The Shadow That Produces Light

UV 3725/10000 The Shadow that Produces Light For our fathers did not possess the land of Canaan by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, because You favoured and delighted in them. Psalm 44 v 3 The Lord has commanded victories and deliverance for us. We do not trust our own strength and our own power and weapons but we trust in the Lord. He favours and delights in us. He who is greatest is in us, He who is most powerful is in us, He who is most loving is in us and He is far greater than our common enemy of our souls. He directs victories, success and deliverance to visit us in all that we do or battle or struggle against- even the principalities and powers of darkness of this fallen world. The presence of God with us casts a shadow of protection, blessing and provision upon us. His is the only shadow that does not cause darkness but throws abundant light upon us. We need to constantly and continually walk in His shadow. As long as we please Him, His shadow remains strongly upon us but when we move away or disobey and displease Him, the Holy Spirit will move away from us. As long as His favour rests upon us, He will satisfy us with good things, with long life and after that eternal life. We should not depart or move to the right or left of His shadow or His presence. He is the anchor of stability and peace and strength in and for our souls. The word of God is the anchor chain that connects to the anchor of Jesus. An anchor has three hooks to lodge onto – our three hooks to connect to the Rock of Christ are prayer, praise and the word. The Lord moves ahead of us, beside us and behind us as a mighty warrior. He battles on our behalf and we only need to remain still in Him. His ten fingers are mingled with ours and He blesses whatever we do. He causes the desert in our lives to bloom, He causes the water to spring forth from dry rock. His banner over us is victory, His banner is love. His banner over us is joy. He delights in us and establishes us for we are the instruments to establish His Kingdom in human hearts.

God

UV 3724/10000 God But the Lord is the true God and the God who is Truth; He is the living God and the everlasting King. The earth quakes and shudders at His wrath, and the nations are not able to endure His indignation. Jeremiah 10 v 10 This uni-verse gives some attributes of God- that He is true, that he is Truth personified, that He is living and that He is the everlasting King. The earth shakes at His anger. The nations will not be able to endure the full extent of His anger. This uni-verse reveals some dimensions of the Lord God- His truthfulness, His living and real nature, His kingship. Since He is the only King who lives forever, whom the earth or the inanimate and the nations or the animate, both fear and obey, He alone is truly Sovereign and King. He is the only King who both nature and human beings and all creatures obey. Though the verse speaks only of the wrath of God, the fact that the Lord is not unleashing His anger all at once or all the time on the earth and the nations or all people shows that He is loving, merciful, compassionate, caring. As humans, we need to revere Him much more than earthly rulers. We need to both love and revere Him – a kind of loving awe that a child has for her father. He tempers His power and its exercise with truth. He is uncompromising. We can infer that He is just. He is wise, He is faithful. There is no truth apart in this universe from God. There is no truth in this universe He does not know. His knowledge is infinite while ours is very limited and restricted. We need to be still in the presence of God to sense, to feel, to experience His love, His power, His wisdom, His grace, His mercy, His awesomeness. Any issue we face in life we should bring it to His throne of power, His throne of justice, His throne of grace, His throne of mercy. We need to humble ourselves as we are tiny beings created in His image like Lilliputians before Gulliver or the proportion is even more extreme. We need to be aware and acknowledge at every moment, every day, every way His greatness, His incomprehensible desire to rule us, to love us, to redeem us.

Built to Last, Built to Shine

UV 3723/10000 Built to Last, Built to Shine IF we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He will also deny us; 2 Timothy 2 v 12 If we endure till the end, then we will reign with Jesus. He is the Eternal King. IF we die with Him, we will also live with Him forever. If we cleave to Him, He will not leave us. If we cleave to Him, we will not perish. IF we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we declare that we belong to Him, He will acknowledge that we belong to Him before the Father. To die with Him, we need to hand over the reins of our lives, the controls to Jesus. When we do so, He rules in us. He will command every thought, word and action as well as reaction. This is what is meant by dying to our own wills, egos, sinful selves. In so doing we are denying ourselves the right to sin that came to be our heritage due to the first disbelief and disobedience of God’s word. Disbelief precedes disobedience, belief precedes obedience. Hence, if faith is genuine, belief should be followed by obedience in all aspects of our lives. We need to endure suffering, persecution, insults, troubles till the end of our lives. Much of these are visited on us on account of our faith in Jesus. But we are not alone as we suffer. The Lord Jesus is with us in our suffering. He wipes our tears as they fall. He allows us to go through such suffering as He wants to build us as a lighthouse on the Rock. The Rock is Jesus. The light are our thoughts, words and actions as well as reactions. We should be built strong, implying we should be able to endure the fiercest storms as well as the continual buffeting of the waves of fortune and human woes. We should not only endure suffering but the frailties of our nature, our flesh, our minds, the world and the temptations that it exposes us to. We are not only to be built to last or to endure but we are to built high so that the light from us is seen even at the distant horizon where people (ships) heading for destruction on the rocks or heading to be trapped in the shallows and sands of life can see the Light of Jesus and steer clear of the rocks and the sandy bars. A lighthouse casts it light not just in one direction but in all directions or 360 degrees. We, too if we reign with Christ, if we deny ourselves, if we live in Him, should shine in 360 degrees or in all that we think, speak and do.

True Enlightenment

UV 3722/10000 True Enlightenment They looked to Him and were radiant; Their faces will never blush in shame or confusion. Psalm 34 v 5 In world history, a few people are said to be enlightened who have gained understanding and wisdom. But true enlightenment comes not from the inner being but from the Eternal Being. It does not come from deep study, great experiences or penance. The light of the Lord flashes on us, enlightening our faces, enlightening our minds, enlightening our paths, enlightening our lives. When He enlightens us, we feel enlivened. When He enlightens us, we are enlarged. When HE enlightens us, our burdens are lightened. As we look to Him and focus on Him, our faces are ever radiant. We will not have mourning or sad faces. Even while we mourn we meditate on His word. His face shining on us is a sign and a source of His favour. When we have His favour, we enjoy the flavour of life in every season of our lives. When we have fervour for His name and His word, we enjoy His favour. We will not be put to shame or be confounded. We have clarity of vision or the purpose of our lives. We will be able to fulfill the mission impossible. The Lord looking upon us is a sign of His approval, that He is pleased with our faith and obedience. When our hearts are filled with the word, with songs of praise and thanksgiving, we please the Lord. He will lift His face upon us. He will shine on us like the noonday sun in all its brightness. His favour upon us will cause sorrow and sadness to disappear from our minds. He gives us His perfect peace. The peace of God surrounds us and guides us to victory. We might have many struggles in life but the peace of God that leads us to victory will fill us with His joy, His assurance. The Lord will bless us, keep us from evil and harm, sustain us and guard us. The charisma we are anointed or adorned with is not a physical charm but a spiritual anointing that seems to flow out of our flesh as it were. The enemy and his earthly or human agents might try to defeat us, put us to shame but the Lord will defend us. His banner of victory over us that He erects is one of love, eternal love in Christ, agape love, everlasting, unchanging and not diminishing.

The Elixir

UV 3721/10000. The Elixir You were wearied by the length of your road, yet you did not say, “ It is no use.” You found renewed strength, therefore you did not grow weak. Isaiah 57 v 10 When we are wearied by the things happening to us or around us, we should not confess negatively. Instead, we should do three types of spiritual exercise – prayer, praise and meditation of the word of God. Hence, Paul wrote, “ Physical exercise is of some value but spiritual exercises are of far greater value.” When we do these three spiritual exercises daily, regularly or continually, the words that come to our mind are those that renew our youth so that we will run and not grow tired, we will walk and not faint. The Lord promises to renew our youth right into our old age. Hence, prayer, praise and the word are like the only elixir that God has given to man. When we store His word in our hearts, it will overflow often into our minds and from there into our mouths to influence positively our lives and that of the hearers. The word is the source of the rivers of life giving water that the Spirit of God will cause to flow from our bellies or inner being. We need to decode or discover the weaknesses in our lives, the burdens, the flaws in our character and decide to hand it over to the Lord to turn it into His strengths to display His glory. In our weaknesses is His strength and glory revealed. There is no unknown road for the Lord. There is no path too difficult or rough for Him to traverse. He knows where every road ends. He knows the obstacles or hurdles or challenges coming up on each road we take. He has the entire roadmap of our lives. Hence, when we pray He either warns us of the hurdles, removes it or strengthens us to go through, around or over it. It is my testimony for a man who was severely wounded in a human bomb and drowned to death in the sea, that the Lord continually renews my youth. He strengthens my frame, the bones which itself carry scores of steel pellets from the bomb. Samson’s secret of strength lay in his seven locks of uncut hair but my secret of renewed strength and youth and vigour is the joy of the Lord. I daily meditate on His word and then delight in doing what His word and will wants me to do. He is the great Physician, the Specialist of Specialists, the only One who can heal both spirit, mind and body and of any ailment or weakness. He is our Creator, our Mechanic who knows every defect in us and how to rectify us. In any physical healing, we need a doctor, the medicine and the faith, willingness as well as discipline to take the medicine as recommended to us. Likewise, in the areas of our weakness or ailment or burden, we need the presence of the Lord, His word being our internal medicine, His Spirit the external balm and our discipline to apply the word to our lives.

Mighty Warrior with A Mighty Weapon

UV 3720/10000. Mighty Warrior with a Mighty Weapon But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. Jeremiah 20 v 11 THE WORD of the Lord is like a fire shut in our bones. It energises, strengthens our otherwise weak frame. It is a powerful weapon that makes us powerful from within. It turns our tongue into a sword of the Lord to execute His will on earth. When we speak in His name and speak His word, the Lord undertakes to be like a mighty warrior who goes before us as a pilot, beside us as a guard, behind us as an escort, above us as a shield. The uni-verse promises that our persecutors, our foes, our opponents, our enemies will be dispersed. They will stumble and fall into the very pit they dig for us, get caught in the snares they prepare for us. They will not prevail as long as we avail the grace of God. They will be thoroughly defeated, dishonoured and disgraced. When our minds and mouths are filled with His word, we become like a “joy stick”, full of gladness and joy and inner strength. His word is like a hammer within us that will break, demolish any internal and external strongholds that the enemy has built in us or around us. It will not return void or without fulfilling that which the Lord has sent it to do. The Psalmist David wrote, “He sent His word and healed us of our destructions.” His word like a hammer will destroy our internal self destruction buttons like lust, anger, pride, fear that sin and transgression have constructed and operated hitherto in us. We become a weapon of mass and class destruction. They will fail in their plans and plots and we will succeed, be honoured, vindicated and be ever victorious. We will leave a legacy of faithfulness and testimony and blessing behind us when we leave. If the Lord is a mighty warrior on our behalf who nullifies the plans of the enemy against us, to kill, steal and rob us, we are His powerful weapon. He will use us to sift the enemy, to shift mountains, to shake nations, to tear down strongholds. He will transform us from being sinners into winners who winnow the mountains, bit by bit and separate the chaff from the grain, the sheep from the goats.

Awesome Works and Word of God

UV 3718/10000. Awesome WORKs and Word of God How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep (beyond man’s understanding). Psalm 92 v 5 The Lord has made us glad not only by His word but by His works. We can glorify Him in our hearts when we see the work of His hands, the waves of the ocean, the sky in its many hues, the clouds in its varied shapes, the stars in the firmament, the beauty of nature. We have enough on earth and in our lives that we can keep praising, thanking and worshipping Him forever. His word reveals the thoughts behind His works that is too deep for us to fathom on our own, too high to gauge with our own senses. We deepen our understanding like the trenches of the ocean by continually reflecting on His word. The breaks in our meditation can be used by rejoicing in His works. His works and His word inspire us to greatness, to plumb depths in us that we never knew existed, to climb heights we never thought we could ever climb. We need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to aspire, inspire and perspire. Nothing is possible without His help and everything is possible with His help. He keeps shifting the boundaries of possibilities in our lives so that we experience what eye has not seen, nor ear heard nor entered our imagination. We can never say we are bored if we engage in such continual adoration of God with our every thought, word, action. He keeps His ear close to our mouths, even our minds to hear every whisper of praise and awe we utter at His works and His word. Even what we mutter or sigh matters to Him. He rebuilds the ruins of lost dreams in our hearts. He wipes our tears and blots out our transgressions as if we never sinned. No relationship of man with man or even woman can be as close, as intimate, as blessed as our relationship with the Lord. However much we have tasted of His love, however much we know of Him, He always has surprises.

Breaking the Yoke

√UV 3717/10000 Breaking the Yoke Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry for help, and He will say, “ Here I am.” If you take away from your midst the yoke (of oppression), the finger pointed in scorn ( toward the oppressed or the godly), and (every form of ) wicked ( sinful, unjust) speech. Isaiah 58 v 9 When our lives please the Lord, He will hear our call, our cry for help. He will rush to our side and flash His light on our faces to take away the gloom, the sadness, the source of anxiety. He takes away the yoke or bondage of suppression, oppression and repression that our enemies subject us to. He will deal justly and swiftly with those who point a finger or falsely accuse, despise the godly, the righteous by faith and grace. He will set us free from every type of wickedness, insults, humiliation, exploitation. THe Lord removes some heavy yokes from our lives even while lightening our burden or yoke by answering our cry for help. The Lord gives us abundant provision and perfect protection against the unjust, the wicked, the violent, the oppressive, the cruel, the scornful, the insolent and proud. He will continually guide us, satisfy our souls in sun-scorched places. He strengthen and establishes our foundation of whatever we do so that we are secure and strong in Him. He makes us like a fenced, well watered fruit garden that produces a different fruit and blessing every month. He makes us like an eternal spring that never dries up, whose water never fails. His word is the veritable spring water that never fails to quench our thirst and hunger for righteousness, for God Himself. Our bones will never dry up as it is moist with hope in Christ. The Lord will use us to rebuild His temple, to rebuild the relationship between God and man. Hence, we are called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer. He will use us to rebuild the ruins as He runs our lives. We will take pleasure in doing the Father’s will in all that we do or attempt to do. He will cause His light to break out in our lives like the dawn and make us shine like the noon day sun. His righteousness will be our vanguard, the pilot that clears the path before us even as His protective glory will be our rear guard or escort. We need to show our gratitude for the abundance of His provision by sharing what the Lord has blessed us with the needy, the homeless, the poor, the challenged, the destitutes. We need to show our thankfulness to the Lord for the perfection of His protection by being a shade to the homeless. We become extensions of God’s hand of provision and protection to the hungry, needy, broken, homeless, weak, helpless.

Perception, Reception and Conception

UV 3716/10000 Perception, Reception and Conception The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the (omnipotent) Lord has made both of them. Proverbs 20 v 12 We ought to hear and see not as man hears and sees but as God sees and hears. The Lord is sensitive, all knowing, all seeing, all hearing. We need to avoid superficial seeing and hearing and choose supernatural seeing and hearing. We should also be aware that the Lord who has made our wonderful ears and eyes is able to see and hear us, every word and every thought and emotion He sees and hears. We cannot hide anything from Him. He is the source of every human faculty and power. He is the Omnipotent and omnicompetent One. We are who we are by His grace. We are what we are by His grace. We are where we are by His grace. We need to quieten ourselves and be still and listen to His voice, His word. It enables us to see and hear the Lord. His word is a supernatural lamp that enables us to feel, see and hear the Lord who is invisible to all others who rely only on their natural senses. The priest’s ears were anointed in the Hebrew tradition so that he will be enabled to hear God. His eyes were anointed so that He will see God and the invisible realm. His lips were anointed so that his lips of knowledge of God and His ways are a precious vessel of preciousness that will save, preserver, encourage, enable the hearers. When our hearing and seeing are so blessed by the Lord, we experience the power of God in all aspects of life, in 360 degrees, 365 days of the year. We need to pray for such deeper hearing and deeper seeing. Then, our eyes will not be lit up by the sun’s rays but the Son’s grace. Our ears will pick up not just physical sounds but the deep wisdom, revelation and insight of the Lord. For this to happen, from time to time in a day, we should zone out of this world and zone into the O-zone- the zone of omnipotence, omnilove, omniscience, omnipresence of the Lord God. The Holy Spirit seeing our earnestness, our zeal will quicken or enable our ears to hear God, our eyes to perceive the Lord. When the old man, Simeon perceived Jesus, the infant in His mother’s arms, his heart leaped up with joy. When the child in the mother’s womb, the future John the Baptist heard the voice of Mary, the mother, the child leapt up in the womb. When we hear and see the Lord, insightful revelations are released, exciting things unfold.

Good Rememberance

UV 3715/10000 Good Rememberance Remember Jesus Christ ( the ever-living Lord who has) risen from the dead, (as the prophesied King) descended from David (king of Israel), according to my gospel ( the good news that I preach. 2 Timothy 2 v 8 We need to remember who we were, what we were, how we were before we came to know Jesus personally as Lord and Saviour. The book of Ecclesiastes asks us to remember God in the days of our youth.. Indeed, if we remember God or in other words, be conscious of the presence and power of God. When we do so, we remain young in spirit and heart. We will not tire of being good and doing good when we remember Jesus Christ, remember how He rose from the dead, how He came in the lineage of David but He is the greatest King who ended our struggles with God to be blessed. He is the Lord of both life and death. When we remember Him, we believe Him and receive good news. We become good news for others around us. Jesus combines in Him the offices or functions of King, Priest and Prophet. When we remember Him, we receive the triple anointing of Jesus to be king, priest and prophet. As King, He has the power of God. As Priest, He is holy. As Prophet, He knows the future. He shares His kingly power, priestly holiness and prophetic anointing with us. It is amazing to realize that in keeping with Jewish tradition, Jesus is both High Priest and Sacrifice. He as High Priest offered His own body to be pierced and broken on the cross. He is not only King, Priest, Prophet and Sacrifice, He is the Temple of God, the place where the sacrifice is offered. He is the Capstone of the Temple and He invites us to be bricks or building blocks in the Temple of God. To remember the sacrifice of Jesus daily with thanksgiving is our response to His loving act of sacrifice. To remember Jesus daily with praise and worship is the way to exercise kingly power. To remember Jesus daily with the word is the way to appropriate priestly grace and anointing. To remember Jesus daily is to exercise prophetic anointing and we will be able to tell what will happen before it happens. The Holy Spirit is called the Remembrancer as He helps us remember Jesus, His sacrifice, His lordship, His kingship, His power, His love, His grace and mercy, from moment to moment.

Super Vision

UV 3714/10000 Super Vision For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this therefore, from now on you will have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16 v 9 If our reliance is on the Lord, He will prove Himself reliable. If we act foolishly and rely on human resources and not on the Lord, we will fail miserably. Note the words in the uni-verse, “so that He may support those whose heart is completely His.” Not partially but wholly His, all the time consistently and increasingly and not only when our circumstances are going either good or bad. Our life anchor is hooked permanently embedded in the Rock of Jesus. Our ship or life is not shaken by storms of life. We are not cast off in the wrong direction and sent hurtling towards the dangerous rocks on the shore. We are always casting off into or navigating into deeper and deeper waters. For smooth sailing, we need to identify on time and take steps to throw overboard unnecessary loads we may be carrying that burden our hearts and minds. If we do not, these burdens will divide our minds and hearts and we cannot be devoted in our hearts completely to the Lord. All the time, while we do, the loving, doting eyes of the Lord is upon us. No one and nothing escapes HIs attention except those who pay Him no regard. If we do not anchor in the Lord, wars will break out among us, within us. If we anchor in Him, He will support us in all aspects of our lives. He walks and talks with us. His fingers are mingling with ours like those of an intimate friend. He is in our midst as a terrible warrior, after us, ahead of us, around us, within us. Wherever we go, Jesus is travelling with us. Whatever we do, we are blessed as His interlocked fingers have blessed all that we do. He never leaves nor forsakes us. He gives us new life or a life renewed in new wisdom, new grace, new strength, new hope, new faith, new success. If we establish His name on earth, He will establish our names in heaven and on earth. Our hearts need to be focused on Jesus, on His agape love and compassion or we will be sidetracked by things happening around us. Our hearts can lose focus and be divided by temptations from without, pressures from around and worries from within. His all seeing eyes upon us are for our protection from all mortal and invisible or unknown enemies and threats. The angelic or heavenly creatures described by John in the book of Revelation with eyes all over its wings are a metaphor for the super vision the Lord has upon on our lives. His eyes are not static or fixed in one place but continually roving, moving all over the earth looking out for us, covering our backs. God has literally our backs. Whatever the enemy throws at us intended to disturb, destroy or harm us, the hand of the Lord will turn to something good, sweet, nourishing for our souls. It is for our provision of all that we need in heaven and on earth. It is for our guidance and help, 24 x 7, all the year through. What more can we ask of the Lord, what more can we expect, what more do we need in our lives!

The Promised Land

UV 3713/10000 The Promised Land By loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding closely to Him; for He is your life ( your good life, your abundant life, your fulfilment) and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord promised (swore) to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30 v 20 When we cling to God, He will never depart from us. If we reject Him, He too will reject us. If we love Him with all our hearts and souls and strength, He will cleave to us, closer to us than our own skin. He will keep sin and the enemy at bay. God Himself is our life, our good life, our abundance, our fulfilment. He will add longevity and eternity to our lives. We live, thereby, not in the shadow of death like the rest of humanity but in the land of the living God, the shadow of the Almighty. This is the promised land that the Lord swore He would give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The life we are living is the promised land. The promised land is not where we live but the very life that we live by faith. It is not a future inheritance but the life we now live in Christ. When we walk in the Word of God, we are walking and talking with Christ. The word is not kept secret or distant. It is very near us and is in our hearts and in our mouths so that we obey it. When the word is near and dear to us, we are near and dear to God. We live and move and flourish in the promised land- God Himself. He is not only the promise keeper but He is the promised land. When we cross the Jordan of disbelief, we enter the promised land. The promised land is itself a metaphor for the security, love, prosperity, blessings, anointing, revelation, freedom we enjoy in our intimate relationship with the Lord God. He being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel), we, too experience faith and its blessings of multiplication that Abraham passed on as his inheritance to all who believe. We experience joy or the laughter that was Isaac’s blessing. We also have struggles like Jacob ( Israel) but in the end the Lord will make all things beautiful and give us victory. In all our experiences in the promised land, we should stick to the Lord like a leech. But unlike a leech, we should be contented with what the Lord blesses, provides, ordains in our lives instead of saying, “ Give me more.” The Word is the salt that makes us release our natural clutches on the world. To borrow a metaphor from motor car driving, when we release the clutch, we can drive on a higher gear on the highways of God, of the promised land. We access the higher ways, thoughts and blessings of the Lord. Jesus is the Bridge that leads us and connects us to the higher ways of the Lord God. All the sorrows, pains of the struggles of life will flow under that Bridge and will not touch our feet. Like Jacob when we struggle with God, we are blessed, greatly blessed but when we struggle with the world we have pain, strife, curses, defeat. Wherever we go or move or stand still, our heavenly google locator will say, “ Promised land” or land of promises where we are constantly experiencing the truth and blessing of one promise of God or other.

Race of Grace

UV 3712/10000 Race 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 We are to approach the throne of grace every day with faith. When we approach the throne, the Lord burns the thorns that hurt us. He places us on the podium, the victory stand without us having to run out of breath. Faith implies that we have confidence in the Lord and therefore, we are without fear. It is on account of our High Priest and Advocate Jesus that we are able to so approach the throne of God with boldness and confidence. Jesus introduces us to the Lord God, our Father in heaven as His chosen children, not begotten but chosen. We receive mercy at the gracious throne of God for our moral and spiritual failures. We also receive strength or grace to overcome these failures and weaknesses in the future. We have opted out of the rat race of mankind and joined God’s race by faith. The Lord converts the thorns of life into a bed for us, a place of strength and rest, comfort and assurance. We approach the throne not for favours as we would approach an earthly king but to be in the favour or remain in the favour of God. When we have fervour for God, we enjoy the flavour of life and enjoy His favour. We receive His favour as we believe His Son, Jesus. Jesus as our High Priest knows precisely what our need is at each moment of our lives-spiritual, emotional, social, familial, intellectual, financial and supplies our need according to His riches in glory, implying His infinite resources. He knows what burdens our minds and lifts it as we entrust it to Him. We can cast our burdens at His feet and proceed to the throne of grace to love and worship God. Not only can we approach the throne of grace to obtain more grace, Jesus rushes to our side when we are in distress, when we have a panic attack. Hence, God’s throne of grace is not at a static location but it locates itself at our point of need, transforming all our chronos ( physical time when we are alone) moments into kairos moments ( spiritual time when we are with God and God is with us as Jesus). When we present our physical needs to Him, He says, “ No, my child, I am your Need. Your faith is the Seed to meet your Need.” The Person of God is our greatest need. When we say we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are hungering for God for God alone is righteous. He fills the gaps between our need and our resources, between our character and His, between our abilities and our challenges with His grace. We are complete in Him. Without Him, it is like the lungs without oxygen, the heart without blood, our stomachs without food, our brains without thoughts. With Him, everything is complete, fulfilled, at the cellular and the universal level, at the microcosm and the macrocosm, at the individual and aggregate level.

Decision Making -God's Way

UV 3711/10000 Decision Making – God’s Way When He has brought all His own sheep outside, He walks on ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice and recognize His call. John 10 v 4 The perennial question before humanity on earth is how does one find or discern the will of God in heaven concerning our lives, our decisions, our choices. The uni-verse makes it very clear. We need to be silent and listen to His voice. Only if we are silent, can we listen and hear His voice. We need to listen only to His voice for all else is just noise that will distort our choice. We need to recognize the voice of the good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. The evil shepherd or the shepherds of tbis world look for ways to take the lives of the sheep. Only Jesus alone in history laid down His life voluntarily for mankind. The goats will not listen to the voice of the Shepherd and will follow their own lights. The good Shepherd Jesus walks ahead of us in all our situations and He rushes to our help when we panic for He Himself has experienced that kind of situation often while living a human’s life on earth. He has complete empathy with each of His sheep. The thing about this figure of speech that Jesus used to explain how He guides and leads people who believe and follow Him is that the only thing that sheep recognize is the voice of the shepherd. They hear the call and rush to him wherever they are on the pasture. The goats keep wandering alone and led by their own hunger for food. They are always looking for greener pasture or greater security and prosperity but Jesus promises in Psalm 23 to lead us not only to green pastures but to still waters ( peace, rest, eternal life). He satisfies our hunger and thirst for eternal life, spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, social and familial. Jesus when He ascended to heaven told His disciples that He is leaving the Holy Spirit to speak to them, guide and lead them. Today, in all our choices, we need to first listen to the quiet whispers and promptings of the Holy Spirit. We can also get good and wise counsel from elders, experts and those experienced in the matter which we are confronting. We need to seek the Lord with all our heart and seek His wisdom and counsel and He will give it to us generously. We need to conform our choices or decisions to the principles embedded in the word of God. When we do all this, we have the peace of God which is the sign that we are on the right track, in alignment with God’s perfect and not just permissive will.

Holistic and Spiritual Perception

UV 3710/10000 Holistic and Spiritual Perception Go to the people and say, “ You will keep on hearing, but will not understand, you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive. Acts 28 v 26 In this uni-verse, the apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah to drive home the point that people do not understand a single point spoken and heard. They do not recall a single point, apply it in their lives. People have become insensitive and insensible even as they appear to be hearing and seeing the things God has done in their lives. It is as if they are deaf, dumb and blind. People hear the word week after week but cannot recall a single point that they understand and apply to their lives constantly. There is no qualitative change to their lives and behaviour due to constantly hearing the word of God. If we do not perceive correctly, we will not receive. The Holy Spirit sharpens the acuity of our senses and our sense if we only let Him. He is the Counsellor and the Rememberancer. Hence, we should pray, “ Lord, help me understand. Let not my understanding be dull. Help me remember for without remembering it how will I obey it.” Helen Keller, the multiple challenged person she was, always said that hearing is the sense that she missed the most. Through hearing we decode the language and the purpose of God in our lives. Sight makes things alluring and tempting. Hence, sight except if it is used to reading good books and content leads to temptation and sin. The sight of a beautiful woman accompanying a great preacher we knew overpowered him and he committed adultery. Sight should therefore, be tempered and moderated by the word of God that we hear and understand. Like proof the pudding is in its eating, if we truly understand anything, we will apply it in our lives. Hence, speakers, communicators, teachers and preachers would do well not to pack their expositions with several impressive points but with a single point that is recalled constantly, understood and applied in the daily lives of the hearers. Then we will not let knowledge get ahead of wisdom and understanding. If we spend time on any content, we should carry from it a precious point that we learnt from it and that we can apply instantly and continually in our lives. Jesus did not judge anything or anyone by what He saw or heard but He judged on the basis of godly wisdom and understanding. We will do well to imitate Him.

Removing The Veils of Life

UV 3709/10000 The Veils of Life And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from (one degree of glory to even more) glory, which comes from the Lord, (who is) the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3 v 18 Thick veils blind us while thin veils distort our vision and we can see only partially. The “unveiled” face in the uni-verse refers to an unhindered, unobstructed vision of Jesus. The veils of pride, ego, selfishness, lust, doubt, fears, unforgiveness, stubbornness need to be removed as these obstruct our vision and make us less impactful even as these impact us adversely. The veils of life turn our lives into a vale of sorrow, defeat, unfruitfulness. The trouble is that the veils are invisible and we can identify it only if we look continually into a spiritual mirror that throws up images of the invisible. The mirror is a metaphor for the Word. When we continually focus on the locus, the center of our moral and spiritual universe, Jesus, when we continually look into the Word intently, we are transformed into His image, His character, to be Christ-like. The mirror, the Word helps us identify which of the veils we need to remove each day. The transformation is progressive, not sudden or overnight. The Transformer is the Holy Spirit. To unveil our face implies to submit completely to the Spirit in spirit, mind and body, all aspects of our lives, to listen to His quiet voice, to follow His promptings and lead in our daily lives. He evaluates us and guides us in the way of Christ. True glory lies not in human accomplishments, wealth, pleasure, power or fame but in being transformed from deep within to be like Jesus. He is the Prototype, the Exemplar we should imitate. We only need to be cooperating with the Spirit of God and be patient. We are to become the mirror image of Christ in our daily walk. Sometimes we see that image dimly and sometimes, more clearly. We only need to ask ourselves whether we are one degree closer to the glorious image of Christ, day on day. Studying the word, meditating on it, applying it in our lives, every aspect including the ones hidden, will accelerate the process of growth or transformation. “Trance formation” or being quiet in the presence of God helps us change faster. Praying continually for the Spirit to sow, grow and manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our character certainly speeds up the process. Every fault, flaw, weakness we recognize in ourselves we need to submit to the Lord to help us overcome on a daily basis. The more we submit to the Spirit, the more grace we appropriate and the greater our victory in all our struggles.

The Lost and Found Sheep

UV 3708/10000 The Lost and Found Sheep All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, “ We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord ( and are no longer holy to Him), their (true) habitation of righteousness and justice, even the Lord, the confident hope of their fathers.’ Jeremiah 50 v 7 Jeremiah speaks of the lost sheep of Israel in this uni-verse. When we wantonly depart from the Lord and the Word ( Jesus), we are like lost sheep. The enemy, the adversary, the roaring lion will be waiting to devour us. The adversary visits afflictions on God’s people but adversity is allowed by the Lord as we are no longer living consecrated lives, set apart for Him like holy vessels, purposeful vehicles of the Lord God. We have left the mountain of God to find what we think are greener pastures on the hills of the world. We have left the safety of the pen of God, the habitation that is bounded by His righteousness and justice. We have deserted the confidence, hope and trust we had in the Lord and His word, preferring the pleasures that the world has to offer. The enemy sees us as so much meat to devour while the Lord sees us as His precious flock, His own, His children, His servants, His jewels, His people, His priests and kings, redeemed by Blood of His precious One that He cannot afford to lose sight of one more time. There are no two ways about it: if we are lost to God, we will found by the adversary. If we are lost to the enemy, we will be found by God. The uni-verse is a warning to believers not to leave their true home- the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who has revealed Himself to be Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. We are to live, hide and move in Him and not shift our home where our eyes draw us to. If we do so, we become vulnerable, defenceless. We become lost sheep without a good Shepherd. If we do not pray habitually, continually in the spirit, we will be preyed upon by the wolves and lions of this world. The latter will not have any sense of guilt for it is we who have wantonly, deliberately moved away from the sanctuary, the safe habitation of the Lord. We will be given over to the adversary like Judas, the betrayer of Jesus. Adversity and afflictions might visit the faithful, too but these are allowed by the Lord to test our faith, to purify it like gold, to strengthen us in the inner core. The Lord will also give us strength or grace to endure it or a way of escape or relief from it as long as we remain confident of the hope we have in Him that He is our safe, secure and blessed Tabernacle, our habitation. Our habits prove whether we are inhabited by the Lord and whether we inhabit or reside in Him. If there is a momentary indiscretion or error of judgement committed by us, the Lord will put forth His Shepherd’s crook and draw us back into His cover, His fold but if we consciously and deliberately take steps to move further and further away from Him, He will allow the inevitable.

The Deep Work of Sanctification

UV 3707/10000 The Deep Work of Sanctification Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through ( that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged- consecrated to Him- set apart for His purpose); and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and (be found) blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thessalonians 5 v 23 We have peace with God through the justification provided by the shed blood, the sacrifice of Jesus but the peace will be complete only if we participate in the lifelong process of sanctification. Yes, we are co-participants in our own spiritual growth and fruitfulness. There is a sculpture of a sculptor working on the shapeless parts of his own body, signifying that man should work on himself to be complete, whole, perfect. The Holy Spirit points out the areas where we need to work on ourselves and we should wholeheartedly submit to the process the Spirit initiates in us. We are to be separated from the corruption of this world, from the sinfulness, the wickedness, the profane aspects of this world. The vision or goal we should have for ourselves is that we should be presented to the Lord Jesus at His coming again as a finished work, a perfected being, a whole and complete person re-created in the image of Christ. To this end, we need to work on spirit, mind and body as the Holy Spirit spotlights or directs. Our growth to maturity is holistic since it involves spirit, mind and body. Our growth to fruitfulness is also holistic in that we produce fruit in accordance with our repentance, fruit of the spirit, mind and body, dedicated to the Lord. For all types of growth, inputs are required. The inputs for our spiritual, wholesome growth are increasing prayer, increasing time and focus on the Word of God, increasing times of fellowship, worship and witness. Both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of these inputs need to increase over time. Working on oneself to be complete and whole is the most challenging aspect of our faith and our lives. Without grace of God, we cannot do it successfully. We must be careful not to allow our spirit, mind or body from being contaminated by the world. The virus of lust or pride should not affect our attitudes, our thoughts, emotions, words or actions and reactions. There is no one vaccine or remedy for such a virus but we need to depend on the Lord, ask for more and more wisdom and grace to deal with it. Often the virus is dormant or incipient in us much like the herpes zoster virus that remains in our bodies long after we first contract chicken pox and emerges when we are under stress to cause full blown episode of herpes zoster. The work of sanctification or chipping away at our own flaws and building Christ-like caliber and qualities in us is not only lifelong, it is a deep work. Hence, the Psalmist says, “ Deep calls out to the deep.” We need to cry out from the depth of our souls and spirits to the Lord to help us discern our own flaws and give us breakthroughs, victories, enablement to overcome, to establish, to build. Spiritual warfare begins in us as we tear down strongholds of the enemy within us and build what the Lord wants to see in us, what pleases Him. Like Jesus cleansed the public temple and broke down His own body, the temple of God, we need to be ruthless with ourselves in driving out any remnants of sin or lust or pride in us.

Garments of Joy

UV 3706/10000. Garments of Joy I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom puts on a turban, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61 v 10 When we exult in the Lord, He will exalt us. He clothes us with garments of praise, of joy. This morning as I was doing my customary morning prayer walk, I saw a snail emerging out of its shell. Then, I thought to myself that the Lord had provided a protective hard cover for the slender snail to shelter in. How much more has He provided for us, as humans, as believers of Jesus. He has covered our shame with a robe of righteousness by grace. We will no longer be put to shame or humiliation when we consider our past. He gives us a double portion of blessing, of anointing like Elisha. He adorns us with a turban, a mark of honour in eastern countries, a sign of leadership. He adorns us with the fruit of the spirit as the jewels of character. The joy of the Lord is our enduring strength. Our joy is not transient but everlasting, lasting beyond our circumstances, beyond our earthly lives. We delight in the things the Lord delights in. This is the source of our strength. We delight in His presence as a bride in the Bridegroom. We delight in His gifts, the gifts of the spirit. We delight in the fruit of the Spirit. We delight in righteousness. We delight in studying the Word of God. We delight in the promises of the Lord. We delight in fellowship with the saints or followers of Jesus. We delight in doing His will. We delight in obeying His commands. We delight not only in good times but in the trials and difficulties we face as we live a life of faith. The garments of salvation are also our armour. It might look like ordinary clothes but the turban of honour the Lord places on our heads acts as a helmet. The Word is our spiritual sword that penetrates not only our hearts but the hearts of any listener. The truths we learn from the Word become our belt. Our faith acts as a shield to protect us from the fiery darts the enemy fires at us. Our feet are also adorned with fitting shoes of the readiness to do God’s will and go wherever He directs us.

Armed, Not Harmed

UV 3705/10000 Armed, Not Harmed He has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand He has kept me hidden; and He has made Me a sharpened arrow, in His quiver He has hidden Me. Isaiah 49 The uni-verse is a prophetic utterance about the Messiah, Jesus. He is referred to as His Servant. The book of Revelation speaks of the fulfilment of the prophecy in the description of the sword of the Word coming out of the mouth of the Lord. It is the sword of salvation, of deliverance, of healing. We too as His followers should use our tongue only to bless, heal, deliver, pronounce the good and positive, share the promise of all encompassing salvation in Jesus. We are to sharpen our mouths and tongues on the whetstone of the Word such that it is efficacious, penetrating the hearts, performing effectively that for which it is used. We need to seek an anointing of our lips and our mouths so that the fruit thereof is pleasing to the Lord. Armed with the word of God, we become sharp swords. We are so armed so that we are not harmed. God hides us in the shadow of His hand. It implies that His hand would do and establish that which is needed for our protection. When we read this along with Psalm 91, the promises that are our heritage are physical protection from all kinds of threats, long life, honour, eternal life. All these blessings together constitute all encompassing salvation. Salvation then is holistic and comprehensive and it covers the physical dimension- our health and security, our longevity, our success and happiness, eternal life. Instead of our minds settting on its own like shapeless cement and concrete left unattended on the road side, we should set our minds on loving the Lord, studying His word, obeying His spirit. His hand is not too short. In fact, His hand is competent to do all things in and on behalf of us. His ear is not dull. In fact, He is so sensitive that He hears our sighs and whispers, observes our tears, fulfils our hope in Him. But we are not to be just consumers and beneficiaries of the blessings of the presence and power of God in our lives, but we are to be hidden weapons, secret weapons, powerful weapons, sharpened weapons in His armoury. Instead of quivering in fear, we should know that He has hidden us in His quiver to be a hidden weapon, a secret weapon, a powerful weapon to be released by Him at the time and place of His choosing. As a sharpened arrow, we are destined to hit the target that God has in mind for us on the bull’s eye. He has prepared us for holistic success, not the narrow commercial success of this world.

Crush Your Challenges

UV 3704/10000 Crush Your Challenges FOR I THE LORD your God keep hold of your right hand; ( I am the Lord), who says to you, “DO not fear, I will help you.” Isaiah 41 v 13 Every believer is like Cyrus, the great. The Lord has called us to accomplish His will. He promises to uphold or support us, strengthen us in the areas of our weaknesses. He promises to hold our right hand with His right hand. It is actually difficult to hold a person’s right hand with one’s right hand and advance forward. But the right hand here symbolizes that the justice, power, victory and salvation of God will prevail in our lives. For He is the Lord God, the Great I Am. All those who oppose us will be scattered. All those who quarrel with us will be dispersed and disappear from our sight. Those who war with us will be as nothing. It is repeated for emphasis, “As nothing at all.” Today, the bigger pandemic is the pandemic of fear. Millions are caught in the throes of fear and panic. Those who are battle scarred will not be scared. The scars of battle are meant to train us us not to be scared of threats or throats that utter them. We are also not scared as we are assured that the Sacred One is with us. He rides with us into the thick of battle. In fact, He says that the battle belongs to Him. We only need to take a stand and watch. Even the current Covid 19 pandemic is a kind of warfare. It is meant to expose those who are fearful. We should take all precautions but state in our hearts that Covid is a coward and put it to flight. The Lord promises to help us whatever be our situation. The Holy Spirit is called the Helper. We should constantly seek His counsel, comfort and help. We may be weak and soft and vulnerable as a worm but the Word will strengthen us to be like a powerful threshing machine that can thresh the mountains or greatest challenges of life we confront on a daily basis. We can crush our challenges and turn it into chaff. The testimony of how we overcame these challenges is the grain, the fruit of our lives. We will like harvesters winnow the ‘mountains and hills’ ( big problems and smaller ones, big foes and small ones) and sift them so that the high wind of “Kairos” (God controlled and surrendered) time and change will scatter these as if they are mere dust and chaff.

Spiritual Wisdom

UV 3703/10000. Spiritual Wisdom Those who are spiritually wise will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead many to righteousness, will shine like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12 v 3 Scripture makes a distinction between those who are money wise, worldly wise, other wise and the spiritually wise. The other types of wisdom are decried by scripture as the foolishness of man, trying to be too clever. It is not that we should not be prudent, careful, cautious, tactful as worldly wisdom advocates but that we should always value spiritual wisdom much more and much higher. This is the wisdom that is promised in James 1 verse 5: “ If any of you lacks wisdom to guide him through a decision or circumstance, he is to ask of our benevolent God who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. “ The implication of this generous promise of God is that even those who are well up in other forms of wisdom are deficient or ignorant of spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom is gifted by the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit. He as counsellor promises to counsel us at every stage of every decision we make. Jesus as Wonderful Counsellor causes wonders to happen in our lives once we obtain wisdom from the Spirit of God. Yesterday, I met a young UN diplomat from another faith who said the promise in James 1 v 5 spoke to him personally and powerfully. Yes, the word says, “anyone” and not just the followers of Jesus. Anyone who is humble enough to recognize that he is not spiritually wise and is willing to ask the Lord, the Lord God is ever eager to give wisdom generously. There is a limit to human wisdom but there is no limit to the wisdom of God which is infinite. Spiritual wisdom will enable us to give the glory and credit of every success of ours to the Lord and the grace to endure any failure or trial equally with a good attitude of learning the lessons from what caused the failure. Spiritual wisdom will enable us neither to gloat nor to bloat when we prosper and are doing well. It will enable us to consider others better at various things compared to us. Spiritual wisdom will enable us to lean and learn continually on the Lord and His word and not to lean on our own limited understanding. It is spiritual wisdom that enables us to think about what is good, noble, beautiful, praiseworthy, helpful not harmful, wholesome, holistic, positive.

The Two Ways and Where it Ends

UV 3702/10000 The Two Ways and Where It Ends For the Lord knows and fully approves the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish. Psalm 1 v 6 The Lord knows the every thought and emotion of every living person. He knows who truly believe in Him and follow Him, obey His word and who does not. Even a wicked person may mouth expressions of faith, good conscience, ethics and values. In one sense, it shows that even the crooked know the value of values and ethics. They cannot plead ignorance when they stand before the judgement seat of God at the end of life. Even Job was anguished that the crooked in this world prospered, were healthy and lived long and even saw their offspring established in success. Job finally admitted that it is a mystery how God dealt with the ungodly. The way of the wicked in this world may outwardly seem to prosper but the uni-verse clearly states that the way of the wicked will perish while the way of the righteous will flourish though he might seem to suffer for a while in this lifetime. In the light of the foregoing, it is indeed better to get the favour or grace of the Lord, to walk in His ways than to prosper outwardly in this world in terms of wealth, fame, pleasure or pelf. The blessing of the Lord is more vital than any success that this world offers without following the way, will and word of God. We need to not only count our suffering but also our blessing and make both suffering and blessing to count. We learn many lessons about the character of God, His faithfulness, the refinement He seeks in our character, communication and conduct from our suffering even as we need to be grateful and contented with the blessings He has showered us abundantly with. We need to seek full and not partial approval of our lives from the Lord. It means that we should not compromise in any area. If we do, we need to confess and come clean and not repeat that which might offend the Spirit of the Lord. It is the Lord who makes our way flourish though it might be full of thorns, obstacles, problems. This is what makes our lives exciting. We do not know what the enemy is going to throw at us out of his anger at our attempt to live a life of favour with God or a life of righteousness. But as long as we are walking in the favour of the Lord with His help, with the enablement and strengthening of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will take whatever the enemy throws at us and turn it into a source of strength, blessing, learning, victory in our lives.

The Purpose of Life

UV 3701/10000 The Purpose of Life, The Basis of Life Seek the Lord ( search diligently for Him and long for Him as your most essential need) so that you may live, or He will rush down like the devouring fire, ) house of Joseph and there will be no one to quench the flame for idolatrous Bethel, Amos 5 v 6 This uni-verse exhorts the house of Israel or in other words, believers of all nations, to seek the Lord as a man would seek food which is his most essential need. If we do not, it would excite the intense, fire- like jealousy of the Lord. If we do, we are blessed and if we don’t we are damned. Nothing can quench the wrath of God once it is aroused. We need to seek Him with all our heart and mind. Seek Him every day, every hour, every moment, in every place, every activity. Seek Him through diligent study of the Word. Seek a glimpse of His face, a touch of His hand, a whisper of His voice. God has indeed, hidden Himself from man but when He sees us seeking Him with all our hearts, He reveals Himself to us. He reveals Himself to the one who revels in Him. He spurns the one who is insincere, dishonest, corrupt, wicked, unrepentant. The former He blesses like He did the house of Joseph, while the latter He curses like the house of disobedience, the rebellious house. The former would not yield a higher place in their hearts to anyone or anything other than God, their Lord. The latter have given their hearts over to earthly passions, material pursuits, the love of sinful pleasure without any fear or reverence for God. The ones who revere God are deemed wise in His eyes and they avoid and abhor vice of any kind. They seek to do what is just and right in accordance with the word of God, for they have no higher standard to measure justice or righteousness. They do not rely on the fickle opinions or transient knowledge of man but diligently study the Word in order to discern what is the will and purpose of God concerning their lives. The purpose of all learning is to know God and to make Him known. The purpose of all activity is to ultimately glorify the Lord.

The Hunger for God

UV 3699/10000 The Hunger for God He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent the rich away empty-handed. Luke 1 v 53 This uni-verse seems to endorse Steve Job’s maxim, “Stay hungry.” But what it says is that we should be filled with a hunger for God. We should long, crave, desire strongly a personal relationship with God. If we are self satisfied, complacent, not hungering for righteousness, content with our material lot or the things that our flesh desires, then, we will be sent away empty handed by God. The former are blessed with all manner of good things in keeping with the promise, “Seek first ( or with utmost priority and greatest longing) His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” The prophetic utterance of Zacharias, the priest was echoed in the teaching of Jesus in His sermon on the mount: “Blessed are those who hunger after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” In short, we are blessed or favoured by God when we do not hanker or hunger after the pleasures, wealth, power, beauty, fame of this world but we hunger after righteousness, holiness, goodness, beauty, grace, mercy, power, favour of God. We seek the rule of God through Christ in our hearts, minds and lives, relationships and workspace. We do not merely seek it but are obsessed with this pursuit of the things of God, how to do things God’s way, not our way. Those who seek the world and what it has to offer will feel empty, never satiated but always frustrated, longing for something more, something different. Even after they achieve their goals, they will find it futile, vain, meaningless like Solomon after he departed from the ways of God. God will send some pinpricks to burst the balloons of their caprice, vanity, egoism, selfishness, pride, lust. It will be tantalizing for them as they struggle to push the boulder all the way to the top of the mountain and every time it rolls back to the base of the mountain. In contrast, the Lord will satisfy the hunger of the godly, the righteous by faith by answering prayers beyond their asking or imagination, by teaching them from His word, by imparting a sense of contentment and gratitude for blessings received though not deserved. The more we experience the agape love of God in Christ, the more we desire it, the greater our hunger for the presence of God, the Person of God. We realize that He is the One who can be anything, do anything to satisfy our hunger for Him.