ENCIRCLE, SHOUT AND CAPTURE!!

Encircle, shout and capture!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Joshua 6:20 – When the trumpet sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

The defense experts of modern days will marvel at the way God helps His children to capture territories. When the joy of the Lord is their strength, and as they shout in the name of their Lord, He uses their sounds and shouts of faith to crumble even the strongest walls. When God’s people believe on His Word without doubt or questioning, God makes things happen in their lives even without using their hands. They need to exercise their hearts which emanate faith in the power of their God. Their soldiers were ready with swords, but those swords were to destroy the flesh of the land. They saw to it that they walked behind the Ark with full obedience. The Ark was their hope and trust because the glory of the Lord dwelt in the Ark. It was not a march to fight, but to claim victory. They started from victory and attained greater victory. They walked by faith and believed that God had delivered the land into their hands even before they started. They obeyed the commands of God in walking thirteen times in a week without questioning the logic for simply walking around their object. But as they walked, their God walked with them and before them. He proved to them once again that His victory is not with sword, chariots and horses, but with His mighty hands of power and strength which He demonstrates for His children in their varying situations. Today this God of ours is walking with us and in front of us as we face seemingly insurmountable walls, fortresses, seas, storms and waves. His command for us today is to walk with Him and be a miracle. He wants us to trust Him wholeheartedly and walk boldly. When we thus walk by faith, the world around us might make fun of us for our illogical methods and blind trust in God for all our situations. Our walk of faith is for us to get victory and it is at the same time a great message for the onlookers to see and believe what our God can do for us as well. We are invited today to walk with Him to enjoy His blessings and victory.

Dear reader, are you bewildered by seeing great stone walls in front of you? Do you ever wonder how you would move forward because of the formidable opposition that you face? But you need to realize that your God knows all about the obstruction and has a plan to circumvent it. He goes before you and walks in front of you. His glory is your escort and it is His glory that leads you from the front. Just as you followed God’s glory in your desert experiences in the past, you need to walk behind and in the shadow of His glory now and claim victory in His name. As you claim it for the Lord, you need to appropriate it by faith. When you believe that God has given you victory in your difficult situation, start with praise and shouts of joy. With such shouts of victory, go forward to capture and possess the new territory for God. This victory that God gives you over the opposition is opportunity that is spread before you. It need not be simply a psychological feeling, but a physical reality in your everyday life. As you capture the new opportunity, all flesh and fleshly temptations must be destroyed and all valuable material must be kept for God. If you keep the flesh and the valuables for yourself, God would be displeased. He wants to give you things which are far above what any one has seen, heard or thought about. Today if you are facing insurmountable situations in life and if you find it invincible, don’t simply walk around in desperation.  Your God wants you to capture it by faith as you walk with Him and shout victory in His name.

Psalms 89:15 – Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of your countenance.

Thought for Today

God’s people who walk along with His glory and the sound of His trumpet will produce His joyful sound of victory.

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FAITH THAT CONFRONTS HINDRANCES!!

 Faith that confronts hindrances!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Joshua 4:23 – The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

God works in different ways in our affairs based on the intensity of our needs and situations. He does what is essential to keep us going in times of trouble. He acts at the right time to remove hindrances to help us tread smoothly. He interferes in nature and reverses its course to facilitate forward thrust for us. He removes fear of the hindrance from our hearts and eyes. His miracles are qualitatively and quantitatively sufficient to meet with every blockage that the enemy brings on our pathway. He demonstrated His great power to divide the Red Sea to make dry ground for His people to cross over. Compared to that, crossing over Jordan was much simpler. But unless the hindrance was removed, God’s people couldn’t cross over. God taught them that He was available for their great and small needs at the right time and place. He speaks to us today that He is available and sufficient to meet all our simple and complex. When the hindrance is removed, it would always cause us to give Him thanks because He has done what was seemingly impossible. We know how our faculties fail us in front of even the smallest hindrance. But trusting God to remove the hindrance means that we leave it to Him and wait for His orders. Sometimes He gives us a part to play in it like the role of Moses to use his staff or the stepping in of the priests into Jordan. But God expects us to play our part by faith and in full obedience, and leave the mighty act of removal of hindrance to Him. Sometimes the hindrance is removed before we reach the spot, but at other times, He expects us to come to the hindrance and get a feel of its magnitude and awesomeness. But the One who leads us to the brink of hindrance would also remove it.

Dear friend, are you confronted with a great and awesome hindrance in your walk with your Lord today? Is it stark darkness, insurmountable hill, vast ocean, steep river, walled city, great army, huge monster like Goliath, financial difficulty, health problem,  your own fear and lack of courage or deep frustration that is preventing you to go forward? Remember, your God is able to remove all hindrances whether they are big like Red Sea or small like river Jordan. He has already planned amazing things for you to accomplish on the other side of the hindrance. But you have to overcome hindrances by faith. Perhaps you need to command the sea to be removed. At other times, you might be required to step into the water and it will recede.  At times He asks you to fill your water jars and He will transform it into wine. At other times He wants you to walk around the strong wall and it will crumble. When you shout for God, He makes the great armies to get bewildered and flee. Even a small smooth stone from your crude sling is sufficient to make Goliaths to tumble down before you. He strengthens you with heavenly bread and water so that you can run faster than the chariots of kings to reach Horeb to continue with your ministry. When God exercises His perfect will in removing the hindrances in front of you, it is your responsibility to take the first step of faith as per His instruction to see His mysterious ways in making your pathway smooth. Today He is challenging you to take that first step forward rather than getting anxious about the hindrance and get frustrated. You are given the authority by the Lord Jesus to command the hindrance by faith to be removed from your pathway. Let us not retreat from the pathway that our Lord has established for us, but strive forward with courage, boldness and confidence in His power. As we step forward by faith, we will see victory for the praise of His name.

Joshua 3:13 – As soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord – the Lord of all the earth – set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.

Thought for Today

When faith boldly confronts hindrance, it will flee away.

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PROGRESSIVE PROVISIONS!!

Progressive provisions!

Verse for Today:  Monday, November 05, 2012

Joshua 5:12 – The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.

God’s provisions for His children are progressive at varying times. For some years He provided them with manna because they were on a pilgrimage and had no time to settle for a season to cultivate. But when they reached the land of Canaan, He expected them to stay in the land and work to produce crops for their livelihood. It is interesting to see that both manna and the crops in Canaan came because of the benevolence of God. He taught His children that unless He performs the miracle of increase, their seeds would not germinate to give them fruit of their labor. He gave them the land to cultivate, provided water for the crops to grow and yield from the land they chose to plant. He gave them the strength to till the land and plant. He also gave them the patience to wait for the harvest. Ultimately God taught the Israelites that all their provisions come from Him and because of Him through the miracles that He performs in creation for the sustenance of His children. Thus God helped them to learn the principle of progressive provisions for His children for which they ought to depend on Him. He also wanted them to live with grateful hearts for all that He gives them on a daily basis. Today He teaches His children everywhere to acknowledge that He is their provider no matter where they are at any particular time. So we ought to depend on Him and not on our technology or knowledge for all good things to flow to us. He uses seasons and times to teach His children total dependence on Him for all their needs.

Dear reader, are you a needy person today in the physical, social, mental and spiritual spheres of life? Have you reached the bottom of your flour and oil jars like that of the Samaritan widow during the time Prophet Elisha? Is there not anything left for the next meal or for the next need to meet? You might be crying out of anxiety because you do not know from where the resources would come. But your Lord knows from where provisions would come because He has sent them to you. He is your provider and sustainer. He uses different means to sustain you at different times as He did for the people of Israel. Whether the provisions come at the split second or through a season of toil in the land, it all comes from the Lord and through His benevolence. But he wants you today to depend on Him for your every need. Long before you realize your need, your Lord knew everything about it. He has been working behind the scene to provide for you in unusual ways. His provisions will come at the right time and often at the brink of time. He is teaching you to depend on Him and leave it with Him to work out. Sometimes it is your privilege to pick up ready made provisions. At other times He opens the right avenues for you to work for it with His strength and reap the results of your toil through the principles He has established in creation. Your Lord would not let you wander hungry like an orphan. He leads you today like sheep among His flock with water, food and other necessities so that you would be a satisfied and grateful sheep of His pasture. He will give you courage, boldness and faith to trust Him for all your needs. It will cause you to testify to His faithfulness today and in the days to come.

Psalms 145:15 – The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time.

Thought for Today

God meets His children’s varying needs through mysterious and progressive means at all the time.

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NO ABANDONING!!

No abandoning!

Verse for Today: Sunday, November 04, 2012

Joshua 1:5 – No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Today God’s promises come to us with a multitude of witnesses of faith whose lives demonstrate the faithfulness of God. His faithfulness was clearly visible during the lifetime of Joshua through all the events in the life of Moses which Joshua had witnessed. Joshua also witnessed how God used people like Aaron, Hur and Miriam. God saw to it that the powerful Pharaoh of Egypt could not stand up against Moses. The Red Sea, Marah or Amalakites could not withstand the spiritual fervor and faith of Moses. Joshua also learned that when Moses had to pass away into the presence of God, the work of God would continue. It was this reassurance from God that kept Joshua going in spite of the unfavorable circumstances and the continuous attack of the enemies. Joshua also learned that even before Moses, God was with Abraham and kept His promise of a son. He also knew how God was with Joseph and brought him to Egypt as part of God’s great plan of redemption for mankind. The marvelous works of the Lord during the more than 4 centuries in Egypt was open before Joshua to make great believer out of him. These experiences taught him to believe that it was impossible for God to leave him or forsake him. Joshua found the reassurances of God to him as the reinforcement of his faith to keep going. This was not the time for him to lose hope because Moses was gone, but to keep going forward by believing in God’s promises. Joshua found that God’s promises were evidence based and lively. He found God’s faithfulness credible, believable, trustworthy and powerful for him to understand and accept. Today the God of Joshua is with us and confirms the promises given to Moses and Joshua that He would be with us also to protect, empower and provide for us.

Dear reader, are you shaken because of your present bewildering situations? Is your circumstance leading you to perplexity because of insurmountable hills, devouring enemies, mighty winds and storms and uncertain supply lines? Remember, your Lord is above everything that looks negative and intimidating in your horizon. He rules your circumstances. He overrules any eventuality that tries to engulf you. His presence is with you to help you withstand the pressures of the unfavorable situations which confront you. He will see to it that the Anakites and the Amalakites would not stand against you. They will fall by your side as Goliath fell before the inexperienced little David. He will command the sea to stand guard on both sides of your pathway. He will break the hardest rock to give you water. He will heal the sick water to make it sweet to quench you. His supply line that extended forty years in the wilderness will continue to pour showers of blessings upon you all the days of your life.  Moses, and after a while even Joshua, will pass away, but Jesus will not. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He knows when you are hungry and will become bread for you. He understands when you are thirsty and will be living water for you. What a Friend you have in Jesus when all others reject and resent you. When you are despised, He will welcome you to His presence and fill you with comfort, joy and strength to keep going. He will be with you when you are rejected by your own brethren as in the case of Joseph and David and will elevate you to greater heights. Today let us not look at the heroes of faith, but to their Lord who sustained them. Today our Lord speaks to us through these heroes of faith to reassure us that their Lord, who is our Lord also, will be with us now and forevermore.

Deuteronomy 4:31 – For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath.

Thought for Today

The promises of God are timeless and boundless in power and strength for His children.

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HILLS AND VALLEYS OF GOODNESS!!

Hills and valleys of goodness!

Verse for Today: Saturday, November 03, 2012

Deuteronomy 8:7 – For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land – a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valley and the hills.

God’s will for His children is always good, pleasant and perfect. He offers the fullness of His blessings to His children. The spiritual terrain that He leads His children into is one with experiences of both hills and valleys.  He keeps His blessings both in the valleys and on the hills. His hills are not only filled with sunshine, but also have springs to cool us off during the time of heat and sunshine. His valleys have springs as well as pools to give us water all around the seasons. The valleys give us blessings of the springs and the pools where we can dip and cool ourselves off. There is no dull moment in the spiritual terrain of the Lord where we find grazing field and resting places. It yields fruits of various kinds, grains, oil and honey for healthy balanced diet. But our Lord expects us to work had in the land and enjoy its yields to satisfy our every spiritual need. As we move around in His land of blessings, we will meet His choicest servants telling us of their experiences of how they found fulfillment through the hills and valleys. These experiences are for us to learn to trust the Lord as He wants us to also walk with Him and enjoy the goodness that He has established in His land of blessings. When we are hungry and thirsty, we have to go to Him and quench and satisfy ourselves with the fruit and grains that are sufficient to meet all our inner longings here on earth. Today we are led into the fullness of all the spiritual blessings of the heavenly places. We are blessed with all that Heaven offers spiritually through His Word and the power of His Spirit to live to appropriate what He offers on the hills and in the valleys of our lives.

Dear reader, are you aware of the blessings the Lord has prepared for you as you tread land of spiritual blessings that He has brought you into? You might be passing through the valley of tears today, but the valley has the Lord’s springs and pools to take away your desperation. His living water cools you off the heat of your circumstances and brings out new springs of comfort and encouragement to yourself and others. But He has also given you all the spiritual nourishment that is in the valley to strengthen you in your times of hunger, thirst and weariness in your soul. He has given you His Word which is full of grains, fruit of various kinds, spring water, along with minerals and metals for the ongoing character building. He expects that as you grow older and mature, you work had in the valley and feed yourself from the fruit and grain for your healthy growth and development. There is no shortage for anything in His valleys and on His hills. If you want to enjoy the fullness of His hills, you will have to climb by faith like Caleb. If you like to meet Jehovah-Jireh, you will need to climb mount Moriah. If you want to see the Lord face to face, Mount Sinai is right in front of you. Mount Calvary is there for you to climb to see the suffering Savior and follow Him. You will meet the sons of Korah in the valley of Baca and King David in the valley walking along without fear or anxiety. You will meet Isaac digging wells in the valley and finding plenty of water. Today God’s hills and valleys with the fullness of His blessings can be found in His Word and in the daily experiences of His children where their Lord leads them on a daily basis. He meets us where we are and gives us His blessings to meet all our needs. He provides for us and expects us to appropriate all His provisions by faith to live to testify to His faithfulness.

Psalms 34:10 – The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Thought for Today

God’s hills and valleys invite us today to go and appropriate His goodness to meet our every need.

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LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN FAITH!!

Learning experiences in faith!

Verse for Today: Friday, November 02, 2012

Deuteronomy 8:3 – He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

God uses daily experiences to teach us lessons in life. He allows us to be weak so that we can learn to depend on His strength. He causes us to be hungry so that we would cry unto Him for food which He provides miraculously. He permits sickness in our lives to show us that He is our healer of all our infirmities. He humbles us and helps us to empty ourselves of all our pride and come to Him with open hands and hearts to get filled. God leads us through wonderful experiences which might taste bitter to start with, but will end up in sweet savor of trust and faith in Him. The people of Israel had such situations of valleys with tears, fear, hunger, thirst, weaknesses, sickness, attack from the enemies and heat of the situations. These experiences were unbearably painful and hard to pass through. But God used it all as learning experiences for His children to grow in dependence on Him. Israelites had such experiences throughout their sojourn for forty years. They learned big and valuable lessons in life through these experiences which fortified their faith and trust in their God. They found that God was there for all their needs and that He was sufficient to meet all challenges in life. The God of Israel is with all His children all the time to help them learn to hold on to Him in all situations and circumstances. He allows us to go through rough patches in life which are part of the learning experiences prepared for us by Him. Each day gives us new experiences in life to learn the greatness of our God to meet all our needs in all our unfavorable circumstances. He proves that He is the unchanging God no matter how the circumstances change.

Dear reader, are you making use of all the opportunities God gives you to learn valuable lessons about the way our God cares for you? Are you tempted to feel that these challenging pressures in life are inconveniences in life or are you able to discern its values in building up your faith and trust in Him? Through these painful experiences of shortages, weaknesses, sicknesses, loneliness, rejection and warfare, your Lord shows you that He is ever closer to you to give you His strength to withstand it all. He comes to provide you with a buffer for each of your difficult situations as and when you call upon His name. He uses these situations to prove to you that He keeps all His promises to you. He shows you in the valleys of your life that He is with you through rain, snow, sunshine, dark clouds, dampness and the heat of the desert that He walks with you and carries you in His hands. He keeps you under His shadow. When you cry, He comes with the right answers to all your cares. But His primary purpose in allowing these bitter experiences in your life is to strengthen your faith to weather away these storms and prepare you for greater storms in life. When you find life a Marah, God makes it sweet. When you find lions around you, He comes to shut their mouths. When the furnaces open their mouths to devour you, He comes to encompass around you with Himself. Through it all, our God teaches us to depend on Him in all our situations. Today let us look for learning experiences daily to keep trusting God for all our situations and grow in our faith in His unchanging grace in all circumstances.

Psalms 94:14 – For the Lord will not reject His people; He will never forsake His inheritance.

Thought for Today

All our experiences each day fill us with lessons and evidences of God’s faithfulness to us.

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CRAVING FOR GOD!!

Craving for God!

Verse for Today: Thursday, November 01, 2012

Exodus 33:13 – If You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to find favor with You.

When we know God closely and see His glory, a Godly fear fills our hearts with the awesomeness of His majesty. The vision of God fills our hearts with His glory and makes us realize what we should ask of Him. Such a vision changes our entire perspectives in life. God will then become our priority and desire and nothing else. When we do not know God so well, we might be tempted to ask for favors and possessions in this life. But as we draw closer to God, we would find that anything that we receive from God would have no value at all as compared to developing a deeper understanding of who God really is and to continue to enjoy His favor. It will also develop a great thirst in us to find what pleases God rather than man. This was the experience of Moses as he became more and more conscious of the majesty of God. Our God satisfies the desires of His people who seek His ways and want to please Him. When we see the glittering glory of God, our desire for anything tangible will diminish and disappear from our hearts as God fills us with Himself. Paul had such a desire to know Him more and enjoy the fullness of the power of His resurrection. For Paul, everything tangible was trash as he only desired greater godliness and holiness in life. What we ask from God reveals whether we have really seen His awesomeness and majesty. Moses found what he asked for as God was pleased with him and his deep desire for God. Our God is willing to grant us our most sublime desires for Him today. In the light of His majesty, all that we see around us will become mere passing shadows. The more we see Him, the greater will be our appreciation of His glory. The more we serve Him, the sweeter will He become to our emotions.  As we continue to desire to know Him deeper, He will reveal Himself in all majesty to us to fill every area of vacuum in our lives.

Dear reader, what is your greatest desire for God today? Are you merely interested in getting some things from God to meet your daily needs or some wants? Or do you have a deeper desire to know Him more intimately and be filled with His glory in every area of your life? Moses and Paul could have asked for a lot of things in life and in the ministry itself which they did at the earlier part of their sojourn. But as they grew more in grace, their desire for even blessings in the ministry took a lower priority as compared to their desire to get to know God more intimately. Moses wanted more of God’s greatness in his life. He wanted to know the ways of the Lord more intimately. He wanted to dwell with the Lord because he found out the greatness of God’s abode while on Sinai. He spoke so much with God to be able to know what pleased God which transformed his priorities. From the time of the burning bush, Moses had seen on innumerable occasions how God worked in his life and that of the Israelites. But nothing was as great as the glory of God to him which he saw on Sinai. It changed his priorities, desires, likes and cravings in life. The life and ministry of Moses is a challenge to us today to give God greatest priority in our lives and allow Him to fill us with His greatness. Thus we will be able to live without cares of any kind and trust God to be our greatest priority and desire. Thus when we get lost in His glory, He minds our business and leads us victoriously with all our needs met according to His richness in glory.

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Thought for Today

Our desires and priorities reveal the extent to which

 we know God and how much He is a reality in our 

lives.

 

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