~ Absolute Obedience ~

"And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."
- Gen 22:8

Abraham heard God's instructions to sacrifice his only son Isaac and he obeyed without hesitation. Early the next morning, he went up with Isaac to Mount Moriah and was ready to sacrifice his son. I've heard this preached before that God requires our 100% obedience.
99% obedience is not obedience. Delayed obedience is not obedience.

Can you imagine? God asking us to sacrifice something that's so precious to you? Your only son. God also had His only son. And He required it of Himself to sacrifice Him, so that we may live. Later on (I think in Hebrews), the reason given by Abraham for agreeing to sacrifice Isaac, was that he was sure that God will raise Isaac up again from the dead even if he did sacrifice Isaac. Wow. What a revelation of the future plan of God.

Abraham said to Isaac that God will provide the lamb, knowing that Isaac is going to be sacrificed, but also that God will raise Isaac up. Few thousand years later - God did provide His own lamb to be sacrificed and God did raise him up again.

But God did not require Abraham's sacrifice in the end. He only wanted to test Abraham's heart.
"But obedience is better than sacrifice" -

Abraham's obedience in this case was even greater than the sacrifice he had to make. God was aware of that. For God knows what's in a man's heart. Outward sacrifice or obedience is of no use if our hearts are not right. God desires our submission and obedience out of love and reverance for him.

My own experience is that many a time I forget the prompting of the Holy Spirit and end up disobeying God. But last night was different. (Our accounting group was scheduled to prepare for a rather major presentation to the lecturer today). Somehow, I kept feeling unease in my spirit that some questions were going to be asked about the portion of my slides. I had to get up and read through that portion again. Lo and behold... I found out that I had prepared part of the presentation wrongly. That was corrected. Holy Spirit again indicated to me that someone in the class would ask about the numbers and that I needed to prepare to answer on how I derived those numbers... I got down to the preparation. Lo and behold... the question was asked earlier toay in class. And I managed to pull through. Isn't God amazing - if we choose to obey.

The long and short is that we did pretty well for the presentation. Many of our classmates said that our presentation was the best one so far in the series of presentations done. Well... we worked hard - but God was sovereign in that he prepared everything for us - the timing of the presentation, finding the right movie and sound clips to play, arranging for us to know the professor's requirements etc. Most importantly, prompting me about that important question that would be asked in class.

We can try all we want. But if we are on God's side - He fights for us. All we have to do is to obey.

I have to continually ask myself the question - Am I listening to God today? Have I obeyed?

What about you?

Barn

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance...

"And they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." Mat 3:6-9

True repentance brings forth fruit. Outward repentance is easy to pretend, but the real fruit – a changed life – a life filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit – Love Joy Peace Patience Kindness Goodness Gentleness Self-control – cannot be faked. Sooner or later, we will be “found out”. Just as faith without action is dead, any repentance without fruit is fake.

For Jesus emphasized on the fruit. “By their fruit you will know them”, as He said about discerning the false prophets. There is no need to pretend to be “good” in front of others. God will be the judge of us all. Whether we have truly repented and done well in his sight.

When I look at my life, it is when I feel frustrated and impatient that are usually the signs that I’m losing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Somehow, somewhere, I have an “open door”. It could be something I said or did or thought that could have caused me to stray from God’s path. It could be something very minor. But God knows and the anointing is lost. I first need to take a step back to repent and renounce the sin that the Holy Spirit reveals to me, before I can move on and be restored to full fellowship with the Lord.

Let’s take a step back today. Are we failing to bear fruit for the Lord. How fruitful have we been? Take a look at the nine fruits of the Spirit. Is anyone missing in our lives? If so, we need to seek the Lord, to repent of any sin (known or unknown) and ask for Him to make us fruitful again. For it is the Lord that allows the fruit to grow. On our part, we can clear our hearts of sin and deceit and then allow the Lord to plant His precious word in our hearts so that fruit can grow once again.

Blessings.

Barnabas

~ Crossing Jordan ~

What a series of impounding messages from the Lord regarding crossing Jordan. Almost every service and devotional that I have come across the last couple of days makes reference to crossing the river Jordan – into the land of inheritance. The interesting thing is that I was on the way for Watchnight service in Geneva. The first song that started playing on my Ipod was “Crossing Over” (lyrics below – the church is Church for the Nations). And it was raining in Geneva – speaking of God’s abundant blessings and perhaps promise of hope. Somehow, I felt that this meeting in Geneva was going to be very important for me – I had to go (despite my body’s reluctance). I had already “attended” the City Harvest service via internet the previous day and I had already gone to Geneva that very morning for their morning service. (Pastor Kong Hee was talking about possessing our inheritance – crossing he river Jordan). Thirdly, I had to risk missing the last train out of Geneva at 1.18 am. But I felt that I had to go. No choice. And so I went.

Guess what? The message had to do with crossing over to Jordan. It’s all falling back into perspective and pieces. This morning, Rick Joyner’s weekly devotional again spoke about crossing over Jordan to possess our inheritance. Coincidence? I’m afraid that when God speaks like this, it’s better that I obey. Below are initial ramblings on what I have gathered from the sermons, devotionals, quiet time… It may be the beginning of a “series” of what I shall write.

The children of Israel, having left Egypt and wandered in the wilderness, were at their threshold of entering into their Promised Land, led by Joshua. The manna, quail, water from the rock, pillar of fire by night and cloud by day would from then on stop. They need to enter and fight against the giants of the land.

And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (Jos 5:12)

Entering Jordan - God’s promise for us - takes faith, action, and obedience. God had to let a whole generation to pass before allowing the new generation to enter because the former had no faith. They were afraid of the giants of the land. We must enter our Promised inheritance by faith. Claim it by faith, and not be double-minded – or double-spirited. A double-minded man receives nothing from the Lord. (James 1:5-8).

Entering Jordan also takes action – we need to act – to actually step into the Land. It is not going to be “free and easy”. Faith without action is dead. God has brought them thus far on eagle’s wings – it has been “easy” on the Israelites – it is now time for real action. God wants each and everyone of us to take up the responsibility for entering into our inheritance. Too many of us just want God to “do all the work”. No – we need to work. He who does not work shall not eat. We cannot be lazy and expect God to do everything for us. There are times when I have fallen prey to this mindset, thinking that “I am blessed by God. So everything will be ok.” This is a lie from the evil one. God expects us to work – and work hard. We do not need to toil i.e. work under excruciating conditions, but we need to work. Remember in Genesis 1 that the plants did not yet grow, until man was created to till the ground! Taking action to possess our inheritance is part and parcel of God’s plan for us.

Gen 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Entering Jordan takes obedience. The first ground to enter was Jericho – with such high walls protecting the city, there is no way the Israelites were going to beat the giants of Jericho without listening to God’s word and obeying it. Joshua had to receive revelation from the Lord on the strategy to conquer Jericho. They had to prayer walk around the city walls seven times. It was a humbling and even humiliating act. But it worked. The walls came down after the seventh round and with a great shout. God’s ways are higher than our ways. The battle is won in the spiritual before manifesting itself in the natural. Are we listening to God’s voice? Are we obeying?

And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. Jos 6:2-5

Remember – Obedience is better than Sacrifice. God expects us to obey when He has spoken.

Until next time – blessings…

Barnabas

P.s. – by the way, there was no last train. The timetable got mixed up. I was stuck in Geneva for a long time along with the flu. And the rest is another story for another day.


CROSSING OVER

(Verse 1)
We come before Your throne
Our hearts we give to You
We long to see Your kingdom come
And bring Your truth to all the earth

(Pre Chorus)
Nations will cry out Your name
Send us to Your harvest Lord we pray

(Chorus)
By Your Spirit O Lord, we claim the nations
Of the world for You, Jesus
Pour down Your rain

Holy Spirit move in us today
By Your Spirit O Lord, we claim the nations
Of the world for You, Jesus
By Your word of truth, we’re crossing over

To win the lost for You

(Verse 2)
Your cross before our eyes
You've set our hearts on fire
To give what we can never keep
To gain what we can never lose