Happy New Year!

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year!

Every year I wait on the Lord to give me a Word (usually a verse from scripture) for the New Year. But this time I didn't spend much time before He gave me this word for 2016, "Wonders".

This year is going to be a year of signs and wonders; signs in nature, etc as God will prove His existence and power to an unrepentant world to get them to come to Him in repentance, and wonders as He will work wonders for and through His people.

A great harvest is ready but the Church is not; however, the Lord will not delay this harvest anymore.

Judgement has already begun in the house of God. He has been calling His people to mend their ways and to walk in righteousness for long enough. Now, the Church will be cleansed of tares, chaff and wolves through the fires of persecution and hardship. But the faithful will be blessed and provided for miraculously.

Darkness will increase in the world but the Light of the Spirit of God will burn even brighter.
It is time for us to get our acts together and get close to Him as never before, preparing for the coming months.

We must stop just 'claiming' Psalm 91 and start 'living' it, by learning to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Then, this year He will be able 'honour us  and set us on high because we know His Name'.

God bless you all and make you prosper as never before that you will be a sign to the world that Jesus Christ our Lord is God indeed!

"Take off Your Sandal"

Then the Commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take you sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.

                                                                                                                                 -Josh 5:15

Now about Joshua, why did the Angel of the LORD tell him to take off his sandal from his foot instead of his sandals from his feet?

Well either Joshua was one legged (could have lost a foot in battle) or this could simply be an ancient Hebrew idiom for both feet.

Or maybe something else was going on here...

In Deut 25 and in Ruth 4 we read of the kinsman redeemer. When a piece of land was to be redeemed but the one who had the right to redeem it forfeited this right in favour of someone else the first man took off one sandal from his foot and gave to the second man.

Here Joshua was going in with the nation of Israel to redeem the land of Canaan from the heathen whose sin was now 'full'. When The Angel of the LORD told him to remove one sandal, He was telling Joshua that the LORD was the true redeemer of the land and that He would fight Joshua's battle. And though Joshua would be the leader of Israel, God would be their Lord and the land of Israel belonged to God Himself.

But He would redeem the the land on His own terms not on the terms of the Israelites. When Israel obeyed God they were victorious but when they harboured sin, as in the case of the battle of Ai, they were defeated.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our redeemer and the true owner and Master of our lives and all that we have and are. If only we would remember this we could save ourselves a lot of frustration and trouble; if only we could learn to seek His kingdom first and to walk in obedience and faith because He is now responsible for us and our well-being, if we only obey.

"Take off Your Sandals" - Copied from my previous Blog

Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground."    - Ex 3:5

Then the Commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take you sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.  -Josh 5:15

Hmmmmm...., so why did God ask Moses and Joshua to take off their sandals? (Just one sandal in Joshua's case; was he one-legged??)

And what made the places they were standing on holy?

The reason that these two men were ased to take off their sandals is given in the text itself: "for the place where you stand is holy...".  Here in India we can easily relate to this; people of all religions here (Except Christians!!!) take off their shoes or sandals before entering their places of worship. (Well, in the 'traditional' churches the priest does take off his shoes before stepping onto the church altar)

The primary and most obvious reason for this is to keep the place clean; allowing footwear inside would dirty the place in no time at all because of all the dust and dirt that could come in stuck to the shoes. This is also why shoes and sandals used outside are not allowed inside so many homes, especially in the kitchen.

 Moses and Joshua also lived in a culture where such respect was shown for places of worship or 'houses of gods', ie- holy places. So when the Angel of the LORD commanded them to take off their sandals, they realized that they were in the presence of God. And it was this Presence that seems to have made that ground holy. Though Mt Sinai does seem to have had some sort of history as it is called the 'mountain of God' in Ex 3.

But then what do sandals signify spiritually? Sandals generally accumulate a lot of dust as they are being used, even more so in ancient times. Man has been formed out of dust, in other words, the flesh is dust; that is to say, dust signifies flesh.

So when these men of God were told to take off their sandals, God was telling them to get rid of the flesh, not in the literal sense of course but in the figurative sense with the flesh meaning carnality and all human weaknesses. Because now, the LORD Himself was going to transform and empower them for the mighty works that they were going to do.

So we too, when we enter into the presence of God, must put off our flesh, or as the apostle Paul put it, mortify our flesh; so that God will be able to breathe His life into us and empower us to do the work that He has called us for.

Now about Joshua, why did the Angel of the LORD tell him to take off his sandal from his foot instead of his sandals from his feet?

That's for the next post ....

Indian Politics Today

Someone sent me the following story that, in my opinion, best illustrates the political scene of our country today.

Once there was a family of jackals that lived in the forest outside a small village in India: Papa Jackal, Mama Jackal & Baby Jackal.
One day Baby Jackal started throwing a tantrum because it wanted to eat human flesh. Papa & Mama Jackal tried very hard to dissuade their child from this but it just wouldn't listen.
Papa Jackal went hunting and brought back the carcass of a calf but Baby Jackal wouldn't touch it. Mama Jackal went hunting and brought back the carcass of a pig but Baby Jackal wouldn't even look at it. It wanted human flesh only. 
Papa and Mama Jackal were worried. If they attacked any human in the village then the rest of the villagers would surely hunt down and kill the whole jackal family. But Baby Jackal just wouldn't listen.
Then they had a bright idea. In the dead of the night, they took the carcass of the calf and left it in front of the village temple and the pig's carcass they left in front of the village mosque.
The next afternoon when they took Baby Jackal to the village, its streets will filled with carcasses of human beings. 
The whole Jackal family feasted for days.

One can only hope and pray that our politicians start behaving like decent human beings and stop trying to feed their political careers with the carcasses of Indian citizens.

God help us all...

The Indian Church

I had often wondered why even after two thousand years the Church in India has not really grown. In the last census we were a little over 2% of the population. This despite the fact that the Church here was established by two of the original apostles, Thomas in the South and Nathaniel or Bartholomew in the North.

And then in September this year the LORD spoke to me: -

6th Sept 2015- I was in church when I saw this vision: I saw a vast army dressed in dazzling white ('as bright as lightning' like the prophet Daniel put it) Each soldier had a sword at his/her side and a hand on the sword. But the sword was only slightly drawn from its sheath.

Interpretation- The army is the Church in India. In two thousand years, over many generations we have not really unsheathed and used our sword- which is the Word of God. It is now high time, as we are in the final hours of this age to finally draw this sword and use it aggressively to win this nation to the Lord. This can be done first and foremost by memorizing the scriptures and quoting and declaring them over our own lives and over this nation.

Daniel 4:17 mentions the 'decree of the watchers'. When things can get done by the decree of angelic beings how much more can be accomplished by the decrees of believers created in the image of God, redeemed by His blood and adopted into His family to be joint-heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Rom 8) Our decrees of course cannot be selfish or soulish for that is a way to destruction but our decrees must be in line with the Word of God and be led and under the control of His Spirit.

So let us unsheathe God's Word and decree the Word and will of our Lord Jesus Christ over our nation.

13th Sept 2015- I woke up at 1 AM with the words 'The Church at Pergamos, the Church at Pergamos" repeating over and over in my head. So I looked up the passage in Revelation 2:12-17 that is the letter of our Lord Jesus to this church.

India also is like Pergamos, 'where Satan has his throne'.

The church in India, like the one at Pergamos has had its martyrs and has endured through persecution but it is also guilty of Nicolaitanism and of Balaam's sin.

'Nicolaitanism' refers to the elite ruling over the 'laity'- commoners. That is to say, generally, the clergy ruling over the congregation. In other words, the spiritual leaders are separate from the spiritual followers in spite of the apostle Peter's admonishment that each Christian is part of a 'Royal Priesthood' or as Martin Luther put it, "Every man his own priest", under the Lordship and High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But where the spiritual leadership does not lord over its congregation we see Nicolaitanism or elistism of a different kind where the rich and powerful in the world rule over or have influence over the others in the body of Christ. In traditional churches sometimes the trustees 'rule over' the priest!

We are also guilty of Balaam's sin, which in one word can be described as 'Compromise'.

Balaam was a prophet who clearly, could hear the voice of the Living God. But while he did not dare to directly disobey God he found ways to please his earthly lord, King Balaak and corrupted the children of Israel by leading them into sin.

Balaam was guilty of hypocrisy, greed and compromise. The Indian church too is guilty of the same sins and must repent, all the while continuing to be faithful through persecution and hardships like the Pergamos Church. Then the LORD will open His Word and reveal hidden secrets to us and give us a new and magnificent name.

Amen!

My New Blog

Here I am again, with a new blog. I won't be posting anymore on my old one on account of it's complicated name and my tardiness in updating it regularly...
This one is a more general blog where I'll be posting some of my thoughts relating mostly but not restricted to my personal Bible studies. Hopefully this blog will be updated more regularly now that I have a little more free time.
So, here goes nothing....!!!