But seek the kingdom of God

.... and all these things shall be added to you (Luke 12:31). Jesus had just been saying that we should not seek the things that unbelievers seek. The Father is well aware of our needs (verse 30). Our priorities must not be the same as those of the World. Seeking Him and His Kingdom, is one of the four things to which God is calling His Church at this time (humbling ourselves, praying, seeking His face and repenting). This verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 is being quoted over and over in the various streams and movements that God has been raising up for such at time as this. Having the same priorities as the World, is one of the many things of which we need to repent in order that we may reciever the promise that God will heal our land. And an end to the caronavirus is just one of the many things of which our land needs to be healed.

When this pandemic is over, we cannot go back to church as usual, we must not. Jesus' warning comes to mind “Repent, lest a worse thing happens to you” (Luke 13:3). At the terrorist attack at 9/11, the churches were full, but it did not last, it was not true repentance. In this we follow ancient Israel who when disaster came, would cry out to the Lord for deliverance. The Lord in His mercy would deliver them, but in the safety that followed they would soon forget, and go back to their old sinful ways. Again I do not think God sent the terrorists, but when we rebel and forget the Lord, we take ourselves out from under both God's protection, and His provision (all these things added). It is only as we seek His Kingdom as our first priority, that the Kingdom of God comes on earth as it is in heaven.

The next verse in the Luke reference (verse 32) reads  “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). “Little flock” is a term of endearment, rather than of size. But in saying it He is of course referring to us as sheep, and in context, sheep who follow the Good Shepherd and seek the Kingdom. And in terms of seeking more than a deliverance from this pandemic, my brother and I were praying this morning (yes online) into a vision of our Mile One Stadium being filled with God's people praying, and of the prophecy that a bomb of God's Glory fall on St. John's. We were also praying that this include the whole province. We prayed for God to raise up the fivefold ministry, and to equip pastors and teachers to go out from, and come into the city from all across the province. In other words no community however small, would feel left out!

Father, we come boldly before Your throne this morning, to obtain mercy and Grace to help in this time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Thank You Lord You that You are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or imagine according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20). Thank You for Your partnership in the Gospel as we pray and follow, and seek Your Kingdom. Thank You Lord for Your promise that all thee things will be added unto us. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth ss it is in Heaven in Jesus Name Amen

The secret things belong to the LORD our God

.... but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29). The founding fathers of Western Civilization could make statement like “We hold these truths to be self evident.” And more often than not, the truths they were speaking about were Biblical truths. In fact the West has largely based its laws on what was revealed to ancient Israel. And when you are living in those truths they do indeed seem to be self evident. But they were not self evident to the nations that surrounded Israel. It was not self evident to them, for example, that you should not sacrifice your children in the fire. They thought of this as “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul.” Since this was so very seductive, the Lord made it very clear (revelation) that this was not what He required. What He requires of us is “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:7, 8).

The things which are revealed also belong to those who love the Lord today. But things that belong to us can be lost, if we don't guard them. And truth is suppressed by unrighteousness. In fact when we do not receive the love the truth (revelation), God will actually eventually send strong delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11). When we refuse God over and over, He is entirely just to do this, as he did with Pharaoh. We read Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart etc., then God hardened Pharaoh's heart. He then used Pharaoh to demonstrate His glory through his stubbornness. If this makes you uncomfortable, know that I have been there and to some extent I still am. Paul talks about the goodness and the severity of God. But even in His severity He is good. Paul asks “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Romans 9:22).

God is a God of justice and a God of mercy (Isaiah 30:13; Psalm 59:10). He shows His wrath in order that we might seek His mercy. We will spend eternity with Him or with the one (the Devil) who I believe in his wrath sent this plague upon us. Part of the problem is that we don't understand His holiness, and we have this amazing tendency to minimize our sins and inequities. What we do need to understand is that He would be just in kicking us all out of paradise. But as the scripture says “He is not desirous that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). And He went to incredible lengths in order that He could be just, and the justifier of those who believe (Romans 3:26).

Father, Your word tells us that the secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him, and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 25:14; Proverbs 9:10). Lord please bring back the fear of the Lord to Your church, and teach us to seek you in the secret place to that when we are still we may know more of the secret things so that we may delight in You in whom there are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11) in Jesus Name Amen

The lamp of the body is the eye (Luke 11:34)

Regarding the lamp, Proverbs 20:27 tells us “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” Verse 34 of Luke continues with “Therefore, when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Various Greek lexicons say of “clear,” that it means “simple, single (nothing complicated or confused); sound, healthy; generous; sincere, morally whole, faithful.” The Amplified Bible adds “[spiritually perceptive, focused on God].” Of “being full of light it adds “[benefiting from God’s precepts],” of evil it adds “[spiritually blind],” and of “full of darkness” it adds “[devoid of God’s word].” It is also noteworthy that the word for evil is “poneros,” which is often translated “sexually immoral.”

Note that there is no middle ground here. Luke 11:36 talks about “having no part dark.” I like the illustration that if you add a thimbleful of fine old scotch to a barrel of sewage it stays sewage. But if you add a thimbleful of sewage to a barrel of fine old scotch, it becomes sewage.” And if there was ever a time when the people of God should come out of compromise, it is now! The Bible talks about those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20). Such people are wise in their own eyes (verse 21), but they are in darkness. Some say the coronavirus is God's judgement (which I dispute). Other say it is Satan's rage because the time is near for the second coming of our Lord. I am more and more certain that this is the case, but in any case it is certainly the time for those of us who say we love Him to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and repent (2 Chronicles 7:14 again). In this way we will shine as lights in the darkness (Philippians 2:15).

Since “generous” is part of the meaning of the meaning of “clear” in 11:34, the following verse stood out to me when I searched “light and darkness” together. “If you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10). In other words our repentance while it certainly needs to include personal holiness, it needs to extend to practical expressions of help to this wicked and hurting world. Generosity will be especially important in the likely coming financial difficulties. But also those of us who have been in the faith for sometime will need to be fathers and mothers to those in the coming prophesied revival. And since the apple does not fall far from the tree (Exodus 20:5) we need to be a shining example of love, purity, generosity and grace!

Father, at this time when You are calling Your people both individually and corporately into repentance, please give us grace to let these trials and difficulties refine us. Lord I want to come forth like gold (Job 23:10), and I want to be Your ambassador. We need Your love and grace and peace, I do Lord. And we are asking for a double portion of these things so that we can be all that You call us to be at this time. And we ask these things for Your Kingdom and Your glory in Jesus Name Amen 

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given

... seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Luke 11:9). The Lord loves to connect spiritual things with spiritual things in our hearts and minds (1 Corinthians 2:13). And as I continue to prepare for tomorrow's meeting with the theme “Authority, Identity and Humility,” I could see all three components in the context of this morning's reading from Luke 11:5-13. The “So” of the title verse connects it to the parable immediately before it. The parable is about persistence “because of his persistence he will rise and give him what he needs” (verse 8). The authority that we are given (10:19) has, like any gift, to be received, to be appropriated. In order to do this, we first and foremost need to know who we are in Christ (identity). We are beloved and cherished sons and daughters of the Father, who if we ask for bread, will not give us a stone (verse 11).

Among the complex meanings of the word translated authority (i.e. 10:19) are “the power of influence, and of right.” And in this passage, He is giving us the right and confidence to know what is our inheritance. And our inheritance includes answers to the exceeding great and precious promises of the Word. We do need to keep in mind that “no” is an answer. In fact there are three basic answers yes, no, wait. And it is in the waiting that we need persistence. The waiting helps us to know if we really want it, in which case we will be persistent. But also in the waiting our faith either grows or diminishes, and we choose. Delayed answers are an opportunity to draw near to God.

In terms of humility, in an age of independence from God, and one that clamours loudly for our rights, there is a desperate need to come back into true relationship with the Father. Let's face it in this age where we are encouraged to feel entitled, there is a huge tendency to get our wants and our needs confused. He has promised, when we are in right relationship with Him, to supply all of our needs according to His riches in Glory (Philippians 4:19), not all our wants. In the context of this morning reading, the Lord is talking about asking for bread, for fish and for the Holy Spirit. And if we are not grieve or quench the Holy spirit we need to walk in humility and obedience and in holiness. Having said that, it is clear the carnivorous is not of the Lord, and that we are in desperate need of deliverance!

Our beautiful and lovely heavenly Father, You who knows how to give good gifts to men, we come to You this morning humbling ourselves, praying, seeking Your face and repenting of our waywardness. We declare Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Lord there are no viruses in heaven, and together with the rest of Your church we come in repentance and unity, and declare with the authority You have given us, an end to this pestilence. We declare that it will not come near our dwellings, and it will not by any means harm us. You promised Lord! This is our inheritance, this is our authority, and we thank You in advance for the positive answer (Mark 11:24) in Jesus Name Amen

Look, I give you the authority to trample on serpents

... and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19). Jesus had sent out the seventy two by two to heal the sick (verse 9), and they had returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (verse 17). And verse this verse is what Jesus told them. Before we say more, there are two thing in context which we need to take note of. The first is the very next verse where He continues “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” The second is Jesus prayer in verse 21 “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.”

In particular, in order to exercise this authority we need to be firmly established in the assurance of our salvation, and we need to be childlike in our faith. The “look” of verse 19 is about making sure we take note of what He is about to say. Notice that since all authority has already been given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18), it is His to give. And at the risk of being overly repetitive He gives it to those who know they are saved, and who walk in child like faith. Exercising authority over demos without being in Christ is dangerous, as the sons of Sceva found out to their harm (Acts 19:13-16). About being childlike we need, as heirs of the Kingdom, to truly believe that the authority is already ours. We don't need to earn it, indeed we cannot earn it. It is a gift, and a gift needs to be received.

There are admonitions to this effect “Believe that you have received it and you shall have it” (Mark 11:24). When we truly believe these things we can, as little children would, boast in their Daddy, and declare to the universe that the answer to our prayers are already answered. In particular we declare that “nothing from this caronavirus shall by any means harm us, and that this plague will not come near our dwellings (Psalm 91:10), neither near our families, nor our brothers and sister in the Lord, nor on any who are reading this post and declaring the victory.

Father, we need to humble our selves and become as little children, we need to pray, we need to seek Your face, and most of all we need to repent. We need to repent of our self sufficiency, of our disunity, of our prayerlessness and of not spending time with You. Only as we spend time with You in the secret place will be be being transformed from one degree of glory to another. Help us in all these things Lord, for we are weak. We can do nothing without You Father, and our eyes are on You in Jesus Name Amen

You do not know what manner of spirit you are of

James and John had wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village because they had not received Jesus. And Jesus' response in the title continues “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:52-56). The spirit of course, was one of condemnation and judgement, and this spirit is unfortunately, alive and well and living in the church. I recently saw a youtube video of a man shouting loudly in Time Square starting with the message that God is very angry with them. Such a message at this time, whether it says so explicitly or not, is proclaiming that the carnivorous is God's judgement. Don't get me wrong, God's judgement is coming, but in this age of grace He is holding back judgement because “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

No doubt this man meant well, but we need to understand that in this day of Grace, death and destruction are the tools of the enemy (John 10:10a). It's easy to misunderstand, because this is not the way it was under the Law. The children of Israel had chosen rules over relationship (Deuteronomy 18:16), in other words they had chosen to live under the Law. Under the Law it is strictly justice, and there were blessings and cursing, blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 11:26 - 28). But Jesus came to redeem those under the curse of the Law. It is interesting to me that one of the other verses that stood out to me in this morning's readings was “he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). This immediately took me to “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).

And while we are in Galatians 3, let us also read “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (verse 24). In this chapter Paul chastises the Galatians for returning to operating out of the Law, and when we proclaim disasters as God's judgement, we too are returning to the Law. But we are not under Law, we are under the Grace that was purchased at such great expense by the Sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. Let us not make the blood of Jesus to no effect (verse 17). Let's be very clear, those preachers and prophets who are seeking to interpret disasters as God's Judgement are of the spirit of the Law, they are misrepresenting God in this age of Grace, and they likely do not realize what spirit they are of.

Father, it has grieved my heart in the past that, presumably well meaning, people have so misrepresented You in that they have proclaimed such things as Aids, as Your punishment on gays. You love gays Lord, and You love those who protoplasmic such things. And if it grieve me, I cannot imagine how much it grieves You. This does not mean we do not seek to speak the truth in love, but that is difficult both to do and to hear. So please give us Your wisdom, love, Grace and peace for these things Father, in Jesus Name Amen

There shall not be found among you anyone who ....

..... makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11). The bit about children passing through fire is a referee to child sacrifice, to literally burning them alive as an offering to the god Molech (see 2 Kings 23:10). What all these practices have in common, is that they are putting trust in something that is not of the Lord. In other words it is idolatry, prostituting oneself to the spirit world (Leviticus 20:6). These things are an abomination to the Lord (18:12), and this is the principle we need to take from these verses. In other words, the list is not complete and, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the list needs to include such things as ouija boards, white witches, spirit guides, horoscopes, tarot cards, signs of the zodiac, reiki etc., etc.

Scripture is not saying that there is not a reality behind these things. I mean “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14, see also 1 Samuel 28:7-19). But the Scripture admonishes us “Do not believe every spirit, but test them to see if they are of of God” (1 John 4:1). It's about acknowledging that Jesus is the Christ, that the God-man Christ Jesus has come in the flesh (1 John 2:23), and it's that what is being presented, is the pure gospel of salvation (Galatians 1:6-9). Concerning these things of the spirit realm, Paul talks about the “spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1–2). Kris Vollotton comments on this verse that “in other words, before we knew Jesus, we were literally the puppets of demonic spirits.”

In the West we tend to believe that the spirit world is something of a fary tale or something harmless that can amuse us. Not so in Africa. Before I was a Christian I dabbled in the ouija board. It predicted the date of my father's death and it put the fear of God in me. C. S. Lewis contends that Satan has two major strategies, firstly to persuade us he does not exist, or secondly to fascinate us with his power. Either position is equally satisfying to him, since it suits his agenda well. So how are we to respond to all this? With ourselves we need to be ruthless in rooting out any and all of these things. With those who are caught up in such things, we need to be gentle and to show them love, not condemnation. Our approach needs to be that there are much better things than these.

Father I was so very aware this morning, as I spent time online with my brother, that Your presence eclipses everything that tries to capture our attention and our wills. Thank You Lord for this gift of time, and this time. Help us to redeem it Lord, for the days are evil. Hide me now Lord under Your wings and I will soar above the storm in Jesus Name Amen