Acknowledge I
‘Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture’ Ps.100:3
Over the next few days we are going to learn from Psalm 100, the keys to being grateful. Who better to learn how to be grateful from than David himself. For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever and ever. Honoring our parents is one of the things that we strongly advocate in God’s Favourite House. The story is told of a man who always buys his father a very unique father’s day gift. Some of the gifts are quite expensive, others Read the rest of this entry
Starting Point
‘So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God’ Rom.5:11
Today I want to share an experience with you that happened to me over ten years ago. It is not all together new but some of you might be reading this for the first time. I trust that God will breath on it a fresh and use it to grow you in enquiring from the Lord. I was on a flight and sitting beside me was this frail old Caucasian woman. As is customary for me, I asked the Holy Spirit, “Who is this lady?” If I am going to be sitting beside Read the rest of this entry
Go Ahead And Ask
‘Again David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah betray me and my men to Saul?” And the Lord replied, “Yes, they will betray you.” 1Sam.23:12
The final thing in enquiring from the Lord is just go ahead and ask. Don’t be afraid just ask. Don’t miss this because it is the key in enquiring from the Lord. The easiest way is to ask simple questions. Ask a question that will have a yes or no answer – or a green light or a red light. David says, “should I pursue or should I stay?” Yes or No answer. David says, “will they betray me or will they be loyal to me?” Yes or No answer. David says, Read the rest of this entry
Posture Of Obedience
‘Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’” 1Sam.3:8-9 [NKJV].
The third thing in enquiring from the Lord is a posture of obedience. When you are asking God a question you must have a posture of obedience. In other words, you must make up your mind to obey whatever He says. In 1 Samuel 3 [please read], God was calling Samuel but he did not know the voice of God so he ran to Eli instead. Read the rest of this entry
Check Your Motive II
‘For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another’ Ps.75:6-7
‘People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives’ Prov.16:2. It is very easy to drift into believing that your promotion depends on man because that is when people begin to do strange things. ‘They went to Balaam and delivered this message to him: “This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Please don’t let anything stop you from coming to help me. I will pay you very well and do whatever you tell me. Just come and curse these people for me!” But Balaam responded to Balak’s messengers, “Even if Balak were to give me his palace filled with silver and gold, I would be powerless to do anything against the will of the Lord my God.’ Num.22:16-17. You would expect that he next thing Balaam would say would sound something like: “In fact, if you are not careful, I am going to demote you”. You know Balaam can demote the king? But instead Balaam’s response was, ‘But stay here one more night, and I will see if the Lord has anything else to say to me” Num.22:19. But you see when you don’t know who you are and you allow greed [what can I get, me too I can finally have a blackberry or drive a four wheel drive] to corrupt your heart then it darkens your spirituality. Then the donkey begins to see sharper than the prophet. Read the rest of this entry
Check Your Motive I
‘You can cry and cover the Lord’s altar with tears, but the Lord will not accept your gifts. He will not be pleased with the things you bring to him’ Mal.2:13 [ERV]
Second thing in enquiring from the Lord is check your motive. Why am I asking what I am asking? What is my motive? I encourage you to read Numbers 22. This is the story of a Prophet called Balaam and a king called Balak. Balaam was a gentile and not a Jew but Balaam knew God and could hear God. Balaam described himself as the one that sees a vision without closing his eyes. Balak the king of Moab said I have heard of a people who came out of Egypt and are consuming Read the rest of this entry
Rooted In Relationship
‘…“O Lord, God of Israel, I have heard that Saul is planning to come and destroy Keilah because I am here. Will the leaders of Keilah betray me to him? And will Saul actually come as I have heard? O Lord, God of Israel, please tell me”’ 1Sam.23:10-11.
Firstly, enquiring from the Lord is rooted in relationship with the Lord. We have people that don’t have any relationship with the Lord whatsoever. They are not interested in building a relationship with the Lord or living for Jesus. Then they get to a cross road and they expect heaven to answer. It does not work that way. ‘But David… told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and ask the Lord what he should do’ 1Sam.23:9. Note that priest was there. David did not ask for a Read the rest of this entry
By Significance IV
‘For this is what the Lord says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever’ Jer.33:17.
The second thing that David left us is the perpetual kingship of Israel. In fact the kingship of Israel is known as the throne of David. Whoever is going to be king in Israel is occupying the throne of David [Jer.33:17]. Even Jesus is called the Son of David and the Bible says Jesus will sit on the throne of David his father [Luke 1:32]. That is just minded blowing. David left two major legacies – perpetual kingship of Israel and the Book of Psalms. Again in the Psalms, you Read the rest of this entry
By Significance III
‘The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.’ Ps.16:6.
We have learnt that there are people who have no legacy, there are those wasting their time with non-significant legacies. And then there are people like David that have significant legacies. Even if you look at Solomon, the temple that Solomon built today is not standing. God told David not to worry about building the temple because his son will build it. “Your legacy is going to be bigger than that”. Let us delve deeper and examine what David would forever be remembered Read the rest of this entry
By Significance II
“Who do you think you are, and what are you doing here, building a beautiful tomb for yourself - a monument high up in the rock? For the Lord is about to hurl you away, mighty man. He is going to grab you’ Isa.22:16-17.
While some people leave significant legacies, other people leave non-significant legacies. The people who leave non-significant legacies are so consumed with building structures and monuments. It is an insignificant legacy because someone else can just demolish it and we have seen this happen time and again. Saddam Hussein put up a monument and that monument was pulled down. People even try to embalm their Hero’s as a legacy. Sadly a lot of people are Read the rest of this entry
