The apple of your eye.

Proverbs 7:2
Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

How do you guard the apple of your eye? Do you take it lightly? I am sure all of us guard it with great care and love.

God speaks to us in many ways. He speaks to us through His word, His Spirit and through his ordained ministers. If you have difficulty in hearing Him then you probably need to get into places where the word is being taught with a willing heart and open ears. Solomon says guard what you hear from God as you would guard the apple of your eyes. You can hear God and if you are not careful, Satan can steal the word out of your heart. For example, you heard the word on Sunday and by the time you came back home, you met with your friends and started talking so intensely about the corruption in our country, that you completely forgot about the word you heard hours ago and gave it away to Satan. Satan is after the word. Settle this in your thinking. No wonder Solomon said, guard it. If you guard the word in your heart and your mouth and allow no one or no situation to steal it, then you will begin to see changes like you have never seen before. Be conscious, that you are a word man, a word woman. Make it part of your daily confession so that it becomes a part of your mindset and vocabulary. I am word born, word controlled, word sustained, word led, word driven and word fed. I am a word being. Hallelujah to Jesus.

Friend, the word of God is your life. Once you hear Gods word, Satan uses different ways and strategies to steal the word from you. He can go to any extent to take it from your heart and mouth. It could be a misunderstanding between husband and wife, it could be gossipping, it could be the lastest news or some government blunder. Beware. Be careful. Believe the word. Speak the word. Guard the word and you will experience the power of Gods word. Jesus is Lord.

By God's strength!

By God's strength!
- Pastor Ashish Mathews

Psalms 18:29
For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall.

David, the writer of this psalm had confidence in God. He said with Gods help, I can crush an army and with Gods help, I can leap over enemy walls.

In the midst of facing severe challenges, how can someone say these things? Well, if we do what David did, then we can speak like he spoke and overcome like he overcame. David would have never said these things if he were focusing and meditating on the armies and the walls or even on his own ability. If he had made that mistake then like most people he would have magnified the armies and the walls of his life or would have magnified his inability to meet the challenges of life, which would have sucked the life out of him and would have made him completely hopeless. Most believers look at the challenges of life from the glasses of their own abilities, capabilities and capacities, which is the number one reason believers are depressed, frustrated and fearful. David focused on the Lord and meditated on his strength and ability and by doing so he found strength and courage to face the armies and the walls of his life and eventually overcame them.

Today you may be surrounded by a fierce army ready to devour you or may be you are up against a wall so huge that you see no way of overcoming it. Focus on Jesus. Focus on the word. Let the word strengthen and empower you like David so that by Gods power you can crush the enemies and leap over the walls of your life. If David can do it, so can you! Make a decision and let the world see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Jesus is Lord.

“Christ is my ability, Christ is my sufficiency. Christ lives in me and I live in Christ. The One who is in me is GREATER than all the troops and walls of this world. I trust the Greater One, I am unstoppable and I fulfill my destiny with excellence, joy and holiness. Hallelujah!”

Let the fruit grow.

Galatians 5:22‭-‬23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The fruit of the Spirit does not refer to the Holy Spirit. Its talking about your born again human spirit. The day you accepted Christ, the fruit was deposited in your spirit. All of the nine fruits is in you right now.

Peter says you were born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed, by the word of the living God which lives and abides forever. You were born of the word of God and therefore you can only be sustained by the word. Consider a mango seed and take it in your hands and look at it. The seed has in it many mango fruits. In order to see the manifestation of the fruits, you got to plant the seed first. Water it consistently and one day you will see the mangoes. As you keep feeding on the word, meditating on the word, speaking the word and doing the word, you will begin to see yourself operating in the nine fruits of the spirit. Let the fruit grow and let your light shine.

Feeding on Gods word needs to be a daily routine. Plant the seed by speaking the word. Water it by consistently doing what the word says. Believe and see yourself possessing the fruit in you and walking in it. Speak and declare that you are walking in it and living a life like Jesus himself. You will never be the same. The best is yet to come and Jesus is Lord.

Obtain a good report.

Hebrews 11:1‭-‬2
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.

By faith, the elders obtained a good report. Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews talks about the heroes of faith who heard Gods word, believed it, acted on it and obtained a good report.

Anyone who dares to believe Gods word and dares to do what the word says will obtain a good report. Peter obtained a good report by walking on water when He heard Jesus and stepped out of the boat. Noah obtained a good report when he prepared the ark according to Gods word and saved his entire family. You too can have a stream of good reports. However, the starting point is Gods word. The foundation of having a good report is the word of God. What is God telling you through his Word, through his Spirit and through his ministers? And if God has already spoken to you, why don't you step out and do what He says. Unless you do what He says, you cannot obtain a good report.

Gods word makes no sense to the natural mind because the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit. It sounds foolish to the carnal mind because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Step out and obtain a good testimony. You have the faith. You have the courage. You have everything it takes to do what God says. You are not unworthy. You are redeemed, anointed and blessed by the blood of Jesus. You are a child of the Most High God. Jesus is your Lord. Step out. Your good report is on its way ! Hallelujah.

He will make a way.

Psalms 136:13‭-‬14
To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, For His mercy endures forever; And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His mercy endures forever;

Israel was trapped between the Egyptian armies on one side and the Red sea on the other. Naturally speaking, there was no way of escape. Egyptians would kill them or the Red sea would drown them. They had to make a decision. They chose God.

God made a way where there seemed to be no way. The Israelites called on God and God divided the Red sea and a prepared a high way for them to pass through. I want you to settle this in your thinking, Nothing is impossible for God. Man may say there is no way but not God because God always has a way. We may not know the solution, but God has a million ways of fixing things. He is God Almighty. Just because we can't see a way or think of a way out doesn't mean there is no way. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life.

Friend, like the Israelites you may be in a tough and a difficult situation with absolutely no way of escape. Remember, your way of escape is God. Call on him and He will answer. He will deliver you and turn you situation around, just because He loves you. Don't be intimidated by the Egyptians or be threatened by the Red sea. Don't give them much thought and attention, for they will steal your peace and your joy. Look up and raise your praise because the same God who divided the Red sea is your God and He will make a way where there seems to be no way. Remember God always has a way. Always. He is our way of escape. Jesus is Lord.

Shining ever brightly.

Proverbs 4.18
But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

There is a path of the just. This path has been designed by God and anyone who walks in the path of the just shines like the sun, brighter and brighter till the full light of the day.

The path of the just is the path of the word. The word of God is the path for shining ever brightly. None who follow Gods word will ever be dull or walk in darkness. Word people are light people shining ever so brightly. Word people move from glory to glory, from light to light, from testimony to testimony and from blessing to blessing. When you make a quality decision to honour the word by paying close attention to it and doing what it says, you have positioned yourself to walk in the path of the just which keeps shining more and more till the full light of the day. Light attracts. Your glorious life will start attracting many people to follow your example and you can lead them to Jesus, the Father of lights.

Our loving Father has a ordained a glorious path for us. In his great mercy, He wants each one of us to shine ever brightly and draw people to Jesus. Friend, the word is that path. Devour the word. Be full of the word. Let the word frame your thinking, your speech and your behaviour. Go all out on the word. Don't allow anyone or anything to distract you from the word. Shine ever brightly!

You can do all things!

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The word 'Christ' is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word 'Messiah'. It means 'The anointed one and his anointing'. The day you recieved Jesus as your Lord, you received his anointing in your spirit.

Anointing simply means the power of God. In Christ, you are anointed and therefore you have the resurrection power of God in you. The same power with which God raised Jesus from the dead is in you right now. You are extremely powerful in Christ. Paul knew he could do all things because the anointing in him strengthened him, enabled him, empowered him to get things done. Its the same for you because just like Paul you are a believer and God is no respecter of persons. Paul completely relied and depended on the anointing in him to get things done. He didn't depend on his own strength or ability but solely and wholly on the anointing of God in him. Thats the key. He acknowledged the resurrection power of God in him and knew how to release the anointing from his spirit into the areas of his life.

Faith taps into the anointing in your spirit. Faith is the connector to the anointing. Believe and confess that you are anointed. I am anointed in Christ. The anointing to walk in divine health is in you. The anointing to resist sin, sickness and poverty is in you. The anointing to endure the trials of faith is in you. The anointing to speak the word of God in spite of severe opposition is in you. The anointing to do what the word says even when it makes no sense, is in you. The anointing to live a financially prosperous life is in you. The anointing of protection and the anointing of peace is in you. Friend,  you are so powerful in Christ. Believe, Speak, Act. Do not give up. Release the anointing !! You can do all things !! Jesus is Lord.