Benefits of Praise and Thanksgiving

UV 1001/10,000 Benefits of Praise and Thanksgiving I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89 v 1 Sitting in my garden I can hear the birds chirp. Each bird has its own song. Why do they seem so cheerful early in the morning but go about their business the rest of the day, mostly flying around quietly? The birds deem it fit to thank the Lord, the Creator whom they know instinctively though not personally for giving them another chance to taste of life. These birds are not given the intellect or memory to think and recall. They are not given clothes or food or transportation. Yet all their lives they sing with apparent joy at being given one more day to live. In contrast, most people have nothing to rejoice of sing about. A song is the reflex of a grateful heart. As they think they have nothing to be thankful for, they are not cheerful. But those who know the Lord have tasted of the multitude of His tender and precious mercies- health and healing, safe journeying, peace and joy, forgiveness of sins, grace to overcome faults and failures, relationships, fruits of character, protection from the evil intent, jealousy and hostility of powerful enemies, foes, and rivals, eternal life, strength to endure, victory, success, abundance of provision, wisdom and divine insight, guidance, blessings of every kind..The list is virtually endless. We can thank God for our context as well as the text He gives us from His Word that builds our faith in His unseen, unsearchable but experienced and varied mercies. We have no pretext not to thank and praise Him. We need to make known the great faithfulness of the Lord to our children so that their faith grows. We need to describe and give evidence of His faithfulness to the generation of our children. We need to speak of His faithfulness to older generations. We need to speak of His faithfulness to our own generation. It is not enough to appreciate the mercy ad faithfulness of God in the silence of our souls. It is necessary to speak it aloud as a witness, as a testimony and in worship of the Lord. We need to take time off to recall all His goodness to us all our lives. A sister in faith was telling me the other day that she found a particular friend always looking youthful. She asked him, “ What is the secret of his renewed youth?” He replied that several times a day, he prayerfully recited Psalm 103, “ Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise His holy name and forget not all His benefits. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases…” God’s Word acts as an elixir in renewing his youth. The word “ benefit” means something that promotes or enhances our well-being. We need to thank the Lord for all the beneficial things He has done for us and all the beneficial things He has given us, not taking for granted even the smallest of our blessings. The mercies of the Lord are numerous, fresh every day, sufficient, certain and wholesome, blessing our spirits, minds and bodies. Prateep V Philip

Glory is Greatness Fulfilled

UV 1000/10,000 Glory is Greatness Fulfilled But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 9 v 24 We ought not to have confidence in the flesh or the things that mankind through the generations have taken pride in, namely, the wisdom of man, the wealth of man and the strength of man. There is an inner desire for greatness and immortality in every human being. Wisdom, wealth and strength are the traditional claims to greatness. The word “ delight” means derived from light. It is a heady mixture of joy and pride that it is our very own. When our source of joy and pride is derived from our own lights, when we make these our source of delight, sustenance and power, we are being vainglorious. Our glory is vain, futile, limited, transient and deceptive. It will perish with us and it will also be the cause of our perishing. The true source of eternal glory is having a personal and intimate relationship with God through His Son Jesus. The true source of wisdom, riches and strength lies in understanding who God is and knowing Him in all His glory. Understanding His love, mercy, grace, justice and righteousness as manifested here on earth will make us wiser than Solomon. It will give us access to greater riches of the spirit, intellect and emotions than Solomon. It will give us more power and strength than Samson. When we delight in what delights or pleases the Lord, He delights in us. The glory of God is so awesome and amazing that we will be at a loss of words to describe it. It has a jaw dropping effect on us and others around us. There are two ways to understand and know God’s love, wisdom and power: one, by studying and delighting in the revealed Word; two, by experiencing these facets of God in our personal lives in real time and in real ways. The Lord does not follow a hands off policy with regard to those who know Him personally and intimately. He delights in actively exercising or manifesting His love, kindness, justice, righteousness and power in our lives. The words in the uni-verse –“ in the earth” implies that the Lord manifests Himself and these qualities in down to earth ways in our daily lives. This is the reason He allows people who delight in or lust after the things of the flesh - wisdom, wealth and strength- to hate us. Unless they hate us, how can God show that His love is greater and better. Unless we suffer injustice, how can He demonstrate His justice. Unless we admit our weakness and vulnerability, how can He reveal His strength. Once He reveals His love, kindness, wisdom and strength, we need to continually delight all day and night or all our waking moments in the very memory of His marvellous deeds on our behalf. After the revelation of His love, wisdom and strength, comes the time for His impartation of these qualities to us. Once these qualities are imparted or transferred to us by anointing of the Holy Spirit, we cannot at any time boast of it as we know that these are not our own qualities but only gifted to us by grace. But He has given us the privilege and honour to claim Him as our own and to proclaim His eternal glory, grace and power. The glory of God is not a selfish glory. The purpose of Jesus's coming is to share God's glory with all mankind forever. In Christ, we are no longer fallen short of the glory or greatness of God. Prateep V Philip

Perfect Peace

UV 999/10,000 Perfect Peace Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26 v 3 The Word makes a distinction between perfect peace and an uneasy peace, a temporary truce won by appeasement or compromise, a false peace that disguises great and hidden strife, a partial and limited peace known in certain areas of life. The Hebrew word for such a holistic and comprehensive peace where nothing is lacking or wanting is Shalom. When we follow the Lord like sheep follow the shepherd, seeing his footsteps, recognizing, hearing and obeying his voice, trusting Him for direction, guidance, wisdom, leadership, protection and provision, we experience such Shalom in our lives. We are building our lives, our families, our careers on a rock foundation made not with human hands but by God Himself. Nothing in the world or in the spiritual realms or in life can take away the peace. Perfect peace has many dimensions: we have peace with God won through faith in the shed blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice to obtain perfect peace. We have peace with ourselves since the partition wall of distrust and enmity between the spirit, heart and mind is removed. Our guilt about the past, fear about the present and our anxiety about the future are done away with. Our sense of security is rooted in the sufficiency of the grace and power of God both to fend and to defend us against any onslaught. We have peace with others as we no longer have the natural tendency of trying to judge, avenge, hate or compete with others in order to prove ourselves better or wiser or smarter. Perfect peace does not fluctuate with life’s changing circumstances and challenges. We have perfect peace as our minds, implying our intellects, our emotions and our wills are focussed or fixed on the Lord. Our focus should be like that of an archer or a marksman who trains his eye to look through the hindsight and the foresight at the target. His covenant and His promises surround us like fortress walls and we are fully persuaded that God is able and willing to fulfil His promises to us, given His past record of doing so for the faithful among our contemporaries as well as in the biblical past. We are yielded or surrendered to Him and He will never ever betray our trust. This uni-verse brings out the importance of steadfastness of faith. We must not yield our minds even for a moment to doubt or fear or allow it to be drawn away by something seemingly more attractive or persuasive. If we do not have such perfect peace on any day or in any period of our lives, we need to examine our minds and our lives and find where we have strayed away and lost our focus, our first love for God. Prateep V Philip

True North versus False South

UV 998/10,000 True North versus False South I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deuteronomy 30 v 19 Spiritual Compass There are two ways to life: one according to a human script or according to scripture that God has revealed. In a human script whether it is written by oneself or others, our views, values and opinions are relative and nothing is definite or absolute or sure. But scripture is certain, precise, absolute and definite. This uni-verse is unique in all that is written. In order to find it this morning, I just typed in the words on google, “ I have set before you life and death..” and without a mention of the word Bible, this verse turned up in the search proving that in no other book in the world or in any nation are these powerful words found. Scripture is not only man’s God –given , God-revealed and God-interpreted spiritual and moral compass, it is the only way to choose life and blessing not only for us but even for our succeeding generations. Scripture is meant to be lived, appropriated and applied and not just read, heard and forgotten. The needle of this spiritual compass not only points in the direction we should move all the time- the true North of obedience, blessings, success, abundance, salvation, eternal life, peace, prosperity, creativity, health, happiness, joy, satisfaction and legacy , it also points away from the true South of sin, curses, failure, death, destruction, disease, worry, fear, disease, debt, poverty, frustration, desperation and vanity. The choice one needs to make seems to be obvious. Yet, why do so many choose their own script and why do so few choose to live according to scripture? One, it is on account of ignorance of scriptural truth. Two, there is always a downward drag or a gravitational pull on our human minds and flesh and the way South is easier, wider and smoother from a short term perspective. Once we choose the South, the compass somehow reverses and what is actually South appears to be North in a kind of mirage or illusion. Man cannot tell God at the end of a life lived in ignorance of the Word, “ God, why didn’t you tell me and make it plain to me.” God through Moses was not speaking in riddles or parables or mysteries that could not be fathomed. He made it plain to all Israel. He called witnesses of heaven and earth- all the spirits of heaven and earth to be a witness of having set the choice before all mankind through Israel. Our consciences are also set in such a way as to align with the principles and precepts of scripture. He not only sets the choice before us, He also urges us at every step of our way like a GPS to choose the latter so that we get the “latter rain” or the “ latter blessings”. The validity of this promise is for “ this day” or every recorded day in human history. Man hereafter and for all time was free to choose between the scripture of abundant life and amazing blessings and the script of death and awful misery or failure. The choice that was given to Adam and Eve was again being re-played and offered to a whole nation. After the coming of Christ Jesus, the same choice would be offered to the whole of humanity, all nations and every individual in the world. We are also given by virtue of our reasoning, discernment and experience the choice making ability to proceed in the right direction and to make mid-course corrections wherever necessary. Prateep V Philip

Spiritual Weapons

UV 997-10,000 Spiritual Weapons For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; 2 Corinthians 10 v 4 Each believer is not called to be passive observors but to join what St Paul called the “good fight.” It is called the good fight as this battle is the Lord’s. It is not shadow boxing or boxing with mirages and illusions but the fight is real. As one man of God told me some twenty years ago, “ The real world is the spiritual world. The physical world is only the shadow of the spiritual world.” Everything happens first in the spiritual world and then in the physical world like a light casts a shadow after its appearance. What triggers changes in real time and eternity is not the intellectual, the political, the scientific, the religious, the social or the emotional but it is the spiritual. The weapons of warfare are spiritual and mighty. The weapons of warfare are praise and worship that breaks spiritual chains, prayer and supplication and the Word of God which is the effective two-edged sword of the spirit. The weapons of defence are a life or armour of righteousness by faith in Jesus, the helmet of knowing for sure that one is saved for ever and that one has eternal life, the belt of truth, the shoes of the readiness to go places for God. He has set us over the nations and over the kingdoms or realms and principalities of darkness to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Our battle is not against human foes or adversaries but against the very hierarchy of the powers of darkness. We are involved in a spiritual struggle in which we are guaranteed victory. David the shepherd boy went to battle against Goliath armed only with his faith and a sling and a stone. Our sling is our prayer life and our stone is our prayer request. Like David’s stone dented the skull of Goliath, our prayers cause changes in the spiritual world. The words of confession or proclamation we speak from our mouths sets up our victory. David spoke these words as he went to fight Gideon: “ you come to fight with sword and spear and shield. But I come against you in the name of the Lord of the armies of heaven, the Lord God of Israel.. For the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.” Like Gideon’s companies of a hundred men who blew the trumpets after walking around the walls of Jericho seven times, every day of the week we should pray in the spirit once claiming the promises of God in respect of any one challenge. On the seventh day, the Sabbath, we should pray seven times and go around the walls or boundaries of this challenge seven times. The stronghold of darkness will be pulled down, the change we are expecting to see will begin to happen. Spiritual warfare is not waged with violence, hatred and fear but with love and faith. It is fought in stillness and silence. Malcolm Gladwell, the well known author of the best seller, “ The Tipping Point” says that the intention of a mother who wanted to share the love of God with her ten year old son’s murderer restored his faith in God. She was not overcome with hatred but was filled with love for the unknown killer whom she wanted traced so that she could share agape love. Love is the ultimate spiritual weapon by which she overcame both her grief and her desire for revenge or justice. Prateep V Philip

God's Math

God’s Math How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked. “ Seven,” they replied, “ and a few small fish.” Matthew 15 v 32 Jesus had compassion on the hungry crowd that had followed him to a remote place on the mountain side. Along with compassion, He had faith that there would be enough to feed the multitude. He could see into the invisible realms with His eye of faith. He did not even pray for the multiplication of the seven loaves and few fish. He just gave thanks, broke the bread and gave it to the disciples to distribute. Jesus could do this confidently as He knew there was no limit to God’s grace and power. A small boy’s lunch was enough to feed many adults. Jesus did not materialise the bread and fish. He looked for what is available and then blessed it. There was a balance or mix of the natural and the supernatural, the physical and the spiritual. The disciples could only see the inadequacy of resources and the limitations of their circumstances that they were in a remote place and that the crowd was large. After the crowd had eaten and were fully satisfied, there were seven basketfuls of broken pieces. They had much more at the end than when they started. We too as believers should not be unduly concerned about what we do not have. Instead, we should focus on what the Lord has given us, be thankful for these and ask the Lord to bless it. Even if a man has plenty of resources but does not have the blessing of the Lord, it will turn out to be inadequate. Last evening a breaking news revealed that the head of the automobile division of India’s leading corporate empire had apparently committed suicide by falling off the 22nd floor of a five star hotel in Bangkok. He had been given plenty –an abundance of ability, resources, finances, privileges, opportunities but it was found to be not enough to satisfy even one man. In contrast, if we have a few resources with the blessing of the Lord, it will prove more than enough not just for us but for the people we are called to serve. God is the infinite source of our resources. Like Jesus He knows our need and knows how best to fulfil it. We need only to open our eye of faith and look into the invisible realm of His provision. We need to thank Him for whatever He has given us and ask Him to bless it to satisfy our need. By our faith we call into being that which is not as if it were. God’s math is multiplication and addition while satan’s math is division and substraction. Truly, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Once the words of blessing and thanksgiving proceeded from the mouth of Jesus, the seven loaves and fish began to multiply. Plenty of resources, money or food does not satisfy us but the Word of God can satisfy us and also multiply our resources. Once we intake the Word, word by word, every moment will be blessed, every need will be met in a mix of the natural and the supernatural, the physical and the spiritual, the logical and the miraculous. Prateep V Philip

Barrier Breaker

UV 995/10,000 Barrier Breaker I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. Isaiah 45 v 2 A hundred and fifty years before King Cyrus the Medo-Persian king (c 539 BC) came on the scene, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Lord had anointed him to subdue the nations like the empire of Babylon. In this uni-verse, the Lord promised to remove the obstacles in His way. When his armies reached the gates of ancient Babylon, they found the bronze gates that led into the streets of Babylon had been left open. When they reached the palace, the iron gates were opened by the guards to ascertain the cause of the noise. Cyrus was chosen by the Lord even though he did not know Him to re-build the temple at Jerusalem that the Babylonians had destroyed. The Lord goes before us wherever we go and He prepares the way for us. It might not be a smooth path but He promises to level the mountains, remove the barriers to our spiritual, intellectual and personal progress. He promises to make the crooked places straight. We are bound to encounter a lot of crooked people and crooked ways in our lives. We need not compete with them and become more crooked than them so that we are not outwitted. We need not conform to their crooked ways in order to gain acceptance. The Lord undertakes to make the crooked ways straight. Before an army troop passes into potential minefields, they send a minesweeper ahead to clear the path. Similarly, the Lord sends His angels to clear the way before us. Cyrus was named by God to fulfil His mission long before he was born though He did not know or acknowledge Him as God. How much more will the Lord anoint us who know Him and acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour! He calls us by our name even from our mother’s womb. Under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus, each believer is chosen and anointed like King Cyrus to rebuild the temple of God in the spirits of mankind. Like King Cyrus ruled over the realms, we are ordained to rule over the spiritual realms and subdue powers and principalities of darkness that rule in this world. The Lord promises to remove the impediments, the hindrances that hamper our growth, our progress. Some of the most significant and persistent obstacles to our growth, progress and fulfilment lie deep within our own minds and spirits- our inner being and our attitudes. The Holy Spirit does a deep work within us to remove these. The persons, forces and factors that prevent us from realizing our God –given vision and mission are all put on notice. The doors or opportunities He has opened for us will stay open, come what may. In my personal experience, I have found that when I am undertaking something for the Lord, He miraculously removes seemingly insurmountable barriers. Bronze is an alloy and it is a symbol of spiritual forces combining with human forces to create obstacles in our work life or personal life. We have this wonderful promise that the Lord will defeat their designs and clear the path before us. Iron is a symbol of earthly power. Even as the iron is being separated from its ore, the Lord knows what weapons are forged from it. He ordains that no weapon is formed against us, whether sword or firearm or the stroke of the pen. No earthly power can obstruct us in any aspect of our lives, work, family or ministry. Prateep V Philip