Matthew 6:33 says that if we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that all other things will be added to our lives. The Amplified Bible translation of this verse says we are to "seek His way of doing and being right." Seeking the kingdom means finding out how God wants things done. Finding out how He wants us to treat people. Finding out how He wants us to act in situations and circumstances. Finding out what He wants us to do with our money. Finding out what kind of an attitude we should have. Even finding out what kind of entertainment Jesus approves of for us.
Our lives will not be blessed if we keep God in a little Sunday-morning box and let Him have our priority attention for only forty-five minutes, once a week during a church service. As long as we are here in this world, we will have to resist becoming like the world and it is a daily battle.
Elisha was a man of God. He did not speak with a flash of ecstasy. Ten correct guesses make no man a prophet. He was God's appointed and anointed representative in Samaria. The name Elisha stood for the name of the Lord. As a sign and symbolic act the prophet had offered his oxen as a sacrifice and used the plough as wood for the altar. He gave up the means of his own livelihood to God. From then on he was responsible TO the Lord and the Lord was responsible FOR Elisha. The Syrian army heard sounds of a great host coming to rescue Samaria, and they fled in panic and left all their stores behind (2Kings7). The Word of the Lord had performed this. WHEN GOD SPEAKS IT IS AN EVENT WHICH SETS HISTORY IN MOTION. It is no use ignoring it, or we do so at our cost. The Gospel is the Word of the Lord, just as much as the word that Elisha spoke. In fact the Gospel is just as much the Word of God as the Word that made the heavens and the earth. God upholds all things by the Word of His power. The gospel announces His love, and His love is not a mere emotion or declaration, but an unchangeable act, the act of Calvary. The gospel is "not in word only but in power". "The Gospel IS THE POWER OF GOD..." because it is the Word of the Lord. Be blessed. REINHARD BONNKE
When Steven Langton divided the Bible into chapters 700 years ago, he started John Chapter 9 at the wrong place. It is the story of Christ healing the blind man and at chapter 8:59 when men in the Temple took up stones to kill Jesus. It should read like this ‘Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the Temple grounds’, AND (9:1) As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth’. Escaping from fanatics trying to murder Him, Jesus still could feel concern for an afflicted man suffering the lifelong calamity of blindness. That’s the Jesus touch.
However, that is not how the disciples looked on him. They were used to seeing blind beggars but took notice when Jesus did. He said nothing for a moment, so they of course felt they must make some comment. We must talk, whether it is just words or sense. So, they simply articulated the common platitudes as to why the man was born blind, the half-baked ideas of those times. It was either his sin before he was born or his parents sin, one or the other, - which? As if it mattered which!
Jesus was no more interested in philosophizing about illness than a surgeon is with a patient on the operating table. He offers no explanations. ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work’. 1 John 3:8. His answer is not words, but ‘by His stripes we are healed’. God speaks, but His words are creative. He says AMEN to His own words and does what He says. This is true today and for you now. Emergency? Jesus is stopping at your door. Believe and receive. God bless you. Please share.
REINHARD BONNKE
Without faith, people turn everywhere for assurance, even in the most useless and pathetic directions. People turn even to the quiet stars, studying the signs of the Zodiac, looking for signs of good luck, casting around like shipwrecked mariners for a rock on which to cling. Isaiah observed all this nearly 3,000 years ago and said, "When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?" (Isaiah 8:19). The man who fears God fears nothing. This is what the Lord says, "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though their nations are terrified by them" (Jeremiah 10:2). We recognize our God in all His awesome greatness and His power to save us, and nothing has greater power. We love and trust Him. REINHARD BONNKE
Longing for real life, some people get tangled in a web of destruction - often in the most common and obvious snares, such as drugs or drink. These addictions have never solved one single problem - but create millions. Those who cannot live without drugs and drink also cannot live with them. They produce only a chemical dream, a mirage in a waterless desert. Others become addicted to pursuit of success. Their diaries get fuller, their bank accounts fatter, their cars faster - but they never catch up with happiness. Like mountaineers, millions of people display enormous courage, determination and ingenuity to get to the top. But they find only emptiness when they get there. We need more than a cheap solution or a quick fix. We need peace with God. We need him to forgive us, bring us home, restore us to the relationship he has always wanted to have with us. Only Jesus saves.