Bible In One Year-Day 34 (Monday, February 03, 2014)

Commentary- Luke1-3. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these books are saying the same thing but being expressed in different way. If one touched an issue passively, the other touched it actively. Why do we have it in such a way? It is because of our difference in personalities as human beings. Luke, as a person, was different from Matthew; Mark and John. We are all different, and it will amount to foolishness for us to compare ourselves with another person. Once we try to be another person, we lose our identity and such cannot be useful to God; he may be useful to the person he/she copies. You need to be yourself. Luke was a medical doctor. His thinking and actions are different from Matthew and other gospels. He carried his profession into service for God. For instance, none of the other books described the birth of Jesus as Luke did. In addition, the manner he narrated the healing ministry of Jesus is deep and detailed than others. This is a great lesson to those who wants to be another person, thereby stirring up unholy contest and rivalry. God needs you the way you are for His work and glory through His transformation. Saul of Tarsus, was going from house to house, city to city persecuting Christians; very hard working and totally devoted to whatever he believed in. After he met Jesus on the way to Damascus, his attitude/character did not change but transformed; he was going from house to house and city to city preaching the gospel; what a transformation. This will give us the better understanding of Romans12:1-2. Paul was no more conformed with the believe of his people, but through the light of Jesus, he was transformed with the renewing of heart (mind, emotion and will); i.e. the zeal in him was re-directed and Jesus was glorified. This is what we call the WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Let God’s Spirit work on you. He is the only one that can turn you to another person (1Sam10:6) that could turn the world upside down for God.

1 Samuel 10:6 “And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.”

Therefore, when you “come as you are” into the fold of Christ, you must submit to God’s word and Spirit to work on you in order not to remain as you are. If after a couple of years as a Christian, the mouth, eyes, ears, legs, hands etc are still under Satan’s use and control, drop all positions with the pride attached to it and cry to God for help, Mark9:43-45. What distinguishes you from another person is your mind, emotion and will. Once you allow the Holy Spirit to work on these, you become another man; your mind becomes that of God, ‘will’ becomes the will of God. Instead of tearing apart, you repair the breach, Isaiah58:12. People read JESUS in you and He is glorified. Two mysteries were narrated in Lk1; John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ conceptions. The same Angel gave the messages of good news to both. One of the recipients of the goodnews was muted (i.e. the door of doubt was locked, there is danger in verbalizing your doubt before the angel of the Lord) and the other rejoiced (she believed (faith), Lk1:38). One’s divine visitation was an answer to prayer (and this is why you should operate in the spirit of 1Thes5:17/Eph6:18/ Lk18:1 and not complain) while the other was just FAVOR. The parent of John The Baptist were righteous but had no child, Lk1:5-7. Though age was not on their side, yet they took side with prayer and ministry (hope). People had given the mother of John the name “barren” but she and the husband never allowed that to distract their devotion to God; they remained blameless. God listed them to be part of His plan for the salvation of mankind. I guess Zacharias was muted because he had read and heard about Abraham, and the angel was not expecting him as a priest to doubt the repetition of the miracle. But for Mary, such had never been, hitherto. The Angel said the Holy Spirit would bring about the fulfillment of His word and favor in the life of Mary. If John was to fulfill the mission and prophecy of Lk1:15-17, he needed to be empowered. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth released the baptism of the Spirit for the assignment into John while in the womb just as the angel said in verse15.

Luke 1:15 “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

Luke2 is about Jesus; his birth and development. The angel explained to Mary how the Holy Spirit will work it out. Jesus was carrying the holiness of the Most High right at conception by the Holy Spirit, and this was for His growth until when the assignment will be due. What happened after His baptism by John was the Spirit for the divine assignment. If you are praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for signs and wonders, you need to pray for the inward baptism first to mature you out of spiritual childishness.

God protected Jesus through communication with Joseph in the dream. Here we could see the importance of dreams. Though Joseph was not a prophet or priest, he lived a righteous life and his dreams were quite prophetic. When a child of God suffers defeat in the dream, there is an issue to take care of. Your dream must be your spiritual prophet to reveal deep things to you. There are some things that border me, though; where were the owners of the manger and why did the Angel visited another set of shepherds and not the owners of the manger? They missed a contact in their lives and so we never heard of them. Quite unfortunate! Your leg will not yield to satanic order when good thing is about to happen to you this year in the name of Jesus. My deduction is that, they left their flocks for the township, either to sleep in the Inn or gone to enjoy the worldly splendor or party somewhere. The other shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks, Lk2:8. Those who love their bed don’t get much, Prov6:4-11. But those who “keep watch” over their assignments will ever receive divine messages. Without any doubt, we could see in these chapters that Jesus is the Son of God in fulfillment of Isaiah9:6-7. Prayer: O Lord, break me and re-mould me for purpose, IJN. Our reading for today is Luke4-6. Keep the fire burning and alive. Spread the gospel of JESUS!!!

Bible In One Year-Day 33 (Sunday, February 02, 2014)

Commentary: Exo37-40. In our last reading we learnt about the ministries of the prophets and the priests. A prophet is covered with God’s glory under the veil (Ex34:33-35) while the priest is covered with the garment of ministry (Ex39:41). This is not the garment of salvation. The priest still needed to secure his own salvation, Heb5:3. Since after Aaron made the Calf for the Israelites and called it the god that brought them out of Egypt, God did not talk with him directly again but through Moses. When your dreams become weird and fearful, consider your ways. Or you don’t remember your dreams anymore, consider your ways. Are you suffering defeats in the dream, consider your ways. This is why Isaiah 59:1-3 is true. We need to take sin seriously in our Christian race. To be wealthy and have great possession is not a sin, but how we use it may make it to become sin. They gave willingly to make the Calf; they also gave with a willing heart to build the tabernacle. One was accepted by God while the other opened the door to plagues. Thank God for Jesus who has upgraded our priesthood to carry His glory by the Holy Spirit. Though Moses received the vision and the details, he was not given the grace to knock the nails into the woods but to supervise it. When God gives the vision, He gives the provision. He selected individuals and filled them with the Spirit to carry out specific tasks in the vision. 1 Cor12 summarizes it all. Problems in the body of Christ have their roots in the spirit of unholy contests and comparisons. Problems within a ministry are due to the same reason whereas the grace to carry out different tasks is given by the same Spirit. As a believer, evaluate yourself concerning your work in God’s vineyard. The goal is JESUS which is God’s plan of salvation for mankind and not us. The plan started with Abraham but Abraham was not the plan. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph weren’t the plan also but vessels for the flow of the spirit for the plan and purpose. Another stage was Moses. Moses’ stage was to bring them out of bondage and establish a pattern for the end time; deliverance first, then He introduced holiness to them and possession of their portions. It was not possible for them to worship God appropriately in Egypt; they must come out of Egypt. Nobody could worship God in spirit and in truth without great deliverance from the spirit of death and hell, worldliness and self. It is after deliverance that you could practice holiness and then receive the power to possess your inheritance; that power is in the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Israelites were chosen as the peculiar people for His plan unto Himself for the coming of Christ and also to bring Himself into their midst. He walked with them. Jesus also came to walk among us (John1:14), gave clear and detailed message about the Kingdom and gave the Holy Spirit to work through us for the building of the Kingdom. What a wonderful pattern. The Spirit was fully at work in Ex37-39 just as He is working now, accomplishing different tasks (ministries) for the building of the Kingdom. Bezaleel had his own ministry within a vision, by the same Spirit. What is your ministry within the vision/ blueprint? Are you led by the Spirit or by the ‘spirit’? What God wants is a church without blemish, Eph5:27 and this could only be possible by His Spirit. Ex39:42-43 should be marked in your bible. Beloved, man can mark you right, you could mark yourself also but the truth is that God will do the final marking on the last day. I will want you to read 1Cor4:4-5. So far, in the book of Exodus, we learnt about salvation, deliverance, redemption and establishment of a holy nation unto God. We also saw the ministry of a prophet and the ministry of priesthood. The book of Leviticus is the guide for the priests. It is a book that might look boring, but I must confess to you that it is the most interesting. You could see Christ in every chapter of the book. But before we go into the book we need to know who JESUS is. The bible is ALL ABOUT JESUS. In this view, we are reading the book of Luke. Today our reading is Luke1-3. Prayer: O Lord, show me Your glory (this is Moses’ prayer). Keep the fire burning and alive. Spread the gospel of JESUS!!!

Bible In One Year-Day 32 (Saturday, February 01, 2014)

Commentary: Exod33-36. ‘Dancing with the Egyptian god’. Egyptians have spiritual person whom they respect very much and could consult. At the death of such personality, they make up an image to represent the perceived power being used by that personality. The images are mostly in the likeness of animals, which is the demon behind the influence on that personality. An average Egyptian could spend a greater percentage, if not all, of his earnings to show his respect, love and dedication to this god. The treasures of the Egyptians were articles of gold and that of silver. They wear ornaments to celebrate and show their devotions to their gods. The Israelites adopted and carried this concept behind their minds out of Egypt.  The Israelites perceived Moses to be a powerful and good shepherd, probably because of his rod which he was using to make miracles. You should remember also that they were known herdsmen, so they could easily think of Moses in terms of the power he was using. They thought that Moses whom they used to consult and rely on was no more there, therefore, it was better for them to use the blessing of God to make the image of their perceived nature of the God of Moses, a Calf that brought them out of the land of Egypt, Ex32:4.

Exodus 32:4 “And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”

When a child of God chooses to take an alternative route out of impatience to achieve, or uses God’s blessings to enjoy or serve the pleasures of sin (Heb11:25), that is “DANCING WITH THE EGYPTIAN GOD”. Ironically, the result is Ex32:35.

Exodus 32:35 “And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.”

Whatever you have should be used to serve the Lord with a cheerful heart, Ex35:5,10&21 We could easily identify the great differences between a prophet of God and a priest of God. A prophet acts on the will of God while a priest acts on the will of the people. A prophet seeks to please God while a priest seeks to please the people. A prophet goes back to God to seek for solution, while a priest goes to the people to seek for what they want or their opinion. A prophet identifies and deals with the root of any problem while the priest dresses the problem up in adoring attire with the slang “it doesn’t matter” (there are ugly things under beautiful cloths). Moses went to God in the time of this plague and the solution was given to him, Ex33:5-6.

Exodus 33:5-6 “For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.”

A prophet seeks for the way of God, knowledge and the grace to lead people through, Ex33:13, but a priest is interested in the acts of God, i.e. miracles, just for him to be accepted. Moses took his tent far from the camp because sin had entered the camp. So, a child of God must never identify with the vices prevalent in the society now. A prophet seeks to settle the matter of sin but the priest tries to bribe the conscience. Anytime you realize that you are so trouble in the heart concerning an act, seek to settle it by the standards of the bible. For example, where restitution is needful, don’t bribe the conscience, rather make it and get your peace back. Conscience is the voice of your inner witness (the spirit) which communicates with the Holy Spirit. Once you start listening to it (not hear it), your life becomes so peaceful and glorious. Another attribute of a prophet is that, he is so passionate and can go to any length to be of help for the deliverance of his flocks, especially when it comes to the issue of sin, Ex32:31-32.

Exodus 32:31-32 “And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”

But for a priest, there is a way of escape for his own life and an accusation for your wrong doing without rendering any help to bring you out. Prophets don’t live by hear-say or sight, but by the directives and instructions of the Holy Spirit; whatever is not of the Spirit is not true. The priest, on the other hand, listens to what the people say or your story and act based on that report from man. Prophets promote the truth (i.e. as it is before God – real-time information) while priests promote facts (physical evidences as seen). Just as the prophet and the priest have their own roles to play, the followers must not be stiff-necked. A genuine man of God will not tell you what you want to hear but what God says. It will be disastrous for you to reject it and go for your own mind. However, it is good that you recognize a man of God by praying for revelation about him and not by acts, i.e. miracles or what the people say. God, in His package, will reveal a problem and also give the solution. A lot have received prophecies which were not from God. Prophecy which is not from God has its symptoms; it first leads into serious trouble and it is confusing (genuine prophecies are not confusing but could look unbelievable. The reality comes up with time). The spirit of a prophet, as seen in Moses, develops a deep relationship with God. Moses dialogued with God and won the grace of God, Ex33:12-23. He now used that grace to intercede for his flock, though, they were sinners, Ex34:9.

Exodus 34:9 “And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.”

That of a priest is shallow and all is to read the Bible for the purpose of preparing sermon in a philosophical manner (1Cor2:5) and argue with people, not to go deeper with God. You could know a man deep in God by the kind of glory that reflects out of him (Ex34:29-30), in wisdom, knowledge, understanding and power. The man of God with deep relationship with God delivers messages with power to the conviction of the hearer, but the philosophical preacher delivers messages to the excitement of the hearers. God is a jealous God and the simple meaning of Ex34:15 is that you be careful of counsels; not all good counsels are godly or of God. Only one type of offering is accepted by the Lord and that is the offering from a willing heart. Only one set of people could work for God in a pleasing manner; those with a willing heart and full of His Spirit, Ex35:30-36:2. The Spirit directs you through the details of God’s mind just as seen in chapter36. Compare with 1Cor2:10.

1 Corinthians 2:10 “But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, empower me against the appearances and thoughts of sin. We are rounding up the book of Exodus today, Ex37-40. Keep the fire burning and alive. Spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!!!