Doing things differently

"When He has brought out all His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice."

John 10:4

With reference to an earlier post (http://sparksablaze.blogspot.ca/2013/05/take-moment-to-listen.html) , referencing it below today's mail , so you can check it out for a recap.

Well yesterday morning as I stepped out of the house, I saw the bus coming again, and yes my first instinct was to bolt as fast as I could towards to the bus stop. But I remembered what happened last time and so this time as I took a couple of steps , I stopped and looked at the bus driver and guess what ? The bus stopped and I got in ! Lesson learnt from last time. And so this time I did things differently. Pretty happy about that :)

We read that the sheep know His voice. When we know His voice and we listen to Him, the way we do things changes. There is growth ! As we seek Him , as we read His word , as we draw closer to Him we become so familiar to His voice and so familiar to HIs ways that its no longer our ways but His ways that become a pattern in our life. There is a transformation that happens within us  as we draw closer to Him. And it does get translated into actions. Our life styles are different, the way we do things and react to things are different , our priorities are different... With every day there needs to be growth , old ways need to fade away.

We read in Romans 12: 2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."   

Here the word "testing" basically means "putting into actual practice".  As we listen to His voice and renew our minds and actually put into practice following as He leads, living out loud His word we understand His will and what is good and acceptable and perfect

Have a wonderful blessed day and weekend as we listen to His voice and put into practice His way and His word. 

God Bless

Praying lets us see clearly ! Its changes us

"Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name."

1 Chronicles 29:10-13

This is such a beautiful prayer ! Lets read it again...

- Blessed are You, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever

- Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty

- for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours

- Yours is the kingdom, O LORD

- You are exalted as head above all

- Both riches and honor come from You

- and You rule over all

-  In Your hand are power and might

- and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all

- And now we thank You, our God

- and praise Your glorious name

Prayers change us ! :) Even as we read this prayer and acknowledge who He is , how majestic He is , how He is above everything , how everything is in His hand and He gives strength to all, it is impossible to not take a moment and think, " Hmmm... God You are so awesome... Committing everything into Your hands... You are in charge Daddy ! Give me the strength I need to always look to You"  Every time we look to God something in us changes. We become stronger and draw closer to Him.

And may we together say , "We thank You , our God and praise Your glorious name"

Amen ! Have a wonderful blessed day !

God Bless

Seek, Listen, Obey

"Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 25:4-5

A desire to seek, a willingness to listen and obedience to live it out loud ! We need all three ! And He gives us the grace and the strength to do so.

"Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths"  - a yearning desire to know and walk in the ways of the Lord ! 

Now its always easy to ask but how often do we wait to listen ? Would we be able to say , "for You I wait all the day long" ?

"Lead me in your truth" - If He is leading us that means we are walking as He leads. Its not that He says "Ok go this way" and we stay where we are. There is an actual translation of action. He answers our prayer and we do not stop with just listening, but we actually obey

"Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long."

Love, Trust and Obey

"And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”"

2 Kings 8:6

Rewinding a little to 2 Kings 4 : 8:10 , "One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.""

The Shunammite woman recognized Elisha to be a man of God. She would provide him food whenever he passed by. Now she wasn't just satisfied with what she was doing. She didn't do a mathematical calculation and say , "ok so I have done my good deed for the day and so God is pleased with me.. " , its not like she had a to do list and this was something she checked off a list.  It came from her heart. And when something comes from the heart it is not limited by boundaries. She went a step further. She spoke to her husband and had a room made for him and furnished it for him so that when Elisha would pass by he would have whatever he needed. 

- When we say we love God and choose to honour Him we don't live by check lists or weigh out what we have done. We desire the more

Now as we continue reading in Chapter 4 we see how Elisha prophesied that she would have a son though her husband was old. And by God's grace she did. However we read that her son actually died. We read in verse 20, "And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died."  Whoa.. wait wait ... wasn't this still the woman who honoured God ? Wasn't this a child of promise ? Yes ! And see what she did... She didn't start cursing God.. she didn't wail or weep or consider it the end of everything. She did what she knew... she went to Elisha and there she poured her heart out. And we read in verse 35 of how God answered Elisha's prayer and restored the child back to life. How cool is our God !

- Even in circumstances that are challenging , remember this , our God is still God ! :) Our hope, our trust is in Him. We don't live our lives based on circumstances which forever change.. We live based on the word of God and in Christ who never changes !! Such joy to live in such certainty knowing our lives are in His hands

Coming to chapter 8 we read in verse 1 , "Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.”" She listened to the word of God and obeyed. What she heard was translated into action and she left. And guess what happened when she returned after seven long years...As she appealed to king , guess who was talking to the king at that time ? Gehazi - Elisha's servant. He was telling the king of all the things that God had done through Elisha and yes that is the moment the Shunammite woman makes her appeal to the king. Isn't it so  beautiful what God prepares for us way ahead of us !!

And that's not all guess what happened then .. Not only was all the land that belonged to her restored but also all the produce of her fields till that moment ! She was given more than what she asked. Verse 6 , "And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”"

- Our part is to listen and obey Him ! He prepares the way for us. He is Jehovah Rohi ! He is our shepherd, we wont be in want !

Its not a one time activity or thing to do. Its a life of loving Him and listening and obeying His voice.

God Bless

Those who overcome

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

1 John 5:4-5

The world may say there may be a million reasons to be overwhelmed , to feel like 'this is too much for me" or "I cant handle this" , there may be a dozen things that may be a struggle -  guilt , addictions, trying to break through certain patterns of lifestyle - procrastination, complacency ...

But here is one thing that overcomes it all - Jesus is the Son of God ! When we know and believe Jesus is the Son of God there is transformation. We have been ransomed by the blood of Christ. We no longer stand as orphans, we do not stand as those still slaves to sin. Christ is victorious over all. And by His grace and by His blood we are free ! 

Christ has overcome the world. And by faith in Him so are we :) We are those who overcome ! 

Never let the lies of the devil sway you away from the truth of God ! 

Let us walk in victory, in joy and in freedom knowing Jesus is Lord and knowing who we are in Him ! Let His word change our lives !

God Bless

What do you see ?

"Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest."

John 4:35

"Lord open my eyes that I may see" - This is a constant prayer of mine. All too often I have seen how the routines of the day to day and the ways of the world can cause scales to form over our eyes. Here is an example , at work or college someone purposely tries to show themselves better than you or tries to put you down.. what do we see ? For me unfortunately all too often it would be my bruised ego that I would see. However if we were to ask God open my eyes, He would show us that there is a person who is hurt and is doing things from a place of hurt and if we were to reach out to them in love can you imagine the testimony it would be to those around us.

Time and time again God has been reminding me how even more important it is for me to be a testimony to those around me at work. .And Im not saying from a point of fake smiles and fake gestures. No, but asking God to change us from the inside out so that those around us will truly see His love and His joy in us.

We are Christians not by who we are in church for a few hours :) We are His children 24*7 ! And the first people who need to testify of that are our family and our work/college people because they spend the most time with us. Do they see the "going the extra mile" , do they see the "even if unjustly treated will still take off the coat and give" attitude , do they see the fruit of the Spirit - patience , gentleness....

Do people know we are children of the Most High by what we say or how we live ?

A lot of time we keep saying , "Oh God use me" , "Lord send us the harvest , we will go out for you" , sometimes we keep thinking that the day to day has no purpose .... we couldnt be more wrong. This is what Christ said , "Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." There are people already reaping. What is stopping you and me ?

Have we lost sight that everyone around us is a soul precious in His sight ?

The harvest is ready ... What are we doing ?

God Bless

Keep Moving Forward

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Matthew 7:13-14

So picture this with me ... There is a narrow gate and once you get through the gate there is a way that you must walk which is hard and its leading you life !

A lot of times we find ourselves happily positioned at the entrance of the gate just very content in knowing what it is...Sometimes we walk a few miles down and find a comfortable spot and sit there... 

In our actual day to day lives we forget we are on this wonderful journey of following Christ, every day every moment is a step forward towards Him. Sometimes our desire to grow in Him, to draw closer to Him tends to hit a a line which we draw saying "yeah this is fine"... for some of us that line may be just going to church every sunday, for others it may be just contentment saying , "Ah yes this is all that I need to know.. Im good..." ... for some of us its resting on past laurels, "Hey I have journeyed so far ok... That is more than enough ! Now I am on a break/ Im busy with other responsibilities and I will stay where I am"

Its not enough to reach at the gate or to walk a few steps ahead and say "I'm here".. Its the WAY... There is a destination to reach... Which means we need to keep moving forward.. walk, run , pressing on.

God Bless You