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[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.

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[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.

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[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

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[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.

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[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.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. ( John 1:12-13 )

The new birth is the only true birth that identifies us with our source. Originally and spiritually, we are descendants of God through Adam, although we can all physically trace our ancestry to human descendants. The disobedience of Adam inflicted upon the human race a nature that is opposed to the original plan and nature of God in us. So that the distortion of that original plan necessitated the need for a new genealogy which will graft us back into the family of God. When we consider Jesus and Adam, we will realise that they do not trace their ancestry to any man but God. In the Scripture above, we see that when one accepts Jesus as Lord, they disconnect from their human parentage and they are immediately grafted back into the family of God. We become born anew, by God. So that we can posses traits of God Himself. Any traits of the fallen man that finds expression in us after we have joined the family of God is an error that needs correction through the knowledge of God’s word. Now in Christ, we are heirs of God. We do not inherit nor exhibit the human nature but the God nature. The new life begins to transcend our formerly “normal” nature.

Prayer_Bead: My Father and my God, thank you for accepting me back into your family. I ask that may the life of God begin to superimpose the natural life and produce the fruit of your Spirit. Thank you in Jesus name.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

“I [Judas Iscariot] have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us–the chief priests and elders?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” ( Matthew 27:4)

The man who said, “Adulthood is spelt responsibility” couldn’t have said it any better. Each and every individual is responsible for their words and actions. Who we are right now is the compounding effect of the decisions we made along life’s journey. The things we say and do, paint vivid pictures of what we believe in. As such, every man is responsible for their beliefs. Beliefs are the ideas and ideologies that we subscribe to and give permission to influence the choice we make and are volitionally responsible for. Judas Iscariot made a decision that was unheard of in the whole of Israel up until that time–the betrayal of His master and teacher–but when he later regretted his actions and thought of making amends, the chief priest and elders taught him a lesson he probably learnt too late. They told Judas he was responsible for his actions. This speaks about the will of man. All humans have their free will, except in few cases where spiritual entities try to override the default operation of a person’s brain so that such a person does whatever the spirit entity wants to express. But we all have our free will, nonetheless. Often, we can identify irresponsibility when we begin to blame other people for our actions. When Adam and Eve were caught after eating of the forbidden fruit, they played the blame game too, shirking their responsibilities. But we must always be reminded that, we are responsible for everything that comes from us. Whatever it may be.

Prayer_Bead: Thank you Lord Jesus for reminding me that I am responsible for my actions. I pray that you guide me into making intentional decisions that are in sync with your will for me.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. ( Hebrews 4:11 )

The seventh day was a day of sabbath (rest) to God according to the seven-day creation story. There was an analogical place of rest for the Israelites of old and there is a place of rest for the believer in Christ too. We enter into that day and place by pressing into it. No one stumbles into the rest of God. We press into it by obedience to the heavenly call. The people who couldn’t enter into the rest of God in the old covenant were those who disobeyed the [known] will of God for them. The rest of God is a place in the knowledge of God and a position in the fellowship system of the Holy Spirit that rewards our commitment, faithfulness, patience, endurance, faith, and our obedience. In the new covenant, the rest of God is Christ. And when we receive Him as Lord, we enter into the threshold of God’s rest. So that Christ in us is the hope of our glorification. For God has made Christ unto us, salvation, redemption, righteousness, holiness, even our wisdom. So that outside Christ we are only living in a beautiful Egypt–slavery–or walking through a wilderness that leads no where. Let us make every effort through the grace of God to enter that rest. The Israelites came out of Egypt by the grace of God but they needed a renewed mind and absolute trust in God to have access into that rest. Even Adam and Eve were in the rest of God [Eden] as long as they were obedient to the word of God to them. Obedience to God is an indispensable key to enter into the rest of God.

Prayer_Bead: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the grace of salvation. I pray that you usher me into your full rest as in Christ.

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[the glory Unveiled]

For nothing is impossible with God.” ( Luke 1:37)

This is possibly the most “unbelievable” statement you could come across in the Scriptures. Superficially many people profess to believe that God is able to do all things and nothing is impossible to Him. But when situations challenge our resolve and beliefs, we come to that realisation that we didn’t really believe that statement. God is altogether other than anything that ever was and will be. He is altogether different from us. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are unlike ours. He sees what we do not see and hears what we do not hear. The supernatural abilities of God, reserved for Him as God makes Him the defeater of all impossibilities. From our human scope, we see certain things as impossible, these are the things God has designated for His exclusive glory. God knows no impossibility. For instance, Lazarus dies and after four full days, Jesus comes on the scene to bring him back to life. The crowd would have thought that Jesus was crazy to attempt something as impossible as bringing a four day old dead man from the grave. But God knows no impossibility. Whatever we may be facing right now, that may sound like an impossibility is earmarked for God’s glory. Allow God to speak to it and His glory will emerge from it.

Prayer_Bead: Destiny changer, mountain mover, Jehovah of His own class, bring glory out of my seemingly impossible situation. Bring the sweetest wine out of the tasteless water of my life.

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[The Glory Unveiled]

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” ( Luke 9:20 )

Every Believer needs an independent understanding and relationship with Christ. If our knowledge of Christ is hinged on someone else’s revelation of Him, such knowledge will not stand the challenging realities of life. In the verse before the focus verse, Jesus had asked His disciples, who do men say I am? And they gave diverse responses. Isn’t it amazing how much of God we seem to know through the funnel of other people’s understanding of Him. And yet we know little to nothing from personal encounters. Compared to the earlier question, when Jesus asked his disciples, “who do you say I am?” the response became fewer. Strangely enough, our spiritual houses are built on the strength of our individual understanding of who Christ is to us and not what families or friends believe. So that he told Peter that, I would build My church (spiritual house) on that revelation of who you say I am. Its always been individual. Let’s pause and examine our understanding of Christ, is it worth building anything on? Is it rock solid enough to lay the next layer of revelation on? We need to know Christ experientially. We need to know Him for ourselves because only then can He build something that the gates of Hell cannot contend against.

Prayer_Bead: Father of all Lights and illumination, thank you for the revelation of Christ to my spirit. Please unveil Christ to the eyes of my soul and give me a rock solid understanding of Him.

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