Altars that Alter Destiny

UV 1544/10000 Altars that Alter Destiny
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:

Exodus 17 v 15

Like there are several lenses inside a telescope, beginning with the eyepiece leading to a magnifying lens in the middle and one at the end, one uni-verse leads and opens onto another uni-verse. Each uni-verse is a lens through which we can view the leadership of God acting in human history. The above uni-verse opens onto the verse in Song of Solomon chapter 2 verse 4: “He brought me to his banqueting house and his banner over me was love.” The implication is that when we erect the altar of worship in spirit and truth, it leads up to the banner of victory being erected over our lives, our homes, our workplaces, our families. Abraham erected an altar of sacrifice before the Lord or Jehovah Jireh and the Lord blessed him with abundance while Moses experienced victory over the powerful foe Pharaoh and the army of Egypt. Jehovah reveals Himself as the God of Victory or Success in our lives. Moses erected the altar to Jehovah Nissi as a mark of his thanksgiving and worship for the victory the Lord gave the Israelites over Amalek, a kingdom that was resisting their advance towards the promised land.


Today, many people have made success their god while Jehovah Nissi is the God o who gives lasting and real success or victory. When we raise an altar of remembrance, of thanksgiving, of worship and sacrifice before the Lord, He will raise a banner or flag of victory in our area of challenge. He will bring us into his banqueting house or in other words, we will hear news of victory and success in our ears and in our homes and lives that causes us to rejoice, celebrate and raise an altar to Jehovah Nissi. In a banquet many dishes and delicacies are served. There is laughter and music. Similarly, the Lord wants to hear the voice of rejoicing in the tabernacles of the righteous.


The Lord establishes victory for us not with His might or His power but by His Spirit. This is the lens at the end of the telescope. He does things not instantly. He has not promised us instant news but good news and great news. We should not be impatient but rest and rejoice in the assurance of ultimate and complete victory as promised by the Lord. Joshua had to combat 31 kings and wrest victory before he could lead Israel into the promised land. Similarly, we have to combat 31 kings before we have final and complete victory. In other words, we combat one king or other of the spirit realm every day of the month. We should not become worried or doubtful but fix our eyes on the banner of love that Jehovah has surrounded us in His Son Jesus. We should raise an altar of thanksgiving like Jacob did at Bethel, as Abraham did with the altar to Jehovah Jireh and Moses did with the altar to Jehovah Nissi. In the course of our lives, we can raise as many altars as Jehovah has manifestation-declaring names.

Prateep V Philip

Leadership and the Power to Bless

UV 1543/10000 Leadership as the Power to Bless

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Psalm 103 v 1

The power to bless is associated with divinity. Yet how did David dare to bless the Lord? It is on account of the divinity that dwells in every child of God that we can bless the Lord. David commanded his own soul to bless the Lord. To bless implies to lift up, to enlarge, to exalt, to cause good to happen. The Lord has no need of man’s help. Yet He feels gratified when we bless Him. He will not repent for having created us and thereafter redeemed us with Jesus. We are called to be leaders who are a blessing to the world and not a curse or a burden. If we have the power to bless God, then how much more we have power and responsibility to bless those whom we are leading or serving or teaching. The important thing to note is that we do not bless in our own right but in the name of the Lord.

David goes on to direct all that is within him to bless the holy name of God. What lies within us includes all of our faculties, all of our organs, all of our plans and visions, all of our achievements and failures, all of our memories, all of our desires and hopes. The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote : “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” This is not necessarily true but when read and lived in conjunction with our faith in the living God, then what lies ahead of us and what lies behind us will become tiny matters. The word “holy” also means holistic. We need to bless people in all dimensions of life and not just appeal to their intellectual or emotional faculties. Without factoring in God, how can we understand life? Without understanding life, how can we come up with an adequate response to our challenges? We need to bless the Lord’s name with all of our best- our faculties, our conscience, our dreams, our desires, hopes, thoughts, emotions, imagination, talents, wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Since we are called to be His own, we are also called after the Lord’s name. With all these resources and abilities and potential that lies within us we need to bring glory to the Lord’s name. The means we adopt to achieve our goals should bring glory to His name. Our ambitions and goals should bring glory to His name. David went to battle the giant Goliath with inadequate training, inadequate experience, inadequate weapons but he went with abundant faith that made up for every inadequacy. He went in the name of His Lord and God, in the name of the God of Israel. That testimony is a blessing for three generations and a blessing to the name of the Lord. The Tabernacle or temple of ancient Israel had many parts with different functions and purposes but the ultimate purpose was to worship and glorify God. Similarly, all that lies within us is meant to glorify or bless the name of the Lord.

Our desire to provide for ourselves and our families is not something that is not of God but of God. It is blessed by Him. Our efforts to do so will bless the Jireh dimension of His name. Our desire to be channels of peace and to be problem solvers blesses the Shalom dimension of His name. Our desire for wisdom and counsel is blessed by the Rohi or Shepherd dimension of His name. Our triumphs and victories over trials, tribulations and persecution blesses the Nissi dimension of His name. The healing that we pray for ourselves and others blesses the Rapha dimension of His name. When we deal with our own inner weaknesses and the pulls and pressures to yield to external temptations or to conform to the world instead of His word, we are blessing the El Shaddai dimension of the name of God. Every exercise of faith blesses or lifts up the name of the Lord. When we use every talent and gift we have been endowed with and utilise every opportunity we are given, we are blessing the name of the Lord.
Prateep V Philip

Destined For Leadership

UV 1542/10000 Destined for Leadership
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
Psalm 115 v 12

The Lord has His mind full of us and our well being. He is ever conscious of us. He is aware of our names, our needs, our challenges. His intellect is focussed on plans for our well being and future. His emotions are centred on our happiness. His decisions, actions and interventions are fixed on securing His will and desire for our lives. He is preoccupied with our present joy, future hope and eternal destiny. From His perspective, the eternal outweighs the past, present and future. This is the reason He allows a measure of suffering and trials in the lives of His chosen. Nothing in history or science or the contemporary compares with the value of the eternal. The price to live forever in the presence of God is very high and cannot be paid for by a man’s good deeds or by following certain rites, rules and rituals. It was paid for in full by His Son Jesus. He gave us this right to be part of Israel or the commonwealth of Israel and gave us the key of David- faith to enter therein. The blessing on David’s forefather Abraham was passed on to us by faith. We use the key of David to enter the house of Israel –to have a personal relationship with God. Now it is our turn to be mindful of God.

Only a true priest of God is always mindful of Him. We are to move from just being a believer of Jehovah or an Elijah to being part of the house of Aaron: a closer bonding with the Lord, dedicated and serving the Lord. We are called to continually worship the Lord, to intercede for those who have not yet entered the house of Israel. We exist not for our own pleasure but for the pleasure of the Lord. Our own blessing and rewards are like meat for sustenance of the worker. When we fulfil our onus or our responsibilities as a priest, He gives us a bonus- or what is good for us and our families. He gives us the anointing He gave Aaron and the anointing He gave David. We need to have the heart of sacrifice of a priest, the reverence for God that a priest has. God is our employer. He pays our wages. We need to have the strength, boldness and courage of a king like David.

The Lord’s ear is always open to our prayers and cries of our hearts. He hears us even before we pray or a word is uttered from our mouths. He will bless us as He blessed Israel and as He blessed Aaron and his generations. The blessings of Israel are listed in the first fourteen verses of Deuteronomy 28. We are blessed wherever we are. We do not have to go in search to any place or person in pursuit of blessing. We are destined for increase. We are destined for safe keeping and security. We are destined for success in everything we do. We are destined for holiness. We are destined for true and blessed fame and true riches. We are destined to rule. We are destined for leadership and primacy. For these aspects of our destiny to be fulfilled, for our heritage to be claimed and enjoyed, we ought to be mindful of the commands and enthusiastic in believing and claiming the promises of God. We are destined to be in the presence of the Lord and to serve Him and His people. Our life will not be without struggles. But instead of struggling with God, we will only hereafter struggle with our common enemy and those of our own kind. Like Israel we will be surrounded by enemies of different kinds and few faithful friends. Like Joseph, we might be betrayed by our own brothers. Like Jesus, we might be let down by our own but each trial and struggle will make us better and not bitter for He is with us as Immanuel and Ebenezer. He will fight for us and give us testimonies out of all our tests and trials.

Prateep V Philip

Fountains and Filters

UV 1541/10000 Fountains and Filters
As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
Psalm 87 v 7

All our fountains are in the Lord: all our sources of joy, of peace, of growth, of prosperity, of abundant and eternal life, of victory, of blessings, of mercy and grace are found in the Lord. These are springs that are hidden underground in the Word and proceeds as open streams in our visible or observable lives. If we look at our bodies: The whole body consists of a series of fountains and filters: the heart sets off fountains as does the brain - fountains of thoughts and emotions. The lungs- fountains of air. The kidneys are filters. Similarly, to lead our lives we need a series of fountains and filters- fountains of joy, hope, peace, energy, ideas and filters of words, emotions, thoughts. The fountains are symbolic that all our thoughts, desires, emotions, words and actions. Like a fountain, we might notice a rhythm of rise and fall of our energy levels, our emotions, our faith, joy and love. This is fine as long as it falls to rise again or there is a constant renewal of our inner being in the waters of salvation. The word “ water” is an acroustic in this context for wisdom that is spiritual not worldly, assurance of salvation and faith, talent and temperament working together for the glory of God, energy and emotions yoked to Christ and relationship with God and mankind marked by love.

The waters of the eternal springs, the rivers of life giving water that bubbles forth from our hearts should not be muddied by our negative thoughts, negative words, limiting beliefs, disbelieving actions and reactions. We need to have filters of our thoughts, filter on our mouths to drain out the negative words, filters on our emotions. We need the Holy Spirit to filter out our pride, lust, jealousy, selfishness, greed and vanity. We need to place filters on our hearts for the Lord has warned us to guard our hearts for out of it are the issues or fountains of life. The filters are at least as important as the fountains. Wisdom is an effective filter on our thoughts and words. Our love for the Father and Jesus act as a restraint or filter on many negative thoughts, words and actions. The filters should be used to remove the dregs, the impurities, the deposits, the dross of the world that tends to mix with the pure waters of the fountains of eternal life.

When all our fountains and filters are in place and working in unison and effectively, we will be ready to use all our instruments or resources and gifts to glorify, magnify, adore, worship, praise and thank the Lord. Without the filters, the sources of our joy and peace will get dried up or dirtied. Without being filled with joy and peace, we cannot overflow with the hope in Jesus. Without the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, we will get wearied, worried and demotivated. We will be like the old men who get tired and young men who get exhausted with all our striving in flesh and blood. When the fountains and filters are working well, the rainbow of God’s covenant will be seen across the whole spectrum of our lives: timely rain or help from above, abundant crop or productivity, protection and restoration from spoilers and distractors, financial provision, spiritual anointing, deliverance and blessings upon our families.

Prateep V Philip

Iron and Bronzen Qualities

UV 1540/10000 Iron and Bronzen Qualities

For behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

Jeremiah 1 v 18

We who trust God and His Word are a fortified city. We serve the purpose of the Lord both individually and collectively. The promises of God are our ramparts and strong defence. It is like an iron pillar that can withstand corrosion. We have in us the strength of a bronzen wall- bronze combining the strength and qualities of many metals. The Lord builds His Kingdom within us and through and with us. We have the combined strength of the Trinity, the Word, our spirits. Iron is a symbol of strength and discipline. Our appetites are disciplined. Like Daniel and his faithful companions, we have no desire for what defiles the image of God in us. The empire of Babylon has not prevailed. Its wonderful structures have all perished but the shining example of Daniel and his friends continue to inspire people to this day to live a life of faith. The armies of Babylon, the fineries, the palaces have all perished with barely a trace left in history. The values, principles, models and precepts the Lord has taught us over time are converted into practices or habits. The Lord uses these to remove our feet of clay or our weaknesses and to remove our feet that are stuck in the miry clay of this world and put us on the Rock of ages.

Neither political or military power nor religious influence or common people can prevail against the faithful. We are like an invisible iron pillar of strength, a bronzen wall of the kingdom of God. We in turn lean on Jesus as our tower of power- our source of strength, power and grace. Prayer, study and meditation on the Word, praise and worship, fellowship and witness determine our mettle as well as the shape of our lives. Iron is not that malleable while bronze is malleable. Hence, in the basics of our faith we should be less flexible like iron while in all other things we can be like the more flexible or malleable bronze. We can like Paul become all things to all people so that some may be saved.

All the military hardware, the technological innovations and sources of power of the modern world will one day perish like the wonders and might of Babylon but the life of faith will continue to prevail and inspire people. The Lord is not impressed by genius or brilliance or might but He is touched by the prayers of the faithful and humble. The metaphor the Lord uses for people who please Him are varied, colourful and meaningful: the salt and light of the earth, a well-watered and fenced garden, a spring whose waters never dry, a city on a hill, clay to the potter, an iron pillar and bronzen wall. An iron pillar is a symbol of victory. An iron pillar endures and beats the worst that nature can throw at it. Similarly, our faith will endure despite all changes in our environment and happenings in our lives. The Lord has designed us to be a symbol of victory and blessing. We are to be like a glass prism to split the white light of His grace and power into seven blessings of the rainbow : timely inputs for our growth and flourishing like the former spring rain and the latter rain at the time of harvest, restoration of what we have lost, making up not only for lost time but for lost opportunities and lost blessings of peace and joy, deliverance, financial provision, miracles or wonders that our eye has not seen or our ears have not heard, vision and blessings on family and offspring or generations to come.

Prateep V Philip

Leaders are Climate Changers

UV 1539/10000 Leaders are Climate Changers

And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.
I Kings 17 v 24

Elijah was a nobody who came from somewhere in 9th century BC Israel. His ancestry was not known. He came from Tishbe in Gilead and was called Elijah, the Tishbite. The name “Elijah” means “Jehovah is my God.” His name proclaimed his faith in Jehovah. God clothed him with power on high. There are different kinds of power the Lord bestows on His chosen vessels: sustaining power, overcoming power, overwhelming power and wonder-working power. All types of power were manifested in Elijah’s life. He had overwhelming power for when he said that it would not rain or drop dew for three years, God confirmed the word of his mouth as truth. The Lord counselled Elijah on making a strategic retreat after his word of prophecy of drought for three years. He was sustained in the desert with water from the brook at Terebith and with meat and bread brought to him by ravens. He overcame his fear of the power of King Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel. When the widow of Zarephath cried out for her son’s life, Elijah resurrected the child by lying on his dead body. When Elijah offered a sacrifice, the Lord sent down fire to consume his offering. The Lord vindicated the words of Elijah’s mouth and proved it to be His own.

We too might be ordinary people like Elijah in terms of our background or where we come from. But the Lord has called us to be extraordinary. When the word of the Lord is constantly in our mouths and on our minds, He will anoint us with sustaining power- we do not have to worry over what we will eat or drink even during a time of famine. The Lord will provide our need. He will give us overcoming power to speak the word with authority as Elijah did. He will give us overwhelming power against our mortal foes and enemies. He will give us wonder-working power. He will not let a word from our mouths fall to the ground without being fulfilled. He will cause miracles to happen that will manifest His awesome power. He will give us power over the elements of nature- to command the rain to cease and to fall. Our sacrifices will be acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.

The powers manifested in our lives are not to draw attention to us but to point people to God. There were different seasons in Elijah’s walk with God. He was willing to stand up for God and speak on His behalf the uncompromising word. Therefore, the Lord chose to honour him and his words. The climax of Elijah’s leadership was his being taken away in a chariot of fire. Elijah was a king-shaker, king-remover, king-anointer. He did not forecast the weather. Yesterday, many world leaders at the UN met to focus on the phenomenon of climate change. Elijah was the cause of climate change. God chose to establish him and his words as He establishes us and our words in this day and time. He wants us to be climate changers like Elijah in the 21st century. Like the widow at Zarephath and the people of Israel and King Ahab were witnesses of the extraordinary presence and power of God with Elijah, the least to the greatest in the land we dwell in will be witnesses to the presence and power of God in our lives.

Prateep V Philip

Greatness - A Legitimate Aspiration and Attribute

UV 1539/10000 Greatness – A Legitimate Goal and Natural Attribute

In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.
Haggai 2 v 23


The first words in the uni-verse “In that day..” implies that it happens on a day or time set by God and that it happens in real time or historic time. The Lord God is the Lord of the armies of angels. No nation or ruler however mighty can withstand the power of God. He takes us as He took Zerubbabel, a descendant of David for we too are spiritual descendants of King David. He has called us to be governors of the spiritual realms. He has chosen us. He has anointed us. He has equipped us. He has empowered and enabled us by His grace. He will make us as a signet ring- a symbol of authority of the Lord. The Lord takes us as we are- our natural selves with all our strengths and weaknesses and polishes us over a long period to be a flawless stone that can be used as a seal. We are a precious ring on the finger of the Lord. We are a metaphor of the sovereignty, majesty, regality, dignity and power of God. What the Lord executes in this world requires the stamp of this ring. We are servants of the Most High. It makes us not an easy “push-over” but powerful people who act at the behest and on behalf of the Sovereign Lord.


The Lord has sealed us as His own. The Lord has sealed us with great peace, joy and power. We in turn need to give His seal of approval to the people and actions that please the Lord. The Lord will use us to bring forth the fruit of the spirit in abundance. He will bless the seed that we sow with our prayers, thoughts, words and actions.

A true leader needs by definition to be a servant of God. Or else he or she will be a servant only of self or of the enemy of humanity. Jesus said that all those who came before or after Him on their own authority are thieves and robbers or agents of the enemy. In contrast, we are servants of the Highest. We are called to be great leaders, not ordinary or mediocre leaders. We have to do our utmost to serve the Highest. Greatness is a legitimate goal or aspiration of every one of us. Jesus said, “ The more we serve, the greater we become.” The concept of chosenness needs to be understood. The Lord has chosen us and we have acquiesced willingly in His choice by virtue of our faith. We have chosen to be chosen. Faith affects our intentions, thoughts and habits. We become a warrior in the hand of the Lord. The intentions and thoughts are the shaft of the arrow and the habits or regular actions that we do every day of our lives in the name of the Lord like studying and applying the Word of God is the arrowhead of flint stone. Our prayers are the sling on which we cast the smooth stones of God’s promises into the forehead of the Goliaths or the challenges we face every day.


Prateep V Philip