Focus, Dimensions and Benefits of Trust

UV 1347/10,000 Focus, Dimensions and Benefits of Trust

In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion
Psalm 71 v 1
The focus of trust is not other people or believers or godly people or persons in power and position. The focus of trust is God in Christ. When we commit our hearts and lives to Jesus, we are putting our trust in the Lord. There is a direct cause-effect relationship between trust and victory. The chief benefit we have is that our souls are redeemed and we will perceive an inner peace and healing of our hitherto broken relationship with God. Further, He will never let us be confused or ashamed. He will give us a clarity of vision of life and eternity and understanding of the Word so that we will have a different perspective from those who are worldly or merely religious. It is rightly said that it is perspective that differentiates a leader from a follower. Our perspective is like a funnel that will cover all the big questions of life- what is my identity? What is my destiny? What is the role of pain and pleasure and the limits of both ? What is legitimate and what is not? How do we find a balance between life and work? What is the role of money and how much is enough? What is the basis of my security? Our vision will fuse all these answers as practical concepts in our lives to give us a grip and inner strength. Concepts are the seed that produce the plants that produce the branches and the fruit that produce the seed.

Another benefit of trusting the Lord is that He will never let us be ashamed. He will not let our enemies triumph over us. He will not let us be defeated and depressed. He will revive our spirit. He will let us escape disgrace even when we do some blunders or decide on the basis of misplaced trust or errors of judgement. He will deliver us out of the hand of the wicked and malicious. Instead, He will cause shame and disgrace to overcome our enemies. He will guide us and give us wisdom. He will save us in the day of disaster. Even in the toughest situation, He will leave a silver lining in the darkest cloud, that glimmer of hope to sustain us through our days on this planet.

God says, “Trust in me with all your heart”. The phrase “ all your heart” is key. Faith can be as small as a mustard seed and still be effective. Trust has a percentage dimension. But our trust needs to be hundred per cent. Trust has a domain-specific dimension. We need to trust God wholeheartedly without reserving any area for ourselves where we depend on our own wisdom and strength or ability. We should not lean or depend on our own understanding. We need to trust God for every domain or aspect of our lives- spiritual, social, familial, physical, financial, emotional and intellectual. Trust has a time dimension. We need to trust God all through our lives and all through every day of our lives. Trust has a need dimension. We need to trust God for our need- our health and our finances. This is our daily bread. Trust has a deficiency or gap dimension. We need to trust God that His grace is sufficient for us to fill the gaps in all situations of life. Finally, trust has a witness or evidence dimension. If we trust God wholeheartedly, it will be witnessed in our attitudes, our speech, our habits, our actions, our reactions, our relationships and our crises.

Prateep V Philip

Restoration

UV 1346/10,000 Restoration

Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Psalm 80 v 7

This uni-verse is repeated thrice in this one Psalm. It is a prayer to restore our spirit, our minds and our bodies. We are renewing our minds and our energy with the Word of God. We need to beseech the Lord to cause His face to shine on us so that we are saved. His face shining on us implies that we need to pray that we find favour in His eyes, that His grace be upon our entire being. His face shining on us implies that He is pleased with our faith which is the root of our relationship with Him as well as the results we produce which is the fruit of our relationship with Him. When Moses went to speak with the Lord face to face, his face shone with the glory of God. When we pray for His face to shine on us we are praying that the glory of God be seen on our own faces. He will restore to us the joy of salvation, the satisfaction of victory, the pleasure of living in union with God.

It is a prayer for restoration and renewal. We are acknowledging herein that we depend on His grace to sustain us here and now and for the salvation of our souls and eternal life. In this prayer, God is addressed as El Shaddai, the Almighty, the Lord and commander of the hosts or army of heaven. When the face of God shines on us, our lives will be blessed in a variety of ways. It is an acknowledgement that God is watching us and if it is something pleasing, good or acceptable, we would see God smiling back at us.

This uni-verse is an acknowledgement that our lives are a reflector of God ‘s image. Whatever we say and do should reflect God’s face in our lives. We should keep our lives squeaking clean and polished like a mirror or a sheet of steel. We should be like the Word of God and be an accurate mirror of the truth about God, His kingdom and His righteousness. We should not distort the impression people gather about God from our lives. It is also a prayer for restoration of our relationship with God and people. It is a prayer for restoration of our blessings and our well being. God is the first cause and the ultimate cause. He will not hesitate to move an array of forces at His command to aid or help us, to lead us, to protect and guide us. When we suffer a loss or an illness or a setback, the Lord’s face shining on us will restore our health, our finances or our strength. Whatever we have lost in the past, the Lord is willing to restore a double portion if we ask with faith. The words “ we shall be saved” reveals that we will be restored to the assurance or certainty of salvation beyond an iota of doubt.

Prateep V Philip

Yield to Increase Your Yield

UV 1346/10,000 Yield and Increase Your Yield
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

Isaiah 45 v 9


We human beings whatever be our status, qualification or accomplishment in life this far are but clay in the hands of our Maker. He knows we are made from the elements, the dust of the earth. Without His sustaining breath and power in us we would once again kiss the dust. We are not even pots or forms fully shaped or baked out of that clay. We are but potsherds or parts of a meaningful pattern of life. We have significance, meaning and importance, we have hope and a future only in connection with God, our Maker. We are too small and weak to be able to struggle with Him as did the ancestor of Israel, Jacob for the word “Israel” itself commemorates his struggle or wrestling with an angel of the Lord. We are blessed when we yield to Him and cursed, limited and defeated when we strive or compete with Him. We compete with Him when we do not acknowledge Him in all our ways. We compete with Him when we ignore Him and stick to our sinful ways. We strive with Him when we knowingly or unknowingly disbelieve or disobey His promises.


We cannot question His existence. We cannot question His sovereignty and His purpose in our lives. We cannot question His will for our lives. We cannot doubt His intention or His promises. The fear of the Lord inspires in us love for His Word and thereby, He increases our wisdom. The empty vessel gets cleansed from within. The vessel is prepared to carry His message of love to the rest of humanity. It now acquires a shape, strength and purpose. It is no longer a mere potsherd. We no longer compete with others but strive to improve ourselves in the light of God’s word. God’s word in man’s world is the hand of the potter gently shaping, cleansing, forming and transforming us. Everything will take a new meaning and be imbued with new passion and power from above. God has intended us to be a creative work not a destructive work. We will see and sense His unseen hands guiding, comforting, assuring and leading us. the clay , day by day.


We become the veritable extension of God’s hands in this world, the extension of His eyes and vision. We are the instruments of execution of His sovereign will. We are connected now to the mind and heart of the Lord. There is nothing that is too difficult or impossible for Him to accomplish in and through us. The gap between human reality and God’s glory or hamartia is closed. We no longer fall short of His perfect glory or fall short in terms of His standards of holiness, righteousness and greatness by the grace of the Potter Jesus. Jesus is no longer content in making us earthen pots but He desires to make us vessels of glory and greatness. He designs and re-shapes us into His very image. We now strive not with God or with other men but with our own flesh and the desires or illegitimate cravings of the flesh described in the Word as lust- lust of the flesh, pride of life and lust of the eye. But Jesus the Immaculate Potter has now changed our relationship with God from Potter-potsherd or Maker-Made to Father-Child. There is a paradigm shift in perspective from being a mere creation or creature of God to being a son or daughter of God. We are also heirs with Jesus to the promises of God. We are co-heirs of the titles, identities and inheritance of God in heaven as on earth. He will give us both victory in our struggles and rest from our struggles. Truly, when we yield to Him and to the Holy Spirit, He increases our yield. We only need to yield our egos, our wills, our hearts, our minds and different parts of our bodies, different aspects of our relationships, goals, priorities and lives to the Lord

Prateep V Philip

Dreams, Visions and Their Interpretation

UV 1345/10,000 Dreams, Visions and Their Interpretation

For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

Job 33 v 14

God speaks in many ways to mankind. The primary way is through His revealed Word. Those who believe, read the Word and accept what is written therein as true. He also speaks to others who do not believe through dreams. I once prayed for an astrologer upon reading his predictions of disasters in the year to come. That astrologer saw Jesus in a dream. His wife saw Jesus in a vision. Yet he did not believe in Jesus. God had spoken once in a dream, twice in a vision and yet he did not perceive it, believe it or receive it. When I asked him, he replied that he would do so on the next occasion it happened. Scripture records many instances of God’s communication of His will and purpose through dreams dreamt by prophets, rulers as well as ordinary people. Joseph saw dreams of his destiny as a youth. God took him through a series of ups and downs in his life to fulfil that destiny. Pharaoh saw dreams and Joseph interpreted it to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Some are given the gift of interpretation of dreams and visions. There are different symbols that can be interpreted: a person wearing white clothes is a symbol of salvation. A bag with holes in it is a symbol of financial or material loss. Some dreams and visions are sent as a warning to heed or a portent of impending judgement like the hand that wrote on the wall of the palace of the Babylonian king Belteshazzar. Some dreams are a revelation of the will of God and the events to unfold in the immediate, near or distant future.


Daniel similarly interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar. God spoke to Daniel through visions about the future of Israel and about the destiny of humankind. God spoke to Joseph and Mary concerning the Messiah. He spoke to the wise men who came from the East through a dream to avoid meeting Herod on the way back. Even today, God speaks through dreams and visions to us. We should be sensitive enough to perceive the dream, to recollect it and understand what it means. We should not be found to be insensitive or slow of understanding and faith not to grasp the hidden meaning of a vision or dream. We need to tune our spiritual and mental receivers so that we are on the same frequency as God. When the Lord has spoken but once, we should see and understand, hear and understand. We need not wait for a second time or a confirmation of the message of God. We should take the vision and run with it. The vision should energise us, enthuse us and convince us that God has indeed spoken and it will happen accordingly. If there are some things we need to set in order or things we need to do, we should do so without delay.

When a certain man of God prayed for the leaders of a particular town, a young man who belonged to the priestly clan of that temple town saw a dream of a woman. He understood that to be a sign from God that he should marry her should he chance upon her. The next day he saw the very same lady crossing his path and he went immediately and proposed to her. The young woman being a pastor’s daughter declined this stranger but when he persisted and the family understood that it was God’s will, she married him and that led to his eventually being a believer in Christ. The human brain never sleeps and often our conscious as well as subconscious fears surface in dreams. Sometimes, the enemy of our souls also sends bad dreams or nightmares to us while we slumber. At these times, we should pray for protection for us and our loved ones so that no bad news overtakes us in the days to come. While we sleep the Lord watches over us but we need to pray every night and ask Him to “fence” our sleep and keep us from such bad dreams and signs. Instead, we can ask Him to send us dreams and visions of divine origin and purpose that will bless us.

Prateep V Philip

Open a Praisebook Account

UV 1343/10,000 Open A Praisebook Account
And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
2 Chronicles 20 v 22

Just as many people in today’s world open their Facebook account and make posts of brags in terms of snaps and comments, each of us need to open our own Praisebook account. Many people think in the natural that the only times we should praise and thank God is when things are going well for us. But scripture opens our minds to the counter intuitive method of the Israelites. The kingdom of Judah under Jehoshaphat faced a multitude of mortal and powerful enemies on many sides but when the king led the people in praise and worship of Jehovah el Shaddai, the Lord set ambushments against their powerful foes and they were defeated.

Each of us has unique experiences of God’s saving grace in our lives and we should record these posts in our Praisebook. The posts will then be our bulwark of defence, our weapon that ensures victory in life’s great battles. The uni-verse states that “as they began to sing and praise..”. It implies that the Lord does not wait for us to finish but He marshalls His supernatural forces as soon as we open our hearts and mouths to praise and worship Him. Scripture says, that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise God in any situation, adverse or favourable, we are inviting His presence into our midst and He undertakes to do on behalf of the faithful beyond their asking or imagination.

Each of us has challenges and inhibiting factors or limitations of ability, resources, knowledge, understanding and our weaknesses of character. When we praise the Lord the Lord removes our inhibitions and limitations. When St Paul was confined in a Roman prison, he and the others imprisoned with him began to sing and praise. At the time, the Lord set an “ambushment” of a different kind- an earthquake that threw open the prison doors and freed them from their shackles. We would have thought the “ambushment” happened so that Paul and others could escape from the prison. The prison commander drew his sword to kill himself but Paul called out to him that they were still around and that there was no need to despair and kill himself. The prison commander then surrendered his life to Jesus. When we open our Praisebook, the Lord sets in motion a series of miracles and miraculous breakthroughs in our lives.

Prateep V Philip

Anger Management

UV 1342/10,000 Anger Management

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ephesians 4 v 26

Oftentimes in our daily lives we are provoked to anger. But the Lord understands that circumstances cause us to be angry but He warns us not to carry the anger forward into another day. It should set before the sun sets or it should be dealt with before the day ends. If not it could lead us into sin, evil, malice and the root of bitterness. This is an excellent principle of anger management.
Anger led even Moses to disobey God. He struck the rock twice with his staff in anger when He was asked by the Lord to speak to the rock to yield water. Anger will affect our productivity and our effectiveness adversely. Jesus said, “ If we call our brother “ Racca” or fool, we are in danger of judgement” for the words used and consequently, are in danger of facing the fire of hell. Anger affects our speech and causes us to use words that are harsh and damaging. It affects our relationships permanently. Jesus Himself displayed anger ,righteous anger only once when He found His Father’s house, the temple turned into a “den of thieves.” Zeal for His Father’s house filled Him with righteous anger. Righteous anger leads to inner cleansing. We should turn our righteous anger towards ourselves so that we are cleansed of deception and sin.
God is quick to forgive and slow to anger. We should aim to emulate Him for scripture says that he who is slow to anger is of great understanding. We should commune with our own hearts each day as we lie in bed and dissolve the hard feelings that caused us to be angry during the day. If we do not, anger will make us to meditate on evil and to repay evil with evil. We should surrender the cause of our anger to the Lord and He will deal with it and help us with grace and wisdom to deal with it. We must create a clearing house of emotions within us so that we start each day with a fresh slate and do not carry forward a backlog of negative thoughts and feelings that will affect our relationships, inner joy and peace, our work and our health.

Prateep V Philip

The Three Storeyed Home

UV 1341/10,000 The Three Storeyed Home

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I Corinthians 13 v 13

Our lives are the three-storeyed tabernacle or home of the Triune God in which we live or abide all our lives. God inspires us with faith, Jesus inspires us with love and the Holy Spirit inspires us with hope. Jesus is the rock foundation of our lives. Faith is the ground floor of our house built on the rock. Faith takes care of our need for provision. Love is the first floor with all the living rooms and hope is the top floor. Love characterises our relationships with God and others. Hope characterises our efforts. The home is being built here and now. We dwell or abide in it 24 x 7.

The three parts of our divine homes are inter-connected. If we have faith, we will demonstrate it in works of love and exhibit it in the hope of eternal life. Each thought, word or action of ours provides a building block of different materials for the construction of our tabernacles. We can choose to build with straw or with diamonds, sapphires and precious stones. Building with faith and hope is construed as building with rubies and sapphires but but building with love is building with diamonds that are multi-faceted. Love is the greatest attribute and is expressed in a variety of ways. Love is reflected in forgiveness, compassion, understanding, patience, tolerance, mercy, grace.

When faith, love and hope are combined in due proportion, it gives rise to the fullness of joy. Joy is not a mere emotion that we feel. It is a spiritual feeling of security, usefulness and meaning of life. It is not dependent on circumstances or events. Just as sand, cement, water and steel are mixed to form concrete, when faith, love and hope are combined, it forms the strongest basis for life to proceed. It produces the most powerful bonding that nothing can break.


Prateep V Philip