But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God… For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
God sees you with no flaw, spot or imperfection, so honor His Word and the finished work of His Son by saying, “Amen!” Don’t doubt your perfection in Christ.
To see yourself as far from being perfect is not modesty, but a failure to understand the perfect sacrifice that Jesus has made for you.
The Bible tells us, “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified”. Did you get that? You have not only been sanctified, that is, made holy, but by the same offering of His body, you have been perfected. You are both holy and perfect in God’s eyes!
Your sins have been purged perfectly. Today, Jesus is seated at His Father’s right hand not because He is the Son of God (although that is true), but because His work of purging your sins is completely finished and perfect!
So instead of being conscious of your sins, which is to have an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22), you can have a perfect conscience, a conscience that is free from the guilt and condemnation of sins.
When you find yourself conscious of your sins, just say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your wonderful work at the cross. It is a perfect work that has removed all my sins completely.
“Holy Spirit, thank You for convicting me of righteousness, not my own, but God’s righteousness given to me as a gift. Keep on convicting me in the days to come, reminding me especially when I fail that I am still the righteousness of God in Christ.”
My friend, God sees you perfect without any spot of sin. He sees you covered in the beautiful white robes of His own righteousness. He treats you like a righteous man because that is what He has made you. So expect good things to happen to you because blessings are on the head of the righteous! (Proverbs 10:6)
Thought For The Day
To see yourself as far from being perfect is to fail to understand the perfect sacrifice that Jesus has made for you.
There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip—she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” she pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.” After a long time the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.”
Prayer for the day
Might my words about another be ones that are spoken in the spirit of Your loving kindness, Father.
I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!
– Psalm 91:2
At various points in our lives, all of us feel we’re getting “out of our depth” or “in over our heads.” There are problems all around: A job is lost, someone dies, there is strife in the family, or a bad report comes from the doctor. When these things happen, our temptation is to panic because we feel we’ve lost control.
But think about it: The truth is that we’ve never been in control when it comes to life’s most crucial elements. The only thing that holds us up—and the thing we can be most grateful for—is the grace of God, our Father, and that won’t change. God is never out of His depth, and therefore, we’re safe when we’re in life’s “deep end” because we can trust that He will always carry us in His arms.
Prayer of Thanks
Thank You, Father, that You are a refuge for me. I know that because You are with me, I can feel safe and secure. Thank You that no matter how difficult life may seem, I can be at peace because You will never let me go.
Memorise: Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. Job 22:22
Read: Job 22:21-24,21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. 22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. 23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. 24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Bible in one year: Exodus 37:38, 1st Corinthians 1
MESSAGE
Due to the advent of sin and the activities of our adversary, we are faced with different challenges of life from day to day. The loss of assets and of persons dear to us is one of those challenges which our adversary, the devil, throws at us to destabilise us and ultimately make us lose our faith. But thank God that provision has been made in the package of salvation for the recovery of those things which we may have lost. Do you desire to recover what you have lost? Stop crying about it and encourage yourself in the Lord. A time of loss is a time to seek the face of God in prayer. After David and his men suffered a major loss, he wept, but he didn’t stop there. He encouraged himself in the Lord and sought God’s face in prayer (1st Samuel 29:3-8). Although God is a very present help in the time of trouble, it is only those who seek Him that will find Him (Proverbs 8:17). Based on his life experiences, the Psalmist confirms this in Psalm 34:10:
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”
Have you lost any good things? Seek God’s face from today. Separate yourself to spend time with God alone. For the duration of that period, let God be your only focus. Pour out your heart to Him and meditate on His word. Praise and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Be quiet in His presence to hear what He has to say to you. Have you been seeking God’s face after suffering a loss?
It is important to receive instructions from God after suffering a loss. He alone can fully tell how a loss occurred. Where what we lost can be found and how best to recover it. Unfortunately, people seldom fellow God’s instructions. May people adhere to traffic rules, especially in developed countries, because they do not want sanctions. Similarly, most people fellow the instructions in the user’s manual of their gadgets; but when it comes to God’s instructions, people take what appeals to them and discard the rest. Beloved, receive all of God’s instructions because they will lead you to the path of success, victory and joy. Instructions from God can come to you through a variety of ways. God can instruct you by directly speaking to you. He can also do so through His servants, especially through the word of knowledge in programmes such as our monthly Holy Ghost Service. God can send you instructions while you fellowship with other brethren in church. It could be during praise and worship, the choir ministration, prayer time or through the sermon. This is why it is important not to neglect fellowshipping with the brethren. How attentive are you to receive instructions from God while in His presence?
Prayer Point
Father, my heart is open to receive Your instructions that will turn my life around for good.
RECEIVED DIVINE INSTRUCTIONS
Memorise: Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. Job 22:22
Read: Job 22:21-24,21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. 22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. 23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. 24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Bible in one year: Exodus 37:38, 1st Corinthians 1
MESSAGE
Due to the advent of sin and the activities of our adversary, we are faced with different challenges of life from day to day. The loss of assets and of persons dear to us is one of those challenges which our adversary, the devil, throws at us to destabilise us and ultimately make us lose our faith. But thank God that provision has been made in the package of salvation for the recovery of those things which we may have lost. Do you desire to recover what you have lost? Stop crying about it and encourage yourself in the Lord. A time of loss is a time to seek the face of God in prayer. After David and his men suffered a major loss, he wept, but he didn’t stop there. He encouraged himself in the Lord and sought God’s face in prayer (1st Samuel 29:3-8). Although God is a very present help in the time of trouble, it is only those who seek Him that will find Him (Proverbs 8:17). Based on his life experiences, the Psalmist confirms this in Psalm 34:10:
“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”
Have you lost any good things? Seek God’s face from today. Separate yourself to spend time with God alone. For the duration of that period, let God be your only focus. Pour out your heart to Him and meditate on His word. Praise and worship Him in spirit and in truth. Be quiet in His presence to hear what He has to say to you. Have you been seeking God’s face after suffering a loss?
It is important to receive instructions from God after suffering a loss. He alone can fully tell how a loss occurred. Where what we lost can be found and how best to recover it. Unfortunately, people seldom fellow God’s instructions. May people adhere to traffic rules, especially in developed countries, because they do not want sanctions. Similarly, most people fellow the instructions in the user’s manual of their gadgets; but when it comes to God’s instructions, people take what appeals to them and discard the rest. Beloved, receive all of God’s instructions because they will lead you to the path of success, victory and joy. Instructions from God can come to you through a variety of ways. God can instruct you by directly speaking to you. He can also do so through His servants, especially through the word of knowledge in programmes such as our monthly Holy Ghost Service. God can send you instructions while you fellowship with other brethren in church. It could be during praise and worship, the choir ministration, prayer time or through the sermon. This is why it is important not to neglect fellowshipping with the brethren. How attentive are you to receive instructions from God while in His presence?
Prayer Point
Father, my heart is open to receive Your instructions that will turn my life around for good.
Topic: The Real Fix You Need! [Wednesday 16 September, 2015]
Memorise: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. –Isaiah 45:22
Read: Isaiah 45:20-25 (KJV)
20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
21 Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
Bible in one Year:Exodus 35-36; Romans 16
MESSAGE:
In an attempt to fill the void created by the absence of God in some people’s lives, they find themselves using mind-bending substances. This is very rampant in societies that have replaced God with government. In admission of their failure to achieve this folly in the lives of men, some of them now allow the free use of these substances. What they fail to realise is that without Jesus Christ, you can never be complete (Colossians 2:10). Nothing else can take His place. The effects of mind-bending drugs such as marijuana or cocaine can never fill His space in the heart. If you take any of these, it will only take you “high” into a world of hallucination: an unreal world that Satan creates for you while the effects of these drugs last, but afterwards, he drops you far below where he took you from, leaving you feeling deeply depressed, dissatisfied, empty and naked.
Any person who uses mind-bending substances will always want to experience the “high” feeling again and again in a vicious cycle. It is ironic that there is never a feeling of satisfaction derived from the use of these substances. Rather, one wrap becomes too small and the fellow moves on to two, three, four or even five in order to experience the effect that used to be derived from just a single wrap or shot. It gets to a stage where they now live for hard drugs. At this point, nothing else matters to them but another wrap or shot All along, each use of those substances lead the user into madness.
No hard drug satisfies, but Jesus Christ does. He is the “hard drug” that can fix your life once and for all. Take one shot of Jesus Christ and He will take you truly high and keep you there. One wrap of Jesus will give you a bit of the heavenly experience that will increase every passing day as you fellowship with Him. Have you received Jesus into your life? Are you a drug addict? Do you need a fix every now and then? All you need is Jesus! He satisfies. He will quench your thirst for inordinate things. Receive Him into your heart and it shall be well with you. Your life will receive the transformation you need. Are you addicted to drugs and other mind-bending substances? Have you made effort to stop their use but could not stop? In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you are set free today! That habit holding you bound is broken now! I command every demon of addiction to release you now! You are liberated from their grip in Jesus’ Name. Submit yourself to the environment of accountability in a church to strengthen your resolve never to go back.
Action point: Reach out to drug addicts for Christ or lend a helping hand to ministries dedicated to their salvation and rehabilitation.
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.
If you have been to a circus performance or watched one on television, you would be familiar with the act involving a lion and its trainer. But have you ever wondered why, besides holding a whip, the trainer would arm himself with a stool and point its legs toward the beast?
The whole idea is to distract the lion. You see, as powerful as the beast is, it can be immobilized by distractions. If this man-eater is not distracted from time to time, it might just decide to maul the trainer to death!
The devil is like the trainer. He knows that you have God’s power inside you because the Lion of Judah is in you, and “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”. So what the devil tries to do is immobilize you with distractions.
For example, he may bring to your attention a pain in your body to distract you. And you find yourself going to a few medical journals or the Internet to find out more about the symptoms. You also decide to consult more than one doctor. And because you know of someone who has the same condition, you talk to him about it.
In the end, you are distracted by the pain, the symptoms, your findings, the doctors’ reports and your friend’s experience. And you find it hard to believe and focus on God’s Word about your healing. You have become immobilized, powerless and fearful.
So the devil’s trick is to get you to focus on your condition. When you are conscious of the symptoms in your body and your findings, you will see sickness manifest. But God wants you to focus on who you are and what you have in Christ. When you are conscious that you are the healed in Christ, you will see healing manifest.
My friend, what you are conscious of will manifest. So be conscious of Christ, who is all the power of God inside you, and you will see that power manifest!
Thought For The Day
Be conscious of Christ, who is all the power of God inside you, and you will see that power manifest!
Jesus said, Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.
– Matthew 8:13
Sometimes when I stand behind the pulpit, and before I speak, I pause and my gaze sweeps across the audience. I look at the faces of the people. I love to see the bright smiles and expressions of anticipation, but there are always a few who look downtrodden and discouraged. I don’t know anything about them and I don’t want to judge them, but their faces look sad. They look as if they have lost hope and expect nothing positive to happen and too often, they get exactly what they expect. I understand those discouraged people; I was once one of them.
Here’s a simple fact I’ve learned: Positive minds produce positive lives, but negative minds produce negative lives. The New Testament tells the story of a Roman soldier whose servant was sick, and the soldier wanted Jesus to heal him. That wasn’t uncommon many wanted Jesus to heal them or their loved ones in those days. But this soldier, instead of asking Jesus to come to his servant, expressed his belief that if Jesus would just speak the word, his servant would be healed (see Matthew 8:8). Jesus marveled at his faith and sent out His word to heal the servant. The soldier’s positive mindset and his faith brought positive results. He expected healing, and that’s exactly what happened.
Too often, we cry to Jesus to heal us, to take care of our finances, or to deliver us from problems, but we don’t fully expect the good things to happen. We allow our minds to focus on the negative aspects. Doubt and unbelief war against our minds and steal our faith if we allow it.
As I wrote in my book Battlefield of the Mind, many years ago I was extremely negative. I used to say that if I had two positive thoughts in a row, my mind would get in a cramp. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but that’s how I saw myself. I lived with the same philosophy that other people have: If we don’t expect anything good to happen, we won’t be disappointed when it doesn’t.
I could have excused my negative attitude by telling everyone about my disappointments in life and I had many. It wasn’t just my lack of expectation. It was more than that. Because I thought negatively, I spoke negatively. When people told me of their spiritual victories, I’d think, That wont last. When people spoke of their faith, I’d smile, but inwardly I would think that they were gullible. I could always figure out ways that plans would go wrong or people would disappoint me.
Was I happy? Of course not. Negative thinkers are never happy. It’s too long of a story to explain how I came to face that reality, but once I realized what a negative person I was, I cried out to the Lord to help me. I learned that if I kept studying the Word of God, I could push away negative thoughts. God’s Word is positive and up¬lifting. My responsibility was to become the kind of believer who honors God with her thoughts, as well as with her actions and her deeds.
I understood the remorse David must have felt when he wrote Psalm 51: Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Your steadfast love… is the way he starts. I especially meditated on verse 9: Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities. I hadn’t sinned the same way David did, of course, but my negative thinking and bad attitude was sin. It wasn’t just weakness or a bad habit. When I focused on negative thinking, I was rebelling against God.
The Lord had mercy on me. As I continued in His Word and in prayer, He freed me from Satan’s stronghold. Freedom is available for all of us.
Gracious God, thank You for every deliverance in my life. Thank You for setting me free from negative and wrong thinking. Thank You for defeating Satan in this area of my life. Amen.
Memorise: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a door, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: James 1:23
Read: James 1:22-25, 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Bible in one year: Exodus 33:34, Romans 15:14-33
MESSAGE
The word of God is very central to our life as believers. In the very last admonition of Moses to the children of Israel, He said the word of God is their very life (Deuteronomy 32:46-47). For believers in Christ today, the word of God is also our life, because it is through it that we are born-again, as revealed in 1st Peter 1:23:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
After we are born-again, the word of God performs several functions in our life. One aspect of these functions which is rather interesting is that it works as our mirror. A mirror shows the reflection of the one using it. A man may hold an opinion of himself for a long period, but when he has the opportunity to look in a mirror, he will see himself as he is. In this age of flattery and political correctness, you may be shocked by the time you compare what you see in a mirror before you, to people’s assessment for your person. Why is this so? We live in a time when it has become very difficult for people to call a shade a shade. They prefer to tell you what you want to hear. They are prepared to flatter you and say those things that can keep them in your good books, particularly if they hope to curry your favour. If the friends you surround yourself with cannot point out your faults when you go wrong, change them. If you don’t, they will lead you astray.
Unlike men who will flatter you, the word of God tells you who or what you are without fear or favour. When you stand before the perfect law of liberty, you will see yourself exactly how God sees you. The word of God will reveal the stains in your garment of salvation and show you the wrinkles on your robe of righteousness. One reason why people avoid hearing, reading or studying the Bible is because they are afraid of seeing their true picture. They want to continue to live under self-deception. Some other people look at the mirror of God’s word, see their stains, dents and imperfections, and yet they refuse to do anything about it. This is the height of foolishness! If God’s word cannot correct you, what else can? The Bible in James 1:21 says:
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Receive God’s verdict about you in His word today, and stop trying to justify yourself.
Action Point:
Every time you look into the Bible and you see something amiss in your robe of righteousness, immediately correct it.
AFRAID OF YOUR MIRROW IMAGE?
Memorise: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a door, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: James 1:23
Read: James 1:22-25, 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Bible in one year: Exodus 33:34, Romans 15:14-33
MESSAGE
The word of God is very central to our life as believers. In the very last admonition of Moses to the children of Israel, He said the word of God is their very life (Deuteronomy 32:46-47). For believers in Christ today, the word of God is also our life, because it is through it that we are born-again, as revealed in 1st Peter 1:23:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”
After we are born-again, the word of God performs several functions in our life. One aspect of these functions which is rather interesting is that it works as our mirror. A mirror shows the reflection of the one using it. A man may hold an opinion of himself for a long period, but when he has the opportunity to look in a mirror, he will see himself as he is. In this age of flattery and political correctness, you may be shocked by the time you compare what you see in a mirror before you, to people’s assessment for your person. Why is this so? We live in a time when it has become very difficult for people to call a shade a shade. They prefer to tell you what you want to hear. They are prepared to flatter you and say those things that can keep them in your good books, particularly if they hope to curry your favour. If the friends you surround yourself with cannot point out your faults when you go wrong, change them. If you don’t, they will lead you astray.
Unlike men who will flatter you, the word of God tells you who or what you are without fear or favour. When you stand before the perfect law of liberty, you will see yourself exactly how God sees you. The word of God will reveal the stains in your garment of salvation and show you the wrinkles on your robe of righteousness. One reason why people avoid hearing, reading or studying the Bible is because they are afraid of seeing their true picture. They want to continue to live under self-deception. Some other people look at the mirror of God’s word, see their stains, dents and imperfections, and yet they refuse to do anything about it. This is the height of foolishness! If God’s word cannot correct you, what else can? The Bible in James 1:21 says:
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Receive God’s verdict about you in His word today, and stop trying to justify yourself.
Action Point:
Every time you look into the Bible and you see something amiss in your robe of righteousness, immediately correct it.
‘And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
Private pains, deep hurts, shameful addictions. You may think that nobody understands what you are going through, but God does. He can identify with all your pains and is able to help you. (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15)
In the Old Testament, the grain offering brought to God speaks of Jesus’ life on earth. The fine flour, which the grain offering is made with, is flour that has been pounded, ground, beaten and sifted through to get it consistently even and fine. Therefore, it typifies the humanity and sufferings of Jesus.
One of the ways the Jewish women prepared the grain offering was to bake it. The baking done in the depths of the oven speaks of the “hidden” sufferings that Jesus went through. I believe that Jesus faced sufferings that we cannot fully understand. Even as a young boy, He must have gone through sufferings that prepared Him to die for all humanity at the cross. And during His ministry years, it must have grieved Him when time and time again, He found unbelief not just in the people around Him, but even in His disciples.
Jesus also suffered at the hands of men—slanderers who misunderstood Him. Once, the Pharisees insinuated that He was born out of wedlock because His mother was with child before she married Joseph. (John 8:39, 41) That scandalous remark, probably not the first, must have hurt Him.
Consider also the temptations He faced. There were not only three. God’s Word says that He was tempted for 40 days! (Luke 4:2) Not all the temptations were recorded. Those 40 days must have tried Him sorely.
What do all these mean?
My friend, Jesus went through all those temptations and sufferings for you, yet He did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) There is no temptation or suffering that you are going through that He cannot identify with. So come to His throne of grace today and receive His superabounding grace to face and overcome those trials in your life!
Thought For The Day
There is no temptation or suffering that you are going through that Jesus cannot identify with or give you His superabounding grace to overcome.
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