He will not use us more than we are able!

The wonderful thing about God's plan for our life is that it is not as rigid as we think it is. We have this notion that God has only one door open for us and if we miss it, then we are doomed to a less than memorable existence. In a way, it is true and in a way, it is not. God sometimes leaves many doors open to us at the same time. It is very likely that we may not even think of entering into certain doors at all, because of the lack of preparedness in our lifestyle. There may be plans of greater glory that God may have for each one of us which we may never move into. Even when we pray, Lord open the right door for me, if we listen carefully we can hear the Holy Spirit tell us that He can only show us the doors which we are ready for. Just like God will never allow us to be tempted more than we are able, He will also not bless us or use us more than we are able! He will work in our lives within the framework that we provide to Him and He can bring glory to His Name, even with the limitations that we have placed in our lives but to a lesser extent. 

Attitudes, Attitudes, Attitudes!

When we begin our Christian life, usually God starts to sort out major issues and we find great deliverances and breakthroughs which are very visibly manifested and we are very thankful for it. The next phase of God’s activity begins by God slowly addressing our attitudes and many of us do not even begin to recognize that God now is moving deeper into us and seeking to mold us rather than just help us. If we do not understand this Holy Spirit activity, we will live our lives constantly frustrated because the God who worked wonders in our life, now seems to be delaying His responses. We feel confused because we find that God seems to either ignore our some of our cries or sometimes even works against our own desires. I would even say that the church today has two levels of believers. One is those who can discern their sins. Others are those who can discern their wrong attitudes.  If we do not see this change of pattern in the salvation outworking, we may even tend to give up our faith or stop asking altogether. There is a sulk in our face or a resigned nature in our talk that is evident to the discerning.

Having a wrong attitude means any darkness in our hearts that prevents the nature of Christ to be formed in us. Philippians 2 verse 3 strikes at the root of the problem. Almost every wrong attitude can be traced from these two - either it is from  selfishness or vainglory. God is committed to reflecting Christ in us. 

We chose His option!

Now that we are rescued from darkness, we have to begin to understand the delicate nature of our ongoing salvation. In an amazing way, God caused us to be born again without violating our will or through coercion. We chose by responding to His effectual call. Now that we are His, there is still a vital aspect of continuing to respond to the voice of His Spirit, so that we find ourselves constantly living in freedom and victory. Now the important thing is that we have to make choices like we did the first time. We should continue to keep ourselves away from immorality, impurity and greed.
             The interesting part is that we can never come to a place where we have lost all propensity to sin. Paul motivates us in Col 3:6 by telling us that these very sins are the reason why many are going to face the fires of hell. Now that you know how horrifying sin is in the sight of God, why do you still dabble with sin, now that you are a child of God? Paul does not give us an idea that now that we are children of God, God will take over our lives in such a way that we either lose our desire to sin or that we would stop sinning just because He dwells in us. Yes, He works in us but we can continue to give Him glory only by the choices we make and our responses to His instruction.

Not Five-fold but Manifold!

I do not know from where we have got this notion that there is only a five-fold ministry within the church and that you need to be at least one of these five, to be of any use to the church. First of all, it is mentioned in this portion of Ephesians that Christ gave gifts to men. And Paul very clearly mentions other gifts elsewhere, so that we know for sure that this list is not exhaustive. Secondly, just because Paul mentions the gifts in ‘noun’ form (e.g. prophet instead of prophecy) instead of the ‘verb’ form seen elsewhere, we take it for granted that this list is more important. Paul also mentions that these are gifts given to equip the saints which always rankled me, because some of the gifts are not just for use within the church. But then I saw that they are also meant to build up the body of Christ, so we cannot just call them ‘equipping gifts’. Of course, there are the greater gifts that Paul wants us to covet, but surely the nature of the gifting is not a sign of how much the Lord has blessed you.

The point that I am trying to make is that there are manifold gifts within the church and there should be no frustration in a saint for not graduating in any of the five! There are more; and what is more important is that he or she has a longing in their heart to serve the Lord. Those who are not in the five are not children of a lesser God! Their gifting may be a bit discreet for others to classify clearly but the Lord knows and there is equal reward waiting in heaven. 

No more great manifestations!

In the times that we are now living in, I am sensing in my spirit that there are not going to be any more great moves of God through miraculous signs and wonders. I am sure to ruffle a lot of feathers here but we just have to think clearly and reflect on what is happening to the church world wide. The church at present is in no place to discern what is of God and what is not.  There is so much of deception going on and deceptive spirits are feeding on the dearth of sound teaching. Signs and wonders are nowadays being manifested in the demonic spheres to an extent that God cannot send a genuine revival in the midst of such confusion. Miracles are supposed to be a means to cause people to turn to God and glorify Him but when the miracle itself is worshiped, then the devil has an easy run. I perceive that God is not going to awaken the world through the miraculous. The miracles will happen more on an individual level only and the church cannot draw in the crowds any more through extraordinary miracles. We just don't see it happening. On the other hand, God is disciplining His church because we are so shallow and worldly minded. When there is such shallowness, the miracle would not bring the desired effect. The righteous are scarcely being saved and God is right now in the process of sifting the wheat from the chaff. Jesus has to prepare His bride and the Spirit is leaning on that side. The only thing that can save the church is to bring in the fear of God and that is exactly what God is doing. I know that I am swimming against the tide in saying these things but some of us are forced to do so. I only hope that I have a few takers. God help us all. 

God does not do magic!

One thing that I have learnt for sure over the years is that God is not a magician. Or in other words, he will not perform magic tricks to entertain us. If we look to Him just to get certain things done, He will not oblige us the way we would like Him to. He has certain things in His mind regarding us and all His gifts are not just to make us feel happy. His gifts which are a sign of His great love for us, has other purposes too. When He fed the five thousand, he wanted to reveal Jesus as the Bread of Life. When Jesus calmed the storm. He rebuked His disciples for not learning about faith in God. We desperately need to learn the principles in which God is pleased to operate. If we seek healing, we need to learn how to maintain faith and how to prepare our body and mind for the healing. If we seek physical blessing, we need to make sure it is for the glory of God. O how we need to learn His ways. He seeks more from us than what we think we have. Only He can bring it forth from us. 

To serve or not to serve!

There are some people in the church who have the gift of serving others. They will go out of the way to do good and have a sacrificial outlook in life. I then began to see that it may not be a sign of maturity in Christ but that it is a gift operating in them. Slowly I noticed that there are other not-so-visible signs that show lack of true Christian maturity. Now, that gave me some relief but I saw that I really did not have a great gift of service as mentioned in Romans 12:7. However all is not lost because as I grow in God, I move out of a place of self-centeredness and into a realm where I can receive grace to love and to serve others. I do not have to see how sacrificial others are. It may be a gift or it may be a sign of true Christian growth. Whatever the case, if I do not have the gift, I can still cultivate the fruit. I do not have an option. I have to become more Christlike. I have to 'love my neighbour as myself'. It is part of the great commandment. In fact, it is part of the only true commandment in the New Testament. 

Moments of madness!

We all like to live sane lives and pride ourselves to be sensible and smart. When Jesus rebuked Peter, he must have been shocked because he thought he was talking a lot of sense. I contend that we need God to bring us into moments of madness where he can show us our pitiable state. There are times when God opens our eyes to see things as they really are. Most of the time, we walk blind, not seeing the bigger picture and not having a realistic view of our weaknesses and shortcomings. We are oblivious to the satanic tug in our own souls and like king Nebuchadnezzar, we  are sometimes forced to eat grass because we have lifted ourselves to an unsafe place. We are so prone to judging others and unable to see the same lack or attitude which may be in an even more magnified form in our own lives. We look at others pityingly and are woefully short of having glimpses into the deplorable condition of our own hearts. God allows times of insanity in our lives to reveal to us how much our fallen nature can deceive us. The deceitfulness of sin is our main contender and we need to wield the sword inward and cut out the vileness away from within ourselves. O, may more periods of madness fall on us.

I am forgiven. indeed I am!

The truth about our justification is a glorious one and therefore we need to delve deep into it, especially with regards to the forgiveness of our sins. The fact about our forgiveness is such a awesome thing and saints have difficulty in rejoicing in it, partly because of a problem in applying that truth in daily living. When we think about our forgiveness the day we were saved, we tend to apply that only with regards to sins committed upto that point of time. We fail to see that our forgiveness was not just to give us a new beginning but it was meant to give us a new standing. Before we were forgiven, we were under the wrath of God. Now that we are forgiven, we have moved out of that position once and for all. The sins that we commit after that day is not going to bring us back into His wrath. It was a forgiveness that did not just take away our sin but a forgiveness that took away all our shame and brought out a new relationship with God as our Father. A forgiveness that has opened a door that would never be shut again. This truth about forgiveness has to be coupled with something else for it to shine in all its glory. Only when we realize that it has produced a covering of righteousness over us, do we find ourselves shouting, 'I have been forgiven, indeed I have forgiven! Glory be to His Name'

Marriage on the rocks!

Success in marriage is hard to come by, these days. Now it may not be very easy to define success in marriage but the opposite is quite obvious to all. When we find couples finding it difficult to be even on talking terms, then we know that something is drastically wrong. Why is this seen so frequently even among the saints? Well, first of all, marriage is a real indicator of how much of self we carry and that has to be addressed first of all. Both the partners should use marriage to discern why is it that we usually want to have our way or our say most of the time. I believe that unless this core issue is addressed, there can be no progress at all. Marriage is the one of the finest ways that God has instituted to expose selfishness and thereby gain victory over it. 
Another important thing we understand through marriage is that love has to be both wide and focused at the same time. We just cannot treat our spouse like we treat everyone else. That is not acceptable. The commonest of all problems today (in my pastoral experience) is though husband loves his wife, he does not know that he has to place her above everyone else. God wants to reveal His oneness through marriage and so, we have to put our spouse on the pedestal. She or he is the love of my life. I will give my all to him or to her. I will have to carry my spouse close to my heart at all times. It reveals my oneness with God in a way that nothing else can.
There is much more to say but let me stop for now...

Is Saul among us?

There is a very important lesson on faith that Jesus gives in Luke chapter 17. He teaches His disciples that mustard seed amount of faith is enough to move mountains when enjoined by them to increase their faith. He then immediately moves into a parable which has a vital connection with what He had just spoken. The slave when he does what is instructed does not require a praise from his master. Similarly when we perform acts of faith, we do not need to boast in it or wait for a commendation from the Master. We have only done what we were supposed to do. Any inner boast will hinder our works of faith.
Another lesson to be learned is that we are supposed to do only what we have been instructed to do, nothing more,nothing less. The safest place to be is to seek out His will and then ask for grace to do what we have been entrusted. Any extra effort or sacrifice from our part will surely bring some kind of secret pride within us. This is the root of all legalism in the church today. The Saul attitude has to be rooted out from our lives. We are all prone to it. 

The 1st Timothy chapter 2 debate!

The controversial portion on 1Timothy is Paul’s letter to Timothy regarding general principles on how individuals and churches should conduct themselves in a manner pleasing to God. There is no indication that this particular portion is talking about how men and women should function during a church service. I believe that Paul here is mentioning general principles on how men and women should walk in a manner befitting the Lord. Men are called to pray more and women are called to be more modest. In those lines, Paul further deals with the conduct of women and says that women as a rule are not called to boss over men. Now surely the opposite cannot be inferred which is that men can boss over women. However, the general principle is clear. Women were not created first and therefore it is men who have been given more of leadership qualities. He goes on to say that the woman fell most probably because she failed to even think of consulting with her husband. Now the fact that the husband gave in without a thought is another matter. But her problem was that she had decided in her mind to eat before she actually ate of it. Her mind was settled. She was thoroughly deceived. She ate and then gave to her husband. The final point in verse 15 which Paul then makes is that women should practice self-restraint which will surely help them to move on in their salvation journey. I also would add that the self-restraint should be in speech, more than anything else!

Tongues is not a cure for all ills!

I had an interesting journey recently in a van with some believers whom I did not know personally. After some time, two of them went to the back of the van and began using the gift of tongues in a most casual way. I found it strange because they were not directing it to God but almost using it as a chant and doing it like they were gaining some points from a game. It set me thinking as to how the gift of tongues is being practiced and taught in certain circles. It is being taught that since tongues cannot be understood by the mind, a more pure form of prayer is taking place and sanctification happens at a much faster pace. In other words, a person praying in tongues grows faster spiritually because his prayer is more accurate. 

       The problem I have is not with tongues per se but the fact that it seems to be taught as the answer to everything. I pray with the mind and I pray with the spirit. I sing with the mind and I sing with the spirit. I do not think that one is an improved version of the other. We cannot replace one with the other. The devil is not more scared of tongues than of languages. Tongues do not awaken the angels more. Our mind being switched off is not always necessary. Sometimes, to think through our prayers is more edifying. It all depends on the situation we are in. When we are in tune with the Holy Spirit, He has the freedom to speak to our mind or to bypass our mind. Both are equally edifying. The only difference I believe is that we are easily distracted when we pray with the mind but praying with the spirit can extend our prayer times. We can pray more and that is a definite advantage but let us not deify tongues. We can use tongues more and still be very carnal. Let us beware of moving out of grace into a gospel of works. 

The root of the malady!

One of the things that disturbs me when we consider our walk with God is that we constantly talk and sing about God having to do this and having to do that. Our constant refrain is 'God reveal yourself to me' or 'God shine your light on me' and so it goes. We are on a non stop teary-eyed plead and everything is going to work out if only God could do this one more thing. We petition and we entreat God but it is not for souls or for strength to serve. It is that 'I want to see you in your glory' or 'I want to behold your beauty'. 
Now it is not that I think God should not be revealing Himself to us but that we have got the whole process upside down. We have put the cart before the horse, so to speak. The truth is more likely that as we set out to serve Him and as we do what we have been entrusted, God is more than pleased to give us glimpses of His glory. He who overcomes, God says...
I believe it has also to do with the age that we are living in. We are all talkers but very less 'doers'. We sing and we dance and we trust God to do the rest. There is no sense of sacrifice and there is no talk of taking steps of faith. We think that all that God wants is a never ending show of worship and we prefer to be in heaven throwing our crowns before Him rather than being on earth battling for Him. Well, we need a taste of heaven here on earth but the 'transfiguration' episode was most likely a once in a lifetime experience for the disciples and it seemed enough for them. We prefer to have it every day and that is the root of the malady. God help us all.  

Get up and get going!

I am becoming more and more aware that receiving revelation from God is something that saints have in abundance and yet, there is such a lack of fruit bearing within the church. Everyone seems to have some word from the Lord. Many are able to sense what the Spirit is saying to the churches. However there seems to be an attitude of lethargy in the church that very few are able to overcome. It is almost like we are able to see a lot of dreams and nothing ever seems to comes true. Why is it that with an abundance of revelation, there is so less movement within the church? I believe that we have failed to understand that receiving light is only a part of the whole process. There has to be a deep groaning inside ourselves so that the things of God can be worked out. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And the answer from Jesus to that condition  is 'therefore pray'.We all know what to do but very few of us are doing it. God is sending His Word to many. But few are able to persevere enough to work it out. The victory does not lie in the Word being received but in the Word being fulfilled, to the glory of God. 

Show me your ways!

What are some of the ways of God that He wants to build into my life? We usually talk about obeying God as if all that God wants is for us to follow instructions. Well we are not slaves but sons. We need to capture His heart for us. We need to tune ourselves for Him. There has to be a re-alignment of our lives so that God is pleased to reveal Him to us. The greatest goal of our lives should be to learn His ways. Here are a few for us to find out how much we have brought ourselves along that way.

         I am meant to seek after God and meditate on His Law.

                 I am supposed to give glory to God in all that I do.

         I am to keep myself clean from all defilement.

         I should always walk in expectancy and faith

         I have to order my life right so that I can receive from Him. 

Save us from our enemies!

When the Psalmist cries out to God to rescue him from his enemies, somehow we fail to see that it has great relevance for us in the New Testament. We miss the teaching that the Psalms is bringing to us. Our enemies are no longer physical but spiritual. We need to define clearly who or what they are. They are not only those who tempt us and cause us to fall into sin. But we also have spiritual enemies that try to prevent us from seeking God or depending on Him. These are the more dangerous ones. Even our physical enemies are of two types. One group is those who frontally attack us. But the others are those who act like friends but try to discredit us and destroy our reputation in ways which we do not even see. We need to pay attention to the second type. We need to know why we are not eager to run to Him. We need to find out why our thoughts are so far away from Him. We need to search as to why His presence is not dear to us. There are enemies out there that we scarcely understand. O God, give us eye salve that we might see. Give us a discerning spirit or else we would surely perish!

Why pray?

We are used to hearing ‘pray more, pray more’ but we do not usually think about why we actually fail to pray. Now the thing about prayer is that it did not begin because of your effort. We have to go back to where it all started. The New Covenant where God turned our hearts back to Him. We were in rebellion and we were restored. It became the most natural thing to pray. Just like we breathe to maintain physical life, we pray to maintain our spiritual. Prayer did not start because we saw that we have needs. Prayer started because our spirit became joined to His. He is now at work in us and our natural response is to pray. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.                  

       Now why is it that we find a lot of hindrance and we struggle to pray? It is mainly because we have not seen all that prayer actually stands for. Why do we actually pray? Let me give you a few pointers.

Prayer shows us that we were made for Him.

Prayer reveals how God longs to have fellowship with us.

Prayer opens out the heavenly invisible realm.

Prayer exchanges our life for His.

Prayer is the Holy Spirit’s way of sanctifying us.

Can you see that prayer is something much more than asking and receiving? We have minimized prayer. We have lowered the greatness of our prayer life. If we can thank God for giving us breath, how much more we should thank God for giving us the privilege to pray. 

We will be judging angels!

The word ‘judge’ is used in the Scriptures with a variety of meanings. In a negative sense, it means to judge and therefore to condemn. But in a positive sense, it can mean to judge for the sake of discernment or to determine.

On one side, we see that we should never judge a brother and yet the church is called to pass judgment over sin in a brother. On one side, we are called to judge righteously and yet, we are told to be merciful and see the log in our own eye first. So, on the whole, we understand that we do not give up judging altogether. Imagine! we will finally be called to even judge the angels.

But while we make a righteous judgment over sin and condemn it, we can never condemn a brother because only God has the right to condemn. We can judge a brother, however it is not to condemn but to extend mercy. Every time we find fault or complain against someone, we are judging to condemn instead of showing mercy. 

All or none!

We are living in a time where a shallow disciple of Jesus won’t be able to succeed for long. Either we are fully committed and have decided to live for Jesus totally or we are soon overcome. Now, it is not that a fully committed disciple is free from trials and temptations. But it is a worse thing to have enemy break in and cause damage when there was no need for it to happen. We cannot afford to think that we can live the way we want and as long as we do not commit any obvious sin, everything should be okay. We have to begin to see that we do not belong to ourselves and work out the practical implications of that. I heard an amazing advice given by a person to his friend about his lack of concern regarding taking care of his body - ‘Does your body belong to you so that you could do (or not do) whatever you want with it’?I have come to a place were I am no longer excited at seeing a new believer full of zeal and boldness for the Lord. The important thing is whether he is willing to yield to the dealings of God so that his zeal can be  exchanged for the Lord’s zeal, his desires for the Lord’s desires.Hardheartedness is one quality a believer cannot afford to have. Hardheartedness is not being able to see and understand the dealings of God because of a resistance inside. It is a stubborn spirit. It is more concerned about self than anything else. 

The stigma of the curses!

I do not think that the curses that mankind came under because of the fall, can be fully reversed in those who are in Christ, while here on earth. First of all, we have not differentiated between the effect of the fall and the curses that came after it. The curses are to be seen as separate from the consequence of the fall which is eternal death and separation from God. The curses were of an earthly nature.  It came later and was meant to be a daily reminder of the severity of man’s disobedience. It could be totally reversed only after physical death because man had to return to the dust whence he came. Yes, death has lost its sting but it is still our final enemy.

 Secondly, we should understand that within the curses itself, there are two kinds or types. One is the physical trouble that would come upon the man and woman. The other is the problem that would manifest out of them as a result of sin within. He told the woman that you will manifest a wrong attitude in trying to manipulate or possess your husband Gen 3:16 (actual meaning in Hebrew, cf Gen 4:7) and the man will retaliate through physical subjugation. This second one is part of the spiritual consequence of sin and it has to be rooted out through sanctification.

Authority and love go together!

The aspect of 'authority' is something that is undermined in the church nowadays, in so many different ways. We woo people to God talking to them about God's love for them but we do not address the fact that ultimately everything depends on whether they have bowed the knee to Him. It is rebellion that is the core issue and people need to begin their journey in God by acknowledging that. The amazing thing is that God is not lording it over us and this is the same attitude that He wants the leaders in the churches to maintain (1Pet 5:3). This method of outworking however, does not minimize the authority structures that God has placed at every level and is necessary for the sake of the angels too, who saw how Satan rebelled and was cast down (1Cor 11:10). We see this with respect to children and parents, wives and husbands, the local church and its leaders etc. The trend today is to claim that these authority structures are not valid in the present day context of new creation realities. God has abolished  all these structures and is now doing something new, is what they claim. I believe this is a sign of the times; and the spirit of these age is influencing the church to erode the nature of God's rulership and order in the universe. It is a subtle deviation from the truth but the end result is again a lack of acknowledgement of the ways of God. When we fail to submit in the natural realm, we are giving room for spiritual disorder and disharmony. It is a graver peril than we realize. 

Rolling in the dust!

In my journey with God, I frequently find myself thinking of how much we, as saints quickly wander away and then spend much of our time, just lying in the dust and waiting for God to discipline us back to Him. Surely God has given us a new heart and a new spirit, Why is it that we so quickly defile ourselves and then just moan and complain? Are we not able to discern our weaknesses with the help of God and pull ourselves up? Are we so blinded that we do not know the way back to God? Why is it that we do not have the heart of the psalmist who is crying out for discernment (Psalm 19:12). I believe one of the most dreaded moments when we see Him face to face is to realize how much time was wasted wallowing in self pity and slumber. O that we might have a heart to run to Him for refuge. A heart to get up when we are down instead of waiting for someone to pull us up.

Is God's love unconditional?

The word 'unconditional love' is a very apt way of describing the love of God. However, 'unconditional' has to be carefully unwrapped because the love of God also has certain conditions attached, somewhere along the way. In John 3:16, we find out that God loves the world enough to offer His Son to die for us but we have to believe, so that we can taste of what that love is offering us. In other words, there is a sphere of love we have to move into or else we remain in the wrath of God. Unconditional love of God does not mean that it is always one way or that it remains for ever like that! There has to be a response to that love sooner or later. It is based on that response that we continue to taste of that love. The way that response is initiated, is vital in understanding this 'unconditional love'.
The reason we call it unconditional is that in every step, our rebellion is not a deterrent to the love of God. For example, there is a lack of condition in the electing love of God. He chose us while we were still dead in our sins and trespasses. Now that we have tasted of that love, we need to obey His commands so that we could further partake of that love (John 14:23). What we begin to understand is that it is 'unconditional' with regards to its initiation but it is 'conditional' with regards to its continuation. The cycle of love can be completed only if it involves the will of both involved. Love can be fulfilled even if it is one way but it can be perfected only if it is two way!