UV 1692/10000 Supply, Apply, Multiply, Magnify
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord
Colossians 3 v 16
The Word of God is also described as the Word of Christ as Christ the Word became flesh in order to communicate the peace of God with all mankind. Having the peace of God, we should then let the Word stay with us. It implies that we never depart from the Word and that the Word never departs from us. We abide in the Word- we are surrounded at all times by the teachings of Jesus. We abide in Him when His teachings stay with us. We will be enriched by the wisdom of the Lord. We need to richly experience the Word by applying our knowledge of His Word in all practical and real situations of need or challenge in our lives. The process is “Supply, Apply, Multiply, Magnify” : first, we need to ensure an abundant supply of the Word by spending enough time reading, praying over, memorising, claiming, remembering, meditating. Then, we need to apply specific verses to specific situations. Finally, we need to teach it and multiply it in the lives of others around us. A doer of the Word is its best teacher.
We need to use the Word to build or edify or strengthen each other. This kind of rich input will lead to an outflow of peace, grace and joy from our hearts that will express itself in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. There will be a constant outpouring of praise, thanksgiving and worship in our innermost sanctum sanctorum- our very hearts. Every blessing, counsel and experience of salvation, deliverance and victory the Holy Spirit will turn into a song of thanksgiving from our hearts that words cannot express, that no man-made instrument can accompany. We are magnifying the Lord even as a magnifying lens catches the light of the sun to focus it on a particular object.
When a stream of praise and thanksgiving flows from our spiritual hearts like blood that oozes in and out of our physical hearts or breath that flows in and out of our nostrils, respiratory passages and the lungs, the grace of the Lord continually flows in our lives. Instead of our natural tendencies of fight or flight, we will be in a supernatural state of flow. The grace of the Lord will fill and overflow our lives as water overflows a vessel that is standing under a constant downpour. Moses enriched himself in the Word so much that he applied it to his life. He modelled it in his leadership and applied it to practical situations in leading the people of Israel. He taught it to the people he mentored and led. The grace of the Lord or the favour, enablement, empowerment and blessing of the Lord was multiplied in his life and leadership. He experienced mighty deliverance and great victories. He magnified the Lord with a spiritual song called the song of Moses.
Prateep V Philip
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Comprehensive and Deep Trust
UV 1691/10000 Comprehensive and Deep Trust
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding
Proverbs 3 v 5
Whom we love we trust. Trust is a practical outflow of love. We need to trust in the Lord with ALL our heart since we love Him with all our hearts. We may give our energy, money, time and attention to a host of things but we need to give our whole heart to the Lord. The concept of God being a Jealous God implies that we need to believe in Him wholeheartedly or without holding back on anything, without any reservation. We often are tempted to think we are smarter or wiser and rely on our own understanding of things. This messes up things for us and then we blame the Lord. We should rely entirely on the wisdom, guidance and precepts that the Lord has given us in His Word and the promptings and urgings of the Holy Spirit who indwells in us.
We not only need to trust wholeheartedly but we need to acknowledge Him in all our ways. It implies that we need to realize that the Lord has greater and complete knowledge of every area of our lives. We need to accept His sovereignty and our dependence on His grace and wisdom in all our ways and not in just some of our ways: our inner life, our thought life, our private life, our professional life, our family life, our marriage, our parenting, our fitness plans, our diet, our finances, our relationships, our network, our decisions, our emotional issues, our goals and desires, our secrets, our challenges, our problems, our difficulties, our fears, our frustrations, our anguish, our doubts, our questions.. We demonstrate our trust when we pray over each of these areas of our lives. We prove our trust when we act on the promise of the Lord in each of these areas. We show our discipline when we obey the Lord’s commands or directives in each of these areas.
In practice, we rely partly on the Lord’s wisdom and partly on our own. We adjust our views to suit the views of our peer group. The uni-verse upholds to us the kind of trust that Daniel and his three friends demonstrated in their lives. They trusted the Lord for their health, their dietary preferences, their lifestyle, their deliverance, for revelation of dreams and their meaning. They trusted the Lord to the point of confronting death and danger. They acted on their convictions and took bold risks. They came out victorious and unscathed.
Prateep V Philip
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding
Proverbs 3 v 5
Whom we love we trust. Trust is a practical outflow of love. We need to trust in the Lord with ALL our heart since we love Him with all our hearts. We may give our energy, money, time and attention to a host of things but we need to give our whole heart to the Lord. The concept of God being a Jealous God implies that we need to believe in Him wholeheartedly or without holding back on anything, without any reservation. We often are tempted to think we are smarter or wiser and rely on our own understanding of things. This messes up things for us and then we blame the Lord. We should rely entirely on the wisdom, guidance and precepts that the Lord has given us in His Word and the promptings and urgings of the Holy Spirit who indwells in us.
We not only need to trust wholeheartedly but we need to acknowledge Him in all our ways. It implies that we need to realize that the Lord has greater and complete knowledge of every area of our lives. We need to accept His sovereignty and our dependence on His grace and wisdom in all our ways and not in just some of our ways: our inner life, our thought life, our private life, our professional life, our family life, our marriage, our parenting, our fitness plans, our diet, our finances, our relationships, our network, our decisions, our emotional issues, our goals and desires, our secrets, our challenges, our problems, our difficulties, our fears, our frustrations, our anguish, our doubts, our questions.. We demonstrate our trust when we pray over each of these areas of our lives. We prove our trust when we act on the promise of the Lord in each of these areas. We show our discipline when we obey the Lord’s commands or directives in each of these areas.
In practice, we rely partly on the Lord’s wisdom and partly on our own. We adjust our views to suit the views of our peer group. The uni-verse upholds to us the kind of trust that Daniel and his three friends demonstrated in their lives. They trusted the Lord for their health, their dietary preferences, their lifestyle, their deliverance, for revelation of dreams and their meaning. They trusted the Lord to the point of confronting death and danger. They acted on their convictions and took bold risks. They came out victorious and unscathed.
Prateep V Philip
Friday, March 4, 2016
Pressing CLose
UV 1690/10000 Pressing Close
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Psalm 73 v 28
We draw near to the Lord not for His sake, not because He needs us but because we need Him. It is good for us to draw near to Him as a man needs to draw near to the fireplace on a cold wintry night. We need Him as plants need sunlight. We derive our spiritual food, air and energy from Him. His breath in our nostrils is the bread of our life. He sustains us. He elevates us to new levels of understanding and aspiration. Without Him our lives are cold, purposeless and powerless.
After drawing near to the Lord or in other words after commencing a personal relationship with God through Jesus, His Son, we place our complete trust in Him and His Word. His Word describes the myriad ways in which the Lord works in our lives. Each verse in His Word is a rung of the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream connecting heaven and earth. We climb the stairway to heaven using the specific verses from scripture. Our trust in the Word gives opportunities for the Lord to act in our lives. Using the Word He moulds our inner being. He makes possible what we desire and what is impossible in human terms. Each promise verse in scripture enables us to hop paradigms or patterns of living. The excellent or extraordinary or the miraculous will operate and often manifest in what we think, speak and do. The Word in us becomes the work of the Lord. He does works in us, for us and with us. The works in us refers to the removal of our limiting beliefs and the inner transformation of our being. The work for us refers to the benefits or blessings, spiritual, material and physical that we need. The work with us is our purpose in life to declare who the Lord is and to declare His works.
Our testimonies are our stories or our declarations of the works of the Lord in our lives. It is the narrative of our lives to influence others in our generation to draw near to the Lord that they too be similarly blessed. Most people hesitate to draw near to the Lord as they fear Him out of a sense of guilt even as Adam and Eve hid from Him after their temptation and fall. When we fear Him out of a sense of reverence for His awesomeness, we do not hesitate to draw nearer and nearer to Him as we experience His tender mercies and His love. The woman with a chronic problem of bleeding pressed close to the Lord to touch Him and be healed. So also we need to draw closer and closer to Him, so that we can hide in the hem of His clothes like a child. The woman being healed was one of the rare occasions when Jesus involuntarily healed a person. Similarly, when we are always walking close and pressing close to the Lord, even without us praying or the Lord listening, answers and miracles will be released from the very presence of the Lord.
Prateep V Philip
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
Psalm 73 v 28
We draw near to the Lord not for His sake, not because He needs us but because we need Him. It is good for us to draw near to Him as a man needs to draw near to the fireplace on a cold wintry night. We need Him as plants need sunlight. We derive our spiritual food, air and energy from Him. His breath in our nostrils is the bread of our life. He sustains us. He elevates us to new levels of understanding and aspiration. Without Him our lives are cold, purposeless and powerless.
After drawing near to the Lord or in other words after commencing a personal relationship with God through Jesus, His Son, we place our complete trust in Him and His Word. His Word describes the myriad ways in which the Lord works in our lives. Each verse in His Word is a rung of the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream connecting heaven and earth. We climb the stairway to heaven using the specific verses from scripture. Our trust in the Word gives opportunities for the Lord to act in our lives. Using the Word He moulds our inner being. He makes possible what we desire and what is impossible in human terms. Each promise verse in scripture enables us to hop paradigms or patterns of living. The excellent or extraordinary or the miraculous will operate and often manifest in what we think, speak and do. The Word in us becomes the work of the Lord. He does works in us, for us and with us. The works in us refers to the removal of our limiting beliefs and the inner transformation of our being. The work for us refers to the benefits or blessings, spiritual, material and physical that we need. The work with us is our purpose in life to declare who the Lord is and to declare His works.
Our testimonies are our stories or our declarations of the works of the Lord in our lives. It is the narrative of our lives to influence others in our generation to draw near to the Lord that they too be similarly blessed. Most people hesitate to draw near to the Lord as they fear Him out of a sense of guilt even as Adam and Eve hid from Him after their temptation and fall. When we fear Him out of a sense of reverence for His awesomeness, we do not hesitate to draw nearer and nearer to Him as we experience His tender mercies and His love. The woman with a chronic problem of bleeding pressed close to the Lord to touch Him and be healed. So also we need to draw closer and closer to Him, so that we can hide in the hem of His clothes like a child. The woman being healed was one of the rare occasions when Jesus involuntarily healed a person. Similarly, when we are always walking close and pressing close to the Lord, even without us praying or the Lord listening, answers and miracles will be released from the very presence of the Lord.
Prateep V Philip
Thursday, March 3, 2016
The Kingdom Perspective
UV 1689-10000 The Kingdom Perspective
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17 v 21
The first and foremost change that happens in a believer’s heart and mind is a change of perspective or how he or she looks at life, the world and his or her personal circumstances. Instead of a worldly or kingdom of man perspective, we develop a new creation perspective or kingdom of God perspective. We look at the immediate through the lens of the eternal. Instead of man going to the kingdom of God, God brought the kingdom of God to us through His Son Jesus, the Crown Prince of Heaven. Jesus not just brought the kingdom near us but He installed it in every believer through the ages. We are therefore a kingdom of priests and kings. We are the living temples of God. We are the living stones with which the temple is built. The law of God or the Word is written by the Spirit on our hearts, minds and spirits. The kingdom is not geographically located in space and time but it is situated in each of us and all of us. The rule of God is established in us and through us. The Lord executes His will through us.
The grace, beauty, righteousness, peace, joy and power of God is within us and we realize it day by day, moment by moment in our personal relationship with the Sovereign Creator through His Son Jesus. The kingdoms of man perishes but the Kingdom of God lasts forever. The kingdom of man revels in the exhibition of brute power while the kingdom of God is established not by might or by power but by His Spirit. The kingdom of man relies on the power of the sword and the strength of horses, a symbol for the vast array of weapons and arsenals developed by mankind. The kingdom of God relies on the power of the Word and the Spirit. The kingdom of man operates on the principles of fear and control. The kingdom of God operates on the principles of love and freedom.
The kingdom of God is an all encompassing perspective and world view: it includes all of our being, all of our relationships, all of our thoughts, words, deeds and reactions. The kingdom of man becomes irrelevant after our deaths but the Kingdom of God enables us to see God, the Ruler of our lives, the Saviour of our souls face to face. The kingdom of man is impersonal, formal and distant. The kingdom of God is personal and intimate. The kingdom of man values us on the basis of our status, contributions, abilities but the Kingdom of God values us on the basis of who we are intrinsically. We do not have to travel far but only need to look within to find the kingdom of God. The kingdom of man is hierarchical and bureaucratic while the kingdom of God is flat: anyone can approach the throne of His grace on the basis of faith in Jesus. Anyone can seek audience and obtain remedy.
Prateep V Philip
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The GI-ants
UV 1688/10000 The GI-ants
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 13 v 33
The people of Israel saw themselves as tiny, weak or puny as ants. They recognized how vulnerable they were against the giants of the land. They were living by sight and not by faith in the God who had done mighty miracles to deliver them from the bondage of Pharaoh and Egypt, the superpower of the ancient world. We too regard ourselves often as if we are as weak as ants due to what I call the ANT –process- an automatic negative thought process that limits our growth, locks us up in fears, real and imaginary, destroys our confidence in the Lord, others and ourselves. Instead, we are called to be GI-ants or “God Inspired ants” who can defeat any giant in our land.
Moses had chosen twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan that God had promised them. Of them ten had low esteem of themselves, of Moses and of God that they gave in to the fears inspired by what they saw- the men were strong, the cities were walled and fortified. They had seen how through forty years, the Lord had delivered them and led them through many ups and downs and all kinds of experiences of victory against all odds, yet in forty days of spying on the land they were promised as their possession, they had lost the vision, become discouraged and overcome by fear. The past nearly forty years the Lord has led me from one victory to another but I can loose it all in one day if I give in to fears, doubts, pressures, temptations, weaknesses and low faith and confidence in the Lord who has brought me this far.
God inspires us with examples of deliverance and victory against impossible odds from scripture and our contemporary life. The Lord inspires us with His Word. He inspires us with the power of the Holy Spirit. He inspires us through prayer. No one can stop His promise to us from being fulfilled. We can defeat or slay any giant. We need not be deterred by their great size or prowess. We are GI-ants and our power is just as great as our faith makes it to be. We are to be “Eschol” or extraordinarily productive and brave. We need to be optimistic and confident like Caleb and Joshua who were the two lone men who stood by Moses and said that it was possible to take the land from its current possessors. They recalled the mighty wonders the Lord had done to deliver them in Egypt and along their long course back to the promised land. Our faith should enable us to jump like grasshoppers from one level to another in our walk with the Lord and in our accomplishments in His Name. When others look at us , they will see very ordinary and vulnerable persons but they do not suspect the hidden amazing and awesome power of the Lord at work in us, through us and around us. We see ourselves not with the esteem of others or of our own esteem but with the esteem of the Lord. We see ourselves as God sees us as “mighty warriors and people of great valour.”
Prateep V Philip
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 13 v 33
The people of Israel saw themselves as tiny, weak or puny as ants. They recognized how vulnerable they were against the giants of the land. They were living by sight and not by faith in the God who had done mighty miracles to deliver them from the bondage of Pharaoh and Egypt, the superpower of the ancient world. We too regard ourselves often as if we are as weak as ants due to what I call the ANT –process- an automatic negative thought process that limits our growth, locks us up in fears, real and imaginary, destroys our confidence in the Lord, others and ourselves. Instead, we are called to be GI-ants or “God Inspired ants” who can defeat any giant in our land.
Moses had chosen twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan that God had promised them. Of them ten had low esteem of themselves, of Moses and of God that they gave in to the fears inspired by what they saw- the men were strong, the cities were walled and fortified. They had seen how through forty years, the Lord had delivered them and led them through many ups and downs and all kinds of experiences of victory against all odds, yet in forty days of spying on the land they were promised as their possession, they had lost the vision, become discouraged and overcome by fear. The past nearly forty years the Lord has led me from one victory to another but I can loose it all in one day if I give in to fears, doubts, pressures, temptations, weaknesses and low faith and confidence in the Lord who has brought me this far.
God inspires us with examples of deliverance and victory against impossible odds from scripture and our contemporary life. The Lord inspires us with His Word. He inspires us with the power of the Holy Spirit. He inspires us through prayer. No one can stop His promise to us from being fulfilled. We can defeat or slay any giant. We need not be deterred by their great size or prowess. We are GI-ants and our power is just as great as our faith makes it to be. We are to be “Eschol” or extraordinarily productive and brave. We need to be optimistic and confident like Caleb and Joshua who were the two lone men who stood by Moses and said that it was possible to take the land from its current possessors. They recalled the mighty wonders the Lord had done to deliver them in Egypt and along their long course back to the promised land. Our faith should enable us to jump like grasshoppers from one level to another in our walk with the Lord and in our accomplishments in His Name. When others look at us , they will see very ordinary and vulnerable persons but they do not suspect the hidden amazing and awesome power of the Lord at work in us, through us and around us. We see ourselves not with the esteem of others or of our own esteem but with the esteem of the Lord. We see ourselves as God sees us as “mighty warriors and people of great valour.”
Prateep V Philip
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Sowing, Ploughing, Raining, Reaping
UV 1687/10000 Sowing, Ploughing, Raining and Reaping
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10 v 12
There are two worlds out there: a big, bad and mad world and a small, good and wise world. The choices we make determine which world we belong to. Apparently, God puts His weight behind the latter and it is the winning side. We need to join the winning side and always sow in the spirit of righteousness, with right motives and actions. Then, we will reap in abundance of the tender mercies of the Lord that falls like the morning dew on us. We will reap abundance of blessings of peace and grace and joy. The fallow ground or the areas of our lives that are not productive so far will be made fertile and fruitful. The Lord will send His latter rain and former rain of blessings of the righteous on us in due time, never late and never early. IF we sow mercy, we will receive mercy. If we sow peace, we will receive peace. If we sow good news, we will receive great news. If we sow grace, we will receive grace. It is more vital than even sowing wheat or rice or fruits or vegetables for the yield from the latter will perish while the yield from the spiritual seed will flourish forever.
If we sow in the spirit, we reap in the spirit. We will enjoy eternal and abundant life. The quantitative and qualitative dimensions of life would be impacted. If we sow in the flesh, we will reap the consequences of lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and pride of life. The shadow of hamartia or the lack of blessing of the Lord will be upon us. When we sow in the spirit, the shadow of the Almighty will be upon us and we will be blessed by His grace and peace. Sowing in the spirit implies that we need to seek the Lord with all our hearts and all our minds and in all that we do wholeheartedly. We need to seek His face to know Him better. We need to seek His grace to do better. In every phase of life, we need to acknowledge and give priority to the will, word and work of the Lord.
We break up the fallow or unyielding ground, the hardened parts of our lives by ploughing in the spirit. By hearing and meditating and applying the Word in a spirit of reverence, obedience and prayer, we plough in the spirit. The fallow souls of our fellow human beings are also ploughed in the spirit when we pray for them and share the Word with them. The Word filters out the perverse influence of the big, bad and mad world and keeps us at the centre of His will. It fertilizes the positive seed planted in us. When we so plough, the Lord will send showers of blessing to further soften the soil of our souls and bring a great harvest into His kingdom.
Prateep V Philip
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10 v 12
There are two worlds out there: a big, bad and mad world and a small, good and wise world. The choices we make determine which world we belong to. Apparently, God puts His weight behind the latter and it is the winning side. We need to join the winning side and always sow in the spirit of righteousness, with right motives and actions. Then, we will reap in abundance of the tender mercies of the Lord that falls like the morning dew on us. We will reap abundance of blessings of peace and grace and joy. The fallow ground or the areas of our lives that are not productive so far will be made fertile and fruitful. The Lord will send His latter rain and former rain of blessings of the righteous on us in due time, never late and never early. IF we sow mercy, we will receive mercy. If we sow peace, we will receive peace. If we sow good news, we will receive great news. If we sow grace, we will receive grace. It is more vital than even sowing wheat or rice or fruits or vegetables for the yield from the latter will perish while the yield from the spiritual seed will flourish forever.
If we sow in the spirit, we reap in the spirit. We will enjoy eternal and abundant life. The quantitative and qualitative dimensions of life would be impacted. If we sow in the flesh, we will reap the consequences of lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and pride of life. The shadow of hamartia or the lack of blessing of the Lord will be upon us. When we sow in the spirit, the shadow of the Almighty will be upon us and we will be blessed by His grace and peace. Sowing in the spirit implies that we need to seek the Lord with all our hearts and all our minds and in all that we do wholeheartedly. We need to seek His face to know Him better. We need to seek His grace to do better. In every phase of life, we need to acknowledge and give priority to the will, word and work of the Lord.
We break up the fallow or unyielding ground, the hardened parts of our lives by ploughing in the spirit. By hearing and meditating and applying the Word in a spirit of reverence, obedience and prayer, we plough in the spirit. The fallow souls of our fellow human beings are also ploughed in the spirit when we pray for them and share the Word with them. The Word filters out the perverse influence of the big, bad and mad world and keeps us at the centre of His will. It fertilizes the positive seed planted in us. When we so plough, the Lord will send showers of blessing to further soften the soil of our souls and bring a great harvest into His kingdom.
Prateep V Philip
Check out my new single The Great I Am (feat. P V Philip, Sumith & Smitha) distributed by @tunecore and live on iTunes!
Check out my new single The Great I Am (feat. P V Philip, Sumith & Smitha) distributed by @tunecore and live on iTunes!: Musicians: Sell your own music on iTunes, Spotify, eMusic, Amazon Music, Google Play and many more! Keep all your rights and get 100% of the royalties.
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