Lord – REALITIES MINISTRIES

Date: October 03, 2021 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 10, No. 22

Beloved: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It gives me great joy to welcome you to the month of October 2021. And my prayer is that your heart will be strengthened to continually function with the consciousness of God’s abiding presence with you, so that you will never lose heart or be discouraged, regardless of the circumstances of your life. Amen.

You know there are times that the circumstances of our lives may drive us to think that God has abandoned us and that we are all alone to face the things that are seeking to destroy us. But that is not a new thing. There were saints of old that felt likewise at some points in their lives. For example, when the Angel of the Lord first appeared to Gideon and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior,” his answer was, “If the Lord is with us, why are we in this mess and why is He not performing all kinds of signs and miracles for our liberty, as He did for our forefathers? It is clear that He has abandoned us.” (Cf. Judges 6:11-13)

Think about that. God was personally telling that man face to face that He was with him. Yet he found it hard to believe Him. Why? It was because he was looking at the circumstances of his life and of his country. He could not understand how God could be with them and still allow things to get as messed up for them as they were. But God was not the one responsible for the mess in their lives. They were the ones responsible for it. They were the ones that abandoned God and began to function according to their wisdom. So, He left them to face the consequences of abandoning Him to walk in their own ways.

But when they cried out to Him because of their oppression, He answered them by visiting Gideon and letting him know that He had been with them all along. But it was their sins that was hindering the manifestation of His presence. And with a number of convincing proofs, He inspired and encouraged him to lead his people to experience freedom from the hands of their oppressors. (Cf. Judges 6-8)

In like manner, if we too focus on the circumstances of our lives, we may conclude that God is not with us or that He does not care at all about what becomes of us. But God never leaves or abandons His children. That is because He has already promised to never leave us or forsake us. And since He never fails to keep His word, we can be sure that He is with us, regardless of the circumstances of our lives. (Cf. Heb 13:5-6)

However, even though God is with us, we may not experience the manifestation of His power in changing our circumstances or delivering us from them. And there are two main things that may be responsible for this. The first is sin. If, like those Israelites of Gideon’s day, we allow sin to turn us away from God, we may find ourselves being oppressed by the devil, right in His presence, and He will do nothing about it. But if we will also humble ourselves before Him, as they later did, and repent of our sins, He will forgive us, show us mercy and make us experience His deliverance. And this, I believe, is what we all urgently need to do in this country, if we want to experience true liberty from all the things and people that are now oppressing us.

The second thing that may keep us from experiencing the power of God in our circumstances is focusing our attention on those circumstances instead of focusing it on God. If our attention is on the problems of our lives, we may ultimately be destroyed by them, even though we are not living in sin. But if our attention is on God, who is with us, for us and in us and who also has power over all the circumstances of our lives, we will certainly experience His power and victory over the things seeking to hurt or destroy us.

Paul says we walk by faith and not by sight (2Cor 5:7). But it is not all of us that can say this, for it is not all of us that are actually walking by faith and not by sight. To walk by faith is to function on the basis what God has said to us and not on the basis of what we see, hear or feel. And as long as we are functioning on the basis of what He has said to us about Himself, ourselves and life in general, we will never be put to shame, even if all hell is stirred up against us. My prayer, then, is that your heart will be strengthened to always look beyond your circumstances unto God, your Father, who has power over all things, so that you will never again miss the manifestation of His power in your life. Amen

Peace be unto you.

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Date: June 13, 2021 | Number: Vol. 10, No. 6

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week in the month of June 2021. And my prayer is that you and your family will be preserved to witness the good that God will bring about for this country, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

David, in one of his psalms, says, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” (Ps 27:13-14NIV) What is this man confident of? He is confident that he will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living. And why is he confident in this way? It is because he is waiting on the Lord who does not disappoint.

As we see in the scriptures, as a young man, David was faced with severe persecutions from Saul, who was king over Israel at that time. So, he, his men and their family members had to constantly be on the run and could not live as normal people lived. There was even a time that their temporary camp was burnt down and all their wives and children were taken away by the Amalekites. And all his men became so distressed that they were even talking about stoning him, for they felt that their association with him had brought them nothing but trouble. (Cf. 1Sam 30)

Yet the bible says that David did not lose heart in the face of all these things. Instead, he kept on strengthening himself in the Lord, knowing that He would ultimately give him victory all the way and also end his days of wandering someday (1Sam 30:6). That was why he said I am still confident that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And did he see it or not? He did. He saw God’s goodness not after his death but during his lifetime. He not became king over the nation of Israel but also had the rare privilege of crowning one of his sons king over the land before his death.

But why was David able to eventually witness the goodness of the Lord in his lifetime, despite all the terrible experiences he had, even as a young man? As we see in the bible text above, it was because he did not lose heart but waited for the Lord. The Lord had ordained him king in place of Saul and given him many great and wonderful promises. But for him to witness the manifestation of all these things, he needed to demonstrate faith and patience in Him. Yes, he had to do this for a number of years. But his faith in God and patience ultimately paid off. Therefore, he is able to tell others in his psalm above to do just as he did, if they too want to witness the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Do you, then, also want to witness the goodness of the Lord in your lifetime? Do you want to be alive and well, when God burns the garment of reproach of this nation and wears her with a garment of glory and praise? I want to be alive and well then. I also want my family to be alive and well then. And, like David, I am confident that the good Lord, who saved us from our sins and brought us into His glorious kingdom, will make this happen. So, regardless of what I see or hear, I will not lose heart or throw away my confidence in Him. Instead, I will be strong in heart and wait for Him. Yes, I will wait for Him because He cares about me and is also trustworthy. But will you too do the same?

Do have a splendid week.