The aim of this study is to see the father’s heart toward all who are lost, our responsibility and our...
Read MoreWelcome to My Weekly Milk where one can be fed with the milk of the word of God, be stirred up in the spirit and filled with spiritual strength to face the challenges we might encounter during the week and come out victorious.
We should forward this “My weekly milk” to as many people as we think it might bless.
Read or listen to a collection of bible studies centred on God’s word,
where one can be fed with the milk of the word of God, be stirred up in the spirit and endued with spiritual strength to face the challenges one might encounter during the week and come out victorious.
Many of us can relate to the story of that woman caught in the very act of adultery or any...
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Read MoreMany born again Christians when they hear the word confession; do not have the full revelation of what God means....
Read MoreThe reason for this study is to refresh our knowledge concerning the bases or foundations of prayer. Prayer cannot be...
Read MoreBelievers of old have undertaken this return journey and we all must take the same journey in our walk of...
Read MoreThe aim of this study is to equip born again believers in the practical knowledge of praise and worship. Many...
Read MoreThe purpose of this study is to give believers some basis of how to receive divine guidance. Many believers are...
Read MorePaul tells us in the New Covenant: you are no longer servant or slave but son, and if a son...
Read MoreHalloween is an annual holiday on the 31st October. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain (an Irish...
Read MoreWe will be looking at the leaven in the bread, what it means and what its implications in the life...
Read MoreMany times believers go through fire in their life, marriage, work place, family, studies, health, wealth, etc. The questions that...
Read MoreWhenever we talk about prosperity people are already hardening their hearts; because they think that God is after their money....
Read Moren the days of Jesus, the people used to work for twelve hours in a day. They would receive for...
Read MoreAs I was praying and reading my bible this morning, I had so many questions in my heart and I...
Read MoreWhenever we ignore God and his ways, we are acting like an ass or a donkey. We are being foolish...
Read MoreMany of us, including myself, plan our lives outside God’s counsel; we invite everybody but Jesus and His disciples. Be...
Read MoreFrom the account of Mark we see how the disciples and Jesus were caught up in the middle of a...
Read MoreWe have all heard countless times about this phrase: we are the salt of the earth. But what is the...
Read MoreMany born again Christians, when they hear the word confession; do not have the full revelation of what God means. We will not try to present an exhaustive study of the subject but a succinct and clear one, with some practical examples. Below is our main scripture reading:
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, do not say in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down from above)
Romans 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep or abyss? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Romans 10:8 But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
Romans 10:17 so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
In the bible we find the Greek word homologeo, which is a combination of two Greek words homou [at the same place, at the same time, having a close association (together or togetherness)] and logos [something said, something thought, communication, speech, frame, works].
Confession is saying the same thing God and His word are saying for a particular situation; thinking the same thing God and his word are thinking about a particular situation, having the same frame of mind that Christ has. Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). It is doing the same work Jesus is doing. It is being at the same place where God instructed us to be. It is being one with God: what He says is what we say, what he does is what we do, where He goes is where we go.
As born again Christians, our life is a life of confession, whether we have realized it or not we have been confessing. Let us apply that confession in specific areas. Let us start with the area of sin.
Many times, in a church a setting, we do not talk about sin in the life of the believers. It is as if only when you are unsaved you have sins but when you are born again you no longer have sins. Sin becomes a taboo among Christians because if one admits he is struggling with a sin or an addiction, he is afraid that other believers will think he is not spiritual enough.
The truth is many Christians are struggling with sin, and they keep it to themselves, church is the last place you can find help for your sin, since everybody looks so holy and self righteous. The church in Corinth has all the gifts of the Spirit but they were struggling with sin, Paul had to write to them to rebuke them openly. In the first epistle of John, he addresses the issue of sin in the life of the believers. Both Paul’s epistle to Corinth and John’s first epistle were addressed to believers not to unsaved people. If only we stop pretending but admit that sin is sometimes rampant in our pews, we will be able to help the brethren like Paul and John did.
The first thing that every born again believer must know is that God can deal with our sins, no matter how big we think they are or how numerous they might be. When Adam and his wife Eve sinned, our Father God dealt with their sin problem by killing an animal and clothing them with its skin. Today you and I brethren we have the perfect Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus, who was slain for my sins and your sins. Our sins, trespasses and iniquities though they might appear to be many, Jesus bore them on the cross.
None of the persons of the Godhead are trying to condemn anyone for their sins but convict each one of us of our sins. God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins, that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn it but to convict it (John 3:17). Jesus never condemned the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews but His words convicted them; but instead of confessing their sins they walked away from Jesus – the solution for their sin (John 8:9-11). Jesus told us that when the Spirit of God will come, He will convict people of sin (John 16:8). People condemn themselves when they reject the provision for sin that God made by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus on the cross.
Condemnation is never of God, neither of Jesus nor of the Holy Spirit, but of the devil and of the Pharisees (self righteous people who think they are better than others). They were the ones trying to stone the woman caught in adultery in John 8, Jesus said something powerful about the Pharisees, who go about condemning people, they do and speak what they have seen with their father the devil; but He, Jesus, speaks what He has seen with His Father God (John 8:38;44). Jesus convicted people for it was what the Father taught Him but the Pharisees condemned people and wanted to kill them just like their father the devil. There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit (Romans 8:1).
From the very moment Adam and Eve sinned they hid themselves from the presence of God. God delights in fellowshipping or communing with His children. He came into the garden to commune with Adam and Eve, but they hid themselves, and were ashamed (Genesis 3:7-9). God is omniscient, He knows everything; He knew that Adam and Eve had sinned, but he still came to fellowship with them. Satan knows that when we sin we will run away from God because our conscience is now accusing us toward God (Romans 2:15). God is always running toward us, even when we sin; He was running toward the prodigal son who was coming back home, kissed him and fell on his neck (Luke 15:20).
He was the one coming to Adam and Eve after they have sinned.
God is a great Father; the only thing he wants from us when we sin is to take our responsibility for our mistakes or its ownership. He is like the father who knows that his five years old boy took something forbidden or broke a vase in the house. The Father just wants the boy to say I did it daddy, and I am sorry I will never do it again, please forgive me. Adam and Eve did not take ownership of their mistakes nor were they sorry for what they did.
Instead, Eve blamed the serpent, Satan, Adam blamed the woman whom God gave him; in a way he was blaming God too, if you had not given me this woman, I would not have disobeyed You (Genesis 3:12-14). But the prodigal son was sorry and remorseful; he truly repented and decided to go back to his father (Luke 15:17-20).
We see that the prodigal son was restored in the fellowship; the father received him home, forgave him, kissed him and then restored his inheritance and authority. But Adam and Eve who, after being convicted, did not repent nor take ownership of their mistakes; were driven out of the Garden of Eden and did not enjoy the same fellowship they used to have with God. John will tell the Church in his first epistle that sin will affect their fellowship with God, he wants them to stop sinning so that they will enjoy the same fellowship the apostles are having with the three persons of the Godhead (1 John 1:3).
John tells them do not run away from God when you sin but instead run to Him; do not be like Adam and Eve but like the prodigal son. Even if your heart is condemning you, do not listen to your heart it is Satan speaking to you, God does not condemn you but convicts you. Even if your conscience is accusing you that you do not deserve the forgiveness of God, do not listen to your conscience; God is greater than your heart that is condemning you and greater than your conscience that is accusing you (1John 3:20-21). Let us put our confidence in God, that He can handle our sins.
John then tells us, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). If we say the same thing God is saying concerning sin, then He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The prodigal son confessed (said the same things or had the same thoughts about sins). He knows what he did was bad in the eyes of his Father and he said I have sinned against you my Father. God is so good; He wants us to keep enjoying a great fellowship with Him that is why He gave us the blood of Jesus to remove sin, the guilt and the condemnation that come with it.
No matter how innumerable our sins were, though they were as scarlet, the blood of Jesus will make them as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). David who was a man after God’s own heart, sinned when he went with Bathsheba, instead of confessing his sins he tried to cover it up and ended up murdering Uriah her husband (2 Samuel 11). When we try to cover our sins like Adam and Eve covered their nakedness with leaves, we end up being disciplined by our heavenly Father. David also was disciplined by God when he covered his adultery which had escalated into a murder (2 Samuel 12). David being a king with all the wealth of Israel knew he could not bribe God. God was not after gifts and sacrifices but after the confession of David.
Therefore, when David confessed his sin he said: You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart (a deeply affected heart with grief and sorrow for having offended God). These, O God, You will not despise (Psalm 51:16-17). David acknowledged that he had sinned against God and had done evil in His sight (Psalm 51:3-4). It took David time, but at least he came to his senses like the prodigal son did and confessed or saw sin in the same light God saw it; that sin was evil and what he did was not right.
The blood of Jesus covered the sins of David after he had confessed and repented. David could gladly say that as far as the east is from the west, so far, the Lord has removed his transgressions from him (Psalm 103:12). The blood of Jesus has the power to wipe out the hand writing of requirements that was against us (Colossians 2:14). In other words, David under the Old Testament was supposed to be put to death for committing adultery and for murder, but when he confessed, the blood of Jesus wiped out all those edicts that were sentencing him to the death penalty. God will never mention those sins to David again because they are no longer in the book of record in heaven; God wiped them out by the blood of Jesus.
Furthermore, the blood of Jesus will cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). God told us that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul or cleanses your soul (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus said to us that His flesh was meat indeed and His blood was drink indeed (John 6:55). Jesus is our Lamb of God slain on the altar of the cross, to make atonement for our souls or to cleanse our souls. The Spirit of the flesh is in the blood; the Spirit of Jesus is in His blood; therefore, the blood of Jesus does not merely forgive and cleanse our souls from their sins but the Spirit of Jesus comes upon us to empower us to stop sinning.
The Spirit of Jesus who is in His blood empowers us to cleanse our conscience from dead works; if we used to steal, we no longer have the desire to steal, for stealing is a dead work. If we used to revel, we revel no more, for revelling is a dead work. If we used to commit sexual immoralities, we do them no more, because the Spirit that is in the blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience from those dead works. Jesus said adultery begins in the heart (Matthew 5:28). Jesus was not telling us that to condemn us but to convict us and let us know that there is power in His blood to even cleanse our conscience from all our lustful thoughts, for they are dead works, works of the flesh.
The blood of Jesus through the Spirit of Jesus that is in the blood will even remove all condemnation, all guilt. Jesus who is the Lamb of God was also our scapegoat, the word in Hebrew is Azazel which means entire removal; Jesus took away all our sins and iniquities. The Azazel was supposed to take away all iniquities, all sins and all transgressions of the people. The word iniquity in Hebrew is Avon which means guilt, perversity and punishment or condemnation (Leviticus 16:20-28). Jesus took away our guilt and condemnation. When we are in Christ there is no condemnation or guilt because of our past life; Jesus our Azazel took away our Avon. John the Baptist could point to Jesus and say to the people, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
The people in those days understood what John the Baptist was saying, he was saying this is your scapegoat not only will He entirely remove all your sins, trespasses and iniquities, but furthermore He will also take away the guilt and condemnation out of our hearts and conscience. That is why Paul though he was among the people who killed Stephen and persecuted the church (Acts 7), when he was converted to Christianity he could say boldly: I have wronged no one (2 Corinthians 7:2). Does it mean that we do not feel any remorse about the people we wronged in our unsaved life? Not at all, Paul even when he became born again he would let people know the kind of person He was, how he persecuted the church, how he was sorry for what he did in his unsaved life, but he would not allow anybody to condemn him or put guilt in his heart. He knew it was by the grace of God that he was saved and not of his works for his works were evil, but the blood of Jesus qualified him to be a son of God.
God wants to remove even the footprint of Satan in our life, many times we have confessed our sins and we know that God has forgiven us and cleansed us of all unrighteousness. But we are still struggling with some thoughts, and we sometimes are still being tempted to commit the same sin. Satan has his foot propping the door of our heart; he is looking for an opportunity to enter again into our life. The footprint of his unfruitful works of darkness is still in us; but confession and the power of the blood of Jesus will not only erase his footprint in our life but also remove his foot from propping the door of our heart and shut the door permanently to that sin. We will be able to say like Jesus, the prince of this world is coming (Satan) but he has found nothing that was his in me (John 14:30). Let us evict Satan and all that is his, erase his footprints from our life.
Paul will tell the Ephesians to have no fellowship with (or be partakers of) the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them and reprove them (Ephesians 5:11). The devil is the prince of darkness; Jesus is the prince of light. Anything that is done in the dark that one is ashamed to tell everybody is of the devil. The way to overcome it is to expose them, to put it out in the open; it loses its power. In our main scripture we have read that if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth then we will be saved.
Many times, we have repented in our closets, we have talked to the Lord and we know according to the scriptures that He forgave us and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. But we are still struggling with some unfruitful thoughts, some lusts, and some addictions. Many times, when people are born again they are still struggling with lust of the flesh, or pornography, or alcohol addiction or drug addiction. Etc. They have confessed in their closets, they have pleaded the blood of Jesus, and they have confessed the scriptures but they still go back to their old habits. They are afraid to say it to the church lest people think that they are not true Christians.
The bible says that we must confess our trespasses to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed (James 5:16). What has hindered the confession of sins to one another is the confidentiality issue in churches. People have had bad experiences; they confided in a brother or sister and the next thing they know the whole church was gossiping about their personal issue. This lack of confidentiality has hindered the work of the Spirit to free people from their struggles, addictions and internal battles with their lusts. People of God are supposed to pray for those who struggle not to gossip about their struggles. The solution is to find a person whom you know will never disclose your secrets but will help you and check on you if you are still struggling with that issue.
The moment we expose or confess to a close person and mature believer what our struggles are, it already breaks the power of Satan for light has been shed in that area of darkness in our life. The brother or the sister will ask us to confess that struggle or sin to God, and will pray with you. The important part is the prayer. Why? The power of agreement, one of you shall chase a thousand but two of you shall put ten thousand to flight because now the Lord the Rock of your salvation has shut up the enemy that was whispering those lustful thoughts in your mind and heart, your Rock has surrendered your enemy that has been defeating you in that area of your weakness, the Lord your Rock has stopped the furtherance of the plans of the enemy in your life (Deuteronomy 32:30).
Exposing the unfruitful works of darkness in public helps other believers too, they will know that if God helped us in our struggles, God can help them too. That is why the bible is full of people we can relate to, they made big mistakes in life, poor judgments and decisions, they even denied Jesus and doubted him. God put those examples in the bible not because He did not forgive them and cleanse their sins; He did, but it is to expose the unfruitful works of darkness in them so that when you and I read the bible we can relate to Abraham, to Jacob, to David, to Peter, Thomas, etc. We can be encouraged that if God turned the lives of those around, He can turn my life around too. There is hope for me.
Paul understands the power of exposing the works of darkness that used to be in him, in order to help some believers who had the same background he had. People who had persecuted the church even killed believers; he was telling them look at me, I once was like you I did the same thing, if God can save me, He can save you as well.
1Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet or fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my conversation or conduct in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted or destroyed it:
1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
John tells us that we overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). We have already talked about the power of the blood of Jesus over sin and our sinful nature, but John who received that revelation of Jesus Christ is telling us to add our testimony to the blood of Jesus. This can be applied in the area of Sin, by exposing the sins or the addictions one used to battle with. It breaks the power of Satan in that person’s life and also in the life of others who are hearing the testimony of how God delivered him from all those sins and addictions. The word testimony John uses in this scripture means the words recorded in the bible by his holy prophets, in Hebrews it means what God recorded in the bible He will duplicate or repeat them in our life.
Now we understand why God placed all those testimonies in the bible, it was to tell us that what he did for David, Abraham, Jacob, Paul, Peter, Thomas, etc; He will do it for me as well. And whenever we give our testimony to expose the works of darkness, let us point people to what the word of God said; for Peter tells us the only testimony that will never fail is the one recorded in the bible. God will duplicate them in the lives of the people. Peter calls that the prophecy of scripture, which did not come by the will of men, but God Himself approved them, and He will duplicate them in the lives of his people (2 Peter 1:20-21).
There is one danger that we must avoid, the person we are confessing our sins or trespasses to has no power to forgive our sins or cleanse us from all unrighteousness. People will misinterpret the saying of Jesus: if you forgive the sins of any, they will be forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any they are retained (John 20:23). Some so called men of god will interpret that scripture as Jesus giving them the power to forgive the sins of other people or to retain their sins. Thus, those so called men of god will ask you to recite a number of times a prayer, to do penance, before they can forgive you. This is not scriptural; the disciples never did that. Jesus bore the punishment for our sins on the cross, doing penance is not of God. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom; but that wisdom does not descend from above; but is earthly, sensual and devilish (James 3:15). It is a self-imposed religion, false humility and asceticism; there is no power in those penances against the craving or indulgence of the flesh (Colossians 2:23). Then what does Jesus mean in that John 20:23?
I am glad you asked! Jesus gave each one of us the mandate to go into all the nations and preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. If people repent toward God and put their faith toward Jesus they will be saved (Acts 20:21). We tell them that their sins have been forgiven because of the blood of Jesus. But if they do not repent toward God nor put their faith in Jesus; we tell them the truth, Jesus is the Way to heaven, and is the only solution for sin. If they do not have Jesus, they do not have the Father either, and their sins remain with them because only the blood of Jesus can cleanse them of their sins. For the bible says: He who believes and is baptised will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned or doomed (Mark 16:16).
The Jews had that understanding that only God can forgive sins, man cannot forgive sin. If any man pretends to be the one who is forgiving people’s sins he blasphemes.
Luke 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
Jesus could and can forgive sins because He is God, but you and I are men, though the Spirit of God is in us, we are men not God.
When James was talking about confessing our sins to one another, he was not saying that the other person has the power to forgive you, no. It was to confess what we have done wrong to that person or to another person or to God. When we are struggling with secret sins, sins which are not in the open; we need to expose them to break their power over our lives. Paul will tell Timothy: some men’s sins are open beforehand or clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, they commit notorious sins that everybody knows it is sin; but those of some men follow later, no one knows that they were struggling with that sin, it was in their heart, and because they did not overcome it, it lead them to commit it in the open so they suffered the same judgment with the first set of men (1 Timothy 5:24).
Whenever a person can open up to a mature believer what his struggles are, the burden is lifted, and when the two of them pray that prayer of agreement, the yoke of that sin or lust is removed from the person’s shoulders and destroyed. Again, I will emphasise, look for a mature believer who will not gossip but pray with you, who will not try to use the information you shared, in your times of weakness, against you in the future, to manipulate you or to blackmail you both financially and emotionally. The best thing to do is to ask God to direct your steps to the right person. He will help you.
During the Azusa Street revival, the Holy Spirit was giving words of knowledge publicly even about ministers of the gospel as you can read in the book: Winds of God. In one instance there was a revival meeting in Texas, the Lord started to speak in tongues during the service through one of the ministers leading the service. And on the front row sat two young ministers, who had travelled from afar to come and join the revival meeting in Texas, the Lord asked the two young ministers who sat in front to stand up. They hesitated to do so but as the leading minister called them by name, though they were total strangers to him, they knew it was the Lord asking them to stand up and they obeyed. So, the Lord spoke through the minister leading the service to the first young minister.
The Lord exposed that that young minister who came from the northern part of USA, had purchased a railway ticket to come to the revival meeting in Texas. The ticket he purchased did not include dining car, nor meals, he could enjoy the dining car and the meals if he had purchased a higher priced ticket. The young minister was aware of it, yet he made his way into that dining car and ate the meals. The Holy Spirit said to him publicly: I told you what you are doing is wrong, yet you went ahead and did it! I want you to ask for forgiveness. To the second young minister the Holy Spirit said publicly: you boarded the train and eluded the conductor and had travelled 350 miles without paying your fare at all. And the Holy Spirit said: I do not approve of stealing from a corporation any more than from an individual. The two young ministers repented of their sins. If you are proud, you will refuse correction even public correction from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit exposed their works of darkness, not to humiliate them, but to set them free!
I was talking with a sister and she was sharing with me something that was happening in her life, so I shared with her my little testimony and it blessed her. I believe it might bless someone else. When I was growing up, we were not poor, we were not rich either but we were in the upper class of our society. There were no private schools yet in those years only public schools and both children of poor backgrounds and children from upper class backgrounds were attending the same schools. My parents did not believe in giving children pocket money. They believed that we did not need it, we have everything at home, if we wanted to have anything we could take it from home and bring it to school.
In my tradition children are empowered early in age, at 12 years old a boy becomes a man, he is brought into the circles of men, he goes hunting, and he starts building his hut and at 15 he is of age to be married. Girls from around 4 to 5 years old they are already being initiated in the tasks of the house, to clean and to cook, and at 9 years old they are expected to know how to cook for the family and how to keep a house, from 9 years old they are given some financial responsibility to teach them how to manage the finances of their future home and at 13 years old the age they are supposed to start getting married.
Things have changed it was valid for the generation of my grandmother even my mother though she was brought up according to those principles but got married around 26 years old. My mother has three boys and since she has no girls, she brought us up with the training of girls and boys. At 9 years old we were already cooking for the family; we were cleaning the house and it was at that time that we were being financially empowered to be running the house. Why I am telling you that tradition of my people? Because it is similar to the Jewish tradition, girls were trained from 4 to 9 years old to become women, and boys were trained from 4 to 12 years old to become men. We see Jesus discussing with the scribes and the Pharisees at the age of 12 that when he became a man and could stand in the midst of men (Luke 2:42-52). We have explained in the bible study on perfect redemption plan that from the age of 12 years old the boy who has now become a man could be given all his inheritance if his father has died, but if they saw that he was not mature they would postpone it even up to his thirties and they would put him under tutors.
You see God’s plan is to entrust us with all our inheritance from even that early age. Which means that if a born again Christian studies to show himself or herself approved by God, God will entrust him with all the inheritance contained in the perfect redemption plan. That is why Paul tells us: Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2Timothy 2:15). It is not to man that you are doing that but to God who is your Father, He sees in secret and He will reward you openly (Matthew 6:4). Every bible study I write it is to myself first of all, I do not write them for someone else but for me first of all, and if it can help other people: praise the Lord! Paul knew it and says: you therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who make your boast of the law, through breaking the law do you dishonour God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you (Romans 2:21-24).
Back to Gery, so when I was in primary school I was going to the catholic bible courses to have the catholic sacraments, I was attending mass every morning from 6 am to 7 am before going to primary school. They used to call me brother “christ” for my second first name is Christel. I was very religious but I was not born again. When I saw people in my primary school who were from poor families, I wanted to help them but since my parents did not give us pocket money, I did not have money to give them. In my house there was a silver tray on one of the pieces of furniture, my mother used to place some coins on that tray. When she came from the market all the coins, she had she would put on that tray. Those coins would be there for months. They were kind of telling me to take them, so I started to steal them and buy some doughnuts for my peers who were poor. I kind of felt good because I was doing something good but the truth is I was a thief.
My mother would come and ask us: there was such amount on that silver tray who took some of them? I would deny so would my brothers. You see my parents were not suffering from amnesia but they wanted to see if they could trust us with that little money first. I was a good son, I was doing my best in school bringing good results home, I was always working in the house, I loved cooking, and I was even always giving a bouquet of roses from our garden to my mother every week, but in that area of finances I was disappointing my parents. When my elder brother was 9 years old, they put him in charge of the cooking money. It was the equivalent of £300, the coins that used to be on that silver tray was less than £1, so you see my parents saw that he was faithful in the little £1 and put him in charge of £300. I can only think what was going on in the mind of my parents, they were saying: well done good and faithful son who is serving his Father, you have been faithful with few things, that £1, I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the Joy of your father (Matthew 25:21).
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I was insane I was still stealing those coins on that tray and expecting that my parents would trust me with more money when I would be 9 years old. The truth is: He who is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he who is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own (Luke 16:10-12)?
You see when I turned 9 years old my parents did not commit a single dime to my trust. I was angry, when I turned 11 years old and my younger brother turned 9 years old, my parents entrusted him with the salaries of all the employees of the house, it was about £200. That really made me fuming mad, and my younger brother was making it worse because he would call me a thief and tell me the reason why my parents were not entrusting me with any financial responsibility because they knew it was I who was stealing those coins on that silver tray. You see, if you have good parents, they will love all the children equally and they will not be partial. That’s how God is; He loves us as much as He loves His Son Jesus. And if we start doing the same things that Jesus was doing for His Father: we say the same things the word of God says, we think the same way Jesus thinks and we do the same things Jesus did; God will entrust us with the same things he entrusted Jesus with.
When I was 11 years old that was the time, we became born again Christians. And I was entering secondary school and it was during the holidays before we started school in the September. I confessed my theft to God as it is written: if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John1:9). But I felt like I needed to also confess my sins to my parents because they were the ones I had robbed. So I waited for a weekend when my father would be home with my mother, after we had finished the evening bible study and prayer, I waited for my brothers to go to bed because I did not want my brothers to hear my confession it was between me and my parents, it was none of their business, they should mind their own business (1Thessalonians 4:11).
God spoke to me and brought to my remembrance the words that He said to Cain who was fuming mad at his brother Abel because God had received the person of Abel and his sacrifice. The LORD said unto Cain, Why are you wroth (very angry, much exasperated)? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lies at the door. And unto you shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him (sin and your wroth) (Genesis 4:6-7). I realized that God had already forgiven me, and I did not need to be angry at my brothers because my parents entrusted them with many things but if I did what the word of God told me to do, God would entrust me with many things. It is the same thing in all the promises of God contained in the perfect redemption plan of God and its application, you do not have to envy anybody or to be mad at anybody, if you have the knowledge of that perfect redemption plan and its application, you start confessing it, thinking in line with it and becoming a doer of it you will have the same result even greater results.
My mother knows that when I sigh a lot it means I have something to say but I do not know how to say it. My mother told me: what do you want to say? Stop sighing and say what is in your heart. I said to my parents: Daddy and Mom, I want to confess that it was I who was stealing the coins from that silver tray, I am sorry that I have disappointed you and been a bad son. But I promise from this day forward I will change and no longer do that. My Father told me: we know it was you, but we wanted you to acknowledge it that is all, but now go, and do it no more. Thank God for Godly parents they did not condemn me but said like Jesus: go and sin no more (John 8:11). I went to bed that night and I felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders.
God will love us unconditionally we are His children, He will not cast us out of His house, unless we decide to walk away from Him like the prodigal son did (Luke15). But trust is built up. God will forgive us and restore us to our position of authority like the prodigal son but trust is earned. We might have to work our way up from one talent, to two, to four to eight, until God will be able to trust us with even all his kingdom. Who then is a faithful and wise son or daughter who is serving his or her Father, whom his or her Lord has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that son or daughter who is serving his or her Father, whom his or her Lord when He comes shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He shall make him or her ruler over all His goods (Matthew 24:44-47).
My friend, when you have wounded people, do not expect them to trust you overnight give them some time to observe for themselves how you have changed indeed. My parents forgave me but they did not trust me over night, in fact they did not remove money from my brothers to give me, no my brothers were faithful with what was entrusted to them. My parents even gave more in their trust, they gave my elder brother the money for the medical bills and emergencies, and they entrusted my younger brother with other things. I said to God what is my own thing? I decided to remove my eyes from my parents and put my eyes on God to entrust me with some finances. Then as I was reading the word of God I read: Let him who stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him who needs (Ephesians 4:28).
That was a revelation for me, that I could work with my hands and with that money I could help all my peers who were from poor families. I have always liked shopping it’s not boring to me; I can spend two to four hours shopping. My mother used to go to the market during the weekend. I would offer to go to the market so that she could stay at home. She would write a list of all the things I needed to buy, and would write the prices of everything down and would say, if I find it cheaper, I can keep that money. She gave me the money for taxi expecting me to go to the market that was half a mile from our house in the city centre. But I knew that things were very expensive there.
I would walk ten miles from the city centre to go to another market where they sold things at semi-bulk prices. I would be saving almost 25% every time. Every week I was having at least £20 left over. During the holidays I was also working, my parents were building their houses, so they would give me the money to recruit young men who will weed the plot of land and dig the foundation with the mason and to make the bricks. I would first of all employ myself and employ my cousins so that we would have money for the holidays. I was making a lot of money during the holidays; I was sometimes saving up to £500, every holiday.
My parents knew that I was employing myself and they were so happy because they saw that I was now working for my money and not stealing. I was using all my money to feed my peers during the school period. I was feeding at least 50 people three times a week; I was paying for the tuition fees of some of the poorest of my peers and I was paying for the transportation of some of the poorest of my peers. And doing this brought a lot of joy into my heart. I tell you; you need to experience that joy of helping people expecting nothing in return. As it is written: if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But you, love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (Luke 6:34-35).
My parents saw that I had matured, in fact, I was managing more money than my brothers and I was also paying myself because I was employing myself in those construction works. My parents knew I had changed and had genuinely repented which means to be remorseful and sorry for our mistakes, to turn our back on them, to renew our mind and act differently. But my brothers it took them a lot of time to stop calling me a thief, especially my younger brother, even after 12 years whenever he was mad at me because I told him something in the word of God, he would tell me that I was the thief of the house. It was his way of telling me that I was not worthy to preach to him the word of God. But I did not take it personally because I knew that one day, he would see that God has already forgiven me when I was 11 years old and my parents also forgave me and I have rebuilt the trust that I once lost from my parents.
Thank God in 2007 my younger brother changed his view about me, and those words of me being the thief of the house was no longer proceeding out of his mouth and he was now receiving the word of God that I was sharing with him. No wonder Jesus said: A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house (Mark 6:4). They know your mistakes and all your past and even when you have repented, they sometimes hold on to the past, do not be mad at them, focus on Jesus and what he has done for you, do what is written in the bible and one day even the people of your country, of your house and your kin will see that you have changed and will receive the new you.
The brothers and sisters of Jesus believed on Him after His resurrection, and James became even one of His key apostles (Galatians 1:19). I tell you it was such a joy when the view of my younger brother changed concerning me. And when he could receive my words. There is a joy when strangers can receive the word of God from your mouth and believe you, but when your own flesh and blood they receive you and the word of God you are preaching it is so great. Paul knows something about that, when he talks about what he felt about his countrymen the Israelites, he said: brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for Israel are that they may be saved (Romans 10:1). All the gentiles have received the Gospel of Christ which Paul preached but the Jews were the ones resisting the gospel preached by Paul.
The reason why Satan tries so hard to entice us to sin is because he wants to affect our confidence toward God. In John 5 Jesus heals the man who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years, and when He saw him again in verse fourteen, He told him: see you have been made well. Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.
The word sin here is the Greek word hamartano it literally means to miss the mark and so not share in the prize or reward. The picture here is of a race, life is a race and Paul in his epistles will often talk of the race: let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1). In any race there are rules, be it a sprint or a marathon, there are rules, if one does not compete according to the rules he will be disqualified. Jesus is telling the guy: miss the mark no more lest a worse thing happen to you.
James will basically say the same thing to the church: confess your paraptoma (side slip, deviation, fall, sin, trespass, offence) to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16). In this race of life sometimes we side slip because of the black ice the enemy put on our track and we were not equipped for his attack or we underestimated him. Many Christians underestimate Satan that is why they not only side slip but also fall.
For example, the bible says flee (run away from or shun) fornication (1 Corinthians 6:18). Joseph understood it; he fled from the scene leaving his mantle behind. Many men or women of God think they are so anointed that they will only bind Satan and it will be okay. You may bind later but, in the meantime, flee for your life!
Many times, also we will deviate from the route or itinerary, all the panels are directing us back to the track of the marathon but we ignore the panels. We will be either disqualified or arrive at the finishing line long after everybody else has crossed it. Or we think we will be cleverer than the other contestants, we will take a deviation which is actually a short cut to get to the finishing line. But the truth is: by so doing we disqualify ourselves. God made the rules of the race and everyone must abide by the rules to be able to receive the prize or reward.
The bible tells us, do not cast away your confidence which has great recompense of reward (Hebrews 10:35). When a person is practicing sin, his conscience is accusing him and his heart condemning him, though God is not condemning him. The reaction of that person is to run away from God. And even if the person comes before God, he does not have the confidence in him; he says within himself will God listen to my prayer? I think I am not worthy to receive a blessing from the Father. That is what was going on in the mind of the prodigal son; sin has robbed him of his confidence: he was saying within himself: I am not worthy to be called Your son, make me like one of Your hired servants (Luke 15:19).
But when a believer is practicing righteousness because God imputed the righteousness of Jesus to him; he knows that he has a right standing with God. He comes boldly or with confidence to the throne of grace, that he may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Because he is not double minded, whether God will listen to him or not; he knows God will, for the fervent and effective prayer of the righteous man, the man who has a right standing with God, avails much. His faith is boosted, which pleases God, when he comes before the throne of God he believes that God is; yes God is the same God today, yesterday and tomorrow; and that God will reward him because he has been seeking Him diligently (Hebrews 11:6).
The apostle John after he had explained to the church in his first epistle why they should not sin, for sin would affect their fellowship with the Godhead; and how they should be diligent to confess the fact that they miss the mark; God was more than willing to forgive them and put them back on the right track. He told them about the confidence thing too; for he said: beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from God; because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:21-22).
Jesus Himself will give us this secret: I always do those things that please the Father (John 8:29). God tells us that if we take away the yoke from our midst, the pointing of the finger (blaming other people for our mistakes and never acknowledging our sins), and speaking wickedness; then we shall call and the Lord will answer, we shall cry and He will say here I am (Isaiah 58:9). God always hears our prayer, but sometimes He will not answer us because we keep missing the mark on purpose, like Israel did in the days of Isaiah. But if we confess and repent, He promised to answer them.
Think of a mobile phone, the provider of the service is either Orange or SFR or NTL, etc, they have a cell tower to broadcast their waves. Their signal is strong and powerful, they have no power failure or technical problem. And you have your mobile phone and the SIM card of the provider of the service either Orange or SFR or NTL, etc. No matter how beautiful your mobile phone is, if there is no SIM card in it, it is useless. You cannot receive any incoming calls or make calls. Think of the provider of the service as the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God has its cell tower emitting a powerful signal called righteousness. For the Kingdom of God is righteousness (Romans 14:17); though the atmosphere is saturated with the waves of righteousness emitted by the cell towers of the Kingdom of God, you need to have the SIM card of the Kingdom of God in your cell phone; the SIM card that each one of us must have is practicing righteousness (1 John 3:10). Bear in mind that this is only an analogy and it is not perfect, but it helps to pass the message across. Brethren when we have the SIM card of the Kingdom in us, which is practicing righteousness, God is telling us: it shall come to pass that before you call, I the Lord will answer, and while you are still speaking, I will hear (Isaiah 65:24).
Just like Elijah who was practicing righteousness or was in right standing with God. The SIM card of the Kingdom was in his spiritual mobile phone. He could dial any request and God would be on the other end of the communication. For God said call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3). Since Elijah had a SIM card of the Kingdom of God not only his calls were going through but much more the reception of the answer was beyond human understanding. For God gave him whatever he asked, he asked that it would not rain in the land and it did not rain for three years and six months, and he prayed again and it rained.
Now we understand why the enemy is after our confidence, imagine believers becoming like the Elijah, Joshua, and all the apostles. The Kingdom of God will crash the kingdom of darkness in a little time. We will not be going round the same mountain for forty years but go up to conquer our promised land, wherever the sole of our feet shall tread upon, God will give it to us. Let us be quick to confess to God when we miss the mark, take a deviation, fall. God wants us to receive our reward or prize. Greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). Jesus has given us power over sin, to have dominion over sin, to crush the power of darkness under our feet. Jesus rightly told us: but you seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). When we are practicing the righteousness of God, all the things the gentiles are seeking will be added to us not subtracted.
Many believers are deceived by the enemy or taught out of their inheritance by servants of God who either did not know themselves what was in their salvation package or by false humility; they reject the inheritance God freely gave them when His Son died on the cross. Salvation is like a big Christmas gift one receives. Many of us have received that gift but never un-wrapped it. We are still looking at the gift, and do not even know what is in the box. What is then found in the salvation package we received from the Godhead?
The Greek word for salvation is sōtēria which means to deliver, to rescue physically and morally, health and salvation of our soul and body. The Greek word for save is sōzō which means to save, to protect, to deliver, to heal, to preserve, to do well, to be made whole. The Hebrew word for salvation is yeshû‛âh which means deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health, welfare, wealth, salvation, to save, to help. All these things are contained in our salvation package. Let no one deceive you through philosophy, traditions of men; man-made religion, and false humility out of your salvation package. Do not settle for anything less, if Jesus gave you all that, then fight for what is rightfully yours. The psalmist tells us: let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord – Your salvation according to your word (Psalm 119:41). Deliver me according to Your word (Psalm 119:170).
In other words, the psalmist is asking God to give him the same salvation package their fathers had, the same deliverance their fathers had, as it is recorded in the bible, certainly not based on man made ideas or philosophy or doctrine; but as it is written in the bible. We have already said that the word testimony means in Hebrew the recorded things in the bible and that God will duplicate them in our lives, like He did in the lives of our fathers. Let us briefly go through some of the things contained in our salvation package. The bible says you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. It also says my people perish or are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because they have rejected knowledge (Hosea 4:6).
Today we know what is contained in our salvation package; it is our responsibility to search the word of God about each of the aspects of our salvation and confess what He said and did; ask God to do the same in our life according to what we read in the Word of God. The first aspect of our salvation is the salvation of our soul, this aspect many Christians have no problem with. The salvation of our soul includes the forgiveness of our sins, our being born again, our justification, our adoption, our redemption, our sanctification and it will include the salvation of our body when Jesus comes to rule on earth. We must study each of the sub aspects of the salvation of our souls and confess what God said concerning that in His word.
The second aspect of the salvation package is health; many people do not believe it is in their salvation package. That is the lie of the enemy to kill them. Let no one deceive us, God wants us to enjoy good health and wholeness. Beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all the sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of the Egyptians which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you (Deuteronomy 7:14-15).
We know our Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the Law because he hanged on that cross therefore no curse written in the Law will affect us (Galatians 3:13). Jesus was anointed by the Father God with the Holy Spirit and power; He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him (Acts 10:38). Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, healing was part of the salvation of our fathers when they came out of Egypt, it was in the days of Jesus on earth and it is still valid today (Hebrews 13:8). The Lord promised to satisfy us with long life and show us His salvation (Psalm 91:16).the days of a man should be one hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3). The Lord will satisfy our mouth with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:5).
The third aspect of our salvation package is wealth and prosperity; many believers have been deceived by Satan. Brethren if there is a counterfeit dollar bill or pound coin, there must of necessity be a real dollar bill or pound coin. We are not ignorant of the devices of Satan (2 Corinthians 2:11). Satan has his ministers too who disguise themselves as ministers of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). These ministers of his, who are destitute of the truth of God, think that godliness is a means for gain; but ministers of God know that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:5-6). Unfortunately, even well meaning ministers of God have fallen into the deception of Satan and are now manipulating people financially. May God be merciful on them!
Brethren do not throw away the baby with the bath water, prosperity and wealth are the baby, the bath water is the preaching of those ministers of Satan or genuine ministers of God who have been seduced by the practices and teaching of the ministers of Satan. There is a true wealth and prosperity teaching, which is not taught to financially manipulate the brethren. May God help each one of us to find the true teaching on financial prosperity and wealth. Having said that, let us have a glimpse of what God says about prosperity and wealth; when our fathers came out of Egypt God transferred all the wealth of the Egyptians into their hands.
The experience of Egypt talks about our salvation. If God gave the wealth of Egypt when He saved them, it is the same thing contained in the salvation package you and I have received. God tells them, you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may established His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day (Deuteronomy 8:18). You and I when we were saved received a better covenant, made with the blood of Jesus; wealth is part of your salvation package.
The Lord has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant (Psalm 35:27). He gives us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). He tells us that we are blessed among all peoples, I want you to know that the blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). When we talk about prosperity, it is not just about money, but also of your soul, your family your marriage, everything that pertains to us God wants to prosper it. The Lord wants you to enter your rest which is found in Christ Jesus, He is your promised land which God swore to our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God wants to give you houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant (Deuteronomy 6:11).
If we study the life of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we will discover that they were prosperous and wealthy men of God. We serve the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and He says to each one of us through John: I pray or I wish above all things that you prosper (3 John 1:2). We know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though He is rich; for silver and gold are His (Haggai 2:8), the earth is His and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1), the heavens are His the earth also are His the world and all its fullness He founded them (Psalm 89:11); yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Our God is only warning us that when our herds and flocks multiply and our silver and gold are multiplied, and that all that we have is multiplied; we should remember that He was the one who gave us the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:13). He has no problem multiplying our silver and gold.
Though our beginning was small yet our latter end would increase abundantly (Job 8:7). The Lord promised that if we return to the Almighty, we will be built up; He will remove iniquity far from our tents. Then we will lay up our gold in the dust, and the gold of O’phir the stones of the brooks (Job 22:23-24). We believed God on the part of removing our iniquities, we must also believe Him for the part where He multiplies our silver and gold, lay up our gold In the dust. May God help us believe His word. Solomon said wisdom is a defence and money is a defence (Ecclesiastes 7:12). Solomon also said money answers all things (Ecclesiastes 10:19).
As Christians we are not to be a slave of money but we must have dominion over money. Solomon through the wisdom given to him by God will shed some light to why God wants His people to have wealth and prosperity.
Ecclesiastes 9:13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
Ecclesiastes 9:14 There was a little city and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks or snares against it:
Ecclesiastes 9:15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Ecclesiastes 9:16 Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Ecclesiastes 9:17 The words of wise men, spoken quietly, should be heard rather than the shout of the ruler of fools.
Ecclesiastes 9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroys much good.
Born again Christians are supposed to be full of wisdom, for Christ Jesus has been made wisdom unto us (1 Corinthians 1:30). If any believer lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:5). God is saying through Solomon, I know you are wise, but this is how the world will treat us if you are poor and needy. People in time of crises will seek the counsel of God or the wisdom of God through believers. Unsaved people may have many devices or plans or thoughts in their hearts, about how to get out of that trouble; nevertheless, the counsel of God in us will stand, it will be the wisdom God gave us that will help everybody to come out of the trouble (Proverbs 19:21).
Solomon noticed something that as soon as the unsaved people or carnal believers got out of their trouble, they forget about that poor and needy wise man. They even despise him because he is poor and needy. The only time they listen to his word is when they are in trouble. If believers do not get the understanding that God wants them to prosper and be wealthy, they will always be despised in the society and they will suffer great harm from their haters.
In the days of Esther in the kingdom of Persia and Media, the enemies of the Jew Haman a rich man decided to annihilate all the Jews. History tells us that king Ahasuerus or Xerxes had suffered a great loss of soldiers in the Battle of Thermopylea when he fought king Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans. Xerxes came back to his home city, having lost a lot of money and soldiers in that unfruitful conquest. The kingdom was in financial down turn. Haman seized the opportunity to plot the annihilation of all the Jews. Xerxes the king had nothing against the Jews; his only concern was the financial state of his kingdom. Xerxes was concerned that if all the Jews are killed, he will no longer be receiving the tributes or tax money from the Jews. Haman told Xerxes not to worry about the tax; he would pay the tax money or the equivalent of the tribute the Jews were supposed to pay into the king’s treasury (Esther 3:9). Mordecai the Jew, the uncle of Esther, though he was in some position of power, because he used to sit at the gate; he did not have the money Haman had.
Today it is the same thing that is happening in our society, what Haman was doing is simply called lobbying. Today in our society there are many groups of people, or other faith groups who are lobbying against believers. The government passes decrees that restrict the freedom of believers; decrees that removes God in the schools, in the hospital, in the work place. But issue decrees that put those new faiths or groups of thoughts into the schools, hospitals, wherever they evicted God. It is simply because those people are lobbying like Haman did. The government is trying to please them because they contribute a lot to the finances of the country.
The Jews learnt the lesson of the days of Esther and understood the wisdom God gave Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. The Jews are wealthy people, and their money lobbies on their behalf everywhere they are in the world. We serve the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Many times, we suffer because we do not have someone inside to lobby for us. But thank God, God had an Esther in the palace of king Xerxes. Brethren you have come into the Kingdom for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). You are there to overthrow the plots of Haman to destroy other believers; you are in that position of power to silence our haters.
Your promotion or exaltation in that office or business is not a coincidence; God has a strategic plan that is why He prospered you.
God wants to prosper you in your business in your career so that you will be like Esther. You will be able to plead the case of many believers. Do not be deceived you are not where you are by your own power; for exaltation or promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the Judge, He puts down one and exalts another (Psalm 75:6-7). Just like he put down Haman the hater of the Jews and exalted Mordecai in his stead (Esther 8:1-2). Or put down Queen Vashti and exalted Esther in her stead. God did the same thing with Daniel and his three friends in the Babylonian Kingdom. So start confessing scriptures on wealth and prosperity, it is God’s plan for your life.
Our God is a good God, who causes the sun to rise on the good and evil, He causes the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, He is the Most High God (Matthew 5:45). Therefore I, Jesus, say unto you, Take no thought for your life or do not worry about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what shall you put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better or of more value than they (Matthew 6:25-26)?
Our fathers when they were in the wilderness, they could not sow anything, but God gave them manna every day. They ate until they were full. Never did they have to sleep with an empty stomach. They were on the welfare package of God. Jesus said that we should be praying this prayer to our Father in heaven: give us day by day our daily bread (Luke 11:3). God promised not to allow the soul of the righteous to famish (Proverbs 10:3). David a man after God’s own heart told us his experience, when he was running away from Saul, and had to even pretend madness before the king Abimelech so that his life would be spared. David even in those difficult circumstances, hiding in caves and in the wilderness, discovered that there is no lack or want to those who fear the Lord; the young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing (Psalm 34:9-10).
David also could boldly say in His old age, he has experienced God both in the caves and wilderness while running away from Saul, and in the palace as king over Israel. David could draw this conclusion: I was young and now I am old; I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendents begging bread (Psalm 37:25). David knew that the Lord is his shepherd; therefore, he shall not want (Psalm 23:1). Brethren we must rest on this revelation of the welfare package of God, God will feed us and our family everyday even if we are in the wilderness phase of our life. Satan is persecuting us and shaking our finances. We must know that our God will provide for us.
The prodigal son knew that in his Father’s house hired servants have bread enough and to spare so why should he, as a son perish with hunger (Luke 15:17). Jesus will then tell us: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8). Your Father who is in heaven will give you a good thing, not a serpent if you asked for a fish, not a stone if you asked for bread, not a scorpion if you asked for an egg. Expect good things from your Father in heaven; for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights (James 1:17).
Our fathers when they were in Egypt were in bondage, the Lord decided to deliver them, or to rescue them from their captors. Many Christians are deceived by the enemy; they buy into the lie of Satan that it was just a spiritual deliverance or rescue that they were only translated spiritually from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Of course, it was a spiritual deliverance from spiritual captors, but it was also a physical deliverance from physical captors. For the Egyptians had enslaved the Jews.
God delivered His people also physically because as we read the book of Exodus, we see the Jews coming physically out of Egypt the house of bondage and journeying toward their promised land. The Lord physically rescued or delivered His people, not just spiritually. So, brethren do not settle only for a spiritual deliverance or rescue, that is not what God did for our fathers. The psalmist said: deliver us according to your word. We want deliverance or rescue as we read it in the life of our fathers in the word of God, not otherwise. As long as our physical experience is not lining up with what God said, we will keep confessing the will of God in our life.
Remember pharaoh did not let the people go just like that. God had to plague Egypt ten times before he let the Jews go. Pharaoh, who is the picture of Satan, when God was plaguing his country, said to the Jews go worship your God but leave your belongings and your children here in Egypt (Exodus 10:24). My friend the strategy of Satan has not changed, he is still telling us: okay you are born again, your soul is delivered, the Lord has rescued your soul, go serve your God, and tomorrow come back and be my slave. I still own your belongings and your children and you are still physically my captive. Brethren now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our deliverance or salvation is nearer than when we first believed (Romans 13:11).
The days where our children and loved ones were on drugs or living in lewdness are over; the Lord will physically deliver them. Our days of financial bondage, when we owed banks and every financial institution are over; the Lord will rescue us. Our days of addictions, any form of addiction is behind us, the Lord will deliver us from all kinds of addictions. We must be like Moses who replied to pharaoh: not a hoof that is ours shall be left behind (Exodus 10:26). Everything our Father said is ours, we will take it, and we are not coming back tomorrow to be your slaves again, no never again. The enemy will not be happy, just like pharaoh was not happy. Moses said to pharaoh the captor of his people: I will never see your face again (Exodus 10:29). Yes, never again will we come under any physical bondage; whom the Son makes free, is free indeed (John 8:36). We will never see the face of our captors or enslavers again.
Where we are living there is safety, none of the plagues that fell on Egypt and the Egyptians came near the land of Goshen when the Jews were living. When the cattle and the children of the Egyptians were dying no one died in the land of Goshen. When darkness covered the land of Egypt, in Goshen they had light. There is safety for you, your entire family and all that pertains to you. Brethren darkness may cover the earth and thick darkness over the people, but the Lord God who is light (1 John 1:5) will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you (Isaiah 60:2). Your city may be in darkness, your neighbourhood may be in darkness but you are like the people of God in Goshen, you are always in the light. Indeed, the darkness is not dark for our God, but the night shall shine as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to our God (Psalm 139:12). Our God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
Psalm 91:5 you shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;
Psalm 91:6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
Psalm 91:7 A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.
Psalm 91:8 Only with your eyes you shall behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Psalm 91:9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the most High, your habitation;
Psalm 91:10 There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Psalm 91:11 For He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all thy ways.
Psalm 91:12 They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Psalm 91:13 you shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon you shall trample under feet.
We talk in length about the deliverance and safety the Lord provides for his people. But we will not do that. As we read the bible, we will see how the Lord delivered our fathers in the wilderness from the hand of their enemies. Victory is included in our salvation package. God gave us victory in Egypt over our captor and enslavers. In the wilderness and in the battles for the promised land, God gave us the victory. The Lord fought on our behalf and gave us the victory. If God gave us the victory in the Old Testament, He will do even more in the New Testament. The bible tells us, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
And again, it says, now thanks be to God who always leads us to triumph in Christ, and through us defuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14). It was Jesus who gave them the victory in the Old testament it is still the same Jesus who is giving us the victory today. Jesus is the Rock that delivered their enemies into their hands (Deuteronomy 32:30, 1 Corinthians 10:4). It was Jesus the Commander of the Army of the Lord who came to give them the victory in their conquest of the promised land (Joshua 5:14). And today our victory and triumph is still through the same Jesus, of whom the writer of Hebrews tells us: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Whatever we are going through the same Jesus causes us to triumph over our enemies.
As believers we are more than conquerors, in all the things we are facing, through God who loved us (Romans 8:37). We know we have overcome the world because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. YAHWEH the man of war is in us (Exodus 15:3). He told us the battle is not ours but God’s (2 Chronicles 20:15). Our king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; this is our God who will fight our battles (Psalm 24:8).
Psalm 24:6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him (God), who seek Your face. Selah.
Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lift up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Psalm 24:8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Psalm 24:9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; even lift them up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Psalm 24:10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.
We must say the same thing God says in his bible about us or a subject; say it over and over again, until it is not just a head knowledge but a revelation. Confessing the scriptures builds up our faith. In our main scripture reading we saw that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (Rhema) of God (Romans 10:17).
The Rhema word of God is the word God speaks to an individual that is related to his situation. As we confess the scriptures God will give us a Rhema word out of those scriptures. That Rhema word will give us the necessary faith to remove our mountains.
Many Christians ask themselves: how do I build my faith? The currency of the Kingdom of God is faith. To receive anything from God we need faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus tells us, have faith in God, for assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain: be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes who has faith that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says (Mark 11:22-23).
One of the ways to build faith is to confess the scriptures, saying them over and over to yourself and God will be faithful to give you the Rhema word you need. Paul will tell us no one is going to ascend into heaven to get that faith for you, Jesus has already ascended; no one is going to descend into the abyss to get it for you, Christ had already gone into the abyss for you and furthermore He arose from the dead. But the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that word of faith which we preach (Romans 10:6-8). As you confess the scriptures what happens is that your tongue becomes the pen that writes the word of God in your heart, not in your head.
The psalmist says: my heart is overflowing with a good theme, I recite (to repeat the words of God, the author of the bible) my composition or the things which I have made (the collection of scriptures I made which address my issues) concerning the king or touching the king (I know the scriptures I have put together move the heart of the Lord, my King, because He is the one that wrote it in the bible); my tongue is the pen of a skilful or ready writer (Psalm 45:1). Your composition of scripture must not be a bad theme but a good theme; for this is what the bible says about the gospel of faith which we preach: how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things (Romans 10:15). As you recite your own composition of scriptures, your tongue becomes the pen that writes those scriptures in your heart. Faith does not come from the mind or head knowledge, but from the heart; for with the heart, one believes and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10). It does not say with the mind one believes but the heart.
Confession will help one renew his mind. Many times, people are willing to do hard things in the name of the “lord”, but if one tells them to confess the word of God, they are not willing to do it. The renewing of the mind is what gives us the power to overcome the indulgence of the flesh. Paul when he was writing to the Colossians told them to put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of God who created us (Colossians 3:10). Confession of scriptures will help us put on the new man which is to put on Christ Jesus and to put off our old man or flesh or sinful nature. Jesus said: it is the Spirit that makes alive the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak you they are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). In other words, if we speak to ourselves or confess the word of God, the Spirit of God who wrote those scriptures will give life to our mortal body, will give us the same life Jesus has, will heal our body and will create what we say.
For by faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word (Rhema) of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (Hebrews 11:3). The confession of the word of God will create the world around you; if you want healing confess healing scriptures, if you want, wealth and prosperity confess the scriptures. Find scriptures that talk about your need, make your own composition, and confess them, though in the physical you do not have them yet, but the word of God in your mouth will create them and they will manifest in the physical. God calls the things that do not exist as though they did exist (Romans 4:17). This is the way God created the world in the book of Genesis, he spoke it into existence. God saw darkness, He said light be, and light was.
Confession gives you the power of agreement. The Lord said the people are one (united) and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them (Genesis 11:6). When we become one with God, united with Him in our heart, we believe His word from our heart not head; and we say the same thing He said or have one language with our God. From that moment nothing that we propose to do will be withheld from us. The president of the USA decided that they should send a man onto the moon in ten years, at that time they did not even have the technology to do so, but the entire nation was behind the vision of the president and they did it.
Brethren it is time that we believers become one with our God and speak one language with Him. We would have a limitless life. The moon will not be our limit, for our God is infinite. Great is our Lord and of great power, His understanding is infinite (Psalm147:5). O the depth or extent of His riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of our God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out (Romans 11:33)!
Our heart is the soil or ground, and God wants to sow the seed of His word. In Mark 4 Jesus talks about the parable of the sower. The sower is Jesus who sows the seed of the word of God in our heart. The ground or soil is the heart of believers. If we read it carefully, we will discover that Jesus never blamed the sower or the seed for not bringing the expected harvest, but the soil or ground.
There is nothing wrong with Jesus, all His promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). There is nothing wrong with His word either, for He sows the incorruptible seed by the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). In other words, even after millions of years the seed of the word of God is still the same, if one sows it, it will bring forth the expected harvest. The psalmist says: the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times (Psalm 12:6). In other words, he is saying there is no impurity in the word of God, as it has been purified seven times therefore the word of God is perfect, no imperfection in it.
Jesus in the parable of the sower, blamed the ground, the heart of the believer. Confession has the power to deal with our heart so that the seed of the word of God may always bring forth the expected harvest. Confession will help you uproot every plant, weed, thorn, even tree in your heart which your Father did not plant. For Jesus said: Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). Confessing the word of God will remove the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things which are choking the word of God (Mark 4:19). Confessing the word of God will grind to powder the stones in our heart or our stony heart so that we can receive the word of God gladly (Mark 4:16).
No matter how stony, chaffy and weedy the ground of our heart is, confession of the Word of God will make it a good ground. For God says: is not My word like fire? Says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? As we confess the word of God, it burns the weed, the chaff, the thorns and the trees that grew or are growing in our hearts. Every ground is a potential good ground, even if it is the stony ground; the word of God is the hammer that will break it in pieces. Just like one would hammer many times a rock to break it into pieces and ultimately grind it into powder, confession will do the same thing for our stony heart. The confession of the word of God will grind to powder every rock found in our heart.
Think of the word of God as a very powerful hammer, let us say it is a pneumatic drill (for in French it is “marteau piqueur”, which when translated literally it means a hammer that is used to prick). We see during the maintenance of the roads; usage of pneumatic drills is made to break concrete into pieces. That is why even if our heart is like the wayside that Jesus talked about there is hope, even if that wayside is covered with concrete or asphalt, it does not make any difference the Hammer or pneumatic drill of the word of God, through our confessions, will grind that concrete or asphalt to powder. Brethren, there is tremendous power in confessing the word of God. Even if the enemy has put a metal plate over our heart, there is Hope; for God said His word is like fire. Think of the word of God as a blowlamp or blowtorch that will cut into any metal plate no matter its thickness. Our confessions will work like that blowlamp and then cut into pieces the iron bars of the gate of the enemy.
As believers, our words are swords of the Spirit, we use to fight our spiritual battles (Ephesians 6:17). Just like out of the mouth of Jesus proceeds a sharp two-edged sword, the sword of the Spirit is also proceeding out of your mouth (Revelation 2:12). We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, we know that our confessions increase our faith, and write the word of God in our heart. When we speak something from our heart and not our mind, we speak it with conviction without any doubt. We have faith that what we said will come to pass and it is true. When we speak a word of God from our heart it is so sharp that it cuts the enemy into pieces. The Lord said: In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea (Isaiah 27:1). We know from the book of revelation that the dragon or the serpent of old is Satan (Revelation 20:2). So The Lord is saying that He will use His great and strong sword to punish Satan the Devil, the dragon or leviathan. We know by now that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God: that is why in Matthew 4: 1-11 when Satan the Devil came to tempt Jesus, Jesus defeated him by quoting the written word of God.
When we have been confessing some particular scriptures, it is as if we started with a blunt metal. Like a metal smith will put the metal in a furnace of earth, the fire will purify the metal, then he will bring it out and hammer it into the shape of the sword, make its edges sharp. Confession is like a metal smith making a sharp two-edged sword. In due time when it will come out of our mouth it will do great damage in the enemy’s camp; for the word of God is quick and alive, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Not only that word will now cut into pieces the plans of the enemy but it will also cut the ways of the flesh in us, and manifest the ways of the Spirit in us. Confessions of the word of God will cause the word to sink into our spirit, and not just into our minds, the revelation of the word of God will dawn on us.
Confession will change your way of thinking, you will think the way God thinks, the mind that was in Christ Jesus will be in you also (Philippians 2:5). You will do the same things Jesus did. Jesus gave us the example of confession; he lived a life style of confession: saying the same things God said and doing that same things God did. Jesus told us: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise (John 5:19). I do nothing of myself; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things (John 8:28). I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which ye have seen with your father (John 8:38).
Jesus our role model gave us the example to follow. If confession was good enough for the Son of God, it is good enough for us. Nothing was impossible to Jesus while he was on earth, for the word of God was not only in his mind but in His heart. And Jesus is telling each one of us: if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). With your heart you will believe and with your mouth you will make your confession to receive your salvation. Solomon tells us: keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues (Totsa‘ah) of life (Proverbs 4:23). Totsa‘ah means issues, boundary, border, deliverance, source. In other words, watch what you are confessing, by implication writing with the pen of your tongue in your heart; for whatever is in your heart will determine your deliverance, your boundary or limitations in life, your source of provision, source of life, source of power, source of everything. For as a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7). If he has already limited himself, when Jesus told him all things are possible, or refused to believe what God provided in his salvation package, so his life will be. Confession will help us put what God said concerning us in our heart, so that our life and experience will line up with the word of God that we have believed.
It is easy to know what a person’s boundaries are, or what he cannot believe God for. The bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). Keep confessing the scriptures until your heart is full of the revelation of God’s will for your life. Your mouth will then say what is in your heart, there will be no boundaries or limitation in your life anymore. What is impossible with man is possible with God, for with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). He just wants us to be in agreement with Him. Now because we have been confessing His word, out of the abundance of our heart, our mouth has been saying the same thing He said in His will; this is the confidence we have in God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (1 John 5:14-15).
Paul tells us: through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Hebrews 11:3). Whatever you want to see in your life, in your body, in your marriage, in your business, in your family, in your neighbourhood, in your nation, etc; you need to find out what God’s word says about it and start speaking that and you will see it framed or created by the word of God that proceeds out of your mouth, I know the carnal mind thinks it is foolishness but only by faith one can believe it will be created. In Genesis God spoke the entire world into existence, so the things that are visible were made of things which are invisible, even the spoken word of God.
As it is written: death and life are in the power of the tongue; and those who love it shall eat the fruit thereof (Proverbs 18:21). If you want to see life in your marriage, in your business, in your children, in your career, in your neighbourhood, in your nation, start using your tongue to speak God’s word to it and you will eat the fruit of it that will be framed or created by the word of God which is proceeding forth of your mouth. Some Christians do not watch what comes out of their mouth: they are always speaking negative words over their business, their spouse, their children, their church, their neighbourhood, their nation, their leaders, etc. what they do not know is that they are calling those things into existence with their negative words.
You and I brothers and sisters are called to inherit a blessing (1Peter 3:9); because we are the sons and daughters of God who is the Blessed (Mark 14:61). James tells us: we bless God, even the Father with our tongue. And by this we curse men, who have come into being according to the image of God (we also curse with our tongue the things around us, our business, our children, our nation, etc). Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so (because those curses or negative words you are pronouncing over your situation, or men will be framed into their lives). You are only called to bless people, to speak what the word of God says about a particular situation, think of it this way: Can the fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olive berries; or a vine, figs? So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh (James 3:9-12).
Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters to be wise, your tongue if you do not use it according to the word of God it can be full of deadly poison and instead of bringing life to your family, your marriage your business your neighbourhood, your nation, your health, etc; can actually bring death (James 3:8).
James starts to explain to us how powerful our tongue can be if we use it to confess what the word of God says and not what the enemy says. James says: every kind of animal, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of sea-animals, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind (James 3:7). From the very beginning of the creation God gave mankind dominion over His creation, as it is written: God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth (Genesis 1:26). There is not a work of God’s hand that God has not given mankind dominion over. We even see that man has been able to go to the moon.
To tame is to reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to make gentle and familiar; as, to tame a wild beast; to subdue; to conquer; to depress; as, to tame the pride or passions of youth, as wildness or licentiousness. James tells us that every kind of animal, of fowl of the air, of sea-animal and sea monster mankind has tamed them.
And it is true no matter how wild an animal is man has been able to tame them. We first of all use our tongue to tame those wild animals, and if the tongue is not enough, we use a rod, whip, bits in the mouths of horses, etc and at the end those wild animals will obey the words of our mouth. We see lions in circuses how they obey the words of their master, we see dolphins how they obey the words of their master, we see monkeys obeying the words of their masters, we see snakes dancing when their master is piping an instrument, we see crocodiles obeying the words of their masters, we see vultures obeying the words of their masters, we see dogs and cats obeying the voice of their masters, etc.
The same way we have tamed animal with our tongue as instruments of correction, is the same way spiritually, we will have dominion over evil spirits, demons, sickness and disease. We will need to use our tongue to command those sicknesses and diseases to do what the word of God says, we will need to command those demons to leave people’s bodies as the word of God instructs us. Just like when you are taming an animal it does not obey you immediately sometimes and you will need to repeat the same words, and you will need to come another day and give the same command and even discipline that beast with a rod or whip until it obeys your command.
Spiritually it is the same thing; Pharaoh the king of Egypt put the children of God into slavery. Now pharaoh means in Arabic crocodile: a cruel and voracious river monster. It is the picture of Satan himself as we have explained in the bible study on perfect redemption plan. Moses used his tongue to tame that spiritual crocodile, even Pharaoh, to obey him and let the people of God go. Moses went to Pharaoh over and over telling him the word of God: let My people go (Exodus 5:1). And as that spiritual crocodile, pharaoh, was not obeying the word of the Lord that was proceeding out of the mouth of Moses, Moses uses the Rod of the Lord to tame that spiritual crocodile, even the ten plagues which fell on Egypt and the Egyptians, and at the end the spiritual crocodile obeyed the word of Moses and let the people go.
If we take for instance the king of Babylon and the king of Egypt. In Ezekiel 17 God likened them to two great eagles. But in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was tamed when the Lord punished him because of his pride and he was eating grass like a wild beast. The Lord taught him a lesson: that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. Give it to whomever He will and sets over it the lowest of men (Daniel 4:17). Yes, you see the word of God in our mouth can remove ungodly leaders.
Your tongue is very powerful. God said to Jeremiah: you are My battle axe and weapons of war: because with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I break in pieces the nations, and with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I destroy kingdoms; And with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I break in pieces the horse and his rider (the military forces of those kingdoms); and with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; With you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) also will I break in pieces man and woman (wicked men and women); and with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) the shepherd and his flock (meaning religious leaders and his or her followers who are not serving God acceptably, please read the bible study on perfect redemption plan: the Lord is my shepherd, to know how to shepherd God’s flock acceptably); and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you (meaning with My words that proceed out of your mouth) will I break in pieces captains and rulers (meaning kings or president and their ministers, their governors, their senators, their judges, etc) (Jeremiah 51:20-23).
Jeremiah never fought physically with anybody but God put His words in his mouth so that as he spoke them, they came to pass in Israel and in the nations and kingdom he spoke them over. Please read the bible study on Application of perfect redemption plan, to learn about the prophesying. What Jeremiah prophesied over Judah and Babylon came to pass. Your tongue is truly the battle axe and the weapon of war of the Lord! What the Lord said to Jeremiah, He also says it to every born again believer (mark 13:11), saying: you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you, you shall speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD. Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, (Why?) to root out (whatever God did not plant in people’s life but the devil: sin, sickness, disease and premature death (Matthew 15:13)), and to pull down, and to destroy (the work of the devil in people’s life (1John 3:8)), and to throw down (ungodly and wicked leaders), to build (people’s life, business, marriage, home, career, nations and the kingdom of God), and to plant (the seed of the word of God in people’s life and establish them in the kingdom of God) (Jeremiah 1:7-10).
One needs to know what God has freely given him or her and know who he or she is in Christ Jesus and all that can be found in the series of the perfect redemption plan, and the application of the perfect redemption plan. The tabernacle of meeting which Moses erected in the wilderness and the way the priest ministered in it, serve the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, He says “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you in the mountain” (Hebrews 8:5). You and I we are the new temple of God, God dwells in us and walks in us (2Corinthians 6:16). God is telling us the same thing, everything about our life, there is a pattern in heaven and it is written for us in the bible. Jesus tells us: Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God (Hebrews 10:7).
When Jesus tells us to pray: Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as in Heaven, so also on the earth (Luke 11:2). He expects us to know what the pattern of our life in heaven is and put those words in our mouth and confess them in prayer. As it is written: I have put My Words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, (why?), so that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are My people (Isaiah 51:16). Yes, God wants to plant the pattern or the will that is in heaven on earth, in your life and in the life of people, but He needs your mouth to do so. By reading the series of the perfect redemption plan and the application of the perfect redemption plan and all the bible studies referred to in them, one will be able to know succinctly what is the pattern or the will of God concerning us, our family, people around us, and put those words into his or her mouth to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth. For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 3:11); righteousness and judgment or justice are the foundation of His throne (Psalm 97:2).
James takes another example to explain to us how the tongue is so powerful in changing the course of our life, changing our destiny, our destination in this journey of life we have undertaken. He says: Behold also the ships being so great, and driven by fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small rudder, where the impulse of him steering desires (James 3:4). So James likens the tongue to the very small rudder that the captain of the great ship uses to turn the entire ship. Now there are many people in a ship but only one captain, your ship can be your family, your business, your church, your house group, the life of everybody in that ship and the destination of everybody in that great ship depend entirely on the very small rudder. If it is turned left everybody in that great ship will turn left. If it is turned right everybody in that great ship turns right because they are in the same great ship.
Truly even a child can turn that very small rudder and that great ship will turn. So do not despise the prayer or the confession of a little child. Anybody no matter how small in age he is, as long as he has a tongue and decides to use his or her tongue to speak the word of God will change the course of the entire great ship and all the passengers therein. As it is written: Jesus said to them (and today to you and me), Yes, have you never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have perfected praise (Matthew 21:16)?” That is why you must teach the word of God to all your family members regardless of their age, if one member of the family is sick, even two years old children can lay hands on all the people in the house and command the healing and they will be healed. When couples are on the verge of divorce and have already made up their mind to go separate ways, when the children pray to God for their parents not to divorce God hears their prayers and heals that marriage. Children are so pure and only want what is best for the family, and they know that divorce is certainly not the plan of God for the family (Malachi 2:16).
When I was growing up in my parents’ house we used to pray in the morning and in the evening as a family and God was using even us children to heal the sick, to give prophecies: dreams and visions, to pray for the finances of our parents and God answered our prayers. We are all in the same ship; we all used our tongues to plant heaven in our home. Parents need to find out what the word of God says about their children and they should use their mouth to confess the word of God over their children. The children are just in the great ship but the parents are the ones behind the very small rudder and as they turn it all the family members turn with it.
Allow me to pray this prayer over your children:
All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children (Isaiah 54:13). You will train up your children the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). The Lord through His commandments, makes my children wiser than their enemies. My children have more understanding than all their teachers because the testimonies of the Lord are their meditation, they understand more than the ancients, because they keep the precepts of the Lord. They have restrained their feet from every evil way so that they may keep the word of the Lord (Psalm 119:98-101). My children are the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13). No one will be able to stand before my children all the days of their life (Joshua 1:5). In all matters of wisdom and understanding, spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding, scientific wisdom and scientific understanding, academic wisdom and academic understanding, about which my children are examined they are found ten times better than all their peers (Daniel 1:20). The Holy Spirit who is in them is an excellent Spirit (Daniel 6:3). My children will excel in life, they will arise in their generation and shine for Jesus who is the light of the world and lives in them (Isaiah 60:1).
James says that sometimes fierce winds drive that great ship, but no matter how fierce the winds are, the very small rudder is still able to turn the entire ship wherever the one behind the rudder desires (James 3:4). You see, in life our great ship, which is at sea, can be tempest tossed, and sometimes water can be filling our ship and our life might even be in danger and the life of everybody in that ship. (Please read the bible study: sailing with Jesus). The seas represent the nations. Many times, things that affect our family, our business, our career are external things: the economic situation of the country, the plague in the country, the third party wanting to destroy our marriage, sickness, etc.
Jesus was in a boat with his disciple when a tempest fell on their boat. As it is recorded: Jesus entering into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, a great tempest arose in the sea, so much so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him and awakened Him, saying, Lord, save us! We perish! And He said to them, Why are you afraid, little-faiths? Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, saying: peace be still! And there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him (Matthew 8:23-27)! You can either be like the disciples and just marvel at Jesus commanding the wind and the sea and they obeyed Him, or you can decide to know what God has done for you by the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, and who you are now in Christ, all these things have been succinctly discussed in the series of perfect redemption plan and the application of the perfect redemption plan.
Do not let any tempest at sea destroy your boat, understand you have been given dominion over all the works of God’s hand, even the wind and the sea, and use your tongue to rebuke the wind and the waves that have come against your ship to destroy it. Do not just stand there idle, speak the word of God to your tempests, and command them to do what you desire: peace be still! Enough is enough, how long will we allow the enemy with his tempests to destroy our ship and the lives of the people who are with us in the ship. It is time for us to get understanding of what the will of God is concerning our life and take control of our ship, lead our ship to our desired destination which lines up with the written word of God. Use your tongue to sail to your desired destination, it is in the power of your tongue, do not keep quiet!
The last example that James uses to explain to us how crucial our tongue is in framing or creating the world around us is fire. James says: Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Behold how little a fire kindles how large a forest (James 3:5)! Often times when we turn the television on, especially during summer, we have reports of forests burning in USA because someone mistakenly went camping and did not put out the fire properly when they left. It does not take much to burn an entire forest, a fire the size of a match is sufficient. That is what James is trying to explain to us that our words are indeed fire. We would have to choose whether it will be the fire of God or the fire of the devil? Solomon says: An ungodly man plots evil, and his lips are like a burning fire (Proverbs 16:27). If a person does not watch what comes out of his or her mouth but curses and speaks only negative reports concerning his or her life, health, marriage, children, business, career, studies, family, church, nation, leaders, etc; what that person is doing is sending the fire of the devil to destroy those things and very soon the curses and the negative confession of that person will come to pass.
Balaam, a prophet of the devil, was of the kind; his mouth was greatly used to curse people around him and to pronounce bad reports against them. Balak called Balaam to come and curse the people of God saying: I pray you, come now and curse this people for me. For they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail so that we may strike them, and so that I may drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed (Numbers 22:6). So the burning fire of the devil was going out of the mouth of Balaam to destroy people around them. You do not need to worry about anything, you are a child of God, no one can curse you; Balaam himself said it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying: how shall I curse whom God has not cursed? Or how shall I defy or denounce whom Jehovah has not defied or denounced (Numbers 23:8)?
Since the enemy knows that he cannot curse us, whenever he tries not only does it not work but God puts that curse upon his own head. As the Lord promised to Abraham and those of us who are in Christ Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, saying: I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:3). So the enemy who is a thief (John 10:10) banks on our ignorance to steal, kill and destroy what belongs to us. And he wants to use our own mouth to pronounce curses and negative reports over our own life, our business, our children, our marriage, etc. That is why James tells you out of the same mouth of believers comes forth blessing (or report of the lord) and cursing or negative reports, it ought not to be so (James 3:10).
Do not allow the enemy to use your own tongue to consume with his evil burning fire what the Lord is doing in our life and around us, but rather let us use the burning fire of the word of God to frame the world around us according to the report of the Lord we have believed. By so doing we will experience the manifestation of the power of God in our life and around us (Isaiah 53:1). The moment we decide to use our tongue to only bless people and bless things around us; speak the report of the Lord in our life and in our situation, the fire of the word of the Lord will start destroying the works of the devil in our life and around us. The fire of the word of God proceeding forth from our mouth might seemingly look insignificant like that little fire that kindles a large forest, but the moment it comes out of our mouth the wind of the Holy Ghost blows on that little fire to poke it. Just like with a natural fire in the forest, if the wind is strong the flame will propagate rapidly and fire fighters will not be able to extinguish it.
The Holy Ghost is described in Acts 2:2 as the rushing of a mighty wind. The rushing mighty wind of the Holy Ghost will blow on your little fire of the word that you spoke and it will burn the entire large forest of the enemy. If it is sickness or disease as you are faithful to speak the word of Jesus concerning sickness and disease, as we have seen in the series of the perfect redemption plan and the application of perfect redemption plan, the rushing mighty wind of the Holy Ghost will blow on them and burn to ashes all the works of the devil, no matter how large it might appear, even as a large forest, it will be burned to ashes. God said to Jeremiah: Is not My Word like a fire? Says Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? And Jeremiah testified of the fact that the word of God was a burning fire, saying: Then I said, I will not mention The Lord, nor speak in His name any more. But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with holding in, and I could not stop (Jeremiah 20:9). Be like Jeremiah, do not hold back the fire of the word of God in your heart but open your mouth and speak it and see how the rushing mighty wind of the Holy Ghost will blow on that fire to consume all the works of the devil, in Jesus’ name!
Confession goes beyond just saying the same thing God says, to doing or working the same things God does, being at the same place or location God wants us to be. But to be at this second level of confession we must first believe in our heart that what God told us to do will work. That is why the first part of confessing which is to say the same thing God says, helps get our unbelief out of the way. It is not good enough to just hear what God has to say and say it back. The only way we know that we believed what God said, is when we act on it. Thus, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (James 2:17).
Satan is truly a deceiver as we have seen; yet sometimes we deceive ourselves and Satan is not to be blamed for that. People may ask: how can we, born again Christians, deceive ourselves? James tells us: be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself; 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 or mirror: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world (James 1:22-27).
God says to us: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to Me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children (Hosea 4:6). So unsaved people are destroyed and go to hell because they have not received the knowledge of Christ and those who receive the knowledge of Christ being the Saviour of the world refuse to make Jesus their personal Lord and Saviour. Yet some Christians deceive themselves, for though they have confessed Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour, they do not practice righteousness. Such were some of the Christians of Corinth, they deceived themselves. They were attending church services, speaking in tongues, they prophesied, they have all the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit; but they were not practicing righteousness!
Paul told them and today tells every born again Christian that is deceiving himself or herself, saying: Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 6:9-10). Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. Please read the bible studies on “Come Home” and “David’s Sexual Sin Exposed”. David, the man after God’s own heart, after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. Was deceiving himself that everything was still well with him! So God sent Nathan the Prophet to come and expose his sins (2Samuel 12).
David repented of His sins and was restored back to the fellowship with God. In repenting of his sins David prayed, saying: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:10-12). If you are practicing the sins leading to death listed by Paul in 1Corinthians 6:9-10, I pray that you will not continue in your deception; but you will repent like David and so that God will restore to you the joy of your salvation; so that He will heal your backsliding and love you freely (Hosea 14:4).
The question is: does God cast away some of born again Christians? The answer is no! Jesus says: Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28); All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no way cast out (John 6:37). So the invitation is to the entire world to come to Jesus and when we come to Him He will in no wise cast us out! So on the part of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost they will never cast us away from their presence and They will never cast us out of the Kingdom of God. Yet we can cast ourselves out from the Kingdom of God and we can choose to walk away from the Father’s house. In Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son and the elder son of the Father, the Father, in our case God, never cast out any of His sons. He divided equally His inheritance between his two sons, the younger son decided to sell his inheritance, and leave the Father’s house and go to live like the world.
The younger son cast himself out of the house of the Father. The truth is while he was backsliding, he was lost and dead spiritually to the Kingdom of God and was going to hell with the unsaved people that he joined himself with. He might have deceived himself by saying: to all the unsaved people: I am the son of the Most High God, but as far as the Father, even the Most High God was concerned that backsliding prodigal son was lost to the Kingdom and dead spiritually, he would suffer the same torment in hell with the unrighteous. Jesus says: behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each according as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last. Blessed are they who do His commandments, that their authority will be over the Tree of Life, and they may enter in by the gates into the city. But outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and makes a lie (Revelation 22:12-15). So if you are practicing the sins leading to death you will be outside the Kingdom of God, you will not inherit it!
The prodigal son repented in Luke 15 and walked back home, the Father was waiting for him all along to come back home so that he will heal his backsliding and love him freely because wrath has been turned away when He poured it out on Christ Jesus on the cross (Hosea 14:4). What I say to everybody who reads these bible studies I first say it to myself. David repented of his murder and adultery; the prodigal son repented of his backsliding and purposed not to continue in them. I, Gery, also repented of my sins and purposed not to continue in them. My prayer is that no one who ever read these My Weekly Milk letters will deceive himself by being a hearer only and not a doer of the word of God.
God is calling all sinners to come home and all run away sons and daughters to come home. He did not cast anybody out of His home. Even Jonah thought he could run away from the presence of God, when they cast him into the sea, God had prepared a big fish to swallow him. And David himself understood that he could not run away from the presence of God. He said: Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I go up into Heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the furthest parts of the sea; even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light around me. Yea, the darkness does not hide from You; but the night shines as the day; as is the darkness, so is the light to You (Psalm 139:7-12). God is so good that He stays with us even when we walk away from Him, He keeps convicting us to return to Him, but if we do not we will die in our sins and go to hell. Nobody will be kidnapped into heaven, even backsliding sons and daughters will not be kidnapped into heaven, you need to willingly repent of your sins and make the Lord Jesus your personal Saviour and purpose in your heart not to go back to your vomit like a dog, or go back to his wallowing in the mire like the sow does after she has been washed (2Peter 2:22);
Self deception does not just apply in the area of sins, but in all the revelations of the word of God that we have received. If you say I believe in prosperity then you ought to be doer of God’s principle of prosperity otherwise you are deceiving yourself. If you say you believe in divine healing, and then you ought to practice divine healing, otherwise you are deceiving yourself; it is not enough to say my church or my pastor believes in it, if you and an individual are not doing it, it means that you are deceiving yourself. Everything that we will see in our letters of “My Weekly Milk”, especially in the series of Perfect Redemption Plan and the Application of Perfect Redemption Plan, if we as individuals are not doers of them, we are deceiving ourselves.
James tells us also the other area where Christian deceive themselves with their tongue, saying: If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain (James 1:26). Christians must train their tongue to only say what they mean and only mean what they say; more than that they must train their tongue to only speak what the written word of God says about the situation they are going through. So let us see again what James says: Be doers of the word not hearers only deceiving yourself and also if you do not bridle your tongue you will deceive your own heart (James 1:22; 26).
With your tongue you will need to start confessing who you are in Christ Jesus and What you can do through Christ Jesus, so that your heart will believe it, and on top of it you will have to become doer of what you are confessing or professing otherwise your heart will be deceived. Job said: teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred (Job 6:24). Some Christians cannot bridle their tongue or hold their tongue! They do not understand that death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof (Proverbs 18:21). And Jesus tells us: It is the spirit that quickens or make alive; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe (John 6:63-64).
Some people do not believe that their words have creative power; they have power to give life or power to give death. They think that their words are mere words! Therefore, they spend their day talking negative about themselves, negative about their health, negative about their future, negative about their marriage, negative about everything and everybody! They ought to hold their tongue! All those sent sentences like: my feet are killing me, my back is killing me, I am dying to meet him, I am tickled to death, I am going through hell, etc. All the time that people use the name of the Lord God or Jesus in vain or to curse. In Mark 11, Jesus spoke a negative word to that fig tree. The purpose of a fig tree is to produce figs. Jesus said to that fig tree: No one shall eat fruit of you forever. And His disciples heard (Mark 11:14).
Jesus did not say explicitly to the fig tree: I curse you, dry up from the roots! Yet the fig tree and the disciples understood what was spiritually meant when Jesus said: No one shall eat fruit of you forever. When evening came, He went out of the city. And passing on early, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered away (Mark 11:19-21). Even in today botanists have done that experiment where they took the same kind of plants and put them in the same soil, watered them equally; but the difference was on some plants of the same kind they spoke nice words and life, but on other plants of the same kind they spoke harsh words and death. The plants that received the nicest words became very fruitful the ones that received the harshest word withered away quickly.
You have dominion over the works of God’s hand (Psalm 8, Genesis 1:26). Things happen whenever you open your mouth to speak, your words are not mere sounds or winds, they are spirit and life and it is the spirit that makes alive, so if you speak negative they will actually curse and if you speak positive, they are actually blessings. The closer your walk with Christ becomes the more careful you ought to be of what comes out of your mouth, because they will come to pass. The bible says of Samuel: Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground (1Samuel 3:19). You need to watch what comes out of your mouth, hold your tongue, and bridle your tongue! Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof (Proverbs 18:21).
Jesus tells us something very significant about acting on the word we heard. Whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock (Matthew 7:24-25). The rock here is the rock of the revelation of the scripture that we have received. And every one who hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it (Matthew 7:26-27).
Jesus did not only say the same thing the Father said, but did the thing the Father told Him. I do nothing of myself; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things (John 8:28). The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise (John 5:19). Jesus did what the Father told him, He was a wise Man. He did the same works the Father did. We must come to the place where we act on God’s word. Like our father Abraham acted on God’s word and offered up Isaac. Like Joshua acted on God’s word and marched around the city of Jericho. We will not dwell on the aspect of confession, but we just want to let people know it is part of confession. Let each one of us read his bible and find out what God expects us to do and then act on that revelation. Please read the series on the perfect redemption plan and the application of the perfect redemption plan, to learn succinctly how to do the same work Jesus did and let us all become doers of them not just hearers or readers.
I beseech you therefore brethren, take some time, to read your bible and all the bible studies we have had thus far and then start making your own composition of scriptures which addresses your need right now. Let the Holy Spirit bring to your remembrance the word of God you need to confess. May the Spirit give you the Rhema word that will boost your faith and confidence toward God. This is your and my time to become the wise man or the wise woman that Jesus talked about, who acts on the revelation of the teaching he or she has just received. Let your confession bulldoze the fortress of the enemy, and remove all the mountains that are coming before you. For this is the word of the Lord to you: not by might (military forces) not by power (the ability of man), but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. Who are you, O Great Mountain? Before My son and daughter, you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the Capstone, the Chief cornerstone, Jesus, with shout of Grace, grace to it (Zechariah 4:6-7).
May God keep you and bless you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Brothers and Sisters remember me, your brother Gery in your prayer, Amen.
God Bless you,
Gery Malanda.
We meet for prayer & sharing of scriptures every Sunday
11:00 -13:30
Venue:
54 Quarrywood Road.
Glasgow
G21 3ET
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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Read MoreAs I was praying and reading my bible this morning, I had so many questions in my heart and I...
Read MoreWhenever we ignore God and his ways, we are acting like an ass or a donkey. We are being foolish...
Read MoreMany of us, including myself, plan our lives outside God’s counsel; we invite everybody but Jesus and His disciples. Be...
Read MoreFrom the account of Mark we see how the disciples and Jesus were caught up in the middle of a...
Read MoreWe have all heard countless times about this phrase: we are the salt of the earth. But what is the...
Read MoreThe reason we did the series of the redemptive names of God, and the application of those redemptive names of...
The Anointing and ministration 1. The Anointing of the Holy Ghost 1Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took a flask of oil,...
1. Act on the word of God Jesus says: Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I...
1. God will not break His covenant nor alter the word of His mouth. The Lord says: My covenant will...
Available in Ebook: The Manifestations of the Holy Ghost The gifts of the Spirit Throughout the four gospels;...
1. The works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit Jesus personally tells us that when we are...
1. From an Old Covenant mind-set to a New Covenant mind-set 1-1 How you enter the Kingdom of God,...
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And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.
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Thank You
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.