Psalm 127

  Good day Towards the end of last year I took some time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit which message/series He'd like me to speak on next, and the phrase that I believe I heard in my spirit was, "Take a stand". When searching for the definition of the phrase on the Internet, I came across the following: To take a stand means to have a firm position about an issue. It means to defend one's point of view or beliefs, or to speak up about something important to you, or to support an issue or topic. It means to come to a decision, draw the line, resist, put up a fight, be resolute, steadfast, assert. It means to take a position in favour of, or in opposition to, someone or something. After taking the above definitions into consideration, a question that came to mind is, does the Bible speak about "taking a stand"? ... I then looked up scriptures that either directly, or by implication, indicate to us that God expects us to "take a stand" (and more sp...

Good day I trust you're doing well by the grace of God and wish you everything of the best for the year ahead. I sat in a meeting recently where someone was speaking about the fact that we need to respect our time. How our lives are made up of time and how it's something that, when it's gone, it's almost impossible to get back. They went on to say that if we knew that today/or this week were our last days on the Earth, how would that thought change our priorities, where all of a sudden many things that we thought were important might become less significant and we'd be encouraged to use our time differently. We'd probably be more intentional in our decisions/actions and less inclined to waste the limited time we have left, and instead be more constructive. Also, how differently would we treat those around us, would we be more patient with family, would we tell them how much we appreciate and love them. Would we be more kind and generous towards friends or even s...

Good day As I've previously mentioned, righteousness is a gift from God that we receive by faith in Jesus Christ. It gives us access to God's presence and the right to be in covenant with Him. For today's message, we're asking the question - is that enough, is that all there is to it, is it as simple as just praying a prayer of faith, declaring that I'm now righteous and going about my everyday life ... or does God expect anything more of me? I'd like to answer that question by referring to the below example: Imagine that righteousness was like an access card or maybe even an Identity Document (ID) or passport. It's something that indicates that you have a right to enter a particular building or in the case of an ID or passport, the right to be in that specific country. Without it, you wouldn't be allowed to go in - so that is what God's gift of righteousness is like ... The other side of this however, is having an understanding that even though we ...

Good day In today's message we'll be taking a brief look at some of the other benefits made available to us because of God's gift of righteousness. It's important to point out that when the Word of God says, that we are children of God, joint heirs with Christ and seated with Him in heavenly places (and have access to all of the other benefits listed below), that this is not based on one's feelings at a given moment in time or allowing our emotions to dictate whether this is true or not. This is something we do by faith. That is why the Bible calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7). This means that we believe that this belongs to us - That this is who we are when our spirits get born-again (John 3:1-21) - That we have a right to access, experience and walk in all of these, again, not because of anything we've done, but simply because we believe on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Amen As we've previously discussed, righteousness ...

Good day In the previous messages we've taken a look at mankind's need for righteousness and also how we're made righteous. In today's message we're taking a look at the question, "Can I lose my right-standing with God?" To answer this question, I'd like to start off by referring to the example of a marriage: When a man and woman get married they enter into a covenant with their spouse. On the day of their wedding they would have a wedding ceremony and enjoy celebrating the occasion with friends and family. They would also receive a marriage certificate which serves as legal proof of their marriage. Now whilst all of this may have taken place, the couple would still need to put in the effort to sustain, grow and develop their relationship and prioritize the marriage. If not, their relationship may eventually grow cold and the couple could drift apart. At this rate, it could reach a point where one of them decides they no longer wish to be married to th...

  Good day The journey of faith often mirrors the work of a farmer. Jesus said the following in Mark 4:26–27: “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.” We begin by considering the intense labor of preparing virgin soil - ground that has never been sown. This soil is hard, lacking nutrients, and must be broken, softened, and enriched before it can receive seed. The initial work is not the final goal but a vital step in establishing the land’s capacity to produce fruit. This idea brings us back to the teachings of Jesus in the Parable of the Sower and the condition of our own hearts - our spiritual “soil.” The Tilling of the Ground Mark 4:3-8 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside… But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: ...

  Good day In the bel ow teaching Rev. Hagin underscores the reality of Heaven and hell with vivid recollections of his personal experience and firm scriptural foundations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Aq3xdPt5s&list=WL&index=1&t=2017s This teaching can be found on the Rhema Kenneth E Hagin You Tube page: https://www.youtube.com/@RHEMAKennethEHagin

Good day I believe the Holy Spirit wants to remind some of us today that God has not forgotten about us. Below are some messages that I've previously sent out that I believe will be of encouragement to you in this area: 🔵 Are you Important? https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot.com/2022/06/are-you-important.html?m=1 🔵  Is God good? https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot.com/2021/02/is-god-good.html?m=1 🔵  Worth the investment https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot.com/2021/09/worth-investment.html?m=1 🔵  You are worth it! https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot.com/2022/05/you-are-worth-it.html?m=1 🔵  You are valuable to God https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot.com/2022/06/you-are-valuable-to-god.html?m=1 The second thing I believe the Holy Spirit wants to point out is that we shouldn't forget about God (don't forget about the love of God, His mercy, goodness and His power) Again, please see below messages: 🔵  Accepting God's love - Part 1 https://unlessjesusbuilds.blogspot...

Good day This series about the Holy Spirit is available on You Tube. Please see below links to John Bevere's You Tube page. 1.  Who Is the Holy Spirit? | Lesson 1 of the Holy Spirit 2.  Does the Holy Spirit Have a Personality? | Lesson 2 of the Holy Spirit 3.  Knowing the Holy Spirit at the DEEPEST Level | Lesson 3 of the Holy Spirit 4.  Why You Need to Speak in Tongues | Lesson 4 of the Holy Spirit 5.  The Holy Spirit: Q&A | Lesson 6 of the Holy Spirit 6.  How to Speak in Tongues | Lesson 5 of the Holy Spirit I'd encourage you to visit Messenger International ( https://messengerinternational.org/ ) where you'll find a large variety of Christian topics, which is also available on their app called Messenger X ( https://app.messengerx.com/ )

Good day In the previous message we saw how, when Adam sinned by disobeying God, he died spiritually and was separated from the life of God and how we too have all fallen into this category. I then ended the previous message off with the following point: "The consequences of sin/lawlessness is that it places us in an unrighteous state. The bible says in 1 John 5:17 that all unrighteousness/wrongdoing is sin and in 1 Corinthians 6:8-9 it says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Meaning that if we want to inherit the kingdom of God then we need to be considered righteous. Righteousness refers to our right-standing before God, the character or quality of being right, just or innocent, the condition acceptable to God or the state of being approved of God. Now there are some religions that promote practices and doing good works as a means of earning right-standing with God. They encourage their followers to adhere to certain rules and regulations so that they can ...

Good day I trust you're doing well. This will be the start of a new series where I'll be sharing some aspects regarding righteousness - what it is, our need for it, how we receive it, can we lose it, the benefits of it and what expectations come with it. To understand our need for the gift of righteousness, we have to go back to the place of man’s original sin, which was committed by Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam was created in God’s image and likeness. God made provision for all of Adam’s needs. He had absolute authority on the earth, enjoyed unhindered fellowship with God and was fully righteous before God. However, he was still a free moral agent and could choose to obey God or disobey Him, and when he sinned by disobeying God, Adam died spiritually. He was separated from the life of God ... and just like Adam, we also have free will to obey or disobey God, and the consequence of our disobedience/sin carries the same result, separation from God (Isaiah 59:2, Romans 6:23) ...

Good day In the previous message I mentioned that in addition to accepting God's forgiveness and forgiving ourselves, the second thing we need to do is focus on reaching forward to what lies ahead! To press on! Knowing that we may not be able to change what happened yesterday but we can change how we respond, and how we allow it to affect us from moving forward. I said that the responsibility rests with us to take control over the remainder of our days. That it starts with forgiving ourselves, moving on from the regret of the past, and focusing on all that God can still achieve in and through us in the days, months and years ahead! In today's message I'd like us to reflect on the below passages: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace...

Good day In Part 1 we took a look at the following statement made by the Apostle Paul: "forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead". I said that this was a big statement considering everything he did to the church. I believe he may have been referring to a time when he experienced times where the devil must've bombarded his mind with thoughts about his past in an attempt to get him off track, to question his salvation, to second guess his calling and assignment. That in that statement, in order for him to have moved on from his past mistakes, he not only had to accept God's forgiveness, but he also had to forgive himself. The devil will try that same tactic on us, getting us to dwell on the past, dwelling on past mistakes, wishing we had made better choices. We can allow it to dictate to us how and where we ought to end up in life instead of allowing the word and love of God to determine the course of our lives. We may end up becoming so focus...

Good day The Bible tells us that the apostle Paul was someone who spread the message of Christ and who planted churches, but scripture also tells us that he was a Jew, thoroughly trained in the law and zealous for God (Acts 22:3) and that he persecuted the church. In Acts 6:8-15, 7:1-60, 8:1 we read that he was present when Stephen was stoned and murdered, and consented to his death. In Acts 22:4-5 we read that he persecuted followers of Christ to the death, binding and delivering both men and women into prisons. In Acts 8:3 we read that he created havoc in the church, entering every house and dragging both men and women into prison. In Acts 26:9-11 he states the following about himself: “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many times I we...