Say No To Flesh, But Yes To God's Will...To Experience Life Abundantly

In Dying We Live, So Die Willingly!

By Abraham Israel

To take on the cross that God has custom prepared for us and deny our self life is not a option that God gave in Christianity. It is the main thing that God wants us to do in order to experience God in deeper and fuller way day by day (Luke 9:23-26).

J.C. Ryle the man of God says, "A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown."

We are not saved just to go to heaven, but we are saved to serve God through our love for Him (Eph 2:8-10). Those who get saved to avoid hell are not seeking salvation with a right motive, though such motive is in itself a wrong thing, yet God overlooks and draws sinners who are His enemies close to Him in friendship because of His love for them.

A.W. Tozer the mighty man of God says, "The old cross is a symbol of death. God salvages the individual by liquidating him and then raising him again in newness of life. God offers life, but not an improved old life. The life He offers is life out of death. It always stands at the far side of the cross."

Jesus Himself had no other way to experience the resurrection heavenly power of God apart from dying to himself and his self will through the Cross which was the will of God for his life (Matt 26:37, 38-39, 41-42). Out of His death came the life of God to Himself and through Him all men like us.

This is the reason Apostle Paul asks all believers saying, "3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom 6:3-5).

We need to keep our flesh at death moment by moment in order to experience the supernatural resurrection power each moment. If the flesh does not die, God cannot live in His power from within us and do His mighty works to use us as a blessing to many to fulfill God's purpose for our lives and for our generation.

Many of today's preachers who are deceiving people, are appealing and tickling the ears of all the people who hear them by appealing to their flesh. They are speaking to them what they want to hear rather than what they ought to hear to live in godliness. They promise that God will give them what they want if they give to the preachers what they need, all in the name of God these men go to all extremes to satisfy their appetite of covetous heart within them. These are con men who are deceiving people and are themselves being deceived by the flesh. These so called men of God have made godliness a means of gain and this will be judged by God. Many of them do not have a good character at all beside the show that is staged before the people, they have all kinds of sins that are entertained in their private lives without any repentance for what they do.

Again the man of God A.W. Tozer says, "Why do we build our churches upon human flesh? For we teach men not to die with Christ but to live in the strength of their dying manhood... If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it."

If we really are carrying the cross that God has given us to carry in our lives, it will slay us and we will lose self-assurance to depend on God desperately. The new cross which we hear in our generation promotes carnality, entertains fleshly indulgences, it amuses and tickles our sinful nature and encourages us to walk independently and command a wimpy god of the flesh to fulfill our carnal desires. O God save us o Lord!

A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect... Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name... We want to be saved but we insist Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."

Most of the so called spiritual Christian are actually weak in our generation because they do not know what dying to the flesh means. They live no godly lives for the glory of God, because they have never been guided rightly in to being a disciple of Jesus. Most of the people who seem to be spiritual are actually more religious than in any other previous generation because of the quality information and manifestation of the spiritual gifts they see, experience and manifest in their lives. What truly makes us spiritual is the life and character of God that we experience in and through our lives.

A.W. Tozer continues saying, "The man who is crucified is facing only one direction... He [cannot] look back. The crucified man on the cross is looking only one direction and that is the direction of God, and Christ and the Holy Ghost... The man on the cross... has no further plans of his own... Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared... When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye--you are not going back!

If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it's contemptible--we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he's finished, and that while he's going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he is not going back--then you have a real Christian indeed."

Beware of wimpy spirituality that will rob you of your heavenly reward and destroy the purpose of God for your lives. If Paul the apostles aim was to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is through religious practice of a law based life, but that which comes from God through faith in Christ (Php 3:9), how much we also ought to desire for the reality of being found in Christ's righteousness? This righteousness of faith does not come to us unless we allow ourselves to experience the fellowship of Christ's suffering which is to suffer for doing good in God's will that God has previously prepared for us through our circumstances we face daily, so that we can be conformed to His death by His power acting through us from within (Php 3:10). When we live life in this way, we will come to know God personally and experience the power of His resurrection in our lives, and through our lives manifest the resurrection power before the world for the glory of God. But in case if we choose to give in to our fleshly ways in spite of knowing the truth, we will lose the once in a lifetime opportunity of what we cannot gain for ever in our eternity if we miss out now while living on earth.

A.W. Tozer continues saying, "Our uncrucified flesh will rob us of purity of heart, Christ-likeness of character, spiritual insight, fruitfulness; and more than all, it will hide from us the vision of God's face, that vision which has been the light of the earth and will be the completeness of heaven.

The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is away from the sepulcher. Death is behind him and joyous and increasing life before."

Why miss the increasing abundant life of heaven, by the deceitful passing pleasure of the world which cannot really satisfy you? Why miss being a blessing when you can choose to take up your cross and deny the flesh? Why be a religious hypocrite when Christ have given you the power to overcome all death through his cross?

A.W. Tozer continues saying, "[Crosses] had only one purpose... to bring an end to an evil man! Those who were crucified had no life in this world beyond that point... This is what God does with evil people: he puts them to death. Thus, in the cross of Christ, God took all that we are in Adam, all our natural life with its dreams and hopes and resources and brought it to a crashing end by the dying of Jesus.

I must clearly understand that it is not up to me to put this natural life to death... I am only expected to agree with the rightness of that execution and stop trying to make it "live" again before God... Thus when I cease trying to justify myself and excuse the activities of the flesh and agree with God that it is rightfully under sentence of death, then I ...'carry in my body the dying of Jesus.'"

May God help us to put to death all our sinful passions with its evil desires through being found in Christ. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor 5:21). Having been made the righteousness of God in Christ, may we allow the Christ's righteousness to rule through our soul as we keep the flesh at death through willingly carrying the custom designed cross of circumstances surrounding our lives in the will of God. God breaks us to build us with Himself which cannot be destroyed for eternity. O what a assurance and eternal foundation in Christ to enjoy the rest of our eternity!

If I welcome the cross and see that it has already put to death the flesh... then I find myself able to say no to its cry for expression. [We must] agree with the implications of the cross in terms of actual experience." — Ray Stedman

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From Monkey or Man?

Created Or Evolved: A Realistic View

By Abraham Israel

If Christians fail to take Genesis creation story seriously, soon they will experience a lack of hope in all other areas of life. If the foundation of a Christian's house is shaky, the whole house will soon fall when some other wind of Satanic doctrine blows over them in their life. Evolution theory is a Satanic theory of unbelief propagated to completely destroy the faith of people in the power of God and make them dwell in the parched broadway road of godless life that finally leads to hell fire.

Why Believing Creation in Six Days Is Important?

As Andy C. Mackintosh, a Creationist, succinctly comments :

The fall of Singapore 1942. While in Singapore I took the opportunity to visit the museum dedicated to the memory of all that had taken place in the fateful years of the second world war and I learnt much. The British in 1942 did not expect the Japanese to really invade Singapore because they reckoned that the Malayan jungle protected them from an attack from the North, and that if an attak came they were sure it would be by sea - so the big guns were all pointing South. It was inconceivable to British military planners that the island could be attacked any other way - least of all, through the jungle and mangrove swamps of the Malay Peninsula.

But this was exactly the route the Japanese took. On the fateful day of February 15th 1942 the Japanese army came across the straits of Johor having come down the 550 miles of Malay Peninsula in 55 days. They came with 650000 troops and though they were outnumbered by the 90000 of the British, Indian and Australian Forces, they pushed these troops in full retreat all the way to Singapore. Many of the Japanese came down on stolen bicycles and routed unsuspecting and unprepared Singapore.

Why do I remind you of this? Because this is a powerful illustration of the Church today which is in a very similar position over the Creation/Evolution issue. We have given way on crucial areas of doctrine and allowed a false view of Genesis to govern our theology - we are then surprised that we have no resistance to the blatant secularism that comes in the wake of such compromise as many disbelieve in a message which has no consistency with the foundations of the Faith. The Lord does not honour a Church which disbelieves it own book, the Bible. We have to maintain the foundations if we are going to attempt to reach the current generation for Christ - The gospel is inseparably commected with the Creation and the Fall.

As Martin Luther said, "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest expression every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world - and the devil - are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle field besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

Christian - we are in a battle; let us not forget this. There are certainly other fronts. This is not the only one. But we are living with our eyes closed if we do not realize that this is one of the major fronts to fight in the Christian cause today. We are in a surreal world if we do not realise that the enemy is coming in like a flood through false evolutionary sophistry and ensnaring thousands of the next generation to unbelief through this matter.

(Andy C. Mackintosh - Creationists Prayer Letter, September 2009)

A Point To Ponder

If man descended from monkey, there should have been some specimen of the Man-monkey hybrid some where in the world atleast in one place. It can't be, because the Bible says that God created animals on the sixth day which includes the first monkeys, but on the same day only man was created in the image of God in the whole of creation (Gen 1:27). Then God says that He created animals according to its kind (Gen 1:24-25). In other words, each DNA specimen for each animal was uniquely created by God and one cannot be mixed with the other. The moment someone tries to mix one with the other, it will start to repel and die.

True science will laugh when someone will say that man has evolved from a inferior cell of any animals or creature. It is a improbability for such a complex mechanism to develop itself except through a wise designer who has intricately done it. It is a farce and a joke that some still believe that man evolved from monkey and from a single cell, which Charles Darwin who suggested it was suprised to see and hear how it began to spread like wild fire without any concrete evidence of truth in it. If this belief is true, why can't it be proved scientifically without assuming millions of years in it. If someone will say a millions years to God, He will say, 'Were you there? If not shut your mouth and believe My word which clearly says that I who is the God of all the whole universe created it all.'

God's word needs no support other than the claim, "Thus says the Lord," in it. The Creator claims the authenticity of His own word and no one has proved it as false up to this day. So from now on, whether you see in a National Geographic channel or Discovery or Animal Planet or anyother so called Darwinistically influenced minds that propagates a lie, simply reject it as a lie and once again reaffirm that it is not by mistake or a accident or by chance everthing came in to existence, but the Creator God has created it. God says, "For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “ I am the LORD, and there is no other." (Isa 45:18). Only a fool will believe the improbability of evolution of man from animals and cells because he is foolish, but a wise man who believes God will stay satisfied because of believing God's truth and the possiblity of God creating all His creation easily through His mighty power.

So What Is Your Belief?

As we have already seen, if we fail to stand believing in the Genesis creation of God in 6 days, then we fail in all other areas of our faith. Some people who wanted to relate the Bible to science have gone far to accomodate the millions of years time frame to each day, rather than a single day of morning and evening 24 hours creation, and have thus fallen in to more unbelief in their lives. If science proves the Bible, let it be. Praise the Lord! Even if science has no proof till date for something God has already said to be true in His word, do not try to explain science through Bible but learn to just stand by faith in the word of God. Someday science may prove it or may not, but our faith will win in the end.

So believe the God of the Bible, who is the only God who have claimed as the sole Creator of the whole universe for His purpose.

Today say to the Lord, "I believe that you are my Creator God who has created the heavens and the earth. Then in the sinful choas that Satan and his minions brought by their wrong choice, you mercifully revived and continued creating the whole earth and its inhabitants in 6 days of 24 hour time period and rested on the 7th day with your creation (Exod 20:8-11). I believe in your Book of Genesis creation. Help me to live by continual faith by fighting against the unbelief that comes through all the medias through meditating on your truth day and night. Help me to speak to people about, 'Why I believe in Genesis Six day creation by God?' May I be a carrier of your faith to this generation. In Jesus wonderful name I pray, Amen and Amen!!!"



The Monkey Talk of Evolution

Three monkeys sat on a coconut tree,
Discussing things as they're said to be.
Said one to the others, "Now listen you two
There's a certain rumour that can't be true:
That man descended from our noble race
The very idea is a sad disgrace.

No monkey ever deserted his wife,
And you've never know a mother Monk
To leave her babies with other to bunk,
And pass them on from one to another,
Till they scarcely knew who is their mother.

And another things you'll never see,
A monkey build a fence round a coconut tree
And letting the coconuts go to waste,
Forbidding all other monkeys to taste.

Why if I put a fence around a tree,
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
There is another thing a monkey won't do,
Go out at night and get in a "Stew"'
Or use a gun, or a club, or a knife,
To take some other monkey's life.

Yes, man descended - the silly cuss;
But brothers, he didn't descend from us."

(From the Australian Pharmaceutical Journal)



"Believe God and His word to stay wise, throw away assumptions which creates doubt so that you may not believe in the foolish man's science of so called evolution." — Abraham Israel

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How Are You Treating Your Parents?

The Grandfather’s Table and the Little Echo of the Wooden Bowl

By Abraham Israel

The one story that made a great impact during my later stage of my primary school days was a story named as 'Wooden Bowl'. As this was one of my English lesson, my teacher gave this story to be written by heart in all test. I used to keep repeating it many times in the evening and morning that Mom still say about it to remind me of those days.

As we read this story, may God help us to learn truth that will make a impact in our life and the life of our children.

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table, but the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about Grandfather,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.” Therefore, the husband and wife set a small table in the corner.

There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’ s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?”

Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up.” The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days, he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

What can we learn from this story? What bad attitude we show towards our parents, our children will see it and repeat it in the later stage of their life, which will recursively become a curse down the generational line if we do not repent of it by humbling ourselves to get cleansed by our confession to God through the blood of Jesus and receive the grace of God to overcome such impatient attitude towards our parents in their old age (1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 9:14).

God cannot be deceived, He will make us reap exactly the things we sow in our parents life (Gal 6:7). If we patiently honor them in their old age by showing a good attitude towards their weakness, the same things God will make us receive through our children which will bless us to live in great satisfaction in our old age.

Recently I heard of a certain believer in our Church who has heard the gospel and has been coming to the Church for nearly two decades, I was told that he angrily spoke to his mother who is in her early nineties saying, 'Why are you giving us problems by not dying soon? Die and go!' First of all I cannot understand how a believer who has heard the word of God for such a long time could speak such words of curse towards his mother? I was deeply greived about it. I pray such people might really be saved if they are not or check themselves whether they are saved as Apostle Paul says (2 Cor 13:5), because even unbelievers show some kind of concern towards their parents (1 Cor 5:1). Every saved person cannot continue with such attitude without remorse in their heart for exhibiting such ungodly values and wishing evil upon their own parents.

The word of God says, "Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old." (Prov 23:22). God was so angry about disrespecting one's father or mother that he had said in the Old Testament Law, "For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him." (Lev 20:9). In fact, for those who are cursing their father or mother, God has promised to cut out their lamps which is the divine revelation of His word that gives spiritual sanity and life to them, and also has spoken to throw them in to utter darkness of hell if they are in case not really saved by Jesus (Prov 20:20). Do you realize how serious God is when it comes to honoring one's parents? Some of the religious and coveteous people who made a traditional law to break supporting the financial support of the sons and daughters to their father and mother in order to receive money for themselves and the temple buisness in the first century have been rebuked by Jesus for their open rebellion against the word of God and hypocrisy of thier evil hidden life (Mark 7:10-13). When some one says that they fear God and are saved, they must be honoring their old age parents and elders (Lev 19:32). Infact Paul the apostle goes on to say that if any believer does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8).

But the good news is, God has told that He will give a long life to those who honor their parents spiritually, emotionally, socially, physically and financially, and also they will be given a financially prosperous life (Deut 5:16). The other day, my mum was dropping some tumblers down. Young as I am, suddenly I raised my voice to ask her what was happening in the kitchen. Then mum told that she dropped a couple of tumblers again and again, then immediately I lowered my voice to reassuringly say to my mum that it was not a problem because she is becoming older and then I offered to come and help if she needed anything more. We should learn to encourage more and more our parents as they get older and come to understand that they are becoming more dependant on us as they are becoming like babies again before God takes them to His kingdom forever (1 Tim 5:1; Matt 18:3). God has promised that He will not forsake His sons and daughters when they physically become weak and old with gray hairs, but has promised to carry and save them till their very end (Isa 46:3-4). We should learn to live faithfuly like our God and surely we will become what we believe to be!

The good thing we have seen in this story is the repentant mother and father who changed their wrong attitude once they have learned the lesson through their little child. Peace, joy and righteousness of the kingdom of God gets restored in the house of the repentant, but evil will stay in the house of the unrepentant person. Every true believer in Jesus Christ will repent of such wrong attitudes when God shows it to them and will live a blessed life of satisfaction the rest of their lives. When we allow the love of God to rule in our hearts, automatically Christ will be the master of our whole family, who will hear, see and rule with His heavenly Presence and make us prosperous and joyful in Him forever. Where Christ rules, old people will be cared with much concern and care. May God help us all to live lovingly towards our parents.

"Treat your parents the way you want to be treated when you are old, because when you are old that is the way you will be treated by your children." — Abraham Israel

Much Blessings....

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What Does It Mean To Be 'Poor In Spirit'?

Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit!

By Abraham Israel

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 5:3).

To understand what it mean to be 'poor in spirit', we need to see what does it mean to be poor financially first.

I have seen poor people from my childhood days, most of them come with nothing to boast about in their own. When they see us the first time we give with much sympathy, then whenever we see them or they see us, they see with a longing eyes to know whether we will be again be compassionate enough to give them something with which they can survive for that day.

Then when they know that we are compassionate consistently atleast for some time, the next time they expect from us to give more or atleast the same thing we have given them as before.

Many poor people have a thankful heart when they receive something good from a compassionate person, whom they feel as though they care for them.

Every time the poor beggars see the compassionate hearted people, they get joyful and excited to know that they are going to give them something substantial.

I have seen beggars who survived on begging who would come every morning, standing before the gate of our home, morning after morning crying to receive something from us because we showed compassion towards these poor people. You know why they come, they know for very well the deep poverty they are in and that they realize that they cannot survive without the help of people who support them daily.

Poor beggars have this minset, they never look beyond that day in to their future.

Applying The Natural To The Spiritual 

Now let us apply it in the spiritual realm these truths to understand what is mean by 'poor in spirit?'

The spiritually poor people are those who have nothing to boast about as being done in their own stength (1 Cor 15:10).

The first time we realized that God is compassionate enough to forgive all our present, past and future sins, all at one time through Jesus Christ, we believed God and received salvation through God's mercy (Eph 2:4-6, 8-9; Heb 10:10, 12, 14). Then once we came to understand the compassionate heart of God in forgiving us unconditionally, we started to approach the throne of grace every morning as a spiritual beggar to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of our need (Heb 4:16; Psa 145:8-9).

Though many times we do not feel like we are going to receive anything good and substantial from God, because of knowing that the compassionate heart of God never changes, we get joyful and excited through our trial in advance because of expecting God to give us something good at the end of our trials (James 5:11; 1:2, 5). We believe that no matter what we are going through at the present time, we expect something good for God to give and we believe that surely we are going to get something substantial because God never fails to give those who ask Him persistently in faith (Matt 7:7). Even when we do not see our bad circumstances change immediately, we still keep believing that God is working behind the scenes for our good and is bringing something good to give at the end of the ordeal (Rom 8:28). Truly we are spiritual beggars!

We come every morning to believe and receive that his mercies as they are given new every morning, and that we keep believing that God's faithfulness is so great that it will never ever fail no matter how many new morning we come to Him in hope. We know that yesterday we survived in our spiritual life because God did not fail to provide spiritual bread of sustenance through His Word and Spirit, we expect the same today so that our sins might not consume us (Lam 3:21-23; Prov 19:3). O saints we are truly spiritual beggars!

Seeing the sinful condition of our heart, we bewail to the Lord about our spiritual poverty when He shows about it in details privately (Jer 17:9-10; Rom 7:17-20). We cry to God trusting Him to deliver us from the fears and oppression of sin, and he compassionately delivers us from our fears and sins (Psa 50:15; 56:3; 61:1-2). Then when we continue to cry to Him in desperation to shun away the presence of sin in us, he promises us that no matter how much sin tries to defeat us, it cannot keep us under its hold because we are already not under any rules of men or God, but under the awesome power of God's son who sets us free whenever we cry to Him (Rom 6:14; John 8:32, 36; 7:24-25).

As time goes by, we realize we are poorer than before that we cannot live without trusting the compassion of the Lord for even a minute (Psa 62:8). Accordingly God also responds to us and supplies his righteousness every time we approach him by faith and makes us get justified in His righteousness (Luke 18:13-14; Rom 5:1; 4:5-6). Remember, justified means just as if we have never sinned at all! Praise the Lord! Then we are happy and praise the Lord for his righteosness (Psa 7:17; 119:164; 71:19; Isa 42:21).

Seeing our spiritual beggarism and our dependence on Him and his righteousness for prosperous living, God himself gets excited about us and says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Matt 5:6). In other words, God is saying that because of our spiritual beggarism, we have come in to the blessed category where we will always receive and get filled with His righteousness because of our faith. Then humbly we start to boast in the blessedness that God has given us (2 Cor 11:30). Never forget saints, truly we are still spiritual beggars!

Unlearning To Really Learn 

We must never forget the deep poverty we are in spiritually, inorder to live in the prosperity of the resource of the kingdom of heaven. We must not fail to remember that God is the greatest giver and we are the greatest beggars who receive and receive. We humbly need to acknowkedge it, so that without shame we can boldly go to God and take whatever that belong to Him by faith. This is why God says, that He gives grace without fail to the humble who acknowledge this poverty in the spirit they have inside them (Jam 4:6, 7-10). We are truly indeed spiritual beggars before God! And we must be proud to say that we are!

We cannot survive in life without God's love, compassion, mercy and grace. He is always ready to give it to us, if we are ready to acknowledge it. Are you a spiritual beggar? I am one, and I am proud of it!

We should learn to look to the Lord daily for our spiritual sustenance and do not need to look beyond that as we are truly beggars who need to wait on God's door daily (Luke 17:8-9). When we receive grace and do great things for God, we should learn to say that, "We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do." (Luke 17:10). The following couple of verses conveys it all.

"Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." (Prov 8:34).

You have to listen and watch daily through prayer at the posts of God's door in heaven in order to receive your riches of God's grace for that day on earth.

" 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matt 6:25-34).

Don't worry about tomorrow but live abundantly every moment of today because all you need is to look to the Lord today and seek for your spiritual righteousness, peace, joy of the kingdom inorder for you to live rich by having all your physical and spiritual needs met supernaturally daily (Matt 6:9-13; Rom 14:17). God has promised that the day's trouble will be filled with God's supernatural grace of the kingdom. What more you need saints than God Himself, His righteousness and super abundant grace of the kingdom of God!

The Real Wise-man Among The Wisemen

I would like to tell you a story about a king and his wise men who were greatly known for their goodness and wisdom in ruling their kingdom, in order to convey to you this truth further. Are you ready? I know you are!

The story is called the "The Real Wise-man Among The Wisemen". There was king who was a godly righteous man who inherited his wealth from his father when he died because of his old age. Once he became a king, he saw that all the wise men of his father's time have become old and were finding hard to cope up with the needs of the kingdom. So he decided one day to select wise men himself from all over his kingdom.

Because this young king was a wise godly man who always took advice from good counsellors, he knew that true wisdom for ruling his kingdom properously can only be found among poor men who do not care to acquire riches, but instead are sold out to live for God righteously (Prov 11:14; 13:10; 15:22; 24:6). Then he went in disguise as a poor man himself and kept searching for wise men among his kingdom. Then he found some of the wisest men who were there hidden among the common people in his kingdom. Then finally he also found a wise poor young man who saved his part of the city from falling in to the hands of the enemy kingdom in the past, but all the people have forgotten to help him later to thrive prosperously in life. The king found him nearly in a beggarly state, but was so joyful to have found him because of his great wisdom (Eccl 9:15).

Then he revealed to them that he was the king of the whole kingdom and that he wants them to live with him in the palace. They were so joyful and amazed by this that they nearly lost their breath at that moment! Then he announced to the whole kingdom about his selection of wisemen and the whole kingdom celebrated along with the king.

Then these godly wisemen became truly the strength and pillar of the prosperous kingdom of the king, that many nations around the world sought for wisemen like them. Then as the king got older and older, one day he told the wise men to come, and then announced to them that whatever they ask from him, he will give to them because they have faithfully served him all their lives. The wisemen were overjoyed to hear the king announce this good news to them.

The king had no child, so he intensely desired one of these faithful men to inherit all his riches and be the king. As the king gave nearly a week to think about and come with an answer, one wise man came back and told the king that he wanted mango grove, another wanted the hilly tea and cofee plantations, still another wiseman wanted great gold and silver that he enjoyed to have and do buisness with, then another one came and told that he wanted to have power over cities to help people prosper under him, then the king had kind thoughts towards all of these wise men and then gave all that they asked for.

Then only one wise man who was lastly chosen stood with tears in his eyes. When the king asked why he cried and what he wanted, he said with a heavy heart, 'Dearest King, You know that I was nearly a beggar on the road ready to die, but you took mercy on me and brought me to your own palace. You have given me everthing I needed till today. I have never been in need of anything more in life than you yourself, because your friendship was what that have brought joy, love and peace to my heart. Then you gave me a beautiful wife and I have now a blessed family with many children because of you. Then I live prosperously because of you, so I need nothing more than you and you alone.'

The king was moved with tears and gave him his wish to continue in frienship and intimacy with him. And this wise man continued to serve the king joyfully along with every other wise men who became powerful and rich. Then one day the king died suddenly and tho whole kingdom was looking forward to know what the king has written in his will, as he had no children to inherit the kingdom. Then on a particular day, as the king had instructed the wisemen, they came together to open the will and see for themselves who will be the king to rule over his entire kingdom.

They were all excited and each one thought that the king would have written their name in the will. Only the one wise man who chose friendship with the king as the only reward in life, who also loved the king with his whole heart felt so bad about these men who were actually coveting for the king's authority and riches. Then to their biggest surprise, the king had not written the name of any of the wisemen except the one who chose frienship with him as his only reward.

The whole country celebrated the wise choice of the king and rejoiced to have this new king who humbly served them all the days of his life.

Now I hope you have understood what it means to be 'poor in spirit' through the life of the wiseman who chose friendship with the king over authority and riches for himself. Hence the word, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 5:3).

Truly God is ready to give all his riches to those who love him humbly with their whole heart, because they are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28, 32). Are you ready to serve God faithfully by being 'poor in spirit'? If you are, already all the kingdom riches of God belong to you.

"To be poor in our own sight and in God's sight is to be actually rich in the sight of all people." — Abraham Israel

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The Hidden Message of God in Trials

Why worry when God works through the Good and the Bad Circumstances of Our Lives?

By Abraham Israel

Worry is the biggest plague that destroys the happiness of many believers. Actually it is misuse of the beautiful mind that God has given us to use it to live by faith. Allowing worry first destroys faith and it makes it to think of the things which will never happen at all as though it is already happening to us. Never waste your life worrying. Jesus said to the worriers, " 22 ..., “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For there is more to life than food, and more to the body than clothing...25 And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 26 If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?" (Luke 12:22-23, 25-26). You do not increase in stature or height by worrying, height is a God given thing. We cannot make ourselves grow taller or make ourselves shorter. In the same way in our lives, circumstances of life are a God allowed thing that we cannot change, but should understand and remind ourselves that it is God who is in control of all the storms of life we face. In other words, Jesus is saying that there is more to life to rejoice and enjoy than worry about the bad circumstances that come our way. Jesus is confidently saying this because he knows God is in firm control of all of our lives. Our names are written in God's hands (Isa 49:16), God has personally written the number of days we should live on earth even before there was none of it (Psa 139:16), God has personally put us in the nation in which we live by His own choice and have beforehand marked our national boundary in this generation that we are living, in order that we may seek Him and might find Him (Acts 17:26-27), God chose the parents and lineage in which we were born (Psa 139:13), God knew how we would look like even before we were formed in our mother's womb because it was He who designed us for His Glory (Psa 139:13-16) and finally He has made us live, breathe, move and have our being in Him as His dear children (Acts 17:28).

Why has God been so concerened about our every details? Because we are His idea and not an accident. God wants us to enjoy this life with Him abundantly. Worriying saps our spiritual energy which God has has given to us in order that we may enjoy life with Him. Letting ourselves be worried is to destroy the beautiful mind in which the heavenly thoughts of God from above should have been allowed to penetrate it and get rooted within for cultivating friendship with Divine friend who is our God (Psa 139:17-18). Worry doesn't rob the sorrow of our tommorows, but only starts to sap today of its joys. Rejoice in the Lord for all things in every circumstances, give your worries to the Lord Jesus through prayer because He will take care for you without fail and give thanks for the good and also the bad in all despairing circumstances that tries to overwhelm you because this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thess 5:16-18).

A man in China raised horses for a living and one day one of his prized stallions ran away. His friends gathered at his home to help him mourn his loss. But the next week, the horse returned, bringing with it seven strays. The same friends gathered again, this time to celebrate his fortune. That afternoon the horse kicked the owner’s son and broke his back. The friends came again to express sorrow and concern. But a month later, war broke out and the man’s son was exempt from military service. Again, the friends came together to rejoice.

What can we learn from this story, in every dark cloud of despair there will be a silver lining of God's magnificence and glory displayed through it. People who live based on feelings will act madly according to the circumstances, but those who live by faith and believe that God is working behind the scenes for their good will rejoice in the Lord always irrespective of the circumstances they face daily day after day. It is very much human to live by feelings, but it is superhuman to live by faith. It is naturally human to worry, but it is supernaturally superhuman to live by faith as God's children. Worriers will never truly enjoy life to the fullest, but those warriors of faith will enjoy God's abundant life in such a way that many will be blessed through their lives. Circumstances change often, but God and His good intentions to prosper you through all circumstances never changes. Your preception towards a circumstance as whether it is good or bad can change, but the opportunity to lay hold of the promises of God that has the ability to keep you intact at rest in the faith which convinces you that all the circumstances are for your good never changes. Circumstances of mourning may change in to a joy of morning the next day, but the faith that keeps you in God's joy of heaven and its God glorifying life never changes.

When we are experiencing difficulties, we cannot seperate a catostrophe from a cause for celebration because we never know how both of it can be used for our good. Today God is saying through all our circumstances in our life that we need to trust that He is working for our good and keep expecting something good and glorious to come out of each situations we face. Hold on to God's promise and settle you mind on it through meditating upon the promises of God's word when going through any tough situations, here is one main promise of God to you, "God is working behind the scenes all things whether good or bad, only for the good of those who love God and are actually called according to God's glorious purpose." (Rom 8:28, Abi's Translation).

Personally I have come to understand this glorious truth of God's faithfullness in trials and how it works for my good and also how it leads me ultimately to fulfill God's purpose for my life.

[If you like to know more about it click and read My Testimony in the following link :

http://apostolicrevelation.blogspot.in/2008/07/my-testimony.html]

The only thing that keeps increasing day after day through each trials I face in my life is the ability to rejoice more and more in the midst of gloomy circumstances which always make way for a bright morning of God's faithfulness the next day. No matter what, there is always a reason to give thanks, praise God and pray to Him always! So REJOICE and again I SAY REJOICE!, hold on in faith and glorify God in all circumstaces you face everyday. Just trust the Lord and keep trusting Him at all times dear saints.....Praise the Lord!


Much Blessings......

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