God's promises

 

1 Kings 18:1

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

We find the vivid account of the spiritual showdown between 850 pagan priests and one true prophet of God, Elijah, in 1 Kings 18. The background to this event is that God was punishing Israel with a very severe drought brought upon them because of their idolatry. By the time these dramatic events unfolded, the country had been without rain for three years, and every brook and river had run completely dry.

The reigning king Ahab, who can be described as the most wicked king in all of Israel’s history, then summoned the governor of his house Obadiah, and commanded that he go through the land to search for any remaining source of water and seize it for the king’s use. Unbeknown to Ahab, Obadiah feared the Lord and had hidden a hundred prophets in a cave, feeding them secretly. On his travels Obadiah met Elijah, who then told him that he needed to see Ahab immediately and would Obadiah go and inform the king of his intent - an instruction that Obadiah quite understandably did not appreciate, fearing that king Ahab would certainly have him killed for delivering this unwanted message!

This brings us to the quoted verse above. Mostly, when we think about this part of Scripture, we immediately remember that Elijah prayed to God to bring down fire from heaven to supernaturally burn up his (soaking wet) altar and bull offering. Certainly God had instructed him to do so (1 King 18:36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.)

But what we easily overlook is that God promised rain if Elijah obeyed his command. This is why Elijah, immediately after dealing with the pagan prophets by killing them at the brook Kishon, instructed Ahab to go back up the mountain to eat and drink, as he already was hearing the rain fall in the spirit. He then sent his servant seven times to look for clouds bringing rain. Even when the servant reported only a cloud the size of a man’s hand in the sky, Elijah reacted by sending a warning to Ahab on top of the mountain to come down immediately before the rain made it impossible for him to do so.

Pearls to ponder:

Elijah spoke God’s promise of rain out loud nine times in total. With not a cloud in sight, he spoke the promise from God repeatedly, until the rain manifested. He had no natural indications that rain would come, only God’s word to him that it would indeed be so. Every time he spoke rain, he was enabling the Holy Spirit to start creating this miracle! What are you doing with the personal promises God made to you? Are you idly waiting for God to bring it about, or are you actively proclaiming it until it manifests? Make very sure, however, that it is a promise from God, and not your own fleshly desires that you call for!

God will make a way

Fifty

Acts 1:3

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

In the wider church community, we have just celebrated Ascension Day, commemorating the day that Jesus ascended into heaven. He had been crucified and buried forty-three days earlier, and upon His resurrection visited His disciples over a period of forty days before ascending to heaven before their very eyes.

They then withdrew into the upper room to wait another ten days before the Holy Spirit came upon them, making the length of time between His resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, fifty days. Why is this significant?

It is important because it shows that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Pentecost down to the very last detail! Just as He had fulfilled the previous three Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits) in their entirety and in all details.

The word ‘Pentecost’ means fifty - the Lord instructed the Israelites to count seven weeks after the Feast of First Fruits and then celebrate this Feast on the next day, and this adds up to fifty days (Lev 23:16). The Jews also call this Feast Shavuot, which means weeks. The seven sevens referred to here (seven weeks of seven days) is a picture of the pattern given in the Bible of seven sevens of years with the year thereafter being a Jubilee year – an indication of God’s ultimate period of rest and restitution. This is why Holy Spirit was poured out on that fiftieth day. It marked a reset of creation, proclaimed rest in the Lord and restitution of the relationship between us and Him, and between us as human beings. The leavened bread baked for this Feast shows that the Holy Spirit is now inside the followers of Jesus, making the Bride of Christ holy (Rom 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.)

This brings us back to the book of Acts, and to Acts 2:1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. They were celebrating the Jewish Feast of Pentecost when God poured the Holy Spirit out upon them, as He had promised He would. The very event we as Christians also celebrate when we gather for Pentecost, even though on a different date from their celebrations.

And I am wondering: is it not time for us as Christians to unite with our Jewish brothers and sisters by celebrating our common heritage on the historically real dates, i.e. as given on the Jewish calendar? Not according to Jewish religious and cultural customs, but in a uniquely Christian way?

Pearls to ponder:

Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts of God, showing us that they really are all about commemorating Him. (He will also fulfil the next three!) Meditate on this – what is referred to as the Jewish Feasts actually are Jesus Messiah pointers – why do we hesitate to celebrate them alongside our fellow Jewish believers in Christ? Why do we criticize those who do take part and label them as being under the Law? Rather think about what these celebrations could look like, how we can remove Jewish cultural elements from them and celebrate Jesus only. And then quietly start observing them in our own homes, without fanfare or finger-pointing.

Pentecost 

My God-given identity

 

Judges 6:11-12

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

We are all well acquainted with the story of Gideon. We find him here, hiding away from the Midianites, threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress so that they will not find him and steal the crop from him. Imagine his surprise when the Angel of the Lord (whom many ancient interpretations identify as the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ) addressed him as “mighty warrior” when he was acting in totally the opposite manner!

This is such a good illustration of the way God gives us our identity. He does not see us as we are in the present, but as He purposed us to be. He bases His identity of us not on our past, but on our future, on that which we are to become.

There are more examples of this. Think about Abram, whose wife Sarai could not conceive, and yet God named him Abraham which means father of the multitudes. This only started to come into fulfilment twenty-five years later when Isaac was born. Joseph means to increase, and yet he had to face rejection from his family, false accusations and years in prison before living in the increase God had planned for Him all along. Peter means the rock, and before Jesus’ resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, Simon (whom Jesus renamed Peter) was a passionate believer but not a very stable man. Yet he became the strong anchor and rock for the fledgling church, just as Jesus called him to be by changing his name years before.

Unlike God, we form our identity based on who other people say we are, and upon our life experiences up to now. This process starts at a very young age, and our enemy skilfully uses these adverse experiences to keep us from walking in our true God-given identity. Why? Because if we did, we would be the greatest threat to the kingdom of darkness, basically unstoppable!

Start proclaiming your identity in Christ today. Believe that you have a new identity and act as if it were so – it is not enough to just say it - fix your mind and focus on this new person you already have become. Keep exchanging your old habits/traits/beliefs for the new ones God has given you, even if it takes a few years for you to see them fully developing!

Pearls to ponder:

Read your Bible and start writing down what God says about you. Meditate on these truths and start proclaiming them over your life. Here are a few examples:  I am faithful. I am God’s child, adopted into His family. I have been established, sealed and anointed by God. I am holy and blameless. I am forgiven. I am raised up with Christ. I have peace. I have access to the Father. I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. I have been justified. I belong to God.

Who I am

Discernment

 

Rev 22:18-19

And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

In the broader Christian community, this verse is often wrongly applied to mean that no one is allowed to either add or remove anything from the books in the whole Bible.

But verse 18 of our quoted section above refers to “in this book” and “what is written here”, clearly limiting the warning to the actual prophecy given in Revelation, and verse 19 further defines this limit with “words from this book of prophecy”.

If we were to interpret it as applicable to the total Bible, then John himself would be in trouble, because he wrote his other two books in the New Testament after he wrote Revelation, therefore adding to Scripture! Apart from the scrolls on which the Old Testament were preserved, most of the New Testament was still being written, and no complete book of the whole Bible existed yet.

Even a similar warning from Moses in Deut 12:32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it refers only to “Whatever I command you” and not to the Bible as a whole.

We definitely do not want to be guilty of either distorting, erasing or altering the text as given in the Bible. But the misapplication of the quoted verse to the whole of Scripture sometimes generates many misleading assumptions. For instance, people we know who studied Apocryphal books (a collection of biblical or related writings that were not included in the officially recognized canon of the Bible) were told that they were wrong to do that, as they were “adding” to the Bible. This of course is not true.

Another totally wrong deduction would be that you cannot make notes in your Bible. In answer to that I can only stress that Jesus Himself and Holy Spirit are the revealers of the basis of our faith, and the text itself is a tool that leads us to more understanding of Him – so go ahead and make notes, highlight verses, jot down all new revelations Holy Spirit gives you!

Pearls to ponder:

We are living in times where deception is increasing at an alarming rate. The sad part is that the church itself sometimes brings deception across our path. We have to start grounding our basic beliefs in truth and practise our discernment. Make sure that what you are told about the Bible is actually what is written there – do not take anybody’s word for it, read it for yourself – Holy Spirit promises to teach you (John 14:26). Make time, you will be greatly rewarded!

Discernment

Hedges

 

Ecclesiastics 10:8

He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and him that breaks down a hedge a serpent shall bite.

We build hedges around gardens and properties in order to protect them, to keep enemy forces who wish to harm us and our loved ones, outside. In biblical times, hedges were built around vineyards to keep insects, bugs, rodents, thieves and birds outside and prevent them from stealing the harvest. They mostly built these hedges in layers:

A stone wall was first erected, and beyond that, a thick layer of thorns. Right before the harvest, a wall of fire was created to keep the insects and birds away. What a beautiful picture of our Lord’s protection! Our Father is our Rock of Ages, firm, stable, unchanging. This is our source of peace and security. The ring of thorns on the head of Jesus caused bleeding, and His blood bought the everlasting protection of our spirits and souls. The wall of fire at harvest time was necessary because the lovely aroma of the ripe grapes would attract all who wished to devour it. So too, just as we are positioned to reap great blessings in our lives, every demon and foul bird is clamouring to get through the hedge and destroy it. But Holy Spirit brings His fire to surround us!

As in the natural, so it is also in the supernatural. We know that the serpent represents evil, and that in order to keep our enemy at bay, we need to build spiritual hedges around everything pertaining to us.

How is this accomplished? We have to firstly believe that God’s hedge of protection is already promised to us who diligently follow Him and trust in His name, and then act on those promises by declaring and praying this truth. Here are a few examples:

Ps 34:7 For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. I prefer to interpret this ‘angel of the LORD’ as Jesus Christ Himself, as it is found throughout the Old Testament, and as He is the commander of the Host of Heaven, He can summon any number of angels to intervene in every situation I face. It is in keeping with the promise He made to His followers upon ascending to heaven, written in Matth 28:20 ... And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Being in a church with leadership who stand up for the truth of the Word and are Spirit-led, brings protection, because God’s blessings rest upon such a gathering. People praying in unity also build hedges, remember that God would have changed the destiny of Sodom if Abraham could find only ten men living righteously – we have to join hands and start praying for our governments to make righteous decisions!

Pearls to ponder:

The above verse also refers to the outcome if we break down those hedges. Then the serpent can enter in and kill, steal and destroy. Carefully walk around the perimeters of your spiritual territory and look for two things:  Is there a gap in that fence; and, am I walking on the right side of it? Am I doing what I like, or what I ought?

Jesus be a fence all around me

Not a hoof left behind

 

Ex 10:24-26

Finally, Pharaoh called for Moses. “Go and worship the LORD,” he said. “But leave your flocks and herds here. You may even take your little ones with you.”  “No,” Moses said, “you must provide us with animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings to the LORD our God. Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind….

In the natural, this was control concealed as concession. In the spirit, this means only partial deliverance, with pieces of the soul still in chains - you can honour your God but leave something behind in Egypt. Moses understood this immediately, therefore he responded with: “not a hoof will be left behind!”

We are called to die to self and surrender everything to our God. If we leave one hoof in the enemy’s grip, we are not totally free – do not leave your worship in the world’s grip, do not withhold any part of your devotion, do not let the enemy dictate your obedience, do not tolerate any idolatry in your life.

Idolatry? But I do not worship idols? Beloved, putting anything in a higher place than God in your life is exactly that – idolatry. And the sad fact is that we mostly do not recognize that we are doing this. Take the cell phone as an example.

How do most of us interact with that handy little device? We jump up and run to it when it rings – it could, after all, be an important call? Our attention is immediately drawn to it when we receive WhatsApp/email/SMS/Twitter/X/YouTube/Instagram alerts, even if it intrudes on precious time spent with loved ones. We carry it close to us at all times, some even holding it in their hands everywhere they go. Literally everywhere. We sometimes wear it as devices on our wrists or in our ears. We pick it up upon awakening. We scroll late into the night. When we need advice, we run to Google/AI/etc. We play games on it when we are bored.

Can you see that slowly, over time, the cell phone has started stealing our time spent with God? Imagine the deepening your relationship with Him would undergo if you did all the above-mentioned things with our Abba, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and with Holy Spirit?

Pearls to ponder:

Start being intentional with how you use your cell phone. Decide to make time daily/weekly/monthly to be without it, completely. This can be at worship times; at the dinner table; during family time 5-7p.m.; whenever you are visiting someone. Get out in nature or read a book, phone on silent. Decide on the time at night after which you will not be looking at your phone any longer and keep yourself to it. Put a timer on your phone when you play games so that you do not play longer than you intended to. Decide to not reach for your phone first thing in the morning, but to read your Bible first. The ideas here are given as examples, figure out what works best for you – but be intentional, decide and DO.

Credit given to Steve Porter

Idols fall

Comfort My people

 

Is 40:1-2

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her twice over for all her sins.

The book of Ruth is a prophetic revelation of the relationship between Jew and Gentile – what it was, what it is, and what it is supposed to be. It is a love story, telling of a love between a Jew and a Gentile. But when we understand the prophetic application of who the characters represent, it becomes a telling of epic proportions, involving God, the nation of Israel, and all believers in Jesus Christ.

The story begins with a Jewish woman, called Naomi, who follows her husband, Elimelech, to live as a stranger in a foreign land. Naomi represents the nation of Israel, Elimelech means my God is King, therefore their union shows that Israel is in a covenant of marriage with God. Naomi’s husband dies there, and she has to live in this country of strangers in great sadness and tribulation, which is the picture of Israel as a nation living without their God because of their idolatry and having to live in foreign countries in great pain and sorrow. Enter Ruth! A Gentile woman who marries Naomi’s son, thereby being accepted and spiritually joined to the nation of Israel. She becomes the adopted daughter of Naomi – prophetically representing the church of Jesus Christ becoming the daughter of Israel, adopted into the family of God. Fast forward to the end of the story – through Naomi, Ruth meets her Jewish kinsman redeemer Boaz, and after their marriage a child is born, who is a huge blessing to Naomi. So also, our Redeemer was Jewish here on earth, and through Jesus we as Gentiles were brought near to God, forming one new man with our fellow Jewish believers. What great spiritual blessings are being shared with us! We are now positioned to return blessings back to the Jewish people, just as Ruth blessed Naomi with a grandson.

And this is why we need to heed the above quotation from Isaiah. It is time to comfort the Jewish nation and speak tenderly to her. Paul counsels us in Rom 15:26-27 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

Pearls to ponder:

We are called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6), but we have an obligation to go one step further – to bless those who live there in tangible ways! Let us ask Holy Spirit in what practical ways we can be a blessing to our Jewish brothers and sisters – we could contribute financially to the various organizations in Israel who distribute food and clothing to those in need? Or take one Jewish family living in our area under our wing, showing them love and consideration, protecting them against antisemitism? We could be a voice protesting the same in our media? We could go to those special services where a local synagogue occasionally invites Gentiles to attend, and build relationships there?

A blessing for Israel

In remembrance of Me

 Luke 22:19

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

God knows our human weaknesses so well. He knows that we need physical reminders of spiritual truths to help us stay true to the path He modelled for us through Jesus.

 Judaism therefore has many remembrances, for example, the Passover is a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt. The fringes on the corners of their garments are a remembrance of the commandments of the Torah. There are also many rituals associated with the Feasts, all to remind Israel of her covenant with her God Yahweh.

But did you know that the Bible also speaks about remembrances for God? We read about God “remembering” Noah – it means that He acted on the promises He made to Noah and brought an end to the flood. He “remembered” Rachel, and she conceived. It is not as if God forgot Noah and Rachel. No, when He remembers someone, it means that He fulfils His promises to that person.

Sacrifices placed on the altar were referred to as a remembrance- the smoke of them rose before God as a remembrance of the person bringing the sacrifice. The high priest wore the names of the tribes of Israel on his breastplate and on his shoulders as a remembrance before the Lord (Ex 28:12 And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance.)  In other words, when the priest entered the presence of the Lord, he continually reminded God of His covenant obligations to Israel.

This means that the giving of the bread and wine as New Covenant signs at Jesus’ Last Supper, has a deeper meaning than only serving as reminders for us of what Jesus has done for us. It also has the significance of bringing His death and atonement to remembrance before God – it ‘petitions’ God to remember the suffering Jesus had to endure and His death that has earned us the forgiveness of our sin. This is why Jesus asks us to proclaim His death in the presence of God (1 Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.), reminding God of His covenant relationship with us, brought about by the death of Jesus!

Pearls to ponder:

Just as the high priest facilitated atonement for Israel by displaying their names in God’s presence, so through communion we are displaying our covenant status with Him in His presence, which Jesus gave us through His death on the cross. Let us think about the awesome implication of this when next we partake of communion!

In remembrance of Me

We have restraining to do

 

Revelation 13:3-4

I saw one of his heads which seemed to have a fatal wound, but his fatal wound was healed; and the entire earth followed after the beast in amazement. 4. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

We so easily read over these verses without understanding the real impact of them. If we exchange the words of verse four with who/what they actually refer to, it reads like this: People (the entire earth as stated in verse 3) worshiped Satan because he had given authority to the Antichrist, and they also worshiped the Antichrist ….

And there you have it – global satanic worship. This will fully deploy at about the time that the Tribulation that John speaks about in Revelation commences, roughly a seven-year period during which Antichrist, as global political leader, will start to reign on earth. He will start out as part of a ruling faction of ten, but in the middle of that time will emerge as a dictator (Dan 11:21-23).

We know that he has a set time to appear, and that he is being restrained by the presence of Holy Spirit in believers on earth at the moment. (2 Thes 2:6-8). Even so, we can already see an alarming increase in openly satanic rituals across the globe - from Olympic Opening ceremonies to the ceremony opening the Gotthard Tunnel. Recently also the displaying of a pentagram and a tifo (visual display by supporters in the stands of a stadium) of the Devil emerging from the pentagram at the German Kaiserslautern football match, to name but a few.

The question we have to ask of the church is, why? Why is this increase allowed? What would the result be if there were multiple protests against such blasphemous behaviour; if millions of Christians the world over would regularly gather for prayer meetings to counter the enemy’s influence; if there were voices going up at ground level all over the world to stem the tide of evil infiltrating our schools, our municipalities, our government, our churches even?

Are our ministers urging us to become part of our community and be the voice of our God there - joining school governing bodies/neighbourhood watches/municipalities? Or are we silenced by the notion that standing up to evil is not showing love to others?

Pearls to ponder:

When we look to Jesus to model our behaviour on, we see that He was never naïve. He discerned the hearts of men, knowing who were sincere and who only wanted to use and manipulate Him. He quickly corrected the Pharisees; He overturned tables in the Temple. He instructed His disciples to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves – soft hearts but sharp minds. Let us ask Jesus how to stand up to evil in our environments. We have restraining to do!

From Me to you

Today

 

Luke 23:43

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So many of our questions about life after death are answered just in this one sentence of Jesus.

We know the narrative: Jesus was dying on the cross, amidst two other men who were also being crucified. They were justly convicted of crimes committed and being punished according to Roman law of the time, whereas Jesus was innocent of all wrongdoing and had to endure unjust punishment. One criminal ridiculed Jesus, saying that if He was the Christ, He should rescue them all from this death they were facing. But the other man pointed out the truth that they had got what they deserved, but Jesus had done nothing wrong. He then asked Jesus to remember Him when He came into His Kingdom. Upon which Jesus answered in the words quoted above.

This man must have heard about Jesus before speaking to Him here or even heard Jesus Himself explaining that the Kingdom of God was now near, and that one had to have faith in Jesus as Son of God to be able to enter it, because he spoke without having anything explained to him at the cross. Jesus’ teachings were so widespread by that time, that I would think the other man had also heard of Him.

And Jesus responds to a heart-felt plea from an unredeemed sinner by instantly accepting him and promising him a place in heaven with Him, that very same day. With these words Jesus affirmed His many teachings that indeed, there is a life after death (today you will be with Me in paradise); that one cannot earn your way there by doing religious things here on earth (he was hours away from death, and had no time left to do things for Jesus); and that one can also not enter without believing in Him (the offer of paradise was not made to the other man who only scoffed Jesus).

We can only wonder at the love Jesus has for us. You and I should have hung on crosses on that hill, rightly condemned for the sin in our lives. But God! Jesus took all our sin on Him and died in our place – Hallelujah!

Pearls to ponder:

 Think about this: He extends the same mercy and grace to a man who had lived a lifetime of crime and committed who knows how many sins before turning to Him, as to someone who has always tried to live a pure and holy life!

Are we prepared to treat all people in our lives with Christ’s mercy and grace? What are our true feelings when we encounter that person trying to sell us something at the robot. Or the car guard at the sixth parking lot we had to stop in this morning. Or the person who keeps borrowing money without ever paying back? What about that neighbour who daily arrives at our door minutes after we arrive home, seeking attention?

Your mercy