Our Mount Horeb

UV 798/10,000 Our Mount Horeb When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him, and said, “ What are you doing here, Elijah?” I Kings 19 v 13 The prophet Elijah had received a death threat from the wicked Queen Jezebel. He travelled forty days and nights to Mount Horeb and took refuge in a cave on the mountain. He heard a word from the Lord to stand on the mountain. We too when we face our greatest challenge should stand on that challenge for our greatest challenge is our Mount Horeb where the Lord will manifest Himself. We should not take cover in the caves of our apprehension, disappointment and despondency. We must not wallow in the shallows of despondency. The Lord will ask us, “ What are you doing here?” We must replace our despondency with our dependency on the Lord. He will show up as He did to Elijah and meet us at the point of our need. It is interesting to see how the Lord did not even address Elijah’s fear and death threat but spoke directly about his next destination, tasks and mission. The word “ manifest” itself means reveal oneself to man. The Bible is God’s manifesto to man. Though God is awesome and powerful, He does not believe in shock and awe tactics. He did not reveal Himself in the mighty wind, the earthquake or the fire on Mount Horeb but He revealed Himself to Elijah in the gentle breeze of a still, small voice. He is present in the whisper of the Holy Spirit. When we seek the Lord in our times of distress, we must not look for Him in signs and wonders but tune our ears to hear His still, small voice. The Lord spoke to Elijah as a person speaks to another. He knew what Elijah was doing on Mount Horeb but He wanted to let him unburden himself by speaking about the imminent death threat. The Lord then gave him specific directions of where he must go and what he must do. He gives him the prophetic means of his deliverance and vindication. He also gives him the succession plan for his prophetic ministry. We too must turn our ‘horrible’ experiences into a Mount Horeb experience where we seek and meet with the Lord manifesting Himself. We may not experience an earthquake, winds or fire but we will certainly hear His still, small voice like the gentle blowing of the breeze that will put to rest our fears and anxieties and give us a clear direction of where to go and what to do. His voice will assuage our fears. His words will encourage us. His presence will empower us. Elijah approached the presence of the Lord with reverence by covering his face with his mantle. We too must recognize that we are unworthy to look upon the face of the Lord. Even the angels cover their faces with their wings as they are in the presence of the Lord. In his brush with Jehovah, Elijah’s mantle picks up the anointing of His presence and when it falls on his successor Elisha, the latter received a double anointing of the power manifested through the life and ministry of Elijah. We cannot enter and leave the presence of the Lord without receiving His anointing. Elijah the one who feared death does not even die but is taken up eventually in a chariot of fire. Jesus is that chariot of fire that rescues us today from death and its consequences. Prateep V Philip

The Good Race, the Good Fight

The Good Race, the Good Fight But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 1 Timothy 6 v 11 It is a great privilege to be called a man of God. But there are no great men of God, there are only men, women and children of a great God. Every believer is a man or woman or child of God. As such, we are called to flee from youthful lusts- lusts that pursue us doggedly not only when we are young or youthful but even when we are much older- sexual lust, lust to possess, pride, egoism, conceit, jealousy, lack of contentment, hatred… On the one hand, the devil sends some of the personal demons we have befriended in the past to pursue us all our lives. We need to flee from these even as Joseph fled from the adulterous wife of Potiphar who was attempting to seduce him. If we fail to do so and entertain such thoughts or desires even for a short while, we will be ensnared. Between bait and bail, we should seek bail. If we cry out to the Lord with a pure heart or a sincere desire to avoid such snares in our lives, He will bail us out of such temptations. These are not figments of imagination but hard reality that the personal demons pursue one lifelong and with such persistence. We need to flee or run faster in the opposite direction, the moment we see or sense these temptations coming our way. The Lord once told me, “ there were temptations coming towards you but you fled in the opposite direction like Joseph.” Even as we increase the pace at which we run away from lusts of the eye, flesh and the pride of life, we should accelerate towards righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness. We must increase in our zeal to possess these for they constitute the veritable Kingdom of God. We need to be passionate in reflecting these qualities in our lives. God wants man to be God-like in terms of these attributes of character but man wants to be like God in terms of position and power. We begin to be righteous and godly when we fear God but we need to grow into the maturity of Christ to be Christ-like in righteous thoughts, speech and deeds, faithful at all times in good times and bad times and till we reach the finishing line. Our focus should not be on our existential struggles and challenges but on the Lord as we run and as we fight. Scriptures says, “ look to the rock from which you were cut, the pit from which you were dug.” We are cut by faith from the eternal Rock-Christ Himself. We were saved from the pit into which He went on our behalf. We should focus on Him to author or write into our DNA these attributes and depend on His grace to develop or finish it into their highest and fullest potential. Jesus uses the agency of the Holy Spirit to birth in us the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control. It is a tall order to develop all these spiritual attributes of character at one and the same time. This is the reason the practical fisher of men,St Peter says, “ first focus on your faith with all diligence to strenghthen it, then to your faith add the evidence of goodness, to goodness add knowledge of the Word and the world, to knowledge add God control or temperance or regulation of our lifestyle and habits, to God control add patience or the ability to wait for results to show up in our lives and the lives of people around us, to patience we need to add godliness or as close a resemblance to Christ as possible, to godliness we need to add kindness and finally to cap it all- love as described by St Paul to the Corinthian church- in what we need to follow or pursue and what we need to flee from”. Shakespeare spoke about the seven stages of life in chronological order but St Peter wrote about these nine stages in our spiritual lives. We need to identify which stage of the race we are in. Very often in this race we return to the first stage where we have only faith to show, having failed in the other areas. But the Lord encourages us to pick ourselves up and the baton for the next stage, whether it is goodness or knowledge or self control or patience or kindness or godliness or love. The good race and the good fight that Paul ran all his life was this internal race and internal fight that all of us need to run and fight all of our earthly lives. We cannot do shadow boxing throwing our punches at some phantom or flesh and blood foe out there but practice our moves out there in the real world of our homes, our workplaces and the streets. Prateep V Philip

Integrity of Heart

Integrity of Heart So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands Psalm 78 v 72 David as a shepherd led his sheep faithfully and diligently to the extent that he staked his life to save them from a lion’s jaws. This was a preparation and grooming for his leading the nation of Israel. He fed the sheep from the pastures on the hills surrounding his home but he fed Israel from the Word he received from the Lord. He was true to the Word except in the matter of his adultery with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite. He truly repented from his heart for that fall from grace when he acted in the flesh and fell to temptation. He humbled himself before God and did not deny his sin. The Lord therefore certified that David is a man after his own heart who did His will. Integrity of heart or oneness with the heart of the Lord comes from hearing the voice of the one true Shepherd, Jesus and obeying His Word in our lives. It is reflected in all that we think,feel, speak and do. It is reflected in our relationships. It is reflected in our professional work. David desired with all his heart to please the Lord and therefore though it was his desire to build the temple of the Lord, he passed on that responsibility to his son Solomon as directed by the Spirit of the Lord. Integrity of heart requires us to discern the feelings of the Lord and to act accordingly. Once our hearts are aligned with the Lord, His Word and His will, we will have wisdom, knowledge, understanding and insight or the skills of leadership that enable us to guide others to the Lord. The Lord will use us to counsel and mentor others in His ways. Leadership that depends too much on skills or charisma or communication tends to fail. Integrity is the first attribute that should be in place. As someone said, with integrity in place, nothing else matters. Without it in place, nothing else matters. Prateep V Philip

Silver Tongues Backed by Golden Hearts

UV 795/10,000 Silver Tongues Backed by Golden Hearts The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. Proverbs 10 v 20 The believer is silver-tongued. What he or she speaks is precious and life-giving. It is compared to choice silver. Scripture says, “ The lips of the righteous feed many.” It feeds the seekers of truth. It feeds the hopeless with hope. It feeds the distressed. It feeds the sick with healing. It feeds the weak with strength from the Word. It feeds the foolish with wisdom from above. It feeds the dying with life. It feeds the directionless and purposeless with a sense of definite direction, purpose and perspective. It makes meaningless life meaningful and the fruitless life fruitful. It feeds the young and the old. It feeds every person according to the need. In order to feed people in this manner, the silver tongue should be backed by a golden heart. In order for our tongue to be of choice silver, we need to run our words through many filters. We must even sift and sort out the motives behind what we speak or teach. Besides, the silver-tongued must be backed by a heart of gold. The natural condition of the human heart is described by scripture as desperately wicked and deceitful. “Desperately wicked” means eager to say and do something wicked. Scripture says interestingly that the imagination of the human heart is evil from our youth. It does not say from our birth or childhood that our imagination and thoughts are evil but as we get conditioned by the world from the days of our youth, we turn out to be deceived and deceiving. We loose our innocence. We loose control of what we think, feel and speak. Our tongues beat like a tuning fork to match the frenetic rhythm of our hearts. It then takes many chastisements and much suffering in the furnace of afflictions to cure us of our inherent wickedness. Out of the afflictions, our hearts will come out as pure gold. By storing the Word and obeying the Word over time, our hearts of stone are transformed into hearts of flesh, our wicked hearts into hearts of gold or hearts that have the stamp of approval of the Lord. It is not as if we regain our innocence but we become as shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves. We need to be shrewd as serpents so that we do not get deceived again and gentle as doves so that we do not deceive or harm others. A heart that is so tuned to the Lord is precious to Him and He is ready to move heaven and earth for such a person. The words that roll off such a tongue is like pure melted silver, the compassion and truths treasured in such a heart is like molten gold. It has great purchase with the Lord. Prateep V Philip

Weapons of Defence and Offense

Weapons of Defence and Offense And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6 v 17 The helmet plays a pivotal role in the whole body armour. As we know an injury to the head can prove fatal or debilitating. The helmet, a metaphor for spiritual armour, protects the head or the leader. Therefore, it is essential we pray for the physical, intellectual and spiritual protection of leaders of the world and of the church. Our prayers act as a virtual helmet on their behalf. When it comes to the individual, it is the hope of salvation that keeps our minds free from fear, worry, anxiety and guilt. The human mind is a pendulum that swings from guilt about the past to fear about the future. When we are saved in Christ, the same mind gets anchored or focussed on Him. Like a ship that is anchored safely in the harbour even when a huge storm is brewing all around, our minds, meaning our thoughts, emotions and decisions remain stable or in equilibrium. It is the assurance of salvation that makes us secure and full of joy. The joy of the Lord is the salvation of His people. We enter into and share in that joy when we receive Jesus as our ultimate and immediate leader. Death, disease and suffering could have stricken us with fear and depression before we wore this helmet. Now these otherwise powerful blows of life leave no impact on us except the noise they make as they strike the helmet on our heads. Whenever we feel sad or depressed,we must ask ourselves if we are wearing our spiritual helmets or have we forgotten to wear our helmets. In the spiritual as on the physical plane, the best form of defence is attack. In order to attack we need a weapon of attack like a sword. The Word is the double-edged spiritual sword that we swing around us to deal with our invisible foe. It is double-edged as it creates change in both the speaker and the hearer. Keeping the Word always at hand is like keeping the sword unsheathed to be used instantly. Keeping the Word in our memory is like holding it in our hands ready to use at any time. Meditating on the Word is like sharpening the edges of the sword. Knowing the specific verse to deal with the specific situation or temptation is akin to an expert swordsman who knows what kind of thrust of the sword is needed in different stages of a battle. It is by using the Word that we are able to bruise the head of the enemy of our souls. The Word is a mighty spiritual weapon to pull down strongholds of disbelief in us and in others. But unlike a sword, it does not take life but it gives life and enhances life. It cuts to the deepest core our being- our beliefs, our souls, our spirit- but instead of leaving us wounded or maimed, it heals, delivers and saves us. The most powerful weapon is not one that kills and destroys but one that gives life and enhances it, one that heals and saves. Prateep V Philip

Attitude Determines Salvation

UV 793/10,000 Attitude Determines Salvation Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Romans 12 v 12 Attitude not only determines altitude: it determines our health, our relationships, our success, the whole course of our days, our life, our rewards and the salvation of our souls. Paul wrote to the early believers to rejoice in hope, to be patient and persevering in trials and troubles of this life and to pray without ceasing. He commended to them the attitude of joy and hope, patience and perseverance. That attitude led them to the action of praying without ceasing. We need to rejoice not in our current circumstances but rejoice in hope. When Joseph saw the dream as a youth, he rejoiced in hope, since he believed the Lord was communicating something precious to him through his dream. When his brothers conspired and cast him in a pit, though the opposite of what he had dreamed was the reality, he held on to the hope of the dream. Though he found the pit painful, he held onto his hope and rejoiced even in the pit. When he was taken out and sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites, he again rejoiced in his hope. When he served Potiphar as a slave, he rejoiced in the hope of his elevation. When he was unjustly condemned to prison on a blatantly false accusation, he was patient and endured that humiliation too. He rejoiced in the hope. When Pharaoh asked him to interpret the “fat cows followed and swallowed by thin cows dream”, he continued to rejoice in hope. It is through a series of tests of hope and patience that the Lord reached him to his divine destiny. The Chinese celebrate the years by giving them names like “ year of the pig” or “year of the dragon” or “year of the monkey”. Believers have only two kinds of years- the year of the fat cow or year of plenty of spiritual milk or year of the thin cow or year of scarcity. Whether it is a year of the fat cow or the year of the thin cow, we should hold on to the hope we have in Christ, a far greater hope than Joseph ever had. For Christ in us is the hope of glory, hope of a share in His inheritance, hope of the abundant life and the life forever or eternal life, hope of salvation, hope of rewards in heaven, hope of deliverance, hope of healing, hope of the promises He has spoken being fulfilled. Whenever we face a current difficult situation, we should not get depressed with the reality of the hardship we are facing but we should rejoice in the hope we have. We should be patient, that the Lord will deliver us from this too. Hope is the fuel of prayer and it is patience that gives it even more mileage. We should pray with faith and without ceasing whether we are in a time of the “ fat cow” or the “thin cow.” Every moment we should be in touch and communion with the Lord. Continuing prayer is the constant vapour of our souls. Prateep V Philip

Stick Like a Leech

UV 792/10,000 Stick Like a Leech The leech has two suckers that cry out, "More, more!" There are three things that are never satisfied--no, four that never say, "Enough!": Proverbs 30 v 15 People resemble leeches in our drive for more and more of money, material goods, fame and pleasure. Nobody knows how much of each of these is enough and turns out to be big time suckers. Yet we do not have enough love, enough peace, enough joy and enough grace. These will come when we show leech-like properties in sticking to the Lord, sticking to His Word, sticking to His presence and sticking to His Spirit. We can never say we have had enough of these. We must cling to what is good and positive and noble and true like a leech. We must let go of what is evil. The leech knows by instinct what is good for it and what produces warm blood for it to suck. Similarly, the Lord has given us discernment to know what is good and what is evil. Just as salt makes a leech let go of a person, animal or object, the Word of God acts as the salt to wean us away literally from what is not pleasing to the Lord. An excess of monetary or material blessings or an excess of popularity or fame, more than we need or more than we can use will cause us to bloat up like a continually sucking leech and burst. When we come across super rich or super glamourous persons, we can tell ourselves, “ Here is a big-time sucker. He or she has no idea when he or she will burst like an over-inflated balloon." The Lord will show us how much we need. At that point, we should know how to say, “ Thank you, Lord. It is enough.” We just need to stick to Him like a leech and suck in His Word on a constant basis. We can ask for more and more of His spiritual wisdom and more and more of His power, grace and mercy to be manifest in our lives. The more we have of these, we will not swell up but we will diminish and He will increase. In the kingdom of God, less is more and more is less. We should focus on getting more spiritual suckers and suction pads working all the time in our lives. Prateep V Philip