Month: April 2020

[The Glory Unveiled]

Then God opened her [Hagar’s] eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy [Ishmael] a drink. ( Genesis 21 :19 )

The verse of Scripture is an excerpt from the account of Hagar’s banishment from the family of Abraham. On her way, she and her baby Ishmael ran out of water. Now, at the very point where Hagar had despaired and gave up her search, that was the very area where her solution was. The well of water was very close to Hagar but she couldn’t see it. Sometimes, in our search for things–peace, protection, security, food–we quit [give up] before we are opportuned to see breakthroughs. Hagar, like most of us came to her cross roads, she felt she couldn’t go any further. Particularly in these times, we are faced with very challenging crisis on every side, issues beyond our ability and control are fast demanding our attention. And unfortunately we don’t have the solution to most of them. We frantically sometimes do all we could to alleviate our situations but to no avail. In the split of a moment, let us put ourselves in the position of Hagar, imbibing her fears, anxiety and worries. What would you do when you have done all you could do? What else will you say when you’ve said all you could say? What will you do when you find yourself all alone in a crisis, in the middle of no where [figuratively]? The solution is in our dependence on the Lord by trusting His faithfulness and integrity. Let us trust the Lord impartially.

Prayer_Bead: Lover-God, thank you for your love and your grace. I ask that in my crisis, help me to look up to you as the Christ. In my mess, come through for me with a message as my Messiah.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

So he [the owner] said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ( Luke 13:7)

Today’s Scripture for meditation emphasizes the need for fruitfulness. The metaphoric fig tree in the verse above refers to us. God planted us when we accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour. He also graced us with His word that is able to help us grow to maturity. The word of God is supposed to give us nourishment. So that we become like trees planted by rivers of water, whose leaves do not wither. God does not entertain wastage. The Bible tells of the feeding of the 5,000. After they had been fed, Jesus asked that the disciples should collect the fragments [so that nothing would be wasted]. God would always ensure that we have all our needs for life and godliness met.  But after God has done all there is for our sustenance and stability, we need to produce the results that merit God’s input. After many opportunities of God’s grace and patience, God demands a significant output, otherwise He is obliged to cut us off. But sometimes, the grace of God makes it seem like God does not demand any accountability from us whereas in reality, He does. God’s grace is not in vain. As we endure the watering and prunning of God, our lives must produce corresponding evidence of that working of God’s Holy Spirit in us.

Prayer_Bead: God who does not speak in vain, whose words do not return void unless they accomplish that for which they were sent. Lord, let your word produce results in me.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ( Luke 24:5 )

Faith is the underlying substance of our everyday realities. The women spoken of in the verse were women who had been with Jesus. They had heard Jesus tell them that He would be betrayed, crucified, buried but raised on the third day. So if they had believed that Jesus would be raised on the third day as He said, they wouldn’t have gone to Jesus’ graveside with spices and perfume to anoint His body and to preserve it. They went with things needed by a dead man not a man who was alive. If they had believed that Jesus would rise on the third day, they would have sent something denoting of that. Often as Believers, we look for our solutions in the wrong places. We sometimes seem to look for life in places of death, hope in hopeless places, joy in places of pain and freedom in prisons; we look for things in places they cannot be found. And this is largely or mostly because of a lack of faith. With the Spirit of discernment, we are able to discern where we need to go to find what we need. There are hidden treasures positioned for our glory. But the glory is revealed when we discover these treasures. We need the understanding of the Spirit of Truth and the eyes illuminated by revelation to see what is ours and where to find it. Let us look right.

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah-Bara, thank you for the revelation from your word. Guide me into my inheritance and the hidden riches of dark places. Open Lord my eyes and mind

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

3 He [Zacchaeus] wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. ( Luke 19:3-4 )

Do you have your vision of the Christ clipped? Is the world and the voices of people eclipsing your understanding of divine truth. Has the full image of Christ been hidden from your sight because of your environment, physical challenge or something you cannot control? Sometimes life’s situations and the challenges that come with them seem to block our view of Christ. In the recent crisis we face, many Believers have their faith dumpened and their hope crushed. Sometimes we tend to succumb to the pressure from the world and the pains of dashed hope. Some of us just agree to flow with the status quo. We talk ourselves into believing that we are not good enough, we are not righteous enough or maybe we don’t have the advantages of other people to know Christ through His word, prayer and nature. But like the man Zacchaeus in today’s Scripture verse, we can do something about the fixed “problems” we have. We can use our challenges to our advantage to challenge us into exploring new territories and ideas. Zacchaeus was a short man who couldn’t have seen Jesus neither Jesus he, but he didn’t give up, he didn’t compromise with the situation, he did something that unbelievably put him at a position that all could see him including Jesus. Beloved, if you find yourself in a compromising position, reposition yourself.

Prayer_Bead: God without impossibilities, the lover of my soul and the reason for my existence, thank you for your grace. Order my steps into the full knowledge of your truth.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

[Urged on] by faith the people crossed the Red Sea as [though] on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do the same thing they were swallowed up [by the sea]. [ Hebrews 11:29]

Reading this account in the old Testament book of Exodus, the whole story seem like a fictional tale. And even when one tries to imagine it as a nonfiction, it still seem irreconcilable to reality. For instance, it seem that the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites was just automatic without any efforts from them. It seem that they just walked through on dry land. But then reading from this verse of Scripture, one will discover that if it were just so automatic, the Egyptian army should have walked through the red sea as well [ just like their Israeli target ] without any crisis or whatsoever. The only significant difference between any two persons or group of people is mostly their faith in God or otherwise. Faith discriminates. Faith always shows the disparity between the person with it and the person without it. In Hebrews 11:6, the Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please God. The Egyptians who pursued the Israelites and anyone without faith, carry out their enterprises by their strength. And as the Scripture further says that the arm of man will always fail us, when we move on to execute any plan like crossing a seemingly impossible huddle, we need faith else our frantic efforts will just be fruitless. A word of caution,  be careful what you try to imitate from other people especially when it has dire consequences without the requisite faith, knowledge or skills. Faith will always discriminate between what is genuinely sponsored by God and what is by our strength.

Prayer_Bead: Thank you Father for the Spirit of faith given to me from the hearing of the word of God. I pray that you teach me to walk in the practicality of my faith.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.