Category: June 2016

1 Corinthians 11:24

…and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Have you ever taken a close look at the Matzah bread that the Jews eat during their Passover meal? The bread, which is unleavened, is pierced with rows of little holes forming stripes. It is also slightly burnt. Many churches today use this bread for the Holy Communion. Do you know why the bread is pierced, striped and burnt? The bread that you hold in your hands when you partake of the Lord’s Supper speaks of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ when He bore our sins and sicknesses on the cross.

Like the bread, He was also pierced in His brow by the crown of thorns as well as in His hands and feet by the nails. He was also pierced in His side by a soldier’s spear. The prophet Isaiah says, “He was pierced for our transgressions…” (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)

Like the bread, He was scourged on His back until His flesh was all torn and bloody, and His bones were exposed, so that today, you can say, “By His stripes I am healed!” (Isaiah 53:5) What about the burnt marks on the bread? The full fire of God’s wrath fell on Jesus, burning up our sins into ashes, and at the same time, bringing out the fragrance of the offering of Jesus. Today, your sins and lawless deeds are but ashes, and your Father in heaven remembers them no more! (Hebrews 8:12)

So the next time you partake of the bread during the Holy Communion, know that Jesus was pierced for your sins and scourged for your healing. He bore God’s fiery judgment so that you will never be judged for your sins! He also bore your diseases and carried your pains so that you can walk in divine health!

When you discern these precious truths about our Lord’s body, you are partaking of the Holy Communion in a worthy manner. And you will not be weak and sickly, nor die before your time. (1 Corinthians 11:27-30) No, you will be strong and healthy, and you will live long!

2 Corinthians 3:6

…for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

To the Jews, the feast of Pentecost is a celebration of the giving of God’s law. It takes place 50 days after the Passover feast. When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, it was 50 days after they had celebrated their first Passover and come out of slavery in Egypt.

But what happened after God gave them the law on the first Pentecost? Three thousand people died! (Exodus 32:28) Contrast this with another Pentecost in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, it says that when Pentecost had fully come, God gave not the law but the Holy Spirit, and what happened? Three thousand people got saved (Acts 2:41), which goes to show that “the letter [the law] kills, but the Spirit gives life”! The law, which was”written and engraved on stones”, ministered death. It killed 3,000 people. That is why the apostle Paul calls it “the ministry of death” and “the ministry of condemnation”. (2 Corinthians 3:7-9) On the other hand, the Spirit ministered life – 3,000 people got saved. When you come under the law by trying to keep God’s commandments in order to be blessed, it will lead to death. There will be deadness in your marriage, ministry, health, career, and in your life. But when you depend on the Spirit of grace, it will lead to life. You will see breakthroughs and miracles (Galatians 3:5), and manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

So if you want to be blessed, make sure that you are on the right mountain. The law was given on Mount Sinai, but the Spirit on Mount Zion. That is why the Bible says that “you have not come to the mountain [Sinai] that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels”. (Hebrews 12:18, 22) The Lord blesses you out of Zion (Psalm 128:5), and not Sinai!

By grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) Now, continue in the Spirit of grace. Remain on the right mountain and He will continue to supply miracles in your life!

Deuteronomy 28:3

“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.”

You may have heard of people who think that to have better “luck”, they have to move to a new home, work for a certain company or even move to another country. The truth is that it is not the place that gets you the blessings, but whether God’s blessing is on you. And for you, child of God, you are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:3) He has paid for your blessings with His blood. So the blessing is not on the land but on the man!

It was in the city of Jerusalem that Jesus was whipped, cursed and spat on. And it was outside the city on Calvary’s hill that He was pierced and crucified. That is why you are blessed in the city as well as outside in the country! In fact, you are blessed regardless of your location. Perhaps you work in a non-Christian company and your boss doesn’t quite like you. In fact, he sometimes mistreats you. But God can still bless you in spite of your boss. You get blessed because you believe God for it. It has nothing to do with your boss or the company.

So why don’t you see the blessings? If you don’t see the blessings, check what you have been believing and saying. Some people complain and blame everyone and everything around them – their parents, race, gender, environment and government – for their lack of blessings. I want you to believe and confess that you are blessed because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, not because you are of a certain race or work in a certain place.

It does not matter where you work or live, what color your skin is or what you do for a living. If God blesses you, you are blessed! And it is all because of Jesus. So say to yourself, “I am blessed wherever I am – blessed in the city, blessed in the country!”

1 Corinthians 2:16

…we have the mind of Christ.

Have you heard things like, “I must be losing my mind since I can’t seem to remember anything anymore”? Maybe you have even said it yourself a couple of times! But who says that as you grow older, you are supposed to forget things?

When the late Reverend Kenneth E Hagin was in his eighties, he was still healthy and strong. This amazing man of God would run around the platform as he preached. And those who have heard him preach would tell you that he had an amazing memory with which he could recall specific details such as the day of the week that a specific date fell on and even the time. Even at that age, the man’s memory was superb! He once shared how he had started to forget things when he was in his fifties. He had read a medical journal which said that every day millions of cells in our brains die. He didn’t realize it, but those words got into his spirit and he started to forget things.

So he asked the Lord, “What is happening to me?” And the Lord said, “You read that article and you believed it.” He repented and asked the Lord what he should do. The Lord said, “Confess My Word. My Word says that you have the mind of Christ, and the mind of Christ never forgets.” He started to confess that he had the mind of Christ and that was how his memory remained sharp for the rest of his life.

The Word of God says that you have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is not old, slow or forgetful! I don’t care how old you get. You don’t have to become forgetful. Don’t believe and confess what medical science or your friends say. Believe and confess the Word of God which brings life.

The power of life and death is in your tongue. (Proverbs 18:21) So use your tongue for life. Don’t sit around saying, “I am getting old and forgetful.” Say, “I have the mind of Christ. My mind is sharp and quick because it is the mind of Christ!” Believe it, confess it, and see your thinking and memory live up to it!

Exodus 15:26

…I am the Lord who heals you.”

Do you know that the first compound name that the Lord revealed to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt was Jehovah Rapha, which means the Lord who heals you? It was as if He was telling them, as they began their new life with Him, that He had already healed them of all the diseases and pains they suffered when they were in bondage in Egypt. Indeed, when He brought them out of Egypt, “there was none feeble among His tribes”. (Psalm 105:37)

Today, just as the Israelites were delivered from their bondage in Egypt and from slavery to Pharaoh, you have also been delivered from the bondage of sin and sickness, and from slavery to the devil, by the blood of the Lamb. And the Lord, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, still says to you, “I am the Lord who heals you.”

If the doctor has given you a bad report regarding your health, don’t despair. Look to Jesus and expect healing for your body. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is still Jehovah Rapha – the Lord who heals you!

Psalm 107:20

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Your Bible will do you no good if you leave it on your bedside table, gathering dust. It will do you no good if you hold it like a teddy bear when you are facing your “giants”. But God’s Word will do you a lot of good when you receive it as truth and speak it as truth! Then, you will see your healing and deliverance from every evil condition that has been sent to destroy you! The Bible says that “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions”.

Now, when God wants to heal you, what does He do? He sends His Word. Before God delivers you from your destruction, He sends His Word. Are you still waiting to experience the blessing of healing that Jesus died on the cross to give you? Don’t feel condemned. Your Father in heaven loves you and wants you well. But how does your healing come? By you receiving His Word on healing that He has already sent you. His promises of healing are all there in your Bible. But have you received them?

Never underestimate the power of God’s Word, confess it and received your miracle.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time…

Nothing happens to you by accident when you have God in your life. Even a “chance” meeting with someone is part of His plan to set in motion His blessings in your life.

Such was the divinely arranged meeting of the Shunammite woman and Prophet Elisha. It led to the prophet pronouncing over her the blessing of a miracle child even though she was barren and her husband was old. (2 Kings 4:8-17) A few years later, it was this friendship with the man of God, which saw her through a crisis when her son fell seriously ill and died – Elisha raised her son back to life. (2 Kings 4:18-37)

When God is the one orchestrating the events in your life, neither lack nor danger nor destruction can affect you. When famine hit the land, the Shunammite woman’s family did not suffer because through Elisha, God had told them to leave the land. They went to the land of the Philistines and dwelt there throughout the seven years of famine. (2 Kings 8:1-2)

God can place you at the right place at the right time, even through your daily decision-making. The Shunammite woman returned to Shunem after the famine had ended. She then decided to appeal to the king of Israel for help to regain her house and land, which had been illegally acquired by others during her absence. This decision brought her before the king on the same day that Elisha’s servant Gehazi was in audience with the king. The king wanted to hear all about the miracles performed by Elisha. This gave the Shunammite woman the opportunity to share firsthand with the king how Elisha had raised her son from the dead. The thrilled king then ordered the restoration of her house and land, including all the proceeds of the field from the day that she had left until then. (2 Kings 8:3-6) The Lord had timed and set up everything beautifully for her!

God can also make all things beautiful in its time for you. As you involve Him in your daily life and trust His love for you, you too will see Him lead and place you at the right place at the right time to enjoy His blessings.

Ephesians 3:19

to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I think you would agree that we would all like to experience more health, abundance and success in our lives. God, being God, has all of these things. So to be full of God is to be full of health, abundance and success. But how does one become full of God?

You may have heard that to be “filled with all the fullness of God”, you had to fast a certain number of days, pray a certain number of hours and speak in tongues incessantly! I am not belittling fasting, praying or speaking in tongues, but to be filled with all the fullness of God is not about what you do. It is not even about your love for Christ. It is actually about knowing the love of Christ! No one ever told me that if I knew how much God loves me and focused on His love for me, I would be full of Him.

When God made you, He designed you to run at optimal level when you are filled with His love, like a car that runs at its best when it is filled with the right kind of gasoline. When you realize how much God loves you and you feed on His love for you, you will be supernaturally filled with the fullness of God. And to be full of God is to be full of everything God is to you and has for you. To be full of God is to come to a place of life, health, peace, abundance and total wellness. Also, when you are conscious of how much God loves you and you become filled with the fullness of God, what follows is the next verse – God doing exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think, according to the power that works in you. (Ephesians 3:20) You will experience the tremendous blessings of God exploding in your life! You will become a blessing magnet!

So as God’s beloved, continue to be nourished by His love for you, and experience more health, abundance and success in your life!