Breathing in the Greatness of God

UV 1292/10,000 Breathing in The Greatness of God
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands,”
Daniel 9 v 4

Daniel served many great emperors of the ancient world but he acknowledged that God is far greater and awesome than all of them put together. God alone deserves to be called our Lord. He is faithful to every word of His covenant. It is a covenant of love more sacred, precious and endearing than the bonds of marriage. We enter this covenant of love when we commit our hearts and our lives to Him. We manifest our love for Him by obeying His commands. We do not regard His commands as restrictive of our freedom or our growth. Rather, we regard these commands as a safeguard like the protective embrace of a lover. His commands are meant to protect us from evil, to enable us to reflect the image of God in our lives. His commands are meant to pre-empt the enemy of our souls from keeping us in bondage to sin. His commands are meant to make us righteous. His commands are meant to bless us. When we obey His commands and precepts and when we are mindful of the models and examples He has raised right through human history, we are affirming that we belong to God, that we want to return to Him. When we sin or disobey God we are struggling with God. We are like Jacob trying to run away from God and we are struggling like Israel with God. We are confused about life and its purpose. When we obey His will and His commands, we are surrendering and submitting to God. We will have greater clarity of meaning and purpose.

Daniel had a scripture-based God concept or idea of who God is. It was also an experience-based knowledge. Faith is followed by experience and seldom, it is the other way round. We need to understand the personality and character of God from scripture. We need to believe it. Faith is therefore not blind but it is inspired by what is written in scripture. For what is written in scripture is based on the experience as well as the revelation to many people chosen by God.
Daniel’s confession of sin of Israel and repentance was preceded by his confession of his personal faith. Our understanding of who God is and the extent of His love, mercy and grace will lead us to a recognition of our sinfulness, shortcomings and failings and then to a true repentance, seeking the help of God to overcome our weaknesses and limitations. This repentance further leads us to experiencing the blessings and grace of God in our lives. The lordship or kingdom of God is established in our lives and hearts by every single thought, word and act of obedience to His commands. Prayer is tantamount to breathing in or appropriating the greatness and awesomeness of God. God is always ready and willing to share His greatness and awesomeness with His children as He did with Daniel. There are no frills in faith but there are always many thrills.

Prateep V Philip

The Good Soul and the Good Soil

UV 1291/10,000 The Good Soul and the Good Soil
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
Luke 8 v 15

Good soil or good ground is required even for the Word of God to get rooted , to grow and become a fruit bearing plant. A hardened heart cannot receive the Word. Our hearts need to be soft, honest and good for the seed to push down roots, nourish itself in the thoughts and meditation of our souls. Hearing the Word is like drilling a hole in the earth to sow a seed deep in the core of our being. Once it is sown, the soil should be poured over the opening to keep the good seed. We need to store or hide the Word, the promises as well as the precepts, the commands and the models in scripture. When we keep the Word for a period of time, it grows and becomes a plant, the plant becomes a fruit-bearing tree, the tree becomes a garden, the garden becomes a forest. Patience is required as it takes time to bring forth fruit or to realize the purpose of God for our lives.

We need to prepare the good ground by tilling it or ploughing it. We need to pour and sprinkle water of the Holy Spirit every day to soften the soil. We should prevent birds of prey and other predators from removing the seed planted. We should not only plant the seed but we need to mow and uproot the weeds. When we retain the Word of God and meditate on it all the time, both day and night, we will be greatly blessed. The seed will grow and the weeds will be removed or eradicated. We will be watered continually. We will be rooted in God and grafted onto His Son, the good Vine. We will bear the fruit of eternal life.

It is more important to be blessed than to be successful. To be blessed implies to be favoured by God all round in 360 degrees and all the time. Scripture says that “ blessed are those who keep the Word of God.” A good soul is not good enough for God but when the Word is added by faith to a good soul or heart, it becomes blessed to fulfill the purpose of life, to experience the full power and grace of God. A person who is successful wants to be successful primarily for his own sake. But a tree is fruitful not for its own sake for it never consumes or benefits from its own fruit. Perhaps the only benefit is that it will prevent it from being cut down. It will get stones thrown on it in order to obtain the fruit. This is why the blessed are persecuted or troubled by the so called successful and powerful people of this world. The successful do not have peace or joy. They throw stones on the blessed with a view to knock down some fruit of peace and joy. The fruit that the blessed produce are good works of every kind, good words of comfort, strength and guidance, good thoughts, good qualities of mind and heart. We are called to be patient farmers to cultivate such manner of fruit in our lives.

Prateep V Philip

Weaned Leadership

UV 1290/10,000 Weaned Leadership
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
Psalm 131 v 2
Conquerors in history are never contented with their conquest. They want to conquer and annex more land and people. Capitalists are not contented with their great wealth- they always want to multiply it further. Rulers want to add to their power and stature. People want to add to their wealth and resources. Children want more toys. Women want more clothes and shoes. Builders want to build more. Winners want to win more. And so on. The list of human wants is endless. We are like children who are never satisfied with the milk we have drunk. We want more and more. Those who want more and more are like immature feeding children. But God’s call to us is to be like a child who is weaned, who no longer delights in the things of the world but delights in resting and trusting in God’s presence as a weaned child rests calm, assured, contented and secure in her mother’s arms. We are no longer to be concerned with great ambitions for ourselves but we wait calmly and patiently for the Lord to show us what we should do.

A weaned child is not a weak child. Our inner strength that is nourished by the grace of the Lord keeps us quiet and secure in the knowledge that the Lord will provide for us, that He will protect us and that He will promote us. We are responsible to consciously still and quieten our hitherto restless souls. Our food and meat that strengthens us is the Word that the Lord provides us day after day. A weaned child is a maturing person. Our physical habits and emotions are predictable even as our thoughts and ideas are unpredictable. A weaned child is a growing child. We do not stop growing all our lives even when we are old. Our growth is intentional and we pursue the goals the Lord sets for us. A weaned child is a well behaved and considerate person. We are gentle and compassionate, not always concerned only about our own need and interests but look to the needs and interests of others.

Leaders are to be weaned from the influences of the world and be influenced by the Word, to be secure but not complacent, to be strong and effective, to be calm but not silent in the face of untruth and injustice. This uni-verse is written by David as a king of Israel. Despite his great power and prowess, he knew compared with the Lord he was at best only a weaned child. Our contentment, our security, our joy and peace is found only in the presence of the Lord- a personal relationship with God. We have tasted of the Lord’s goodness. We are not guilty about our past, anxious about the present or fearful about the future. We are become like children ever ready to return to the embrace of our loving Father in heaven. We manifest not a careless attitude but a carefree attitude. We manifest a studied and practiced quietness, calmness, assurance, confidence, gentleness, humility and security in all our situations, circumstances and relationships.
Prateep V Philip

The Overcoming of Sorrow and Pain

UV 1289/10,000 The Overcoming of Grief
But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.
Job 16 v 5

Many people allow grief to shatter their lives. One of my daughter’s classmates and friends allowed his father’s death to completely derail his otherwise brilliant career. He dropped out of his course in the university and languished in pain. This uni-verse throws light on how our words should comfort and strengthen people who are in a time of grief or distress. When Job was undergoing great grief at his many losses that came in quick succession, his friends instead of making things look better made it worse by rubbing it in and saying that it must have been his sin that had brought such great tragedy upon him. The Lord strengthens us when we are weak by speaking the word of comfort to us. The Holy Spirit lays it on our hearts and assuages our sorrows. The sorrow is often not removed but our ability to bear it, to endure it and overcome it is increased. Our belief brings relief. The Lord will release an inner strength from within us to revive us, to enable us to overcome our grief.

It does not mean that we should only pay lip service. After I was injured in the assassination of Mr Rajiv Gandhi, a senior officer heard me crying out in pain , “Jesus, Jesus!” He merely said, “ Jesus will help you” and made no effort to move me to a more specialized medical facility to treat my injuries. Our words should be followed by commensurate actions to help or reduce the suffering of people we come across in the course of our daily lives.

Prayer and the Word of God are the wings on which our spirits rise up from our sorrows and burdens. They bring us under the comfort, refuge and might of the wings of the Lord. This morning as I watched two doves flying overhead, I thought to myself that so many things have to come together for those doves to fly in this manner. The muscles holding the birds’ wings need to be tightened, the different types of feathers need to play its role, the tails have to be held in a certain fashion. It flutters its wings. Then the bird is able to fly. When we pray and claim the Word, many things come together in real time. We have to do certain practical things on our own. We will have to do our own flying and running. The Lord will not cause us to walk or run or fly. But the Lord will speak a specific promise or word to comfort, strengthen and guide us. We need to wait at the mouth of the Lord to hear His word and not allow ourselves to wallow in sorrow or be overcome by it. Times of such grief are special seasons when we should draw closer to the Lord, feel His embrace and the whisper of His words in our ears. He is the Balm of Gilead to heal our deep and inner wounds. By His blood we are forgiven. By His wounds we are healed. By His spirit and His word are we nourished, comforted and greatly strengthened so that the depths of sorrow cannot separate us from His love, grace and mercy.

Prateep V Philip

He Touched Me

UV 1288/10,000 He Touched Me

Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me,
Daniel 10 v 18

A person who looked similar to the son of men appeared to Daniel, the Jewish noble captive of Babylon and touched him. He looked similar in that He had a form, limbs, chest and face like any of us but He was different for His body shone like beryl, His face had the appearance of lightning, His arms and feet like polished brass, His voice like that of a multitude. Daniel was greatly perplexed and troubled by the amazing visions and prophecies he received concerning the future of Israel and the whole world.
The appearance of the glorious Jesus clothed in the glory of heaven caused Daniel to be breathless and almost lifeless. It was not his fasting of three weeks that had weakened him but the appearance. That person who touched him was none other than the Son of God Jesus Christ, born much later in Bethlehem and who grew up in Nazareth and walked all over Israel, teaching, preaching, story telling, conversing, healing, delivering, doing miracles before giving Himself up to the injustice of a terrible death on the cross, rising up on the third day to take His place in glory having given every human being an equal opportunity to believe in Him and so be saved. When Jesus touched a human being, that person was strengthened. Daniel was greatly strengthened when he was touched in the christophany or appearance of Jesus before His historical birth on earth. When we are similarly touched by Jesus, we are strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power. The strength is not a mere physical prowess but it is manifested in patience, longsuffering or the ability to endure beyond pain and suffering with all joy. It is a paradox that we can be joyful even in the midst of pain and suffering when Jesus touches our lives. It is the knowledge that we belong to Him , that He owns us for joy means “Jesus Owns You” and the hope that we will return to Him in due time that creates this wellspring of joy. Our lives, our work and our very bodies becomes the fingers of Jesus to touch others.

Today, we too are like Daniel in this age and time. We are “noble captives”, slaves of God, slaves to righteousness with no option but to obey the Lord. We are called to shine like stars leading many to righteousness and to receive our eternal reward. We are called to excel in faith, in love and in our professions. Like Daniel our lives need to be touched by Jesus and our whole being touched again and again by the glorious , resurrected Jesus that we will be greatly strengthened in spirit, mind and body, that we be patient and endure suffering with joy, knowing that the Lord of all glory has borne suffering of the highest degree. I remember doing a review of a book by a Jesuit priest S J Powel, who was touched by Jesus through the testimony of a depressed person he was counseling. The touch of Jesus caused him to be healed and made whole again. It enabled him to be “Fully Alive and Fully Human”, the title of the book that he wrote of his experience


Prateep V Philip

Function as a Watchman

UV 1287/10,000 Function as a Watchman
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Ezekiel 22 v 30
The Lord is always searching for interceders for people. Like Isaiah said, we need to offer ourselves and say, “Lord, here I am.” He wants us to be a hedge of prayer and protection for our nations and our people. He desires that we be watchmen for the souls of people, that we should stand in the gap between their deeds and God’s holiness and judgement. A watchman should be vigilant and observing all that is happening. He should take it to the Master’s notice. Similarly, our role as watchmen is to gather by observation all the relevant information about the world we live in, the cities or areas we live in and take the burden of our souls to the Lord.

Jesus admonished his sleeping disciples in the garden of Gethsemane to “ watch and pray.” When we stay up and pray while the whole world is sleeping, we are standing in the gap for the world. The Lord listens to our hearts concerns. Scripture says that “anyone who breaks a hedge will be bitten by a serpent.” It implies that anyone who tries to harm faithful, prayerful and watchful people will fall into the very pit or trap they were digging for them. The stone that they were rolling onto us will roll back on them. Believers form a hedge around their nations. We are accountable to God for the lives and souls of people who are placed in our area of influence or control. A spiritual watchman is not only alert at all times, he is sensitive and responsive. Whatever action lies with him, he needs to do. Like Nehemiah cried and repented for the follies of Israel, a watchman needs to repent for the sins of his people and his own. Nehemiah had a sense of “sempathy” or spiritual empathy- feeling the pain of God and God’s people as if it were His own. It led him to take many practical steps to re-build the walls of Jerusalem. For a watchman, the boundaries of the place he watches are very important. His eyes are on the spiritual walls or boundaries that separate the righteous from the unrighteous. A watchman of a farm needs to be wary of predators, of serpents, of birds of prey, of foxes that slip in through any gap in the fencing. He needs to be proactive and take pragmatic action to thwart the designs and activities of any of these. Similarly, God’s watchmen need to identify the enemy and his agents and take steps to neutralize their aggressive or inimical actions. All a watchman’s senses are fully put to use. He uses his natural gifts and resources and gathers all possible intelligence to discharge his responsibilities. The watchman needs to make sacrifices of his own comfort and needs. Similarly, we need to make sacrifices of our own comfort and need. A watchman stays humble and does not have any airs of his own importance. Similarly, we need to stay humble like a servant and know we are just doing our God-given and enabled duties. A watchman is involved and committed to his task or mission of guarding the people. Jesus sweated drops of blood as He stood in the gap before God the Father just before His crucifiction.
God is looking for a Moses to lead His people but everywhere He finds people who are contented to live life as if it is a bed of roses. Moses stood in the gap between the misdeeds of Israel and Jehovah. A leader’s role is to stand in the gap, to take the things or issues of man to God and take the thoughts and teachings of God to men. We know that we are never good enough or wise enough or brave enough to fill the gap between God and man, between what is needed and what is available. But we also are assured that the Lord can fill the gap or help us overcome the shortcomings. Our role as faithful and spiritual watchmen is to invite the Lord to intervene and fill the gap. Every watchman in turn needs to daily examine his or her own faith-fencing and check if all the links in the fence are tightly fitted without any gaps for any subtle fox of temptation or inducement to enter. When faithful people pray with a sense of burden over any issue a hedge is formed. The word ‘hedge ‘ is used to indicate that faithful, prayerful people who are fully aware of the threats of the powers of darkness are a natural supernatural force of protection. The hedge needs to be trimmed. Hence, even the watchmen need to be pruned through the Lord’s correction. The hedge is not static but it grows stronger and bigger over time. Similarly, we need to mature and grow in the Lord over time. We need divine anointing to function as a watchman for God as He alone can appoint us and give us the unction in our function.

Prateep V Philip

Remembering the Creator

UV 1286/10,000 Remembering the Creator

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Eccelesiastes 12 v 1


The Lord expects us to reverence, love and remember Him from our early days. He does not want us to wait till we are old and worn out or when our senses are dulled and we find no pleasure in this life. While we are still young , vibrant and full of life, the Lord wants us to acknowledge Him, to trust Him, to love Him and to commit our lives to Him. There is a tendency among human beings to say that they will think of God when they are older and nearing their end. Many people are under a delusion that God is a kill-joy and that they will not be able to really enjoy life if they developed a relationship with Him when they were still young.

This uni-verse is also a reiteration of the precept, “Catch them young.” When people get older they tend to become more cynical and skeptical. They will more likely resist the move of the Spirit and the hand of the Lord as they get older. Speaking for myself if I had waited till I was older to believe in the Lord, I would perhaps never believed in Him. I would have become more bitter and disbelieving than before as the years advanced. The advantages of remembering the Lord while we are still young is that we will be greatly strengthened to face life and its challenges on our bad days. We will be more blessed and wiser. Our hearts will not get calloused and hardened by our bad experiences and the mistakes we make in life. We will be more hopeful and optimistic that however things are going now, it will turn out right or perfect in the end.


The uni-verse also gives a new perspective on what is considered “ old”. If we stop taking pleasure in the ordinary things of life like friendship, nature or food or entertainment, it is then that we have grown old. As long as we take pleasure in the ordinary things of life, we will not grow old. When we remember the Lord at all times of day and night, when we are conscious of His presence with us and in us all the time, our strength and our youth will be constantly renewed like the melting snows of the Himalayas keep feeding and renewing the mighty rivers that have their source in the mountains. The Lord does not kill or diminish our pleasures or joy. Rather, He finds pleasure in our joy and happiness. He delights in our finding pleasure in the world He has created and given to us freely to rule and to live in. Jesus spoke of the master of a vineyard who sent His son to collect the rent from the tenants but they were ungrateful and cruel and killed him. So we are entrusted the earth as tenants or stewards. Our remembering that the vineyard belongs to the Master and His Son and being grateful for being allowed to cultivate it and enjoy its fruits is our way of paying back the Lord. When we remember Him in this manner, we prove that we are worthy of entering His eternal Kingdom. “Remember thy Creator” implies the personal relationship with the Creator for the words used are not the impersonal “ remember the Creator.” We need to remember the different dimensions of the Creator- His power, His wisdom, His love, His grace, His mercy, His faithfulness, His forbearance, His foresight, His gentleness, His sovereignty… We need to remember the experiences and testimonies of our lives. We need to remember the Word, the commands and the promises of God. We need to remember the promptings and forthtelling of the Holy Spirit. When we so remember, not just our memories and our imagination, not just our thoughts, words and emotions would be blessed but our whole being would be. We will be continually watered or cared for or provided and nourished from the inside.

Prateep V Philip