The bond of perfectness

Colossians 3:14 - And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

The quickest way to bond with Jesus Christ is via charity. Charity is greater than love, better still I would put as - the magnification of love. In charity we working in love help others to prosper without any personal motive, this churns out true love from within us.

Only looking after other's worldly needs is not perfect charity. Our focus of prospering the person should be building the person in all three areas; body, mind (soul) and spirit.

It is charity that binds the different parts of the body of Christ together. It is the lack of this which is the reason of the breakup of the Church and the cause of so many ministries which do not co-ordinate with each other. The urgent need of the Church today is charity. The Church needs to be put on drips of bottles and bottles of charity as in an ICU.

It is charity that will bring the Church together and make many of our problems to disappear, because we would glorify God united.

[Prayer]

Lord Jesus, You showed us true love by the charity that bought You on earth as man and as a sacrifice for our sins. Lord, show us to imitate You and to exhibit this property of charity unto others. Bring your body (churches) together with this glue - charity. Teach each an every individual, especially the leaders the true meaning and importance of charity. I make this prayer in your mighty Name, Amen.

[Reference Scripture]

Colossians 3:12-15

12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Cast Your Burden!

(Definition of anxiety: solving a problem before it arrives and thus coming to conclusion before hand.)

Tension, anxiety, depression etc. are feelings which show lack of faith. If you are living with these feeling you need to get rid of them. The Lord is saying cast these upon Me. He does not say give it to Me, but cast them. The strength you need to cast them is only possible when you get faith into you. Many come to outreaches, services and give their burdens to the Lord before the service and on the way back home take it back again.

If you want to get rid of the burden for ever make yourself to believe in the promises of the Lord by keep telling it to yourself again and again until you convinced yourself on it. Only when you do this, can you cast your burden forever upon the Lord.

Psalms 55:22 - Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

[Prayer]

Lord, forgive me for not having faith in You and for carrying my burden. You are my helper and my God who lifts me on your wings in the time of trouble. Lord, help me to build my faith in your Word, so that I can get rid of my burden and be delivered forever. I rebuke and bind the spirit of depression, sadness, anxiety, faithlessness and any other spirit that is not of your Kingdom which is in me, in your mighty Name, Amen.

Our Mistakes...

Mark 12:24 - And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

We see many things go wrong with us. We say we have faith and even keep reciting scriptures for long and still find they are not working. The main reason we make mistakes or we fail to see the power of God in our lives is firstly because of our lack of understanding of the scriptures and secondly our lack of knowledge of the Lord or the power of God.

In short it is the lack of knowledge due to which we suffer. The Word of God should be followed in spirit and truth not just in words and this can only be done when we get the true understanding.

Understanding can come only when you live the Word, that experience will increase your wisdom. As your wisdom increases you will find it easier in the future. The other way is when the wisdom of God works in you and gives you the understanding right away. Either ways the revelation of the Word will help you know the power of God and experience it.

[Prayer]

Lord, I thank You for your Spirit of Truth with which You have blessed me. Holy Spirit, reveal the understanding of the Word to me either in the natural or the supernatural way. So that I may not err or fail to experience the power of God. I make this prayer in Jesus' Name, Amen.

[Reference Scripture]

Hosea 4:6

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge...

Blessings versus Afflictions

When we hear the Good News, we hear a lot of promises of goodness and protection etc.. And most of us do experience it … for some time… What happens latter when things start going shaky? Is it that Word of God is not true?

The Word of God in many scriptures promises protection, prosperity, peace etc…

Psalms 34:15, 17

15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

But we see that although we make good efforts to walk in God’s way we still face problems. In fact the Word of God assures you that if God loves you, you will face problems!

Psalms 34:19

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

But it also says that His loved ones who walk in His ways will not be drowned by their problems. God will deliver His loved ones from them all.

Why does God do this? When He loves righteousness and hates evil, then why does He allow problems to the righteous (in fact at times is also the source of them)?

Psalms 7:11-12

11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

When we say we are righteous, it means we are on the highway of righteousness. We have started our journey on it.

Isaiah 33:8

8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

On this highway there has to be constant movement, one can not stand still here. To keep the acceleration on God externally influences us. As we are tried we are expected by God to keep moving forward and not to go back. If we go backwards, we attract the wrath of God on us. If you read Psalms 7:11-12 the words ‘with the wicked’ are not part of the original script (all text written in italics in KJV are added to make scripture readable). If we read the scripture without them then it will read as: ‘God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry every day if he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.’

God is working on us patiently and He wants us to reach our destination which is perfect righteousness as man – Jesus Christ.

So if we are walking on the highway of righteousness and face difficulties, do not be sad, but rejoice!

Firstly it is assured our problems will not overtake us.

Secondly we know that God is in hurry with us to become like His Son Jesus.

"If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today...you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country." - Deuteronomy 28:1-3

[ Prayer ]
Father in Heaven, thank You for all what You are doing in my life. I choose to always stay on the highway of righteousness. You have given me Your Holy Spirit to hold my hand and help me in my walk. Holy Spirit, help me to walk in integrity and honor with You always. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Hear the Word

Deuteronomy 28:1,2 - And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

The Lord is most understanding; He is not like a human judge who holds you for every law of the book. When it comes to the Lord, He tells us to do the best according to our understanding and according to the Word that is spoken unto us. If there was something which was wrong which you were doing and you were not aware of, the Lord does not pull you up for it. He has gone to the extent to creation a sacrifice of guilt (Lev 4:1-20, Mark 26:26-28) which is specially to take care of these matters. Jesus made this sacrifice available to us forever through his broken body in the bread He shared with us. But when there is something that is known to us as the Lord speaks to us and yet we do it; it is considered a serious sin.

So let us not take the Word that is spoken to us lightly and keep it always before our eyes that we abide by it and we do not test the Lord's wrath.

[Prayer ]

Father God, I thank You for the patience You have with me. May your grace be on me and strengthen me that I abide in the Word which You have spoken unto me. Merciful God I pray that your mercy flow abundantly on me. I ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

[Reference Scripture]

Leviticus 4:1-6, 13-20

1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them,

3 'if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering.

4 'He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, lay his hand on the bull's head, and kill the bull before the LORD.

5 'Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull's blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting.

6 'The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary.

13 'Now if the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally, and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which should not be done, and are guilty;

14 'when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a young bull for the sin, and bring it before the tabernacle of meeting.

15 'And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the LORD. Then the bull shall be killed before the LORD.

16 'The anointed priest shall bring some of the bull's blood to the tabernacle of meeting.

17 'Then the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil.

18 'And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and he shall pour the remaining blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

19 'He shall take all the fat from it and burn it on the altar.

20 'And he shall do with the bull as he did with the bull as a sin offering; thus he shall do with it. So the priest shall make atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them.

Matthew 26:26-28

26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.

28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Mark 12:29-34

29 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.

30 'And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.

31 "And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

32 So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.

33 "And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

34 Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him.

Are you bearing Fruit?

John 15:4 - Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

The word used here for 'abide' in Greek 'meno' refers to 'dwelling'. Abide can also to translated as 'to come into agreement / understanding'. When Jesus said these words He did not mean to come into agreement, He meant to dwell. After the resurrection, Jesus ascended to the Father then, whom did He refer to as dwelling 'I in you'? Jesus was referring to His Spirit - the Holy Spirit.

It is only by the Holy Spirit that we get connected to Jesus - the vine. By ourselves we can not bear fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is only by the Holy Spirit can we bear the true fruit. For this we need to dwell in Him as He dwells in us. So let us drown ourselves in the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, totally immersing ourselves, our wants, our needs, our like, our dislikes, our strength and our weaknesses as the Spirit of the Lord works within us and makes us fruitful.

[ Prayer ]

Lord Jesus, I thank You for your Spirit. I thank You Holy Spirit that You found me worthy and chose to dwell in me. Help me drown myself completely in You, surrendering my life unto You. Prune me and enrich me and help me bear all your fruit. I ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

What is the end like?

There is one scripture where the story of the race of the tortoise and the hare can fit. We may start our walk with the Lord with lots of energy, we may do incredible works for the Lord on our trip, we may even be blessed with many gifts that glorify and save many people on the way, but our own salvation is at question if we give up on Christ just before we cross the line (die).

There are people who have sinned throughout their lives but just before they died repented, they accepted Jesus and surrendering unto Him and were saved. But do not think we too can do the same, it may not work. Firstly knowing Jesus and the Holy Spirit, if we continue sinning, our hearts get hardened and just before we die our hearts may not be in a position to repent, accept Jesus Christ and surrender unto Him. Secondly, do we know when we will die so as to repent just in time? There are many who die instantly with great plans ahead.

When I go to minister and when a sinner repents just before death gives me great joy, but at the same time people who do incredible things for the Lord and were instrument in saving many, yet they themselves become calamity to sin gives greater grief.

Our work on earth for God's Kingdom may store for us many, many rewards in Heaven, but we should enter Heaven to receive it!

To enter Heaven what matters is at the end is: do we cross the crossing line with Christ or without Christ?

Mark 13:13b - but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

[ Prayer ]
Lord, hold me up as I walk with You, like You did with Abraham our father. Let my heart not be hardened due to any reason, such that I may cross the line, without You. And I pray for all my brothers and sisters that we may all enter into our sleep, with You. I make this prayer in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Know what to do when in trouble?

Psalms 31:7 - I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;

This scripture is very easy to say when we are on the other side of the wall but when of the troubled side we will find it very difficult to digest it. Remember it does not take much time for our troubles to totally overcome us and destroy us, but our Lord in his mercy has always made sure that our troubles are not more than what we can take. He gives us all the ability and support we need when we go through our adversities.

Always remember that the Lord loves us and will not let anything happen to us which will completely destroy us. We may ask why do I have to go through all these problems if He loves me? Now for me to answer this in general would be very difficult but by my own experiences I can assure you every experience is initiated according to our inner man - soul. If we do not want to experience these adversities we need to do something about our inner man.

I always tell people that we have two choices; one is to study God's Word, put it into our lives by living it, get the understanding and avoid bad experiences. The other choice is not to do so and let experience bring about the understanding. Either way, since the Lord loves us He will always try to save us.

[Prayer]

Lord, You are a merciful God. In your mercy You have not let me be drowned in my troubles. You want to mold me and make me like Jesus, but due to my stubbornness and mischief I made things more difficult for myself. Even in this You have not let things go out of hand. I thank You and ask You to help me take the easy route and avoid the desert experience. I ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

[Reference Scripture]

1 Peter 5:10

10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

John 16:21-22

21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

Philippians 4:4

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Remember No More

The Lord, for the sake that his people receive the blessings which He has blessed them with, again and again; time and time again forgives his people. He assures them that on repentance (being sorry and forsaking old ways), He will not remember any of our iniquities.

His mercy, his grace and his love are abundant and over flows its banks for his people. Today again He is speaking to you and me, with his hands open wide saying 'come to Me, I want you to receive all the good things which I have set aside for you. Do not worry about all the mistakes you did, I have forgiven you. Do not hold on to your ways else you will not be able to come running to Me.'

Hebrew 8:12 - For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

[Prayer]

Lord, You are merciful. You love me so much that time and time again You forgive me. You want me to have all the blessings You have sent aside for me. Help me Lord to detach from my old ways and come running to You. This prayer I make in Jesus' Name, Amen.

It´s okay to stumble...

Genesis 17
1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

After Abraham went through his wilderness experience of about 25 years, the Lord spoke to him and said "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect". The Lord asked Abraham to walk before Him so that the Lord could hold him up if he fell and teach him to be perfect.

In the Bible the Lord has always assured us of help if we stumble. We can stumble only when we walk, standing in one place and falling is not called `stumbling' but `collapsing'. There is no scripture in the Bible where God has assured us help when we collapse.

Psalm 116
7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

We all have the fear of falling but worst is not moving in the fear. Also help is not assured if we walk in any direction but towards only one direction, that is towards the Righteousness of God. We have help already via the Book of Instructions (Bible – The Word of God).

Proverbs 3
21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight;

22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.

23 Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble;

24 when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 3
10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.

11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.

13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men.

15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way.

Making mistakes is okay, for there is no human in the Bible except for Jesus who did not make mistakes. Do not stand in one place out of fear of falling, also do not fall standing in one place and expect help from God, for help will not come if you collapse. Keep on walking.