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.