God Wants You To Prosper In Everything You Do -1

1BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
Psalm 1:1 (Amplified Bible)

Book of Psalms is great book. It is filled with messages of hope, joy, peace, prosperity and all the good stuff you can think of. It is extremely positive. It is impossible for anyone to read Psalm in its proper context and be negative.

I like the way it starts. The entire 150 chapters book start with the word, “blessed”. The Amplified Bible has expounded the meaning “blessed” as happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable. So, in God’s view, anyone being blessed will experience outward manifestations as stated above. When I was in my previous religious church, I heard the word “bless” very often but no one told me what it means. So, in my view at that time, saying “God bless you” is just being polite. It is as meaningless as “hi” or “hello”. Thank God, he has delivered me from the bondage of religion and revealed his truth to me.

Now I know that being blessed means to be happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable. Let us go through each of the definitions to understand what is in store for us.

Here is what I found in Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary:

happy (PLEASED)
adjective
feeling, showing or causing pleasure or satisfaction:

This means God blessed us to give us pleasure or satisfaction. The religious people consider God and pleasure to be mutually exclusive. To the religious mind, we have to give up pleasure if we are really serious about serving and obeying God. However, God has a different view. He wants to give us pleasure. Spending time with God, meditate on his Word, confess his will and obeying him will give us pleasure.

fortunate
adjective APPROVING
lucky:
[+ to infinitive] You’re very fortunate to have found such a lovely house.
He was fortunate in his choice of assistant.
[+ that] It was fortunate that they had left in plenty of time.
NOTE: The opposite is unfortunate.

You are considered fortunate when good things happen to you. This means the blessing of God will always result in good things happening in your life. If you are a christian and you did not know about this before, I suggest you to start searching the Bible on how to be blessed. You may start with this blog because I have been collecting and writing articles on how to be blessed.

prosperous
adjective
successful, usually by earning a lot of money:

I love this term. According to Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary, to be prosperous is to be successful usually by earning a lot of money. You can try to search the whole Bible and you can never find God rewards his people by making them poor. God’s will for his people has always been prosperity. It is the will of God for all his people to be rich in every area of our lives. Being rich include having a lot of money. The “Vow Of Poverty” was invented by religion, not God. God does not believe in it. So, if you believe you are blessed, get ready to have a lot of money in your bank.

enviable
adjective
If someone is in an enviable situation, you wish you were also in that situation:

This means others will wish they were like you. This tells us that when God blesses us, his blessings will be very obvious. So, obvious that those around us can see them and will be envious. They will probably approach you and ask, “I can see all kinds of blessings in your life. Please tell me, how do you get them?” Then, you will have the opportunity to tell the about the God who loves you and desires to bless you in all things. People will flock to you eagerly to listen to your gospel because they can see the blessings in your life. You don’t have to go around knocking every door to beg people to go to church.

I am ending the definition for blessings here and more to the rest of the verse. Please note that his explanation is by no means exhaustive. Let us go through Verse 1 again.

1BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.
Psalm 1:1(Amplified Bible)

The subsequent part of this verse tells us the conditions that will cause the blessings of God to manifest in our lives. Let me simplify them. There are basically 3 points to note.

1. who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes]
2. nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk
3. nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.

Point 1 speaks on not relying on the counsel, advice, plans and the purpose of the ungodly. Please note that being ungodly does not have to be really evil like being a terrorist. It simply refers to those who do not know God of the Bible and do not follow God’s way to attain prosperity. Why not? Any way to attain success and prosperity that is other than what God has prescribed in the Bible is not the best. They can cause more harms instead. I believe only God can bring true and complete prosperity to those who are willing to receive them. There may be other ways out there but they are inferior to God’s way. The prosperity they produce will either be incomplete or come with negative side effects or both. Therefore, the right way to prosper is to use God’s way.

Point 2 speaks of not being in the paths of sinners. This should be quite obvious. If you are in their path, you are more likely to be drawn into it. You will then walk their path and share in their results. Please be reminded that God never promise prosperity to sinners. The path of sinners leads to poverty, not prosperity. So, if you don’t want to be poor, don’t walk in the path of sinners.

Point 3 speaks of not hanging out with the scornful and mockers. If you do, you may end up behaving like them. The scornful and mockers do not live by faith. They live according to the situations around them. When the situation is bad, they complain about how bad it is. However, when the situation turns good, they will still look for bad things to moan about. So, hanging around them will only cause you to think negative and when you do so, you have forfeited yourself the blessings God wants you to have.

This is all for today. There are more insights in the subsequent verses in the same psalm, which I will write on in the next installment.

I Will Build You Up Again And You Will Be Rebuilt

4 I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit.
Jeremiah 31:4-5(NIV)

The above passage was God’s message through Prophet Jeremiah at the time when the people of Israel were exiled after their own homeland was conquered. It was a result of their disobedience and continuous rejection of God. They chose to rely on their own strength rather than God. As a result, their country was invaded and destroyed by their enemies. In order to prevent them rebuilding their country, their conqueror had decided to split them up and sent them to various parts of the empire. Thus, the exile.

Does it sound like the end of the 2 kingdoms – Israel and Judah? You must remember that God was very angry with them for rejecting him. Do you feel this way as well? You may have experienced the greatest defeat in your life. Everything that you have worked hard for and built in all these years has been destroyed. You have lost everything and in deep debt. Everything around you spells doom. You can’t see any possible way to restore your former achievements.

To make matter worse, you may not be in good terms with God in the past. You could be an arrogant person who had put down God and the people who trusted in him. You could have insulted God and preferred to live in sin. So, you are finding it hard to believe that God is on your side now.

If you can identify with the above scenario, I have good news for you. God’s love and mercy is far greater than your sin and rebellion. God had shown his love and mercy to a group of people who had been sinning for generations before and he will do it again. Yes, he will restore you regardless of how impossible the situation looks like or how rebellious you were in the past. The above passage is the proof.

In Jeremiah 31:4-5 God promised to rebuild Israel. Why does he need to do that? Israel was destroyed when it was attacked. Imagine yourself being an Israelite at that time. Your nation was destroyed. You and your fellow citizens are now exiled to another place. Unlike your ancestors who left Egypt, you don’t have a lot of gold and silver with you. Your God, who has been protecting your people has rejected you and delivered your nation to your enemies. Will you still dare to entertain any hope that your once glorious nation will be restored?

Yet, despite his anger, God promised restoration. He promised to rebuild your cities to the state that you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. From the sound of it, I don’t think God’s way of rebuilding cities is setting up refugee camps. There must be real cities with permanent buildings and proper infrastructures. I have learned from the Bible that God knows how to do his job.

In verse 6, God promised that you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. Why Samaria? It is home ground. This means the exiles will not be back to their home country just for holidays. God promised them permanent homes where they can plant their vineyards. Planting vineyards here refers to financial income. So the exiles will be able to come back to their home country, stay there for good and establish their prosperity like having farms, factories, shops etc. God promised success in their works – the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit.

Please note that these words were spoken at the time when there was no clue at all that it can happen. The Israelites at that time had lost everything and at the mercy of their invaders. Yet God had no problem making such promise. By time of Ezra, the people of Israel started to go back home. God kept his promises.

What does this means to us today? You may have lost everything and fallen into a pit so deep that you find it impossible to rise again. All you need to do is to believe that God can and will restore you. You need to trust in him. Don’t give up. Don’t be despair. Rise up from the ashes of sorrow and start praising God. When you do so, you are in position to receive the restoration from God.

He will build you up again and you will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. You will reestablish your prosperity in your home ground. You will plant your seeds and enjoy your harvest.

If you want the above promise to come true in your life, you must be determined to keep believing.

When The Godly Are In Authority The People Rejoice

2 When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
Proverbs 29:2 (NLT)

What will you think of when you see the word “power” or “authority”? Is it positive or negative? I love to watch cartoons especially those with super heroes. The story lines are basically the same. There are some villains seeking to take over the world and the super heroes appear to save the day.

Perhaps such ideas had been implanted in our minds that it is evil to want to conquer the world and by extension whenever we think of the word “power” or “authority”, we think of those who had abused them and used their powers to oppress others. So, our subconscious could be telling us that power and authority is bad. Therefore we should not seek it or be “power-hungry”. Have you heard of the term “power corrupts”?

Yet, God has a different view on this issue. God has no problem giving people power and authority as long as they are the right people. In God’s mind the right people are the godly people. Those who believed in him, obey and trust him. So, if you are a believing christian (as opposed to religious christian), God wants you to have power and authority in this world. Why? So that you can do his will. You will be able to make this world a better place. Then you can direct resources to those who need them most. You can stop wars and prevent genocide. You can set free those who are in bondage and oppressed. You need resources and authority to do the above.

I like the phase I heard from Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility”. I believe this applies to christians as well. As christian, we have Mark 11:24.

24Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
(King James Version)

Don’t you agree that having the privilege of getting whatever you desire when you pray is great power? Since God has given you such a great power, will he not expect you to use it to bless others as well? So we should use this power to bless others for the glory of our God.

“How shall I start?”

You can start from your own needs because you can identify with them most clearly.

Supposed you are so poor now that you have nothing to eat. You are suffering hunger right now. You can pray for God to provide sufficient food for you and family. That is the right thing to do. However, the responsible thing to do is to pray for God to make you so rich that you are not only able to provide food for your own family but also food for 100 other families who are suffering hunger as you are suffering right now. Once you are able to provide for 100 families, pray for more riches to provide for 1,000 families and repeat the process. Then you will be in position to have great power to provide for millions of families throughout the world. So, do you think power is good or bad?

Likewise, you may be very sick right now. The doctors might have told you that you disease has reached its terminal stage and there is no cure. It is right for you to pray healing to your own body. However, the responsible thing to do is to pray for God to give you the power to extend his healing to other sick people. In doing so, you have turned a curse into a blessing.

Please note that there can never be a power vacuum. Someone has to be in charge. This person can either be a godly or a wicked person. Proverbs 29:2 tells us the result when the godly and the wicked is in charge.

2 When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.
Proverbs 29:2 (NLT)
The people rejoice when the godly are in authority because the godly have the wisdom of God to bring justice, peace and prosperity to them. However, if the godly people refused to be in power, it is the equivalent of handing power to the wicked. What will happen when the wicked is in charge? The people will suffer. The wicked will oppress the people. I am sure you can see a lot of examples in this world. Therefore it is irresponsible for the godly to reject power, when given to them.

One day, God could direct you to move to a position of power like running for a political office or applying for a high position. When he does, it is important for you to obey because your obedience will make a difference to the lives of many people. Whether they have a future of prosperity or poverty is dependent on the leadership they receive. Should you disobey, you may be opening the door for the wicked to take over and cause may people to suffer.

If you are worried that you may not have what it takes to be in those positions, all you need to do is to trust him. Seek him read the Word, meditate and confess them. As long as you continue to trust in and rely on God, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

Greater Is He That Is In You Than He That Is In The World.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 John 4:4(KJV)

One of the greatest lie propagated by religious people is, God is in full control of everything in this world. To them, there are no accidents. Everything that happened, happened by the will of God. This means if someone is sick, it is the will of God for this person to be sick. Maybe God wants to teach this person a lesson. Maybe God wants him to rest more. Maybe God wants him to spend more time praying. Maybe, maybe, maybe. No matter what the maybes can be, the religious people are sure in one thing, God wanted it to happen. They don’t know for sure why you are sick but they are sure that God is the culprit who caused it. The same is said for traffic accidents, natural disasters, acts of terrorism or any other crisis. They happened because God wanted it. It is the will of God to steal, kill and destroy.

Do you remember the 9-11 incident? The terrorists rammed 2 planes into 2 towers at the World Trade Center in New York. Within a few days, there were many religious leaders sharing their “insights” on what happened. The basic idea was, God allowed it to happen to punish America for her sins. What are those sins that require such genocide of so many people? It can be banning of school prayers and being tolerant to homosexuals. So, in their religious view, God will not hesitate to ram planes into buildings on nations that do not practice school prayers or tolerate homosexuals.

Can you truly respect such a God? I can’t. If the religious people are right about God, I don’t want to have anything to do with this entity. Thank God, they are wrong. The above verse tells us the opposite of what the religious people are propagating, which I will explain in the later part of this article.

“Are you saying that it is alright not to have school prayers and being tolerant to homosexuals?”

I believe in prayers as defined in the Bible. Prayers are meant to work and there is only one way for prayers to work that is to pray in faith (Mark 11:24). You can legislate prayers to force everyone to go through the motion of praying but you can never force them to believe. Prayers without believing is useless and a waste of time. Therefore, enforcing school prayers will only cause resentment among people who are not christians and will not produce any positive results. Why would God want to ram planes into buildings if there are no school prayers? Trust a religious mind to come out of that.

As for homosexuality, the Bible has clearly defined it as sin. It is not natural and not in the plan of God for it to happen. This means practising it will not result in blessings and prosperity from God. However, not everyone believes in the Bible. They may identify themselves as gays because they really believe they were born that way. As christians, we can show them the truth but they can also choose not to believe in what we say. This does not give us the right to persecute them and deny them of their rights as citizens of their country.

I believe the best approach is from the example of my country, Singapore. We have a law that prohibits gay sex but it has never been enforced. Some time ago, some of our liberal politicians wanted to repeal this law but faced with objections from the masses. In the end the government had decided to let it stay.

The question is, why do we keep the law that we have no intention of enforcing? To the majority of us, this law serves as our position that homosexuality is wrong and unnatural. We do not want our children to grow up thinking that they have a choice of becoming a gay. At the same time, we respect the gays’ right as our fellow citizens.

We do not have our version of Inquisitors or Talibans searching door to door, looking for homosexuals to burn at the stake. Homosexuals in Singapore are not required to identify their sexual orientation in situations like job applications, government grants, housing etc. So as long as they keep a low profile and don’t promote their activities openly, they can continue to live and prosper in our country. Yes, I believe in being tolerant to homosexuals and at the same time not compromising the truth.

Let us get back to the original topic. The Bible has a lot of verses proving that the religious idea of God in full control on everything is a lie and 1 John 4:4 is one of them. This verse can be broken down into the following:

1. We belong to God.
2. As such, we are able to overcome the world.
3. The one inside us is greater than the one in the world.

I don’t think I have to elaborate further that the one in us is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and the one in the world is Satan. Let us enhance further the meaning on this. “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” This part tells me the following:

1. There are 2 forces in existence – the one in me (God) and the one in the world (Satan).
2. They belong to opposite sides and at war at each other.
3. The one in me is greater than the one in this world.

So it is clear that God does not exercise full control in this world. There is another entity called Satan running this world. Therefore the idea of everything that happened is the will of God is a lie.

“How can we tell then, what is from God and what is from Satan?”

10The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
John 10:10 (Amplified)

The above verse clearly separates the will of God and the will of the devil. The “thief” refers to Satan. Satan came to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came for us to enjoy life and have abundance. Abundance refers to prosperity. In short, God wants us to be rich and the devil wants us to be poor.

So, when you see stealing, killings and destruction in this world, they are the works of Satan. It is Satan’s will for them to happen, not God. This tells us that Satan is controlling the world that we are living in.

“How does this happen?”

Here is a brief history lesson. When God made this earth, he gave Man the full control on it. When Adam committed high treason to God, the control was forfeited and fell into the hands of Satan. This was the beginning to stealing, killings and destruction in this world. However, after Jesus died at the Cross to pay for the price of all our sins, Satan’s authority over this world had been taken away from him by God. God has in turn handed back this authority to us.

Having this authority is useless unless we know how to exercise it. While Satan’s authority over this world has been removed, he is still in control through illegal means. This is equivalent to a country’s president who lost the election but still hold on to power through military control.

In our spiritual battle to regain our rights, it is necessary for us to acknowledge these facts:
1. Satan is in effective control over this world.
2. This control is illegal after Jesus’s death at the Cross.
3. It is our right to take back this control. We are the legal owners of this world.

How do we do that?

First, we need to identify Satan’s works in out life. Are you sick? Are you in lack, poor and in debt? Are you depressed and stressed? Are you facing the prospect of losing everything that you have? These are symptoms of stealing, killings and destruction. They are the works of Satan and his gang. They have no right to do that and therefore illegal. It is illegal for the devil to steal our prosperity, health and success.

Second, we have to decide to resist their illegal oppression in our lives. We need to believe that it is God’s will for us to prosper and be in health as our soul prospers. As we believe, we have to determine to fight to regain the rights our Jesus has paid at the Cross. No matter how impossible the situation appears to be or how many times we have been knocked down, we can always rise up and fight again because the one who is in us is greater than the one in this world (1 John 4:4). So, as long as we have decided to fight this battle and determined no to give up no matter what the enemies throw at us, we are destined to win. We are destined to get back all our rights the Jesus bought for us through his death at the Cross and demand compensation from our oppressors on all the sufferings inflicted on us.

Third, we need to know that that the source of our strength and victory is God. Our reliance on God is the key to our victory. If you choose to rely on your own ability, you are bound to lose. This tells us that we need to spend quality time with God, listen to faith message, meditate on his word, confess his word and anything instructed by God if we are really serious in winning this battle.

8This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Joshua 1:8(KJV)

How Can I Curse Those Whom God Has Not Cursed?

8 But how can I curse those whom God has not cursed?
How can I condemn those whom the Lord has not condemned?
Numbers 23:8 (NLT)

The above verse comes from the story of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. They passed through some hostile nations along the way and were attacked. However as the Lord was with them, they managed to defeat all their enemies. The news of their victory was spread throughout the region and the nations along their path were afraid.

King Balak, the king of Moab was one of them. He ruled out a direct military confrontation because he has heard of the Israelites’ reputation of defeating other armies. He did not want to suffer the same defeat as his neighbours. At the same time, he did not want to Israelites to pass through his territory unopposed as he was afraid that they will take everything along their way.

Personally I find this policy of Balak to be really silly. There were no records of the Israelites robbing and plundering the nations they passed through. They only fought when they were attacked and they never initiated any fight. So, Balak’s fear was totally irrational.

If I were him, I would have initiated trade relationship with the Israelites. Why? The Bible says when they left Egypt, they took along with them the Egyptians’ articles of gold, silver and fine clothings. Surely they will have the desire to spend them. After all, this group consists of millions of rich people. (If they passed through my country Singapore, I am sure my government will set up a welcoming committee to welcome them and invite them to say a few more days to enjoy our hospitality while spending their gold and silver.)

I would have rallied my people to set up stalls to sell local products like food and souvenirs. I am sure it will be a welcome experience for the Israelites to do some shopping and tried some other food after eating manna for so many days. It was a pity that King Balak had missed such a good opportunity to bring riches to his country and regarded it as a threat.

Let us move on with the story. As Balak had rule out military option, the only option left in his mind was to use a local prophet who has superpowers. His name was Balaam son of Beor. During his career as a professional blesser and curser, he had developed quite a reputation for himself as shown in the verse below:

6 Please come and curse these people for me because they are too powerful for me. Then perhaps I will be able to conquer them and drive them from the land. I know that blessings fall on any people you bless, and curses fall on people you curse.”
Numbers 22:6 (NLT)

In other words, his blessings and cursings worked. Whoever he blessed was blessed and whoever he cursed was cursed. So Balaam got a business call from the messengers to curse the Israelites. So, he seek the word of God and asked for guidance.

12 But God told Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse these people, for they have been blessed!”
Numbers 22:12 (NLT)

God said don’t do it. Why not? They were blessed. No one can curse whom God has blessed. If you are a christian, you are blessed. God had sent his only begotten Son to pay for the penalty of your sins. Is there a greater blessing than that?

Therefore, no matter what problems you are facing right now, the will of God for you is to triumph over them. You are destined to win because no one and nothing can curse whom God has blessed. God will not allow anyone to curse you because he has blessed you.

If you have been threatened by the occultic people like witch doctors, witches or “holy men” with their curses, do not allow them to scare you. I don’t care how perfect their past track record was in laying curses. What I know for sure is God says you are blessed. The blessing of God in you is greater than the curses of all the occults put together. God will not allow anyone to curse you because he has blessed you.

The subsequent part of the story will give us more details that will bless you. So, Balaam sent a message to the king’s officers to reject the business order. The king was disappointed and he improved the offer. He let Balaam to set his own price for his services. I call this a blank cheque offer. Of course, I am sure Balaam was interested but he knew it didn’t help. He has no authority to curse those God has blessed. However, God told Balaam to go along with the king. God has a plan for his people and he was about to execute it.

So Balaam went to the king and requested some items for a ceremony. It took place on a high ground overlooking a path where the Israelites were supposed to pass through. King Balak was happy. He was expecting a curse but as the Israelites passed through below them. However, Balaam blessed them instead. The king was furious.

11 Then King Balak demanded of Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies. Instead, you have blessed them!”
Numbers 23:11 (NLT)

The king would have executed Balaam if there were others who could do the job. Since Balaam was the only one available, the king was very forgiving and gave his another chance. He set up a new position for Balaam to place his curse. However instead of curses, Balaam gave out more blessings instead to the Israelites.

18 This was the message Balaam delivered: “Rise up, Balak, and listen! Hear me, son of Zippor.
19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
20 Listen, I received a command to bless; God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it!
21 No misfortune is in his plan for Jacob; no trouble is in store for Israel. For the Lord their God is with them; he has been proclaimed their king.
22 God brought them out of Egypt; for them he is as strong as a wild ox.
23 No curse can touch Jacob; no magic has any power against Israel. For now it will be said of Jacob, ‘What wonders God has done for Israel!’
24 These people rise up like a lioness, like a majestic lion rousing itself. They refuse to rest until they have feasted on prey, drinking the blood of the slaughtered!”
Numbers 23:18-24 (NLT)

The king was furious. The situation turned out to be the opposite of what he wanted.

25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Fine, but if you won’t curse them, at least don’t bless them!”
26 But Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you that I can do only what the Lord tells me?”
Numbers 23:25-26 (NLT)

It wasn’t that Balaam was not interested in the money. He was helpless. He can only do what God told him. The king tried the third time and the same situation repeated itself. The curses that the king planned for God’s people had become blessings. More attempts to curse had been turned into more blessings.

Please note that the Israelites knew nothing about these incidents. They just passed through and got blessed unknowingly. Likewise, if you are a christian, it is possible that some people wanted to curse you for no reason without you knowing it. How are you going to defend yourself? The answer is you don’t have to. Your God will fight for you and will turn the curses from your enemies into blessings for you.
The will of God for you is to be blessed and nothing in this world can change it.

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
Proverbs 10:22(NLT)

If You Fail Under Pressure Your Strength Is Too Small

10 If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.
Proverbs 24:10 (NLT)

Do you wish that you will never have another problem and never be under any pressure from now onwards all the way to eternity? Wouldn’t it be nice? However, all of us know that it will not happen. We are living in an imperfect world. Maybe some may find the word “imperfect” as an understatement. No matter what, there will always be troubles somewhere in this world and some of them may adversely affect us. We may not be of this world but we are still physically in this world. This tells me that whatever happens in the world can affect the way we physically see, hear and feel. However this does not mean that we must be affected by it in our spirit. We have the choice of overcoming it instead of just becoming victims of it.

The above verse tells us that if we fail under pressure, our strength is too small. What is this strength anyway? Let us see how the Bible defines it.

7 Moses said this about the tribe of Judah: “O Lord, hear the cry of Judah and bring them together as a people. Give them strength to defend their cause; help them against their enemies!”
Deuteronomy 33:7(NLT)

David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:6(NLT)

In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
2 Samuel 22:30 (NLT)

The above are only a few of the results I get when run a search on the word “strength” at “Biblegateway”. There are so many of them that I can only quote a few to save space. I suggest you to look it up yourself. Based on the above verses, it seems that when God gives us strength, he wants us to use it. Strength is meant to overcome the negative situations that are oppressing us and to defeat our enemies. In other words, God gives us strength to help us to succeed.

So, it is totally unacceptable for us believers to fail whenever we are under pressure. Proverbs 24:10 tells us our strength is small when we fail under pressure. So if you find yourself failing under pressure, the only conclusion is you are not using your strength correctly. As a christian, your strength comes from God. According to verses like Deuteronomy 33:7 and 2 Samuel 22:30, this strength is able to help you to defeat your enemies, crush an army and scale any wall. You are supposed to be victorious in every area of your life. You are supposed be above every pressure. The idea of a christian to fail under pressure is not Biblical.

“What must I do to have this great strength in my life?”

Since, the Bible says the strength to overcome is from the Lord, then it can only be found in the Bible and our prayers. Since God is the source of our strength, it makes sense for us to spend time with him, pray, meditate and confess his words.

If you say you are too busy to pray and spend time with God, you are basically saying that you are too busy to use the strength from God to solve your problems. You are saying that you are too busy to find solutions to your problems. In fact, the greater the pressure you are facing right now, the more time you should be spending with God. He has the answer to all your problems and he is willing to give them to you. Are you willing to go to him to receive your answers?

This is why the devil likes to remind us of the negative situations. He wants us to think negative. He wants us to stop believing God has the answer. He wants us to think God does not care. Once we fall for it, we will stop praying and believing. In doing so, we have cut ourselves off from God who is the source of our strength. Then we don’t have his strength anymore and have to rely on our own natural strength. This will result in us failing under pressure.

So, if you see any christian failing under pressure, you can be sure that this person has been relying on his/her own strength and this strength is very small. I think it is dumb for christians to rely on our own small strength when we can have access to the unlimited strength from our God.

What is your choice? Do you wish to rely on your small and limited strength? Or will you choose to rely on God’s strength that is unlimited and able to help you to overcome any obstacle that comes to your life?

For Whatever Is Born Of God Is Victorious Over The World

4For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.
5Who is it that is victorious over [that conquers] the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact]?
1 John 5:4-5(Amplified Bible)

Do you like to win? I do. I find it more fun to win than to lose. If you have the same opinion, I have good news for you. God is a winner. God wants you to win in every area in your life. The above passage tells us that anyone born of God is victorious over the world. Are you born of God? If you are a born again christian, you are born of God. This means you are born with a victorious destiny. You are destined to win.

Imagine yourself been born as the child of the Saudi Royal Family. Do you like it? The last time I read about them was one prince had bought an A380, the largest passenger plane in the world to be used as a personal plane. The plane cost a cool billion US dollars. Imagine spending one billion dollars just for a private plane. Don’t you love it? Do you think you will ever know the meaning of poverty and lack? You won’t. In fact you can be sure that everything you have will be the best money can buy. Private jets, personal islands, expensive clothes, presidential suites are nothing more than toys for you. Any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem for you.

As for me, I believe my father is far richer than the Saudi Royal Family. Please note that I don’t use capital letter for the word “father”. Why? I want to refer God as my father, which implies personal relationship as oppose to “Father” which is often used as a title. Therefore, I believe whatever the Saudi Royal Family can afford to provide for its members, my father can provide the same and much more. After all God is the richest person in this universe. As christians, we are entitled to the best in this world and in the next world. We are entitled to have everything we desire regardless on whether things that money can or cannot buy. All we need to do is to learn how to activate our birthright. Our God wants us above all things to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. Not having the best is a direct violation to the will of God. To have the best is our birthright, bought by the precious blood of Jesus.

The above verse tells us we were born victorious over the world and this victory conquers the world. This means we are destined to win and overcome any trouble that the world throws at us. What is the world anyway? It refers to our surroundings that we can see, hear and feel physically. I don’t think I need to convince anyone that the world that we are living in right now is in a mess.

We have sub-prime crisis, terrorism, bird flu etc. Every time we switch on the news, we will be bombarded with bad news. Its seems to me that the media’s calling in life is to give us news to worry about. I truly sympathize with people who do not believe in Jesus. They are the mercy of the world, being tossed around by the events around them. I can’t imagine how can people live like that.

However, the situation is different for us christians. We have the victory to overcome the world. We don’t have to be sick when there is a plague hitting in our area. We don’t have to be poor whenever there is a recession. We have been given the power to conquer them all. This is the time to use this power.

“How shall I use it?”

5Who is it that is victorious over [that conquers] the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact]?
1 John 5:5(Amplified Bible)

The above verse tells us the answer. We need to believe that Jesus is the Son Of God. This does not mean just saying you believe Jesus is the Son Of God and thing will be fine. The Amplified Bible explains this as adheres to, trusts in and relies on the fact. So, there is some work to be done.

We need to believe what Jesus said is true even when we can’t see them in the natural. This can be quite tough when you are in a crisis where all the things that you can see, hear and feel are direct opposite from what God says. In situations like this, you have to make a choice. Who will you adhere to, trust in and rely on? Will you adhere to, trust in and rely on what Jesus said? Or will you adhere to, trust in and rely on what you can see, hear and feel in the natural? You choice will determine whether the world conquers over you or you conquer over the world. Your choice will decide whether you are a conqueror and being conquered.

I will leave you with some words from Kenneth Copeland, “I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I hear. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe and I believe in the Word Of God.”

For There Are More On Our Side Than On Theirs

15 When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha.
16 “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!”
17 Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
2 Kings 6:15-17 (NLT)

The above passage is a part of the story of Prophet Elisha. One day the King of Aram had decided to attack Israel. He sent his armies on a surprise raid on Israel. However, God had given Elisha the ability to know about it in advance on the details of the raid, which Elisha had promptly passed the information to the King of Israel. As a result, Israel was able to avoid failure. This happened a few times and the King of Aram was mad. He investigated and found out that Elisha was the one who caused his failure. So the king had decided to send a huge army to seize Elisha. Was Elisha in trouble? Lee us see about it.

One morning, when a servant of Elisha got up, he saw a huge army surrounding the house. He panicked and cried out to Elisha. After all he was only human. He behaved like every human being does in similar situation. Does this sound familiar to you? What will you do when you find yourself in trouble and there is no way out? You are completely surrounded. You can’t fight and you can’t run. What will you do?

If you are religious, you will probably resigned yourself to “fate” and allow yourself to be at the mercy of your oppressor. You may even justify it as the “will of God”. You will convince yourself that God wants to be captured by your enemies for some reasons. This is why there is no fun being religious.

Thank God, Prophet Elisha was not a religious man. He was a man of God. He assured his servant and told the latter not to be afraid. Why? Was Elisha a braver man in the natural? The answer is no. Elisha was able to remain calm because he was able to see what his servant could not. Elisha saw the army of God that was larger and stronger than those from his adversary. Elisha saw what God was doing behind the scenes.

You may be in a crisis today. You may find yourself trapped in a situation that is impossible to get out. You have looked every where and thought of every solution but there is none that can help you. What will you do? Will you be fearful and panic? Will you start to think negative and be depressed? That is what the devil wants.

There is only one reason why the devil is working so hard to create so many crisis for you. He wants you to think negative and stop believing in the faithfulness in God. He wants you to be disappointed in God and cut off your relationship with him. He will keep reminding you of your situation to stop you from believing. Once this objective is fulfilled, you will be easy prey for him. A christian who has stopped praying and believing is no match for the devil.

The devil may give you a terminal disease that has no cure. You can feel the pain. You can see the medical reports telling you that there is no cure. Death is inevitable. What will you do? Are you going to allow the pain and the reports to decide on your destiny? If you do, there can only be one result – death.

Alternatively, you can be like Elisha. Start “seeing” the solution. You have to see in you mind that God is working behind the scenes to bring healing to you. You must let your spirit see it because you can’t see in the natural. Elisha’s servant can only see in the natural and was afraid. However, after Elisha opened his spiritual eyes, he was able to see God’s solution to his problem. Only then, will you be able to face your disease courageously and determined to defeat it regardless of what the medical reports say. As long as you keep fighting and not give up, you will win. The disease had to go away.

Or you may be in a financial crisis right now. You are facing the threat of bankruptcy and may lose everything you have worked for. If you are in this situation, don’t waste time looking at the natural. Staring at your unpaid bills and your empty bank account will not help. Start seeing God’s solution for you spiritually. Start seeing God working behind the scenes to bring riches to you. Start seeing yourself receiving exceedingly, abundantly more riches than the debts that are plaguing you now. Then you will be able to say, “for there are more on our side than on theirs”.

In conclusion, no matter what problems you are facing right now. God has already provided the solution for you. Like Elisha’s servant you may not be able to see it in the natural. Pray for God to help you to see it in the spirit. Victory will be yours. In the subsequent part of the story, Elisha prayed for his attackers to be blinded and he sent them to Samaria. Once there, the soldiers were healed, given food and drinks and sent home. The King of Aram did not dare to offend Israel again. Likewise, your present problems will be permanently gone if your start believing in the faithfulness of God and seeing his solution in the spirit.

Do Not Be Afraid Or Discouraged

8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT)

The above were the instructions given by Moses to Joshua when he handed over the leadership position to the latter. Being a leader to a few millions of people who were descendents of former slaves was not an easy job. Joshua was not only faced with the burden of keeping them together but he was also entrusted with the job that Moses could not do, taking over the Promised Land.

The Promised Land at that time was full of fortified cities. The people there were not going to allow the Israelites to take over without a fight. So war was inevitable and Joshua had to be the one to take the responsibility of leading his people to war. Wars always come with risks of defeat and loss. This could be why Moses started with “Do not be afraid or discouraged”.

He was assuring his successor that the Lord was with him, the Lord was faithful in delivering his promises to his people. As long as he continues to believe and determined to obey God, he will be able to overcome every obstacle in his path.

I believe this assurance is meant for christians as well. What will you do when you are faced with challenges that are more than you can handle in the natural? Do you get panic? Will you try to run away? Or will you be calm and assure yourself that God will see you through? Will you be able to live on courageously and not be discouraged because you believe your God will personally go ahead of you, be with you and will never fail or abandon you?

Don’t you wish that all the problems you are going to face in the future are within you capability to solve? If this wish comes true for you, then you can never improve, you can never grow as a person. Why? Your faith will not be stretch as you don’t feel the urgency to do so.

Just imagine what will happen if God is to shield every christian from problems that are beyond our natural capabilities to solve? We don’t use our faith at all because we don’t need to. Why bother to pray over the problems we can easily solve? Isn’t it a waste of time? Even if we pray, we will just pray courtesy prayers. This means we just pray as a ritual because in our hearts we already have the solutions. What will happen then? We will never improve. Our faith will never grow. We will never receive the exceeding and the abundant prosperity that God wants us to have. We will definitely be in not position to help others and be a blessing to others.

It is only through situations that are seemingly impossible that can get us to use our faith. Our faith will then be tested. Untested faith is useless. Let me give you an example. It is easy to believe Jesus died poor at the Cross to make you rich when you have a lot of money in the bank and own a thriving business. The test will come if your business hits a downturn and you lost all your money. Will you still believe God wants you to be rich? What you really believe in will be obvious through your response to your loss. If you become depressed, discouraged and lost hope, this means you have never believed in God in the first place. You allowed your financial statement to be source of your faith and not God. Therefore a downturn in your financial statement will lead to a downturn in your faith.

If you are in the above situation, you should be rejoicing because now you know the problem with your faith. Since you know the problem, you will be in the position to fix it. You know now that your faith was not in God. Therefore start believing in God. Start reading the Bible and meditate on it. Start confessing the promises of God in your life. Start listening to faith messages. Start filling up your mind with the positive thoughts of God. As you do the above, your faith will grow and you can be sure that your faith is now firmly planted in the Word Of God. Very soon, you will get back all that you have loss and much more. Should you face similar setback in the future, you will be able to overcome it because you know how to use your faith. This is called growing in faith.

The same principle works for health. It is easy to believe in God’s promise of health and healing when you don’t have major health problems. However if you are struck with a major health problem that turns terminal and incurable, you faith will be tested. This is the time to start using your faith to overcome your sickness because medical science has failed. Once you have succeeded, you can be sure that you have mastered the art of fighting disease with faith. You not only to fight any future intrusion of disease, you will be in position to help others to do the same.

The message here is, when you are faced with problems that are beyond your natural capability to solve, it is faith-stretching time. This is the time for you to use your faith. If your faith doesn’t work as expected, find out what is wrong and fix it. As long as you remain courageous, not discouraged and don’t give up, you will not only overcome your problems but you will emerge stronger with your faith. You natural capability will get bigger and more powerful.

Soon, you will have bigger problems. As long as you repeat the above pattern, you will triumph over them and emerge with stronger faith. When your faith has reached the level for you to enjoy abundant prosperity in every area of your life, you will probably look back and be grateful for those “problems”. Don’t you wish such days to come into your life?

The LORD Will Fight For You

14The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.
Exodus 14:14(Amplified Bible)

The above words came from Moses. They were directed to the Israelites when they were in a situation that seemed impossible to escape doom. After a series of miracles from God, the Pharaoh of Egypt had finally agreed to allow the Israelites to leave with all their assets. However, they Israelites did not leave with just their own original assets. They took a lot of valuable items from the Egyptians.

21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.
22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Exodus 3:21-22(NIV)

So they left Egypt as wealthy men and women. However the Pharaoh was not going to let the matter pass. He had suffered major losses. He lost his prestige among his people, he lost millions of slaves and he had also lost a lot of valuable items that was taken away by the Israelites. He had decided to get back all that he had lost. Sounds like a determined man but unfortunately he was on the wrong side of the battle line. If you are fighting against God, you are bound to lose not matter how determined you are.

This is good news. If you are a christian and you are facing some forms of attacks from other people, don’t be despair because you are attacked. Instead, you should rejoice because your attackers are destined to lose because they picked the wrong target. Try to be sympathetic instead because it is not going to be very fun going against the God anointed person. (I am referring to you if you are a christian.)

Why? God has promised to fight you battle for you!

Let us continue with the story. As Moses led his people to the Red Sea, they realized that Pharaoh had his army right behind them. They were trapped. No one would dared to imagine what would happen if they fall into the hands of Pharaoh.

Right at this moment, Moses said the following:

14The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.
Exodus 14:14(Amplified Bible)

Let me paraphrase: Don’t be anxious and be cool. The Lord will handle this problem with us. All we need to do is to hold our peace and remain at rest. Trust in him. Just believe.

You may be in a sticky situation right now. You may find yourself trapped like the Israelites, Red Sea in the front and the army of Pharaoh behind. There is no way out. No matter how hard you tried, nothing seemed to work. If you are in this situation, God is telling you hold your peace and remain at rest. Why? He is going to fight for you. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Just believe and you will see his deliverance.

“How is he going to do it?”

15The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward!
Exodus 14:15(Amplified Bible)

Here are the magic words, “go forward”. God’s will for us is always to go forward. (I got this from Jerry Savelle’s message entitled, “Challenges Yes, Defeat No”. In fact I have the message in my MP3 right now.)

No matter how bad your situation, God’s will for you is always to go forward. Not retreat, not surrender but to go forward.

“What is going forward?”

To go forward is to keep believing. Do not allow your heart to be anxious. Do not allow negative thoughts to linger in your mind. Going forward means switching on your CD player or MP3 to listen to faith messages. Going forward means opening up your Bible and meditate on it as often as you can. Going forward means confessing the promises of God. Going forward means talking to people who believe what the Bible says and encourage you to keep believing and not give up. Going forward means that no matter how bad the situation has become, you are not going to give up, you are going to keep fighting until the victory is yours.

Going forward is NOT thinking and talking negative. Going forward is NOT asking people who has given up and asks for their opinion. Going forward is NOT meditating on what the negative situation says and allow them to affect you. Going forward is NOT getting drunk or taking drugs. These are going backwards.

To continue with the story, as the Israelites went forward, God opened the sea for them to pass through. However when their attackers passed through the same path, they were drowned. Their problem was over. Weren’t they glad that they obeyed God to forward?

The choice is yours. Do you want to go forward or backward?