Weekly Devotion

Last week we've seen that God's Spirit lives in His fullness within us. He gives us life and life in abundance. And our 'job' is not to stifle His workings. Our main aim in life is not to grieve the Holy Spirit, but to allow Him to move mightily within us by being spiritually minded. We should focus all our thoughts on Him and His Kingdom, we should read His Word and become who His Word says we are. We should grow into the fullness of Christ, then we have true Kingdom living. Then all the blessings of Heaven are ours. In the light of this the following text verses makes a lot more sense:

"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways." Psalm 128:1

"Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage." Psalm 84:4, 5

"Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Ephesians 1:3

If we dwell with God and believe in God, we are surely blessed. There is no other way to interpret these Scriptures. We are blessed indeed. The word 'blessed' in Ephesians 1:3 is the Greek word 'Eulogeo' which means 'to cause to prosper, to make happy, to bestow blessings on, favoured by God'. Isn't it wonderful to know that we are favoured by God? What a promise!

God wants the best for us, just like a loving earthly father wants the best for his children. I don't know why it is so difficult for Christians to accept this fact. I have met Christians who thinks that God is punishing them and angry with them. My friend, God is not angry with you. All His anger against sin came against His Son, so that it will never come against you. God wants you close to Him, He wants to nurture you and care for you. Don't be like a rebellious teenager resisting the advice and embrace of his father. Do not be like that. Rather run to Him and experience His love and everything that He wants to bless you with.

Ephesians 1:3 also says that He wants to bless us with 'spiritual' blessings. And I discovered an exciting thing when I looked up the meaning of this word. In Greek it is 'pneumatikos', which means 'emanating from the Divine Spirit'. In other words all of His blessings emanates from His Divine Spirit into our lives. This agrees with everything we have learned thus far. His Spirit lives within us in all His fullness. His Spirit gives us life and if we do not stifle Him or grieve Him, He will flow in all glory through us and all His blessings will manifest. The key therefore is not that God doesn't want to bless us; the key is if you allow His blessings to flow through or not. You will notice that Ephesians 1:3 is written in past tense. He has blessed you, it is a done deal. The question is whether you flow with His Spirit, whether you will allow Him to work mightily in your life.

You see a lot of Christians never really change when they are born again. They have everything at their fingertips and yet they choose to rather stay as they are. They continue on their sinful path, they don't read the Word, they don't make an effort to grow, they don't spend time with God and they don't renew their minds to think as God would prefer them to think. And then they cry out to God and ask Him to bless them. My friend, it doesn't work that way. God has blessed you; you now need to grow in the spirit and in the fullness of all that you are in Him. You need to imitate Christ and follow Him with your whole heart. Your spirit needs to be so intertwined with His that no one can tell where you stop and where He starts. You are one with Him and therefore everything He has, you have too. Do you believe that? That is the starting point. And the more you believe it, the more it will become true for you. The more you will grow and the more His abundance of blessings will manifest in your life. Come, He is waiting for you. Grow towards Him in love, fellowship with Him. Your life will never be the same.

Thank you Father for the opportunity to grow close to You. Thank you for all the wonderful blessings that You have bestowed upon us. We love You dearly and want to walk in Your blessings and love. Amen

Last week we learned that we should not quench the workings of the Spirit. We should not hinder Him to move mightily in our lives. We should grow in our knowledge of God and allow Him to move mightily through us. He wants to. He is full of life, in fact He gives life as we see in 2 Corinthians 3:6. Without Him we are as good as dead, with no hope and no future. We need Him, more than we realise. He is full of life and miraculous power; let us have a look at a couple of Scriptures:

"He, Who supplies the Spirit to you, works miracles among you." Galatians 3:5

"It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." John 6:63

"But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you." Romans 8:11

The life-giving, miracle working Spirit lives within us. Isn't that just wonderful to know? And notice in Romans 8:11, His Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies, not our bodies one day, but the bodies that we have here and now. He gives life to us. His life flows in torrents in our veins and makes us truly alive! Then why do we feel so tired and run down? Why do we feel as if the opposite is true? The Bible tells us the reason for that as well:

"For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Romans 8:6

Now to be 'carnally minded' is to be more persuaded by what this world tells you than what God's Spirit tells you. You believe what your five senses tell you instead of believing what His Spirit tells you. And the Bible clearly tells us that this results in death. Death here is the Greek Word 'Thanatos', which can be translated as 'death comprises all the miseries resulting from sin'. Notice, all the miseries resulting from sin. Therefore it is not only physical death, but also the misery of a broken marriage, the misery of stress, the misery of alcoholism, the misery of losing friends due to gossiping, the misery of rushing and achieving little, the misery of illness due to stress etcetera. If you are carnally minded you will feel run down, tired, lacking joy and fulfilment and be stressed out. And yes, a Christian can be carnally minded. Unfortunately most are...

But on the other hand, if you are spiritually minded, if you believe what the Word tells you, then you have life and peace. 'Life' in Greek means 'Zoe', 'a happy life active and vigorous, devoted to God, with every kind of blessing, the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever'. Isn't that good news? If we are spiritually minded we will have life here on earth, and not only life, a happy life with every kind of blessing. And we will have peace. That is good news; that is news worth sharing with unbelievers.

And therefore we are back again to what goes on in our thought life. It is vitally important that our thought life be focused on Him and on His Word and that we give His Spirit free reign within us to move as He pleases. True success is found in thinking like He thinks. And it is possible; the Word tells us that in several places, amongst others 1 Corinthians 2:16 that tell us that we have the mind of Christ.

Change your thoughts and allow His Spirit to give you life. You will be so glad that you did. Life, peace and joy will be your constant companions. Rejoice, the Kingdom of God has come and the King lives within you. He is your compass, your GPS. Follow Him and you will never get lost.

Thank you Father for the life that You came to give us. Help us to focus our minds rather on You than on the carnal. Being carnally minded brings only death to us and we know that is not what You want for us. We want to focus on You and You alone. You are our God and King. Amen

Last time we focused on the fruit of the Spirit and we saw that it was His fruit to be displayed through us, not our fruit that we need to try and display. He is the One living within us, our job is mainly to provide Him the access to work through us. Our problem most of the time is that we are trying so hard on our own and making so many mistakes that we grieve Him and do not give Him the chance to work. That is why Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19:

"Do not quench the Spirit."

Quench in Greek means to extinguish. So Paul is asking us here, please do not live in a manner that will extinguish the workings of the Spirit in your life. His Spirit wants to work mightily through you, He wants to change your life as well as the lives of those around you, but you need to allow Him to and live a life open to His workings. Paul describes this in Ephesians 4:30-5:1:

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children."

Be imitators of God, copycat God, and be like Him in every aspect. As we have discussed it is possible and it is what God wants us to do. It grieves the Holy Spirit when we lie, it grieves Him when we watch movies that do not please Him, and it grieves Him when we say we are Christians but we deceive our fellow brothers. He is sad when we rush after money like a god. It really makes it difficult to work through us. You see we are His representatives and when He works through us in mighty ways, He wants us to display His characteristics too. Imagine He works with healing powers through us, but we yell at others, we cheat and we get upset if we do not get our own way. Will that honour Him? Will people start to think that that type of behaviour is okay, because they see how God works through you with healing power?

I believe God can and does use anyone, no matter where they are on their spiritual journey. But I truly believe that God's main aim is that everyone grow in maturity and represent Him in a mighty way. I believe that He wants people to be open and to allow Him to just flow through. He wants mature sons of God, representing Him. Then we will start to see unprecedented miracles. Then we will see His Spirit performing mighty deeds. The main reason that we haven't seen much of it in the past decades is not because God hasn't been moving, it is because people haven't been open to His leading. God wants revival, He wants people on fire for Him. Please open yourself up and allow Him to move. Stop extinguishing the fire that can change the world. This world is in desperate need of a Saviour. Allow Him to make an impact on this world through you.

Father I want to make You proud. I want to be an open vessel for You to use. Mould me and shape me as the perfect one for Your plan. Thank you for the opportunity to present You to this world. Amen

We are part of God's Kingdom. We have been discussing everything that is true of us because we are part of it. And today I would like us to focus on the fruit of His Kingdom. What will flow out of our lives if we are part of His Kingdom? The Scriptures tell us clearly:

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." Galatians 6:15, 16

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22, 23

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." John 15:11

In His Kingdom is everything that is good. All things wonderful are in His Kingdom and you are part of it already as we have seen. His new creation is what matters now, and if you walk in this new creation, peace and mercy will be yours. If you remain in Him and focus your thoughts on Him, His fruit will manifest and start to flow. His joy will be your constant companion.

You cannot attain these qualities by trying on your own. You cannot. In the carnal you cannot be patient, you cannot be gentle and walk with self-control. It is very very difficult. You see the answer is not working on yourself until you display these qualities, because even though you might display them outwardly, you might not experience them inwardly. You might be boiling on the inside, and faking a patient smile on the outside. The answer is to start living in His Kingdom. The answer is to focus on Him and to read the Bible and see who you truly are in Him. Once you start focusing on Him and all that He is, you will start to become more and more like Him. And the more you become like Him, the more of His qualities you will display.

Always remember that it is the fruit of the Spirit, not your own fruit. It is His fruit, and the more you focus on Him and become like Him, the more of His fruit you will bring forth. It will make your life a pleasure to live and it will also attract others to His Kingdom. And that pleases the Father. He sent His Son to give you all the tools and to make it possible for you to follow Him and to be like Him. You just need to allow Him to work through you, that is all. Be an open vessel, allow yourself to be 'serviced', give yourself the chance to run on a better engine, His engine. On your own you might be able to drive, but when His engine takes over you can run and not grow weary, you can fly.

Father, thank you so much for sending Your Spirit to come and live within us. Thank you that the true answer to life is that we must stop trying and that we should allow Your Spirit to move through us. Then we can accomplish so much more and then we can display Your fruit for all to see, not only to make our lives better, but to lure others into Your Kingdom as well. Amen

Last week we spoke about the will of God. And we saw that God's will is that we do good, that we pray without ceasing and that we should rejoice and give thanks in everything. His ultimate will is that all who believe in His Son should have eternal life and that all will come together in His Son, Jesus Christ and be like Him. That is God's will for us all. Then I spoke about reading God's Word in order for Him to give you specific direction in your life and individual situation. So today I would like us to have a look at what God's Word means to us today according to Scripture itself:

"For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." 1 Thessalonians 2:13

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are life." John 6:63

"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever." 1 Peter 1:22, 23

You have been born again through the Word of God. The seed of the Word of God was planted within you and you were born again. The Word of God therefore physically lives within you. And the more of the Word you read, the more you grow. And then the Word will work effectively and it will minister Spirit and life to your body. It will really change you from within.

I have truthfully experienced this. The more of His Word I read, the more I feel the love and the joy of the Lord growing within me. If I read His Word with an open heart, I receive so much and He becomes more and more real to me. Curry Blake tells how the Word ministers to your brain and how life and more life flow in there. It actually keeps you healthy and young; it is the best medicine to take. That is why Proverbs 4:20-22 says:

"My son, give attention to My words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh."

Derrick Prince tells of how he contracted a disease during the second world war. (He did say what it was, but unfortunately I cannot remember now). You might imagine the type of health care that was present during that time, and he wasn't given much hope. Then he read these verses in Proverbs and he decided to take the Word of God as his medicine three times a day after meals. He diligently did that. He read the Word and purposely decided to believe what it says. He continued with his daily medicine of God's Word and he was totally healed from his disease and he went on to minister to hundreds of thousands during his lifetime. He testifies how the Word of God healed him.

And this is true of us today still. His Word has so much power; it has the ability to turn our lives around. And yet it is the one book we don't always make time for. Maybe 5 minutes before we go to bed at night and maybe 3 verses during church at Sunday. My friend, that is not enough. God tells us to keep His Words within sight, to keep it within our hearts, to give our attention to it and to listen to what it says. We have to look upon His Word and hear what He wants to say to us. And we need to believe His Word and to take what He says and apply it to our lives. That is when true change happen.

Decide today that His Word is living and breathing. It is the bread you cannot live without. Keep it close, keep it dear and follow its instructions. You will experience His life being ministered to you, you will feel His peace transcending deep within your soul and you will feel His joy lifting you up to new heights. Come and experience His Kingdom, manifesting through His Word.

Thank you Father that Your precious Word is so widely available to us. Thank you that we can read Your Word and experience Your life flowing through our veins. Thank you for the privilege of having Heavenly medicine for every problem we might have. We praise Your Name. Amen

Last week we learned that anything is possible with God. It is possible with Him, and not only possible, He also wants to help. He is a loving Father with our best interests in mind. He wants what is best. He wants us to stay within His will. Now what is His will you might ask? Well, that is easy. His Word tells us clearly what His will is:

"For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." 1 Peter 2:15

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40

"...having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him." Ephesians 1:9, 10

There you have it, the perfect will of God. In summary God's will is that you do good, that you rejoice, that you pray always and give thanks in everything. It is God's will that all who believes in His Son have eternal life and be gathered together in Christ.

So in future when you are battling to find God's specific will for your life, check it against the list above. Is it a good thing that you want to do? Have you prayed about it intensely? And when you do this thing, will you be able to win souls for God so that they can also enjoy eternal life? If your answer is yes to the above, then go out and do it with joy and with thanksgiving towards God.

Do not stagnate and use the excuse that you do not want to move out because you do not know God's will for your life. God's will for your life is within the pages of the Bible. Use the above specific checklist and also read His Word. He has spoken to me multiple times through His Word. I can read any passage and then that day one passage would just tug at my heart and I will know that God wants to speak to me through it. His Word is so precious and has the ability to literally speak to you, because Jesus IS the Word.

Then of course you can get sound Biblical advice from a Christian mentor that you might have. But use only this avenue to confirm what God has already placed in your heart. The number one way is when He speaks to you directly. And He does, He can be trusted. Especially if it is a big decision like the person you want to marry, God will certainly provide guidance to you.

Life is an exciting journey with an awe-inspiring God. It is step by step, hand in hand. The future might be unknown, but you hold the hand of the One Who knows and that is enough. And as you walk and as you talk with Him, you will notice that you have been walking within His will all along. It is not supposed to be a struggle, but a delightful journey with the Love of your life. Take His hand and take the first step. He is waiting for you. Oh the delight when you take His hand and walk willingly, trusting and smiling.

Father we look forward to the journey with You. We needn't worry, because You are walking in front. Thank you so much for that. We are so privileged to have a Father like You. Hallelujah! You are awesome, amazing and we love You. Amen

This week I would like to continue with our thought pattern of last week. We said that if we abide with God, if we dwell with Him and make our home with Him, we can ask anything in Jesus' Name and it will be given unto us. But we must abide with Him and dwell with Him, meaning He should be within our thought pattern, we should be so close to Him that we will start thinking like He does! We should be so close to Him that we can really begin to understand that all things are possible with Him. Let us look at a couple of Scriptures:

"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

"If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9:23

"For with God nothing will be impossible." Luke 1:37

Nothing is impossible with God, nothing. God's timing is impeccable. God's creation is at His finger tips. Do you believe that? I know all of us will instinctively say 'Yes, of course', because this has been imprinted into us from our new birth. But do you really believe it? Do you believe that God can turn your situation around? Do you believe that He has the power to heal you? Do you believe that He can provide for you when you see no way out? Do you believe that He can turn your country's situation around? Do you believe?

Then once that question is settled, once you truly believe He can, do you believe that He wants to? I have heard multiple times people say that this and that was not within God's will. In other words He had the power to do something, but chose not to use it. I then immediately see in my mind's eye a God sitting on His throne with His arms crossed refusing to help, because I haven't cried or tried long enough. But that is not the God I know and love. My God is a loving Father and a loving Father helps, a loving Father assists and a loving Father breathes life into situations that has been long dead. A loving Father reaches out His hand and catches me before I hurt myself. That is what a loving Father does.

But of course a loving Father also does what is best for His children. He wants only the best. And when His help comes in a bit of a different format, do not be dismayed, but rejoice that something better is going to come out of this situation. Rejoice, because He can see into the future and is preparing you for it. Take His hand and trust in Him without borders. Do not limit your trust, but walk hand in hand with Him, confident about your future, confident about His plans for you. He wants to give you a future and a hope. The only time that disaster may prevail is if you pull your hand from His and try to walk in darkness all alone. That is typically when you fall and seriously get hurt. Do not do that. Remain, remain, remain in Him. That is a safe place to be. Read Psalm 91 again. The Psalm has so many promises, but notice that all these promises hang on to the starting verse:

"He, who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

Dwell and abide with God, then you cannot go wrong. Then you will start to see the impossible become possible and the ordinary turn into something miraculous. It is an exciting journey. Enjoy the ride with Him.

Thank you Father that You never leave us nor forsake us. Thank you so much for all Your loving kindness. We believe that all things are possible with You and we walk with confidence knowing that You know best. We love You and honour You as our God and King. Amen

We are truly blessed to be part of God's Kingdom now already. We are blessed to have Him living within us. We are blessed to be one Spirit with Him. We are truly blessed. And out of this Kingdom living perspective we might understand the following Scriptures better:

"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them." Mark 11:24

"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21:22

"And whatever you ask in My Name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My Name, I will do it." John 14:13, 14

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My Name He may give you." John 15:16

"And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My Name He will give to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."John 16:23, 24

As you can see this one theme is repeated again and again in the Gospels. And I have learned the significance of things being repeated in the Bible. God wants to make sure that His children understand what He wants to tell them. These verses are mostly avoided by churches because they don't know how to explain to their church members that they will have what they pray for. And they most certainly don't know what to say when their congregation don't get what they prayed for. And yet God tells us to pray and to ask, using the Name of Jesus. And as we have seen, we have the Name of Christ, we roam this earth as His possessions bearing His Name. Therefore we have the legal right to ask for things in this world using His Name. After all, He commands us to use His Name.

Now does this mean we can ask that everything be well with us? Does it mean that we can pray for material possessions? Does it mean that we can pray for our health? Does it mean we can pray for our country and expect everything to change? What does it mean? Surely we cannot just get everything we ask for like a magic wand. I think the following verse clarifies this for us:

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

The key word here is 'abide'. The Greek word for abide is Meno and according to the Bible hub it means - "something has established itself within my soul, and always exerts its power in me." Thayer Lexicon says that it means 'to continue to be present'. So let us look at this verse again. It is saying that if we allow Jesus to continue to be present and established in our soul and allow Him to exert His power in us, then we will have what we ask for. In other words, we've previously seen that  Jesus lives within us, our spirit is connected with His, but we need to allow Him to start to permeate into our souls as well and start to influence our thoughts. When we get to a point (and we certainly can) where Jesus fills not only our spirit, but our souls as well, then all that we ask for will be given to us. Why? Because we will be asking what Jesus would be asking for.

Once again, we need to renew our minds to think as Jesus did. We've seen that we have the mind of Christ and the time has come that we apply His mind. And the more we think like Him, the more our prayers would be answered and our desires given to us. We are God's children, He wants the best for us. He wants us to thrive and to be healthy to do what He has planned for us to do. Jesus Himself spoke all the Scriptures quoted above. Don't you think the time has come to ask. James 4:2 tells us that we do not have because we do not ask.

Spend time with Jesus, abide in Him, remain in Him and then ask your hearts' desires. Ask Him and it will be done for you. The Word is faithful and true and cannot lie. Stand on the Word. Jesus came to open up the way to the Father. Use the channel He died to give you. Ask, My child, ask, says the Lord.

Thank you Father for the wonderful privilege to be able to ask You for so much. Thank you that we can trust in Your Word, that we can ask in Jesus' Name and that it will be done for us according to Your Word. May Your Word and Your Son abide in our souls, that we can ask according to Your perfect will. Thank you for the privilege. In Jesus' Name. Amen

Last week we learned that as part of God's Kingdom we are more than conquerors. Jesus will give us all the strength we need to accomplish His will here on earth. We do not have excuses anymore, the time for excuses are long gone. The time to stand up and be counted is now.

And the Bible tells us that Jesus not only gives us the strength to perform His work, He has also given us victory over our arch enemy, the devil:

"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

"But the Lord is faithful, who will establish and guard you from the evil one." 2 Thessalonians 3:3

"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." John 12:31, 32

Jesus has been lifted up on the cross and through His death He has drawn people to Himself and obtained victory over the ruler of this world, the evil one. Colossians 2:15 states it clearly:

"Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them."

He disarmed them and made a public spectacle out of them, triumphing over them. And as we have learned, we are part of His body, and He lives within us. Therefore we have triumphed over Satan and his army too, because the Victor lives within us. We stand from a position of victory and should therefore live our lives from that stance. We should not be trying to obtain the victory, but rather we should be living in the victory.

Unfortunately not many Christians realise this. I have had a situation at school, where Christian parents didn't want to pray and stand up for what is right, because they were scared of the attack that might come from the enemy. I was amazed. How can that be? The Victor lives within us, He has obtained victory, and when we walk hand in hand with Him then we have nothing to fear. He will give us the strength to succeed and the power to accomplish His will.

Do not be scared. Fear doesn't come from God. Fear doesn't originate from Him. It comes from the enemy, and if he can keep you in bondage to fear and scared to do anything, he has won. Not because he has any ground to stand on, but because you were too afraid to stand up against him in all that you are. Do not give him the satisfaction. Go out there and do what God has placed in your heart. God has opened all the doors for you to walk through, do not get stuck at the opening. Step by step He will be with you. Stand up for what is right, speak out when something is clearly wrong and proclaim His life and power over every situation. Do not keep quiet. Do not do nothing. Then you have lost, and not only you, but the advancement of His Kingdom is hindered. That is not God's plan. He has given you everything you need to succeed.

Father, thank you that we have victory over the enemy due to what Your Son has done. Hallelujah! We give praise and honour to Your Name. You are our mighty God and King. You are our Redeemer, we love You. Today we are going to go out and make You proud of us. Amen

Last week we learned that we need to portray His light to a fallen world. This dark world is in desperate need of some light. This world needs to see His love, needs to feel that He cares. And He gives you all that you need to be able to shine His light. He provides in every instance. He wants us to be able to do His Will. He doesn't leave us stranded. He doesn't expect the impossible from us, but gives us the power and the strength to accomplish all that He lays before us. Let us look at a couple of Scriptures:

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us." Romans 8:37

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man." Ephesians 3:14-16

Christ strengthens us. He lives within us in all His glory! He strengthens us with might. To Him be all the glory and the honour. What excuses can we possibly have? If we live in the fullness of all that we are in Him, we can do all that He requires of us. We can do much more than what we think we humanly can. Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, He is our King and He gave us everything that we need to conquer an evil world.

What is God currently asking you to do? If you cannot answer this question, be quiet somewhere during this week and ask God what He requires of you. Maybe He wants you to go and physically pray for someone that is sick. Maybe He wants you to share the Gospel with a colleague that does not believe. Maybe He wants you to move from where you are, either relocate or maybe even change occupation. Maybe He wants you to stop certain habits, maybe He wants you to work less hours, maybe He wants you to forgive someone, maybe He wants you to stop and make time for Him. Maybe He wants you to spend more time with your family. Only you will know what He expects of you.

I know some of these things can be very difficult and very inconvenient. Some of these things might clash with your personality. But know this; God strengthens you in the inner man. He provides abundantly in everything that you need. He will leave no stone unturned in order to help you.

I listen to teachings of Curry Blake and he often says that we must remember the Christian life is not about us. It is about expanding His Kingdom. It is about loving others. And the quicker we can get over 'us', the quicker God's Spirit can move and change our lives and the lives of others for the better. Let go and let God. Allow Him to move. He will remove the mountains out of your way and clear the skies. His power and might will flow through you. You simply need to take the first step. Come on, the time has come.

Father thank you for giving us all that we need. Thank you for all Your love and grace. Please help us to walk in Your ways and to step out when You tell us to. We love You. Amen