Psalm 138 (Part I)
The Lord led me to Psalm 138 about a week ago, and I found it very powerful and encouraging! This Psalm is rich with David’s thankfulness and trust in his journey with God!
I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You. Psalm 138:1
David penned this Psalm to recount God’s lovingkindness and His mercies towards him. David had a long history of experiencing God’s faithfulness in his life. When David’s brothers shunned him, God was there for him. When Saul made empty promises to him, God was a promise keeper to David. When his own son rose up against him, He had the Lord on his side! David learned to worship the Lord through difficult circumstances and rely on Him for everything he needed.
David wasn’t a perfect man, but he had a heart to be in the right standing with God. He had a lifestyle of humility and repentance before God. David was a man after God’s own heart because he was fully devoted to the Lord and His ways. David rejoiced in God because he had seen His mercies in his seasons of pain and need. Therefore, he was not ashamed to call on His name or praise Him before any people group. He was not reluctant to call on his name before the idols of the culture.
Sometimes we may shy away from speaking up about the Lord out of fear of sounding strange or offending others. David could not be quiet about what God had done for him, and we shouldn’t be quiet about God’s faithfulness in our lives either! How will people hear about the Lord, if we don’t share about the goodness of God and him delivering us from sin, bondage, and darkness!? Those who are struggling with mental and emotional issues should hear about His healing and deliverance power!
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
V2a The Holy Temple was where the presence of the Lord resided. David sought the presence of God and worshipped Him. God had declared that He inhabits the praises of His people! If we desire to sense the presence of God, we should look for opportunities to praise Him regularly and invite Him in our midst.
The scripture tells us that God’s goodness brings us to repentance (See Romans 2:4). The Lord knew us long before we knew Him, and He put the right circumstances and people around us to bring us to Himself. We finally came to the point of acknowledging Him and recognizing that we are sinners in need of salvation. Everyone of us has a story of God’s faithfulness and His loving intersection of our lives that brought us to salvation. Before we knew Him or ever praised Him, He was at work to lead His lost sheep back to His fold! It’s good to remind ourselves of where the Lord has brought us from and thank Him for getting us to this point!
V2b Jesus is the word that took on flesh and lived among us. Jesus’ name is above all names, and it is through His name that every person on this earth is saved and has been given access to the Lord! David did not know Jesus yet He knew that God’s word has supremacy above all other names. Even though the Jewish people would not dare to pronounce God’s name, His word was higher than all His names!
The beauty of the New Covenant is that we don’t have to be fearful of God or be afraid of calling on His name. We are His children, and we are in relationship with Him. Therefore, we have confidence that we can call upon His name and ask Him to help us without being afraid or ashamed.
This week, make time to praise and worship the Lord in your quiet time with Him. Call on His name and allow His word to speak to you. I will continue with Psalm 138 in the next devotional.
Fighting in the Spirit (Part IV)
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Hebrews 12:3
Jesus had to face opposition, denial, and betrayal by those around Him. However, He did not allow others’ bad or unjust behavior to change His mind, emotions, or will about what God had called Him to do. When the enemy tried to tempt Jesus, His trust in the Lord was greater than any pressure that the enemy exerted on Him. His relationship with His Father was secure, and He did not need to prove to the enemy that He is God’s Son!
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
Jesus set the example on how to fight the spiritual battles. Peter, His disciple, loved Him so much that he did not want to see Jesus to go to the cross. While it would have been easy to give in to Peter’s kind words, Jesus saw them for what they were. He knew that the enemy was using Peter, at that time, to try and derail Jesus from God’s purpose. On the other hand, the Pharisees were jealous of His popularity and tried to falsely accuse Him, so they could eliminate Him. Jesus was not intimidated nor offended by them. He kept doing what the Father had shown Him to do.
Jesus’ vision about God’s purpose anchored Him in the will of God and nothing was able to move Him. He was confident in His relationship to the Father. He also had an accurate understanding and expectation of the people around Him. Those two facts along with the absence of insecurities, selfish motives, and hidden agenda, allowed Jesus not to get baited by the enemy. He was not puffed up by people’s flattery nor was He discouraged or offended by their criticism of Him. That was Jesus’ method in fighting His spiritual battles!
In one form or another, the spiritual battles are about our relationship with the Lord! Jesus fought the spiritual battles by remaining close to the Lord, and He continued to trust God with the process. Do you tend to get weary, discouraged, offended, or hurt? Do you allow others to shake your resolve? When was the last time that you recognized that you are in a spiritual battle? Do you see when the enemy uses people to get to you?
While Jesus was meek, gentle, and humble, He was unshakable, strong, and courageous! He was able to move forward in God’s plan with joy because He knew what was waiting for Him and for us on the other side of the cross! Take some time to quietly sit with the Lord and let Him define the present situation for you.
Fighting in the Spirit (Part III)
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
The enemy is subtle in his schemes, and many times we are deceived by looking at people or circumstances from the natural level and perceive issues from a carnal perspective. However, spiritual battles come in different shapes and forms. I shared in the last devotional that we need to be mindful of how we process and perceive information on a regular basis. Anytime, we believe the lie of the enemy about ourselves or others, we open the door to him to defeat us by causing hurt, anxiety, or division.
Another area that requires attention in respect to spiritual battles is the voice of the culture and its impact on our value system. Many believers think that the world does not have influence on them, but when they come under pressure or disappointment, those deep-seated values come to the surface! If their values are rooted in the Kingdom, the voice of the world does not move them easily. On the other hand, if they are double-minded, they fall prey to their own desires, others’ views of them, and the perception of the world around them in their moment of need and vulnerability.
What happens when we are not received by others? What is our response or reaction when we have opposition like Daniel did? What happens when our work is not appreciated or acknowledged as we hoped for? What happens when we don’t receive the reward of our hard work? How we act or react to those situations, clarifies how successful we are in fighting the spiritual battles.
For decades Christians were taught that walking with Jesus is all about the person’s happiness. They were not told that it will cost them something. If we want to walk with God, things are not always going to go our way or in our timing. In those times, do we still believe that God is still working out a good plan in our lives? If we don’t believe that truth, we will walk in our carnal nature and try to fix it like we used to before we knew Christ.
Walking with God, also means sometimes people are not going to be happy with us because we have a standard of holiness. Joseph was falsely accused and lost his position because he cared more about pleasing God than pleasing Pharaoh’s wife. Are we willing to pay the price of integrity and not compromise our relationship with God in order to receive the favor of man!? When we understand that there is a cost to following Jesus, we are more resilient. We are able to be stronger in fighting spiritual battles, and we don’t allow the enemy to manipulate us through compromise, disappointment, or disillusionment.
Spend some time with the Lord this week. Thank Him for who He is and what He has done in your life. Prepare yourself spiritually for all the upcoming celebrations and family visits.
Fighting in the Spirit (Part II)
One of the main areas of spiritual battle is our internal being. This is also one of the hardest ones to fight. Generally, the main subject in preachings is our spiritual health, but the soul can get neglected in teachings. The soul was the strongest part of us prior to coming to Christ, and it tries to keep its supremacy after surrendering our lives to Christ. Therefore, it is important to tackle this part of our being, which can easily be manipulated by the enemy.
Our soul is made up of our thoughts, emotions, and will. What we see, hear, sense, and feel gets interpreted by our soul based on its prior experiences and worldview. This interpretation creates our perception of reality, which may or not be the truth. For example, if we see a friend at church who does not happen to acknowledge us, we can create one of several scenarios in our minds. Some may move on and forget about the exchange. Others will try to think about their last exchange with that friend and determine what went wrong. Some may confront the friend about the issue. Others might feel rejected and assume the worst.
A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle. Proverbs 18:19
Such an exchange as the above example seems benign and does not look like a spiritual battle. However, once we open the door to the enemy by believing the lie that something must be wrong, we strengthen the enemy’s power in our lives. Our soul loses its rest, and we are hurt over nothing. The lie leads to offense and intentional distance from those we care about. Furthermore, we are more prone to similar incidents, which can make us think that there must be something wrong with us. These kinds of situations happen frequently at work, church, or family gatherings, and misunderstandings wreak havoc in the person’s soul and their relationships.
We cannot interpret things based on our limited understanding. That’s why it is important to trust God with all our hearts. In the above example, instead of drawing conclusion based on a limited information, we can stop ourselves from going in the wrong direction. We don’t have to assume that the person is mad or intended to reject us. We can just ask the Lord to show us if there is something that we need to do. We submit the situation and the relationship to Him and allow the Lord to guide us. This approach aborts the enemy’s process from playing with our thoughts and emotions. We made the decision to overcome the situation and not allow ourselves to create scenarios based on our limited understanding.
We also choose intentionally to transform our minds based on what is pleasing to God and think of things that are pure, lovely, and praiseworthy. We choose to believe the best in others and fight the battle of feeling rejected or neglected. Whether the action was intentional or not, we can choose to forgive the person, so we can be in a position to remain in a relationship with them and not give a foothold to the enemy.
Is your soul at rest or do you easily get agitated in your mind, emotions, and will? Pay attention to the doors that you open to the enemy and choose the word of God to live differently. The spiritual battle is not always going to announce itself; sometimes it will come in ordinary ways to distract and derail us and cause our soul to lose its peace! Fighting in the spirit is sometimes as simple as rejecting a thought that will lead us down a wrong path!
Fighting in the Spirit (Part I)
What is fighting in the Spirit? Some believers assume that as long as they pray about a problem, they can handle their battles in any manner they desire. They think that so long as they are not swearing or yelling at people, they can tackle the problem their way and consider it fighting in the spirit.
Peter and Paul, at first, used their natural strength to fight their battles, and they thought they were being spiritual. You really can’t blame them for their lack of understanding. That was the method that the Israelites had used to fight their enemies for centuries. Their forefathers were warriors. Culturally, it would have been a badge of honor for people to be courageous and to fight opposition. However, Jesus had a different view on this issue.
But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matthew 26:52
Jesus shifted His disciples’ views about fighting. In the heat of the moment, when Jesus was being arrested, Jesus discouraged His disciples to use their sword to protect Him. Those with fiery personalities, like Peter, are ready to go to battle in a moment’s notice. Whenever something looks like an opposition, they are ready with their swords. Their weapon of choice might not be an actual sword, but they fight using arguments, debates, bullying, gossip, and name-calling. Jesus, on the other hand, told His disciples that the consequence of fighting in a carnal manner is that they will be perished through similar means. Fighting by a carnal sword is an open invitation for the demonic and the rejection of God’s ways. If we want for God to be on our side, we cannot fight like the world fights!
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 2 Corinthians 10:3
Our natural senses will continue to see, hear, and feel the enemy around us. However, the paradigm shift is that we need to deny our natural senses and not go into fight or flight mode. In the moment that our flesh wants to react, we are called to lean into the Lord, get the mind of Christ, and understand how the battle should be fought.
How do you handle the opposition? Do you get frustrated or offended? Do you fight back verbally? Do you have a tendency to be argumentative? Do you use gossip or backbiting to get back at those who have offended or hurt you? The truth is that if we are fighting the battles in the flesh, we are actually trapping ourselves by opening the door to the enemy.
Some people want to do both. They want to fight in the spirit and fight in the flesh. That is double-mindedness, and it will only bear little fruit if any. So how do we fight? I will share about this in the next devotional.
Jesus is the Fullness (Part IV)
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22-23
In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul paints a beautiful picture of God’s plan of salvation and redemption for humanity, and how the fullness of Jesus makes all the difference in our lives. While we have redemption through the blood of Jesus, that is just the beginning of God’s marvelous and magnificent blessings that He bestows on us because of the fullness of Jesus! The resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, allowed Him to be seated at the right hand of the Father, and overruled all powers and principalities, is also extended to all of us who believe in Jesus.
We are the benefactors of God’s divine grace because of believing on the work of Jesus on our behalf. Jesus extended the invitation to all humanity to receive Him and believe in Him.The fullness of His work is able to save billions of people from sin and bring them to salvation. When we believe in Jesus, a spiritual transaction takes place where we give permission to God to buy us back from the hands of the enemy and to become our Father, Lord, and King! The Lord receives us as His beloved children, and we join His family and His Kingdom. He has many rooms for all His children and Jesus went to prepare a place for all those who believe in Him!
God’s Kingdom is full of inheritance for His children, and the Holy Spirit is the seal of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the magnificence of everything God has to offer us. As the Holy Spirit gives us revelation, we begin to see, hear, and understand God’s amazing riches that He has provided for us in this age and in the age to come.
Jesus through His obedience made every power subjected to Him. His full obedience brought complete freedom to us from death and damnation. When we receive Him, we become dead to our old nature and begin a new life in our new nature. As we look to the Lord, He begins to show us the hope of His calling and His purpose in our everyday lives. Sometimes, the Lord gives us big promises for our future, but most of the time, He gives us our daily wisdom and understanding on how to live as a child of the King!
Ephesians 1 is rich with the revelation of God’s plan for us and the fullness of Jesus in every aspect of our spiritual blessings. I encourage you to read the entire chapter in the New King James Version (NKJV) and then read it in the Message Bible. You will be blessed with God’s work on your behalf!
Jesus is the Fullness (Part III)
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, Colossians 1:19
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. John 1:16
It was the Father’s pleasure to send Jesus in fullness to change the course of our lives. The fullness of Christ gives us everything we need for the life God intended for us to live.
The fullness of grace and truth in Jesus is powerful, but many in the body of Christ have not understood or appreciated the value of what He came to offer us. Hence, some churches struggle to know what to preach and how to reach people without compromising on either truth or grace
Why is the body of Christ seem to be divided between those who proclaim the grace of God and those who hold on to the truth of the gospel? Below are a few reasons that have caused some churches to be in one camp or the other.
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We live in a culture where education has become the idol of humanity. Therefore, much of our training is intellectual and heady, which leads people to operate from the natural perspective rather than spiritual. In this mode of operation, believers tap into their natural understanding and knowledge to solve spiritual problems. Spiritual things are only discerned spiritually and can only be addressed spiritually. Jesus declared himself to be the resurrection and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Our plans, projects, and curriculum have no power on their own to bring about the change in people’s lives until such a time that people are exposed with the resurrection power of Jesus. If we rely on education or intellect as the means of transformation of humanity, we are going to be pressured to come up with more creative programs and seeker friendly messages to get people hooked on Jesus!
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The ills of society cannot be fixed with our level of compassion for people. Compassion is critical in reaching people for it opens the door to deeper ministry, but on its own is powerless to bring lasting change. Many believers try to reach people through the mercy and the love of God and miss addressing man’s sinful nature that has to be dealt with before the individuals begin the road to recovery. As a matter of fact, some churches are so compassionate that they tell people that God loves them and will be in relationship with them regardless of what they do and their lifestyle. First of al that is not the truth. The Lord expects us to repent and follow Him by denying ourselves. Secondly, the person may feel comfortable, but it will not transform them and free them from their bondages.
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Social justice has become a new ministey for some churches leading them to become weak and ineffective spiritually. There are important issues that should be addressed. However, when the church looks to government to fix societal issues, she is in danger of getting distracted and polluted. Social justice draws the church to align itself with certain politicians or a political party to ensure that their agenda moves forward. We are called to be in the world but not of the world. We cannot forget that political parties are secular entities that their main objective is to win elections and push forward their secular agenda. Their goal is not to serve God or to glorify God. They only happen to push for certain policies that we like or deem more Godly.
We may agree with certain policies of a person or a political party, but when the church aligns itself with them, it looks as if the church is in agreement with all the views or policies of the politician or political party. As a result, it cannot speak truth on certain issues because it has to show wholehearted support and agreement with those that it politically supports. This pollutes and dilutes the church. The church will lose its saltiness when it desperately seeks a certain political agenda thereby compromising the gospel message. Whenever the church and government go to bed together, the end result is a weak church!
Not everyone liked or received what Jesus had to say. Our success is not going to come from the measure of being liked by the world or the size of our church membership. When we remain consistent with being filled with the fullness of Jesus’ truth and grace, we will be powerful to reach whosoever is ready to accept and receive Jesus and experience transformation in their lives.
Jesus Is the Fullness (Part II)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
What is the significance of Jesus coming in the fullness of grace and truth?
When God sent Jesus to the earth, He knew what we needed to be restored to the His original intent. Jesus came full of grace and truth to break the bonds of sin and religion that had taken the place of relationship with Him. Adam walked in the cool of the day with the Lord, but sin and religion had brought impenetrable barrier between God and man. Before Jesus came on the scene, people were afraid of God and could not get close to the Holy of Holies. In that era, God only spoke to a certain few and getting close to Him was only reserved for those with a special calling and anointing. However, with the coming of Jesus everything changed!
The mercy of Jesus allowed us to reach God without being afraid of Him. It also helped us to become vulnerable before God without the fear of reprisal. People opened up to Jesus in ways that they had never been able to do so with their religious leaders. Jesus broke down class barriers. They knew He cared about them and that He desired to help them. They found a shepherd for their souls who did not shun them or look down upon them. People brought their loved ones to Him, and Jesus healed their sick, cast out demons, and gave them recovery of sight.
Jesus also came full of truth. He was truthful with people about their condition. Jesus showed that the root of their ailments was sin that had quietly been ruining their lives. He did not sugar-coat sin or make excuses for it. He knew that if people wanted to be truly whole, they had to have the courage to face their sin and walk away from it.
The fullness of mercy and truth in Jesus paved the way for our salvation and transformation. The mercy of Jesus showed the heart of God for people and His desire to be in relationship with them. The truth of God showed them that unless they are willing to face their sins, no forgiveness or freedom is available to them.
Jesus’ interactions with people were unique yet similar. When He met the woman at the well, He told her He knew about her lifestyle, yet He was willing to get a drink of water from her. His mercy towards the woman committed in adultery allowed Him to protect her from those who were going to stone her, but He told her that she should change her life and sin no more. When He saw Zacchaeus, He acknowledged him and told him that He wanted to eat with Him. Zacchaeus was used to being shunned by people because he collected exorbitant taxes from his own people. However, now he came face to face with someone who valued him. Jesus didn’t have to tell Zacchaeus about his sin against his own people. Instead, Zacchaeus was convicted because he felt safe and loved enough to face the reality of his sin and the need for change.
We have many people who are need of someone walking in the fullness of truth and grace in their lives. Are you walking in the fullness of grace and truth? If not, what do you need more of to be effective in reaching people for Jesus?
Jesus is the Fullness (Part I)
Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, was the fullness of everything God had to offer. He held nothing back and gave Himself completely to us! Jesus came with fullness of passion and commitment towards every one of us to manifest the heart of the Father and to bring God’s Kingdom on the earth.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Jesus came in the flesh to show us who God is! He made the Word of God to come alive and become real to humanity. The Word of God was no longer an abstract idea that was relegated to the professionals. Jesus brought the Good News of salvation and God’s heart to the learned and unlearned, Jews and Gentiles, male and female!
The oneness of Jesus with the Father allowed the glory of God to be seen on the earth. In the Old Testament, Moses hid behind a rock to see the glory of God. People feared the glory of God and never dreamt of the possibility of seeing the glory of God. Their religion was based on what their leaders reported about God. They were dependent on others to find out who God was and what He expected of them. Unfortunately, their leaders many times did not represent the Lord correctly to people, but Jesus was different!
