The faith muscular system

UV 422/10,000 The faith muscular system Isaiah 41 v 20 Isa 41:20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it The claims of Jesus Christ are evidence based. Therefore, in every generation believers who saw, knew, considered and understood have been and continue to be His witnesses. Our faith is experience based as we see the move of the Lord in our lives in a variety of situations and ways. Our life is value based and our leadership, principle-centred. As a young believer, I was told that faith is like a muscle. But, just the other day, the Lord told me that our faith is like a muscular system, a connected collection of different sets of muscles to hold and move different parts of the Body of Christ. Our heart-faith is the simple child like faith that leads to salvation. Our mind-faith is the faith that transforms our thoughts, emotions and decisions. The faith muscles of our eye enables us to see the vision that the Lord has for the world, for the church and for ourselves. They enable us to see and understand what the human eye cannot see. The hand muscles enable our work to be blessed and the fruits thereof multiplied. Our faith muscles of the leg blesses our journeys and the places we go to. Our faith muscles of the mouth blesses our pronouncements. We call into being that which is not as if it is. Our ear muscles blesses our hearing. Our faith muscles of the tongue enable us to taste the good things that the Lord sends our way and to praise Him. The faith muscles of our face enable us to smile through difficult situations. But, we should see, know, consider and understand that through it all it is the hand of the Lord had done what He had decided and fulfilled the purpose He has for creating us. On our part, we need to exercise every part of our faith-muscles. That is why Paul writes,”Physical exercise is of some value but spiritual exercise is of far greater value.” If we do not exercise a particular muscle, it will atrophy and will not function well. For a whole year when I was in a desk job, I found that the muscles connecting my upper legs and lower were paining. The orthopaedician said that for want of exercise, they had shrunk and he suggested a series of stretching exercises to make them longer and supple. Prateep V Philip

The Absolute Power of God

UV 420/10,000 Psalms 66 v 7 The absolute power of God Psa 66:7 He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. The Lord rules human history with His unseen hand. The rise and fall of civilizations are determined by him. Once in a time of prayer, He asked, “ who is the most powerful person on the earth? Is it not the President of the USA. Am I not more powerful than him?” His eyes survey every nation and He sifts and sorts both individuals and families as well as nations. The power of the US President is highly limited by constitutional checks and balances and confined to a four year term but the Lord’s power does not know either geographical or time limits. There is no one like Him, none like Him in all the earth or the universe. He is greater, stronger and higher than any other. His power is awesome and unlimited. When we stand in the gap and pray for different nations, the Lord in His sovereign power intervenes in that nation, touches lives and wins many souls. He will also deal with the proud and rebellious. His judgements are swift, certain and just. Nebuchadnazzer the mighty king acknowledged the awesome power of the God of Daniel. The power of God is not a mere philosophical postulate but a real- time phenomenon as the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh and his army discovered as they drowned in the Red Sea while pursuing the hapless Israelites. Yesterday, the Lord revealed to me that the Israelites being freed from Egyptian rule was the first non violent freedom movement in history that He himself led. Our lives too must manifest the power of God. People should see the events of our lives and acknowledge that it is the supernatural power of God that sustains us. Recently, a senior officer in Government called me and asked me about my career. He acknowledged that it was the supernatural power of God that sustained me. The odds against us might often be huge but it is all insignificant when confronted with the power of the Lord. Prateep V Philip

A Shepherd after God's heart

UV 419/10,000 Jeremiah 3 v 15 Shepherds after God’s heart Jer 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. The word, “ pastor” comes from “ shepherd” or the one who takes the sheep to the pasture to feed. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd but in every generation He has anointed shepherds over his flock who imbued with knowledge and understanding fed the flock from the Word of God. All of the pastors start off as sheep or as believers but are groomed by Lord over a period of time to become transformed into being shepherds. A shepherd must be moulded after God’s own heart, loving, caring, considerate and humble. From the Lord’s perspective, feeding the sheep or believers with the Word of God is the equivalent of leadership. A shepherd must be devoted to the well being of the last person in his flock like the shepherd who went looking for the lost sheep. A shepherd who is a hireling is more interested in the profit or the lucre that the sheep will bring in. Such a hireling is only interested in shearing the sheep of their earnings and not in defending or providing or feeding them. In contrast, a true shepherd or pastor is not interested in self aggrandisement or self glorification but in reflecting the love of the very heart of God. A shepherd needs two gifts : the Word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. He must know the apt portion of scripture to share at the needed time. He must also have the sensitivity to people’s needs and be able to give wise counsel. A knowledge of the Word accompanied by a deep understanding of people will enable a shepherd or pastor to be effective. The Lord promises to give such faithful pastors who would lead or feed the sheep. Prateep V Philip

The Leaven that keeps us from Heaven

Uv 418/10,000 Exodus 13 v 3 The Leaven that keeps us from Heaven Exo 13:3 "And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten" Egypt in today’s parlance is a metaphor or a symbol of bondage. The Lord has called us out of spiritual bondage to the powers of darkness into spiritual freedom. He has freed us from the house of bondage so that we will return to the Father’s house. We are freed by the might and the mercy of the Lord. The Lord asks us to remember the day of our personal “Passover” when we first received Him into our hearts, the day when we received eternal life and the right to call Him Appa, the day we came into our divine inheritance. It is to be celebrated as our spiritual birthday. I was asked by the friend who led me to Christ to write the date of my re-birth 31-7-1979 right next to the invitation verse Revelation 3 v 20 as a constant reminder of that day, my decision and my entry into the Lord’s house of freedom. The Israelites were asked not to eat any bread with yeast or leaven in it to mark their freedom from bondage. A little leaven can keep us from heaven. Leaven or yeast is a symbol for anything that deceives us, that makes us puffed up like bread that has yeast in the dough. The yeast adds no real nutritional value to the bread. Jesus warned the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. It meant the outward observance of the Word of God without truly honouring or loving God. Their love of their power and of the world made them puffed up like bread with yeast. We must therefore avoid all such hypocrisy in our daily lives where we have an outward show of faith without the inner devotion and power. We must not just mouth the right born again language and do the right things in the public eye while doing as it pleases us in the private. The house of bondage is also a symbol or metaphor for outward religious rules and practices that makes us feel good and self righteous. Our relationship with the Lord must be sincere and true at all times, when we are with other people and when we are on our own. The word,’ sincere’ comes from the root words that mean “ without wax”. We must be authentic, without wax and without masks in the presence of the Lord. Prateep V Philip

Honour for Honour

UV 417/10,000 I Samuel 2 v 30 Honour for honour 1Sa 2:30 " Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" We are blessed when we live with faith in the Lord Jesus. We are doubly blessed from generation to generation when the previous generation as well as the successive generation live in faith. As mortal human beings,we can only think in terms of three generations: as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob constituted a bloodline of faith. The Lord sees our generations forever. The successive generations are in the hands of the Lord. We honour the Lord when we speak to one another in psalms and quoting scripture and by teaching our children from His Word. Our homes would be blessed and protected. We need to honour the Lord in different ways when we live in faith. We honour His name and He promises to set us on high and satisfy us with long life. We honour the Lord with our praises and godly conversation. But, we cannot honour the Lord just with our lips. He will distance Himself from us as He sees that we do not love and honour Him in and with our hearts. We honour the Lord by giving from the firstfruits of our substance. We honour the Lord by keeping His commandments. We honour the Lord by revering His Word as truth and obeying it. We honour the Lord by keeping the Sabbath and being faithful in sticking to our commitment to have a daily quiet time. We honour the Lord by not denying Him in our workplace. We honour Him both by our silent witness, our open confession of our faith and by sharing our testimony of His grace and mercy in our lives. We honour the Lord in good times and bad times, when we give Him glory and thanksgiving for our victories, opportunities and blessings and at the same time, do not complain or murmur or grumble when things seem to be going the other way. We honour the Father when we honour the Son and hold the teachings of Jesus precious. We honour the Lord when we are sensitive and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and do not grieve Him. We honour the Lord with our time and He will add hours to our days and years to our life. One of the lessons I learnt quite early in my life and career is that the Lord is no man’s debtor. When I honoured the Lord by giving Queen Elizabeth II a Bible with a word of blessing written on the front page, He honoured me with a Queen’s Award within five years. When I honoured the Lord as a student, He blessed me with a top rank in the state. When I honoured the Lord for every blessing He sent me, He opened new doors and opportunities. When I honoured the Lord in the downtimes in my career and life patiently without complaining, He gave me promotions due to me in due time. As I honoured the Lord for the increase in my substance, He has blessed me even more. As I honoured the Lord by teaching our children about His faithfulness, He has kept them safe and secure in situations where I could have done nothing to help them. At the same time, the converse is also true that the Lord will despise those who dishonour Him. The judgement is swift and certain. Take the case of John Lennon- he boasted that he was more popular than Jesus and a manic killer shoots him to death for no obvious reason. When we ignore the Lord, He will be happy to leave us to our ignorance. When we become arrogant in our ignorance, we will pay for our arrogance. Prateep V Philip

Alpha and Omega, First and Last

Rev 1:11 " Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. " All our beginnings and endings are in the Lord as He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and ending of this day and all the events of this day are in His hands. The beginning and ending of our lives, our careers, our children, our families, our hopes and dreams, our thoughts, words and deeds, our plans are all overseen, underwritten and guaranteed by Him. From first to last, He is with us. Why should we get stressed out with what happens in between? Why should we loose hope? Why should we get depressed or angry? Why should we become anxious or worried about the future? He is the all knowing and all encompassing One. He encircles us completely with His love. He surrounds us with His awesome power. He fulfills our every need. There is no perfect parent on earth but the Lord alone is the perfect Parent. Once our vision of God, the unseen and unsearchable One is in place, everything else in life will fall in its due place. There is no need to struggle as psychologists put it for self actualization or self fulfillment as He fulfills us and completes our understanding, our personality and our purpose. It gives us assurance, a sense of certainty and a sense of control. That is why I say that the locus of control lies within a man and not without. We need to consider the vision of God and write it down as it is so vital and important for the transformation of our lives. We need to reflect on the question- in what ways has the Lord been the Alpha and Omega of our lives in practical and real ways in the recent and distant past? In what ways do we expect Him to continue to be the Alpha and Omega of our future? We must not keep the vision of who God is with ourselves. We must communicate it along with our testimony of its fulfillment in our lives to the rest of the church. There are different levels of maturity that believers in the body of Christ are at. Out of the seven churches mentioned in this UV, only two had qualities that were commendable and no failing. The vision of who God really is will enable the different types of believers to grow in maturity. Prateep V Philip

The secret of blessedness

UV 415/10,000 The secret of blessedness Zep 2:3 Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger. Those who think they are the mighty of the earth, do not seek the Lord as they feel they are self-sufficient and self-reliant. Their pride and wickedness keep them from seeking the Lord or His mercy. They do not realize that regardless of their exalted position or power the Lord in His righteous judgement can crush them as a man would crush an ant under his heel. It is only the meek or humble who seek the Lord. We must first seek His mercy since the best of us cannot match His absolute standards of holiness and goodness. Thereafter, we must seek to be righteous like Him by His grace or divine enablement. Then,we must seek to further humble ourselves as the Lord teaches us new things. When we do this, we will find the Lord’s favour or blessing and we will be saved or hidden from His anger and judgement. We should not seek to be rich or famous or glamourous for there is a deep sorrow or curse hidden in each of these : instead, seek to be blessed. Led by the Holy Spirit I recently composed the following poem or song to express the secret of blessedness. Blessed is my heart as I believed Jesus, Blessed is my head as I thought His thoughts,\ Blessed is my mind as I understand His Word, Blessed are my limbs as I walk with Him. Blessed are my lips as I praise the Lord, Blessed are my hands as I work for Him, Blessed are my feelings as I feel for Him, Blessed are my memories as I remember His deeds Blessed are my decisions as I acknowledge the Lord, Blessed are my words as I try to please Him, Blessed are my hopes as I trust in Him, Blessed are my motives as I move in Him. Blessed are my people as I pray for them Blessed is my home as I worship Him Blessed is my profession as I confess Him Blessed is my life as I obey Him. Prateep V Philip