THE WORD! God chastise Those He Loves, Let Us Consider Judas!

I was sharing something with hubby yesterday, and as I meditate on it again, now, I feel led to share it here.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus never cautioned Judas, why He never rebuked him and why He never confronted him for being a thief? (John 12:6)



Have you ever wondered why He allowed Judas to be an executive in His cabinet despite Judas' dubious character?

Kenneth Copeland’s Daily Devotional - Step Out of the Boat

Topic: Step Out of the Boat [May 16, 2016]

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water.... - Matthew 14:28-29

It’s easy to be so afraid of making a mistake that you never get around to stepping out on faith. You can spend all your time wondering, Is this faith? Or is it presumption?
 What if I exercise my faith for something and find out later I’ve missed God’s will?

The Power of ThanksGiving : Reasons to Give God Thanks Always as a Christian Believer

Praise the Lord!

I bring you all greetings in the name of our the LORD!

Am sure God as been greatly blessing your week and making his face to shine over you and your endeavors? God be praised.

So today I Want to open your eyes to one of the master key of the kingdom of God and tool of our warfare.

The bible says "Unto Thee, i give the keys that opens the kingdom of heaven that whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bind in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loose in heaven. - Matthew 16 : 19 ".

Keys here connotes "Knowledge: you are empowered in the realm of the spirit by the knowledge that as been made known to you by the spirit of God.

One of the ways by which we unlock doors in the spirit realm is through THANKSGIVING, Having a attitude of gratitude will empower you for greater dimension of God's glory in your life and walk with God.

God desires that every time you see his good work in your life and give him thanks, this is very important, it is non-negotiable. You must live a life of thanksgiving; which some people calls  "Thanks-living".

MOST OF TIMES, PEOPLE tends to be an ingrate, most people murmur and complain that God as not done that which they desire of him, and by so doing, they are indirectly blindfolded from seeing other goodness of the lord.

However, by God's grace today i will open your eyes to some of the power and mysteries of Thanksgiving as one of our weapon of warfare and keys that opens the gates of heaven.

You need to understand that when you give God thanks for one certain thing he multiplies it and make it become two, so when you are a grateful servant, sons and daughters of the most high, you can be rest assured that you are next in line for greater glory because every child of God who shows his appreciation in response to God's goodness and faithfulness is naturally eligible to access deeper grace and mighty hands of God in his life and endeavors.

So Now; 

What are the Power of Thanksgiving in a Believer's life?

1. Multiplication : Thanksgiving as the ability to multiply whatsoever you are thanking God for; if you have your first child and you give God the glory for that lifetime success, just know that the rest children are coming. If you have a list of things that you desire that the lord should do for you and in your life and he as done maybe just 4 out of 7 request in your lists, when you are thankful for the first 4, then God will prove himself mighty over the remaining 3, that is how God operates.    You will agree with me that when Jesus our savior wanted to do the miracle of feeding 5,000 men, he gave THANKS! Also when he wanted to raise the dead of lazarus from the grave, he also gave thanks, in Matthew 14 : 19,  it is a powerful key in the kingdom of God. So from today if you really want to work in the miraculous, give God thanks always, bless his name, show your gratitude and love for the lord, show your believe and let your faith in him be strong.   The bible speaking in Psalms  34 : 1  , says "I will bless the lord and his praise shall continually be in my mouth".
2.  Miracle : This is another benefit of thanksgiving, you begin to work in the miraculous when you give God thanks always, its is one of the laws of the spiritual realm, God is great and greatly to be praise, The bible says "I am the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me to do?  Jeremiah 32 : 27 ".        
   
             We all know as saints that there is absolutely nothing too hard for our God to do,  but how do you provoke the hand of God to work a miracle in your direction?Give him praise, be thankful, now i must also emphasize here that  there is a dimension of Praise and thanks giving that birth miracles and mighty move of God, it as to be in the spirit and in truth!!! Remember when paul and silas was in the prison the bible says they in Acts 16 : 16 - 40, that they pray and they praise and the doors and gate of the prison began to shake, now i want you to observe and realize that was a very powerful kind of praise and it was ignited from their spirit, it was an heaven provoking order of thanksgiving.

Are You Ready To Take Your Place Up There? - Kenneth Copeland Ministries

by Kenneth Copeland

I have a message for you today directly from the heart of God. It is a message that captures the very purpose of Calvary. And yet, it is one of the most difficult messages of all for Christian people to believe.

If you’ll dare to receive it, however, to meditate on it and to act on it, it will radically alter your life. It will take you from religion to reality.

What is this message God has given me? It is this:

            Tell My people they are everything to Me that Jesus is.

Those are the exact words that the Lord used when He spoke to me. They are powerful words, words that will send a shiver of excitement up the spiritual spine of any Christian who’s bold enough to believe them. The message they convey is not new. It is as old as the gospel itself.

 In fact, once you begin to understand it, you’ll see that it’s actually the very centerpiece of the gospel!

The Apostle Paul preached this very message again and again throughout the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, for example, he put it this way: “For [God] hath made [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” And he drove the point home again in Romans 8:17 by calling us “joint-heirs” with Jesus!

Although most of us are familiar with those statements that Paul made, very few of us have let the truth of them sink in. Few of us have actually believed them. We’ve uplifted Jesus. We’ve exalted Him—and rightly so! But at the same time, we’ve unwittingly belittled what He did by not allowing Him to bring us alongside Him.

We’ve insisted that we’re nothing more than “just old sinners saved by grace.” We were taught cowardice in the name of humility so we’ve adopted an attitude of false humility that has kept us groveling around in the spiritual dirt. Yet according to Ephesians 2:6, God has “raised us up together with [Jesus] and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him]…” (The Amplified Bible).

That was God’s purpose at Calvary: to bring us alongside Jesus. To make us what He already was.

You see, Jesus didn’t need exalting. He was exalted before He ever came to this earth. He was already one with the Father. He didn’t need to get authority over the devil—He never lost it!

What would He have needed with a physical body? Why would He want to take on something He’d have to feed and clothe and drag around everywhere He went? What did He need with all those limitations?

He didn’t need them! He took them on for us!

He put on a physical body so that He could come to earth as a man and gain authority over sin and sickness, demons, fear, poverty and all the other curses that came when the law of death moved into the earth—and He did it. He succeeded! He mastered everything in the spirit world, everything in the world of the intellect, everything in the physical world.

Before He ascended He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18, New King James Version). Then in Mark 16:15-18, He told His disciples:

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

By giving us His mighty Name He gave us His authority. You and I are the reason Jesus came to earth, died and lived again. He didn’t do it for Himself. He did it so He could bring us alongside, so we could wear His Name and wield His authority on the earth. He did it so that we could stand before God and be everything to Him that Jesus is.

Now let me make a qualifying statement right here. Even though you’re everything to God that Jesus is, you need to remember that you’re not everything to the Church that Jesus is! He and He alone is Head of the Church. There are a number of folks who have tried to be head of the Church, but they’ve failed because that’s one thing we’ve not been given the authority to be.

Even so, there are two sides to that. Just as He can be the Head and we can’t, there’s something we can be that He can’t—and that’s the Body. According to 1 Corinthians 12:21, the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you. So although it’s true that we need Him (God only knows how much we need Him!), it’s also true that He needs us.

For most of us that’s a startling thought. In fact, it’s almost inconceivable because we’ve continually thought of ourselves as helpless nothings, unworthy, inept and, though possibly a tiny bit more righteous than unbelievers, certainly not much more.

            Listen to me. When you were born again, you weren’t half-reborn. You weren’t made half-righteous or a quarter righteous. You were made the righteousness of God in Christ! You were made a “joint-heir with Him.”

Jesus went to the cross to give you what He already possessed. He rose again so you could be re-created in His image. You are the victory of Almighty God! You are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. You are everything to the Father that Jesus is. John 17:23 actually says God loves you as much as He loves Jesus.

“But Brother Copeland,” you may say, “how could He?”

I don’t know! You’ll have to ask Him. I just know that’s what He said, and I believe it. By faith it’s mine! His victory is my victory because He said it was. If I don’t believe it, then He wasted His time. If I don’t believe it, then Jesus went through hell to win a victory He already had. He didn’t need that victory. I did. He won it to give it to me. The moment I believe it, that victory is mine. Until I do believe it, I don’t have any victory at all.

Once you dare to accept that fact, your life will be forever changed. You’ll no longer be satisfied to just sit around whining and wishing things were different. You’ll want to step up to the position of authority that Jesus has given you, to take your rightful place beside Him and learn to operate the way He does.

As His people, we are everything to God that Jesus is. We are His love in action.

If we’ll receive that message, if we’ll dare to believe it, if we’ll dare to put it into action—the world will never be the same again.

Reference : Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Read This Great Gospel Epistle by Dr Paul Enenche "Iron Sharpens Iron"

               

   

"Iron sharpens iron. 
So, look for the kind of person that
sharpens you. 

Beware who you call your friend.

Friendship is by choice and not by force.

 And friendship is not for fun.


In the late 70's and early 80's, when believers met each
other, their mode of greeting was, 'How are you,brother?
Have you heard about the Welsh revival?

 Did you read about Evan Roberts? 

I saw something in 'Herald of His
Coming' that just shook me. 

I read something about
Smith Wigglesworth.

 Did you hear that John Hyde
stained the walls of his room with the breath of his
prayer? 

I read that Maria Woodworth Ether was
approaching a place to preach and fifty miles from the
place where she was, people were falling under the
anointing..."

Those were the kinds of things we said to each other.

When you heard it, it set you ablaze. 

Your friend might
say to you, 'When I read that, I locked up myself for ten
hours.

 I did not come out'. 

And you look at him, 'You
said how many hours? 

I will see you later!' You just go
into the room and lock yourself up:
'What! 


What am I doing with my life?' 

And you go on
and on.
That was how we sharpened each other in those days.
Iron sharpeneth iron!

We learned of William Booth of the Salvation Army. 

We learned of Charles G. Finney riding a horse through
town and everyone was crying for his or her sins...
We read of D.L Moody: They said, 'God is looking for a
man to use, and he is looking for a man that will not
care who takes the glory.' D.L. Moody, a shoe maker,
said, 'By the grace of God, I will be that man'...
When you read that, it sets you on fire.

 And if you heard it from someone who read it from somewhere and
shared it with you, you would be sharpened.

That was how we sharpened each other.

Today,it is different. 
When two pastors meet, you hear
things like, 'Pastor, how is the church building?

Have you finished it now? 

I like this neck tie of yours;
where did you buy it from? 

This wristwatch is powerful!
Who helped you to get this car? 
Can you assist me to
get the car also?

 I like it! 
Your suit is powerful.
 Is it
ready-made or someone sewed it?
 Who is your barber?
I like the way you cut your hair.'
These the vanities believers discuss these days - things
of no eternal consequences.

 It is very rare
before you can come into the presence of a servant of
God and leave edified. 
We rarely hear that a person
went to see a man of God, a real man of God and left
there challenged, with his soul set on fire.
It is very very rare.
My heart yearns for those days...
A brother would read a book that changed his life and
he would share the inspiration: Have you seen Smith
Wigglesworth 'Apostle of Faith'?

 You need to read it.
John G. Lake's 'Adventure in God'?
 You need to read it.
Leonard Ravenhill's 'Why Revival Tarries'? 

'Sodom had no Bible'?
 What about E.M. Bounds 'The Power of
Prayer'? Charles Spurgeons 'His Power in Us'?

 E.W
Kenyon's 'Two Kinds of Faith'?, A.W Tozer's 'In Pursuit
of God'?

 Oswald J. Smiths 'The Man God Uses'?

Those were qualitative materials that we advertised and
used to change our lives...
My wife and I visited Papa Oyedepo in his office. 

He
was reading a book and he asked whether I had read it
before. I said, 'No'. So, he encouraged me to go and
read it.

The reading shifted us.
Who is it that is sharpening you?
 Who are the people
around you sharpening your life?
Please, watch your company. 

Some pastors had more
fire until they entered the circle of friends they are in
today.

 Watch the persons you call friends. Iron sharpens
iron. Nothing sharpens iron like iron."

Written by - Dr. Paul Enenche.


Please,share

Aso Rock Chapel and Buhari : Sign of Religious Intolerance

   

Gospel Epistle has recently gotten wind of the alleged closing or delay – as the case maybe – of the worship service at the Aso Rock Villa Chapel on Sunday, August 30, 2015 by armed personnel who claimed to acting on ‘orders from above’. In addition to this, we have also learned that this is not the first time that such an event is happening since the present administration led by President Buhari, took over power from the former. About two months ago, the children’s worship centre at the villa was also said to have to have been shut down under the same ‘orders from above’. When the Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu, was approached for comments on the matter, he neither confirmed nor denied the occurrence of the event. In his exact words, he said;

“What you are telling me is news to me. I am not aware of this issue. There is a lot we are dealing with and I hope you are aware the church was handed over to Vice President Osinbajo. So please call Prince Laolu Akande, his spokesman to confirm this issue”

There have been mixed reactions from the general public on the emergence of this truly bizarre piece of news. While some are not surprised at this latest development, others are rallying behind the president and urging others to do the same. But of the different reactions, one that I find most fanatical and amusing is the ones that say, “Please do not tarnish the image of the president. The men simply said they were acting under orders from above. No one said the order came from the president himself”.

The reason I find this reaction funny is that the chapel in question was handed over to Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, the vice president of the federation. The second most powerful man in the nation. Second only to one man. If the order came from above him, then it could only have from one man, or putting it rather accommodatingly, from one office. This is not rocket science, it is simply common sense.

This unfortunate turn of events amounts to a slap on Christendom. Whether Children Church or Adult Church, that is grossly inconsequential. A designated worship center is a sacred place of worship. Seeking to take it out of the precincts of the villa or as reported, far from the residence of the President, can only be reasonably interpreted to mean intolerance of the Christian faith.

Gospel News Africa does not mean any disrespect to the person or the office of the President. This piece was not put together to slight any person, government or faith. The Presidency is respectfully called upon to clarify on this issue and desist from further plans in this regard, if any, as no reason would be justified enough to assuage the strong feelings of segregation, apartheid, and governmental exclusion that are appearing to be the norm in the current administration against Christians and ethnic minorities.

This is SUPPOSED TO BE a democracy.

Please share with your friends.

Source : GospelNewsAfrica