Category: Truth

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A very present God 

[The Glory Unveiled]

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. [ Psalms 46:1 NKJV ]

Sometimes, in our world, when crises and challenges arise, solutions and opportunities come too late. In the very season when solutions are desperately needed, they seem nowhere to be found. Yet, when the crisis has passed and those solutions are no longer needed, they suddenly seem to abound. The problem, therefore, is not always the unavailability of solutions, but their untimely availability. We see this in situations such as a fire outbreak. Fire tenders may be called to put out the flames, but sometimes they arrive only after everything has been reduced to ashes. The solution arrives, but it arrives too late. But this is not the nature of our God. Scripture calls Him “a very present help in trouble.” He is not summoned into our crisis after it begins; He is already there with us. He does not arrive after the damage has been done. He is present from the beginning, in the midst of the trouble, and throughout the process. This is why we can trust in His strength and lean on Him as our refuge in times of trouble. Our Father in heaven is a very present God. He is so near to us that He knows our every whisper and every want. He is not a distant God who must be called from afar before He responds. His presence precedes our crisis, accompanies us through it, and sustains us beyond it. This is the God we have. Therefore, we must learn to call upon Him not only when trouble comes, but even before it comes. We do not wait for the crisis to introduce us to God; we walk with Him before the crisis ever arrives. For the God who is our present help in trouble is also the God who is present before trouble begins.

Prayer_Bead: Our present help and God, thank you for always being with us. 

Wisdom_Quote: Adequate help is always available before it is requested. 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord forever.  

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Confined

[The Glory Unveiled] 

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. [ John 15:6 NKJV ]

Adam and Eve lived in a garden—a restrictive space within a boundary set by God because that environment was conducive to their optimum function. The boundary was not intended to deprive them but to preserve them. It defined the space within which they could flourish according to God’s design. When Adam and Eve demonstrated that they did not want to live within the boundary God had established, God drove them out of the garden. Outside the garden, there was no longer an instruction concerning which tree they could or could not eat from. They were, in a sense, free to do whatever they pleased. But what did that freedom produce? It produced death, disorder, and destruction. Their lives could no longer function as they were originally designed to function. And so, after humanity left the garden, God later gave His people His law through Moses. Once again, He established boundaries—commands that would teach His people how to live within the order He had designed. Yet humanity repeatedly stepped beyond the confines of those laws. Then God did something greater. He brought us into His Son, Jesus Christ—the ultimate and perfect representation and reflection of the boundary we needed all along. In Christ, God did not merely give us another set of rules; He gave us a Person within whom life is found. And now humanity has the opportunity to remain within the restrictive space of Christ or to walk freely outside of Him. Those who live outside Him may appear free to do whatever they want, but that freedom ultimately leads to the loss of life. Just as God told Adam that the day he crossed the boundary through disobedience, he would surely die, the principle remains: life cannot be sustained outside the One who gives it. But now, in Christ, we have life—and as long as we remain in Him, we remain in His life.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for keeping me confined to Jesus and His life. 

Wisdom_Quote: God’s boundaries preserve. 

Salvation_Prayer: Lord Jesus, I accept you as my Saviour today. Save me and write my name in your book of life. 

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Behind the blood 

[The Glory Unveiled]

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! [ John 1:29 NKJV ]

You would think that the plagues that came upon Egypt affected only the Egyptians—and, for the first nine plagues, that was almost entirely the case. But the tenth plague was different. Death visited both the Egyptians and the Israelites. That night, the firstborn of both man and beast in Egypt died. Equally, in the homes of the Israelites, a lamb had to die. Something or someone died in both homes. God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and apply its blood to the doorposts of their houses, so that when the spirit of death passed through the land, it would pass over every household covered by the blood. This reveals a profound picture of the gospel. The wages of sin is death, and death must visit humanity because sin has given it a rightful claim. None of us can escape the consequence of sin by our own merit or righteousness. But God provided His Lamb to die in our place. His blood covers us and removes the reason for which we deserved to die. Therefore, the one who hides under the blood of the Lamb of God does not die because the Lamb has died in his stead. Jesus takes our place so that death passes over us—not because we are without sin, but because we are covered by His blood. Ultimately, there are only two sides to this divide. You either face death as an Egyptian, exposed in your sin and rebellion, or you take refuge under the blood of the Lamb. Either way, you will fall at one end of the divide: as one exposed to death, or as one hidden behind the curtains of the Lamb’s blood.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the privilege to belong to the side of the Lamb of God. 

Wisdom_Quote: The Lamb of God takes away your death sentence or you embrace it. 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, I surrender to your lordship. Come into my heart and be my Saviour. 

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The law of Christ 

[The Glory Unveiled]

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. [ Galatians 6:2 NKJV ]

We live in a world where everyone seems increasingly focused on themselves. Even when people appear to be in the company of others, it is often ironically a company of “me, I, and myself.” They live by the law of the world—the law of self. But this is contrary to the kingdom into which we have been called through the salvation we have received in Christ. As believers, we are called to live for others rather than for ourselves. Jesus Himself demonstrated this for us: He bore the burden of our sin and carried what we could never carry on our own. Having received such an example from Christ, we are likewise called to bear one another’s burdens. Scripture tells us that by doing this, we fulfil the law of Christ. And what is the law of Christ? Love. Therefore, whenever we turn inward—when our focus becomes pleasing ourselves, protecting ourselves, and pursuing our own interests at the expense of others—we are no longer fulfilling the law of Christ. Instead, we are yielding to the law of the world: the law of self. So, put on love as your working gear. Let it govern how you relate to people, how you respond to their weaknesses, and how you carry what may be difficult for them to carry. Bear one another’s burdens, and in doing so, fulfil the law of Christ.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for teaching me to love because you first loved me. 

Wisdom_Quote: Put on love as your working gear daily. 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord. Thank you for saving me. 

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When Grace Speaks

[The Glory Unveiled]

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” [ Luke 18:40-41 NKJV ]

The blind man in this verse of Scripture had the name “blind Bartimaeus” inscribed into his identity because of his crisis. It was not by his choice, but his condition took the front seat of his identity. Over time, people could only recognise him when he was described as “blind Bartimaeus.” His condition became so closely associated with him that it seemed to define who he was. But the interesting thing about Bartimaeus is that he did not embrace his predicament as his final destination. He lived in the realm of possibility even when his situation was screaming, “Impossible!” And because he lived in this realm, he was able to recognise possibility when it passed by. He recognised Jesus as his possibility when others saw Him merely as a teacher. It was this recognition that caused Bartimaeus to call Him, “Son of David.” The moment he recognised Jesus as his solution, the voice of grace spoke on his behalf, even when his environment wanted to drown it out. The commanding voice of grace silences the opposition, restrains the accusations of accusers, and mutes the voice of judgement. Grace speaks where human voices condemn, and grace creates access where circumstances have established limitations. But grace speaks in such situations when there is recognition. The question, therefore, is not merely, “Who is Jesus?” but, “Who is Jesus to you personally?” Not who He is generally, but who He is to you. That is what matters, and that is what makes all the difference. Because when you recognise Jesus for who He is to you, you position yourself to experience what only He can do. And when grace speaks, gates open, impossible becomes possible.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for your speaking grace in my life. 

Wisdom_Quote: Grace speaks when Jesus is recognized 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, I yield my heart and soul to you. Be my Saviour and Lord. 

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Vessels of eternal life

[The Glory Unveiled]

Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. [ 2 Kings 13:21 NIV ]

The believer’s life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), and that life is life-giving in its very nature. Scripture declares, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). Therefore, whoever has the Son possesses that life. We are not merely recipients of eternal life; we become vessels through which that life flows to others. Jesus declared that He had authority to lay down His life and authority to take it up again (John 10:18). His resurrection demonstrated that the life of God cannot be conquered by death. That same life now dwells in every believer. The Apostle Paul reinforces this truth when he writes, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). We died with Christ, yet His life has become our life. We no longer exist by our own strength but by the life of the Son of God living within us. This life is not passive; it is imparting. It carries the power to bring life wherever it is released. In the book of Kings, even after Elisha’s death, a man was restored to life the moment his body touched the prophet’s bones. Though Elisha was gone, the power of God associated with his life still bore witness. If such life-giving virtue could remain in the bones of an Old Testament prophet, how much more should it be evident in those who have become the living temples of the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant. We carry extraordinary power within us—not because of who we are, but because Christ lives in us. We have been entrusted with the privilege of bringing a dying world into contact with the life of Jesus through our words, our prayers, our love, and our witness. Everywhere we go, we are called to dispense His life. And because His life dwells in us, our influence should not end at the grave. The impact of a life surrendered to Christ ought to outlive our earthly existence. Just as the ministry of Elisha continued to bear fruit after his death, and the death of Christ became the very means by which life came to the world, so should our lives leave a lasting legacy of faith. Long after we have been called home, lives should still be transformed because we faithfully carried and released the life of Christ while we were here.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the life of your Son in me. I reproduce after my kind. 

Wisdom_Quote: The believer’s is a life giving agent. 

Salvation_Prayer: Lord Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I acknowledge you as my Lord and Saviour. 

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The upward call

[The Glory Unveiled]

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. [ Philippians 3:14 NIV ]

The calling of God upon each of our lives is the very reason Christ Jesus took hold of us. We were not apprehended by Him accidentally, nor were we saved by chance. Our salvation was necessitated by a divine calling that existed before we ever responded to the gospel. There is a purpose upon every life that made both our creation and our recreation in Christ necessary. It may appear as though we came to Christ on our own initiative, but the deeper reality is that He first came to us. Behind every testimony of salvation is the unseen and intricate work of the Spirit of Christ drawing, convicting, and apprehending a person for the purpose God has ordained for their life. The circumstances through which we heard the gospel and believed were not random events; they were the orchestration of divine providence leading us into God’s eternal purpose. The Apostle Paul is a vivid example of this truth. As he journeyed to Damascus with authority to arrest and imprison believers, he had no intention of seeking Christ. Yet on that very road, Christ apprehended him. Though Paul’s encounter was far more dramatic than that of many believers, the objective was no different. Christ laid hold of him so that he might fulfil the purpose for which God had chosen him. The same is true of every child of God. We have all been apprehended to serve the purpose of God in our generation. Therefore, it behoves us to press toward the mark of the high calling for which we were saved. We must press beyond the limitations of culture and the expectations of society. We must push against family traditions, religious mindsets, and every belief system that seeks to imprison us and keep us from fully obeying God. We must contend against every weight, every distraction, and every opposition that stands between us and the fulfilment of our divine calling. Having been apprehended by Christ, our lifelong pursuit must be to lay hold of that for which He first laid hold of us.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for calling me in your Son to serve your heaven purpose. 

Wisdom_Quote: God calls the saved in Jesus

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, I understand that I have gone far away from the purpose of God for my life. I accept you into my life as my life’s compass and Saviour. 

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Religious parcels 

[The Glory Unveiled]

“If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”[ Matthew 4:6 NKJV ]

Religion is one of the devil’s most potent instruments of deception. Throughout history, countless atrocities have been committed under the banner of religion, with people invoking the name of God to justify what He never approved. Because this strategy has proven so effective, Satan continues to disguise many of his works—the deeds of the flesh, that is, sin—in religious clothing. As a result, people can indulge in all manner of unrighteousness provided it bears some form of religious embellishment. In our day, lust, pride, greed, and countless other temptations are often wrapped in spiritual language and presented as though they are acceptable before God. Many believers accept the package without examining its contents. They are captivated by the wrapping and fail to discern what lies beneath. This is precisely how the devil approached Jesus. After several failed attempts to entice Him to sin, Satan returned with a religious package. He quoted Scripture: “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written…” His objective had not changed. He still sought to lead Jesus into disobedience, but this time he concealed the temptation beneath the language of Scripture. He attempted to make rebellion appear like faith by attaching a biblical quotation to it. But Jesus saw beyond the package. He discerned the deception behind the quotation and answered Scripture with Scripture, rightly interpreting the Father’s will rather than accepting the devil’s distortion. In doing so, He prevailed. The enemy has not changed his methods. He still disguises temptation as spirituality and sin as obedience. Not everything that sounds biblical is from God, and not everyone who quotes Scripture speaks for Him. Spiritual maturity is not merely knowing the Word; it is possessing the discernment to distinguish between God’s truth and Satan’s counterfeit. Until we learn to see beyond the devil’s packaging, we remain vulnerable to the very deception we think we are resisting.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for opening my eyes to the deceptions of the devil. 

Wisdom_Quote: The devil parcels sin in religious packages 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, I surrender to you this day. Be my Lord and Saviour. 

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The Anointing 

[The Glory Unveiled]

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. [ Acts 10:38 NKJV ]

Often, when we witness extraordinary acts in the lives of others, we see only the visible outcome while remaining unaware of the hidden work that produced it. Behind every genuine manifestation is an unseen process. Therefore, if we desire to reproduce those same works, we must first understand the realities behind the scenes that gave birth to them. The sons of Sceva made this very mistake. They saw the Apostle Paul cast out demons with authority and assumed they could achieve the same results simply by imitating his words. They copied the outward expression without possessing the inward reality. They failed to grasp the relationship with Christ, the authority, the consecration, and the anointing that stood behind Paul’s ministry. Their ignorance led them into disgrace rather than the victory they sought. The ministry of the Lord Jesus followed the same principle. He went about doing good, healing the sick, and delivering the oppressed. Yet those mighty works were not random occurrences or mere demonstrations of power. They were sponsored by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. As Scripture declares, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” These manifestations did not happen by accident; they were the fruit of a divine life and a divine empowerment. What God produced through His Spirit can be reproduced wherever the same divine ingredients are present. The anointing is what makes the difference. It is the unseen reality that gives birth to visible results. Therefore, do not become preoccupied with outward manifestations while neglecting the source from which they flow. Do not chase miracles; pursue the anointing that produces them. Do not seek the works while ignoring the power that sponsors them. When the anointing rests upon a life, the manifestations will follow in their appointed season.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for anointing me with power and your Spirit. 

Wisdom_Quote: The visible is controlled by the invisible 

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for the gift offered through the cross. I accept it by faith. Be my Lord and Saviour. 

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God’s little children 

[The Glory Unveiled]

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. [ 1 John 4:4 NKJV ]

This world is not a place for little children. According to Scripture, little children are not merely those who are biologically young, but those who are still young in their relationship with God. Spiritual immaturity leaves a person vulnerable in a world that is hostile to the purposes of God. In this sense, Adam and Eve were relationally immature. Knowing this, God did not leave them to navigate the world on their own. Instead, He planted a garden—a specially prepared environment—and placed them there. Yet even within the safety of the garden, the serpent found an opportunity to tempt them, for although the garden was distinct from the world, it was still situated within it. Their environment could not substitute for spiritual maturity. Our advantage in Christ is far greater. The Scriptures declare, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” The indwelling life of Christ is our victory over the world’s temptations. As we cultivate an ever-deepening relationship with Him, His life becomes the strength by which we resist the world’s influence and overcome its systems. A person who has no relationship with Jesus has no true resistance against the world. Such a life is easily swept along by its pleasures, pressures, and demands. This fallen world is filled with relentless temptation and spiritual devastation. But those who depend on God and continually grow in fellowship with Him are strengthened to overcome the world, its systems, and its temptations. Victory is not found in human resolve but in abiding in Christ, whose life within us triumphs over everything that seeks to draw us away from God.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for making me your child and helping me to grow in my relationship with you. 

Wisdom_Quote: A relationship with Jesus is our true resistance against the world.

Salvation_Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the gift of salvation that makes me a child of God. 

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