GET INSPIRED
Book of The Month
'The Anointing', by Pastor Benny Hinn is a must-read for believers seeking to receive new dimensions of God through His Holy Spirit. The Anointing is reserved for born-again believers who thirst and hunger for it, those who prepare for it and are intentional about it.
Through this book, which provides principles to follow for walking in the anointing, you will begin to feel God's presence more intimately than before.
"When the Holy Spirit is a reality in your life, He provides an avenue through which the anointing, the power, can flow."
A Song to Stir Your Spirit
Whether in quiet moments with God or immersed in our day-to-day activities, praise and worship can hold the key to unlocking a new and deeper dimension of God. Praise and worship can literally take you into the presence of God and bring you so close to Him that you will feel as though He were physically standing there, right next to you.
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John 5:1-8
Our reading begins in John chapter 5:1-8, with the pool in Bethesda where the blind, lame, and even paralyzed would come and wait for the arrival of an angel that would come and stir the water. As the angel would come down, the first person to get into the water would receive their healing. It sounds cruel to put it this way, seeing that the people already suffering from their infirmities had to endure the feeling of hopelessness for those who couldn't get into the pool and receive healing.
Jesus saw a man with his infirmities and had compassion toward him; then Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well. This question seems easy to answer and I wondered why Jesus even bothered to ask. Sometimes, the people we want to rescue from pain, hurt, or their current situation, may be very well happy and content in and with it. It is good to want to help others, but sometimes, we tend to impose our will instead of asking what theirs is. What Jesus did by posing this question is show that nothing He does will go against what we desire. People came to Him willingly and requested a miracle; this time, it was Jesus who went to the sick man.
Because it was Jesus who approached the sick man, He had to ask instead of just assuming that what the man wanted was to get well. Long story short, the man admits that he does want to get well but that the circumstances around him never worked in his favor. Jesus said to man, "Get up, pick up your mat and walk", and instantly, the Bible tells us, "the man got well". This man received his healing without getting into the water or waiting. Jesus Himself is healing; He is the living water that cleanses our bodies and removes all disease and sickness. This sick man in John 5 believed that what he wanted, Jesus did too; as long the man believed in Jesus, his healing was inevitable.
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Joshua Chapter 7 & 8
The Israelites faced defeat in battle, and Joshua cried out to God in frustration, Joshua 7:7, "If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan!". The Lord answered Joshua and said to him that they would remain cowards and defeated "unless you remove from what is set apart" verse 12. The Lord had set things apart for destruction, the Bible tells us at the beginning of Joshua 7. When we read on, the Lord gives a message to Joshua to consecrate all the tribes of Israel and that the one with the things set apart is to burn. As things set for destruction remained with the Israelites, the Lord did not reveal strategies to overcome the enemy. Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was revealed by the Lord to have taken the things set apart. Because of a single man, God's anger burned against an entire nation, against the Israelites, Joshua 7:1
In chapter 8, the children of Israel defeated AI in battle. After destroying the things set apart, the Bible says, "Then the Lord turned from His burning anger" Joshua 7:26. From verses 4-8 of Joshua 8, the Lord instructs Joshua and gives him strategies for victory. Something remarkable about what the Lord tells Joshua is that this plan is the same as the first battle. The difference now is that God's favor is with the Israelites, and though the plan is the same, the technique used has evolved. God is using our past defeat to make us wiser; the Israelites knew the roadmap for battle because they had already walked on those roads, but imagine if this was not the case. Had the Israelites not gone through that first defeat, they would have never discovered the routes they now used to lure the army of AI. How would the Israelites know how to run through woods unfamiliar to them had they not previously run through them? No failure is a waste when we put our faith in God. The Israelites won the battle, and the Lord handed the city over to Joshua, 8:18-19. After defeating the city, the Israelites obeyed the Lord and did as commanded, "Israel plundered only the cattle and spoil of that city for themselves, according to the Lord's command that He had given to Joshua" Joshua 8:27.
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A 1583 engraving print by Jan Sadeler depicts Lamech (center), and his two wives Zillah and Adah, seated at the left.
Lamech, a descendant of Cain, more specifically; Lamech is the great-great-grandson of Enoch, Enoch was the son of Cain, and Cain is the son of Adam, the first man created in God’s own image (read Genesis 1-4).
The story of Lamech, Adah, and Zillah is one that I think is well worth the read. Perhaps because this was the first of many things in the Bible; the first time a man took two wives, the first sister-wives the Bible refers to, and much more. Everything the Lord does is justified. In making a single helper, Eve, for Adam, the Lord was subliminally saying, one is enough. In creating a helper for the spirit-man, the Lord revealed to humanity one of the most significant jobs He needed to accomplish but could only do when His Spirit took the form of a female-man, spirit-woman, a woman.
When we do not understand the purpose for which God intended for anything He has made or created, misuse is inevitable.
Psalm 91:1
"The one who lives under the protection of the most high dwells in the shadow of the Almighty".
How do we live under the protection of the most high? How can we dwell in His shadow? God is first a father and a parent to us; as a parent, His mission is to provide and protect. Nothing is required of the child to experience these levels of parental provision. To dwell in the shadow is to be kept in a place where God's provision and protection can reach us at all times. A child cannot decide to move across the globe on their own yet still expect the parent to bring them coffee in bed every morning. Citizens may not have the same privilege when they migrate elsewhere. You get the point. To experience the provision and protection God so lavishly offers, we must make it a priority to be where God is, to dwell in His shadow; this begins by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior and receiving the new life that comes through Him. In John 14, the disciples tell Jesus that they do not know how to follow Him because they have no idea where He’s going. Jesus replies, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. Because we are following Jesus, He will lead us into the provision and protection of the Most High and into the shadow of the Almighty.
Exodus 32: 13-14
In this reading, Moses is having a very intimate conversation with the Lord, in which afterward, God relented concerning the punishment against the Israelites for their sinful ways. God had made promises, starting with Abraham and flowing to Isaac and Israel. Due to the Israelites' ungodly behavior in worshipping idol gods and rebelling against God, the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel were no longer at the top of God's to-do list, but punishing His people now was. The Israelites offended God through their words, actions, and in thoughts. The more they sinned, the further the promises went, and the more they rebelled, the closer disaster came. In asking God to remember His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Moses is asking God to reorder His to-do list; Moses is asking God to bring the promises He made back on top of His to-do list for the Israelites. In a way, Moses is telling God to take His eyes away from the Israelites and focus on His promises, His faithfulness, His power, and His love. Guess what? It worked! Verse 14 tells us, "So the Lord relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring to His people.". The Israelites and their undisciplined behavior no longer mattered because now, God had to answer to His name as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the God who promised to multiply and give; God now had to defend His name and His honor.
PURITY
The process of becoming clean is first discovering that you are unclean. Before the actual cleaning process takes place, something else takes precedence, accountability. The beginning of purity is the awareness of the spots, dirt, mess, and impurity on you, next to you, around you, and worse, inside you that your actions have brought. When it comes to spiritual impurity, men in the flesh will not have the wisdom to discern. God. The all-powerful and all-knowing God through His Spirit points out our impurity. The Holy Spirit is holy and pure by nature. When we become born again and ask the Holy Spirit to come into us, He brings to us not something He is composed of but the very nature of who He is, holiness, and purity. Because the Holy Spirit, now living in us through spiritual rebirth, brings holiness and purity, we too, by no effort of our own, enter into these two dimensions. But, when we, in our sinful nature, seek other pleasures outside that which God, through His Holy Spirit, has lavishly provided us, we allow other spirits to come and live in us. God, by nature, is jealous. When we forsake God by allowing other spirits, who, unlike the Holy Spirit, do not have our best interest in mind, this grieves Him. The Holy Spirit is grieved because He no longer holds the #1 place in our hearts, but the spirit that brought impurity now does. What does the Holy Spirit do? As we become submerged in impurity, the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, begins to counsel us. The Holy Spirit speaks through men, the Bible, and even through the still voice from within us, urging us to repent and set ourselves apart from that which has separated us from the presence of God. Through repentance, we recognize how much in need we are of God’s love and mercy, and so the process of becoming clean begins.
Numbers 9:15-23
"Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for only a few days. They would camp at the Lord's command and set out at the Lord's command."
As the children of Israel set out through the wilderness, the Lord went with them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. A cloud is a form of shelter, shelter from the sun, and anything that could potentially inhibit the Children of Israel from making it to the promised land. A cloud is symbolic. God is coming as a pillar of cloud by day, making Himself a shield, standing between His people and any harm that could come during the day. A pillar of cloud by night. During the nighttime, it gets cold, fire does not only bring light or illumination, but fire also brings warmth and heat. The protection of the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night manifests where the presence of God is, where God Himself is. The moment God is no longer in sight, on the scene, present among the people, the protection given by the pillar of cloud and fire will no longer be as well.
The significance of fire
If and when a person gets physically or spiritually cold, there are several reasons to be alarmed. Being extremely cold is a bad sign. When an individual is spiritually cold, this is often a sign that their fire, passion, and love for God have decreased, and their passion for praying and studying scripture also goes down simultaneously with their love for God. When a person loses their spiritual fire, they grow distant from the presence of God and essentially God Himself.
Physically, when an individual gets extremely cold, they are treading closer to death. When someone passes away, if you were to touch that individual, they would feel as cold as ice. In what type of environment is the decease kept before burial? In a cold location. But God says He is coming to His people as a pillar of fire by night; God brings the fire, He is fire, and fire is good, both spiritually and physically.
Genesis 2:7
“Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”
When God formed man, man was just that, an object from dust taken from the ground. The moment the Lord God made man, the man was nothing, yet. The Bible says that God breathed the breath of life into man, into his nostrils, and immediately God did that, the status of man changed from a mere man, made out of the dust, to a living being.
What makes a man a living being is not the type of shoes they wear, the houses they live in, nor nationality or ethnicity; what makes a man a living being is the breath of the Almighty in their nostrils. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention God breathing into the nostrils of an animal, but God did this for man and by doing so, elevated our status from among all His other creatures. Again, this reminds me of how fearfully and wonderfully made the Lord God created man, according to Psalm 139:14.
“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him."
Hate here isn't only a negative action towards an individual; hate can be subtle, silent, and even passive, which for me, can be a dang1John 3:15
erous type of hate. You may think you like or even love someone, yet you cannot help but fire up the fuel of hate, discontentment, and even grudge an individual has for them. Hate isn't just detesting someone to the extent where you cannot be in their presence; hate can also be smiling at someone's face while knowing that you don't think of them fondly in your heart, and your actions have often time shown this. As I mature spiritually, the Holy Spirit convicts me daily and asks me to repent. The Holy Spirit reveals my true nature, not because He intends to leave me as I am, but because He wants me to acknowledge this, repent, and let Him begin a transforming work in me. It sounds crazy to say, "I'm a murderer", without having actual blood on your hands; yet, murdering is not all about the physical act. Oftentimes, and perhaps even most times, we murder people with our thoughts, words, and looks. No matter if that individual has wronged us, when we hate them, we become murderers, guilty as charged. As murderers, we cannot inherit God's kingdom nor be where the Spirit of God is. Where God is, there is eternal life. As mentioned before, a part of growing up, spiritually, is knowing when the Holy Spirit is convicting me and realizing that whether I've been born again for X amount of time, one thing is for sure; the Holy Spirit is never wrong. But Holy Spirit, how can You say this to me? I love people; perhaps this is a word you want me to give to someone else, I think or say, but guess what? The Holy Spirit is never wrong. Whether the Holy Spirit makes it a point to bring my faults before me once or as many times as He likes, He will always be true because He is the truth. The last thing I've learned is not to deny what the Holy Spirit has said and fake it as if it wasn't to me who He has spoken. I surrender, ask for mercy, and beg for forgiveness. Lastly, pray. I pray that the Holy Spirit would remove any spirit of hatred from within so that I may have eternal life residing in me. It's a hard pill to swallow, realizing that you're not perfect but are continually being disciplined as a disciple of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 8:2
"And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know."
Isaiah 62:5
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so Your God will rejoice over you.”
The groom rejoices because he knows the value of his bride and that, unlike any other woman, his bride is unique; the bride is perfect for her groom and even compliments him. Even in the couple’s silence, they understand one another and know their value not in their individual being, but through this covenant that makes them one, united in Christ Jesus. The groom rejoices because his bride is faithful, through words, she speaks it, and through actions, she demonstrates it.
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1 CORINTHIANS 10:13
I read this scripture and also think of the responsibility God may entrust us. Oftentimes, we may feel burdened, weighed down by our daily tasks and even the pressure that comes from those responsibilities. We may get overwhelmed, and it may feel as though God made a mistake; it even sometimes feels as though God does not understand that we are not gods like Him and have limited capacity. God knows this and more, He is still Alpha Omega, the bright and morning star, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the Monarch of the universe, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah; Jehovah Jireh is His name because, like a good Father, He never fails to provide, He also goes by El-Shaddai, God Almighty. The Bible says in John 3:1, “Through Him, all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made”; the same God who breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam, and the Bible says that Adam became a living being (Genesis 2:7), also established the foundations of the earth, colored the sky, the seas and in His creativity, designed every creature. God knows how many strands of hair we have and the number of our days (Exodus 23:26), which He has promised to fulfill; this same God, who formed us in the womb of our mother and knew us even before this, knows us more than we often give Him the credit. Aside from being the King and supreme ruler, God is a Father, our Father. Like a good Father, God knows us even better than we know ourselves; He knows what we like and do not, but most importantly, God knows what we can bear. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses, God still wants us to ask for help. When we feel burdened by life or a situation, this is usually a sign that we are not inviting God in to share our load and even carry our burdens. God could have given that responsibility to anyone else, but He chose you, and God makes no mistake, you are the right person for the job, and shall I even add, over qualified. Trust that the love of God for you brings the best to you, lean on Him to be your source of strength, and watch as those mountains that stood before you level out and give way to the divine help of the Almighty.
2 Samuel 24:16
Nehemiah 4:6 “So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its heights, for the people had the will to keep working.”
Reading the scripture and seeing the efforts Nehemiah and the men invested into the wall, the Bible reveals why God had given them such a burden in the first place. The decision to obey God seemed easy enough, but Nehemiah and the men received insults as they worked. Sanballat, Tobiah the Ammonite, and others mocked the work Nehemiah and the men were doing and tried violently to stop them from rebuilding the wall. Many of us are in this same predicament; we have seen the work needed in our lives, families, businesses, etc, and have partnered with God to make it happen; however, the enemy is attacking. When their enemies gathered to stop the rebuilding of the wall, Nehemiah and the men did not give up. The Bible tells us that the men had the will to keep working. Having the will to keep working is powerful because what could have taken Nehemiah and the men years and even generations to accomplish took a shorter amount of time. Nehemiah and the men took less time to complete rebuilding the wall, not because they were so strong or very numerous, but because each man had the will to keep working until they were satisfied with the results or had made significant progress. God knows that the work isn’t easy and may demand everything from us, even in the complexity of the work, even when the enemy sends his best agents and, it feels as though we’re running out of strength, both physically and in the spirit, God wants to know, do we have the will to keep working? Having the will to keep working will erase the timeline and limitations men had placed on our success. Having the will to keep working gave Nehemiah, and the men rebuilding the wall supernatural strength to endure the mockery and instead focus on the generational blessings that would come from their submission and obedience to God.