More Understanding About Shekinah Glory

What is the Shekinah glory?

Question : Could you be kind to give us more understanding about God's Shekinah Glory?

Answer : The word 'shekinah' does not appear in the Bible, but the concept of it can be clearly seen through out the Bible. It is a Hebrew word which was actually coined by Jewish rabbis who meant it to be "he caused to dwell," signifying that God has caused Himself to dwell with His people on earth by His own choice and have revealed Himself to them in the weightiness of His glory. It is indeed a divine visitation or dwelling of Jehovah God among His people on earth.

God revealed Himself in His 'shekinah' glory first when He delivered and brought Israelites out of Egypt. Here is what the Bible says about this, " 17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go... 20 ...they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people." (Exo 13:17, 20-21). Here we see for the first time that God in a tangible way dwelt among His people to give them protection from all the dangers of their wilderness journey. The cloud by day and pillar of fire by night is called symbolically as the 'Shekinah' glory cloud and fire which is none other than God Himself.

When Moses entered the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, then the Lord talked with Moses "Face to face" as God himself testified (Num 12:8; Exod 33:9), yet the Bible says that when Moses asked God to show forth His glory privately in an encounter, God told that no man can see His face and live physically without dying because of fragility of human limitations (Exo 33:18). Then the word of God reveals that God has promised to put Moses on the cleft of the rock and cover Him with His hand while He passes by and that He will take His hand to uncover Himself so that Moses will be empowered to see His back and not His face (Exod 33:18-23). This conveys to us that the very person of God is the Shekinah Presence that revealed His ways and traveled with Moses and caused him to rest spiritually (Exod 33:14). God conceals Himself through His Shekinah Presence and reveals as much as man is able to handle his glory in his natural state, so that He will not die the moment he sees God (Exod 33:20). Shekinah glory of God not only reveals the powerful acts of God's sovereign protection as it did to the Israelites who are God's people, but also the ways of God [i.e. to get acquainted to know and understand His very personality] to those who are intimately passionate towards God's glory and are sold out to fulfill His will for themselves and others who are with them (Psa 103:7). Shekinah glory has also been revealed as God's defending power to those unbelievers of Egypt, so that those unbelieving Egyptians were given a last chance to believe Jehovah God and refrain from going against His sovereign will in to destruction (Exod 14:24-25). Shekinah glory was enough to convince them of their futility and foolishness in coming against the true Creator God.

Like this, there are various places in the Old Testament where God revealed His shekinah glory tangibly to all people. For example, Elijah brought fire from heaven and revealed the shekinah glory of God to all the people of Israel, which made them to boldly declare the true greatness of their Jehovah Lord as the true God of their lives (1 Kings 18:37-40). The cloud of God's shekinah glory filled the temple when the priests after having placed the ark in the newly built temple, came out of the Holy place. Then the priests could not continue ministering in the temple because of the cloud of shekinah glory filling the house of the Lord (1 Kings 8:10-11). When Solomon the king finished the dedicating the same temple of the LORD Jehovah through praying to the Lord, shekinah fire from heaven came and consumed the sacrifices in the temple so that again the priests could not even this time enter the temple after the prayer, instead all bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord (2 Chron 7:1-3; 1 Kings 8:22-66).

What ever physical shekinah manifestation of God's glory happened in the Old Testament, it was because God could not reveal to His people the Shekinah glory within, because they were not born again in their spirit man. Only when Jesus rose up from the grave, they were born again within along with the first century New Testament saints (Heb 11:39-40). But in the New Testament, praise God that all of us who believe Jesus have been born again gloriously in our spirit-man (John 3:3-7). Now as a child of God we have the ability to hear the voice of God within us and sense His Presence as like when a wind or breeze blows over us (John 3:8). Now we are the temple of God in which God has "caused Himself to dwell" in His shekinah glory and wants to reveal His very character to us and through us personally to others just as He revealed His ways to Moses and through him to others. He has promised and caused Himself to dwell among us and be our God so that we can be His people because of His personal Presence within and also among us which sets us apart from other unbelievers who are religious and not born again (2 Cor 6:16-18; Exo 33:13-16). Now the shekinah glory of God is beheld by us who are bring transformed in to the same image of the Character of God within, from one level of glory to another level of glory constantly (2 Cor 3:18). The mystery of God has been now revealed to His saints which is Christ in us, the hope of experiencing the very shekinah glory of God within (Col 1:27). Now we have this treasure of shekinah glory within us so that the excellence of the God's power which is manifested through us directly [i.e. rather than externally through a cloud, fire...or some other manifestation] may be of God and not of us (2 Cor 4:7). The more our outward physical man gets old and we are hard pressed on all sides by severe trials and troubles of all kind, we should not lose heart because our light affliction which is for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternally permanent weight of God's glory over our spirit-man within as we are considered as the sons and daughters of God because of accepting these trials willingly (2 Cor 4:16-17; Heb 12:7). Therefore as we have these promises that God is working all things for the good of those who love Him, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (Rom 8:28; 2 Cor 7:1). In the New Testament God deals and supplies us with eternally permanent weight of God's Shekinah glory within which we do not see over us now but can sense it on the inside of us, rather than the passing Old Testament shekinah glory which was seen externally but have not continued eternally in their lives (2 Cor 4:18).

When shekinah glory of God rubbed upon Moses, his body was charged up like a battery with the power of God so that His face began to shine like a bulb. The Israelites were not able to see the face of Moses directly because of this reason, so he finally put a veil over his face whenever he came out of God's Presence to meet people and speak with them. Think about it saints, the Bible asks us to think about the following question, "7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. 12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away." (2 Cor 3:7-13). This above passage says that, compared to the glorious ministry of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of Moses was nothing. The ministry of Law did not give people the power to live abundant life as it was faulty and conditional in nature (Heb 8:7), but the ministry of grace is a glorious and a excellent ministry that gives us power to overcome sin, sickness and death because it has better promises based on a better covenant that is unconditional in nature (Heb 8:6). Truly if we believe this awesome mind blowing truth, the ministry of the Spirit in the New Testament will be so glorious that we will not be able to realize the divine light upon our own faces, but the world will see it in awe and wonder how we could be able to shine forth the glory of God like this (Exo 34:29-35). Then we can point to the Lord's shekinah glory and tell them to seek the Lord to get it in their own lives too. If we shine forth the glory of God like this on our faces, people will flock to the Presence of God to get a glory facial done for themselves rather than flocking to waste their time in the beauty parlors everywhere. O what a privilege to be a New Testament Saint! Praise the Lord!


Much Blessings....

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Is It God's Dream or Not?

Is It God Who Has Shown Me That I Will Marry This Boy?

Question : Praise The Lord Pastor!

This is REENA from MUMBAI, I have a small prayer request.

Three years before when I was in another church, there was this boy in one family. In that family the mother of the boy desired so much that I and her boy should get married. But she never told me about this desire for proposal. Through her behavior I came to know that somewhere she had something like this in her mind about us. And after that I left the church. But at that time when I was in that Church, I saw three DREAMS about that Boy. The first dream he was WITH ME , the second dream was I am getting MARRIED with him and the third dream was that I had a BABY BOY from him.

We never used to talk with each other, only would say hai and hello, after few months I left the church, from that time still now we don't have any contact. Now for the past THREES YEARS after I left the church, many proposals have come to me but marriage is not taking place. And whenever I get afraid, from my heart, from my mind or from my mouth the boy's name is only coming. Believe Pastor, I never used to talk to him, I don't know pastor what to do. Though I am praying to GOD to help me out and give me some confirmation whether it is from Him or I need complete deliverance from this mindset. For THREE YEARS I am suffering from this problem, what to do pastor? Please, please...reply me ASAP [i.e. As Soon As Possible].

Answer : Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ! When you say something as a prayer request, I understand that you are desperate for a breakthrough or a definite answer in this regard. God loves people who are desperate and will always give an answer to the problems they bring to Him because they will be readily willing to accept God's will and solution for their lives easily than with other people who have much time and options of their own.

You see, just because the boy's mother desired to see both of you get married doesn't mean that the boy is also ready to say yes to the marriage. Because you know them so such, you could have easily contacted them and could have asked whether the boy is interested in this proposal through your parents or some one who could act as a middle person who is a well wisher of both of your families. Even now to confirm things, this is one of the best options you have. If the boy is not interested in this proposal, know that it is not in the will of God for your life. It is not wrong to check things out to know the will of God, when in your heart you only want to do the will of God. Even if you gone the wrong way, God will see your sincere heart towards Him and will intervene and stop anything outside of His will from happening in your life. God uses things, people, place and time for His will to be fulfilled in His children's life on earth.

To do God's will one needs to go beyond one's wishful thinking in to willingness to yield to God's ways unconditionally. Your mind needs to be renewed with the word based thinking in such a way that the desires of God becomes the top prority in your life (Rom 12:2). Once this happens, you will be able to prove yourself in the good level will of God, or acceptable level which is better level of the will of God or the perfect level which is the best level of God's blessing that God has for your life. A person who wait for a while and then marries a believer of his own choice has not sinned or done any wrong, but he has settled for the good level of the will of God (1 Cor 7:9, 28, 39). If a person waits for a long time expecting God to make the match even when he has choices of his own to exercise, then at a certain period of time, God will definitely bring a couple of choices to see what he will do with the choice he has with him. If that person chooses one out of his own will, he has done better than the good level will of God and therefore God will definitely reward and bless that person in a better way. A person who has waited for God indefinitely and unconditionally, telling God, "Not my will but your be done", God will bring the best choice He has in his heart towards them. This person who has done the perfect will of God will be blessed not only in his family life but for generations down the line he will be blessed by God abundantly.

Dreams and visions can come from three different sources. First is the God's dreams and visions which is the primary way He has spoken to the prophets of old along with the saints of Old Testament too, and it is indeed the primary way God communicates to all saints in the New Testament (Acts 2:17; Num 12:6; Job 4:12-21). Even to all humans God might speak in dreams and visions to turn them from their deed and conceal pride from them so that they might not be destroyed (Job 33:14-18). The source of this first type of dreams and visions are absolutely Divine. We cannot forget these dreams and visions as they will be stored in our spirit man as a divine photographic capsule which often gets refreshed in a fresh way again and again to release faith and perseverance. Second type is the dreams and visions that might come due to much activity and physical exertion (Eccl 5:3). The source of such dreams and vision will be self imagination and therefore it is absolutely soulish (Jer 23:16; 14:14). When the body is exhausted, it will look for different ways to ease its stress and bring back the body to normal ways. When such things happen, always there will be a hormonal imbalance that might trigger the subconscious mind to keep thinking and then these imaginations of various thoughts get triggered. For the same reason, pregnancy can also cause vivid dreams. When these dreams and visions come, they flee away and we forget it easily (Job 20:8; Isa 29:7-8). Then thirdly, there are demonic dreams and visions that will cause nightmare and will bring fear to the heart of men which will cause destruction in their lives (Psa 73:18-20). These demonic dreams, visions or prophecy will be mostly used by Satan and his demonic cohorts to deceive the souls of men and bring deceit in to their heart (2 Cor 11:13-14; Jude 8; 2 Chron 18:21-22). First God allows demonic deception through dreams, visions and prophecy to seperate the believing from the unbelievers and also to prune and purify the saints from those worldly and religious counterparts (2 Thess 2:9-12; Dan 11:32-35). The sources for these third type of dream and visions are demonic.

Since dreams and visions can come from two other souces apart from God, God has given every believer the responsibility to test all dreams and visions to find the spirit behind it and to know whether it is from God or not (1 Thess 5:21; 1 John 4:1-3). The purpose of the demonic vision is to cause "err in vision" (Isaiah 28:7), so that those who believe it might become deceived thinking that it was God who has spoken to them. Satan can "transform himself into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) and cause great lying deception to come to a believer through false demonic dreams and visions (Ezek 21:29; 22:28; 12:24; 13:6-8). Earthly selfish desires when allowed without control can become sensual desires of demonic influence, which when continued will fully become a demonic confusion and will cause every evil thing (James 3:14-16). Any dreams or visions in opposition to the teachings of the Bible is falsely soulish or demonic.

Just because marriage has not taken place for you the past three years doesn't mean that the dreams that has come is from God. There is always a chance for the soulish desires to come in to play when some one is moved with closely and this closeness need not be physical in nature but be emotional in nature many times. It may even be a desire that might have got grown because of the interest shown by the boy's mother towards you as you yourself have told. For the heart of all men and women is deceitful above all things to deceive them as the Bible says (Jer 17:9). The main thing about dreams is that, self and Satan can deceive us from reaching God's best for us. Even in my life, I had many dreams that I initially thought were of God but it later brought much confusion and fear in to my heart. Then when I started to test these thing and submit it in to the hands of God, what I thought as dreams that are from God because of its repetitive nature, I found that it was actually not from God but from the devil who took a soulish thought and have used it to become a demonic idol in my mind through producing deceitful dreams through my soulish desires that I allowed, inorder to make me miss the will of God for my life. But thank God as I sought the Lord, all these things were made clear to me and I finally found the exact perfect life partner in the perfect will of God for my life. It did not come easily but through much perseverance and suffering in prayer I found it in this area of choosing my life partner.

So anything that causes obsession and takes the focus away from loving the Lord till you marry, is not from God but a hindrance that comes from the evil one (1 Cor 7:35). It is good that you are praying for the Lord to confirm these things whether it is really from Him or not, because the Lord always waits and acts for the one who waits in prayer for Him to move on their behalf (Isa 30:18). You will surely be blessed and receive strength to do the perfect will of God as you continue to pur your anxities in to His hands daily and look forward with the peace of God for the Lord to act supernaturally on your behalf (Isa 40:31; 64:4).

God's will never brings confusion, instead it will always lead you in peace though the circumstances might not be always neccesarily good (1 Cor 14:33). When you submit all these dream things in to the hands of God, you will receive peace and deliverance. Remember that the word of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteouness is quietness and assurance forever (Isa 32:17). All delays are not denials, instead delays are the means through which God brings deliverance from self will in to His marvelous light of His Presence. So be encouraged and stay in God's quiteness and asurance of faith forever to do the perfect will of God for your life.

Much Blessings....

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Finding The Right Balance To Walk In Divine Healing

Where Should I Draw the Line Between Presumption and Divine Possibilities of Healing?

Question : When I find many faith fanatics go to the extent of saying that we should not take medicine if we really have faith in God's healing power, I am scared of it because I have seen and heard many people dying before their time because of such fanaticism. At the same time when people say, I take medicine for everthing or anything and tend to neglect the faith of God's healing power, I feel sad that they do not trust in the Lord who is ready to heal all those have faith in Him. My question is, where should I draw the line between presumption and possibilities of healing through my faith in God?

Answer : First we should understand what faith is. The Bible says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb 11:1). Faith is not a feeling that comes and goes away, but faith is a tangible spiritual substance of the things we hope to receive from God, it is the evidence within us of the things we are hoping for God to do for us which we do not see in the present time. So a person who has faith knows deep within them that something they believe for will happen because they hold this spiritual substance of God's tangible photographic image of faith within them which makes them believe that God will do something for them because He has spoken for sure about it to them personally in their spirit-man. They will definitely be able to believe that God will reward them surely because of patiently waiting for God to do that which He has promised to do for them (Heb 11:6). Such confidence in God that makes a person to wait for God to act on behalf of them by holding the spiritual substance of faith within them will always will please God to act on behalf of them to fulfill what He has promised to them personally (Isa 64:4). Faith strengthens people and makes them, mount higher and higher in relationship to God which will make them fly spiritually within and brings the external manifestation of what happens inside them supernturally to the outside world naturally (Isa 40:31; Rom 4:20). Faith is a definite tangible confidence in the ability of God and etertains no presumption which assumes something in the logical mind as true when there is no evidence, which in a chain reaction causes spiritually unacceptable expectations out of our owm will rather than based on the voice or the word of God.

One time during Jesus' earthly ministry when a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Jesus to heal him as though Jesus was not willing to heal him. Then he asked a important question regarding God's willingness to heal when faced with the curse of sickness due to the root cause of sin. He then asked Jesus, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” (Luke 5:12). Just at that time Jesus forever settled this question of unbelief regarding the will of God and his willingness to heal people forever. Here is what happened, "Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him." (Luke 5:13). Jesus neither questioned this lepers faith as He knew that this man was begging for healing because he was unsure whether Jesus is always willing to heal, nor asked Him to first get right with God by setting right all his faults of sin and them come to ask him for healing because this man's disease was due to sin for sure as it was leprosy which is symbolic of sin in the Old Testament times. Jesus has forever once for all has revealed that He is always willing to heal those who come to Him. God's will is that we should be healed and live healthily in our body as much as we live in the healthy soul life of God's abundance through His forgiveness when ever we are in need of it (3 John 2; 1 John 1:7, 9). In fact it is as easy for God to heal us as He forgives us if we have faith for receiving healing for our body just like we have faith for receiving forgiveness for our soul (Matt 9:5-8). If we have faith like Jesus to connect to "the power of the Lord" God and appropriate healing, we could easily be healed and also bring divine healing to others around us (Luke 5:16). The good news is, God has made healing very easy for us now because we need only two thing to receive a healing miracle in our lives. First, the name of Jesus which means that we are saved by our Lord Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus which will make ourself and other easily receive healing (Acts 3:16). Now Jesus says to us, "Believe that I am able to do this healing for you and according to your faith be it unto you." (Matt 9:28-29). It means Jesus has given an open cheque to all of God's people and have told them to encash it in the supernatural divine bank of heaven to receive healing miracle through faith in Jesus. Now it is up to us. Never forget that faith is the only legal currency that is accepted always in the miracle bank of heaven everyday!

God is always willing to heal and it is up to our faith in God's healing power and promises that decides whether we will be healed or not. Many times if we fail to receve healing, it is not that God is not willing to heal us or that He want us to beg to Him to heal, the problem is not with God ability or willingness to heal but with our lack of faith as always. We need to resist our unbelief of our flesh through starving it by fasting to rise up in faith to receive healing and also supply it to others who need it (Matt 17:19-21). If we do not have faith for healing what should we do? What does the Bible say about it? The Bible says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom 10:17). This means, because faith is a tangible spiritual substance, we do not have the ability to produce with out natural thinking. By supernatural impartation only faith can come in to our heart. When we start to develop our inner spiritual hearing ability to hear God's voice for our present circumstances or needs, faith gets activated to bring miracle for our needful circumstances. This supernatural alignment of our mind to hear God's voice is received through the hearing the word of God with our natural ear. When we make ourselves to think more and more inline with the will of God which is revealed in His word, God can easily release His present tense miracle word in our spirit-man when ever we are in need of healing miracle in our lives. The more we grow in this ever increasing faith, the more God will be able to use us in receiving as well as giving healing to other's who are in need of it. Healing is a children's bread which God supplies primarily to his children of faith (Matt 15:24-28). God wants and sincerely desires to be as much of a healer to us as He is a Savior to us (Exo 15:26; Matt 1:21).

Many people die in their illness because of walking in presumtion rather than in real faith. We can draw a line to seperate faith from presumption based on a inner assurance that God gives. As faith is a tangible spiritual substance that can be known within us, we should acknowledge humbly to God and people when we do not have faith within us. If we know we do not have faith for healing, we can seek God through His word and increase in our faith. But there are certain times God has given us a sound mind to walk in the provisions that He has already given us (2 Tim 1:7). For example, we may mistakenly ask the Lord to heal us supernaturally when God himself has already given us a good doctor, medication and money within our reach and thus wants us to take medicine to get healed. God will not be displeased if we go to a doctor as Jesus Himself said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Luke 5:31). By saying that a sick needs a doctor, Jesus has revealed that God has appointed doctor's to supply medicine through the knowledge He has given to them in order to supply healing to the sick humanity like as He is primarily appointed to give healing to the sick souls of men who are dying because of sin and make them healed through His righteousness (Mark 2:17; Matt 9:12-13).

There is a story of a man who has been caught in a great storm. He is a very devout man in his village and every one knew about it. But the bad thing about him was that he was a fanatic when it comes to exercising faith. He would move easily from faith to presumption because of lack of his imtimate knowledge of God (Hos 4:6). One day a storm came to his village and it started to rain cats and dogs. It did not stop for more than a day and it started to flood. The villagers who were all moving out of the place started to plead this devout man to come with them as they were all blessed by God through him in the past. As this man was full of faith or atleast as he thought so, he did not want to leave the place when one by one after pleading with him for a while started moving out of the village to safe places with a heavy heart. But this man believed that God will stop the rain. Then as the flood started to increase to knee level, his family pleaded with him greatly and as they could not convince him, they submitted his life in to the hands of God and moved out of the village in much difficulty with all the animals and livestock they had. Finally as this man realized that flood is filling his home, he started to go up in to his open terrace and there stayed with faith so that the flood might stop. As the flood kept rising up heavily, he started to pray to God to stop the rain and also supernaturally save him from death. Just then a rescue helicopter which flew over the place in its last ditch effort to save any people who have got stranded in their places, spotted him and lowered their rope to rescue him. But he said to the rescuers that because he was believing God's supernatural way of rescue, which he has experienced many times in his life preiviously by faith, he is sure of God acting on his behalf again. So the rescue helicopter left because of his stubborness to be rescued. The flood them rose up and completely drowned him a little bit later. Then this man who died and appeared in the Presence of God, asked God angrily, "Why have you failed me when I had faith and was trusting you to rescue me like you have done for me manytimes previously?" Then God said to him, "My loving son, I wanted you to first go along with your family when the villagers left for safe place, but you did not. Then when your family pleaded with you, again I wanted you to go with your family atleast, but then you did not heed me again. Finally when you prayed to me to supernaturally rescue you and save you from death, I sent a rescue helicopter and they spotted you as I wanted you to hold the rope and go to a safe place, but you finally did not want to go with them too. So I thought that because you did not want to get rescued at all, you might have been hard-pressed between living in the flesh or to depart the earth because of a great desire to be with me in heaven like Apostle Paul (Php 1:22-23). So I let the flood drown you and here you are..." What can we learn from this story, we should recognize God's voice and should not presumptiously assume that because God has done something for us previously in a particular way, He is indebted to act towards us in the same way. This is stubborness of the flesh and is not real faith. We should humbly acknowledge our mistake to God when we have failed in our so called faith which is actually an assumed one and not based on the knowledge of God's word within, immediately we should change our way to recognize God's will and alter out foot step to again walk in His way. Follow God's voice in humility and your faith will never fail!

Smith Wigglesworth, often referred to as ‘the Apostle of Faith,’ was one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival that occurred a century ago. He was a great healing technician of God who got almost all people healed through his authoritative command and actions of faith and prayer. But such a great man whom God has used so greatly has humbly shared some pragmatic wisdom of God in the following real life events which he has narrated.


Smith Wigglesworth said,

"A woman came up to me one day and I noticed she had no teeth.

“Why,” I said, “your mouth is very uneven. Your gums have dropped in some places and the old gums are very uneven.”

“Yes,” she said, “I am trusting the Lord for a new set of teeth.”

“That is very good,” I said. “How long have you been trusting Him for them?”

“Three years.”

“Look here,” I said, “I would be like Gideon: I would put the fleece out and I would tell the Lord that I would trust Him to send me teeth in ten days or money to buy a set in ten days, and whichever came first I would believe it was He.”

In eight days, fifty dollars came to her from a person whom she had never been acquainted with in any way, and it bought her a beautiful set of teeth — and she looked well in them.

A person is prayed for eyesight and as soon as he is prayed for, he believes, and God stimulates his faith, but his eyesight is about the same. “What shall I do?” he asks. “Shall I go away without my glasses?”

“Can you see perfectly?” I ask. “Do you require any help?”

“Yes. If I should go as I go now, I would stumble.”

“Put your glasses on,” I say. “For when your faith is perfected you will not require any glasses, and when God perfects your faith your glasses will drop off. But as long as you have need, use them.”

You can take that for what you like, but I believe in common sense." ^[1]

What a heavenly wisdom we need to walk practically in faith to believe for healing supernaturally some times and also through guidance from doctors at other times. Whatever may be the way, perfect healing, health and all good things can come only from the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning (Jam 1:17-18). No matter what kind of trials that come our way, God is in control of our life as we are the child of God. If we ask for wisdom to walk practically in faith, God has promised to give it liberally without rebuke when we ask God without doubting His promises (Jam 1:2, 5-8). Ask for wisdom and receive it to walk with the wisdom of God in faith and glorify Him in all things through your life lived out fully for Him and Him alone.

Much Blessings.....

Foot-note :

[1] http://www.smithwigglesworth.com/sermons/misc1.htm

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Is It Ok To Promise or Should We Completely Abstain From It?

Regarding Promising By Keeping Hand On Bible

Question : I love a girl, its almost 3 years now, I am waiting for her to complete her studies to marry her. We both are from Pentecostal back ground.

Some years before we both have placed our hands on the BIBLE and promised in a usual way as during the marriage, like
from today we are husband and wife, with GOD as witness...I am her husband from today on wards, I will not cheat or leave her..etc and vice versa.

So I want to ask you...is what we have done is wrong? And Is it so serious, if any one break the promise will there be consequences from GOD, in case if any parents don't agree for our marriage in future?

Answer : Greetings in Jesus name! It is always good not to promise to God anything rashly if we are not intent in doing it.

Jesus said, " 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." (Matt 5:33-37). Jesus said this to remind us that in the Old Testament the minimum requirement was that we should not promise falsely to God something that we are not serious to fulfill it. But as for the Christian of the New Covenant, He has raised the standard to a higher level where our yes should be yes and no should be no. In other words, we should never allow ourself to be influenced by the evil one the devil who makes us promise to God rashly that which we are not serious to fulfill it. Jesus emphasized that God who is in heaven knows all our wrong motives even before expressing it on earth in which He rules from the centre of it. Such intergrity of truth in our speech and words is the kind of behaviour Jesus tells us to follow in the New Covenant by the strength and help of the Holy Spirit. Even the hair in our head we have no control over it actually to turn it naturally black or white with out using hair dye. So Jesus said that it is not good to swear by our head or the Bible or any other object refering to its sanctity as the guarantee for the fulfillment of the truth of our promise or words, because we do not have any ability on our part to change the circumstaces of our life if not for the help of our God.

When ever we tell people something, it is better to tell them, "if the Lord wills...we shall live to do this and this or that..." (James 4:13-17). The sin of ommision is equally sinful to the sin of commision.

Coming to your life it is good for you not to stir up love until it is time to stir, that is after both of you get married to each other (Sos 2:7). Do not get intimate until after your marriage, not only I am telling about physical intimacy which is prohibited according to the word of God (1 Cor 6:9-10), but also the emotional intimacy which many in our times think as though it is not serious. But our emotional life is as much equally important to God as our physical one (1 Cor 7:32, 34-35). It is good that you are waiting for the past three years, pray to the Lord that if it is His will for your life that you marry this girl which you have in your mind. Or else tell to the Lord that whatever girl he has in His mind to bring to you in your life. I tell you that this place of unconditional surrender to God's will is the best thing for your life. Let the Lord lead you with the plan that He has in His heart, it is always 100% better than yours all the time. You will thank Him the rest of your life for the blessedness of such perfect match that God brings in His perfect will.

First of all you should not have made a promise by keeping your hands on the Bible and uttering words that were ruled by your emotions rather than by your commitment, which starts only when the real marriage happens in the presence of all the witnesses and people who are present before God's Presence happens. Even if it was a casual thing, it should not have been done. But God understands that you have been ruled by your emotions at that time and therefore confess to God that you have sinned before him and also ask pardon to the girl to whom you have done it rashly and say to her if it is the Lord's will we will get married (Psa 32:5; 51:4; Jam 5:16; Matt 5:25).

Yes it is wrong to rashly make promise before God of which you both do not have control over it until the real marriage takes place. But God has promised that once you confess to him, He is faithful and just to forgive you and will clease you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Once God forgives itself, you know that there can be no condemnation (Rom 8:1), but after that because God promises to cleanse you through the blood of Jesus, your conscience will be made free in such a way that you will begin to feel as though you have never done this sin in your life at all (1 John 1:7; Heb 9:14). This is a glorious promise to avail it! Praise the Lord!

If you have done the above things, you have positioned yourself again in the perfect will of God. Whatever consequences that must have come to you in case for breaking the promise have been put on upon the Lord (Isa 53:6), and now you are made free to lovingly serve the Lord through prayer and show God's love to people with all your heart (Matt 22:36-40; Eph 2:10). So do not fill your heart with anything but the love for the Lord until your marriage and once you make a commitment through doing God's perfect will in your marriage, then stir up love until you are satisfied and enraptured in the love of your spouse (1 Cor 7:35, 33; Sos 2:7; 3:5; 8:4; Prov 5:15, 18-19). Let God decide the girl who is in His heart and I promise you, the rest of your life will more and more exciting as each day passes on. You will be blessed for generations down the line (Prov 20:7).

I can assure you that your parents will cooperate with you when you are doing His will for your life. Even if they do not understand immediately, later they will come to know that because of you doing His will, they too are blessed abundantly by God.

Much Blessings....

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Why Jacob And Not Esau?

Why Should God Bless Jacob The Liar Than Esau The Genuine?

Question : I always wonder, why God blessed Jacob the deceiving son of Isaac, and not his genuine Son Esau who worked hard for him?? Is there any message behind it?

Answer : God blessed Jacob because even through he was a liar and a deceiver by nature, he valued God and His blessings more than anything in his life, while Esau despised the blessings of the Lord as something that is cheaper than the stew which he required when he was hungry (Gen 25:29-34). God sees the heart attitude while we look to the outward actions to decide whether someone is genuine or not. We have a lesson, all humans are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Both Jacob and Esau were sinners by nature, none was better than the other in God's sight who says that "there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin." (Eccl 7:20). But those who value the Gospel of God's blessings will be blessed in their life than those who are good religiously but despise the Lord's blessings by their inward attitude of mind which rejects the gospel of belief (1 Cor 1:21). Jesus has not come to make good people better but to save the bad people who believe Him from sin and hell fire apart from their works (Heb 7:25; 1 Tim 1:15; Mark 2:17). No man is capable of saving himself through his works of righteousness in God sight as they are all like filthy rags in the eyes of God who seeks a perfect hundred percent righteousness (Rom 3:20; Isa 64:6). Jacob was a vessel of Mercy because he believed God's promise told through his mother (Gen 25:21-24), while Esau is considered a vessel of wrath because he tried to earn God's blessing through hard work (Rom 9:10-14, 22-24; Gen 27:-5). By taking the risk of Jacob's curse upon herself, Rebekah the mother of Jacob wanted Jacob to be blessed ahead of his brother. Even though what Rebekah did was wrong, yet her suggestion was for the good of Jacob as she believed God's promise to come to pass (Gen 27:6-17). God could have fulfilled his promise to Jacob if Rebekah had waited to get the promise of God get fulfilled righteously through righteous means. He would have spoken to Issac and make him bless Jacob instead of Esau consciously or even by bypassing Issac's natural mind, God could have put a direct word of His in his mouth and made him speak a word of prophecy by bypassing Issac's natural mind in order to bless Jacob or through any other thousand ways (Heb 11:20; 2 Peter 1:20-21). In this Rebekah did wrong as a human being trying to fulfill God's promise to her by her own strength which only brought a bad name to the Lord. But in spite of her mistake, here is a message for us, Jesus took the risk of getting cursed voluntarily like Rebekah so that we like Jacob who are deceivers by nature can get blessed by God (Gal 3:13-14). God allowed Jacob to be blessed through unrighteous means because Esau was already a spiritual fornicator who had sold his birthright for eating and satisfying his flesh for bread and stew of lentils (Gen 25:33-34; Heb 12:6). God will allow his true spiritual blessing to come upon those who are hungry for God and his righteousness (Matt 5:6; Luke 16:12-13).

In context to the present time, the Jews who tried to please God through keeping the law have failed to earn salvation through their work, but we the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness by the law and rigorous discipline, have attained the righteousness of God through our faith. We who have believed God's word through Jesus like Jacob believed God's promise through his mother, we have got blessed with all the highest spiritual blessings of heaven as the vessels of God's mercy, even though we are the most unworthy of all men because of our sinful nature and our inclination to sin (Eph 1:3; John 14:10). But the religious people who desire to live the righteous life by their hard work of keeping rules have rejected and despised the message of the gospel of belief, have thus become the vessels of the wrath of God. God has clearly in a nut shell revealed through this story of Jacob and Esau, the gospel of grace which he has given to the whole world and is watching to see all men who are naturally vessels of wrath become the vessels of mercy as He has called all men in to relationship with himself through belief in Jesus Christ (Rom 9:24; Acts 20:24; John 6:39-40; Matt 20:16; 1 Tim 2:3-4). If any man will try to work himself to righteousness of the flesh to earn God's blessing upon his life like Esau, Jesus Christ's death is of no use to him and therefore becomes a vessel of wrath in the sight of God (Rom 4:4; 11:6; Gal 2:21). IN OTHER WORDS, THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO BELIEVE GOD'S WORD NOW THROUGH JESUS WILL BECOME THE CHOSEN VESSELS OF MERCY WHOSE SINS THE LORD WILL LONG SUFFER TO FORGIVE AND CONSIDER AS NON-EXISTENT IN HIS SIGHT UNTIL THE DAY OF RAPTURE IN WHICH THEIR SINFUL NATURE WILL BE DISCARDED AND WILL NO MORE BE ABLE TO INFLUENCE THEM TO SIN (2 Pet 3:9, 15; Heb 10:17-18; Rom 7:17). Rest in the finished work of the Lord on Calvary Cross and see what kind of worker God is, who works all things in your life for your good because you love him and are called by Him according to His preordained purpose (Rom 8:28; Heb 4:3, 1-2, 9; Acts 13:48). The world says, God works for those who help themselves. God says, I work perfectly in the life of those who are helpless to help themselves. So rest in God and enjoy your journey with Him as His dear loving child...

Much Blessings...

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