Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Grace of God Pt 1

Titus 2:11-15
 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
The grace of God that appeared, appeared to all men, but not all men will utilize this grace that gives them the ability and teaches them how to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. The question here now is how one utilizes this grace such that he can deny ungodliness and worldly lusts because you will have noticed that it is still usually a constant struggle for even us Christians.
I want you to remember that the grace of God can only be received through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody who wants to utilize this grace and its benefits must believe and have faith in the person of Jesus Christ that He is the one who saves him from sins and that His power that works in you is sufficient to break the grip of ungodliness and worldly lusts.
You need to understand that you cannot win this battle on your own.
To be continued tomorrow…
Prayer: heavenly Father, thank you for the grace that you have made available for me to the  that I may live a godly life. Please help me that I will not neglect this grace today and always. Amen

Monday, February 25, 2013

Walking in The Light

1 John 1:5-7
 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
NKJV
One of the attributes of light is that it reveals and does not hide things, unlike darkness; light brings out glory and beuty. Things of the light are things that you do that glorify your God in heaven and these things bring beauty to your life.
One of the ways you can be sure that you are walking in the light is when you do things that are not in dark or hidden. Anything that has to be hidden and that you cannot be proud of as a child of God is most likely something of the dark. God wants you to walk in the light as His holy children and He has given you the grace to do this.
Whatever is in your life that you know is a thing of darkness, today is the day to determine to stop doing it.
Prayer: Father, I know you are a God of light and there is form of darkness in you, please starting from today, give me the grace to overcome every darkness and continue to walk in your light in Jesus name. Amen

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Showers of Blessing

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"I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."
Ezekiel 34:26
Here is sovereign mercy--"I will give them the shower in its season." Is it not sovereign, divine mercy?--for who can say, "I will give them showers," except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord? So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labour, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and sends salvation down. Then, it is plenteous grace. "I will send them showers." It does not say, "I will send them drops," but "showers." So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace. Again, it is seasonable grace. "I will cause the shower to come down in his season." What is thy season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." And here is a varied blessing. "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessing." Look up to-day, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering. 

from Spurgeon's Devotional

Saturday, February 23, 2013

I Will Never Leave You

"I will never leave thee."
Hebrews 13:5
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No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, He has said to all. When He opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When He openeth a granary- door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether He gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; He has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah's top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for He hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."In this promise, God gives to His people everything. "I will never leave thee." Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is He love? Then with lovingkindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text--"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Prayer pt 1

 
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them."
Ezekiel 36:37
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true in your own personal experience. God has given you many an unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and earnestly interceding with God that He would remove your doubts, and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing's shadow. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value of it. If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly.
"Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above." 

From Spurgeon's Devotional

Monday, February 18, 2013

How Faith is Revealed

 
"Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me."
Job 10:2
Perhaps, O tried soul, the Lord is doing this to develop thy graces. There are some of thy graces which would never be discovered if it were not for thy trials. Dost thou not know that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too often like a glow-worm, showing but little light except it be in the midst of surrounding darkness. Hope itself is like a star--not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the jewels of His children's graces, to make them shine the better. It was but a little while ago that on thy knees thou wast saying, "Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith." Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously, praying for trials?--for how canst thou know that thou hast faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it, God often sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we may be certified of their existence. Besides, it is not merely discovery, real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials. God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains His soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long mile with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the troubles through which thou art passing? Is not the Lord bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you?
"Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to His feet.

from Spurgeon's Devotional

Thursday, February 14, 2013

No Condemnation In Christ

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"There is therefore now no condemnation."
Romans 8:1
Come, my soul, think thou of this. Believing in Jesus, thou art actually and effectually cleared from guilt; thou art led out of thy prison. Thou art no more in fetters as a bond-slave; thou art delivered now from the bondage of the law; thou art freed from sin, and canst walk at large as a freeman, thy Saviour's blood has procured thy full discharge. Thou hast a right now to approach thy Father's throne. No flames of vengeance are there to scare thee now; no fiery sword; justice cannot smite the innocent. Thy disabilities are taken away: thou wast once unable to see thy Father's face: thou canst see it now. Thou couldst not speak with Him: but now thou hast access with boldness. Once there was a fear of hell upon thee; but thou hast no fear of it now, for how can there be punishment for the guiltless? He who believeth is not condemned, and cannot be punished. And more than all, the privileges thou mightst have enjoyed, if thou hadst never sinned, are thine now thou art justified. All the blessings which thou wouldst have had if thou hadst kept the law, and more, are thine, because Christ has kept it for thee. All the love and the acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to thee, because Christ was perfectly obedient on thy behalf, and hath imputed all His merits to thy account, that thou mightst be exceeding rich through Him, who for thy sake became exceeding poor. Oh! how great the debt of love and gratitude thou owest to thy Saviour!
"A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with Thy righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring:
The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."

Monday, February 11, 2013

Raised with Christ

Eph 2:4-7
 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
NLT

One thing I cannot stop saying is that God indeed loves you. it is because of His pure love for you that you have been saved.
In the first chapter of this book (Ephesians) Paul establishes that your salvation and my salvation is a function of a pre plan and predestination of God even before the foundation of the world.
If this truth was not established earlier, it would be difficult to reconcile the fact that we, who were not physically in this world when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, were raised from the dead along with Christ, and are seated with Him in the heavenly realms.
You have to understand at this point (as we established in earlier devotionals) that God and the spirit realm is not bound by the phenomenon of time. God does not exist in the realm of time, so He does not do His things in the realm of time, God operates in the realm of eternity, and even the devil and demons do not operate in this realm. It is only those who have eternal life that can operate in this realm; they are no longer bound by the limitation of time. Jesus is the one who gives us eternal life. He does this because He has this life and we are joined to Him.
We explained  in earlier devotionals that God exists right now in the past, present and the future. I remember when we talked about the blessings with which God has blessed us, spiritual blessings in heavenly realms. I remember we established that the spiritual realm is higher and better, and it controls the physical realm, we also said the realm of the heavenly (heavenly places) is higher and better than the spiritual realm, that this realm controls the spiritual realm.
For example, we humans, when we were born can operate in both the physical and spiritual real. This is the reason why we are superior to animals. Animals only have physical life, but we have both spiritual and physical life. That is why people can go for witchcraft meetings and have astral projections etc.
Those who are not yet born again cannot operate from the realm of the eternal. The realm of the eternal is senior to and much higher than realm of the spiritual, even though they are both higher than the physical realm.
It is because we have spirits that we have spiritual life and we can operate in the spiritual realm, and that is one of the reasons why we are senior to and higher than the animals, because we can operate in a life that they do not know or understand.
The realm of the eternal can only be by those who have eternal life. Eternal life is the kind of life that God has. It is not bound with time, and that life is senior to and higher than the spiritual realm. It is the realm of the heavenly places. The Devil cannot operate in this realm.
Because we who are joined to Christ now have this eternal life, we were crucified with Christ and this didn’t happen in the realm of time, so even though we were not physically born when Jesus Christ died on the cross, we were in Him when all these happened because we (who are born again) have eternal life…
Eternal life is a quality of life that makes us able exists in the past, present and future (Just like our father God who was, who is and who is to come-all at the same time). That explains why you were crucified with Christ.
Just like you are superior to the animals because you have spiritual life that they don’t have, you are superior to the devil and demons because you have eternal life that they don’t have. In case you doubt this truth, see Eph 2:6 “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus”.    
Eph 1:20-22
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Sunday, February 10, 2013

God's Plan For You

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

The plans that God has for you are great indeed, both in this life and in the life to come. God has made you a royal priesthood. He does not want you to think small of yourself because when you think small of yourself you are downplaying the work of God in your life and not giving Him glory. It is not humility that makes you look down on yourself, what humility does is to make you look up unto Jesus and not to yourself as your source and sustainer.
When the lord talks about an expected end here, he is referring obviously to your life in this earth, because there is no end in the life to come, it is everlasting. God wants you to have a fulfilled life more than anyone else, even more than you. One of the primary works of the devil is to make us lose consciousness or never come to the realization of this fact.
When you have come to understand that God wants the best for you, then and only then can you rest in Him and be free of anxiety in the midst of much contradictions. Your rest in God will facilitate a trust in God that will make you consciously want to live your life in accordance to His will no matter how hard it might seem.
 One thing I need you to know today is that God has a plan for your life. You have a file in heaven, you are that important. God did not bring you to this earth without having a detailed plan for your life; you are not an orphan in this word.
One of the ways you can make sure you are walking in God’s will for your life is by making sure you love God and are doing what He has called you to do per time.

Love is the greatest

Broadcast 3976 Click here for the audio version: https://streamglobe.org/aud3976 1 John 3:18 (NIV) Dear children, let us not love with words...