Would You Like To Get Well?

6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
John 5:6-8 (NLT)

As usual, I would like to begin with the background story. Jesus went to Jerusalem in one of the local holy days. In one place in the city called the Sheep Gates, there were a lot of sick and paralyzed people. Jesus approached one of them who had been sick for thirty eight years. Jesus asked the man whether he wanted to get well. Instead of giving a simple yes, he told Jesus the reason he could not get well. Jesus told him to stand up, pick up his mat and walk. The man was healed at that instant.

Let us study in detail. In the previous article, we can see the true nature of Jesus’ character. Jesus is not the pervert that the religious churches portrayed him to be. He is a loving and caring person. When he sees someone who is suffering sickness, he will never say, “It is my will for you to be sick. I made you sick for my pleasure. It gives me glory to make people sick.” The above words are lies from the pit of hell. Only people who are deep in the bondage of religion will go for that.

The passage above tells us the truth about Jesus. When Jesus sees you sick, his question to you is, “Would you like to get well?” Have you wonder why he asked this question? Was he asking for fun? The truth is there are 2 reasons for this question:
1. He wants to heal us.
2. He wants us to have a choice whether we want his healing.

Our choice makes a difference. This is why we need to spend time with God to know more about the truth. Only with God’s truth we are able to make the correct choice. This is also the target of Satan’s attacks in our lives. God’s intention is always to heal and prosper us. Satan knows he can never change that. Therefore his attacks are always focused on the second part. He used lies to mess up our choices. As long as he can get us not to believe and reject God’s blessings of health and wealth in our lives, we will remain under his bondage.

The purpose of the articles in this blog is to reveal the truth from God that will set us free. I suspect Satan must be very terrified of me that he has launched a new wave of attacks on me. If you have been reading this blog for some time, you will see that Satan’s attacks were in the form of religious people condemning, slandering and telling lies about me. They were trying to use their harsh words to make me give up the Gospel. They must have realized by now that their evil conspiracy has failed.

Two days ago, they tried again. This time they are using the soft approach. They called me deluded by the “false preachers of the prosperity gospel” Their ring leader even wrote about me in his blog and asked his religious drones to pray for me. Their setup looks like they really care for me and want to deliver me from my “delusions”. I regret to say that I made a mistake by trying to reason with them and I got slandered. Since then, I have stopped visiting this blog and I have made it clear that I have no intention to make it a habit to visit such heretic blog.

I put up this incident to show that Satan does not give up easily. When he realized that his hard line approach has failed to destroy our faith, he will try softer ones. In my case, he got his religious people to put up a caring mask to get me to give up the Gospel. However, just because they are trying, it does not mean that they will succeed. We must always be aware of the truth that our God is always on our side. We can never be defeated by the enemies. The only way we can be defeated is when we choose to give up.

Let us continue with the story. After Jesus asked the man whether he wanted to get well, that guy did not give a direct answer. Why can’t he just say “yes”? The answer is he must have given up on the prospect of healing. After all, he had been sick for thirty eight years. We can see from his answer that his thoughts were not on how to get well but on why he could never get well. This is the bondage from religion. This is the lie that the religious people are trying to get us to believe in.

”You have been sick for thirty eight years. Surely it must be God’s will for you to be sick. Maybe God is glorified when you are sick.”

What do you think will happen why you believe in those religious lies? The answer is nothing. These lies will keep you from receiving God’s healing and you will continue to be sick. This is why, even the soft approach by Satan can never deceive me. No matter what form they can morph into, the results of religious lies will always lead to bondage.

How did Jesus respond to this man? Jesus told him to stand up, pick up his mat and walk. He did not even bother to address the man’s reasons of not being able to get well. Jesus did not answer a fool according to his own folly. He used the truth to overcome lies. I regret to say that I made this mistake by trying to reason with the religious people and I will not do it again.

In conclusion, we are at war with the forces of darkness. The key to the entire war is our faith. Satan and his armies of devils and religious people are only focused in our faith. The moment they can get us to give up our faith we have lost. In contrast, as long as we keep our faith and make it grow, we will not only overcome their attacks, we will be in position to crush them and demand war reparations. Our sickness will turn to health. Our poverty will turn to prosperity. Our failures will turn to success. The wealth of the sinners are laid up for the just.

Your Son Will Live

49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
John 4:49-50 (NLT)

Let us begin with the background story. Jesus was on his way from Judea to Galilee. He was stopped by a civil servant. This civil servant has a son and this son was seriously ill. So he begged Jesus to heal his son. Jesus told his to go back home and his son will live. This man believed in what Jesus said and went home. On his journey back, he met his servants and they reported that the son had recovered. When he checked on the exact time of the recovery, it was the exact time when Jesus said, “Go back home. Your son will live!”.

What can we learn from this? This story tells us very clearly the character of Jesus. If you are under the bondage of religion, you will have a very perverted impression of Jesus. When I was under the bondage of religion, I thought of Jesus as a pervert who is capable of every evil. One can never know how perverted can he be. After all, he is God. He can do anything he likes. He can kill you, give you cancer, caused you to be knocked down by a car or any other evil he pleased. That is what I got from my previous religious church.

This is why I never dared to pray when I was in that religious church. Just imagine what will happen if I had fever and prayed for healing? This perverted Jesus might end up giving me cancer because it is his will and his pleasure to see me suffer with cancer! This was the Jesus I used to know.

Yet, the above verses tell us an exact opposite character of Jesus.

Jesus saves. He is not a murderer, nor is he a pervert. This means if you are sick, he wants you well. He will never make you sick. He had taken all our sickness and diseases at the Cross. Why would he want to make you sick when he willingly suffered at the Cross to take away all your sicknesses? Unless you are deeply under the bondage of religion, you should have no problem in the above logic. So, if you are sick right now, this is the time to receive your rights for healing. Healing from every sickness is the right bought by Jesus at the Cross.

No matter what troubles you are facing right now, Jesus is telling you to trust in him. If you have a sick son, his words to you are, “Go back home. Your son will live!”. However, that is not the end of the story. In the subsequent part of John 4:50, we were told that the man believed. As a result this, his son was healed. Some may ask, “Is it necessary for us to believe?”

Why do you think there is a second part at John 4:50 telling us that the man believed? Obviously, Jesus wants us to believe in his words if we want our prayers to be answered. In other words, our faith is necessary for our prayers to be answered.

Incidentally, this is also the area that Satan and his army of religious people are attacking right now. The moment you are in faith and attend faith churches, you are a target of Satan persecution. Right now, I even have a well-intentioned religious guy writing about me in his blog and asked his religious friends to pray for me to be delivered from the “Prosperity Gospel”. This tells us that some religious people are even capable of soft skills. However, some of his visitors had resorted to slanders and lies in defense of their religion. No matter what tactic they used, their objective is to get us to stop believing in the truth and to be oppressed under the bondage of religion.

What do all these tell us? Satan is desperate. He is afraid of our faith. So the key to our victory over the Kingdom Of Darkness is our faith. As long as we continue to believe that what Jesus said is true, we are going to win. We are going to triumph over the evil forces of darkness. No matter how bad your situation is right now, it is going to turn around in your favor. Your sickness will turn into health. Your poverty will turn into prosperity. Your failures will turn into success. God is working behind the scenes to make sure of that. All you need to do is to believe. Cling on to your faith and don’t let go. Turn to Jesus. Confess and meditate on his Words. Go to churches that preach faith and listen to their messages. The more you expose yourself to the Word Of God, the more your faith will grow. One day, as long as you don’t give up, you will see the manifestation of your victory.

This is the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. Your son will live.

Let Jesus Be Greater In Your Life

30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
John 3:30 (NLT)

Let us begin with the background for the above verse. John the Baptist started his ministry earlier then Jesus. In fact, John was the one who baptized Jesus and proclaimed Jesus’ ministry even before anyone heard of Jesus. After that Jesus began to preach and baptized people. John’s disciples saw that and reported the incident to John. I suspect they were in an indignant mode. They must have felt betrayed. Jesus, who they have seen baptized by John, had started his own ministry and this ministry was attracting audience from John’s ministry. So, when they reported to John, they must be expecting John to take actions to defend his ministry from new competition.

However, John did not respond the way they expected him to. This is what he said,

27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.
28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’
29 It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.
30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.
32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them!
33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true.
34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.
35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.
36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
John 3:27-36 (NLT)

Not only did John not bother with the new competition from Jesus, he continued to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. Why was that so? He knew his role was to prepare a path for Jesus. He knew Jesus was the Messiah, not him. People need to turn to Jesus to be saved, not John the Baptist. Hogging the prime spot will not help anyone. John had even declared that Jesus must be greater and he himself must be lesser.

This above may be a historical record but can we learn and benefit from it? I believe we can. I have always believed that the Bible is the instrument God used to prosper us. Therefore, the contents above must have lessons in prosperity that we can benefit from.

Here is the lesson:

In order to receive the greatest blessing of prosperity from God, we must allow Jesus to be greater and greater, while we ourselves must become less and less.

Sounds simple? This is what true Christianity is all about, simplifying stuff. Religion complicates, Jesus simplifies. During his ministry, Jesus spoke directly to people at the streets and he did not use any theologians at all. Yet, today religious churches have been collaborating with theologians in converting the Gospel Of Jesus Christ that sets people free into a religion that puts people into bondage.

Let us get back to the original topic. How do we make Jesus greater in our lives?

First of all, we need to seek his will in everything we do. Of course, his greatest wish is for us to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. This is his master plan. However, knowing that is not enough. We need details. God does not prosper every one of us in the same way. He may prosper people in their ministry, in business, in their career advancement or any other way he sees fit. Just because there are people like Kenneth Copeland and Ceflo Dollar getting rich in their ministries, it does not mean that all of us must set up our own ministries to be rich. God adopts a diversity of mechanism in blessing his people. Which method is for you? You will need to seek God.

How do we seek God? Spend time with God. We need to read the Bible, pray and listen to faith messages in order to find out his will for our lives. Seeking the will of God is a continuous process. Even if you dedicate the next 24 hours in prayers and fasting, it does not mean you are going to have God’s entire prosperity plan. God may choose to reveal his plan in parts in order not to overwhelm us. So, we have to be consistent with our walk with God. Sometimes, what we think as God’s plan may not even be what it seems to be at all. Let me give you an example of myself.

I started this blog when I was working as a resident engineer. My intention was to start an internet business. I bought a book on internet business and read it. One of the tips it gave was to start a blog to generate traffic. Once I have the traffic, I will be able to build a business on it. Ideally this blog must specialize in the topic I am interested in so that I will be more enthusiastic about it. So, I choose faith. I started to write about my experience and what I have learned about the Bible. Until today, I am pleased with the traffic to my blog. The problem lies in the business I am supposed to build.

There are 2 ways I can think of to make this blog commercial. The first is to allow Google to place advertisements where I can earn each time my visitors click on them. The second is to do affiliate marketing where I promote other people’s product in which I get a cut in commission for each sale. At the same time, I place a high value on the credibility of this blog. After all, it has my name in it. I am not going to risk my credibility by promoting any product just for the sake of money. The only way I am going to promote anything is when I have purchased it myself and I am convinced that it is worth buying. Unfortunately, I have not found anything at this moment. This explains why there is nothing commercial in this blog other than the book I have compiled on the Bible verses on prosperity.

At the surface, it seems that my business venture has failed. However, I see some sort of ministry being born. I have received comments on how the articles I have written have helped to encourage people and helped them to build up their faith. Through this blog, I have contributed to the welfare of many people who have read the articles in it. Some may ask, “How about your original intention of making money out of it?” I am believing God for some rewards to come out of this. After all, I am sowing seeds of faith and prosperity through this blog. Seeds are supposed to grow and yield harvests. Therefore I still expect to get rich from this blog.

In fact, I have seen some positive results in my life now. As I wrote the articles, my faith grew. When my previous project was about to finish, I have reached the level where I dared to trust God for more prosperity in my life. I applied for the post of project manager with a much higher salary and I got the job. Today, I am no longer an engineer. I have moved to the next level.

At the same time, I am not that naïve to think that I have achieved all these based on my own strength. It is through the grace of God that I have my current position and I will continue to trust God for more blessings to come. In order to do that, I will have to make Jesus greater and greater in my life. I place a high priority in spending time with God. He has all the answers that I need to achieve a higher level of career success and prosperity in my life. If fact, I remember when I filled up the application form in this company, there was a section where it asked me my aspiration in this company. I wrote that I am planning to take over this company. I can’t imagine why would my boss still wanted to hire me when he knew that I am planning to displace him. It must be God. I am trusting God to move up to the top of this company.

If all these can happen to me, it can also happen to you if you belong to the same species as me. Just because your present get-rich plan doesn’t work, it does not mean that you can never be rich. God has other ways to bring prosperity to your life. All we need to do is to trust in him. God is the true source of our prosperity, not the plan. Let Jesus be greater and greater in your life. Soon you will find your prosperity to be greater and greater as well.

Greed Vs Prosperity

25 Greed causes fighting; trusting the LORD leads to prosperity.
Proverbs 28:25 (NLT)

One of the misconceptions in the minds of most people including carnal minded Christian is they equate the desire for more prosperity as greed. So, when carnal Christians see the word “greed” in the Bible (which had always been presented negatively) they think God is against them desiring more prosperity in their lives. They have even sunk to the level of persecuting Christians who obey God and desire for prosperity.

Why do you think they invented terms like “Prosperity Gospel”? They were trying to create the impression that we Christians believe in a separate gospel. In the mind of these carnal Christians, anyone who desires more prosperity is greedy and trusting in the Lord can never lead to prosperity. Yet, the above verse tells us otherwise.

According to the above verse, greed causes fighting, but trusting the LORD leads to prosperity. Thus, it is clear to us that it is God’s intention to give us prosperity. He wants us to receive our prosperity by trusting him, not through greed.

Let us explore greed. What is greed? In my past articles on this topic, I defined greed as a combination of the desire for riches plus the mentality of scarcity. The mind of a greedy man is filled with thoughts like, “I want to get rich but there are so little riches in this world for me. So, I have no choice but to be ruthless and single minded to get what I want. I have to fight for my riches and I have to sacrifice everything else in order to attain my goals.” This is why, Proverbs 28:25 tells us greed causes fighting. The lives of greedy people are full of fights. They are never at peace. What a terrible way to live.

If you choose to be greedy, you can still be financially rich but you will never be happy. The mentality of scarcity in you will cause you to live in fear and insecurity. It does not matter how much money you have right now, fear and insecurity will dominate your mind until those who are poorer than you ended up having better quality of life than you. You may end up asking what is the use of having so much money when money doesn’t really bring happiness. The truth is, your problem is not cause by money. It comes from the mentality of greed in you. Once you remove the greed, you will find your life changing for the good.

The Bible has made it clear to us that God’s greatest wish for every Christian is for us to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. In other words, God wants us to be rich with the mentality of abundance. He wants us to be rich without being greedy. This is God’s way of getting rich. The only way we can achieve this is by trusting in him. Trusting God will always lead to prosperity. Do you know why?

24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
Mark 11:24 (NLT)

When we place our trust in God, we will be able to believe what we ask for in prayer. As a result, we will be able to get everything we ask for in prayer. This is God’s way for us to get rich.

Will God Judge You?

18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
John 3:18(NLT)

This is another article on the Judgment of God which I have started yesterday. One of the common characteristics of religious churches is they like to use the “Judgment of God” to force their members to do what they want. Their religious doctrines can be simplified into: “If you don’t do what we tell you, you are going to answer to God.” This “answer to God” implies God wants you to obey every word that comes out from the religious leader or he will be very unhappy with you. There is no limit on how much evil he can do to you once he becomes unhappy with you. This is the “judgment” that the religious churches have been using to propagate their bondage.

This is also why religious people are afraid of the truth in John 3:17-18. If every Christian reads and believes in the truth in John 3:17-18, all the religious churches will be empty.

The next question, what makes these verses so powerful? We shall look in depth in this article. In yesterday’s article, I have explained John 3:17. Therefore, in this article, I shall focus fully on John 3:18.

The first part of the verse tells us that there is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. What does that supposed to mean? God has guaranteed us that the moment we believe in Jesus, we will never have to face judgment from him. Please note that there were no additional conditions attached to this guarantee. This means technically, Christians can sin like crazy and still go to heaven. I am sure carnal minded Christians and those under the religious bondage will oppose to this but this is the truth from the Bible. I have no intention to compromise the truth just to accommodate the perversions of the religious churches.

“Are you saying that once I become a Christian, I can sin as much as I want and still go to heaven?”

Of course. A Christian who lives in sin is like a billionaire who eats from the garbage. God will never judge a billionaire for eating from the garbage. Billionaires have equal rights as everyone else in searching for food in the garbage. However, if they do that they are being dumb. As billionaires, they can afford the best food money can buy. It is silly for them to look to the garbage for their nourishment.

Likewise for us, Christians. Jesus has promised us that whatever we ask for in prayers, we only have to believe we receive and we shall have them. We have been given the power to receive everything we desire from God. We do not need to sin in order to get what we want. People out there have to resort to sin in order to get what they want because they do not have our powers. They have no other choice. We do.

In the above analogy, both garbage and money can provide food but money can buy much better food than garbage. Likewise, both sin and faith can bring riches to us but riches from faith are far greater and eternal than the riches from sin. The riches that we can get from sin is very limited and will not last for long. Therefore, as Christians we choose to live by faith and not in sin. We choose not to sin.

“What causes God to make such a guarantee?”

At the Cross, Jesus died to pay for all our sins. He took our place in the judgment of sins. As far as God is concern, all our sins had been judged at the Cross Of Calvary. All sins means all sins, past, present and future. This means that even the sins you are about to commit tomorrow has been judged at the Cross. God had judged that sin and gave you a death sentence for it. Jesus took your place at judgment and died in your place. In God’s records, that sin has been judged and the case is closed.

How can we benefit from this? It gives us the courage and confidence to live boldly for the glory of God. Even if we make mistakes and sin, we will have the strength to shake them off and move on. Sin shall have no power over us. Each time you fall into sin, you have to remind yourself that this sin had been judged at the Cross. In God’s record the case had closed. You have triumph over every sin that comes your way. Rejoice and be glad for you are destined to win. Goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days in your life.

The second part of John 3:18 tells us anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. God will not force his salvation on us. Each of us has a choice to make. Are you going to allow Jesus to take your place in the judgment of sins or do you prefer to face the judgment yourself.

If you choose the former, you will have to receive Jesus as your saviour. All you need to do is to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus has saved you from all your sins. However, if you choose the latter, you will have to face all the consequences yourself. God does not want to judge you. You are the one who insist on being judged.

Choose wisely.

Jesus Came To Save

17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:17 (NLT)

The above verse comes from John 3:17. The preceding verse John 3:16 is so famous that even religious churches used them as marketing gimmick to lure non believers into their religion. However, they must be very cautious of John 3:17 because it clearly defines Jesus’ intention when he came to earth. Jesus came to save and not to judge.

Religious people are afraid of this verse because it contradicts the foundation of their religious doctrines, which is based on the fear of judgment. All their religious doctrines can be summarized into the following:

“Jesus came to save us. Therefore, we must obey everything he says (which consists of all the religious doctrines and traditions that the church invented) or face Judgment.”

In short, religious doctrines are based on threats of condemnations and emotional blackmails to get their people to obey everything they said. Thus, they give the impression to the world that Jesus came to judge the world instead of saving it. Yet John 3:17 tells us otherwise.

The truth is God sent Jesus here to save us. It had never been his intention to judge us. His desire is to help us to overcome every adverse situation and challenge in our lives. He loves us so much that nothing delights him more than seeing us living in total victory.

How I wish I knew of this truth when I first became a Christian. Unfortunately, I happened to be in a religious church. So, I was deceived into thinking that the love of God is only a marketing gimmick to lure non believers to become believers. After they became believers in the church, their only responsibility is to do everything the church leaders tell them, in particular participating in missions and giving money to the church.

It took me quite some time to realize that what they have taught me in this church is nothing more than lies from the pit of hell. God’s love for us had never been intended to be a marketing gimmick. It is real. God loves us so intensely that he was even willing to sacrifice his only begotten Son to pay for all our sins. The presence of Jesus at the Cross has convinced us once for all that God’s intention is always to save and not to judge.

How can we benefit from this? We made mistakes. No matter how many mistakes we have made or how big our sins were, God’s priority in our lives will always to save us. He is the solution to our sins. The bigger your sins are, the more often you should seek him. When you do, God will not judge you. He will help you. The Cross of Calvary has proven to us that our God’s intention is to save and not to judge.

In contrast, religious people like to make us feel so ashamed of our mistakes and sins that we no longer feel worthy to go to the presence of God. As a result, we will stay away from God and not ask him for help. This increases our vulnerability to the devil’s temptations and oppressions. We will end up falling deeper and deeper into sin. Therefore, being religious will only cause us to sink deeper into sin. The claims of religious people that they are fighting sin is nothing more that self-delusion. They are deceiving themselves.

In conclusion, we must always remember that our God is always on our side. God is the best source for all our answers. It does not matter to him how bad our past is, how many mistakes we have made or how serious our sins were. God’s intention is not to judge us. His desire is to help us to live the life he wants. His greatest wish is for us to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper.

Are You Competent?

29 Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people.
Proverbs 22:29 (NLT)

Let me start by explaining what this verse doesn’t mean. It does not mean competent workers must join the civil service. In this context, “serving king” refers to working in a more prestigious environment and much higher salary. Since the king was the richest and the most powerful man around (in those days), it made sense for job seekers to aim to join as the king’s employees. After all, he can pay the highest salaries. Therefore, it should not surprise us that every job seeker place employment with the king as their first job priority.

As a result, the king’s recruitment team must be swamped with job applications. Unless there were corruptions involved in the selection process, we can be sure that they would only employ the best in their field. In other words, the king must have the best cooks, dancers, musicians, warriors, teachers, artists, engineers, architects, managers, administrators, accountants and other professionals in his palace. The second best people would have to contend with working for ordinary people.

Let us look further on what it was like to serve the king.

First, I believe the salary must be the best. After all, the king had the unlimited power to collect taxes. He could afford to pay

Secondly, serving the king comes with prestige. Who doesn’t like to be looked up to? It will be like moving up to the next level in the socio-economic status.

Thirdly, serving the king provides greater job and income stability. Unlike those employed by ordinary people, servants of the king do not have to be concerned about recession. Unless the kingdom was mismanaged, the king’s barns should be filled with grains as reserves for the country in the event of famine. Those serving the king must be among those who were the least likely to get hungry during famine.

How can we benefit from these?

I believe many will agree that the world we live in today works the same way it was when Proverbs 22:29 was written. The only difference is we have many versions of “king” to work for. Many companies like the multi-nationals to smaller start-ups today can potentially offer us similar benefits like the king in the older days. In other words, we have many kings to choose from if we want to have good jobs.

However, God’s intention is not for us to focus on the “king”. In Proverbs 22:29, God wants us to focus on our own competence. We need to be competent if we want to have high paying jobs. God wants us to increase in our competence. Why is that so?

Just imagine. What do you think will happen if God is to promote you to a higher position in you company like being a CEO and you happen to have no competence in fulfilling your new duties? Answer: You are not going to produce any good results. You may even ended up causing the company to suffer loses and your colleagues to lose their jobs.

When that happened, the blessings of God in your life had effectively caused your colleagues to lose their jobs and their families to suffer. That is definitely not the nature of God to bless us at the expense of causing many others to suffer. God blesses us to be a blessing, not to harm others. We should always remember this criterion each time we ask for God’s blessings in our lives.

Now, does this mean that you must never ask God to promote you if you do not have the competence for the new position? The answer is no. If you really desire for the next level, ask God for it but you also do your own homework in developing yourself. Don’t be idle after you prayed for that promotion. Find out what are the skills, knowledge and qualifications that you need to have when you are in that new position. Then acquire them. You may have to commit to part-time courses, buy books to read or spend more time learning from other people.

Above all, remember to spend more time with God because he is the greatest expert in every area of expertise. Never neglect your time in reading the Bible, listening to faith messages and praying. When you do all the above, you are effectively qualifying yourself for the promotion you desire.

The time will come for the answer of your prayers will manifest. At that time, you will be able to fit right into your new role and you will have the competence to execute all your duties effectively and efficiently. If you become the CEO, you will be able to lead your company toward greater profits, thus creating more bonuses for your colleagues.

At that time the blessings of God in your life had caused many others around you to be blessed. You are blessed to be a blessing. This is the will of God in our lives. Our competence plays a part in this blessing.

In conclusion, God wants us to constantly improving our competence. Never stop learning and praying. Our God has great blessings waiting for us out there.

The Godly Loves To Give

26 Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!
Proverbs 21:26 (NLT)

This verse tells us the difference between the godly and the greedy people. Both groups of people have their own similarities and differences. The greatest similarity between the godly and the greedy people is both groups want to have more and more riches. No matter how much riches they have obtained, the godly and the greedy want more. This is where the similarities end.

The godly people want more riches because we have compassion for the poor and the suffering people in the world. We have sufficient intelligence to realize that we can never give what we don’t have. The poor cannot help the poor. It takes the rich to help the poor. The desire to help others motivates us to gain as much riches as we can. No matter how much money we have right now, we need more because we want to help more people.

This is why, we the godly, view getting rich as a responsibility for anyone who is serious on wanting to glorify God. In contrast, religious people’s idea on glorifying God is nothing more than putting up some acts and obeying some church rituals. In their mind, asking God for riches is the opposite of glorifying God despite the truth that Jesus died poor at the Cross for us to live rich. This is why, only believing in Jesus can set us free, not religion. Allowing ourselves to be oppressed under the bondage of religion can never please nor glorify God.

“How much riches should I ask from God?”

It depends entirely on how much compassion you have for the poor. The more compassion you have, the more resources you will want to give to them. You will need more money to finance all your giving. The more you give, the more glory God gets. So, if you are really committed to give God as much glory as you can, then ask God for riches as much as you can.

Let us move to the greedy people. While they have they desire to have more and more riches (which by itself is nothing wrong), they stop short of giving away their riches to help others. They are like the Dead Sea. Do you know why the Dead Sea is named as such? It has inlet but no outlet for its water. So as its water evaporates, it leaves behind the salt contents. As time went by, the salt content kept increasing until the entire lake become hostile to most life-forms, thus the name “Dead”.

Likewise, if we are only interested in accumulating wealth and don’t give away, we will eventually end up like the Dead Sea. Our accumulated wealth will choke us. It will not only stop the future flow of riches into our lives, it can potentially choke other areas as well. So, it is dangerous to be greedy.

In conclusion, if you want to bring glory to God, ask him for as much riches as you can and use them to help others. In doing so, you will be creating a virtuous cycle of prosperity in your life.

Do We Need To Understand Everything?

24 The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?
Proverbs 20:24 (NLT)

According to the verse above, the Lord is the one who directs our steps. It is not necessary for us to understand everything along the way. Please note that the verse does not say never try to understand anything at all. After all, God gave us brains and he expects us to use them. It is a good habit for us to try to understand things and gain knowledge. This is how the human race has progressed.

However, God wants us to realize that there is a limit on how much we can understand. If we are to act only on what we can understand, then our lives will be very constraint. Let me give you some examples.

How many of you really understand what electricity is? Does not understanding electricity stops you from flipping on the light switch? Surely, not. In fact most people who used electricity do not understand what it is. All they know is how to flip the switch and pay the bills. The same can be said on all modern facilities. Most people who used internet do not know how internet works. Most people who drive cars do not know the exact mechanism that makes cars move. Therefore, anyone who insists on understanding everything before acting on them must be living in the Stone Age.

Let us get back to the above verse. The first part tells us the Lord directs our steps. A step is the smallest unit in our walk. Every walk begins with a single step. This means the Lord must be a very detailed person. He is not only interested in the overall journey. He cares for individual steps as well. He cares for our steps so much that he takes a personal commitment to direct our steps. This is good news. What this means to me is I don’t have to wait for the journey to complete to receive my prosperity. I can receive prosperity here and now in every step I make under his direction.

Another point I would like to make is, when God directs, he does not force. He wants us to have a choice on whether to obey or disobey him. So, we do not obey because God is pointing a gun at our heads. We obey because we want to take advantage of obedience, which is unlimited prosperity.

The second part of Proverbs 20:24 seem to imply that sometimes God’s direction in our lives may not make sense to us. Sometimes, we may not be able to understand fully the reason God wants us to go to a certain path. For example, if God is to direct us to take up a new job that pays more, it makes sense to obey. What if the new job pays lesser than your current job? Will you obey?

In situations like this, it is crucial for us to remember that the greatest wish of God for our lives is to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. So, as long as we stick to God’s directions, prosperity is ours for the taking. In the above example, if God can direct you to lesser paid job he must have already worked out a plan for your prosperity and this plan must involve you taking on that new job. If you refuse, the plan will not work and it is not God’s fault if you are not rich.

In conclusion, our God is on our side. His greatest wish is for us to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. He has worked out a plan for us to achieve his wish. Our part is to obey his directions in every step in our lives even is we cannot understand them. All we need to know is, all his directions lead to prosperity.

The Extent Of God’s Love

16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NLT)

John 3:16 should be the most popular Bible verse at all time. Even religious people know them and they used it extensively in their marketing campaign to lure non believers into their religion. Once the non believers are caught, this verse will be conveniently ignored and these new recruits will be grilled and brainwashed into the bondage of religion. I was one of them before God revealed his truth to me.

The truth is, God has a different view from the religious people. While the religious people see John 3:16 as nothing more than a marketing slogan, God takes it seriously. God wants us, the true believers in Jesus Christ to take his love seriously. Why? His love for us is not empty talk. He loves us to the extent of giving his only Son.

Let us study in detail what it means and how we can benefit from this. When we have problems in life, we must always be aware of the truth that our God is always on our side. God will never condemn us for our problems. When we were in sin, God did not respond by just telling us don’t sin. Religious people do that, not God. God’s solution for our sins was to give his only Son. This shows how much he loves us.

No matter what problem we are burdened with (this includes all types of sins), God’s priority is to deliver us. He is willing to do whatever it takes to free us, even if he has to give away his only Son. Jesus’ willingness to sacrifice for us has proven once and for all that we must be extremely valuable to him.

Let me illustrate further on the concept of value. How do you decide on whether to buy or not to buy a certain item? I believe most people will compare the price and the perceive value. If the perceived value is equal or higher than the price, we will be willing to buy. For example, if I am willing to spend $5 to buy a cup of Café Mocha, it means I consider the cup of Café Mocha has the value of equal or more than the value of $5. God sent Jesus to die for my sins. What does that mean?

Please do not misunderstand me. I have never said that I am equal or more valuable than Jesus. What I am saying is, in God’s mind he thinks of me as equal or more valuable than Jesus. In Jesus’ mind, I am of equal or higher value than he himself. Do you want me to prove this? Here is my proof: The Cross Of Calvary. The Cross Of Calvary is the greatest proof on how much God loves us and the intensity of his love.

The more we are aware of his love for us, the more confidence we will have in facing the challenges in life. No matter how bad the situation around us appears to be, we have the boldness to believing on the promises of God to deliver us. We will not have the problem of wondering whether God is willing to bless us with good things like health and wealth because since he was willing to give his Son, what else will he not give to us?

32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
Romans 8:32 (NLT)

When we are in trouble or in any form of need, the question we need to ask is not whether God is willing to help us. The right question we should ask is, if God loves me so much to the extent of sacrificing his own Son, how can he not give me everything I want?

In conclusion, God wants us to feed on his love for us. Only then we will be able to develop our faith to the level of making our dreams come true.