IN SEEING AND HERAING
Matthew 27:38-44

Functioning with a dull heart leads to nowhere but death in the physical and/or in the spiritual. Pharaoh, King of Egypt, did not operate from a wise heart. He saw all the moves of God’s hand yet he could not see through all for his people not to suffer untimely deaths. When you see your deliverance, will you not make a move in the direction for restoration? Matthew 13:15, “For the heart of the people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.” Most times what a man sees will determine what is received. What hearing brings forth also will determine its being received. The grace to become is in the ability to see, hear and to receive. Today, take a position to see or hear then receive the Word of God and believe it to become what the Lord wants for you. To reject the Word is to take a position of death. Jesus died for kingdom criminals (sinners) so that we all could become kingdom-bound. Many today continue to take the position of kingdom criminals because they cannot see or hear what Jesus came to say. Matthew 27:38, “Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left.” At the time He went to the cross, Jesus was positioned in the center of two criminals (sinners). The criminal on each side saw and heard what Jesus was representing in different ways and that determined what became of them. One of the criminals saw Him as a criminal like himself while the other heard and saw Him as one who could deliver Him and set Him free at the end of his race. The two criminals represent those who are seeing and hearing the Gospel and yet not receiving Him while the other criminal represents those who are seeing, hearing and receiving to become saved. All who have chosen not to accept Christ have taken a step in agreement with the criminal who refused to see and hear in order to receive Jesus and become heaven-bound. Which step have you been taken as a believer? To have heard and seen what the Gospel is about and yet walking in the way that seems right but is not the right way is a way to self-destruction. As there was no way for any of the two criminal to take a middle ground while they were on the cross with Him, then so there is no way for middle ground today. What is your decision? Jesus will come back and what you have seen and heard is what you have received and it will determine your belief. There is no faking or middle ground. Today, see, hear, receive, believe and become a Kingdom of God candidate.

DO NOT
Romans 12

Paul, the apostle, begged and appealed to the brethren when he wrote in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The same word that Paul wrote to the brethren is still speaking to every believer today. Paul’s statement came in two parts that cannot be separated one from the other. Which of the two are you doing or paying attention to? Is it presenting yourself as a living sacrifice that you are paying attention to or is it avoiding to be conformed to this world? If a believer is presenting himself as a living sacrifice but having areas of conformity to the world, it will not add up. It adds up when a believer is able to present himself as a living sacrifice that is reasonable and that same believer is also not conforming to this world. Going to the place of worship, getting busy in the business of the church are not the only measures of what a reasonable service represents. Serving God requires giving it all to God and without giving it all, it will fall short of a reasonable service. Giving it all is a full obedience to the Word of God as commanded. If it were not possible to give all, God would not have required it for a reasonable service. Keeping malice, bitterness, anger, lying and deception are all ways of conforming to the world. To maintain good works will retain man from not being counted as one who conforms to this world. What part of this word is not understanding to every believer who has escaped the pollutions of this world? 2 Peter 2:20-21, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” There is no going back after having known Him as the Lord and Savior. All who have known Him and gone back into the world would have so much to answer for because Peter also made it clear when he stated that it would have been better not to have known the way than knowing the way and having fall back into the entrapments of the world. Where are you now in your walk with the Lord? Consider a reasonable service and do not to conform to this world. There is no turning back but the blessing is only in going forward. God will have mercy in Jesus name Amen.

GIVE IT ALL
Genesis 22:1-19

Commitment is nothing but having nothing to hold on to when His calling sounds in your direction. Throughout the pages of the Bible, every man who answered to the calling of God and were able to give it all were the ones with great exploits for the glory of God. Abraham was called by God, “…Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2) Abraham had been receiving and obeying God’s command, but the one for the request of Isaac was like no other one. After waiting for so many years to have Isaac, God requested for Isaac to be sacrificed. The provocation of God’s hand in Abraham’s response was not only in Abraham’s obedience but also in his immediate and non-questioning response to God’s request. The Bible records that “…Abraham rose early in the morning…” (Genesis 22:3) He responded and gathered all that it would take to sacrifice his only son. What a way of saying to God: “Here I am! I am committed to all of Yours”. Elisha, when he was founded by the word and sent by God through Elijah, answered but had to settle with his past and present before he could go all the way in committing himself. In Elisha’s response to his calling, “…He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, ‘Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you. ‘ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’”(1Kings 19:20) In his doing away with his past and present, he “took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”(1 Kings 19:21) Elisha terminated all by getting rid of his entire animal. He went further deeper by using his equipment as a boiler because it is mentioned here “he boiled their flesh using the oxen equipment.” This is a demonstration of commitment that calls for no turning back. All through the New Testament, there were instances where the called have to give up all and follow the Lord. Jesus addressed the call of discipleship when He stated in Mark 8:34, “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’” It takes all to be committed in answering to Him. Have you been considering if you are fully following Him? Think of it; if there is any thing that is taking you away in serving Him, you are yet to do away with the past and present that are prominent in your life. Give it all and He will see you through it all by His grace.

SETTLE FOR BEST
Numbers 32

 When focus is centered on blessings at hand then there will be a lost of focus on the One who blesses. To lose focus on the One who blesses will deny a man from getting the fullness of his blessings. God promised to get the children of Israel to an land that flows with milk and honey, but some of the tribes choose to settle for a land that only flowed with milk and no honey. Numbers 32:1, “Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock.” It is clear that any land that is good for livestock will be a land where milk flows. This is what the children of Ruben and the children of Gad saw and they decided to settle themselves where God did not settle them to be. Is there any way that you have been settling yourself on a ground where God did not call for you to settle? Have you been accepting below what God has put in place for you? There is nothing like operating on the fullness of the word of God. Regardless of how glittering the situation might be, the Lord will always have the best for His children in all of His direction. The moment the land was defeated, convenience of having their livestock remain in the land of livestock robbed off the fullness of blessing that was awaiting them across the border. The children of Reuben and Gad went to Moses, Eleazer the Priest and to the leaders of the congregation to state their course about the land that was good for livestock. “Therefore they said, ‘If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.’” (Numbers 32:5) Do you know where God is taking you? If there has been any revelation from God for your life, take it and run with it and in your running do not slow down; do not wait or you will waste. Can a creature know better than the Creator? God is always has the best and you should always settle for God’s best and not your best. The children of Reuben and the children of Gad made up their mind to settle for less when they came up to Moses with all the reasons and excuses for them to be left behind and not cross over just has God had promised. It is a lack of trust and confidence to think that there is a better plan than what the Lord has for us. The whole situation of the children of Reuben and Gad comes down as lack of trust in getting a better land across the river. Isaiah 57:13, “…But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain.” Trust in the Lord and you will not settle for less.

MERCYFULL GOD  
Luke 15:11-32

Despite our inconsistency, God in His goodness and mercy continues to be consistent in mercy and goodness to all of His children. He is a merciful God and very rich in glory by Christ Jesus. God has never run out of mercy. His children, however, make the choice of running out of His mercy. Where are you in the Lord? Can you sincerely assess where you are by simply putting down on a paper where and what you have been doing? Just like the prodigal son, many are taking the blessings of God and running to their own way of life. Many have been blessed in ways that cannot be explained because it was the move of God’s hand of favor, yet they have turned away from Him by forgetting the root of their blessing. Does that sound like you? Luke 15:11-13, “Then He said: ‘A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.’” Have you been blessed by God and consciously or unconsciously taken yourself far away from the place of worshiping God? The prodigal son, blessed by the father’s wealth, decided to move to a far country. It does not matter how far you have gone from God or how far you have been going from Him all that you do will catch up with you. Luke 15:14-15, “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.” All the inherited blessings of the prodigal son were now gone. He was reduced where God had no plan for Him to be reduced. He was shattered when he should have been gathering before the Lord. When there is a failure not to get back to Him, it will become a wasted life. The move of the prodigal son made him to live just like the animal that he was caring for. The prodigal son was no longer himself because blessings had taken him far from God. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’” (Luke 15:17) God will cause you to come back to yourself just like the prodigal son. The Master, Jesus, decided and came thousands of years ago to give us more abundantly so why take away from Him redundantly? The prodigal son, having come to himself, settled in his heart and stated his repentance. He went back to his father, “…But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and he had compassion…” (Luke 15:20) God is waiting on your return; maintain a focus on the One who blesses and not the blessing.