.

Galatians 5:1 - “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.

You just want to be in God’s presence because you know His love for you. You enjoy talking to him, seeking His face and worshiping him. When you are in need, you approach Him because you trust Him and you are confident of His love for you. Everything done in love is done in faith. Anytime you come to God, the only thing you experience is His love and His goodness. You might change your mind about God, but God won’t change His mind about you. Rest in God and stop striving to do, because everything has been completed by Christ. Remember on the cross Jesus said “It is finished”.

Enjoy the blessings of God