The Throne of Grace

UV 4292/10000 The Throne of Grace Therefore let us (with privilege) approach the throne of grace ( that is, the throne of God’s gracious favour) with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy ( for our failures) and find ( His amazing) grace to help in time of need ( an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment). Hebrews 4 v 16 Jesus Christ is the Messiah and in His role as the promised Saviour of mankind, He has two roles – one, as High Priest and the other, as King of Kings. As High Priest, He faced the same challenges, limitations, situations we face. The empathy He has for us as humans in His role as High Priest, gives us the confidence and fearlessness to approach the throne of grace on which He sits as King of Kings. As the children of God, by faith and by adoption, we have the privilege to approach His throne of grace at any time. When humans fail to approach His throne of grace to obtain mercy, they take the choice to stand before the throne of judgement of God. Grace manifests itself in two ways, mercy for our failures and shortcomings, our failure to obey His word and will, our shortcomings of action, decision and character. And grace, His amazing power released to help us in our hour of need. We need not cower in fear as we encounter threats, dangers, powerful foes of the spirit world and in flesh and blood as the Lord is our cover, our shield, our sure protection. The Lord knows all about us, all our thoughts, all our words, choices and actions. He knows exactly what we need at any given time or point in our lives. He releases the appropriate blessing according to our need. Hence, we need to approach the throne of grace every single day to obtain forgiveness for our specific acts that fall short of His standards of righteousness and to obtain strength to overcome that temptation or any other challenge we face. Whether we are to exist or to exit, we need to exalt and exult in the Lord, avail of His mercies, depend on His grace in all our ways. Jesus as the Prince of Peace gives us peace in this troubled and restless world.

The House of Cornelius

UV 4291/10000 The House of Cornelius And he said, “ Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of charity have been remembered before God (so that He is about to help you). Acts 10 v 31 Cornelius was not of the Jewish faith but his devout nature and his acts of charity won him the attention and favour of the Lord God. Cornelius was God fearing and concerned for the poor. He did not know much about God – so much so, he fell at the feet of Peter and worshipped him for he saw him as a representative of God. Peter received an angelic visitation and vision in order to break the barriers in his own mind, concerning the call to visit Cornelius and to accept him into the fold of the faith in Christ Jesus. The same way Cornelius received an angelic visitation and he was obedient to the direction of the angel to send word to Joppa and invite Peter to his house. Cornelius was keen to hear the word from the Lord given through Peter. It is written in the book of Acts that the prayers and gifts of charity to the Jewish people rose as a memorial offering before God. A memorial offering is an offering made in remembrance of the past blessings of the Lord. In order to prepare Peter to meet Cornelius and show him that the Roman centurion was acceptable and favoured by the Lord, Peter saw a vision of a great sheet on which all types of hitherto unclean animals including crawling creatures like snakes. He was directed to kill and eat these. Our attitudes and prejudices can often be a barrier in our work or ministry. The prejudice that was ingrained in Jews against Gentiles, thereby, broke down and Peter understood that the Lord has declared clean the Gentiles. Peter understood that all who feared the Lord in all nations and does what is right is acceptable and welcome to the kingdom of God. We were happy to hear that the Lord regarded our house, our family as the house of Cornelius. It is an endorsement of the Lord to continue acts of charity to the poor. Indeed, whatever we do to the least of our brethren that we do unto Him. It is an encouragement to all of us to do all that we can to convey the love of God for all people, without regard to caste, class, nationality, religion, race or cultural differences. Cornelius was a model of both faith and good works in balance. We will do well to emulate Cornelius and combine our faith in Christ with acts of charity to the needy. This is effective faith, productive or fruitful faith that the Lord will never ignore but rush with angels and visions, as well as blessings and other signs of His favour, to our side.

Our Praisebook Account

UV 4290/10000 Our Praisebook Account Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the Lord had done to Israel, in that He had rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians. Exodus 18 v 9 Moses had recounted to his father-in-law all the things that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel and how He had rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro’s response was to rejoice over all the good things the Lord had done for Israel and how He had rescued them from the hand and under the hand of the Egyptians. The Lord had rescued us likewise from our powerful foes and persecutors all through our lives. He has done many great things for us. We need to rejoice in all these things and treasure these thoughts in our hearts continually. This is what I call our Praisebook account. We need to keep recounting to others and to ourselves the many good things the Lord had done for us. Our hearts need to be filled with gratitude and joy remembering the specific acts of goodness of the Lord unto us. The Lord has shone on our lives and moved us from darkness to light, from death to eternal life. We, who formerly lived under the shadow of death, now live under the shadow of the Almighty. He has saved us from oppression, both demonic and earthly. He has set us free from the yoke of sin. We are no longer on the salary roll of satan and sin. We have moved from the curse of shortcoming, failure, hamartia to abundant living, eternal life. He has provided for us in abundance to meet our needs. He has preserved our lives from grave danger- danger of going to the grave prematurely before fulfilling our earthly purpose. He has rescued us from the Egyptians, our former foes and persecutors. He has enabled us to cross our Red Sea and Jordan. He has broken down our Jericho walls. He has covered us and filled us with courage and hope when we would have cowered in fear. Our hearts need to throb with joy and gratitude to the Lord for all that He has done in our lives. We need to continually bless His holy name even as Jethro, the priest of the Midianites praised Jehovah, the God of Israel. We need to be thankful that the Lord has proved Himself both strong and real in our times of need. He has given of Himself, His only beloved Son. He has called us to be His children by adoption. He has crowned our lives with His goodness and grace. He has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to encourage, strengthen, comfort us.

Walking in the Way of Favour of the Lord

UV 4289/10000 Walking in the Way of Favour of the Lord For all these things My hand has made, so all these things came into being (by and for Me),: declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look (graciously), to him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who (reverently) trembles at My word and honours My commands. Isaiah 66 v 2 More than all the things in heaven and earth, the Lord delights in a human who is humble and repentant, who reveres and obeys His word. The Lord releases His grace or favour upon such a person. The Lord looks graciously upon a person who shows his reverence for God by obeying the word of God. All the blessings of heaven and earth, the Lord can direct towards to him who honours the Lord in word and deed. The Lord dwells with and in such a person. He is tabernacled in him or her. The presence of God lies thick and heavy like mist on the ground on a very cold day. The thick cloud of his sins or shortcomings and accompanying penalties or curses also lifts and moves away like the winds drive away a cloud over the hills. Everything that exists is made by the hand of the Lord. Hence, whatever we need comes to pass only by His sovereign will. Everything and everyone are made for the pleasure and glory of God. Hence, we need to walk in reverence and obedience to the Lord. A humble and contrite heart is what He requires of us. The Lord crowns us with His favour. His fingers are intertwined with us and blesses us with success and joy and all we do. We need to be careful to read, to know, to understand and apply the precepts and principles of God, to observe carefully the commands and to faithfully appropriate the promises of the Lord. It will guard us from pride, folly and evil. The watchful eye of the Lord will keep us from the snares of the enemy as well as the cares of this world and keep our feet on the straight and narrow. The straight and narrow road is just wide enough for just us and God to traverse. The straight and narrow road is the Word of God. When Jesus said, “I am the way..” He implies that He is the way to true success, true happiness, true significance, true joy, true influence, real, abundant and eternal life. We can walk it only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

God, Our Only and True Soul Mate

UV 4288/10000 God, our Only and True Soul Mate I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject nor separate itself from you. Leviticus 26 v 11 The Lord God is our only true soul mate. His soul becomes one with ours in Christ. Under the old covenant, the promise to the people of Israel alone was that He ( Jehovah) would dwell with them and not separate or reject them as long as they walked in the statutes and principles of God. But, under the new covenant sealed with the blood of the Lamb, Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, the Lord dwells inside us and unites with our souls. His word is written line by line, precept by precept on our hearts and thereby, our hearts are circumcised or directed in such a way we avoid listening to the voices of the world and the enemy and listen only to the voice of the Lord. The Song of Solomon is an elaborate love song sung by the Lord to our souls. Hence, we can sing, “My beloved is mine and I am His and His banner over us is love.” The whisper of the Holy Spirit in our ears is the love whisper of the Lord. We need to incline our ears to His mouth to hear every syllable and sound. We should not say or do anything that grieves the Holy Spirit. Our oneness with God needs to grow more and more with time and experience that our thoughts and words and actions become the thoughts, words and actions of the Lord. We constantly rejoice in the fellowship of our souls with the soul of the Lord. We are so into Him, that nothing separates us. Everything we do, both the mundane and the not so ordinary, are unto Him, unto His pleasure, His glory and praise. The presence of the Lord surrounds us, fills us, covers us. As soul mates, our obedience to the Lord and His will and word needs to be complete and total especially in essentials of our faith while there can be flexibility in the non essentials or what we call the grey areas. Just as the various organs of the body obeys the head, we need to obey the Lord. Whatever burden we face, whatever anxious thought we should take to the Lord without delay. We depend on Him for our provision, our protection, our guidance, our comfort and our strength. When we live in alignment with the word of God, everything we speak, think and do delights the Lord. Whatever pleases the Lord strengthens us in the spirit and whatever displeases Him weakens us. This is what is meant by the verse, “ The joy of the Lord is my strength.”

The Shelter

UV 4287/10000 The Shelter And there will be a pavilion for shade from the heat by day, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and the rain. Isaiah 4 v 6 The last year and a half has witnessed what is called a perfect storm affecting the whole world but those who are walking in the favour or grace of God in Christ are preserved. His favour surrounds us even in the most unfavourable or adverse circumstances. The Lord Himself is our tabernacle, our house, our pavilion for shade from the heat by day, the cold by night and the storm and rain. He has sheltered us from premature death, from diseases, from unknown dangers and threats, from known threats and enemies. He enables us to live above the level of our earthly or worldly circumstances by rejoicing in two facts, the birth of our Saviour in flesh and blood like us, the death and resurrection of Jesus. In Him, we have victory over death and sin. He shelters us from all the viles of the enemy of our souls and all the weapons the enemy and his agents forge against us. Like an umbrella or a shield has many ribs, likewise each promise of God contained in scripture is a rib for us to hold onto. As we hold onto the promises of God, staying close to Him, the Lord undertakes to protect us. Instead of running helter skelter seeking protection, we focus on the Lord as the locus of our lives. The enemy often rains down on us his fiery darts and arrows of misfortune but the Lord shields us from all of these. We do not dwell in a state with man-made laws to protect and punish the offenders but we dwell in the eternal kingdom of the Lord. The writ of the Lord begins with the internal. He protects us from our own mortal thoughts and tendencies. The Lord is a dynamic shelter or refuge for His own. For the ancient Israelites walking for forty years through the vast wilderness of Egypt towards the promised land of freedom and fulfilment of their hope, the Lord manifested as a cloud of protection from the heat by day and as a fire of warmth, security and light of guidance from the cold by night. According to our need, the Lord manifests His grace to be sufficient or adequate for that need. Under the new covenant, the Holy Spirit manifests as the cloud of comfort and strength to us as well as a fire within us.

Mahanaim-the Camp of the Lord

UV 4286/10000 Mahanaim- the Camp of the Lord Then I will camp around my house ( as a guard) because of an army, because of him who passes by and returns; and no oppressor will gains overrun them ( Israel) for now my eyes are upon them ( providentially protecting them). Zechariah 9 v 8 The Lord encamps around the house of the faithful, the lives of His children. He guards them as the enemy tries often to attack them in a variety of ways. His eyes are upon our walls- the walls that defend us, that protect us as well as the walls that restrict us, the walls that obstruct us, the walls that oppress us. He builds the former and brings down the latter. He will not let our oppressors to suppress us. They will come in one direction and flee in seven as if the hornet was released on them. The presence of the Lord is our fortress, both impregnable and invincible. He covers us as the eyelids cover the apple of the eye, as a rock overhanging protects us from the noonday sun, as the eagle protects its eaglets. He surrounds us with His angels and calls it Mahanaim or the camp of angels. He restores double our prosperity. He enables us to succeed in whatever we attempt. He restores the years and the ears of corn that the locusts have stolen- both the time and the content. People say that time is perishable and cannot be restored or regained but the Lord being eternal, the Master of all time, can reverse our clocks, increase our longevity, renew our youth, stop the catabolic processes in our ever aging bodies. There is no past that He cannot erase, no future that He cannot guarantee and no present that He cannot cause to flourish. As long as we run for God, with Him, in Him, no enemy can overrun us. Any Goliath who wags his tongue needlessly is only cutting off his own neck with his words of insult or challenge. The same Spirit of God who empowered David fills us with overflowing, overpowering and overtaking anointing. The enemy tries to take advantage of our present weaknesses while the Lord invests in our potential. The enemy sees a Gideon whose knees are trembling and knocking in fear at the sight of their troops while God sees a mighty warrior in him. If we choose to surrender constantly to the Lord instead of to the powerful enemy, God will clothe us with His mighty power, neutralize the power of the enemy.

The Latter Rain

UV 4285/10000 The Latter Rain When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the clouds and mist to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from His treasuries and from His storehouses. Jeremiah 10 v 13 The Lord God made the earth by His power. He established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding and skill. Hence, when we trust in Him and His power to save us, we live by His wisdom, His understanding and His skill. In this uni-verse, He promises to release from His treasuries and storehouses the blessings of the latter rain. When we rely on Him for the best or first part of our lives, He will take care of the later part, the latter half. He proves to us that He is the living God and the everlasting King. When God reigns over our lives as Everlasting King, the early rain, the timely rain and the latter rain will be a feature of our lives. His promises contained in His living word are the keys to different treasuries and storehouses of the Lord. When we continually hold on to our hope in each promise, the “winds” are released, the energy or power of God is released, the oxygen of hope is mixed with our thoughts, words and actions. He causes the clouds and mist of our own limited senses, our doubts, our limited understanding and wisdom to lift to reveal the wonders hidden in His word. The power therein is released like the energy of lightning that accompanies the rain of His blessings. In the early years of our faith walk with the Lord, it falls like rain drops but in the later years, when our faith matures, it falls like a heavy downpour, a veritable flood. The blood of the Lamb, Jesus opened the floodgates of the blessings of heaven upon our lives. King David, once when his soldiers risked their lives and brought him water from across the enemy lines to quench his thirst, showed how he valued their lives over his thirst and spilt the water on the ground. Likewise, we should not take for granted the waters of the Lord’s blessings obtained through His blood and should ever be grateful, joyful and praising our Lord and our God. Jesus crossed over to the enemy lines, embraced sin and became sin to set us free from the indignation of the Lord, to open the treasures and stores of the Father’s house to us who had no right to it. He withholds no good thing from us. When the Father has not spared His Son to save us, will He not share the abundance of His goodness with His own.

The Power of the Word of God

UV 4284/10000 The Power of the Word Of God He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. Revelation 19 v 13 In this vision of Jesus Christ as the Conqueror who is riding a white horse, wearing a white robe dipped in blood, He is described as the Word of God. The robe also has the name inscribed King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. The white robe signifies His purity and sinlessness. It being dipped in blood implies the ultimate and absolute sacrifice He made on the cross. As God, His word is all powerful to act in all situations. It is the sword in His mouth that slays some and gives life to some. It is the sovereign power of the King of Kings. When we memorise the word of God, we are storing divine and sovereign power of God in our hearts and minds. When we pray with the word, we are appropriating that power and grace. When we speak the word, we are releasing that power. When we apply it to our lives, we are releasing it into our lives. When we obey it, we are acknowledging the lordship of Jesus in our lives. Skimmed milk powder when dissolved in water releases all the ingredients and properties of milk. Likewise, the word of God is the power of God, the mercy of God, the hope of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the will of God all combined and when it is dissolved in our lives, it releases these ingredients and properties. The shed blood of Jesus and our faith in it purifies us to be pure in the sight of God. Jesus riding a white horse as the Resurrected Redeemer in contrast to riding humbly on a donkey during His 33 year earthly sojourn is a sign that He is now to be worshipped as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The authority and power and dominion we exercise on earth is exercised in His name and on His behalf. The first creation led to God giving man authority, power and dominion over all creatures on earth. The second creation or redemption by the blood of Jesus gives us authority, power and dominion over all the spiritual powers of darkness that are the prime movers of all crimes, evil and sin on earth. The vision of John has the armies of heaven, all dressed in fine linen, dazzling white and clean, following Him on white horses. It implies that we, as believers also constitute an army in addition to the army of angels following Jesus. The white horses we ride implies that the means that we adopt in our lives should be as pure as our goal to make Jesus known as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our lives are riding on extraordinary spiritual power. We are engaged in spiritual warfare. Our weapons are not carnal or of the flesh or forged of perishable materials of this earth. Our armour is not also of this world but the whole armour of God. Armies of angels are available to help us. Our leadership or commander is not of this world, not mortal but supernatural. Other armies go into war and the soldiers perish while the Commander in Chief stays at a safe distance while our Commander -in-Chief led from the front and died. He died a man but was resurrected as the Word of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Judge of the nations, dispenser of justice. We do not have to fight as our Commander has already won the battle for us. The rest of mankind has kings and lords, of flesh and blood, mortal, sinful, selfish while our Leader is immortal, eternal, sinless, selfless. The words of the kings and lords and rulers or commanders of this world are unreliable, based on lies and half truths while the word of Jesus is the very word of God and reliable to the last letter and word. Nothing, therefore is a threat to us. Nothing is impossible, nothing overwhelms us. All is possible as long as the goal and the means are pure and find favour with God.

To Uproot and to Plant, To Destroy and to Build

UV 4283/10000 To Uproot and to Plant, To Destroy and To Build “It will be that as I have watched over them to uproot and to break down, to overthrow, destroy, and afflict with disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant (with good),” says the Lord. Jeremiah 31 v 28 The Lord watches over us in two distinct ways. Neither evil nor good escapes His ever watching eye. He delights in goodness and abhors evil. He uses His hand in two ways. One, to uproot, to break down, to overthrow the wicked in their complacency and wickedness, to destroy evil and to afflict with disaster the unrepentant, the remorseless, the hardened of heart. Two, to watch over us to build us , to plant us, to establish us, to settle us, to strengthen us. He has a plan not to harm us but to help us. At the same time, He is a consuming fire to the wicked and unrepentant who dig their heels further into evil, who harden their hearts further to disbelieve the goodness and justice of God. In one hand, He holds mercy, love and grace in abundance and in the other, judgement, justice, affliction. Sometimes, He needs to turn our lives upside down before He can work on us, inside-out. Fear of God and love of God are the two faces of our relationship with the Lord. The fear of God will bring us wisdom and restraint in continuing to indulge in what God regards as evil or what is not pleasing in His sight. The love of God keeps us doing all the good we can to all the people we encounter in our lives in one way or another. When both fear of God and love of God are in place, the Lord watches over us to build us, to plant us so that we walk in alignment with His will and His plan for our lives. God is so subtle that He planted nature and the universe in such a way that it appears that it all came into being in a random manner with no divine hand intervening. Likewise, He works out His plan in our lives, concealing His hand so that casual observers will attribute whatever happens in our lives to random chance or what they call luck or fate, when all the time it is nothing that grace that is powering or enabling us. But the faithful and wise are discerning and not so presumptuous. They humble themselves to acknowledge that God is above their knowledge and ability to know. In conformity to the nature of the Lord, as revealed in His word, our prayer life should also follow two patterns- one, to destroy, uproot, demolish strongholds and two, to plant, to build, to cause to grow and flourish the seeds of goodness, mercy, grace of God on earth. Just as the earth is ready and fertile to receive the seed and rain and sunshine to grow and cause to flourish that which is planted in it, the hearts and minds of faithful people in all nations and cultures are seed-ready, eager for the reign and the rain of the blessings of the Lord that cause them to flourish, cause them to be strong, to be joyful, to be always offering up praise, worship and thanksgiving to the Unseen but Faithful One, the Eternal Builder, the Everlasting Planter, the Merciful Master, the Just Judge, the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, physical, moral, spiritual, the seen and the unseen, the visible and the invisible.

The Secrets of Victory

UV 4282/10000 The Secrets of Victory He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes ( the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God), to him I will give ( the privilege of eating) some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it. Revelation 2 v 17 The manna or word of God gives the believer victory in this world. We have to open our hearts and ears to hear and heed the word the Spirit speaks to us as the rhema word or specific communication from God. When we hear the specific word from the Lord we become pacific, not passive, or full of the abundance of peace -the sign of victory over this world. We believe the Word to overcome and we receive the hidden manna when we overcome. The hidden manna are the treasures, the keys to life and eternal life that are encrypted in the word. With these keys of faith, we open many portals in heaven. The portal of healing and deliverance is one of the chief portals. The Lord healed, helped and delivered us, The Lord heals, helps and delivers us now, the Lord will heal, will help and deliver us in the days to come for He is the Lord who was, is and is to come. Having received the hidden manna, we need to eat of it or apply it to our lives, intensively and extensively. When we delight in the hidden meanings revealed to us by the Spirit of God, it delights the Lord and He is moved to give us a new identity in Him. It is a secret identity or new power, grace and authority the Lord grants us, symbolized by the white stone. White symbolizes salvation, purity, peace. The stone as the medium on which our new names are carved by God is symbolic of new strength, new vigour, new fruitfulness that the Lord will manifest in our lives. What the Lord does in and through us will endure and neither end nor bend to the world and its forces of evil and compromise. The reference to the new name on stone is a symbol of the contrast that our thoughts, words, deeds will be to the people who trust only in what they see and hear or their own limited sensory perceptions. Theirs would be like dust while we would resemble the stone that is indestructible. The secret identity or new name the Lord gives us is known only to us, implying only we know and trust the call and purpose the Lord has for each of us. Even our closest and dearest will neither know, understand the call of God on our lives. It remains a secret shared by two lovers, God and each of us. It makes us confident of victory in the here and now and in the hereafter. In this sense, we are more than conquerors who never know how the battle will end, how their lives will end, whether they will be victorious.

The One Habit that Transforms Our Lives

UV 4281/10000 The One Habit that Transforms Our Lives When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “ I am God Almighty, walk (habitually) before Me ( with integrity, knowing that you are always in My presence), and be blameless and complete ( in obedience to Me). Genesis 17 v 1 Abram’s life seemed over to him and others when he had turned ninety-nine. Many might have even thought he had overstayed on earth. But God was about to begin a new covenant relationship with him. He was to give God undivided attention and God in return promised to multiply him. This was a template for success not just for Abram but for all humanity, thereafter. If we follow Abraham’s model and example, the Lord will honour His promise to us in our generation. We are to walk in terms of all our habits, all our actions, all our decisions, all our relationships, all our activities in accordance with the revealed word of God. Walking in conformity to the patterns or templates of the word is transformation. God did not keep His word or His ways secret but made known to us through Abraham and those who followed him till Jesus and indeed, to our very day in a large cloud of contemporary witnesses of the grace and glory of the Lord. The word “ walk” implies that in every step we take, we follow the word of God. We do not deviate to the right or to the left. We do not follow the opinions and ideologies of man but only that which the Author of Life, Jesus makes known to us. Jesus said, “ I am the way..”. We walk in the way of Jesus. We walk with our eyes focused on Jesus even as Jesus walked in obedience to the highest calling to save all mankind with His eyes focused on the crown of King of Kings that followed His obedience to the will and purpose of the Father. We are to walk always conscious that we are in the presence of the Lord God. We are to walk in the midst of threats and insults and accusations knowing that we are clothed or covered by the mighty power and authority of the Author. Though Abraham was faithful to the call of God and obedient in many tests including the painful one of going to the point of sacrificing his begotten son Isaac, he was not blameless. There was some flaws in his character and his walk. Hence, we are called to be blameless like Jesus, the Son of God in our walk before God. We should not seek to vie with each other or to compete but only seek to be complete in our obedience to the Word of God. When we live in this manner, the Lord promises to multiply us. To multiply could be as in the case of Abraham, to transform his life, his old age from barren to fruitful, from being childless to a father to many sons and a father to many tribes, a father to many faiths. To multiply could mean partly to multiply our blessings, our resources, physical possessions, to increase our influence, power, authority, dominion, to extend our legacy. To multiply could mean to increase grace upon grace in our lives.

The Love Of and For the Father

UV 4280/10000 The Love Of and For the Father Pray, then in this way: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your Name. Matthew. 6 v 9 Jesus was for the first time since the creation of man taught man, the crown of His creation to pray addressing God as Our Father. Jesus knew God as His Father but He was revealing to the disciples that His Father was also their Father who loves them and ought to be loved by them. Till then the Israelites knew God only as El Shaddai, the Almighty One to be revered, to be worshipped with awe. For the first time in human history, Jesus was initiating a personal relationship between creature, man and Creator God. It was a giant leap of faith to believe and to know that God is our Father and not just our Creator and that He loves us like He loves His Son Jesus. Like our relationship with our earthly father, He provide, protects, promotes, preserves us. He has compassion on us as a father has on his children. The transformation of our relationship with God is what happens in just these two words by which Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father..” That transformation leads to further to the transformation of our lives for we come to know that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. The time Jesus taught the disciples the Lord’s prayer, He had not been sacrificed and He had not ascended to Heaven, to the Father’s right hand. Hence, the reference to “Our Father in heaven..” After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Father is no longer just in heaven but He is in us. He lives and dwells with us. He is Immanuel and present with us all the time. He inhabits us or is tabernacled in us. He is no longer distant and in heaven but at our right hand or most proximate to us. The third aspect of this uni-verse is that God, though He is our Father and though He is in and with us, we are to recognize that He is different from us, holy, awesome, to be revered. His very name is holy and though we are His children, we are not to take Him for granted or become familiar but always respect His name. As we bear His name as His children, obtained by faith in His Son, we are to be like Him, holy, righteous, principle-centred, worthy to be called His children. In the span of just eight words, Jesus taught us to love God and to live like Him. We exercise power, authority and dominion over all creation in the name of our Father. Our Father is only a prayer away. In fact, He is closer to us than our own skin for He dwells in our souls. In Christ, then, we have fellowship in the trinity of our being-spirit, mind and body with Our Father, His Son-Our Saviour and the Holy Spirit. We belong to the holy family, the community of God. The Father is the head of our family and He leads us in all our ways.

The Wisdom of Morality

UV 4279/10000 The Wisdom of Morality When you build a new house, you shall make a railing ( parapet) around your (flat) roof, so that you do not bring the guilt of (innocent) blood on your house if someone falls from it. Deuteronomy 22 v 8 It is amazing that God ( Jehovah) instructed the Israelites through Moses even about this- prevent any accidental death or injury to anyone in your newly built house. The immediate previous verse speaks of compassion to birds that on finding a nest on a tree, we can take the young but leave the mother. It comes with the promise that all shall go well with us and our days might be prolonged. God expects us to be both proactive and compassionate in all our ways. He is truly the Architect of Architects and instructed the ancient Israelites to even take steps to prevent an accidental fall from their houses. There is also the principle embedded in the word that we are accountable even for an accidental shedding of innocent blood or even cruelty to other creatures like birds. The spirit behind such instructions in the Old Testament is that we are to be conscientious, careful, compassionate even as God is compassionate and just. When we sow injustice in any manner, knowingly or unknowingly, there is a price to pay. Yet God allowed the innocent blood of His own Son, only One begotten of a woman, to be shed so that each of us can obtain grace for our own sins of omission and commission. It would have broken His heart even as it caused great agony to Jesus as witnessed on the rock of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus could have pleaded that even the blood of creatures or a fellow human cannot be shed unjustly but He willingly paid the price for the absolution of mankind of all guilt for willful sins and the hidden, subtle, unconscious sins. The moral codes of humanity are derived from the Judaeo-Christian laws as embodied in this uni-verse. It stems from the belief that God exists and He is just and moral. Hence, we, His creatures and only creatures made in His image, need to obey His laws, His word, abide by His principles. We cannot question the logic behind taking the young birds and to spare the mother bird. We cannot plead that there is no mens rhea or guilty intention in an accidental injury or loss to our neighbours, the ones who are close to us in physical and emotional proximity as defined by Jesus in the story of the Good Samaritan. It is also a logical corollary that when we do not believe in God, then there is no need for sensitivity, morality, compassion. Ironically, much of the contemporary world seem to have no difficulty in accepting the need for a moral code of conduct but not the Law Giver, the Author of that code. The Author alone has the ultimate authority to enforce the code. The rider He has put in serves as a warning we need to heed, "that all shall go well with us and our days might be prolonged." Hence, there is a hidden self interest in all enlightened moral conduct as it is in our own interest we are to be moral, compassionate, righteous and we are by no means, doing God a favour. That said, our righteous conduct of all our affairs pleases the Lord God and He ordains that we are rewarded with " all shall go well.." and a promise of longevity since we respected the rules of life He has prescribed.

Cleansing the Mobile and Living Temples- Our Bodies

UV 4278/10000 Cleansing the Mobile and Living Temples- Our Bodies Jesus said to them, “ It is written ( in Scripture), “ My House shall be called a house of prayer.”; but you are making it a robber’s den. Matthew 21 v 13 The temple cleansing is a metaphor for the cleansing of our own bodies and lives. The cleansing of the temple is, perhaps, the only instance in history of a person using authority and force to end physical abuse of the sacred space of a place of worship. It would mean coming against powerful vested interests as in this case, the money lenders, the traders, the priests who allowed it for their own benefit. These people were robbing the poor and reverential worshippers of their money and stripping the temple of its holiness. Jesus had been questioned by the priests and teachers prior to this about who gave Him authority to exercise such power. He was also questioned about it after he cleansed the temple. The disciples attributed it to the zeal for the Father’s house- the temple. The latter day application of this unusual act of Jesus is that we need to honour God in every way in the place of worship. The ultimate place of worship that God inhabits according to scripture is what is not made with human hands- the human body. We are to submit ourselves to the temple-cleansing authority of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to make our bodies, our very lives a suitable habitation, a place of worship and reverence for the Lord. We are to be holy in all manner of conversation, implying in all and every word we utter. We ought not to allow the enemy to make our bodies or our lives his veritable den wherein he robs us of our peace, joy and strength. We are to use the authority that Jesus gave us to drive out the negative thoughts, words, actions, habits from our lives that rob us of our purity and power. The word, ‘zeal’ means great interest, energy and enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. We need to reflect such interest, energy and enthusiasm in our prayer life. Since we are mobile temples, we need to cleanse ourselves daily of any evil that has willfully or unwittingly entered our lives. We are to be a veritable house of prayer, praise and thanksgiving unto the Lord. The indwelling Holy Spirit sanctifies us and enables us to worship the Lord continually, in all that we think, speak and do. If there is anything that threatens to violate the principles of holiness of the Lord in our lives, we need to use God-given authority to have ourselves cleansed, purified, sanctified. Zeal for God should reflect in cultivating the right set of habits, relationships, setting the right goals and using consistently the right methods to achieve those goals.