Morning Manna

UV 966/10,000 Morning Manna Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Psalm 143 v 8 The Lord expects us to come to Him early every morning even before we have our breakfast. We must be spiritually nourished by His love even before we nourish our bodies or interact with people. When we approach Him every morning, he will send us the word of His unfailing love. His Word will never fail to come to us and His Word will never fail in it fulfilment. It will give us strength, encouragement and guidance for the day. As someone said, when we go to the Lord we should not be like someone who is giving instructions to the Lord but as a worker reporting for duty. Since we have pledged our trust in the Lord, the Lord will give us grace out of His covenant promises. He will feed us with daily spiritual manna. He shows us the way we should go. He will keep our feet from stumbling, implying from wilful or wanton blunders or unintended mistakes or errors of judgement, pronouncement or action. He will keep our eyes from tears, implying He would preserve us from tragedies or mishaps over which we have no control or no way to prevent or pre-empt it. When we pray and seek God ‘s will for our lives in His Word, we are lifting up our souls or spirits to the Lord. We are acknowledging that only He knows what is best and good for us. We are placing ourselves willingly in His capable and loving hands. We are yielding ourselves to Him to shape us from within and from outside. We have to close the three doors of our bodies to the world and its attractions, distractions and disturbance- our eyes, our ears and our mouth. Then He will give us grace or the power to overcome the challenges and issues of the day. Prateep V Philip

The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

UV 965/10,000 The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5 v 18 We need to offer the fruit of our lips –thanksgiving for every small and big blessing in our lives, for every situation, seemingly bad or good, for every person we know or relate to, for every opportunity as well as crisis, for good health and healing, for strength and wisdom, for knowledge and understanding, for the Word and for every promise of God. Our eyes will be opened to see and to be able to count the innumerable blessings of life that we take for granted every day. We need to thank God for His wonderful plan for the salvation of man and of each one of us through His Son Jesus. The more things we are grateful to the Lord for, the more we will have to be grateful for. It will produce an increasing feeling of blessedness in our lives. It will produce joy and contentment. When we are continually thanking the Lord, the enemy of our souls will not have an opportunity to infiltrate our minds. We will be drawn closer and closer to the Lord in faith and in love. Thanksgiving implies that our hearts are humble before the Lord. We are not proud or independent minded that we are ashamed to acknowledge the extent of our indebtedness to the Lord. Thanksgiving is the sacrifice of a believing heart and mind. It pleases the heart of God who will say, “ here is a faithful servant. Let me bless him or her even more.” We need to thank God for even the suffering we have gone through. Though this may be difficult at the time we are going through it, after we have endured it, we can thank the Lord for the faith, humility, character, patience and strength it built in us. When the early apostles faced violent death at the hands of their Roman and other persecutors, they thanked the Lord that they were found worthy to die as martyrs for Him. The latter were astonished that many of them died with songs of praise and thanksgiving on their lips. Thanksgiving ahead of even receiving answers to prayers is a mark of great faith and ushers in the answers we are seeking. When we see a peron who is limping or paralysed, we can thank the Lord for giving us healthy limbs and do our bit to ease the lot of the one that prompted us to thank the Lord. When we see someone who is poor and underprivileged, we can thank the Lord for all that He has given us in His grace and mercy and seek to help that person. When we see a person who is sick and ailing, we can thank the Lord for our health and pray for that person’s healing. This is what is meant by thanking the Lord in all that we do and say. Thanksgiving increases the degree of our anointing and filling with the Holy Spirit. It will increase the fruit of the Spirit as well as the gifts of the Spirit in us. Prateep V Philip

Spirit of Freedom

UV 964/10,000 The Spirit of Freedom For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8 v 15 When we receive Christ by faith into our hearts, we receive the spirit of children of God. We become children not by natural means but by adoption. The Israelites trembled at entering the presence of God out of fear that they would die due to His holiness and judgement. They dare not even pronounce His name also fully but spoke it under their breath out of reverence. But the Lord God declares this kind of fear to be like their bondage to Egypt. The Holy Spirit who dwells in us sets us free of the shackles of fear. Instead of bondage, we now have the spirit of bonding with the Father. We do not have to hesitate in calling Him, “ Abba” or Father since He has adopted us as His children. Jesus Christ is the first born and we through our faith in Him are brought into relationship with God and with each other as brothers and sisters and as co-heirs to the great spiritual inheritance that the Lord promises His children. Adam and Eve cowered in fear after they disobeyed God. Their guilt made them hide. By believing in the words of the evil one and disbelieving the words of the Holy One, they had chosen to be in bondage to satan and to be inheritors of the wrath of God. By believing the words of Jesus and His work on the cross, we are set free from every form of spiritual oppression or yoke of bondage that mankind became naturally prey to. We are inheritors of the love, grace and mercy of the Lord. Instead of being subject to punishment for our deeds and misdeeds, we become eligible for great rewards. As children ask their father boldly for their need, we can cry out to the Lord for our need. The spirit of being children of God enables us to fellowship with Him freely, without restraint or hindrance. We have many privileges of this newly forged relationship- the curse is broken, we are greatly blessed, we can address Him any time and all the time as children approach their father, we are subject to the discipline, teaching and leading by the Father, we reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives and character, we experience a new sense of freedom and joy, we inherit all that is promised in the Word of God, we are spared from judgement, we become kings and priests in God’s eyes, our prayers are precious to Him. We are precious and honoured in His sight. We are the apple of His eye. We have received instead of the spirit of fear, the spirit of love, power and self control. His perfect love working in us over time drives out our every fear- the fear of disease, the fear of death, the fear of failure, the fear of judgement, the fear of poverty, the fear of curses, the fear of violence, the fear of evil. Prateep V Philip

HIs Glory Shines Forth as Shallom

UV 963/10,000 God’s Glory Shines Forth as Shallom Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favour rests. Luke 2 v 14 This single uni-verse defines the purpose of the universe as well as the purpose of human life. The purpose of the universe is to reveal the glory of God. His infiniteness is reflected in the infinite number of heavenly bodies in space. His creativity is reflected in the vast variety of species of flora and fauna on Earth. These creatures and heavenly bodies reflect the glory or greatness and majesty and power of God passively as a mirror reflects light. But the highest praise for God comes from the wholly autonomous creature that is man. Just as when the sun shines in its glory in different regions and nations, the people there receive warmth, light and energy to enable them to live, when the glory of God shines on us, implying when His favour rests on us, we receive Shallom- the peace that passeth understanding, the peace that the world and its forces, foes and factors cannot take away, the peace that is wholesome, the peace that includes a combination of joy, grace, wisdom, love, prosperity, long life, health, success and strength. We should therefore daily and continually bask in the glory of God, the original source of our life and growth, just as sun bathers love to bask in the sunlight. When we believe in His Son we have made peace with God. When we do His work on earth, His favour rests on us. When we find the favour of God, we will learn to enjoy the flavour of life. When the glory of God shines on us the unpredictable, the amazing and the miraculous will happen in our lives. We should attempt to do our highest for His glory, implying that we should develop ourselves to our fullest potential and use our time, talent and treasure for His greater glory in every domain of human endeavour and activity. When our lives produce the fruits of repentance and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in abundance, His Kingdom is established on earth as in heaven. Truth looks up from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven. Mercy and truth meet half way, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. This is Jacob’s dream of the two way staircase to heaven- of our praises and petitions being carried to the Lord by ascending angels and His answers and blessings of Shallom being brought down to us by the descending angels from heaven. Our hearts, bodies, homes and relationships become the new Bethel- the glorious home of God. Prateep V Philip

The Centrality of Belief

UV 962/10,000 The Centrality of Belief Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? Isaiah 53 v 1 The arm of the Lord holds certain truths and He chooses to reveal it to certain people whom He knows would respond with belief. There happens a revelation of truth that cannot be discovered by study or experimentation or experience. When we respond in faith or believe, we take an action based on that faith. For instance, Mary had a revelation of her being pregnant by immaculate conception by the will of God. She responded by glad acceptance and submission to this revelation. Joseph had a revelation by a dream not to hesitate in taking her as wife and not to break off their engagement. The shepherds had a revelation that the Saviour of mankind is born in a manger and they went to see the baby. They praised God and told all the people they met about the amazing things they saw that night. The Magi had a revelation from the heavenly bodies in the new star that shone over Bethlehem in Judea and they took the long and arduous journey to Bethlehem. Zechariah and Elizabeth heard the message. Zechariah could not believe the message that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son. He could not speak till after the child was born. But the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt in joy when it heard the voice of Mary. There was a revelation to the future John the Baptist even while in his mother’s womb and he responded with joy. The ruler of Judea, Herod the Tetrarch did not have a revelation from God but he heard about the birth of a new king and felt threatened by the new born. He ordered the massacre of the innocents thereafter not being able to locate the new born king. History records that Caesar hearing about the tyranny and misrule of Herod removed him from the Tetrarchy and replaced him with a Roman governor. The lack of revelation and the lack of belief also leads to an action to oppose the will of God The innkeeper did not have a revelation and he refused to give the family a room to stay. In geography there is the concept of the rain shadow area where one side of a region or hill receives the rain and the other side does not. Similarly, belief or lack of belief determines whether we are on the spiritual rainfall area or the rain shadow area. When we believe and respond like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi we come into the favour of the Lord. The centrality of belief also shows up in the certainty of blessing. Faith involves hearing a message from God directly or indirectly or from the Word and believing in the message and acting on it. It comprises of a revelation, a response of belief and an act of obedience. When we hear the Word, believe the message and act on it, we find favour with God like the shepherds, like Mary and Joseph, like Zechariah and Elizabeth and the Magi. The word “ belief” is broken into two words “ be “ and “ lief” for kingdom. By belief in Jesus we are born in the spirit into the Kingdom of God. Prateep V Philip

The Password

UV 961/10,000 The Word or the World The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1 v 14 John describes Jesus in metaphoric terms as the Word. Why did he choose to describe Jesus by what people normally consider the least important- a mere word and not even plural? He could have described Jesus as the miracle worker, the healer, the deliverer, the redeemer, the saviour, the Messiah, the King. Jesus Himself had summed up His identity as “ the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Yet His closest disciple chose to equate Jesus with the Word. He had done the impossible in compressing the infinite into one word- the Word. In lighter vein, if John was living in this current age, he would have said, “Jesus is the Password.” He is the password nobody will have difficulty remembering and nobody could forget. Jesus is more than a password to access heaven. Jesus is the Password to make us pass from sin to righteousness, damnation to salvation, penalty to reward, guilt to blamelessness, religious bondage to spiritual freedom, from curses to blessings, from death to eternal life, from a limited life to an abundant life, from ignorance to knowledge and wisdom, from failure to success, from spiritual and other poverty to prosperity. By His words, the Creator God had brought into being the entire universe and all living creatures. Through Jesus the Word , God made all things by design not by accident. Without Jesus nothing was made. It was made by Him and for Him. When something in our life is not working the way it was designed or intended to, we should therefore return it to the Maker. Jesus can set it right. For Jesus is the Architect, Builder, Inhabitor and Renovator of the universe. We humans constantly reach out to be that which we are not. If we are poor, we try and reach out to be rich. If we are ignorant, we try and reach out to be wise and knowledgeable. If we are weak, we try and reach out to be strong. If we are sad or depressed, we try and reach out to be happy or joyful. We are aspirational creatures, always aspiring to be that which we are not but desire to be. But Jesus did the opposite for He reached down to be born lowly and limited in mortal flesh and blood when He could have gone on just being an Eternal spirit Being. He reached down to pull us all up. The words, “ He made His dwelling among us” means that He endured our living conditions, confronted our kind of temptations and pressures, experienced suffering and pain. Yet He retained the glory of God, the Eternal Self Existent Being. He did not fall short in any way. He fulfilled His mandate and mission on Earth. Jesus is described as the “ One and Only who came from the Father”. The singular Word is used by John to describe Him as He is the One and Only Mediator who originated from God and sent by God to reconcile God and His fallen creation. Jesus communicates like a Word the love of God to mankind. He is full of grace and truth or hundred per cent gracious and truthful. All other human beings are only partially gracious and truthful. We aspire to be full of grace and truth. We are born with a certain love of the world. We can uses our senses to understand or comprehend and get a hold on this world around us but to understand and comprehend the Lord God, it is necessary to use our dormant faith faculty. In proportion to the extent we empty ourselves of this love of the world and increase or fill ourselves with love of the Word or Jesus, we too become fuller with grace and truth. We no longer have to make a choice between the devil and the deep sea but between the world and the Word. As we become more and more full of grace and truth, we reflect the ineffable glory or greatness of God. The more we comprehend the length, breadth, height and width of the Word of God, the more we will understand, appreciate and realize the length, breadth, height and width of the love of God. Prateep V Philip

Turning to the Wall

UV 960/10,000 Turning to the Wall Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. Isaiah 38 v 2 King Hezekiah humbled himself when he heard the prophet Isaiah’s words that he was going to die and that he was not going to recover from the illness he was suffering from at the time. He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. As a result, the Lord cancelled the prophecy that he would not recover and extended his life by fifteen years. Jews to this day pray after this fashion at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. But the Lord does not want us to wail but to repose our confidence that He alone can restore us in the thing that we are seeking whether in matters of healing or in some other matter. We do not have to fight with our back to the wall or feel like we have been driven to the corner. Truly, as the song says, “ God will find a way where there seems to be no way.” Turning to the Wall is not a daily practice. In desperate situations or in the life threatening situations, we are called to turn to the wall and pray. It involves completely surrendering ourselves to the Lord, knowing that help or resolution or solution cannot come from any other quarter other than the Lord Himself. It is one of those few moments in life when we know that we could not have pulled ourselves through except by the intervention of the Lord. Turning our face to the wall implies seeking the Lord’s face, entering His presence to lay before Him the problem or issue we are facing. Gideon laid before the Lord his fleece asking the Lord to confirm his call to leadership of Israel against the Midianites. When we cry out to the Lord in our pain and anguish or in our doubt and confusion, He will hear us and give us deliverance or guidance on which way we ought to proceed. We do not have to wait till we hit a wall or a dead end before we turn to the Lord. God answers our prayer but not necessarily in the way we would expect. The wall is a metaphor for Jesus. He is like a wall of protection, comfort and salvation around us. The bricks or stones that make up this wall are the promises and commandments of the Lord. We can hide behind this wall or lean on this wall. Nothing is too small or insignificant. Nothing is too big, difficult or impossible for Jesus. In every situation that Jesus faced during His earthly sojourn He remained highly practical and grounded. He could teach the master fisherman how to fish. Today, He can teach the leader, the management expert, the scientist, the physician, the police officer, the teacher, the student, the writer. Hence, we can expect practical help and support from the Lord in every situation we face. When a certain member of my family faced a health challenge compounded with a business crisis, the Lord gave him this promise, “ Turn to the wall and pray. I will heal you and extend your life. I will deliver you from your debts.” The Lord is, has been and will always be faithful to His promises. His life was extended even though doctors had given him only six months to live as he was in the terminal stage of cancer. Prateep V Philip