Love God Passionately

Deut 6:5 (NKJV)
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

God wants us to love Him passionately as He also loves us passionately.
Passion according to learnersdictionary.com means a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. Some of us are passionate about football, music, telemundos, etc.

When we are passionate about something, thoughts about the object of our passion fills our minds all the time. We create time and spend our energy on what we love passionately. When we are passionate about our Heavenly Father, He is also drawn to us and begins to reveal Himself to us in ways we never know. There’s no way we can spend time with God and not be changed. He is Wisdom, Knowledge, Power and the Source of all virtues.

James 4:8a (NKJV)
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

When Isaiah saw the Lord, he was changed he saw an area of his life that he didn’t know needed transformation prior to having that encounter with God.

Isaiah 6:1-7 (NKJV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”

Prayer
Dear Lord, please help me love you passionately, become the centre of my affections. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Forgetting the Past

Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV)

13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I just recently joined the choir after a long break from being in any choir. For about 12 years I was doing “other things”, however, I knew strongly that the Lord was leading me back to the choir. For some time I began to ponder on the following, “maybe I should have joined the choir a little earlier”, “I hope I’m not late in this assignment”, I was also relishing the days I had been in the choir in the past and all the joys of fellowshipping with other singers, the adventures, ministrations, flops- yes they do happen and all that.

The Holy Spirit began to tell me that He is doing a new thing in my life. He led me to

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV)

http://www.gcurley.info

¹⁸ “Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

So I have decided to walk in step with Him and keep my mind focused on what He is doing, no more clutter of the past, I look forward to the new thing He is doing and expect great things from Him in this season.

The journey has begun!

So if you’re in this space as I am, let’s walk together and trust Him as He unfolds our destiny.

Song

Lord whatever you’re doing in this season, please don’t do it without me

- Bishop Paul S. Morton

Walk in the Spirit….Grace

Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need

Our walk with our Father, is a walk of grace. 
Every letter Paul wrote, begins and ends with grace. Grace envelops all the teachings of the letters. You could say the Christian life begins with grace and it will end with grace. 
In our gatherings, fellowships, churches, we often say "the grace" at the end of our meetings, to some of us, it is just a way of ending meetings. However, it is much more than that. 

The grace of God is a gift from our Father, it is His divine enablement towards us, to become who He wants us to be and to fulfill His assignment for our lives. When we are confronted with our sinfulness as we approach His throne, His mercy, through His blood, speaks on our behalf as our righteousness is just like filthy rags.

Ephesians 1:7 (NKJV)
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. 

Ephesians 2:8-10 (MSG)
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Jesus is full of grace and truth!

photo credit: https://thepassionists.org

John 1:14 (NKJV)
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:17 (NKJV)
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" 

What we are in Him, our skills, intelligence, achievements, etc are a product of His grace, as it’s written.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (NKJV)
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Let us walk in the consciousness of His grace at all times. It is always available!

Pruning

Prune
1. To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth.

John 15:2 (NKJV)
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

A gardener tends to his plants by pruning them sometimes. This process involves removing dead or living parts to improve the shape of the plant and stimulate growth.
So does our heavenly Father prunes us from time to time in order that we may bear more fruit, as we abide in Him.

The pruning process is painful, but in the end it is for our good.

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com

Heb 12:6-11(NKJV)
For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.

During times of pruning, our response should be humility and surrender, trusting the able hands of our Father, who works all things for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Jesus learned obedience even as a Son, through the things he suffered. We should note that as the Lord matures us, we will go through trials, persecutions, seasons of pain, where everything in our lives that does not glorify Him will have to die.

Hebrews 5:8-9 (NKJV)
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him


Prayer
Lord help me surrender to your able hands when I’m going through process. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Walk in the Spirit - My story

John 14:16 (NKJV) And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever

About a month ago, I asked my nanny to make a dress for my daughter. I gave her some instructions on how to make it, and asked her to wait until I give her a sample, before she can go ahead with the cutting and sewing.

Last week, I got the sample ready to give her, but was shocked to discover that she had gone ahead to cut the cloth and was about to start sewing it, the style was completely different from the instructions I had given her and looked like there was no remedy.

I was bewildered and angry, I wanted to scream. I asked her why she had had gone ahead without my consent and she could not give me any concrete reason. I quickly went to my room to ask the Holy Spirit for help. I couldn't get myself to be calm and I really wanted to "walk in the spirit". I prayed out, "Holy Spirit please help me handle this issue". I felt the peace of God, in my soul and the anger dissipated. 

photo credit: http://i.imgur.com/p7HUM7r.png

I went back to see my nanny and I began to correct her calmly and told her that next time when a customer gives her some work to do, she has to get clearance before commencing the work, it turned out to be a counselling session for her on customer service!

The Holy Spirit helped me handle the situation better and at the end of the day, we both found a way of still sewing the style that was originally planned, I couldn't believe it. What the enemy intended for evil, God worked it out for good.

I've learnt that I can only walk in the spirit, by the immeasurable help of the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer

Lord help me remember that you are always there to help me.

 

Walk in the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV)
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (sinful nature).

When a child begins to walk, he/she doesn’t start out perfectly; sometimes he falls but rises up again and keeps taking those little steps until the walk becomes perfect.
As we learn to walk in the spirit, there would be times when we miss it, but we pick up ourselves and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we keep at it until we become perfected.

photo credit: http://cainclusion.org/camap/images/resources/eissblog.png

Walking in the spirit means living our lives daily, the way God expects of us, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, it also means responding to issues of life the way Jesus would respond.

Galatians 5:19-23 (NJKV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

It is either we are walking in the spirit or in the flesh, as there is no middle ground 
One way we can continually walk in the spirit is by being continually filled with the Holy Spirit - Praying in tongues, giving thanks to the Lord, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord. 

Acts 2:4 (NKJV)
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 4:31 (NKJV)
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Acts 13:52 (NKJV)
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18-20 (NKJV)
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

The apostles were continually filled with the Holy Spirit as seen in the book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us in our walk. 

John 6:63 (NKJV)
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, grant me grace today through the help of your Holy Spirit, to walk in the spirit today, not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. I also ask for a fresh in-filling of your Spirit. Thank you. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Growth - Increase

increase
verb
/ɪnˈkriːs/
1. become or make greater in size, amount, or degree.
Synonym: grow

Happy New Year to everyone, we all have great expectations for the year as usual. And I trust God that our godly expectations would be fulfilled as we walk with Him this year.

Today I want to talk about God’s expectation for us as His children. Just as every parent’s desire is to see their children grow and become mature over time, so does our heavenly Father expect us to grow in Him in all things, the Lord wants us to grow in our knowledge of Him and all that He has done for us through Christ.

Photo credit: http://careabonsaitree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/shutterstock_94482736.jpg

Luke 2:52 (NKJV)

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

He expects us to grow in faith, wisdom and become more mature in our character. 

1 Peter 1:5-9 (NKJV)

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

It is His desire for us to prosper

3 John 2 (NKJV)

2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

How do we grow?

We grow in our knowledge of God as we diligently study and obey the Word of God. The blessing is in obeying and applying what we have studied.

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

James 1:25

25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

We grow in character as we abide in Him and walk in love always.

John 15:10 and 12 (NKJV)

10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love

12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NKJV)

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

We grow as we spend time praying in the Spirit.

Jude 20 (NKJV)

20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost

We grow as we continuously walk in the Spirit and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV)

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

This year, let us commit to growing in Christ.