Take Immediate Action
Immediate ActionThere is a story in John 5:2-15, where Jesus met a disabled man who had no one to help him. Christ is the helper of the helpless. His one desire was to help, and so He healed the man who had an infirmity thirty-eight years and had waited for so long by the pool of Bethesda hoping to get help. Christ delights to have mercy on the helpless, so He singled this man out from the rest of the great multitude and healed him. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years (John 5:5). That was a long time – for thirty-eight years he waited at the pool for his healing. He was focused only on trying to get into the pool for his healing until Jesus came along and showed him another way. “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” (John 5:7) In this story, we see very clearly the conditions under which the power of God operated. Jesus ordered the man, and, as he tried to obey, God’s healing power came to heal him. “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” If there’s one thing that’s going to be responsible for change in our lives, it’s when we take immediate action to do the thing that God has revealed to us to do, or to do the thing that we know we need to do. We believe in God, but many have misconceptions about how He works. We think when we believe, then God does everything. When we believe, very often God shows us what we need to do. I’m not saying God doesn’t move supernaturally. The excuses paralysed the man and nothing was going to change until he took immediate action to respond to Christ. Do something you haven’t been able to do. That’s when something supernatural will begin to happen. You do what you can do in the natural, and then what happens is God will add his super to your natural, and you will experience supernatural results. The things we cannot do, He will do them for us. If we are going to do nothing and expect God to do everything, then that’s not going to happen. And He is not putting any burden on us. All He wants is for us to receive what He has for us. I’m talking about when the Holy Spirit has put something in your heart, He’s trying to lead, and guide, and direct your life, and we do nothing. He said, “Get up, take up your bed, walk”. Be ready to step into what God has already provided by grace. “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (John 5:8). What a strange command to be given to a person who has been crippled for thirty-eight years. But all the man needed to do was to obey the command, take immediate action, and receive his healing. There are things that God makes known to you, and weeks go by and you don’t do it, and I can’t help but to wonder what if you would have applied immediate action to the thing that you knew you had to do. So is what I hear Jesus saying here, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk”. I hear Him saying “Do it now”, I hear Him saying “Get up, take a step”. That’s what He was trying to let the man know. Essentially, Jesus was commanding the man to attempt the impossible. Jesus said, ‘Get up’! He told him to pick his bed up and carry it away. The man could have said that for thirty-eight years he had been lying on the bed and he didn’t have that physical ability to rise as he was being commanded to do. But he made the effort and the power of God healed him. 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked” (John 5:9). God had come! In His marvellous sovereign way, He had chosen the man out of the multitude to demonstrate His wonderful love and power. The crippled man didn’t even have the faith to ask. But God performed the impossible. All the man had to do was to obey the command, take immediate action, and receive his healing. He was miraculously and instantly healed from his affliction. Later, the Jews couldn’t understand how a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years could be healed on the Sabbath day. If he had not attempted to obey the command, he wouldn’t have experienced the healing power of God, and be made whole. When Jesus went to the pool, He went to change the crippled man’s life. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6). He already knew his yesterdays. He knew the man at the pool and He knows you and me. Jesus had a supernatural knowledge of the man’s condition. There are so many things in this world which try to defeat us. So, what’s stopping you? You may be asking; can I really change? I know people ask this a lot of times. “Can I really do this”? You may not believe things could ever change in your life, but God does. The Holy Spirit believes you can and that’s why He’s leading
God Is All Sufficient
David rightly said the Lord is my portion, which means if you have God, you have all sufficiency. God’s word is sufficient, and His love is sufficient, so we have all we need. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mat. 6:33). The Bible says seek the kingdom and all other things shall be added to you. Not some things but all things. So, we should give God our best; our best time, and our best of everything. He is God of more than enough: spiritually, materially, physically, emotionally, and He is an all-sufficient God to deal with every situation that you are facing or may be facing. Believe Him to fulfil His purpose in your life. Jesus came to give us abundant life because He is more than enough. When dealing with God, the sky is the limit, but sadly we limit God by our small thinking. We limit God by our misunderstanding and lack of faith. We have been taught to limit ourselves to only what God can do in the physical natural realm, and we don’t go beyond that. God is all sufficient, don’t limit Him to what you see in the physical. Let me give you an example in the gospel. The feeding of the five thousand men described in Mark 6 where thousands of people were coming to hear Jesus. They had been with Him all day long. 35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” (Mark 6:35-37). His disciples came to Him and said it’s too late, send them away. But Jesus said you feed them. With what Jesus? You are asking us to feed thousands of people but with what? We have to work for months to earn enough money to be able to feed these people. “And they said to him, shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworths of bread, and give them to eat? (Mark 6:37). Immediately when God gave them command, they limited Him to the physical resources that they had. A penny was a day’s wage, so two hundred pennies were worth two hundred days wage to feed the multitude. They limited God because they only looked at their own resources. What they should have done was to recognise that they had God right there in their presence and He was Sufficient. He was limitless and He could supply their needs beyond their physical financial ability. God is all sufficient, don’t limit Him to what you see in the physical. The disciples had been with Jesus, and they knew Him 24/7. They had seen Him do miracles before. They had seen Him do incredible things. He talked with them, He ate with them, and they knew His values. They witnessed the amazing things He did, yet they needed to learn to put their trust in Him. What’s God asking you to give? What’s God asking you to let go? What’s God asking you to do? Are you frightened to put your trust in Jesus wholeheartedly? They told Jesus the crowd must be hungry. They said Jesus, let them go and find something to eat. Jesus then turned to them and said, you feed them. This seemed impossible. How could they feed the multitude with nothing? This was why there were so many responses from the disciples if you read all four gospels. All their responses summed up to the fact that, they wanted to get rid of the problem by sending them away. Let’s send them away, they said. Let’s release them to go and find their own food. One of them said the cost is too much, we can’t feed them. It’s impossible, it will take more than six months wages to feed them. We don’t have enough. They kept thinking logically about how to overcome the situation. How many of us act the same way? Whenever you are faced with what seems impossible, do you try to always work it out logically? The disciples had walked with Jesus and seen many miracles, but they were trying to work this particular situation out logically. When you put logic into the picture, you push the supernatural out. You push the miracle out. There cannot be any logic where there’s supernatural. The problem with many of us is, our first thinking is logic: our own resources, and our own strength. You see, faith and logic cannot work together. The disciples were coming with their logic, but Jesus was saying, you feed them. God is all sufficient. If He is asking you to do big things for Him, don’t limit Him by looking at your resources. By saying God, I don’t have enough money, you are limiting Him by looking at what you have the resources to do. You need to believe that God can provide you with extra. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20). He can make you sufficient in all things so you may abound in every good work. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). I know that there are people that God has more for. God wants you to reach out and touch people’s lives and make a difference and yet many times we limit God because of our small thinking. Many times, we think of poverty and yes, it
Look To The All-Sufficient God
“ 41Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand” (Mark 6:41-44). Look to God and see past the physical. Many of you know that God has more for you than what you are experiencing. You know it, you have heard from God, some of you know the details, some of you know the business that God wants you to do and yet you are far from accomplishing it. Part of that is because you are not allowing yourself to see yourself successful. This is just like Jesus taking the five loaves and two fish and just stopping there. If that was the only resource He had, He wouldn’t have seen it multiply. But He looked up. He saw past the physical into the spiritual. He saw what was possible. “4 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves” (Mark 6:41). If you can see it on the inside, then you can see it on the outside. That was what Jesus did and because of that this miracle took place. God has a plan for you and it’s bigger than what you think. You must take the limits off. Look to the all-sufficient God and just allow yourself to start seeing God’s will coming to pass in your life. I know that there are so many people that God has more for. God wants you to reach out and touch people’s lives and make a difference and yet many times we limit God because of our small thinking. We look at our physical natural resources instead of looking at the all-sufficient God who can produce exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we imagine or ask (see Eph. 3:20). If you own a business, don’t imagine the business struggling and failing even if it is. I’m not denying that things happen in the natural. But go beyond that, like Jesus did. Lift up your eyes, look beyond what’s in your hand and see it the way God wants it to be. Discover what God can do in you and through you. Look to the all-sufficient God. Cast all your cares on Him and believe that He can take care of them. Take the word of God and see yourself succeeding in that business, see yourself prospering, see yourself healed, see your marriage working, see your children transformed. Jesus took what was meant for one person and used it to feed the many. God gives us His revelation to broaden our view of who He is. We need to be totally dependent on God. We need to look to the all-sufficient God. We need to depend on His word and promises. His word is sufficient. Whatever you are going through, God wants you to come to His throne of Grace and open your heart to Him. He will lead you and guide you. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). Our steps are ordered by the Lord. God wants to order your steps right now. Don’t bring logic into the situation. He wants you to trust Him. He wants you to move in faith. Logic is not what you should be looking for at any point in time. Faith is what you need. Trust God, hold onto His word, be obedient to the word of God, and He will direct your steps. His name is above every other name. There’s nothing that’s impossible for Him. All we must do is to totally depend on Him, by placing our lives in His hands. At the end of this miracle, there were leftovers, huge amounts of surplus. “42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish” (Mark 6:42-43). Put your doubts aside and align yourself with the word of God. God will bless whatever is in your hands and multiply it to overflowing. You were called to serve God and to serve the world. When you give Him what you have, God will touch your natural and make it supernatural. You will be walking in big open spaces. You may be feeling rejection and low self-esteem, but suddenly you will be walking in completeness, knowing who you are in God. Knowing that you were called of God, and that you’ve got a destiny on your life. Knowing that you’ve got a hope and a future. Because you gave what you’ve got in your hand, you aligned yourself with the word of God. Then you just experience an overload of abundance in your life because God has blessed you to overflowing. You are limitless in Christ. Life is about who you are connected to and not your circumstances. It doesn’t matter how you see yourself limited or how people limit you, you are limitless in God. God’s word spoken over your life is sufficient. God’s word is sufficient, and that’s all we need. When Jesus says yes nobody can say no. “Who is he who speaks, and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?” (Lam. 3:37). His word is powerful and sufficient for us. “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29). David was seen as a shepherd boy, but he was a king even though His family didn’t honour him. It doesn’t matter if they discriminate against you. God’s word on your life is sufficient to make you succeed. All you need to do is to be obedient and cooperate with God. Abraham was seen as an old man incapable of having children, but God
Keep Leaning On God
Leaning on the Lord simply means we relying on Him and we trusting in Him. He answers our prayer, He directs our paths, and we keep leaning on Him. We should live every day trusting God, depending on Him and acknowledging Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Pro. 3:5-6). By saying ‘Lord, I’m trusting you for today’, what you’re saying is I’m leaning on you to give me wisdom, guidance and direction for my life. That reminds me of what the bible says in the 37th psalm: “Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity”. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass”. “Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret – it only causes harm” (Psalm 37:1, 7, 8). Three times the psalmist says: ‘do not fret’, ‘do not fret’, ‘do not fret’. As believers we have the Spirit of Christ living in us and as we lean on Him or rely on Him, we trust Him so that’s what God wants us to do. He wants us to lean upon Him, He wants us to rely upon Him. He wants us to trust in Him. He wants us to come to Him acknowledging that we are dependent upon Him because He wants to be everything for us that we need in our lives. God intended to direct our lives. “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23). If you read Jeremiah 10: 23 in context, Jeremiah was lamenting the fact that the Israelites were going into bondage and captivity. He was talking about total destruction of Jerusalem because they had rejected God. Therefore, the nations were going to conquer them and send them to captivity. He was talking about terrible judgment and right in the middle of the prophesy, Jeremiah asked a question; How could this happen? How could the people who were the apple of God’s eyes, and who were once favoured than nobody else on the planet and so blessed by God ever come to a position where they were to be put into slavery in Babylon? And he answered his own question in Jer. 10:23 and said “Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps”. The reason we get into trouble is because we don’t lean on God, we do things our way. Nearly every problem that we have comes because we do things our way, we don’t listen to the voice of God, we don’t seek His direction, we lean on our own understanding. The only exception is persecution. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). You can be persecuted when you are leaning on God and doing everything God’s way. So, you could have some problems and some troubles and persecution but most of our troubles come from the fact that we are not leaning on God and hearing His voice and following His leadership. Our feet need direction, else we would not know our way or how to walk in this dark world. And this is how tragedy comes. It’s because God did not create us to be self-directed. He wants us to lean on Him so He can direct our paths. God gave us that choice, He doesn’t force us; we are not robots. But God never created us to function independent of Him. And there are so many scriptures to support this: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Pro. 3:5-6). If we don’t lean on our own understanding but personally appropriate God’s word and practically use it by acknowledging Him in our daily routines, He will direct our paths and we shall surely light up our cities and communities. Hundreds of other scriptures show that God intended that we depend upon Him, to seek His guidance, to be led by Him and to be directed by Him. This is the way that God created us to be. And nearly all our problems come from being self-motivated and doing things our own way. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). The word is our lamp and light. We must never turn away from it. By leaning on His word and meditating on it day and night, we will always walk in the light of His word, and by so doing, we will be led to wise decisions to bring glory to God. Let’s allow the light to lead us to shine, prosper and have good success. Our best light is like darkness without the word of God. Our ways without it will lead to disastrous consequences. You can go all the way back to the garden of Eden where God gave Adam and Eve instructions about the way He wanted them to live. He said I do not want you to eat of the tree of knowledge and evil. They chose to do the very opposite, they thought they knew better than God. They thought that if they ate the fruit of knowledge and evil, they would be better off and so they did it their way and went against what God spoke to them and ushered the whole human race into all the problems that we have. The root of all the problems that we have is that we do things in our own way, we don’t follow God’s directions. “My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; 2 For length of days and long life and peace they will
Keep Listening to God
Hearing God’s voice is one of the most fundamental things that we need to learn when we give our hearts to Jesus and start walking with the Lord. I think sometimes it’s overlooked, and it almost feels the importance of it gets neglected. Keep listening and learn to listen to God. It’s so uncommon for people to hear the voice of God and be led by God these days because most people don’t think it’s normal. They think you are weird to claim to have heard the voice of God. If you were to stand before unbelievers and say God told me to do this or that, do you know that they may think that you are absolutely crazy to claim that God speaks to you? Many people go through their lives saying, ‘God never said anything to me’. Yes, He did. You may not have listened or obeyed. Maybe He did not speak to you audibly, but God speaks to us, and He wants us to listen to Him. God is always willing to talk to us. Tune your hearing to hear God’s voice. How privileged it is and how important it is to have God almighty speak to us, and it’s not meant to be an unusual occurrence. It’s meant to be normal. The most important lesson in the Christian life is learning how to listen to God and knowing that you’re getting direction for your life and the confidence to know what to do next. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isa. 30: 21). You will hear a voice behind you that says this is the way, walk in it. Isaiah was prophesying what will happen in the new covenant. God had been rebuking them, I have forsaken you, I have turned you over because of this, but there is coming a day when I will draw you back and you will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way, walk in it. Learning to listen to God is absolutely essential to living a godly life, a useful life, and a profitable life. Currently, the enemy is really attacking us and trying to consume us with distractions so that we can’t hear God’s voice because he knows the power of listening to God and following His instructions. He knows that if we’re hearing God’s voice and obeying Him, he’s already lost the battle because it’s so important for us to get God’s voice on everything that we are doing. For example, how do you find the will of God? You have to listen to Him. How do you know what to do in making critical decisions, or simple decisions in your life? You listen to Him. And how do you listen to God? Be quiet in His presence. Get in the word and ask God to speak to your heart. Learn to listen to Him. What is God saying, how is He giving you direction for your life at this point in time. And so, if you’re going to stay on the right path and walk in the will of God, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to make wise decisions, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to have right relationships with other people, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to avoid yielding to temptation, you’ve got to listen to Him. If you’re going to have your needs met, you’ve got to listen to Him. You can ask any question you want and be ready to listen for the answer. How are you going to be saved? You’re going to be saved by listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit who convicts you of your sin and says that if you die without Christ you’re going to be lost. If you listen and obey, you get saved. Many have heeded to this call after being convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin and are headed for heaven when they die. In the same way after this first encounter, we have to listen to Him about everything. When you start the day every morning, you should be listening to Him. Lord, speak to my heart, give me guidance for the day, make me sensitive today to what’s going on around me. Make me sensitive to the people I meet, how I’m to respond if there’s a need, something I can say or do. Help me know how to listen so that I can know how to deal with some things I need to avoid. Learning to listen to God is absolutely essential because unless you listen to Him, you wouldn’t know the right thing to do. Listen to Him, on whether to do something or not. Listening to Him will enable you to be useful all the days of your life. For example, let’s say you’re married, how are you going to build an intimate relationship with your wife or your husband? You learn to listen to him or her. How do you raise godly children? You learn to listen to them and teach them to listen to you and teach them to listen to God. Listening is essential to every single aspect of our lives and certainly if we’re going to be useful all the days our lives, we’re going to have to learn to listen to God because He’s going to tell us what to do, what not to do, what to avoid, and what to pursue. God is always speaking to His Children. This is the way you stay strong and healthy and useful all the days of your life. It doesn’t make a difference where you are now, you can start today and ask God, ‘Lord, I want you to make me sensitive every day to all of these attitudes because that’s what I want in my life’. It’s
Awareness Of God’s Presence Shifts Everything
God’s presence will shift everything, but that will not happen in your case if you are not aware of His presence. For those of us who trust God, we must have an awareness of Him that others do not have. Let me ask you a question. Why do you want to live your life independent of a loving, sovereign God who knows all? He’s omniscient: He knows all things, He’s omnipotent: He has all power, and He’s omnipresent, He is everywhere. “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1). His presence shifts everything. You have this present Helper with you constantly, night and day, twenty-four hours a day, every day of your life. But the question is, are you aware of His presence? He’s here whether you’re aware of Him or not because He says He will never leave you nor forsake you. He’s there when you’re at work, whether you’re aware of Him or not. In other words, your awareness of Him doesn’t determine where He is. In fact, the scripture says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn’t change. And the reason His location doesn’t change is because all locations are in His presence (see Psalm 139). Why would you want to live without a loving Father who wants the best for you? So, it’s vital to deal with this matter of not just His Presence, but the awareness of His Presence. We all know He’s present, but are you aware of His presence? Many of us know Psalm 23. Verse 1 says “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”. God works in the lives of His children. He provides their needs based on His love and kindness toward us. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” In verse 4, David says, ‘You are with me’. The good shepherd is with me. You cannot live any meaningful life without the awareness of God’s presence. Don’t forget that a meaningful life is a life that pleases God. A life that serves the purposes of God on this planet earth. A life that at the end of it all, God can say ‘well done, you good and faithful servant’. If you look at scriptures, it’s evident that our awareness of His presence is vital to whatever God wants to do in our lives. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). The stories given in the scriptures about how people related to God, and the accompanying positive or negative results, are recorded for our benefit. The Bible offers us the opportunity to learn valuable lessons so we can apply to our lives. God has given us a wealth of wisdom in His word. You need to resolve to live a life worth living, and that means learning and applying the stories of Biblical characters to your life. So, let’s start with the Old Testament. For example, the Bible says that Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him. What a sense of awareness of God he had. And if you think about Noah, God told him to build an ark. And the one thing He said to him was, I’m going to be with you. Even in those times when he was persecuted for what he was doing because they didn’t understand. They thought he was embarking on a foolish construction project, building a boat on a dry land, but God said, I’m with you. Following Noah, let’s take Abraham, for example. God said to him, get up and leave your family and go into a land that I’ll show you. He didn’t even tell him exactly where he was going at first. He said, but I’m going with you. I’ll be with you. And if you’ll remember when God spoke to Moses, and He gave him that challenge to go and talk to Pharaoh about letting His people go. He said, I’m going with you. And on one occasion Moses said to the Lord, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (Exo. 33:15). He was saying, we’re going but we’re not going without You. Have you ever thought about that in your life? You’ve had things that you needed to do, but you certainly don’t want to do without God. You need to be aware of His abiding presence with you. When God began to speak to Joshua, He told him to take over Moses’ place, an absolutely impossible task. And He said, I’ll be with you. And then when He talked to Gideon, for example, and Gideon said, Lord, my family is the lowest in the whole city; and why are You asking me? God said to him, here’s what I want you to do, and I’ll be with you. If you’ll recall when David was fighting Goliath, he said, My God will deliver you into my hands. He had a sense of oneness. When He called Isaiah and Jeremiah to be prophesying in a very difficult time in the nation of Israel; He said to Isaiah, do not be afraid, I will be with you. And to Jeremiah, He said, I will be with you. Then in the New Testament, you remember what Jesus said to His apostles when He sent them out? He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I’ll be with you even to the end of this age. Jesus spent time talking to His disciples about the
God’s Presence
You must understand that God’s presence can be categorised into three. The omnipresence of God, the abiding presence of God and the manifested presence of God. The omnipresence of God means God is everywhere, and God’s presence has always been everywhere. I’m going to give you a couple of examples from the Word of God. Before the earth even existed, the Holy Spirit was here. Genesis 1:2 says specifically that the Holy Spirit was moving upon the face of the waters. At that time, the earth was without form or was void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:1-2). After God created the heavens and the earth, later in the book of Psalms, David said in Psalm 139 that: ‘Where can I go to get away from your presence or where can I flee from your presence. If I ascend into the heavens or the highest atmospheres you are there. If I make my bed in hell or the underworld or to the depths, you are there’. So, the truth is that He’s always been here. In the deepest ocean, at the highest mountain, God has always been here with his omnipresence. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139: 7-10). But here’s what’s interesting about the omnipresence of God. When Jesus came to this earth, He said something very different from what we would think as the presence of God always being here. Even though God’s presence has been everywhere before Jesus was manifested as the Living Word, there was no way to get that presence living inside of people. It took the Son of God to come and die and give his life for us to have the presence of God available to us and living inside of us. So, here’s what Jesus said, ‘I will come and make my home in you, abide in you by the Spirit of God and I will never leave you. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Jesus said I will never leave you, and never means never. When you are born again, your spirit becomes brand new, you receive the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 5:17 talks about this among many other scriptures. Once the Spirit of God is on the inside of you, Jesus says by the Spirit of God, I will never leave you or forsake you. That’s good news. But so many times, when you’re in certain worship gatherings in today’s modern church, we’re always asking God to show up. We’re asking the Holy Spirit to come as if He’s not here yet, as if we’re going to cause Him to come down. Jesus was the only one who could do what needed to be done and He ascended to the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came and He’s been faithful to never leave us or forsake us as believers today. Not just the omnipresence, but now the abiding presence. What was outside our bodies, has moved inside to be permanent from the inside out from now on. So, notice He said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’. He didn’t say I will come and go and it’s up to you to pull me down or pray that I come down. Then there’s the manifested presence of God. So, what does that mean? It means to showcase God, advertise His goodness through our actions, demonstrate His love and His power by the abiding presence that lives in us. Jesus said He would be made manifest from us so we can’t manifest something that’s not there. We’ve got to have the abiding presence through the relationship that we have with God. No man comes to the Father except through Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can have a relationship with God except through Him. He had to pay the price that no one else could pay for us to be able to live like this and call God our Father. God is now not just God, but God is our Father. 33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Mat. 12:33 -35). God wants to flow through you. Jesus said, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Out of your heart, out of your way, out of your innermost being; what’s in you is going to flow out of you. Notice it’s not just thinking it or having it on the inside but it’s out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39). Jesus says in Mark 11 that, when you speak to your mountain, your obstacle, your difficult situation, or what’s standing in your way, that hindrance will be removed. The Holy
Deliverance From This Present Evil World
It’s God’s will to deliver us from this present evil World. Jesus came to do a marvellous work to set His people free, and this is good news. Our Lord came to deal with this evil world because He loves us. “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:3-4). This is a powerful text of scripture. It’s just a statement about the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth. This means that we have been saved by grace, and the gospel of grace is a “rescue” and “deliverance” out of the hand of sin. The gospel has been given to set us free so we don’t have to live like unbelievers in this present “evil age.” This is God’s will for all His children. Many people have changed the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth to be only to deal with the forgiveness of our sins, and our life in eternity with God the father in heaven or on the new earth. And for some people, that’s what they present as the gospel, but Paul writes here and says, our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world. Jesus came to deliver us from poverty, demonic control, as well as sin, in this present life. To the extent we believe that, we will begin to experience the physical benefits of our salvation in this day and age. The Apostle Paul did not say Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the evil world to come. He said, “this present evil world.” That means our salvation is effectual in this life, too, not just in the one to come. He’s not talking about hell in the future, or some destruction in the future, but he says that Jesus came to this earth to deliver us out of this present evil world. That’s talking about the present age. The present state and decay that we see in the world because of sin and what sin does. We need to embrace this powerful text of scripture which shows that the Lord didn’t just come to forgive us of our sins and leave us saved and stuck until we either die or He comes back for us. He made provision for our success in this life as well as the one to come. This scripture makes it very clear that it’s God’s will for us to prosper in spirit, soul, and body. “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant” (Ps. 35: 27). Never think that Christianity is just suffering with sin, sickness, disease, poverty, loneliness, and depression. And that, we are poor and struggling as pilgrims just trodden with this life below. This text of scripture shows that part of our redemption is deliverance from this present evil world. That means we can walk in health, we can walk in prosperity, we can walk in victory. I’m not talking about victory without any effort, or without any attacks. I’m not saying that we are immune to anything that the devil wants to do. No, he will fight against us, but we are supposed to walk in victory and that’s exactly what this scripture is saying. At the new birth, the believer is delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear son. This means that we have already been completely delivered from the kingdom of darkness. The Christian life is walking by faith in accordance with that which God’s grace has already freely given. Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this evil world, and there are so many Christians that have missed this. They had salvation presented to them as the forgiveness of sin only, something to do with their eternal soul or for eternity, but very little impact in this life. Follow Him out into His marvellous light and never go back to the darkness. Stay in your new found freedom. That’s what He came to do. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). He came to deliver us out of darkness and to convey us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. That’s victory over darkness. He is the only one who can deliver you, but you must be ready to receive the offer on the table. Don’t cling to your chains, He has come to lead you out of bondage. Just come out and follow Him to His marvellous light. Many people believe that the only benefit of their salvation in this life is that it gives them peace and comfort, and to know that the future has been taken care of, and that there’s sympathy, pity and understanding from God as we endure our hardships in this life. But they don’t believe that we can really prosper and walk in total victory in this life. Galatians chapter one verse four is saying just the opposite. This verse says that the purpose of God is to deliver us from this present evil world. I don’t understand how anybody can take that as anything except delivering us from all the hardships and the problems that we encounter here on earth. This isn’t talking about in heaven, this isn’t talking about eternity, this is talking about being delivered from this present evil world. That’s sickness, poverty, oppression of all kinds and so many other things. This is a powerful truth. He is reminding the Galatians of the victory which is in Christ. Jesus came not only to establish what truth was, but if you walk in the truth, He is going to impact your physical life. Anyone
Special Delivery
The post office and courier services sometimes don’t deliver the parcels. Not our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to set the prisoners free, and to bring light to those who sit in darkness out of the prison house, those who have been held in the prison house of fear, doubt and all forms of bondages. He came to set the captives free. Jesus has come to deliver you totally from your chains and to bring you right out of your prison house, not just from your little cell where you were held captive, but to bring you out of the entire prison house, out of the premises. That’s special delivery, my friend. “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, 7 To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house” (Isa. 42:6-7). Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. He recognised His own calling and purpose as recorded by the prophet Isaiah. He came to communicate in word and deed the heart of the Father and His great plan of salvation. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). Jesus is declaring that He is an anointed man, and not an ordinary person. Christ here, is saying that He was sent. He made a specific point that He was the saviour sent from heaven. He was a special messenger. In other words, He was not sent by men – human beings were not the ones who sent Him. He was not there to proclaim a message for men, but He was sent directly by God the father who will raise Him from the dead. Jesus was emphasising that it was God who sent Him, because He was going to say certain things in His mission statement that will be very hard on the congregation. It was going to be very authoritative. Where was He getting the authority from? Well, He starts off by letting them know that ‘hey I’m the anointed one, and I’m not a messiah called by men. I’m called by God, with His message and authority, and what I’m telling you is from God. “And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:20-21). In other words, He was not going to give them any opportunity to disagree and say well, that’s just Christ’s opinion. Jesus was leaving no room for doubt. There was no way that these Jews were going to say, ‘oh that’s just Jesus’s opinion’. Jesus was saying this is not my opinion, I’m speaking directly from God. I’m God’s messenger sent and anointed by Him, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). You do not have any other option, you either reject God or accept this as a message from God. There’s no in-between. That’s the point that Jesus was emphasising here. He has come to bring you out to life in Him. So, you can boldly say “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). What deliverance is it if you have light, but you remain in darkness? Or if you escape from the prison cell but you remain in the prison house? It doesn’t have to be that way. He came to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. Don’t be held captive. Follow Him out of the prison door, and out of the prison house. The freedom God gives is real. When He sets you free you are free indeed. Jesus came to set the prisoners free, to bring you out of your captivity, and to give you liberty. He has done it for many of us, and He will do it for you. The weight of sin in your life will be lifted off your shoulders. The power of sin that you can’t conquer, the sin that entangles you and ensnares you, God says He will deal with them. He will forgive you. What sin is weighing on you? Is it lust? Is it evil desires? Are you plagued with fears? He says He will bring them all down. Why? Because He is God. You can’t do it, but He will! He says He will. What a great offer. You have to leave everything for this. He carried our sins to the cross – to cleanse us and make us free. It’s not God’s desire that any of us should live in sin or bondage any longer. It’s not His will that any should perish. He doesn’t want you to be oppressed by the devil. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38). He doesn’t want His people to be downtrodden, tormented and trapped. This is the true gospel, but it’s foolishness to those who are perishing because they think it’s too simple, it couldn’t be that easy. People say it’s tough to overcome addiction. They