Hearing God – Counsel of God at Work
We come across challenging situations and problems very frequently and some of the highly paid consulting professions are always filled with such stressful environments where decision making is tough. Here is the promise from God in Psalm 32:8, ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with My eye upon you’.
This question may arise whether we can we get this counsel continuously. Proverb 6:20-22 says “When we keep God-given commandment and forsake not the law of God, the words of your parent’s God shall lead us when go anywhere; they shall safe guard when we sleep and they shall talk with us when we waken.”
Let us look at the most ambiguous event management “The Exodus” which is widely known in the annals of time. Executive Office went through every single & most complex problems such as : Leading a team size of approximately 20 Million people, Threatening Egyptian powerful army behind, Travelling day and night in the wilderness for almost 40 years , Starting without knowing the travelling route and stop over, No chances for food, water and other many basic requirements, surrounded by enemies who would kill them, path that no one ever walked and having sea, mountains, valleys and river, divisions and disputes among their own 20 million people and finally war with almost 40 Kings in the land of Canaan. Moses literarily cried to the Lord that he could not bear the burden or the stress he had and but every time he took to His presence (Num11:14). But the Lord led, counseled and guided them amazingly on every single day by meeting all their needs (Exo 13:21-22, 14;14, 16:13, 35, 40:38) and finally He made them to inherit the Promised Land.
Surely, the professional situations you face would be lesser complex than this. Our Lord, the wonderful counselor (Isaiah 9:6) is always there for you to counsel and guide you so that you can resolve all the complex and ambiguous problems.
O God, Immanuel and my Wonderful counselor, be with me to counsel continuously and guide me to conquer all the complex challenges in my professional / business life.
CCF acknowledges with Thanks to CIM (Christian Institute of Management) for allowing to republish this article by CCF core team member, which originally was published in Management Devotional of CIM.
Hearing God – Hearing What I like to hear
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4: 3,4
Some of the corporate training programmes would start with the Zen story, which is familiar to many. When the master continuously poured the tea in the cup which was already filled, the disciple wondered why the master was wasting the tea. But the moral of the story clearly portrays the expectation of the Master to make the disciple understand that unwinding from the pre-occupied mind set can make him to learn ; otherwise, every single effort of master and the disciple goes in vain. Similarly, in hearing God, pre-occupation in heart and mind results only in failure.
In Numbers 22 -24, Balam heard God that he should not go with the officials of Balak to curse Israel in the very first time itself when he inquired with Lord.(22: 12). But the intention Balam was to go with the officials for getting the gifts from Balak (22: 19). When the donkey had spoken to foolish Balam, then only he could realize that he missed the voice of God in the second time.
II Tim 4:3 clearly warns about the time when people would be having itching ears so that they would accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wandering away to myth. Today many are carried away only by the teachings what looks good to them, motivating and encouraging them. But New Testament records with the occurrences wherein the community was cut to their hearts towards conviction and correction when they heard John the Baptist echoing God’ voice in the wilderness (Matt 3). When Peter stood up to witness for the resurrection of Christ as Messiah, the crowd of came out with conviction for what they would do next (Acts 2:37). When Paul discussed about justice, self-control, and the coming judgment, with the governor of the state frightened ( Acts 24:25)
Friends, let us go to His presence with open heart, to receive the word as He wanted to speak us for making us wholly Thine.
Dear Lord, Let me come to your presence without any preoccupation in my heart and mind to hear the message that you provide to me.
CCF acknowledges with Thanks to CIM (Christian Institute of Management) for allowing to republish this article by CCF core team member, which originally was published in Management Devotional of CIM.
Comeback… Warrior!
“David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep”
1 Samuel 30: 4
Note that the Bible says, ‘David wept aloud.’
Men don’t usually weep aloud. And also you need to understand it was the same David who once killed Goliath.
It was the same David who encouraged thousands of Israelites not to be afraid when they ran away in fear of Goliath. So I don’t think David is a weak-hearted, coward of a man. But here in this passage he was utterly helpless. He wept aloud because his family has been captured by the Amalekites. This says to me it’s a tough life out there. It’s a life that will even make the strongest of men to weep like a child. When was the last time you wept aloud? You cannot pretend to be a macho man or a strong-hearted woman all the time as though nothing will happen to you all your life. You might have killed Goliath in the past but one-day life out there will bring you to a point of ‘weeping aloud’. What will you do?
When David faced Goliath, it was a threat against his life. But David was a born warrior. So however, challenging the battle was David kept winning all the battles. The enemy brought tough challenges and he kept winning in life with God on his side. David once sang “With your (God’s) help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” David was going from strength to strength in life. So I am sure Satan would have organized a round table conference and discussed David’s life like this – “We can’t touch David as he is too strong for us. Let’s touch his family he will then stop following God.”
When I say the enemy organized a round table conference it might look unrealistic. But there are at least two instances in the Bible to prove this sort of tactic by the enemy. In the story of Samson and Delilah the Bible says
“The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, ‘See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.’”
In the story of Job in the Bible we can read that Satan challenged God about Job and said,
“You have provided hedge around Job and that’s why he is following you. remove it and he will stop following you.”
If the enemy has to have a round table conference about you what will he say? What is the area that you are most likely to give up in life? This is what must have happened to David. Satan decided to touch his family. And lo and behold David is now weeping aloud like a child. Hell would have laughed at David saying, “See the one who defeated Goliath. He is now weeping. A great warrior has fallen. A great warrior has fallen.”
This is how I felt in the last eight years of my life. I felt as though the enemy was laughing at me. You might have heard some great quotes and stories about C.S. Lewis. You might have thought he must be a very strong Christian. I watched a documentary about him and learnt how he struggled to overcome the grief after the loss of his dear wife Joy. In his book A Grief Observed, he wrote:
Kind people have said to me, ‘She is with God.’ In one sense that is most certain. She is, like God, incomprehensible and unimaginable. You tell me, ‘she goes on.’ But my heart and body are crying out, come back, come back. But I know this is impossible. I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace. Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.
Life’s reality will bring the strongest man to the point of weeping aloud. And you might feel like hell is laughing at you.
But a true strong man or woman of God will refuse to stay in that fallen place. They will say as it is written in the Scripture in Micah 7:8
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.”
Falling down doesn’t make you weak. But remaining fallen will make you weak. You need to say ‘Though I have fallen I will rise.’
Maybe you are reading this blog as a “fallen warrior”. You were once at the peak of your life. You were doing a great job serving God, serving your family and having a great career. But something happened in the middle. It may be that round table conference about you and now you are in this place of defeat. The enemy is laughing at you saying ‘a great warrior has fallen’ and you have accepted this defeat and you remain fallen for years. But the Bible says something different. You forgot to read Micah 7:8. Say this to your enemy today – “I WILL RISE”.
God wants you to rise to your former glory. God wants to make you stronger today. He wants his old warrior who once killed Goliath back. Maybe you have taken wrong decisions like Samson and the enemy is now laughing at you because of your defeat. You think that’s the end of your life. But Samson came back stronger after that defeat and God gave him strength and he completely destroyed the enemy.
It’s never too late to rise up. So, ask God today to strengthen you so that you can rise up to your former glory. Be a comeback warrior!
This message is published with the permission from Davidson Samuel, who is working as a Subject Matter Expert in a leading bank in Scotland, United Kingdom. He is the founder of Absolute Surrender Ministry, UK and more details can be seen in http://www.absolutesurrender.co.uk
Build Your Relationship For Your Prayers To Be Heard
Husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of Life, so that your prayers may not be hindered (ESV) . I Pet 3: 7
Relationship is an universal happening instituted by the Creator. He did not choose the angels, but created man to share His love with him. Then he made a woman to be his partner thus a relationship as husband and wife was established. All that is created in the universe have a relationship unique to their kind. Today, I would like to share few thoughts on husband and wife relationship from the perspective of the Word of Truth.
In I Peter 3-7, likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of Life, so that your prayers may not be hindered (ESV translation).
I just want to share a real story. One Sunday morning, the Reverend of the church called an elder to lead the congregation in Prayer. The elder came and said today I am not worthy to lead the prayer; we had a heated argument between me and wife while driving to the church. Then he prayed. But the Rev. was in a state of shock over the confession of the elder. That day he decided to call people only after talking to them. It may sound real as we also quarrel with our wife or the other way round.
But the Lord spoke to me about 3 things from 1 Peter 3-7. The underlying principle of this verse is that our relationship affects our ‘prayer life’. I would like to focus on husband and wife relationship. In the Amplified version we read, otherwise you cannot pray effectively applies to both husband and wife. Many times we feel I have been praying for years for this particular thing but I have not received an answer. We look all-around us for why but least we look inwards what is our relationship with one another. If it is not right then God cannot answer the prayer of both.
- Do we forgive each other as Christ had forgiven us or we nurse anger and bitterness in our heart against each other? (Col 3:13c).
- Are we living in peace with self and our wife?
Paul says live peaceably with all (Rom12-18). In Colossians 3:14 above all these put on Love which binds everything together in perfect harmony (ESV). If you practice these things your family prayers will be answered immediately.
Secondly, Peter counsels, live with your wife in ‘understanding’ so that devil cannot play mischief by misunderstanding and division. He will make every effort to sink the ship of faith in your family life and connect with God.
Thirdly, ‘honor’ your wife in your words and deeds; especially before children, family members and friends. Likewise wives honor your husband in every walk of life. This honor is defined in Ephesians 5: 21, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. The first enemy to be destroyed in a happy married life is Pride and Ego. He who loves his wife loves himself. Then you will enjoy heavenly Joy in this world.
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
May God bless your walk with your husband or wife in your married life.
This message is written by Bro. Eric Sundararaj, New Hope Ministries, Chennai
When Love and Hurt Collide
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
John 15:18
It is a well-known fact that we live in a broken world and we are not immune from hurts. So, how can we deal with hurts in our life? Have you been hurt recently?
We belong to the kingdom of God where love is everything. Love is powerful and love is mandatory.
Although the kingdom of God is all about LOVE, we live in a broken world. We live in a world full of hurts and pain. We are called to be in the world but not of the world.
This is a world where love and hurt will collide.
In fact, even Jesus said, in John 15:18, 19
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
The world will hate you. You will get hurt at some point in your life.
But hurt can also be powerful. Hurts have brought down empires, many lives were lost, many careers destroyed, many marriages broken and many ministries have been shaken because of HURTS.
Theatre producer David King did a survey of the songs that are most likely to make men cry. In his survey, REM’s “Everybody hurts” was voted the saddest and most depressing song of all time.
Recently the singer Adele won many awards for the song “Hello” in the Brit award ceremony. Her song “Hello” broke several records. It is the fastest ever song to get 1 billion hits on YouTube. 50 million of those hits came in the first 48 hours of release and sold 800,000 copies in first week!
Do you know why? That song is all about hurts in a relationship. The lyrics goes like this:
I must have called a thousand times
To tell you I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done
To tell you I’m sorry for breaking your heart
But it don’t matter. It clearly doesn’t tear you apart anymore
These are words of someone who got deeply hurt in life. The world is desperate to identify themselves with someone who is hurt because everyone is hurt. That is why 50 million people rushed to the YouTube within 48 hours of its release.
I did a short research of all UK and US No.1 singles in the past 10 – 15 years. All of them were written because either someone was in LOVE or someone was HURT by a relationship.
So, how can we deal with hurts in our life?
Look at the Bible for the answers.
Even God is not immune from hurts. It is true that God is love. But the Bible records that even God was hurt and grieved and sad.
In 1 Samuel, the people of Israel went to Samuel and said:
“You are growing too old and your sons are useless. Now give us a King.”
When Samuel was heartbroken because of this, God said to Samuel,
“They didn’t reject you. But they rejected me as a King.”
God knows the pain of broken relationship!
Israel rejected God as their King. But our God is a gentle King and he will never ever get angry. God knows the pain of rejection! Can you imagine that even God was rejected.
Some of you reading this blog are going through the terrible pain of broken relationships. You think no one can identify with that excruciating pain you are going through. But God is saying I went through that excruciating pain of broken relationship and I can identify with you.
In the book of John, Pilate brought Jesus before the people and said,
“Here is your king” and they shouted “Crucify him ! Crucify him!! We have no king but Caesar!!!”
They rejected Jesus as their king out-rightly! Yet, just few days back it was the same people who sang “Hosanna” and hailed him as King!
What a transformation! The same mouth which hailed Jesus as King is now saying “Crucify him”.
That’s the world we live in. The same mouth that proposed to you saying “You are beautiful, you are adorable… you are handsome… you are brilliant… you are cute… you are sweet. I will die for you.” will one day shout at you in anger, be rude to you, abuse you, curse you and hurt you. That’s the world we live in!
There is a tragic story in the Bible about Amnon and Tamar. Amnon, the son of David, fell in love with his half-sister and spoke softly to her and asked her to sleep with him. When she refused, he forced her to sleep with her and raped her. But soon after he raped her, the Bible says,
Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get up and get out!’
He called his personal servant and said, ‘Get this woman out of my sight and bolt the door after her.’
Amnon used Tamar for his pleasure and threw her out. This is the best picture of the world we live in. The world will use you and throw you out!
God asked Hosea, the prophet, to marry an adulteress woman to demonstrate the pain and heart break of the relationship between God and Israel. All the pain that Hosea went through in that relationship God went through. Despite God’s unfailing love, Israel kept on committing adultery and rejecting God. God’s heart was broken. God was hurt just like you and me.
God is saying to you if the world has used you and rejected you, I know how you feel. I feel your pain.
The only thing that is more powerful than hurt is Love. If you are hurt, the best weapon to use is LOVE. If you use any other weapon you will lose.
The Bible says
“for love is strong as death” – Songs of Solomon 8:6
Love is more powerful than hurt.
So, if you are hurt what can you do?
Don’t hold on to hurts and rejections
Isaiah 43:25 says,
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
God says when you hurt me, I won’t remember your hurts. I won’t hold onto your hurts and rejections. I will forgive you and move on.
God wants you to do the same to those who hurt you. Don’t hold on to yesterday’s hurts and pains. When you wake up in the morning, don’t think and mourn what your spouse said to you. Don’t hold on to hurts of past broken relationships. Just let it go.
C.S Lewis said,
“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.”
Let it go and move forward.
Jesus said “Remember LOTS wife!!”
This is the shortest and most powerful warning in the bible. It is dangerous to hold on to your past. It is fatal. Don’t hold to your past hurts and rejection. Not even yesterday’s hurts and pain. Forgive and keep moving forward.
The bible says,
“Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
It all starts with memory. “He did that the other day…”, “She said that last year…” and then it turns to bitterness, then comes anger, then conflict and then break up! But it all starts with memory.
Don’t keep record of wrongs. Erase it, forgive, forget and move forward.
Derron Short, author of ‘Perfecting The Saints’ tweeted:
“Sometimes you’ll have to live with the apology that you never got because holding a grudge absorbs too much energy.”
Life is too short to live with hurts and pains. People in your relationships are growing old. You are growing old. Use every opportunity to show you love them.
Bible says in John 13,
“Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
Jesus knew his time was short and he loved them to bits. He showed his love even to Judas Iscariot. He washed his feet.
After he finished washing his feet feet, in his anguish and pain, Jesus quoted Psalms 41:9 and said,
‘Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’
He was talking about his close friend Judas Iscariot who was sitting there and was going to betray him. Isn’t it interesting its always close people who will hurt us most. It’s always the people we love the most hurt us most!
Jesus washed Judas feet as though he was saying “Judas, I don’t want to leave the world with hurts. I love you. I am ready to wash your feet. LOVE is powerful than hurt.”
While Jesus was hanging on the cross, the soldiers were gambling and putting lots to find out who was going to take their clothes. This is the typical picture of the world we live in. They were fighting for lust and power at the foot of the cross completely ignoring the Saviour of the world.
Jesus said,
“Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.”
in other words, he said “Guys I don’t want to leave this world with hurts and pain. I forgive you all. You guys don’t know what you are doing.”
People who hurt you don’t know the pain you are going through. They are completely ignorant of your pain.
T.D Jakes said:
“Often times people hurt because of their weakness and not because of wickedness. You need to understand between weakness and wickedness. You are merely a victim of their weakness. How dare you treat them as though you don’t have any weaknesses?”
People hurt you because they are weak. You are the victim of their weaknesses. They are not wicked.
Joseph could have held on to hurts and pains in that prison when his brothers sold him. But he chose to forgive them and move forward.
He said to his brothers,
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good .”
People who hurt you cannot harm you. Because even if they mean to harm you God will turn it for your good.
Every hurt comes with a secret blessing. When people hurt and you are ready to forgive them you will go to next level in life. You will surely get a promotion. You will surely get a result. You will get double portion of blessings. I am telling you, this is the truth. If you forgive when you are hurt, you will be promoted in life.
Forgiveness is the best way to go upward in life. It is a true sign of maturity.
When Joseph forgave his brothers and all the people who hurt him, God promoted him to be a prime minister. When David was discouraged by his brothers, he forgave them and moved forward where he met Goliath and killed him and then was immediately promoted in his career. When Saul was chasing David in the wilderness, David came so close to Saul when Saul was sleeping but David forgave Saul and refused to kill him. He was promoted to the King of Israel after Saul’s death. When Job forgave his friends, and prayed for them, God healed Job and gave him double portion of blessings in everything. God restored to him everything he lost.
So, forgive and move forward. God will promote you and will give you double portion of blessings. People who hurt you cannot harm you and therefore don’t hold on to yesterday’s hurts and pain.
God is saying,
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
He is making all things new. Now you decide to make a new beginning today. Some of you reading this blog are holding on to hurts and pains of past relationships for several years. Its time to forgive, forget and make a new beginning. Your past cannot hinder your progress. Your past cannot steal your present and your future.
Cut off your past, Cut off your hurts and pains and make a new beginning today.
This message is published with the permission from Davidson Samuel, who is working as a Subject Matter Expert in a leading bank in Scotland, United Kingdom. He is the founder of Absolute Surrender Ministry, UK