Self Control

Self-control is one of the important character or fruit a believer in Christ should have. You might always compare yourself with others or you may get excited or get depressed very often. You need self-control to know that you are a child of God and you are dealing with the Job God gave you very carefully.

“Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control” – Proverbs 25:28.

               When you lose your thought that you are under the control of Christ, or you are guided by the Holy Spirit, devil will enter into your soul and take control. So scripture warns about the destruction which might not only occur to you, but to others through your lack of control.

               When evil people comes against you, to provoke you, just understand that you are in this world not to entertain them, but to lead a life which bring glory only to Christ, even though they talks bad on you. The toughest thing is when you live for Christ, and when people provoke you that you are the cause of every problem, don’t lose hope. Even though no one may know you, even though no one will see how you are fighting with the flesh, the God who created you and died for you knows your heart. Just think about that and be in control. There is no point in any argument with any one regarding scriptures or the belief in God. When you lead a holy life, even though you may not see the mighty victory, you will get a mighty peace inside your heart that is being given by the Holy Spirit.

               As you know self-control is a fruit of Holy Spirit and to achieve it perfectly, ask father to fill you with his Spirit in Christ’s name. When the anointing comes into your life, you will be a new person, separated from the evil world, guided by the self-control given by the Holy Spirit.

               There are high things to be done by a believer than to argue or quarrel with worldly people. You need to meditate on the scriptures, go to the needy and preach the good news, pray for the needy and be a witness for Christ. May the Almighty enable you to have the fruit of self-control and be a witness for Jesus Christ.

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life; You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you.” – 1 Thessalonians 4: 11.

                                                                                                                                 Blogged on June 2013 

Carry The Cross

 

There is a misconception in the world that when a person submits his life to Christ, his problems in life ends. After that no problem will come to his life, he will prosper in all way of life. Because of this misconception, lots of people are questioning when there are asked to follow God. Well, I don’t find anywhere in Bible telling the person who follows Christ will have a luxuries or a problem free life. Instead I know the scripture that tells, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” – Mathew 16: 24

We can find Job a faithful servant of God being tested by Satan. He was tortured to the most that even his wife told him to leave God and die. These scriptures will tell us that you will be constantly tested in your life. But Job, the faithful servant did not go away from God, but had patience to see Gods way opened to him.

You can find the Disciples of Christ, how they were tortured when they preached the Gospel to the world. As a person who gets converted to Christ, might feel very good when their prayers will be answered instantly. But as you grow up in Christ, you will be tested; your faith will be tested to see whether you are loyal to God.

When you are tested, if you are in Christ, you will find a peace in your heart in the midst of all struggles. You will know that in all the problems God will make a way for you. Yes, with that promise, I urge you to be faithful, strong and ask Holy Spirit to lead you in the correct direction.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” – John 16: 33

Blogged on 2013

Grow your Hair

 In the Bible, Old Testament Judges, we study about Samson. From Judges 13 onwards we can see the life history of this Jewish person who was called by God to be the leader and Judge. When he was a boy itself, God blessed him with the Spirit. Judges 13: 24, 25. But in the next chapter we see his weakness exposed even though he was a man of God. Even though God commanded them not to marry outside Jews, he wanted to marry a Philistine woman. Satan found an opportunity to get into this person and he cashed it in.  

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” – Mathew 26: 41.

Satan will have different ways to conquer you. He might make you to take decision suddenly and destroy you (suicide). But most of the times, he will slowly take one by one step to destroy you. God gave strength to Samson to protect Jews, but he used it for his own pleasure. He went and fought against the Philistines for getting his weak desire. These were the steps devil took to put him under. 

When devil understood Samson can be tamed, it sent Delilah to him for temptation and finally Samson failed in it. The way Satan did it; you can read it in Judges 16. Delilah did not leave Samson without letting him tell his strength. His strength was his hair and once the enemy understood it, they shaved it fully. 

Same thing happens to many one of us. When we walk with God, he gives us his Spirit and guides us to do supernatural things. But even then Satan will try to get into us. Once we open a window for the devil, he will search for our weakness to know our strength. If we give room for him he will find our strength and destroy it to finish us.

Carefully read Judges 16: 21, 22 – “The Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But his hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” 

Yes, Samson’s strength was his hair and once the hair started to grow, Samson understood his strength has come back. Devil can take away our strength and make us weak. But God will give us a second chance to show our strength. The question is how you are going to use the new strength. Here in the life of Samson, he used the strength to kill all the Philistines who came to see his death and in the process he himself got died. 

Our strength may not be physical. But when it is gone, go to your basics. Ask God to change your situation and surrender unto him. Once he gives you the strength back, instead of trying to take revenge on the enemy, use the strength to do things which you are supposed to do. Use it to glorify the Lord. If your strength is music, sing and help someone to sing for the glory of God. If your strength is in doing a specific work, do it and help others to do, and make efforts to bring them to Christ.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” – Colossians 3: 23, 24

Blogged on July 2015

Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart

 In the Holy Bible, when you read the book of Exodus, God’s chosen children Israel lived in Egypt along with the Egyptians in peace and joy. But then came a new king in Egypt who made Israel slaves and tortured them, even killed their male child by throwing them into Nile (Exodus 1).

God heard the cry of Israel and He appointed Moses to be their leader to rescue them. Moses went to Pharaoh and pleaded him to let Israelites go to their promised land and worship God. But not only Pharaoh listened to him but also gave the Israelites more work and tortured them more. Then God brought plagues against the nation of Egypt, but the children of Israel were not affected. Pharaoh understood the power of God, but was not willing to obey Him. Every time a plague came, he called Moses and told he will let them go, but once the plague stopped, he will change his mind.

Finally God decided to show his mighty hand against the people of Egypt. So God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Pharaoh tortured Israelites the most until God send an Angel to kill all the first born male Egyptians, including the house of the king. Pharaoh had a time when he got a chance to let Israel go. But instead of seeing the power of God, he hardened his heart. Finally the time came God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to put him under great destruction, because he rose against God’s children.

Today, we see how the nations are gathered against the country of Israel and have taken decision to wipe Israel from the world map. But still God is fighting for his chosen ones and made a small nation, a powerful one. Still knowing God is with Israel; the nations are hardening their heart and are trying to attack Israel daily. We see the number of rockets which are fired from Gaza to Israel. This is the same thing what happened to Pharaoh, “The Lord hardened their heart”, so to destroy them completely.

God is still guarding his people, the Old Israel, to show the New Israel, the ones who accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, how He will keep them safe from their enemies. When you follow Christ and live for Him, persecution and opposition will come against you in different ways. You will see God helping you to come out of the troubled situation. But sometimes, persecution comes and your life will get harder. The same God who hardened the heart of Pharaoh is hardening the heart of the ones against you, to clear them up from your path towards your heavenly crown.

“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put come of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” Revelation 2: 10.

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

Persecution and testing come against the children of God, who confess their sins and accept Christ as their saviour, who died as the punishment for your sins. “

As you confess your sins, accept Christ as your saviour and live a righteous life, May the Lord be with you, whatever opposition may be against you, God is going to destroy them in Jesus name. 

Blogged on 2019 November

The World Hates You

 

If you are a man or woman of God, the people who are around you (Some may be Christians or not), they will make fun of you. The World around you hates you if you are a person of God. People may call you as Spiritual and all.

            Almighty God himself says in Psalms 22: 6-8 about him and his people “But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see me ridicule me, they shoot out the lip, and they shake the head saying. He trusted in Lord, let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” In Isaiah 53:3 it clearly says about Jesus Christ, how people will behave at him... “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not”.

            When Jesus Christ came to Earth we can see people making fun of him many times. For example in Mathew 9:24 “He said Make room for the girl is not dead, but sleeping, and they ridiculed him”. Before when Christ was crucified we can see in Mathew 27:29 “When they had twisted a crown of throne, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying Hail, King of the Jews”.

            Bible also tells about the people of God who suffered in Hebrew 11:36 “Others had trial of mocking and scouring, yes and of chains and imprisonment”

            So when these kinds of insults comes in our lives there is no need of being sad, because we are the people of God and what ever happens to the people of God, God will take care of them. At the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the sprit of God people said in Acts 2:13 “They are full of new wine”.

            Still now if we haven’t faced these kinds of problems in the future we will face these problems. Since the people of God will face problems, with the help of God they will overcome all the problems.

            A young man had many friends. When he was studying in the school, he was addicted to all kinds of worldly pleasures. But when he came to degree, he stopped and turned to godly ways. But other friends who were with him couldn’t believe that this man changed. When ever they see him they will make fun of him. What happened was that he didn’t care of what happened.

            If we take the example of Jesus calls ministry, many people don’t like this ministry. But they don’t care about that people instead they will pray for that people. So what happens … God is blessing that ministry.

            God speaks about the people who hate Gods people in John 15: 18-27

“ If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you”  So if someone says something against you he says against God. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you”

“If they kept my words they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they do not know him who sent me”. “He who hates me hates my father also”. The person who hates you hates GOD. So we should pray for that people. Because that is our duty to make the kingdom of God comes, So that people should be free from their sins. But still God says “But when the helper comes whom I shall send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will testify of me” and God says we will witness there testimony because we are with him.

            When we face these kinds of situations we must pray for the people who did that so that one day they will also testify God. There is no need for any quarrel with them. Just pray for them and God will take care of the rest.

            May The Lord provide you His Spirit and strength to face these situations boldly and be focused in your vision in Jesus name