Tag Archives: Elijah

THE WORDS

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🌄”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” John 1:1 There is more to “The Word” than merely describing it as speech. There is therefore duality of purpose in our understanding of the word. Thus “The Word” of God is divine and was manifest in our Lord Jesus Christ. It can be understood as the eternal wisdom of God, that is eternally true and unbendable. At the time of creation, the bible recorded that God spoke to bring all things into being from a formless void. Genesis 1-29. The Gospel of John does corroborate Moses’ account on creation as divinely revealed to him. “The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made, In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” John 1: 2-4 (KJV). Jesus being The Word of God is interpreted in John 10 : 9 as “I am the door: if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture”. There are many phases to the Word of God. It heals, soothes, rewards everybody according to his or her intension and action, conquers the devil, enlightens the seeking hearts and teaches man how to make wealth and many more.

Words form the basis of exchanging ideas among we mortals. The words we speak in our everyday life is not comparable to The Word of God. God speaks to people by seeing visions, dreaming dreams or hearing audible divine voices 1Samuel 3:1-10. The Words of God are forever true as read in verses11-14 of the same chapter. Abraham received Angels of God physically and welcomed them with hospitality. At the end of the visit he got the prophesy of bearing the promised son, Isaac. The promise of 25 years got fulfilled by the message the Angels delivered to him. The promise began in Chapter 15: 2-4 “And Abram said, Lord GOD, what will thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou has given me no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”

There are so many examples in the bible where anointed men of God made proclamation that came true. Our Lord Jesus performed so many miracles through such divine Words backed by individual’s faith. The woman with the issue of blood wiggled through the crowd to touch just the tip of Jesus’ garment. Jesus knew someone tapped power from Him and inquired from His disciples the one who touched his garment. They, in their mortal experience, felt it was impossible to know such in view of the teeming crowd. When He asked again, the woman owned up because she believed that if only she could touch the tip of His garment, she would receive her healing. Jesus then said; “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith has made thee whole and the woman was made whole from that hour.” Matthew 9: 22b. Also in Matthew 4: 4, (KJV) we see how Jesus defeated the devil the tempter by his utterances which were the WORDS of God. “….It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”.

The life of Prophet Elijah was full of issuing the Words of God and coming true. His encounter with King Ahab in his proclamation of “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my words.” Thereafter, there seemed to be dialogue between Elijah and God directing his every step until the end of the famine. The encounter with the widow of Zarephath that ended in the famous words of God for provision of food to the widow until the famine shall be over; “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah” 1 King 17: 1-15. The Word of God is usually instantly efficacious. Judas Iscariot led those the High Priest sent to bring Jesus for his trial and crucifixion and identified Jesus to them clearly with “an unholy kiss”. John 18: 6 revealed thus: “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground”. This shows that there is power in the Word of God that came to the agents of wickedness in high places. Also in John 4: 49-51 “The noble man saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith , Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him, Thy son liveth.” We can see clearly that the YES from God is forever YES, same goes for his NO, since HE is not man that can lie.

Philosophers right from ancient times maintained that the words human beings say are subject to being debated and may or may not stand the test of time. Scientific discoveries are explained in words and do prevail as long as there are no other evidences, to disprove them. As soon as superior evidences or convincing arguments emerge, the erstwhile highly rated conclusion may be supported, reframed or discarded completely. Decree, as a non-debatable law can still be altered by rational-legal argument or by divine intervention. Take the case of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego that refused to bow down in worship of Nebuchdnezzar’s golden image and were sentenced to be thrown into fiery furnace. The order (decree) was carried out but those who threw them into the fire were the ones the fire burnt and the Hebrew youths were delivered. The fire was unable to burn them by divine intervention. Conversely, the Words of God came to pass also as King Nebuchadnezzar, in his pride heard the Word of the Lord that came to deliver judgement on him. He was suddenly chased out of the palace and turned into grass-eating hairy beast in the forest for seven seasons (years). Daniel 4: 30-34

The Word of man’s creator, the unchangeable changer who has the final say is the word of sovereign God as well, once spoken, does not and never returns to him void but must accomplish the purpose for which it was spoken. Praise the Lord.

Spiritual Strength

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Spiritual strength is divinely superior to our physical strength. It is invincible.

Spiritual strength is divinely superior to our physical strength. It is invincible.

Being strong in Jesus Christ constitutes spiritual strength. It is the quality in a believer that makes him to tenaciously believe in the inspirational words of God especially when confronted with daunting situation. (Jack Zevada: www.christianity.about.com…strength) A unique example is the praise and worship songs of Paul and Silas in prison. Acts 16: 25-30. Their spiritual strength triggered off God’s earthquake that shattered the shackles, fetters and chains used to hold them bound. The same spiritual strength in them made them to boldly and honestly remain and waited for the jailor to see that they were not jail-breakers. They were fearless of what man could do. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27: 1) God’s spiritual words are a source of strength to all believers. No doubt the jailed Apostles, in spite of their ordeal were so confident that load of fear did not manifest in them rather, by their spiritual strength, the jailor and the magistrate feared them. They could no longer prosecute them and therefore freed them asking them to go away from their territory.

 

In Isaiah 40: 31 we read: ‘Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like the eagle. They shall fly and shall not be tired; they shall walk and not faint’. Eagle is a symbol of strength. In Isaiah 41: 10, the Lord said ‘Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you. I will hold you with my righteous right hand’. These are reassuring Words of God that infuse greater spiritual strength in one to be able to withstand the devil or adversaries. In Ephesians 3: 16, Paul psyched the Ephesians not to lose heart in “that HE (God) will grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His spirit in the inner man” During Elijah’s flight away from Jezebel, even during extreme flight, God sent a raven to feed him with two meals which gave him strength lasted him for 40 days and 40 nights without eating. 1 King 19: 8 presented a vivid scenario of how “he arose; and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God”

 

What added up to become spiritual strength are namely, fear of the Lord, serving the Lord in sincerity and in truth; praying without ceasing; putting away of all idols; serving the Lord in the areas one is needed, reading and studying the bible along with memorizing verses for various life’s needs. It is also paramount that quotable quotes from Jesus Christ, David, Peter and Paul as well as many anointed servants of God like Isaiah, Jeremiah with other major and minor Prophets are needed to give a believer spiritual strength

Answered Prayer Series # 1

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Going to the Lord in prayer has divine reward

Going to the Lord in prayer has divine reward

Our all-knowing God has the true knowledge of mankind from creation, and thus placed before the chosen people of God the Ten Commandments to guide them, who are the children of Israel, whose frailties HE knew very well. In Exodus 20: 3 HE said: “You shall have no other Gods before me.”  Believing in Christ is derived from the requirement of having no other Gods but HIM. Evidences abound in the bible in many areas where knowing and worshipping God for who HE is was the potent weapon for overcoming life’s difficulties. In 1Kings 18: 37 Elijah showed how absolute faith in God that he demonstrated publicly helped him to invoke fire from heaven that burnt his sacrifice. Prophets of baal could not. He had to adjudge the prophets of baal by executing up to 400 of them. He had to run away for dear life because of Jezebel’s hot desire to kill him. God knew his plight and sent a raven to supply food and drink that lasted him for forty days and forty nights

All these were the fall out from his prayers for drought and eventual rainfall James 5: 17. Elijah’s raising the son of the widow of Zarephath to life in 1Kings 17: 20-23 (NKJV) was a clear example of answered prayer. Being a tax collector signified the status of a sinner because of the sharp practices in the execution of their duty. Once one realizes that one is a sinner and has the conviction to ask for mercy, God does not close his eyes against such individuals Luke 18: 13 (NKJV). By the same token Jacob, known to have supplanted his twin-brother Esau, did pray to be delivered from his brother’s wrath. His prayer was granted Genesis 2: 9-12. (NKJV)

All these instances of answered prayers point to the fact that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercy has never come to an end, they are new every morning,  great is the faithfulness of the Lord. A believer has the grace for praying for self and others and answers shall always be manifest. The prayer of the saint avails much. This is a period of dispensation of grace. It is therefore incumbent on us to help ourselves by depositing our problems at the feet of Christ who is always ready to solve our problems handed over to Him. Praise the Lord!