Revelation - lit paths

 

Revelation-lit paths

Often times a bright idea or a breakthrough is cartoon-pictured with a light that goes on in a person’s mind. I think the origin of this depiction is borrowed from the Bible. The passion translation say it like this: “Yahweh is my revelation-light and the source of my salvation.” Ps 27:1 

This is what God is - He gives revelation to us, not only to reveal spiritual things, but also to give us inventions and breakthroughs in our ordinary live-life. This verse goes on to say that “The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom should I fear?” God’s revelation-light expels fear - fear of the unknown, fear of sickness, fear of financial crises, fear that I am incompetent, fear of my enemies.

I want to encourage you today to keep God’s Word near to your heart, for your everyday life! Ps 119:105 says: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God has good works in store for you, a hope and a future, plans to prosper you and not harm you! I agree with David in Ps 23:3 (TPT) for everybody that reads this:

“He opens before me the right path

and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness

so that I can bring honor to his name.”

Light of Life - Christo Jovner

 

*Light of life* 

The first thing that God created was light - "Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light? 

Why do you think is that? 

Perhaps we can find the answer in 1 John 1:5b: 

"God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" 

Another answer is found in the last chapter of the Bible: "There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light." Rev 22:5 

I think most of us don't like darkness... walking alone through a dark hallway can send shivers down your back... but the moment we put on the light, we feel more at ease. That is because we were not made to live in darkness. We were not made not to see.

Just as in our physical world, our hearts are not made for darkness - darkness in our hearts can be anything from negative thoughts, forgiveness, unbelief, secret sins, an abusive childhood...

I think it is fair to say that there are areas in our lives that need God's light. 

We find an example of this in Acts 5 where we read about Simon the sorcerer's life. He gave his life to Christ, he was even baptized, but struggled with forgiveness... And Peter told him this through a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit... 

I want to encourage you today to invite God's light into those dark places in our lives. Invite His light in to ease up the dark tensions in our hearts...

Jesus says in John 8:12:

"I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but have the light of life"

God wants to exchange the darkness with the light of life! 

 I think it is a pretty good deal!

Words spoken by God

 God’s words…

Through all the ages, there has always been an attack on the words spoken by God.

Right at the beginning of creation, the devil questioned the words of God - a command that God gave Adam: ”Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:16-17). He won Eve over with these words: “Did God really say…” and  “You will surely not die, but become like God” (Gen 3). 

When Jesus was on the earth, God the Father’s spoken words was questioned: God said of Jesus after his baptism: “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17), but these same words were questioned by the devil when Jesus was tempted in the dessert: “If you are the Son of God…” (Matt 4:3,6).

Today, the credibility of God’s spoken and written word (the Bible) are still being questioned, and even more severe than ever, because Bibles cannot be burnt any more, and the life and death of Jesus did happen…  

Questioned often voiced are:  

Was Jesus really born from a virgin…? 

Did Jesus really live a sinless life?

Did He really rose from the dead?

All that the enemy wants is for me and you to agree with him, away from what the Bible proclaim as the truth. But, in these last days, let us not be ashamed of the truth written in the Word of God when confronted by these questions that wants to provoke doubt.

Even in our personal lives, the spoken words of God are frequently questioned by 

“Did God really say…?”

“There is no breakthrough, why do you still hold on to God’s words?”

“Why do these things happen to you…?”

Again, all that the enemy wants is for me and you to agree with him, to doubt God and walk away from the words that God spoke to us! 

I want to encourage you to stick to the Word of God- to the words God spoken to you, the words God spoke over your situation! Let us counter thoughts of unbelief by speaking God’s word(s) in faith over our lives!  Write them down and meditate on them! Faith pleases God and in the end, all things work out for the good for those who love God! (Rom 8:28)

Prayer in John 17

The whole of John 17 is dedicated to a prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father - He firstly pray for himself, then for His disciples, and lastly for all believers. 

Because I am a disciple of Jesus, I consider this a prayer for myself...

Jesus prayed this after He stated that the world hated his disciples:

I am not asking that you remove them from the world, but I ask that you guard their hearts from evil. For they no longer belong to this world any more than I do. “Your Word is truth! So make them holy by the truth. John 17:15‭-‬17 TPT

What Jesus in essence was praying, was that his disciples would not escape life...

Jesus' disciples would not escape the resistance, attacks and ridicule of the evil one - and that is purely because, as disciples, we believe in Jesus as the only way to God the Father, and our belief in the Bible as the Word of God.

Furthermore, Jesus was praying that His disciples be made holy - that is to be set appart from the world, which means we will stand out even more and more from the world as we build the Word of God into our hearts and minds.

But, I want to encourage you today - just as Jesus overcame the evil one, so will we, His disciples, because He is living inside of us and greater is He that is in us, than he (the devil) that is in the world (1 John 4:4)

Next time when you are facing opposition, attacks and ridicule, take your stand with the authority given to you by God! The Bible says: "Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

The opposition, the resistance, the ridicule is just an opportunity for God to be glorified and for us to exercise our authority muscle and to get stronger in Him!

Mustard seed vision

 

Are you stuck in life? Feel if you can't move forward in some areas?  Would you rather fill your mind with hope or with thoughts of despair? 

Maybe you feel that everything is against you. Use these things in your favour, don't let them defeat you. They can propel you into your future. Don't lose hope. All you need is mustard seed faith. Just a little bit. Enlarge your vision a little. It can be a mustard seed vision. Ask God to help you. See God making streams in the desert. 

When you vision is limited your future is limited. Jesus told them, “ I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.”Matt 17:20