HEAR AND LEARN        

1Thessalonians 4

Without any compromise, the will of God for man is to fear God. Clearly it is stated in both the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible for anyone that chooses to hear and learn to fear Him. Deuteronomy 31:12, 13 “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” The same God yesterday, is the same God today and forever. He has not changed, and He will not change. The word of God remains forever the same. Also, what He has spoken to them He has also spoken to us. The will of God is for man to fear Him. They could not fear Him then and now because they have been lost from the Book of the Law that supposes to have been teaching them to learn to fear Him. Joshua 24:14, “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!” When you fail to hear  and learn, you cannot fear Him and you will miss Him in your service. The Old Testament stressed the will of God enough for the New testament to elaborate further in the book of 1Thessalonians 4:3-8, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” What the Old Testament is saying about the fear of God is nothing different from what the New Testament is saying. However, it is important for every believer to understand and know that constant and consistent hearing of the word is all that will continue to build up the fear of God. With hearing in place, learning to fear Him from all of His word and work cannot be displaced in the life of a believer. Hearing and learning to do His word is all that will build up the fear of God.

Prayer for the day: Father make your fear to begin to reign and rule my life in Jesus name.

TRUST HIM?

Psalm 3

As a believer, where have you been putting your trust? The question is not who you trust. It is one thing to say, “I trust God”, but it is another thing to actually put your trust in Him. Could it be that you “think you trust Him”? Trust is not a thought and it should not be about thought; it should be a knowing that comes from an understanding that God’s name is a strong tower. Proverb 18:10, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” The problem behind your situation is, you are rusting from your situation with no solution because you have not trusted Him. As a believer, it is worth to trust in Him and rest from rust. The source of your trust is in knowing the name of God. How many of His name do you know or how often do you call on different names of God. Where all the road is blocked, where there is nothing in place to show forth, remember to acknowledge His holy name. Abraham responded to his son Isaac in Genesis 22:8, “And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering…” What Abraham was saying is that God is the God of provision, and this was demonstrated when God actually provided for Himself a ram instead of using Isaac. “The Psalmist stated clearly, those who know the name of God would put their trust in Him. (Psalm 9:10) By virtue of the psalmist statement, it is clear that the source of trust is in knowing the name of God. In life, until you understand and know the source of information that comes your way, your transformation is in total and complete delay. Consider this as a serious detriment to your break through in life. Information from God is the transformation unto God’s side. Whenever there is a transformation unto His side nothing formed against you will prosper. You will rest and put all your trust in His awesome power of deliverance. David was chased from mountain to mountain, wilderness to wilderness by Saul and all the resources in the power of Saul, to kill and stop Young David from getting to his divine destination. In every step that David took, it is written that he constantly asked from God when, where and how to move. That was a demonstration of putting trust in the name of God. In 1Samuel 23:14, Saul sought him (David) every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. David put his entire move in the trust of God. Do you consider the issue of trust elementary? Examined your conscience and determine within yourself if you have actually been consciously and consistently putting your trust in Him during stormy season. His name is Mighty God; the all sufficient, and that settles it.

Prayer for today: Whatever it is that make men not to put trust on, father let it go and nmot be part of my life in Jesus name.

FINISH THE RACE

Mathew 25:1-13

God is a God of times and seasons. When it was time for Joseph to be promoted from Prime Slave to Prime Minister, no devil under heaven could stop him. The brothers that sold him to slavery in an attempt to deny him his divine schedule on earth were no where to be found. Moses attempted to change the hand of the clock of deliverance for God’s people in Egypt but the time of God could not be affected. The difference in Moses’ time and God’s divine time was forty years. Are you afraid or concerned about the way things are going in your life? As a child of God, fear is not what you need but prayer. Exodus 14:14, “The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” That is clear enough for your understanding. Let God fight your battle, and the enemy that you have been seeing will not rise again. Hold on to God’s timing, it is the best. Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” When His timing for you is around, the whole world will celebrate with you. Do you know the time and the season you are living? Pharisees and Sadducees, in their debate with Jesus, were asking for a sign from heaven. Matthew 16:2-3, “He answered and said to them, ‘When it is evening you say, “It will be fair weather, for the sky is red”; and in the morning, “It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.’” All you have to do is open your ears, eyes, and heart to the word of God. Look around the whole world and see, or get informed with all that is taking place. With understanding, you will identify that the race is not only about you or what you want, but most importantly about where you are going to end up. Are you awake and alive enough to finish the race you have started? If you have started the race, keep your sight on the finish line; that is where the price for the race is waiting–for the finisher, not the beginners. Do you remember the parable of the ten virgins? The ten virgins started out in attempt to meet the bride groom, but not all eventually met the bridegroom. Five slept and missed their purpose in time. Matthew 25:1, “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bride-groom.” All the ten virgins went with right intention, but lacked the attention it took to meet the bridegroom. Yes, you have the intention to run and finish the race, but to lack attention will deny you in getting to the expected end.

Prayer for today: Father, the grace that it takes not to loose focus in the journey of life, let it become my garment in Jesus name.

KEEP ON CALLING
Psalm 91

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:15) A believer’s knowing to call on God is rooted in the understanding that God is faithful to bring His word to pass. Knowing to call on Him will provoke His hand for an undeniable miracle because He is God that is true to His word. Isaiah 58:9, “Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am…’” King David, because of his trust in the Lord, declared in 1 Samuel 22:4, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” It takes the heart that trusts to remember to call in the midst of unbearable challenges. King David is an example of someone who did not hesitate to ask when the need called for it. David did not go to war without seeking God first. Twice in 1 Samuel 23, verses 2 and 4, he repeatedly went and inquired from God before going to war against the Philistines. David knew to ask God rather than assume before making a move against his enemies. When there is a cry, He will move His hand of deliverance. The children of Israel, in bondage of over four hundred years cried to God, “And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (Exodus 3:7-8) God is consistent with His word. When you ask by calling on Him, He will answer; when you cry to Him, He will show up on your behalf. However, there are some questions you want to ask yourself when asking. Have you actually been begging, when you have been told to ask? In your asking have you been asking amiss? James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” God is not a partial God, but He is a faithful God. He is a God of order and demands complete obedience to His Word before the Word can work for anyone. When there is confidence to wait and receive, do not ask amiss, but trust in the name of the Lord God; call on His name and He will answer. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower…” (Proverbs 18:10) Personalize the Word of God and trust in Him, and the peace in His Word will be your portion. Remember, they that trust in the Lord are like MountZion. Consider yourself to be MountZion, which cannot be moved.
Prayer for today: Help my unbelief O Lord my God and my father.

 TIME AND TIMING
2 Chronicles 28

What does your time says? Which time are you living in? Different times come and go and time waits for nobody. However, God is the only One who is in control all of time. He alone is the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end; the ancient of days and the great I Am that I Am. He alone dwells in an unapproachable light. Above all, God is the only One who inhabits eternity. There are times of challenges, times of disruption, times of isolation, times of celebration and many more of different times that go on in the life of every man who dwells under the heavens. The perfect and consistent thing about God’s time and timing is that there is no man who can turn back or turn forward the time and timing in God’s divine schedule. God sits and reigns as the stage director; the writer and the producer of man’s life on the stage of life. The Psalmist describes Him in Psalm 29:10, “The LORD sat enthroned at the flood, and the LORD sits as King forever.” All that happens to man does not catch God by surprise because He has taken a seat forever before the creation of His hand. Man can possibly and perfectly take control of turning the clock back and forth, but it will have no effect on God’s timing. God alone brings time to pass, but how time is being spent by all of His creation is what makes the difference. What time are you into at this stage of your life? How you are responding to the current time that you are passing through before the only One who controls the time will determine the mark of your life? Ahaz became king of Judah at twenty years of age, reigned sixteen years but he did not what was right before God. The time of his not doing right increased even more when he became in distress. 2 Chronicles 28:22-23, “Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the LORD. This is that King Ahaz. 23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’” Those gods, however, were the ruin of him and of all Israel. Like a twinkling of an eye, times of challenges can terminate the journey of life. Ahaz allowed the time of distress to derail his faith and all that he had done was derailed. In your present time, know that whatever you are dealing with, God is not asleep concerning you. Keep focus on God and He will cause His face to shine on you.
Prayer for today: In this time of my isolation, develop me to be a dedicated worshiper and an obedient vessel of Yours, in Jesus Name.