With God, all things are possible

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. None of us, by worrying, can add a single hour to our life. God has given us the best, His precious Son, Jesus. When the best has already been given to us, God will give us all other good things through Jesus Christ. As humans, it is important to us to look good and eat well. But do not let our main attraction be what we wear or what we eat or what we do. Rest in the Lord and He will encourage us and strengthen us.

What should we do then? We should seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness and all the things that we petition of God (for example, health, fertility, prosperity, advancement in career, peace, wholeness, etc) will be given to us as well (Matthew 6:33). We should turn to God first for help and ask Him to fill our thoughts with His desires.

I am currently reading the book "Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer and it has opened my eyes. Many a time, our minds are so busy worrying about things that we fail to turn to the Lord. God is such a gentleman - He respects our free choice and He will never force His way into our lives. But it is such a blessing and privilege that whenever we turn to Him, He will never let us down. He knows every tear that falls from our eyes, every pain that we go through and every worry that crosses our mind. Even when we do not understand what is happening, trust Him and believe that He has already prepared our victory. We need to learn to clear our minds from the complicated network of thoughts that are going through it every day. I do not mean to keep our minds blank. I mean to learn to rest our mind so that we can hear from God. When our minds are at rest and at peace, we will not miss out on the little winks that God gives us every now and then, either to assure us that He loves us or to prompt us to take certain action to bless someone else or to solve a problem that we have at hand.

When we encounter challenges or road-blocks in our life, we need to remember that God did not put them there. God does not teach us using sickness, diseases nor set-backs in life. Turn to the Lord and trust in Him. When the devil throws lemons at us, believe that the Lord can turn the lemons into lemonade. When other people mean evil towards us, God can turn the evil for our good. Many a time, when we encounter challenges, instead of trying to solve the problem using our own effort, turn to the Lord and worship Him for He will take us out of Egypt into the Promised Land. After some time, we find that the things seem to have fallen into place by itself. The enemy who has been shooting arrows at us has seemed to self-destruct, without our stabbing the knife into him. Sometimes the Lord will lead us to take certain actions (for example, change the way we are doing something) and sometimes, the Holy Spirit leads us to do nothing and just believe that God will deliver us. Learn to trust the Holy Spirit. With man, sometimes things appear impossible and there seems to be no solution to the problem but nothing is impossible for the Lord (Matthew 19:26). Faith in Jesus (and not in ourselves, our abilities or our wealth) is what counts for our salvation. The Holy Spirit came to be a Helper to us and to convict us of righteousness. It did not come to convict us of sins (other than the sin of unbelief) because all our sins have already been judged and punished by God at the Cross and God will never be angry with us again. There is nothing for us to do except to believe. The Lord's heart rejoices every time a lost sheep is found and returns to His arms.

The Lord wants us to be fruitful and multiply in every area of our lives (Genesis 1:28). God never meant for us to be alone. In every area of our lives, He wants us to have increase - thirtyfold... sixtyfold... a hundredfold. Whatever the devil has stolen from us, the Lord will restore double-portion and sometimes even more than double-portion! He has given us authority and control over everything in our lives. When we exercise this authority and control, we need to do it for the glory of the Lord. There are some people who take up certain positions in certain organisations not because they have a genuine wish to help advance the cause of the organisation but because the reference to that position looks good on their resume. There are some people who bake cookies and distribute them to others not because they want to bless others with the fruit of what the Lord has blessed their hands to make but because they are using it as a means of free advertisement for cookies that they bake to sell.

When we know of someone who has a challenge or a need, we could say, "Oh, he / she deserved this." Or we could stretch out our hand and help that person. Even when we are not in a position to help that person physically or financially, we can always pray for that person. Have you ever heard of the term "prayer by proxy"? When we bring our petitions to God, even when the petitions are not for ourselves but on behalf of someone else, God hears our petitions. God wants to grant us our requests but He wants us to ask Him and to believe that what we ask for Him, He will give us. Whatever we ask God for in prayer on behalf of someone else, believe that it is granted onto that person and it will come to pass (Genesis 25:21). Abba Father, I ask for the permanent healing of MIL's knee and my friend SC's back, in the name of Jesus. I believe that my Healer is also their Healer. Jesus has taken our sicknesses and diseases and we have been given His health and wholeness. They are both children of God and daughters of Sarah, and I pray that each day, they will come to learn more about You and to love You more. I also pray a special blessing over Eddy, who had his cast removed today but is still unable to walk on his own. The doctor said that Eddy is flat-footed and that it would take Eddy about three to four months to recover. The doctors do not have the final word. God does! I call Eddy's legs healed in the name of Jesus and I declare that the healing power of God lives in Eddy right now and is healing him even as I type this post! I declare that by Jesus' stripes, Eddy is healed. Jesus' body was broken on the Cross so that the broken bones cannot remain in Eddy because it cannot be in two places at the same time. God has already taken all our sicknesses and diseases (including Eddy's flat-footedness and inability to walk), placed them on the body of Jesus and the fire of God's judgement has come upon Jesus so that today, we are no longer under the judgement of God (including the judgment of sickness). Be healed, MIL, SC and Eddy, in the name of Jesus!

We are all impatient people. Sometimes when we pray and do not see immediate results, we begin to wonder whether the Lord has heard us. He has! He remembers all our prayers and petitions and He knows the desires of our heart. Even when we are going through a barren patch in our lives, God knows the pain of our heart. Continue to worship the Lord and to thank Him for Jesus has taken away all our punishment and judgement from God so that we can receive all the blessings from God, including the blessing of fruitfulness in every area of our lives (Genesis 30:22-24). Even when we do not feel like singing and giving praise to the Lord, do it anyway for He is good and His mercies endure forever. We should not try to take matters into our own hands unless we have the spirit of peace in so doing. Sometimes, we may think that we took a certain course of action (that led to our breakthrough) because we have thought things through, rationalised the pros and cons and planned the strategy. Little do we know that it was the hand of God that gently showed us the way and guided us down that route. The victory that we get from taking a certain course of action is not because of our own works but because it was the Lord who led us there. God remembers us and He will open up the Red Sea for us and bring us to the Promised Land. Our victory has already been planned by the Lord and He will make it come to pass.

We should therefore worship the Lord our God and His blessing will be on our food and water. He will take away sickness from among us. The healing power of God is working in us. We will not fail halfway in any venture that we embark on nor will we not see the venture come to fruition (Exodus 23:25-26). The Lord will make us fruitful in whatever we do and whatever we are believing the Lord for. Not only will we able to glorify the Lord with a full life span, we will have health and success in every area of our life. As we live in a world with people from all religions and faith, we have to learn to live with neighbours whose values may be different from ours. We should maintain a lifestyle that shows our faith. We should put the Lord before everything else because without Him, we are nothing. Learn to ignore caustic remarks from others who do not believe in the Lord and whose remarks reflect their belief in their own self-effort. We know that for us and our house, we will continue to worship the Lord and trust in His provision. At the end of the day, the opinions of these people do not matter. It is all between us and the Lord.

Whatever we ask of the Lord, believe that He will answer. Sometimes, we may see an immediate manifestation of our miracle. Sometimes, the miracle has already come to pass but it takes time for its manifestation. Whichever way the case may be, believe that because we have asked for the miracle from the Lord, we will see our miracle coming to fruition (1 Samuel 1:20). Patience is something that we should learn to cultivate. God will encourage us and strengthen us as we rest in Him. What do you believe? I believe that when I make a petition to the Lord, He has already answered my prayer and He has prepared my victory and even if I do not see an immediate manifestation of my victory, I believe that it does not change the fact that it has already come to pass and it is only a matter of time that the manifestation will be revealed for all to see.

Many of us have been conditioned to think that God is the Almighty One from whom we should fear punishment when we do wrong and who expects us to be perfect and worthy. However, the truth of the matter is that we are unworthy and we will always have sin in our lives because we live in a fallen world. Jesus came to die for unworthy people. If we are worthy and able to make it to salvation through our own efforts, we will not need a Saviour and Jesus would have died in vain. We therefore have to change our mindset about God. He is a good and loving God. He delights when we enjoy His presence and seek His presence and He loves to give us whatever we ask of Him (Psalm 37:4). Let me give you an example. If there is a person whom you know who constantly and persistently avoids your presence, would you feel love towards that person and want to bless him with a gift? Jesus, I seek Your presence and I enjoy being in Your company. Come into my life and make me whole. I want to know You more and I want to learn more about how much You love me. Two thousand years ago, a multitude came to hear Jesus teaching and were hungry after some time. There was no food in the near vicinity. A little boy looked into his meagre lunchbox and then entrusted his five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus. The Lord multiplied the little that was in the hands of the boy with twelve baskets leftover. Lord, I do not have much but take whatever little I have to offer and use it to Your glory. I believe that You can care for me better than I can care for myself. I believe that You will work out what is best for me.

Praise the Lord for He cares about us. His mercies endure forever. He is always concerned about us and He will make sure that we do not live empty lives. He will make our lives fruitful and bring us great joy (Psalm 113:9). God is no respecter of persons. Our wealth or position on the social ladder has no bearing on our value to the Lord. He can bring us from "zero to hero". He gives us gifts and He rewards us for using the gifts that He first gave us. He will cause our quiver to be full of arrows. Through Him, we will lead fulfilled lives.

It is not about how much faith we have. Even if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, faith can work wonders. It is about what Jesus did at the Cross and whether we believe it. Jesus has more than enough faith to bring us to victory. He is able and He is willing. Even when things appear dead in our lives and the matter seems hopeless, continue to believe that God remembers His covenant with His children and He will carry out what His Word says and what He has promised us (Romans 4:19-21). Nothing is impossible for the Lord. The bottom line is... what do you believe?

Lord, I thank You that Your Word says that I have victory through You. You are my strength, my healing and my shield. I remember Your promises and I believe that whatever You have promised me, it will be fulfilled. Fill me with Your presence, Lord. Thank You so much for my miracle. I walk in anticipation of the manifestation of my miracle. I enter into Your glory and I will see Your promises come to pass in my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen and amen.