Matt 6:1

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

God desires that His children be righteous and holy and being so it is expected that we must have godly traits. Among these would be humility, meekness, gentleness etc. These would apply to our spiritual lives that when we are living our lives as believers, then we must be testimonies to the living God.

Jesus even told us that when we pray, we must get inside our closet and be alone with God. That means that our prayer lives must be private and personal. We are not to put on a show of our spirituality or spiritual prowess. Jesus also said when we fast and pray we must freshen up and not put on a false front as though we are so affected in our fast.

In all that Jesus and the apostles have taught, the humility of the believer has always been emphasized. Pride is a sin that will cause the downfall of even the senior men of God. We have seen when pride overtakes an individual or when greed overtakes an individual then the following results would be very disastrous.

I have had personal encounters with anointed men and women of God and when they have been tempted in the flesh and have succumbed to it, the sad thing is that they would be found out and their ministries and their lives would all be destroyed.

Pride is the sin that originated in Satan and he had passed this on to all those who are controlled by him. Satan will influence his minions and followers to be proud just as he is. This is a spiritual cancer as pride will lead to the hardening of the heart and it would also lead to other sins like unforgiveness, wickedness and all forms of cruelties.

In today’s text, Jesus is reminding us that we must die to pride and to live in humility and submissiveness to one another. It is only when there is mutual submission will there be unity and love.

A meek and humble corporate culture will create a united body of Christ that will not only bring out the love of Christ in the Church but it will also draw non-believers towards the church.

Psalm 116: 15Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.

The psalmist reminds himself as well as his audience that when we live as faithful servants of the Lord, He will keep us close to His bosom and will care for our welfare. God is keeping an eye on us day and night. He knows who we are what we are doing for Him and He cares for our welfare.

The scriptures tell us that even the welfare of the sparrow which we may consider insignificant is important to God. The scriptures tell us that not one sparrow will fall to the ground without God knowing and caring for it. All things that move and live are concerns for God. He cares for the plants and trees, He cares for the creatures big and small.

Of course God cares for men and women the most as we are made in His image and He provides guidance and direction for us to find our way to His heavenly kingdom. For those of us who are dedicated and committed toward serving God faithfully all our lives, He recognizes us as His faithful servants and when any of these die and pass on to heaven God delights in this as it means that another of His faithful servant is returning home to be with Him.

I have ministered to many families during the demise of loved ones and I have conducted their funerals. It is at such times when we speak comforting and assuring words to the family members and quote this verse “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.’

This assurance means so much to the family and it is also a reminder for all of us that when we finish our work on this earth, we will be crossing over to the other side of heaven which is our destiny and future home. It is also this precious hope that we have that would keep us focused and continue on our upward journey as we press on in our service to God.

This is our eternal hope to receive the reward that has been set apart for us. Therefore as servants of God, let us press forward to do well and let us prepare our utmost to inherit our reward that is waiting for us.

Roms 3: 23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When Paul stated that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, this means that we are all included in the rebellious company of sinners. According to God’s standards for all men, none is without sin. Even all the apostles who lived with Jesus during the three years that they were with Him had made them to be better men but not sinless.

It was also the same with Paul and though he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and his life was completely turned around he too confessed that he was the greatest of all sinners. Paul and all the other apostles had given their lives to Jesus and though they became holy and righteous before God, none claimed to be sinless.

However in the next two verses 24-25 Paul said; “all are justified freely by grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…to be received by faith.” This is the gift of God when we invited Christ into our lives and accepted God’s offer of forgiveness, we have become a new creation in Him and we are only our way to sanctification and eternal lives.

We don’t and we cannot become perfect immediately but we are no longer under the bondage of sin as by His grace and through the Holy Spirit we are able to overcome the temptations and bondages of sin. The Holy Spirit gives us strength as we consciously do what the Holy Spirit leads and guide us as we put off our old self so that we may be made new in the likeness of God’s righteousness and holiness.

For without His grace, we will never be able to overcome our sin nature. We can fortify our lives by consciously building our spirit man in the fruit of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Again we cannot be having all these operating fully in our lives, we may have some or most of it and we may still have weaknesses to overcome in certain areas of our lives. For example our patience and self-control may still need to be controlled.

In the same way, every other aspect of the spiritual fruit in our lives may have different levels or degrees of imperfection, for these we need to continue to work it out so that we can put all our weaknesses and imperfection under control.

Only when we are totally in submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit and is in obedient to Him can we overcome our weaknesses. Let us therefore work diligently in strengthening our spiritual lives and ensure our salvation to be secured. 

1 Chron 28: 20Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.

God’s word is that He will not fail you or forsake you. Why does He say that? God knows that in life, we would have many transitions. As we start life as a child we would go to school and that would be such a great challenge for us. There would be many new and unfamiliar things and people that we would encounter. It would be the first time that we step out of our security of home into the world.

As we grow older and we move into transition from one stage of life to another, then there would be new challenges from time to time. Nothing is foreseeable and predictable and these challenges may become huge stumbling blocks or hurdles for us to overcome.

In adult hood, there would be even greater challenges as we have to face new challenges in our adult lives. Some of us may face even life threatening situations like what we see around us these few days. There have been massacres of Christians in Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt and even in England by the terrorists. We know that these are the children of the enemy who uses them to inflict death and suffering upon the children of God.

The scriptures have forewarned us of this as in the last days, it would be perilous times and there would be dangers around us that are hidden and may be upon us without any warning. Life in these dangerous days will continue to be challenging and would transition into the days of the coming tribulation as prophesied in the last days.

Many would be martyred as we are already seeing all over the world. This would continue to increase and spread to many countries in the world. However, no matter where we are and what we would face, God’s words to us is that we are not to be afraid or discouraged. We know that just like the Christians in the first century where they were persecuted and martyred, all of them were rejoicing in the confidence of their reward in heaven and the crown of Glory that would be given to each one as they remain steadfast to God till death.

Likewise, we today must be assured that if we are called to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom, we must be ready and welcome it just as our brethren in the early Church accepted their calling as martyrs.

1 Samuel 18:9So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

The sin of jealousy originated in heaven when Lucifer who was the chief worshiper in heaven where he led all the angels to worship the Godhead. His duty was to lead the heavenly host in worship daily.

We do not know how long and often the worship sessions would be but we know that after sometime Lucifer became jealous of God and he desired that honor and worship for himself. He said in his heart that he is more magnificent than God and he wanted the entire angelic host to worship him instead. Because of this jealousy he committed the next sin of pride and with pride it led him to rebellion.

Therefore we can see that a sin can start small but it can continue to roll over into bigger sin. This sin of jealousy was also passed on to the first man and women and they received it from Satan when they fell and obeyed him.

Subsequently when Adam and Eve had their children, we see that Cain and Abel also had this problem. Cain became jealous of Abel and he murdered Abel. This same sin of jealousy led Cain from one sin to another. First he was jealous, then he became angry and then his heart became wicked and formulated the sinful deed.

From being jealous, it continued to develop until it became an act of murder and lies when God confronted Cain. This is the same sin nature that all men have inherited once they are born as humans. We have inherited this from our forefather, Adam.

Similarly the world is full of people who are jealous of others, and this same sin is not spared from within the Church. Members get jealous with other members. Leaders get jealous with other leaders, and when all these happen then quarrels and fights will follow and soon the whole Church would be sucked into it.

Slander will take place, anger will also follow and fights will develop. The long story made short, the end results would be hurt and bitterness that would engulf the whole Church and the Church would split.

This is the first stage in Church split. Satan is an expert in lying and accusing. He is the father and originator of all lies, he is also the accuser of the brethren and he accuses God’s people before God every day. Satan was also recorded as accusing Joshua before God.

In Zechariah 3: 1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before thee angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

That is the work of Satan; his name is also called the accuser of the brethren. Satan uses this weapon to discredit and to destroy godly men. Every successful minister will tell you of their own experience of having been under the attack of the accuser of the brethren. Satan will use the people from inside the Church to be the accuser and often other church leaders are used to accuse the leader.

This is because the normal member would not dare to do so and Satan will use the weaker leaders to do his dirty work.

Let us clean our hearts and mind with the word of God, let us spray that we will not succumb to the seed of jealousy that Satan will sow into the hearts of the people in Church especially those who are in leadership. 

2 Cor 3: 18We all …are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which come from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Paul is saying here that it is a normal tendency that all children would transform into the likeness and characteristics of their fathers. As a child grows he begins to pick up behaviors and characteristics of the father. Some begin to articulate like the father, stand like the father and walk like the father.

It goes even beyond that, if the father is meek and kind this same trend will be imparted to the son and he will also be a meek and kind person. If the father is brave and a valiant then the natural trend would be the son would also become a man of valor. If the father is a man who does not have self-esteem, then the son would also grow up to be a meek and cowardly person.

We are reminded that God is a Holy God and He deals with His children in holiness and kindness. And as we continue to grow in Him, we will learn and pick up His holiness and His kindness. Paul says that we will then grow in increasing glory as we spend more and more time with our God.

Looking at the example of Moses, when he went up to Mount Sinai and when he had an 80 day and night continuous encounter with God, the effects of this prolong time spent with God reflected upon his face. When Moses came down after the 80 day encounter with God, his face was shining so brightly that the people who saw him were afraid to go near to him.

Subsequently, Moses had to put on a veil on his face to shield the bright glow that was reflected on his face. In a sense, the glory of God had fallen upon him and it was a tangible glory that could be seen and felt.

This then is what Paul is saying to the believers and they could understand it as they had heard from their forefathers the stories and testimonies of the Exodus. Similarly, Paul is teaching us that as Moses had reflected the glory of God then we too would be able to reflect this glory in our lives especially now that we have the Holy Spirit to help us draw near to God.

Every one of us must endeavor to walk closely with God so that we too can reflect the glory of God in us. This is very true as even in these days, people who see us and they can actually see a difference on our faces. They will see that we look radiant and have that unexplainable joy on our face.

It is not at all surprising that very often people will exclaim that they actually see a difference on our face even when they see us as strangers for the first time. This is what Paul is telling us that we must bear the glory of God our Father as we walk with Him on a daily basis.

Let our lives be living testimonies of God to the world and let us be the spiritual magnets that draw the unsaved to God.

Prov 15: 1A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Again in the wisdom that God has granted to him, King Solomon gives this advice to his children that it is in the nature of man to receive kindness rather than anger or evil.

Jesus gave us this perfect example than even though he had suffered torture in the hands of the roman soldiers and the temple leaders, He never retaliated in action or words. He was meek and humble all through and even in deep agony of severe pain and at the point of death, Jesus responded to all these in gentleness and meekness.

He called out to the Father, ‘forgive them for they do not know what they do.’ This very act of love has ingrained into the hearts of all believers to be forgiving and meek. Jesus also reprimanded His disciples on other occasions when they responded in their carnal nature.

For example on one occasion when a certain village had refused to receive Jesus and provide hospitality His disciples said ‘do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?’ Jesus replied and told them, ‘God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.’

Jesus came for the purpose of teaching us the values of the Gospel and also the Kingdom of God. He did what the Father told Him to do and He spoke the loving words that the Father wanted Him to speak. In other words, He set a pattern for us all to follow so that we might be like Him.

Our mission on this earth is to be like Jesus and also to do the same work that He has done while He was on earth. There is a high calling for each of us to be the living testimony for Jesus. We must train ourselves to live like Jesus and be His ambassador to the world of he lost.

Deut 32: 10He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.

The phrase ‘apple of his eye’ denotes the favourite or the most loved one. In this passage Moses wrote that Israel was loved and cared for by the Almighty just as a Father would love and are for His favourite son.  

What this means is that the Father will give the choicest blessing to His favourite and he would bestow to the favourite just as Jacob did to Joseph. Jacob gave a beautiful multi coloured cloak to Joseph who was then his youngest and favourite son. It was a way of expressing his love and showing to all around who he loved most.

Other than showering his blessings, the father would also ensure the protection that he would give to his favourite son. In the case of Israel, God the Father did just that by taking His people out of slavery and bringing them to the “Promised Land” even though they had sinned and rebelled against God. And because of this, God allowed them to go through the wilderness for 40 years in order to purge them

In the end, the whole generation that came out of Egypt was purged and all of them died except for Joshua and Caleb from the original 2 million people who came out of Egypt. Joshua and Caleb were the two who did not turn away from God and they were chosen to lead the nation of Israel across the Jordon River into the Promised Land. All the rest who followed them were the new generation born in the desert as the nation went through the wilderness.

Moses in this passage also declared the goodness of God who shielded the whole mass of 2 million Israelite by providing a pillar of cloud to shield them from the scorching sun in the day and also a pillar of fire providing them heat during the cold desert nights. It was also to provide them protection from the enemies as well as from the wild beasts.

In fact we read that the pillar of fire was moving from side to side keeping the enemies or wild beasts at bay wherever the danger arose. It was because of these experiences that Moses wrote in the latter years that God is their protector and also recorded in several books the awesome works of God in not only providing for the survival of Israel but also for the love that God had for them.

Our God is the same God of Israel, who led the Israelite out of Egypt and into the Promised Land; He is still protecting His people and meeting their needs even today.

Numbers 14: 18
The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.

This is a revelation of the truth of God, He is the Almighty but He is also our heavenly Father and He possesses all the attributes of a loving and compassionate Father.

When we see a father caring for an infant baby, we can see the love and tolerance in the father. He will be gentle, loving, caring and ever ready to teach and guide the baby. His love would only be that he can teach the baby the skills and ability to get through challenges and to grow into a full grown adult.

This is the best representation of God’s fatherly attributes. He too loves us the way we love our children. He is compassionate and kind and is most patient with us. Though we stumble and fall He is quick to stretch out His hand to hold us and to keep us from falling. Our heavenly Father does not want us to fall.

He steadies our walk with Him and He understands that we will need Him to stabilize us. Therefore in the process, our Father God says that He is slow to anger, full of love and forgiving us over and over for our sins and rebellion just as we forgive our children when they do wrong or make mistakes.

However the scriptures tell us that though God is merciful, for those who reject Him and continue to live in sin, He will surely punish them. In fact the scripture tells us that the sins of the forefathers will be visited upon their descendants for three or four generations.

We have been warned that our destiny is in our hands. If we continue to willingly sin and to disobey God, then we would surely be judged and be punished according to His judgement.

God has given us the freewill to choose, what do we want to be? If we want to be children of God then we must obey His commands and all His precepts.   

1 Cor 10: 13

God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

The adversary Satan would do everything to try and trip us on our walk with God. He would throw obstacles and temptations at us to try and cause us to stumble and to fall into sin. His modus operandi is that he will throw temptations at every opportunity that he gets at the children of God.

Temptation is not something that we will choose but they are there when we least expect it. However when Satan presents a temptation to us, God has given us the ability to avoid or overcome it. King Solomon wrote about how we should deal with temptations in Prov 4:15 “Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way.”

The scriptures clearly remind us not to entertain temptations and if we toy with it, Satan would be so happy as he would then have his hooks onto us. Take for example the habit of gambling, if we do not go near it and get involved, we would be safe. However if we think we can dabble with it in a small way like some of us will say, we will only play small.

This is exactly what Satan loves, when you play small, he will allow you to savour the pleasure of winning and then greed creeps in and it will ensnare you. In a very short time, this compulsion of gambling will completely control our lives and will soon destroy us.

The same applies to drug indulgence, it can start with a small puff on the cigarette or someone may ask you to try taking a small dose of drug. The exhilarating feelings that you will get will take you further and further into the habit and soon you will become an addict. Addiction is an imprisonment that a person cannot get out on his own, he would need some outside help in order to overcome and escape from it.

God said in today’s verse that He will always provide for us a way to overcome and to resist the temptations that are hurled at us by the devil. That is his job; it is to ensnare God’s children. If we are not experiencing any temptations or other forms of attack from Satan, it means we are already in his control and he is manipulating our lives and he does not need to fall into sin as by now we would already be living in sin.

God had promised that He would not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to withstand it. Every time we are confronted with temptations, we must quickly turn to God and ask Him for His forgiveness and protection.

God through His Son showed us the way to overcome temptations. He went through the trials of temptations and triumphs over them so that he can defeat the tempter as well as showed us the way to resist and overcome temptations. He did it but quoting the scriptures where Satan who also knows the scriptures very well could not counter it.

Jesus defeated Satan with the Word of Scriptures; we too must know the word so that we can use the word of God to defeat Satan. When we are tempted we must use the word of God as it is a sharp double edge sword that God has provided for us to use.

Stand on the word and fight every temptation.

Psalm 78 : 4

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.

The psalmist reminds the people that they must continue to teach the next generation all about the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power and the wonders he has done. He is reminding the people of the faithfulness of God who took them out of captivity and slavery and now having brought them to their new home in Canaan.

Just as there are many distractions and temptations that are in the world that would draw the people of God into sin, the Israelite were similarly enticed to follow after other gods. Much of the problem was because they did not have a firm foundation of the faith and they did not have the fear of God in their hearts.

The bible clearly tells us that the blood of Jesus washes away our sins but as for the sin of the eyes, the mind and the heart, these can only be washed by the power of the word of God. It is when we study and meditate upon the word that it would purify our thoughts which in turn guide us to direct our eyes and heart away from the temptations of sin.

The main weapon that Satan uses against the people of God is the temptation of the flesh. Satan knows that all men are weak in their flesh, especially in the area of sexuality. This sin is common in both men and women both are tempted and controlled by the desires that are in their bodies. Many believers are entrapped in this area including some clergy as well as ministers.

No one is spared of this and except and unless we fortify ourselves with the study and meditating of the word of scriptures, no man or woman can withstand the temptations of the flesh on their own.

The psalmist reminds that it is important for us to talk about God and all that He has done for us so as to encourage and strengthen our foundation of our faith. This is even more important for the young children, it is when the foundation of their faith is secured at a young age that their faith will continue to hold strong and see them through the challenges in life in adulthood.

Proverbs also remind us as parents that we must share the word of God and the stories of God’s goodness and mercies to our children so that this would secure their trust and faith in God in later years. If this is not established, then their faith and salvation can be lost when they enter into the adult world where there are lots of temptations around.

In the city that I am now, the flesh trade is legalized and shops offering such facilities and appliances advertise their trade and services openly. This is how liberal the world has become and the only defense against this is a strong foundation in God.

As parents, let us be reminded that we must teach and protect our young ones from as young as possible.

CONFIRMATION OF THE COMING END TIMES REVIVAL 

Please take time to read this.

On 12^th May 2017 from 2am to 5.15am I had an amazing encounter with the Lord.

It started off when I woke up at 2am and was very restless and could not sleep. I tried to sleep but ended up praying in tongues for almost One Hour. While praying I had a real sense that there was a word coming from God, but it was  blocked by the principalities and powers of darkness in high places. So I continued to press on in prayer.

Around 4am I received the word. “ My Son the time for the word spoken by Smith Wigglesworth to come to fulfilment is at hand. I want my church to prepare in the next 3 years for a mighty outpouring of my presence which will start a national reformation starting 2020 – 2030 of LOVE and Holy Spirt FIRE. This Revival Fire will turn the nations back to me and cause national reformation throughout the whole world in many nations”.

Attached is the Prophetic word released in the early 20^th century by Smith Wigglesworth regarding Australia and the nations.  Please take time to read this. As it is very encouraging, exciting and challenging.

The following article was released in October 2011.

“Smith Wigglesworth’s Prophetic Word of Australia’s Mighty Revival

Over the last weekend Pr Daniel ministered at a Four Square Gospel Church and an AOG church in Sydney, Australia where more than 400 people in all attended the 4 revival services.

The Spirit of God moved mightily at every service, with many receiving a fresh touch and supernatural encounter from the awesome presence of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I am sure many of you have heard, that at the beginning of the 20^th century, Smith Wigglesworth prophesied about Australia’s mighty revival and how God will use Australia to impact the nations.

3 years ago Pr Daniel ministered at the same AOG church in Sydney, where he just preached over the weekend. The Senior Pastor of this church was Pr Norm Armstrong, who is now 95 years old. Pr Daniel feels that now is the time to share what happened at that meeting 3 years ago.

As Pr Norm got up to introduce Pr Daniel to preach to the congregation, he suddenly came under a great anointing of the Holy Spirit, and started sharing about what happened when he was a young boy.

He said, “My father was a Salvation Army officer who sold insurance policies for a living. One of his customers was an elderly lady who would all ways tell him, ‘Son you need to be baptised in the Holy Spirit’. One day the lady got him through the Holy Spirit, he was baptised in the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues. This resulted in him having to leave the Salvation Army. Then my father went on to start a Pentecostal gathering at our home. Our home was possibly one of the first places in Australia in the early 1900’s where the Holy Spirit was free to move.

I was only a very young boy when my Dad told me one day that a man called Smith Wigglesworth was coming to minister in our home, and that he was a mighty man of God. We were all very excited. The day came, and our house was packed out with people. I wanted to get a good look at him and the only place was the toilet seat, so I went in there to watch him preach.

To read more of this Prophetic Word by Smith Wigglesworth click the link below

http://catchthefire.com.au/2011/11/smith-wigglesworths-prophetic-word-of-australias-mighty-revival-a-must-read/

(A few months after I released this word in 2011 Ps Norm Armstrong went to be with the Lord.)

The Lord has asked me to make some major changes in our ministry in preparation for this move of God in the next 3 years.

I am sensing that there is going to be a mighty shaking and people are going to be crying out for God. At this time the church will be their only answer.

God bless you and have a wonderful weekend ahead

Pastor Daniel Nalliah
Catch The Fire Ministries
PO Box 148
30 Star Crescent
Hallam VIC 3803 Australia
Tel (613) 9703 1620

Zechariah 3: 4 

See, I have taken away  your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.

Zechariah was given a vision of Joshua who appeared in filthy rags and Satan was there accusing him of his sin but as the vision continued, God said to an angel nearby to take remove the flighty rags from Joshua and replaced it with a new robe and a turban on his head.

This signified that God had made Joshua clean having removed his filthy clothes and covering him in rich garments. The turban and new robes signified that all Joshua’s sins have been removed and now he is righteous before the Lord.

Living in this world all men are ensnared with the tentacles of sin in our lives. Everyone has done wrong in the eyes of God, lying, gossiping, stealing, coveting and many other sins that we are not even aware of. These may seem trivial in our eyes but they constitute sin nevertheless.

We may think these are small sin but to God, all sin are sin and are to be punished if unrepentant. Therefore we need to constantly seek God and ask for His forgiveness of even the smallest sin of all. Some of these we may have even totally forgotten, it could be a harsh word to our family members or to a colleague.

Some months ago I went to a Church that was mightily used by God many years ago where there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the people. The whole state was transformed and many people repented and gave their lives to Jesus Christ.

Many miracles took place and God rose up many powerful evangelists, pastors, prophets and even apostles. However, over the years many have grown complacent and cold and have even back slide.

The day I was there to take a revival meeting I share what the Lord has given to me for the Church. At the end of the meeting as the whole Church came forward to surrender their lives again to God, an old prophetess saw a vision as the people moved forward. She saw that the whole congregation transformed into one man and he was dressed in filthy rags but as the person came to the altar, then his clothes was turned into white and clean clothes.

The prophetess said that when the congregation repented as they came forward, God saw their hearts and forgave all their sins and gave them the cloak of righteousness as Joshua had received.

Our God is still a loving and merciful God; He is ever willing to welcome us home and to forgive all our sins. All that He wants is for us, His children to repent and turn back to Him. There is no sin too great that He cannot forgive. We only need to get up and say to the Father, here am I, I want to come back to Jesus Christ and be forgiven of all my sins.

God is faithful and He will forgive and make us clean again.

Daniel 6: 26He is the living God and He endures forever.

Daniel was among the exiles of Israel and living in Babylon during the reign of King Darius. The enemies of Daniel plotted against him and instigated the king to punish Daniel for not bowing to worship the statue of the king by throwing him into the lions’ den.

Consequently the king had no choice but to go long as he was manipulated to pass a decree that any one now bowing down to his statue will be thrown into the lion’s den. After he had done that king Darius was in great remorse as he had loved Daniel very much.

In the early morning the king rushed to the lion’s den to look for Daniel who had emerged without a scratch. Then king Darius commanded that this proclamation be written and distributed throughout the whole nation.

He wrote;

For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end.

He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the havens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.

This was proclaimed by a non-believer king of a foreign nation which God used to punish His stiff necked and rebellious people. Because of Daniel’s faithfulness, God had used this to perform a miracle to transform the life of the king.

We see that even a non-believer can also proclaim the glory of God when God opens his spiritual eyes. There are many ways that God can transform the lives of non-believers and often God uses us to be the tool to complete His divine plan.

Even in this day we see how God’s mercies have been reaching out to many sinners and non-believers. Just a week or so ago, I read that God had touched the life of a porn star and she gave her life to Jesus Christ and now this woman is a full time pastor serving God and bringing others to Him.

There are also others like priests in other religions who had previously been persecutors of Jesus Christ but God opened their spiritual eyes and they too have become believers and pastors leading their former followers to Christ.

God can use the foolish things of the world to do His work. He works wonders then and now as He seeks for such people who would become a powerful witness for Him.

Gen 14 :18Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.

This is the account where Abraham had gone to the rescue of his nephew Lot and his family when they were captured by the enemies. Abram was victorious and he brought ban much spoil of war. When he arrived back to Israel we read that king Melchizedek welcome him and even brought out bread and wine for Abraham.

Then we read that Abram gave a tenth of all his spoil to king Melchizedek, this is the first time we read of anyone giving a tithe. The bible says that there was not record of the birth of king Melchizedek and where he came from, many theologians believed that this is Jesus Christ who came down earlier in what is known as theosophy meaning the incarnation of Christ the second person of the ‘Trinity’ at that time.

In verse 19 we also read that king Melchizedek pronounced a blessing upon Abram saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.” In those days we know that all blessings come from God and for king Melchizedek to pronounce a blessing, then he is revealing that he has the authority and also the source of the blessings.

Today since we have receive our salvation and our position as joint heirs with Jesus Christ, we now have their privilege and ability to release blessing to others for Jesu has given us that key to the kingdom of heaven where Jesus promised us that “whatsoever we bind on earth it shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever we loose on earth it shall be loose in heaven.” This means when we release a blessing then it is done in heaven; the blessing will become a reality.

Our duty in Church is to bless the people around us, we are to pray and intercede for one another and we are to release blessing to one another as we have learned from Jesus Christ and also from king Melchizedek.

The apostles have also taught us that at each gathering a blessing or benediction must be pronounced so that when we leave the gathering and go our way; we will go with the blessing that has been pronounced upon us.

Let us continue to do well in practicing speaking and pronouncing blessings upon every one of our family at home and in the Church.

Isaiah 40:8The grass withers and the flowers fall, buy the word of our God endures forever.

The word of God as revealed by Isaiah tells us that all things on this earth are temporal. There is nothing that will last forever. Even the mountains and rivers will change. Some mountains are brought down through the forces of nature or they may even be pushed up through the forces. Rivers too will change, some may change directions and some may merge while others may eve dry up.

Isaiah is speaking about the creation of God as in the natural things that are around us. He talks of grass and flowers withering either through the seasons or through their limited life span. Though these are things of beauty and are a good thing for amen to look at, these will never be permanent.

The people of Israel have gone through all kinds of changes too, they have enjoyed peace and prosperity and they have also experienced poverty and slavery. Some of them were even kings and nobles but because they have turned away from worshipping God when they were prosperous and living in peace, God had to bring them out of their sinful lives and to do that God allowed them to be defeated and be enslaved for long periods of time.

In the same way, we are blessed these days, we are living in peace in most places in the world and we have all the blessings of modern day facilities like education, businesses, high paying jobs, beautiful homes, expensive cars, fine dining and a very comfortable life. Many have become even complacent and have forgotten their obligation to maintain a close relationship with God.

Many have become church attendees twice a year. Once during Easter and the second during Christmas. Christianity has become a obligatory practice. These people think that as long as they turn up to Church during these two occasions, they consider themselves to be performing their duties and worship and they are saved.

They cannot be more wrong as for the rest of the 363 days; God is not upon their hearts and minds. They are thinking of only the world and the pleasures that the world can offer. This is generally among a majority of the Church, they may be regular attendees but their heart and soul are not with Jesus Christ. They make it into a form but deny the cost of Christianity.

Their salvation are no longer secured because like the Israelite, they have sinned against God and have turned from Him in general, they routinely attend Church as a form or practice only. Sadly they are in danger of losing their salvation.

There are some who were former spiritual leaders but when they are ensnared with the things of the world, they have turned away and now are no longer in fellowship with God. Their salvation has been lost. This is the danger that believers must be aware that just like the Israelite who missed out from inheriting the Promised Land, back slided Christians can also lose their salvation.

Matt 13: 23The seed falling on good soil… produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Jesus always taught using simple daily life examples. In those days every one live off the soil meaning either they were farmers in agricultural or pastoral farming. They understand the process and hard work that is involve and also the time needed.

For every work to be successful and productive there need to be a time and a season. Jesus used this example to illustrate the growth and walk in our spiritual lives.

For the last few years I have moves to the suburbs where there is some little space for me to raise a small garden. It is a great joy and a sense of achievement when we see our efforts bearing fruit. I have several citrus plants which I bought and nurtured and now I see them with ripening fruits. This brings a sense of achievement as we see the labour that we have put in bearing fruit.

I have also planted some flowers from seeds and it is also a joy and satisfaction when we enjoy the blooms in the garden. With the flowers comes the fragrance that it emits. It is indeed delightful to see the beauty of the flowers and be refreshed with the sweet fragrance that greets us when we walk in the garden.

The scriptures also tell us that we are like trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. When God planted the seed of the Gospel in us, this seed took root and we gave our lives to Jesus. Some seed grew immediately but it fell on hard ground and soon withered away.  

This refers to believers who live in the world of unbelief. For a very short time they believed and gave their lives to Jesus but because they still did not give up the attractions of the world, they soon went back to the world and gave up their faith in Christ and lost their salvation.

Then there are other seeds that fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with the seed and soon choked the plants. This is referring to the evil people that we will see growing around us. They will continue to grow in the congregation and Jesus said that during the harvest these will be gathered and thrown into the fire. This means that there will be some in the Church who will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

These may even be church goers and they will continue in church and may even be serving in church but their lives are not pure and holy. These will surely miss heaven and will land in hell.

However Jesus said that the seed that fall on fertile ground will grow and bear much fruit. As I said earlier, those plants that bear much fruit are a delight to the master. This means Christians who are righteous and holy are pleasing to God and their ministries will prosper. God will multiple them and will reward them in heaven.

We have a choice to ensure that our lives are like the good seeds that fall on fertile ground. We need to be mature and grow so that we can serve God faithfully and productively.