Tag: #GNews

[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.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his [Jesus’] glory and the two men standing with him. ( Luke 9:32 )

Many Believers all over the world may call and pray for the glory of God, organise retreats that capture the theme or read about it in the word of God. But even when the Lord should take us to the mountain top, to witness His glorious transfiguration, unless we are fully awake, we cannot see it. We are in a time and a dispensation where sleep is weighing down the majority of Believers. We pray for a lot of revivals and sometimes organise retreats to that effect. But in reality we see nothing. It is as if we are sleep talking. And we are not making meaning in expressing what we desire. The reason, according to today’s text is the weight of sleep. We need to wake up as the body of Christ because the bridegroom is here. From the Scripture above, we can deduce that, the glory had been on Jesus all the while that the three disciples were sleeping. But they could not see the glory of Jesus until they were fully awake. So until Believers are fully awake, they cannot see the glory of God. Irrespective of the number of years they have been in the faith. We must be awakened to the consciousness of spiritual realities. So much is happening around us, do you not see it? (see Isaiah 43:19). Let us awaken to the realities around us. Awake o sleeper.

Prayer_Bead: Thank you, King of glory. Open the eyes of my understanding to see and understand the knowledge of your glory. Drive spiritual slumber far away from me, in Jesus name.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ( Mark 16:6 )

On the first day of the week after Jesus had been buried, three women went to anoint His body. Coincidentally, this was the third day after His burial. And on this same day Jesus had informed his disciples that He would be raised back to life. But shockingly, not one of the twelve disciples or even the inner three, including Peter the curious disciple came to see whether or not what Jesus said was true. They seem to have forgotten all about the words of Jesus. One would wonder how anyone of the disciples who followed the Lord Jesus so closely for all those three years could just forget about Him. But that is the case with many of us. In a crisis, in the silence of God’s tests we sometimes seem to forget all about the promises and kindness of God. Not knowing that in those silence is the sound of a new beginning for us. Even though the three women who went to the tomb of Jesus on the first day did not originally go there to see Jesus resurrect or whether He did, by their love and commitment to Him, they were blessed to be the first people to hear and carry the news of a new beginning. They carried the news of Jesus’ resurrection to the world, even to the original disciples. Jesus is risen! And as a result of His resurrection, we can now boldly say that we died with Christ and rose with Him, having a new life, even the life of God. The place where Jesus was buried could have been a symbol of pain and hopelessness to the many. But to the glory of God, that place after three days became the prove that He is risen and a monument of hope to the Believers then, even before they actually saw Jesus. May whatever used to be a mark of hopelessness and pain in our lives become the reason for our celebration in Jesus name. He is risen and so are we.

Prayer_Bead: Father in Heaven, thank you for Jesus. May the remembrance of His resurrection give me hope and refresh my faith. May the power that raised Christ come upon me and dwell in my mortal body, so that the resurrected life may be seen in me.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ( John 19:30 )

Reading the account of Jesus’ death, anyone will admit how very cruel it was. Even the spirit of the man who is unimaginative can bear witness to the cruelty and the shame with which His death was carried out. And for the fact that He was not guilty of any crime, accused and betrayed by a friend and a student. He did not only endure such gruesome physical pains but also a very intense emotional pains. Amazingly, Jesus did not jump any stage of the predestined process for the redemption of man. He paid our price in full. Along the line, He could have employed His divine right as God even while persecuted. But no, he lived and acted as if He was not God, nor had any right to act independent of God. This is the intense of Jesus’ love for man. He followed the prescription inscribed by the will of the father as if He was preparing a pastry that demanded strict adherence to its recipe else the desired outcome would not be achieved. Undoubtedly, Christ has baked a perfect cake of redemption for anyone who believes in the price He paid in His flesh for us. It is finished indeed! He has done everything God would have required of us. Glory to God!

Prayer_Bead: Thank you dear Lord for the work of redemption which you have designed and executed for me. And because of that I declare even as you did that, it is Finished!

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he [Jesus] tells you.” ( John 2:5 )

The verse is an excerpt from an incident at the wedding in Cana. The wine at the wedding had run out and Mary, the mother of Jesus had asked Jesus to do something about the problem. For wine to run out before the wedding ended was a serious embarrassment to the bride and the groom. So Mary intercepted to save the ceremony embarrassment. Now, Mary had done her part by informing Jesus, the solution giver. But that was all she could do. The unnamed servants in the verse actually were the bridge between the crisis and the solution, if at all there would be any. The servants had to do something that would bring about the solution everyone at the wedding feast would hope for. They were the channel through which the solution could emerge. Their simple duty of doing what Jesus would ask them to do was that bridge. If they had failed to comply by the instruction given by Jesus, there feast would have ended in shame. In our lives as individuals, our compliance to the word of God is what brings into reality what we hope for. We may pray as much as we want for anything we want, but obedience to the instructions of God is the hand that brings in view and at hand, that need. Let us not just pray, let us obey.

Prayer_Bead: Father of Life, draw me into intimate fellowship with You. Guide me by the Holy Spirit into absolute obedience to your will.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ( 1 Corinthians13 : 8)

The verse of Scripture for devotion today is shrouded with certainty. There are those things in life as time and seasons and their derivatives that constantly change. They are not stable no matter what you bet on them. There are so many things around us that have the appearance of permanence but in reality they are as unstable as water. The same is true of gifts. Whatever spiritual gifts we are privileged to have is not an immovable mountain, the Bible says it will pass away or cease. As fantastic as they are and almost as glorious as they appear, they will not remain forever, they will  change in time. The gifts of the Spirit, including the examples mentioned in the verse are just like mist or smoke, they will pass away. The changing tides of life will alter them. But the fruit of the Spirit which is love cannot fail. This is because Jesus said His fruit abides forever. (see John15:16). Love, like other fruit of the Spirit does not fail and cannot fail. It abides in and through every circumstances. Cling to love, the fruit of the Spirit not the gifts of the Spirit.

Prayer_Bead: Thank you Jesus, lover of my soul, thank you for teaching me the infallible nature of the fruit of your Spirit, that is producing in me abiding results.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. ( Matthew 14:16–17 )

Sometimes the solutions we think we do not have or see is actually closer to us than we think. Our challenge comes from the fact that we think we are not strong enough, we are not good enough, we are not handsome or beautiful enough, we feel we always don’t have enough of whatever we have or need to have. We condemn ourselves as a result of our understanding of what we think we don’t have. But if we can look carefully at ourselves and our immediate environment, we will admit that we have the solution to the problems that confront us. But what is more revealing is the fact that, Jesus said they should give out the little they had. Whereas, what they had wouldn’t have probably satisfied two adult mouths. But Jesus said they should give the multitude “something”. Multiplication in the school of the Spirit seem to come by giving out even when we have nothing. Giving is the only platform that legally allows for abundance for the believer. Give, don’t anticipate lack when you give, don’t worry about what will sustain you when you give. Jesus knows your needs but the need to give others out of love for them is what guarantees abundance.

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord my provider, I pray for the sufficiency of your grace. Teach me to love in deeds and not just in words.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: ( Colossians 3 :10)

The new man recreated in Christ Jesus is actually the old you, renewed in the knowledge of Christ. So that when we accept Jesus as Lord and saviour, there is no immediate apparent change in our soul but a gradual renewal of the will, the emotional and the intellectual faculties. This happens after some time of exposure and interaction with the image of focus, Christ. As an iron becomes a magnet after long hours of exposure to a real magnet. So we become like the image we are exposed to. And just as a chameleon mimic the colours of any object before it, our souls after redemption, is given the ability to mimic the personality of Christ when we allow the Holy Spirit to act out Christ through us. People will look at us and see Christ. We become like He is when we become like he was. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Let us renew our minds in the accurate knowledge Christ and we will give off the same fragrance as He.

Prayer_Bead: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for making me a new man, renewed in the knowledge of God, my creator. Help me to continually give off the fragrance of Christ.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” ( Luke 8 :25)

Where is our faith? The location of our faith determines the intonation of the results we see. The verse of Scripture above speaks about Jesus and his disciples en route Gerasenes. While on the lake, a violent wind came but Jesus was asleep. Now, anytime Christ seem quiet in our lives is the moment when our faith must speak up. Jesus was asleep in order to give room to the faith of the disciples to find expression in practical situations. Where is our faith? Today, many people invest their faith like they do their idle time. They have their faith scattered everywhere in any thing seemingly convincing but yielding no true results. When faced with a real world challenge, we need more than whatever human resources we might have subscribed to. Where is our faith anchored? Is it in Christ or has fear robbed us of it? Nobody can say they have faith before they are faced with a situation that needs faith. Our faith is seen only in the face of a crisis. Faith has no seasons; every season is ripe for faith. Sometimes, we confuse ourselves that certain situations do not need faith but common sense. What a shallow way of thinking? We live by faith. Our very existence and life is hinged on our faith. So that without faith, there is no life nor living. So ask yourself again, where is my faith?

Prayer_Bead: Father in heaven, the author and finisher of my faith, thank you for the grace to place my faith in you, in all circumstances.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established. ( 1Kings2:12)

God is the master craftsman. He knows how to use the deformed artefact and the wrong paintings for the best purposes. Solomon is the son of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the man David had murdered with the hand of another man. Now, David had many sons but it was Solomon, he chose to sit on his throne. Painfully, we can say that Solomon wouldn’t have been born if not for the mistake of David. Now, David had regretted for his mistake. He probably said a lot of things to himself in regret, maybe even saying how awful he was. But somehow, in the veins of his mistakes lies the reins for fulfilling God’s glory and purpose. God is not a man, He does what He wants, how He wants it and when He wants it. Solomon may be referred to as the result of a big mistake but somehow God chose Him instead of his elder brothers to rule. Beloved, don’t allow any circumstance around your life define who you are and what you can or cannot do. You are the best version of yourself that could ever be created. Nothing in your life is a mistake, mistakes are things that are outside the control of God. And that is nothing.

Prayer_Bead: God of Creation, who does not speak in vain, thank you for your predestination and eternal plan. Order my life in the trajectory of your purpose.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.