The Alpha of Dealing with Darkness

UV2996/10000 The Alpha of Dealing with Darkness

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Isaiah 9 v 2


The great light that has driven away the shadows of sin, death and judgement is Jesus. Till the advent of Jesus into the world and into the lives of individuals, people walked in darkness. They did not know where they came from and where they were going. But Jesus came as the Daystar or Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness. We no longer have an excuse to sit or walk in the darkness. We can see ourselves for who we are truly are in His light. We can see others too in His light. The light of His truth guides us on the paths we take, the choices we make. The light of His love warms our hearts. The light of His word heals us and nourishes us. His light liberates us. His light gives us a vision of our own lives, the ultimate purpose of our being. His light drives away the gloom of sadness and makes us joyful. His light gives us hope of eternity. His light is unlike that of the leading lights of this world who fade away with time. The glory of His light is ineffable or unfading.


The light that Jesus sheds on us makes death, the great unknown a mere shadow in our lives. He drives away our fears. The powers of darkness no longer have a claim on our lives and are terrified by our spiritual prowess and authority. We are no longer children of darkness but children of the light. We no longer play hide and seek with God but seek Him with all our heart and obey His leading in all things. No weapon forged in darkness holds any threat against us. We have no truck or connection with the agents and forces of darkness that are at work in this world.

Symbolically, when Jesus died on the cross, the earth was covered with darkness. But, on the third day when Jesus resurrected, spiritual darkness and its reign on earth was banished forever. Darkness cannot overcome light. Darkness cannot comprehend light but light can comprehend darkness. There is no element of darkness in His Light and likewise there should be no element of darkness in our lives. Every deed done in darkness is exposed and every deed we do as children of light is blessed and rewarded. Just as plants point their stems towards the sun and grows upward, we too should grow upwards towards Jesus. When we sit daily in His presence, we absorb His light and obtain our spiritual food even as plants obtain food through photosynthesis by absorbing the sun’s light.

The Alpha of Healing of Diseases

UV 2995 /10000 The Alpha of Healing of Diseases
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
Matthew 4 v 23


Jesus is the Good Root or Alpha of healing of Diseases. He is the Balm of Gilead who can heal all manner of diseases and sicknesses. Jesus proved that He had authority and power to heal and deliver by healing people of all types of incurable diseases like leprosy, healed people of disabilities like blindness and deafness, called back the dead to life. He cast out demons, evil spirits, healed the demented and the broken hearted. To this day, doctors can by use of their medical knowledge heal some diseases but they cannot heal the broken hearted. Jesus proved that He is the Specialist of Specialists- no disease, no ailment or illness was beyond His power to heal or cure. He was full of the power of the Holy Spirit and of grace to execute healing by the mere utterance of the word of healing or by simple gestures like applying mud mixed with His saliva to a deaf man’s ears. He proved to all including the critics that He is the visible image of Jehovah Rapha- the Healer.

The Good Root imparts the same power of healing and deliverance to His branches, believers beginning with the apostles. The apostles could command the lame to walk. The mere shadow of Peter falling on people could heal them. Peter also brought the dead to life as in the case of Dorcas. To this day, many men and women of God have called into being the healing of all types of diseases in different parts of the world. In some documented cases, even the dead have come alive. Though some in our times have been given the supernatural gift of healing, we can all exercise faith to be personally healed as well as to call for the healing or deliverance of others whom we pray for. Healing occurs as we pray as a confirmation from the Lord that He is with us as the Holy Spirit.

The uni-verse states that Jesus focussed on teaching and preaching while miracles of healing accompanied or followed such sessions of teaching. Miracles of healing occur to meet the individual needs of the suffering in response to their cries and their faith that they can be healed by the divine touch or word as well as to demonstrate the power and sovereignty of the Lord. The Lord desires to heal in order to wipe the tears of suffering people and to fill them with joy. But above all and beyond mere healing of bodies or minds, He desires the salvation of their spirits. Even Lazarus who was resurrected by Jesus died eventually and was buried. It is not just healing or temporary resurrection that is intended by the Lord but that we share in the eternal resurrection, that we are forever part of the eternal kingdom of God.

The Alpha of Desire

UV 2994/10000 The Alpha of Desire
Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalm 37 v 4
Unlike Buddha who considered desire to be the root of evil, the Bible divides desires into good and evil desires. The way we are wired, each of us has many desires and types of desires- physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social, financial. God does not grant our every desire as an over indulgent parent does to the detriment of his or her child. He grants the desires of our hearts- the desires that would contribute to building our character, our spiritual fruit. The condition is that we need to delight in the Lord as it is written in the Song of Solomon. We need to delight in the Lord as one would delight on an apple tree in the midst of the woods. We should love to rest in the shadow of the Almighty and we should find the spiritual fruit of love, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit sweet and delectable to taste. Our relationship with our Beloved- the Lord Jesus needs to be the outstanding relationship of our lives and all other relationships are mere branches of this fruitful tree.
The desires of our hearts are the true ones that contribute to building our faith and not harm or destroy it. When we delight in the word of the Lord, He gives us these heart-felt desires. We find our joy and strength in the hope we have in Jesus. Jesus said, “ If you abide in Me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be given unto you.” We need to delight in living in and with Jesus and delight in the living words of Jesus that live in us. The Lord desires are given priority over our own desires. He desires faith, truth, justice, righteousness and integrity in our lives. When we satisfy Him with such spiritual fruit abounding in our lives, He does not hesitate to satisfy our desires.

The Lord desires that our lives be overflowing with joy and He has no intention to depress or sadden us in any way. When we have the Alpha or the good root of faith in Jesus, it is bound to grow and bear good results or fruit. It is a good practice to write down our desires and our requests to the Lord to fulfil it. Over time and our lives, we will many desires fulfilled much more than we expected or asked or imagined. The Word ensures that our hearts are aligned with the heart of the Lord. Once our hearts are so aligned, the Lord will not withhold anything good that we desire or ask.

The Alpha of Duty

UV2993/10000 The Alpha of Duty
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man
Ecclesiastes 12 v 13

Scripture sums up the whole duty of man as a creature is not just to believe in God but to fear God. To fear God is to fear the consequences of evil or of being away from the source of all goodness in this universe. To avoid evil brings us understanding. It makes us wise and competent in all aspects of our lives. When we fear God, we keep His commandments to love Him with all our hearts and to love our fellow man as we love ourselves. When we fear God, we delight in both His commandments and His promises and precepts. Such wisdom and grace will add both quality, productivity and longevity to our lives. It teaches us to be just in all our affairs, not to behave in an ungodly way or to attempt to obtain dishonest gain.
The Lord will satisfy the desires of the ones who fears Him. He will save them and hear their cry for help . He will bless them and make them a blessing. When we fulfil our duty or obligation to God, we will not fail in our duty to man, whether it is to our own family, our neighbours or all those we encounter in our lives. When we fulfil our duty to God, we discover the purpose of our lives. Having found the purpose of life, we are focussed on pursuing and attaining the purpose. The Lord adds His grace or help to fulfil the purpose. The power of the Creator and the Saviour and of the Holy Spirit are made available to us to enable us to fulfill the purpose of our creation and our redemption in Christ. Normally, when we are continually engaged in doing our duties, we tend to get drained, tired, bored with the sheer drudgery of it but when we do our duty to the Lord, we enjoy the process or the experience. We get renewed, restored, revived, energised, transformed, empowered and equipped.

When we fear God wholeheartedly, we are humbling ourselves before Almighty God. We are acknowledging that He is sovereign in our lives, that nothing happens by chance or accident in our lives. In so doing, we are trusting the Lord for all the unknown aspects of our lives. When we truly revere the Lord, we will be watchful or careful in our thoughts, words, actions, habits, relationships. We end up doing whatever we are doing as diligently as possible and entrust the things that we cannot control to the Lord. This attitude of the believer makes him both responsive and responsible, responsive to the Lord in all things and responsible for all that lies in the human province to do. All one's duties to self, to family, to others, to working organisation, to nation and to humanity are subsumed in one's duty to God. These duties are fulfilled on a higher plane and with greater efficacy than if one were to focus only on these temporal duties

The Alpha of Devotion

UV 2992/10000 The Alpha of Devotion
A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always
Act 10 v 2

This uni-verse that describes the centurion Cornelius who though not a Jew pleased God with his devotion and people with his charity and sense of justice. His wisdom came from his intense fear of displeasing God. He therefore set an example before his whole household, both his family and his subordinates. He persisted in prayer and gave alms to the poor. He pleased God so much that He sent His angel to convey a message to him to meet the apostle Peter. It is an example in scripture of how sincere devotion without respect of persons or of race or religion or nationality or gender or station in life gets the attention and wins the favour of the Lord God.

Why did the Lord send His angel to him? To complete his faith by giving him a revelation of how the Son of God Jesus had died for the sins of all mankind who repented, feared God and walked in His ways. Cornelius had many servants but he himself chose to serve God. His reverence for God enabled him to be wise, just, humble, charitable. True devotion is seen in all aspects of our lives- in our prayer life, in our work life, in our acts of charity, in wisdom and justice. True devotion is seen and rewarded by the Lord Himself. The Lord causes His grace to abound in the lives of the devout. The devout will be led to a deeper understanding, knowledge and relationship with the Lord. The Lord unveils His face to the devout as He did with Moses, with Simeon and many others.

Our prayers must be accompanied by works of charity, kindness, goodness and service to humanity. When our faith is accompanied or followed by good works, we become a fruitful vine grafted onto the True Vine Jesus. Our prayers and our acts will come before the Lord as beautiful memorials or reminders to the Lord of our devotion to Him, of our love for Him and others, of our desire to serve Him in every way possible. We are building treasures in heaven that neither moth nor rust nor thief can destroy. The Lord promises to rush to our help when we are ourselves in any kind of distress. He sends His angels to encamp around those who are devoted to Him. It is written that when we give to the poor, we are lending to the Lord and He feeling indebted to us, will try to repay us as soon and as excessively as possible for the Lord cannot be in debt to anyone.

The Alpha of Dealing with Deceit

UV 2991/10000 The Alpha of Dealing with Deceit
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Ephesians 4 v 22

Our old nature, before we trusted Jesus with our lives is riddled with deceit brought on by our human vanity, the lust of our minds and bodies. We are to put off this old nature and live the new Christ nature. We do this by rooting out our inclination to obey the old deceitful lusts and being rooted in the Alpha of the Word. When we apply the Word in all aspects of our lives in 360 degrees or the Omega or completion of our faith, we will be sowing the righteous nature. Today, doctors can transplant virtually every internal organ but only Christ through the Holy Spirit can transplant our character or nature.

Sin is always deceitfully crouching at the door of the heart as it was said of Cain. Cain was deceived into thinking that by getting rid of Abel, his brother , his troubles in life would end. But it was only the beginning of his troubles. Before Cain, his parents, Adam and Eve, indeed the first parents of all mankind, were likewise deceived into thinking that they could become like God by disobeying His command. Christ taught us that it is by obedience of the Word that we become like God. Our lusts and its deceitfulness is so pervasive that at no point in our lives, we can say that we are beyond sin. Therefore, we need to be on guard and alert at all times. When David let down his guard momentarily, he was deceived into adultery with Bathsheba. Pride over one’s attainments or acquisitions, station in life, influence, power or abilities deceive people into thinking they are secure and immune from being detected or punished for even crimes and offences against the law of the land. The Lord who knows the absolute truth about all of us can strip away the veneer of deceit and we are easily exposed and vulnerable as the young ones of a bird that have no feathers and can not fly to escape the big, ruthless and evil predator.

Sin hardens the human heart through its deceitfulness and makes us callous and insensitive to the hurt we cause to the Lord, the Holy Spirit when our words and our conduct fall short of the standards of Jesus. We need to recognize this truth that our bodies were crucified with Christ and we should hereafter live not to the dictates of our flesh and mind but live in accordance with the mind of Christ. We need to silence and ignore the deceitful suggestions of the enemy of our souls and listen to the whispered counsel of the Holy Spirit. In this way, we can effectively and consistently avoid the deceitful lusts and pride of our old nature and allow our new nature to grow, thrive and bear abundant fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self control.

The Alpha of Dealing with Doubt

UV2990/10000 The Alpha of Dealing with Doubt
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done
Matthew 21 v 21

Faith starts as a small seed that is not very visible. The seed dies to itself and lives for the one who planted it and throws down roots that are not visible. Likewise, when we die to ourselves and live for the Lord, our Planter, the Alpha of faith or the root grows downward and becomes stronger and stronger but remains invisible to the human eye. Nothing stands in the way of the root. It pushes aside doubt like the root pushes aside stones or gravel to dig deeper and deeper into the soil. When the tree is full grown and bears the fruit of love and hope, the Omega of faith or the comprehensive and visible aspects and impact of faith are made visible to humanity.
We need to be hundred per cent certain, sincere and earnest of what and who we believe in. Being strong in faith implies that we do not consider the natural impediments or constraints even as Abraham did not consider that he and Sarah were too aged to bear a child, that the reproductive potential of their aged bodies was nil. They did not stagger at God’s promise out of doubt or unbelief but took the Lord at His word. We too should not hesitate or waver out of doubt in matters of our faith for if we do so we would be like the waves that are tossed about in all directions by the wind- a metaphor for the world. Our hearts and minds should be focussed, expectant, thankful and filled with awe and belief at the glory or greatness of God.
Faith bereft of doubt will enable us either to cross the mountain or solve the big problems and issues of life or tunnel through it or go around or under it. We can also command in the spirit and in faith and with God-given authority for the problem either not to appear or to disappear or fade away. We need to deal firmly and decisively with doubt even as Jesus rebuked satan by saying, “Get thee behind me. “ We need to put doubt regarding the existence of God, the power of God, the character of God, the grace of God behind us even as we advance towards Him and the kingdom of God. We need to believe as we pray, as we declare the truths of God that we have already received in the spirit or the fourth dimension that which we asked and we will receive in due course in the three dimensional natural world