Hi there, welcome to a safe haven...a place where you cud just lean back and relax to spend a few moments to reflect on whether you have lit your candle today."Don't curse the darkness;instead, light a Candle" someone once said...We may not be able to do much to overcome the darkness around us;but let that not stop us from doing our lil bit to make this world a brighter place.Hence the blog ....His Lil Spark in the Dark!
James 5:8 "You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near."
Hi friends,
Hope this post finds you in good health and spirits!
This week, I’d like to share something that I’ve been learning in the past few
months in my life. At some points in our life , we may be totally overwhelmed
and here may be no one who can understand us
no even we ourselves, but what we need to remember at such times is that
no matter what we go through we can always be certain that the Lord understands
and loves us. There will be nothing to change that.
Sometimes life does get messy and we wonder how to get
it all cleaned up. We may run to this person or that person thinking that they
could help but they either don’t have the time or the energy to help us out. At
that time, the best thing is to surrender everything at the Lord’s feet and
simply wait patiently on Him. Psalms 46:10 says “Be still and know that I
am Lord.” We remember then that all humans are mere mortals and that
they sincerely may not have what it takes to help us in our despair. We too may
not be able to take one more step …it is at that time that He whispers to us to
‘be patient’ and not to give up that easily!
What is Patience ?
“Patience is defined as the capacity to
accept or tolerate delay, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or
anxious.” It may also be called Longsuffering.
No body likes to wait….be it in traffic, be it in the supermarket queue… We
call someone and roll our eyes wondering why they don’t pick up…. We send
another person an urgent email and wonder when they would reply….we wait for an
appointment that never seems to materialize…we wonder will I lose out on my
blessing if we don’t do something ? A voice cautions us - is it wise to just
allow things slip us by?;especially when it’s a thing we have wanted and have
been waiting for a long time ….all of these situations are really God
ordained delays to teach us PATIENCE- the art of waiting peacefully
no matter what the situation … Friendships could be restored…Relationships
could be saved…Offences could be avoided with a little more patience.
How to develop Patience?
How we develop this patience is by
focusing on none other than the One who is the Alpha and Omega – The One who
knows the Beginning from the End! So, if we have a loving
Heavenly Father who knows what’s going to happen beforehand itself, then why don’t
we just surrender everything into His hand and stop trying to make things
happen in our strength? We could pray,” Lord Do something about my situation ….and
He will see us through…. instead of sharing our frustrations and doubts with
just anyone ,we should share them with the Only One who really cares and who
could really do something about it! Our Loving Heavenly Father! Let’s ask Him
for vision to see things as they really are and the wisdom to do things as He
would do them …. In the meantime, let’s just love Him with all our soul, strength,
mind with all our heart! Luke 10:27 …Hallelujah! He is King of Kings & Lord
of Lords and reigns forever! “He’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
“-Heb 11:6
"And the Spirit & The Bride Say Come!..."- Rev 22:17
Hi friends,
Hope this blogpost finds you in good health and spirits. The
signs of the times point to the soon coming of our Lord and King Jesus! Mathew 24
outlines some of the different signs of His coming being so near…
1)Wars & Rumors of War (vs 6)
2) Nations rising against nation
and kingdoms against kingdoms (vs 7a)
3) Famines (vs 7)
4) Pestilences (vs 7)
5) Earthquakes (verse 7)
6) Hated for Jesus’s sake (vs 9)
7) Many will be offended (vs 10)
8) Betrayal (verse 10)
9) False Prophets & many will be deceived (vs 11)
10) Lawlessness (vs 12)
11) Love of many growing cold (vs12)
12) Gospel will be preached in all the world (vs 14)
13) Sun will be darkened, moon will not give light, stars
will fall from Heaven, powers of Heaven will be shaken. (vs 29)
Amidst the gloom and doom surrounding us, one thing that
gives us hope and keeps us looking upward and marching onward is that Jesus is
coming soon for His Bride -The Church.
There is no doubt that we are in the last of the last days;
the question for us to consider is ARE WE READY FOR HIM? 1 Thessalonians 5:2
says that the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. Meaning that No
man knows the day or hour, not even the angels of Heaven but only the Father knows.
(Mathew 24:36) So it is imperative that we do everything in our power to be
ready for Him.
1) Accept Jesus as Our Lord & Savior/
Rededication – Rom 10:9-11 says that if we confess with our mouth
and believe with our heart that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead
and is now seated at the right-hand side of the Father interceding for us. If we have already accepted Him, we can check
how far we have backslidden and must return to our First Love & be red hot
on fire for the Lord. All this can only be done by the Blessed Holy Spirit who
cleanses us from all impurities that we pick up as being born in sin and living
in a fallen world. 2 Corin 1:21,22 NLT says that “It is God who enables us to stand firm for
Christ. He has commissioned us, and He has identified is as His own by placing
the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first instalment that guarantees
everything He has promised us.”
2) Baptism – In water and Spirit. We
need to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized by Immersion in Water, and we
need to pray for a Baptism by Fire which is being filled with the Holy Spirit
and the demonstration of gift of Tongues. John 3:5 says “Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot see the
kingdom of God.”
3) Prayer in the Secret Place- We need
to build up our prayer altar and make it a habit to have a Quiet Time with the
Lord when He will speak to us and we can listen and learn from Him. We have to
make Prayer our lifestyle and pray without ceasing in all things and for
all things. 1 Thess 5:17
4) Praise & Worship- Singing Psalms
and songs and hymns to usher in the Presence and Glory of God. Eph 5:19
says that we must sing unto the Lord from our heart.
5) Bible study and meditation - We need
the Word to be successful in the spiritual warfare that we enter into the
moment we become real Christians. We read in Mathew 4 how Jesus used the Sword
of the Spirit which is the Word of God to fight against the temptations of the
Devil. We need to put on the whole armor of God as mentioned in Ephesians
6: 11-18 in order to stand against the wiles of the enemy.
6) Fellowship with the saints- We need
to find the right people we can share with and encourage one another. If we
pray to the Lord for the right people , He will bring them into our lives. As
Iron sharpens Iron we will be able to grow quicker by learning from one
another. (Proverbs 27:17)
7)Sowing in to the Kingdom of God- We
read in 2 Corin 9:6-7 that “God loves a cheerful Giver.”We must give to the work of God that which we
have in our hand and He will provide us with more than we can ask think or
imagine. However, we must be sure that we are sowing into the right and fertile
soil where help goes to the needy ones and not into the wrong pockets.
8) Always be ready to learn-John
14:26 “It is the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things”, sometimes
through His Word and sometimes through other people. We must always be
teachable and ready to learn. If we are teachable, God will put into our hands
different resources like books and tapes, different websites and blogs. We can
also go for the right Conferences and build up our faith from time to time.
Learning from the mistakes of others prevent us from making the same mistakes
and this would accelerate our learning capacity.
9) Serve – We have a Savior who never
hesitated to serve the people around Him. “He taught, healed the sick, cleansed
the lepers, fed the hungry and delivered those oppressed of the devil.” -Mathew
4:23,24. He went to the extent to wash the feet of His disciples! (John
13:12,15) What a wonderful example to follow we have! We see in Eph 4:11 that God has blessed every one of us with
some gift of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the talent that the Lord has given us, we
must use it to further the Kingdom of God. If it is singing, we can join the
Music Ministry, if it is to prophecy, we can encourage /edify another with it, if
it is to take care of the old /sick we can do that. If it is to cook, we can
share the love of God with the hungry, or we can be a friend/ listening ear to
someone who is hurt and broken and in need of a shoulder to cry on. If we have
the gift of time and tears, we could be an Intercessor and stand in the gap and
pray to God for people around us in need of breakthrough in their life. Jesus
will help us to pray and put fresh ideas for us to intercede. It is said that
Intercessors are very close to the heart of God for He shares His burdens with them,
and they call things into being with their prayers.
10) Share the Good News- In Mathew
28:19,20 Jesus has given us the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
and to teach them to obey everything He has commanded us.” We may never
be able to travel as a missionary to the Nations, but we can be faithful and
bloom where the Lord has planted us. We can pray to God to make us a Blessing
wherever we go. We can ask the Holy Spirit for direction and guidance about
what He wants us to do to share the Good News of the Gospel with the people
around us. We can shine our light so brightly that people would see Jesus in
us. Everybody needs Jesus! We can pray for the salvation of the people in our
life and those who ask us to pray for them. Of course, we need to depend on the
Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment always; for apart from Him we can
do nothing. John 15: 5 we can be available to Him and He will use us in
small ways to bring life to those in need of His touch.
So, there is indeed so much for us to do to fan into flame the
gift of God in us. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power,
love and self-discipline and we should never be ashamed of sharing our
testimony of how the Lord has transformed our lives by saving us, giving us
purpose and making us holy by His grace. (2 Tim 1:6-8)
In Mathew 25, verses 1-13, we read of the Parable of
the Ten Virgins. There were 5 who were wise and five who were foolish.
We read that all 10 of them fall asleep waiting for the bridegroom. However,
the wise ones had kept extra oil ready, unlike the foolish ones who miss the
wedding banquet because they were not ready for Him. And the door was shut!
Let us always be ready for the Bridegroom (Our Lord & King
Jesus) is coming soon to receive His Beautiful Bride, (Us , the Church) without
spot or blemish and let is keep our lamps burning with the oil which signifies
the anointing. Jesus ends this beautiful parable once again by warning us in Mathew
25:13 “to keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour!”
We read in the book of Revelation chapter 22 and verse
12 “Behold I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone
according to his work.” Let that be an encouragement for us to always
be ready for Him and “to redeem the time coz the days are evil.”- Eph
5:14-17
Enjoy this song: He’s Coming Soon! By Bebe & Cece
Winans.
