Hidden miracles

 If I were to ask any of you to recall a miracle which God had performed in the past, I am reasonably sure that many of you would recount the parting of the Red Sea during Israel’s exodus; or the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace described in Daniel; or any of the epic narratives written about in the Old Testament - and these breath-taking events are most certainly evidence of God’s miracle-working power at work!

There are what I call ‘hidden’ miracles also to be found in Scripture, those happenings that we sometimes might overlook when we read the Bible. We find one such event in Daniel:

Dan 1:12 & 15

Prove your servants, I beseech you, for ten days and let us be given a vegetable diet and water to drink.

And at the end of ten days it was seen that they were looking better and had taken on more flesh than all the youths who ate of the king’s rich dainties.

Many translations use the words “fatter in flesh” to describe how Daniel and his friends looked after the ten days. Eating only vegetables, grains and beans and drinking only water to me looks like a prescribed diet that surely should have had the opposite effect on them, letting them lose weight rather than gaining weight as a result. Is this not a miracle worked by God? He knew that they needed to have a good appearance to win the steward of the eunuchs over. This was a reward from Him because they had kept His commands, even when under pressure to give in to the pagan king’s instructions. 

Another event that might be overlooked is found in John 6, probably because of the two famous miracles that preceded it. Jesus had just finished feeding the 5000 people, multiplying the five loaves and two small fish to do so, and had also walked on the stormy, wind-blown sea towards the terrified disciples’ boat:

John 6:21

Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

Jesus translated that boat, supernaturally transported it miles across the sea! The Amplified explains that the disciples had slowly been making their way towards that land, the stormy waves obviously greatly hindering their progress. I am sure that Jesus saw that they were exhausted by this effort and spared them having to row any further!

Points to ponder:

Search for and celebrate the ‘hidden’ miracles in your life – that parking space that appeared when you desperately needed it; that mystery deposit in your bank account which was the exact amount you had to have at that stage; that perfect connection with just the right person at just the right time to further your business…. and give God all the glory!

He still does miracles

Born again

 

1 Peter 1:23

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

Nicodemus, a very educated member of the Jewish ruling council in the time of Jesus, asked the question:  But how can I, an old man, return to my mother’s womb and be born again? His problem was that he used his intellect, his natural thinking abilities, to try and reason out spiritual truths. A trap we all too often tend to fall in when we are faced with matters we do not understand – we quickly run to YouTube and search for videos by self-proclaimed ‘experts’ on the subject!

But Paul tells us that spiritual things cannot be understood by someone who does not have the Spirit:

1 Cor 2:14

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Being born again is one of those concepts that only Spirit-filled believers can understand. It happens when God imparts eternal life to the person who believes in the name of Jesus Christ, who then becomes a child of God, whose sins are forgiven and who then has a living relationship with God through the Spirit Who from then on dwells within them. According to Paul in 2 Cor 5:17, such a person is now a new creation. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God – as described in John 1:12-13. Born ‘from above’ as the Jewish-Greek word anôthen (used for ‘again’) more commonly refers to.

What does all this mean on a Monday morning? Well, firstly we must understand that we ourselves cannot contribute to this process to be born again – it is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is a supernatural action, without which we remain spiritually lifeless.

 Here are a few ways to help me discern whether I am truly reborn and have started walking along the road which more and more leads to me giving my whole being over to the working of the Spirit in my life:  Am I impacted by the words I read in the Bible, in other words, do they change my life? Is God Himself, and not just His gifts, now my heart’s desire? Is Jesus progressively revealed in my life in all His splendour and beauty, so that I delight in His goodness and obey Him joyfully? Is spiritual fruit visibly growing in my life – for example, has a love for my brothers and sisters in Christ increased dramatically within my heart?

Points to ponder:

If you have not done so yet, choose and follow Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, and accept His gift of life today.  Has He become the treasure in the field for which you would sell everything?

Born again

The Blood

 

Hebrews 13:20

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant….

We read here that, using the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead.  The combination of His blood with the Spirit produced the power necessary to resurrect Jesus, changing His mortal body into an immortal one, and infusing His blood with a life that could never die again!

This everlasting life in His blood became ours when we chose Him as the Lord and Master of our lives, guaranteeing our resurrection from death unto life eternal.

Not only powerful everlasting life, but also the Light of God is to be found in the blood of Jesus:

John 1:3-5

….in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Darkness is the absence of light.  This is the territory of our enemy, the Devil.  But even a very weak little light (like a flickering candle) will dispel the darkness, it does not matter how bright the light is, darkness must flee before it.

This Light in His blood became ours also, the moment we chose Him as our Saviour. 

Knowing about the life and the Light in His blood, however, is not the same as actively engaging with these in our day-to-day living experience.  Jesus gave us a crucial key to unlock the promises He left to us as His inheritance: 

Acts 2:42-43

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.  Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

We must “drink His blood” by using Communion often, as a prophetic act to remind us of the power and life and Light in the Blood that is at our disposal through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Points to Ponder:

Take Communion thoughtfully and meditate on how you are spiritually applying His blood to the lintels of your heart (as in ancient Egypt), meaning you cannot be touched by everlasting death.  Experience how the Blood invades your spirit and soul, filling up your whole body, cell by cell.  Know that the Light within you is transforming you into a fearsome adversary against the Devil!

The Blood

Break with the Old, live in the New

 

Exodus 13:7

Unleavened bread shall be eaten during those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, nor shall leaven be found anywhere within your borders.

Nowadays, when you want to bake bread, a quick trip to the supermarket is all that is needed to buy the packet of concentrated yeast necessary to ferment the dough so that it will rise before baking.

But in ancient Israel, the process was much more involved.  To start the baking cycle, the wheat or barley had to be ground into flour first, and then mixed with water and left exposed to the air for about a week to ferment.

To speed up the fermentation for later baking, a tiny piece of the previous batch would then be kept in a cool place.  This already fermented piece of dough would be mixed into the fresh batch and ferment the whole new batch of dough in just one day. This piece of fermented dough was called leaven, which is what Paul was referring to in 1Corinthians 5:6

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

Why would God, when He gave the instructions to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, emphasize it so prominently by repeating the instructions thereof many times, even stipulating that no leaven was to be found throughout the whole land - not just in their houses - and spelling out that the consequence of ignoring these instructions was that you would be cut off from Israel, a very severe punishment?

It was to point out that the prophetic significance of this feast lies in the complete break that had to be made between the religious observances of the Old, and the freedom of the Spirit in the New Covenant. The Old cannot be carried over into the New. Consider the ancient baking process of the Israelites - for a whole year, every new bread that was baked had a piece of the previous baked breads in them, in the form of the piece of leaven that was kept aside each time to be used for fermentation of the new bread dough. But now God wanted them to break completely with the old leaven, not allowing even the tiniest speck of it to survive, and start a new leaven. Break with the Old, live in the New.

The New Covenant has done away with the dead works and self-effort of the Old Covenant. 

The New Covenant cements the fact that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17)

Points to Ponder:

2 Cor 3:6 “He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.”

Spirit lead me

A new beginning

 

Luke 24:1-3

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

We are fast approaching the Jewish feast of Pesach, or Passover, which this year starts on the evening of 5 April.  Jews commemorate the exodus of their forefathers from Egypt, which includes the slaughtering of a perfect lamb so that its blood, sprinkled on the lintels of their doors in Egypt, would signal  the angel of death to “pass over” their house and not kill their firstborn of both humans and animals.

But we, through the grace of God, know that Jesus was our Passover Lamb and His blood, sprinkled on the mercy seat in heaven, redeemed us out of the hand of the enemy, making us a new creation and giving us a new beginning.

Have you ever thought about the fact that the women found Jesus’ tomb empty specifically on a Sunday morning?

When we read about God creating heaven and earth, we read that creation started on what God simply called ‘a day’.  The beginning of something new.  This first day of the week was later given the name Sunday, though in Hebrew it is Yom Rishon, meaning Day One. The prophetic significance of discovering the tomb empty on a Sunday is that Jesus brought an end to the old, and made everything new by creating a new Day One, a new and living way!

Points to Ponder:

 Embrace the fact that your old way of living with its wrongdoing and wrong thinking and failures and shame and self-condemnation has been done away with in Jesus Christ, Whose sacrifice paved the way for you to live every day as Day One, as a new beginning!

Passover Lamb

Fruit is a sign

 

Gal 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

We all know that fruit grow out of branches that are attached to  trees or shrubs or plants.  The fruit actually is a sign, or proof, of the fact that the tree/shrub/plant is alive and well.

Just so, if we display the fruit of the Spirit, it is a sign that the Branch from which they grow is alive and well within us; it means that we have a healthy, living relationship with Jesus and with Holy Spirit.

But if we are not displaying the fruit of the Spirit, we have either not given Holy Spirit access to rule over our actions at all; or we are resisting His promptings in some areas of our lives. The good news is that we can do something to rectify both these problems! 

We firstly need the baptism of the Holy Spirit, without Whom we cannot produce those fruit at all.  This means that we need to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour (this is where we initially receive Holy Spirit Who comes to live in our human spirits); and then we need to be baptised by immersion in water (this is where under most circumstances, prayer for baptism of the Holy Spirit also takes place).  That second baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, is where we surrender completely and give Holy Spirit access to rule over all we do in life and He can then work freely through us. 

The problem we all face is that we stand guard over some areas in our lives and do not allow anybody (least of all ourselves) in there, mostly because of either  sin or emotional wounds.  The sin needs confessing and repentance, wounds need healing.  Both of these can be done with the help of compassionate and loving Christian counsellors, such as those individuals working in our Healing Rooms.

Do not delay even one day further – ask help if you sense that the fruit of the Spirit is being hindered from growing in your life!

Points to Ponder:

Find those areas in your life where there is a lack of growth in the Spirit, and  take the first step towards seeking help. Follow through, step by step!

Way Maker

Is Jesus God?

 

Titus 2:13

looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

And in this first short sentence, Paul outrightly declares the truth that Jesus is God.  A fact which some people choose to debate endlessly;  some choose not to believe; some will even persecute you if you declare this fact openly. 

Are there other places in the Bible that attest to the fact that Jesus is God?  Absolutely!  I discovered the following one myself when reading through Ps 65, verse 7, where David spoke of God and wrote:

You quieted the raging oceans with their pounding waves and silenced the shouting of the nations.

This reminded me of the incident recorded in Mark 6:51

Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. And the disciples were utterly astounded,

Jesus did what the Psalmist clearly stated only God can do.  But more than that, in the same chapter in Mark we read in verse 50

For they all saw him and they were afraid and immediately he spoke with them and he said to them, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.”

The three words “it is I” are in Greek only two words (ego eimi) and should read “I am”.  Jesus was very clearly declaring that He is the Yahweh of the Old Testament!

My favourite passage that shows that Jesus is indeed God, is in Isiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Hidden in those titles are the two that says:  ‘Mighty God’ and ‘Everlasting Father’.  Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Points to Ponder:

This week, let us meditate and think about our Saviour Jesus as also being Almighty God, so that this truth becomes unshakeable in our spirits.

Our God King Jesus

Divine exchange

We all know the story of “The Prince and the Pauper”,  where the kingly prince found a poor person who looked like him, and they then came up with the idea to exchange roles and experience each other’s way of life.

This is what Jesus did for us in real life!

2 Corinthians 8:9

You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.

Jesus made the decision to exchange the glory in heaven, where He was loved and held in the highest honour, for the life of a poor man here on earth.  Even though He knew that this life would end in the most horrific death possible for a man to experience; even though He knew that He would be ridiculed, persecuted, hunted down and accused of all kinds of wrong-doing while completely innocent.

Why? 

Because God needed to show us that He wants a personal one-to-one relationship with each one of us, and the only way to demonstrate what this looked like, was to become one of us. (John 3:16)

Because now in Jesus we have a High Priest (Who, having lived among us, totally understands what we have to face every day), advocating for us in heaven, countering the devil’s accusations against us. (Heb 4:15)

Because He could only die as a human being, and by dying and His resurrection break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.  (Heb 2:14)

How great is His love for us!

Points to ponder:

This week, think about how our day-to-day living can show Him how much we appreciate what He has done for us!

Love like this

Rejoice always

 One of the shortest verses in the New Testament is

1 Thess 5:16

Rejoice always,

On first reading, one might think this is indeed a tall order, especially when trouble comes knocking at your door.  But clearly it is not meant to be of the “Jippee!  Here is trouble!” kind of rejoicing.  Rather, we must ask the question:  “How does this current difficulty  contribute to my faith walk?” 

We read in James 1:3-4 that trials prove our faith, it brings endurance and steadfastness and patience.  Which in turn will develop us so that we lack nothing which God intended for us to have:

James 1:3-4

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Did you notice the comma at the end of Rejoice always?  It is because Paul goes on to verse 17 to give us a key to use to accomplish this rejoicing, and it is another extremely short verse:

1 Thess 5:17

Pray continually,

Giving the burden over to  Abba Father, following Jesus through it all, asking wisdom from Holy Spirit in how/what/where/when to act. Then we can easily use Paul’s next key in verse 18:

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you are thankful for God’s help in everything concerning this trial you are facing; if you are thankful for the growth in your faith which resulted from this difficulty that arose out of seemingly nowhere; if you are thankful for seeing His supernatural work in your life through it all – you will eventually look back and even be thankful that this problem arose in your life!  And this indeed will be reason enough to rejoice!

Points to Ponder

How can I start to change my way of thinking about the difficulties, problems or trials in my life?

Give Thanks

Food for holiness

 

Heb 10:10

For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

God wanted us to be made holy, so that we can approach Him.  Jesus became our sin offering, His body a sacrifice unto God, in order to achieve this.

Now step back in time with me - in the Old Testament times, priests had to be sanctified (made holy) in order to serve in the tabernacle and temple, and to approach God.  Part of this sanctification process was to eat sin offerings brought by the people for the forgiveness of their sin. In other words, the priests had to eat food which had been made holy by being sacrificed as a sin offering:

Lev 6:26-27

The priest who offers the sacrifice as a sin offering must eat his portion in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tabernacle.  Anyone or anything that touches the sacrificial meat will become holy…

With this in mind, think again about what Jesus meant when He said:

John 6:51

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Is this not what we do when we take communion?  As New Testament priests, (which we are according to 1  Pet 2:9), eating the bread during communion signifies eating His body - eating the sacrificial sin offering - which now becomes a reminder of our sanctification process!

Points to Ponder

Does partaking of communion bring me to a place where I think about whether my life journey is leading me to a holier lifestyle?

Reflect on communion