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Victorious Viper

Exodus 7:1-13
Read
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pay close attention to this. I will make you seem like God to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, will be your prophet. Tell Aaron everything I command you, and Aaron must command Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave his country…”

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Pharaoh will demand, ‘Show me a miracle.’ When he does this, say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent.’”

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted. (Exodus 7:1-2, 8-13)
Reflect
God made Moses “like God to Pharaoh”—in other words, a powerful person who deserved to be listened to. Pharaoh himself was considered a god, so he recognized Moses as one of his peers. His refusal to give in to Moses shows, however, that he did not feel inferior to Moses.

How were these sorcerers and magicians able to duplicate Moses’ miracles? Some of their feats involved trickery or illusion; others may have used satanic power, since worshiping gods of the underworld was part of their religion. Ironically, whenever the sorcerers duplicated one of Moses’ plagues, it only made matters worse. If the magicians had been as powerful as God, they would have reversed the plagues, not added to them.

God performed a miracle by turning Aaron’s staff into a snake, and Pharaoh’s magicians did the same through trickery or sorcery. Although miracles can help us believe, it is dangerous to rely on them alone. Satan can imitate some parts of God’s work and lead people astray. Pharaoh focused on the miracle rather than the message. We can avoid this error by letting the Word of God be the basis of our faith. No miracle from God would endorse any message that is contrary to the teachings of his Word.
Respond
Thank God for the miracle he has done in your life, choosing you and transforming you from lost sinner to heaven-bound saint.

STAY BLESSED
SOURCE:Culled from Life in the bluffs.

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How to Be Strong

“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it.” – Deuteronomy 11:8 NASB

There are many types of strength. Physical strength. Mental strength, having the ability to research options and make correct decisions. Strength of will, to maintain the determination to avoid distractions and focus on goals. Spiritual strength, having the resources, discipline, and willpower to have the right priorities, the right sensitivities, and the right perspective.
So, what is the key to being strong? Certainly practice and experience. Solid training and good teaching. Having the right information. And the discipline to put these elements into action.
As they thought about the task before them, the Israelites knew the strength of the people who occupied the Promised Land. They knew that there were giants in the land, that the people had more resources and many strategic advantages. They knew the territory and the resources.
But Moses told them the right way to approach this task. And the right way to receive the strength they needed. It was to keep God’s commands. To do things His way, every time, and in every situation. And, if they did this, He promised that they would “be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it.”
This is the kind of strength they needed for the task at hand. And it was a complete package. Mental strength. Spiritual strength. Even physical strength, for God would enable them to have the ability to do what they needed to do.
This is the way all of us can receive strength in our daily lives. Every kind of strength. Strength to do what is needed. Strength to persevere, face adversity, and overcome adversaries. Strength to have discernment and the ability to do what needs to be done. Strength for combat, and for victory.

Today’s Inspiration Prayer
Father, I depend upon You for the strength I need. Give me boldness and clarity of mind. Give me courage and discernment. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Further Reading: Deuteronomy 11

STAY BLESSED
SOURCE:Culled from Inspiration Ministries.

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Guard Your Heart

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”. — Proverbs 4:23

Have you ever said something and wondered where that comment came from? Or maybe an idea crossed your mind that you wouldn’t tell your best friend about — and exactly where did that come from? Or maybe you did something completely out of character and ask yourself, What was I thinking?

We read in Proverbs that everything — our words, our thoughts, our choices, our decisions, our priorities — comes from our hearts. When a heart is full of God’s love, beautiful words and ideas flow from it. Are you paying attention to your heart? The wise writer of Proverbs warned us to guard our hearts. We need to protect our hearts against bitterness, impatience, and greed, against jealousy, idolatry, and anger. These traits will overtake our hearts if we let them. We must also guard our hearts against unsafe people, unhealthy relationships, and ungodly activities and entertainment.

Protect your heart so that beautiful words, ideas, and actions flow from it, for your good and God’s glory!

Lord, please show me where I need to protect my heart, amen.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. — Luke 11:9

Consider the exciting implications of what Jesus said here: if you have needs, ask your generous Father to meet those needs, and he will grant your request. God will answer, but sometimes, His answers don’t make sense to us, or we grow tired of waiting for Him to answer. We come to the conclusion that God is either deaf to our cries, or He simply has better things to do than to grant our requests. Prayer is more than asking for stuff, though. It’s spending time with God. And as you spend time with Him, you’ll begin to develop His heart for others. Suddenly you’ll find that you’re not asking for a list of things you want, but you’re asking that His will would be done just as it is in Heaven. And His will could mean His saying no to a request you have.

Trust that God knows exactly what’s best for you. Choose to trust His answers to your prayers.

Today’s Inspiration Prayer
Lord, I want what You want for me. Please have Your way in my life, Amen.

STAY BLESSED
SOURCE:Culled from The Beautiful Word Devotional.

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THE 2 MARKS OF A TRULY WICKED PERSON (PART 2)

PSALM 10:2-11

Greed and pride can turn your heart away from God today too. You may have grown up knowing the Bible, but you are living for yourself. Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mrk. 8:36). The wicked boast in their desires, but the Scriptures say, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinth. 1:31).
You might assume that someone who openly rejects God would be struck down by lightning. But atheists often prosper. People who give themselves to gathering money often get rich. And because they have laughed at God and have still been successful, their arrogance grows. They assume that they must be invincible.
His ways prosper at all times;
your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
as for all his foes, he puffs at them. (10:5)
Because he is affluent, he is convinced that nothing can touch him. He has the latest tech gadgets; he drives a new Aston Martin; he goes on the best vacations; he wears new clothes. Success has blinded his eyes to God’s judgment—it is too high for him.
Here is what he thinks in his heart of hearts:
He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” (10:6)
The wicked man is thoroughly deceived. He thinks that the blessings God reserves for the godly belong to him! It is the blameless man who shall not be moved (Psalm 15:5; 16:8), but the wicked “are like chaff that the wind drives away” (Psalm 1:4). The wicked think they can set up their children to prosper after them. They can put them in the right schools and introduce them to the right people and leave a trust that will provide for them. But the Scriptures say that “the generation of the upright will be blessed” (Psalm 112:2). In his pride, the wicked man has believed a lie.

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The Two Marks of a Wicked Person (PART 1)

Psalm 10:2-11
The psalmist describes two sides of the character of the wicked in Psalm 10:2–11. Structurally each description is five verses long and ends with the inner thoughts of the unjust oppressor, “He says in his heart” (10:6, 11). Two words summarize these wicked oppressors: arrogant and aggressive. Their pride and violence spell disaster for anyone who stands in their way.
Arrogance
First, the wicked oppressors are arrogant. The trouble they cause flows out of self-importance.
In arrogance, the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. (10:2)
Where does this abusive pride come from? For one thing, they forget that the rich and poor were both created by God. We did not make ourselves. We did not choose which family we were born into and the opportunities we were given. We did not decide how intelligent we would be, how wise we would be, how self-motivated we would be. All this is from God’s hand. The writer of Proverbs says, “The rich and the poor meet; the Lord is the maker of them all” (Prov.22:2). The wicked forget this. They like to view themselves as self-made men, like sharks made to swim at the top of the food chain. This pride is Darwinian at its core—a survival of the fittest that grinds the poor into the dirt. And in their arrogance, they think God will never do anything. They have nothing but contempt for God and laugh at any idea of judgment.
In fact, they do not worship God. They worship themselves.
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” (10:3, 4)
The word “for” (v. 3) tells us why the wicked pursue the poor. They turn on the poor and the helpless because they first turned against God.
What does it mean to boast in your desires? That is an unusual phrase. The wicked are proud of their desires. Their cravings are a virtue. After all, didn’t they succeed because of their will to win? Their greed got them where they are.
One of the most powerful illustrations of this came from the 1987 Oliver Stone movie Wall Street. The main character, Gordon Gekko, was modeled after high-powered traders who ran the financial markets like masters of the universe. In one famous scene Gekko delivers a speech to the nervous shareholders of Teldar Paper Corporation.
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.
This quote struck a chord because it hit so close to home. The spirit of American materialism declares that greed is a virtue, that in fact greed is the foundation of success. This is the mind-set of the man or woman who boasts of the desires of his or her soul. They boast because they believe it is a good thing never to be content, never to be satisfied, always to want more. And in their greed, they grind the poor into the ground to get what they want.
It is sobering to notice that these wicked men and women renounce God by his personal name, Yahweh (“the Lord,” v. 3). This implies that these oppressors are not foreigners; they are Israelites who knowingly reject the God of Israel. In their greed, they loved money and possessions more than God. In their pride, they did not look for him. Finally, they denied that God even exists.

STAY BLESSED
SOURCE: Culled from Rejoice the Lord is King (James Johnston).

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FIVE FRUITS AND FIVE RESULTS OF REVIVAL (PART 1)

“Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” Psalm 85:6 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

MHB 738

Revive Thy work , O Lord

Thy mighty arm make bare:

Peak with the voice that wakes its dead.

And make Thy people hear

Revive thy work , O lord

While here to Thee we bow;

Descend O gracious Lord, Ascend

O come and Bless us now

 

Composer: Albert Midlane 1825-1909 (Born 192 years ago and died 108 years ago)

 

Many are familiar with this beautiful hymn, “Revive Thy work, Lord.” The big question however is how do we recognize God’s revival in our lives and even in the church? It is not enough to proclaim by word of mouth that we have been revived by God. People should see and experience certain qualities that sets us apart from the world as people who have been revived by God. Today I would like us to focus on the Five (5) Fruits and Five (5) Results of Revival. Before that let us briefly look at the importance of revival.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIVAL

Psalm 85:6 asks a powerful question: “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”

Notice that the psalmist says, “again.”  This tells me that the nation of Israel was once in a state of revival, but that had waned, it had declined, and they had come again to the place where they needed to be revived. Perhaps today you are in a place where you need to be revived.

Revival has been described as the “inrush of the Spirit into the body that threatens to become a corpse”.  That is a good definition.  Something needs to be revived when it is dying or when it has lost its strength or momentum. Revival therefore brings new life.  It brings fresh vigor.  It brings renewed momentum to that which is in a weakened or dying state.

In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul writes to Timothy, “Stir up the gift of God which is in you”. The word for stir up literally means to rekindle.  In other words, a fire was there at one time, but it has begun to burn low.  And now it needs to be refueled and tended to.

Maybe we have felt spiritually flat lately.  Maybe the fire that once burned white hot for God is now just a glowing ember.  If so, it is time to rekindle those embers and fan to flame what He has put within us.  As God works in our life, we will find that once again our lives will be filled with purpose, and we will once again rejoice in God.

 

FRUITS AND RESULTS OF REVIVAL

Jonathan Edwards and Dave Roberts have been helpful in writing this article. Let us remember that revival means a RENEWED ZEAL TO OBEY GOD.  Obedience to God is our loving response to His infinite, steadfast and unconditional love and Roman 12:2(Living Bible) reflect the fruits of revival.

“And so, dear brothers, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy—the kind he can accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you”.

 

When we are revived we bear these fruits

 

  1. We honour Jesus: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved – Rom. 10:9 (NIV).

When the Holy Spirit comes, the person of Jesus is esteemed by all those genuinely touched.  Edwards believes that this will spill out from intellectual assent into testimony, declaration and confess in that “Christ is Lord”. It is the Spirit, he argues, if the hearers are moved to “belief in the history of Christ as He appeared in the flesh – and that He is the Son of God and was sent of God to save sinners, that He is the only Saviour and that they stand in great need of Him.”  The devil does not promote counterfeit revival with this type of fruit.  Edward thunders: “He mortally hates the story and doctrine of Christ’s redemption.”  It is not the devil’s intention to see Christ glorified and His wisdom followed (1 Cor. 12:3).

  1. We detach ourselves from Selfish Pleasure or Gain: But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it – I Tim. 6:6 (NIV). 1 Cor. 2:15-16, teaches us that the “world”, which the believer no long loves, refers to the corruptions and lusts of men, and the “acts and objects by which they are gratified. The Spirit is at if there is a reduction in men’s desire for the “pleasure, profits and honours of the world”. Only the irrational, would say that the devil makes people more “careful, inquisitive and watchful to discern what is sinful, and to avoid future sins; and so be more afraid of the devil’s temptations, and be more careful to guard against them.
  2. We have a Hunger for the Scriptures: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. – Ps. 119:11 (NIV). We long for God’s loving presence far more than we realise. His heavenly mana is the only food that satisfies the longing of our soul. Our hunger pangs become like church bells calling us to prayer. Whenever we are spiritually hungry for food we find satisfaction in reading scriptures.
  3. We dwell on Truth: If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free – John 8:32 (NIV). The Holy Spirit at work in revival draws men and women to the truth, not error.  If people become aware of their rebellion against God and their own helplessness and are agreeable to sound doctrine, we should be thanking God.  Look at the fruits, he contends.  Be more open and not so cautious. If for nothing at all we need revival in Ghana so we will uphold the truth in all aspects of our lives.
  4. We Love One Another: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love – I Jn. 4:7-8 (NIV).When the Spirit of God is at work, He “quells contentions among men, gives a spirit of peace and goodwill, excites to acts of outward kindness and earnest desires for the salvation of souls, and causes a delight in those that appear as the children of God and followers of Christ.” This love can be counterfeited by the selfish and deceived, but true Christian love is marked by humility and patience (1 Cor. 13:4-5).  Humility and love are aspects of the character of God and run counter to the marks of the devil, malice and pride.

Beloved, let us observe the fruit of changed lives, as the true means of God’s sovereign power to transform lives. As someone has rightly articulated it the fruit of a changed lifestyle outweighs “a thousand such little objections” based on oddities, irregularities, delusions and scandals. “The devil”, “may seek to, mimic visions, revelations, prophecies and miracles”, but he cannot drive people to the truth, exalt Jesus, or bring about real ethical change in people’s lives.

Warnings and Encouragement

Revival is contagious in some instances and can also break out spontaneously.  As time goes by the fruit of change will emerge and many of us can attest to this in the lives of people who have come under the power of revival. The genuineness of any spiritual change, is not related to its physical impact, but its long-term effect on the life of the believer.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

Stay blessed!

For further inquiries please contact us on Tel Nos. 0302-772013 or 0268130615

Email: saltnlightministries@gmail.com
Website: saltandlightministriesgh.org

 

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God’s Grace and Our Finances

Proverbs 3:9-10
If you knew that something you desired could destroy your life, would you keep chasing after it? The Bible warns about a certain kind of pursuit that can cause one to:
1)Fall into sin.
2)Be mastered by foolish wishes.
3)Engage in activities that erode character.
4)Plunge into moral ruin.
5)Wander from faith.
In spite of these dire warnings, many people are still ruled by a longing to get rich.

There is nothing wrong with being affluent, as long as we follow God’s rules for wise living. Specifically, we are to honor Him with our money, which includes acknowledging that He is the rightful owner (Prov. 3:9; Ps. 50:10). And we’re also to give it cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7). The desire for riches becomes a sin when accumulation is among our highest priorities. If that is the case, the god we end up serving is money.
Believers are to live by grace in every aspect of their lives, including finances. That means we surrender wages, portfolio, and charitable giving into God’s hands. Furthermore, we accept what He gives ?as enough, even when the bank account seems low by the world’s standards. He has promised to supply our needs, so we’re to regard financial gains and losses as part of His will and plan.

I am not preaching a message that suggests godly people are rewarded with riches. Poverty and tough times are as common to believers as to unbelievers. However, the Bible promises that if we live by God’s grace, He will provide amply for whatever we need (2 Cor. 9:8).
Bible in One Year: Job 13-16
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Your Power Source

“God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you.” (Psalm 62:11, NLT)
“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT)

It is amazing what lengths people will go to in order to gain access to those they perceive as “powerful people.”
The Psalmist had it right. Power belongs to God. He is the one who can bring about the change we need in our lives and in the circumstances we encounter in this turbulent world.
In so many ways we are weak, powerless, and vulnerable. However, we have been born to a living hope. Subject to the sovereign will of God, we are kept by the power of God:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God’s great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you. God’s power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of time.” (1 Peter 1:3–5, NCV)

Paul had a chronic physical condition that burdened him, and he prayed to have it removed. A message came from the Lord saying that God’s grace was all Paul he needed to sustain himself. He was told that God’s power works best in weakness. Paul said he would boast about his weaknesses so the power of Christ could work through him.
Is there a lesson for us here?

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NIV84)
May the power of Christ rest on you and me. Weakness may help make us better candidates for God to use.

Today, ask yourself: 
Am I acknowledging my weakness and dependency on God?  Is his grace sufficient for me?

STAY BLESSED
SOURCE: Culled from KingdomNomics.