Christians Are Guardians Of Society

Praying For The Well-Being Of Your Country

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7 NIV).

Biblically, all Christians are implored to pray for their country and its people's (1 Timothy 2:2) well-being and the above scripture is clear that by so doing we invite the peace and prosperity of God into our communities. When we don't pray we literally allow the enemy of our souls to sow seeds of discord, confusion, and destructive behavior amongst us (Matthew 13:25). Also, we increase the severity of the sword in our nation(s) if we don't intercede (Numbers 16:46) Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ established prayer as one of the single most basic yet important ways of accessing the grace of God (John 15:7-8). In addition, we have also repeatedly emphasized on this platform how much God values prayer and regards it as the key to solving all problems. 

It is a fact, Christians are not consistent in praying for their countries. In the vision the Lord gave Charis a few years ago, the Lord rebuked the people of Ukraine for not praying enough for their country (Please see the vision regarding Ukraine in our visions section). Now, what does the Lord mean when He said, they are not praying enough? Well, the Lord did answer us a few years ago that when He said not enough, a person or body of believers is not praying earnestly, persistently, and consistently for an answer to the problem (Luke 18:1-8). It is true, some believers do pray for their countries but they do so casually and without any form of urgency. As it is, the Lord is teaching us in the preceding verse in Luke to pray continuously and watchfully so that we will not be denied His blessing (Luke 21:36). 

Being Consistent In Prayer  

I (Brother Glenn) have learned first-hand from the Lord that when He commanded us to pray, we need to do so without ungrudgingly and without question. A few years ago, a friend and former colleague of mine got involved in a fatal car accident. I was shown his accident in a vision before it could happen. 

As it was, he ended up in the hospital and being on life-support. I visited him in hospital and prayed for his recovery and a few weeks thereafter the Lord showed me in another vision that through my prayers, my friend would be discharged from hospital, and this came to pass and he was released from the hospital with severe mental problems and being unable to walk and the Lord promised to heal him if I would continue in prayer. 

Admittedly, as he recovered and even being able to walk I thought that he was now fine so I stopped interceding for him and forgot to mention him in prayer before the Lord. While I considered his condition as having improved remarkedly, I received a call that the gentleman passed away and immediately I felt heavily convicted and the Lord started dealing with me that I disobeyed Him for not praying consistently for my friend and as a result of such disobedience my friend died because nobody was interceding for him. This then led me to repent for days for my folly until the guilt of disobedience was lifted from me (1 Chronicle 21:8). 

How Intercessory Prayers Helped The Church And Others

In conclusion, we know that Abraham prayed and interceded for Lot and the Lord saved him (Genesis 18:16-33). Similarly, our Lord Jesus prayed for Peter and for His entire disciples so that their faith may not fail and that the gospel is being proclaimed through them (Luke 22:31-34; John 17:6-26). In the aftermath of these prayers, we have their testimony and the Bible and we owe our faith to their obedience, and shouldn't we be equally obedient by praying continually and consistently for our communities and countries?

Brethren, prayer is a form of ministry and we need to understand that the word minister simply means to 'serve'. thus as ministers of the gospel, and this includes all believers we intercede for our land, families, friends, and communities before God not just for their well-being but that it might go well with us too (1 Timothy 2:2). As a serious matter, the Lord did reveal to us that Christians who are not effective will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:19) and that is not just applying to so-called full-time ministers but to the entire body of believers (Matthew 25:14-30). Therefore, no believer should think that certain portions of scripture apply to certain people, we will all be judged by the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of the expectations of the scriptures (2 Corinthians 5:10). Finally, as believers make it a point of interceding daily and without fail not just for you and your immediate family but for all people everywhere including your country to avoid being a tree that does not bear fruit (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

Blessed Grace

Brother Glenn

Being Dressed In Love As Opposed To Being Bitter

Loving Your Fellow Brethren

"I'm giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you” (John 13:34 GWT). Also, 

"Pay your debts as they come due. However, one debt you can never finish paying is the debt of love that you owe each other. The one who loves another person has fulfilled Moses' Teachings" (Romans 13:8 GWT).

Dear Brethren, this is a follow up article from the previous week’s article, God’s Word Edifies And Builds Up. We are using a different heading because we want to draw attention to ‘Love’ since this should be the force behind every Christian’s interaction with others whether Christian or non-Christians (1 Corinthians 16:14). God's love is indiscriminate, pure and full of mercy for sinners and we should contain the same kind of spirit. By becoming a Christian through believing faith, or when a person becomes born again (repenting of past sins) by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, he or she renounces past sins and takes a vow to follow and obey the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17; John 14:21-23). In other words, as a Christian we should transition or transform through scriptural teachings and guidance from our old way of life to the new way of life (Romans 12:2).

The Fruits Of A Transformed Life

As we know, this new and transformed life is best achieved if we willingly submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and the scriptures (1 Peter 5:2; Ephesians 6:7). In previous articles, we emphasised that transformation into a good and fruitful Christian life does not happen through mere talk or a sense of magical imagination, NO! Instead, we change through a deliberate and a willing submissive attitude into the new life in Christ and as we yield through patience and perseverance, the Lord adds the fruit of our obedience (John 15:1-2) showing off our readiness to serve others (Ephesians 4:12).

What are these fruits of obedience? “... do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God; to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love. If all these things are in you and growing, you will never fail to be useful to God. You will produce the kind of fruit that should come from your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:5-8 ERV).

LOVE

In addition to these precious virtues the apostle Paul showed us the most excellent way, love and its ingredients often read and liked but in short supply in Christians. Let us remind ourselves again that “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not selfish, and it cannot be made angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it. Love is never happy when others do wrong, but it is always happy with the truth. Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits. Love will never end” (1 Corinthians 13:5-8 ERV).

Being Tolerant And Forgiving From The Heart

Now, having added the above as the most basic Christian attitude there should be no utterances to our fellow brothers or sisters such as, ‘we are not afraid of you’. By so saying, are we not saying that we are not bound by the principles of love as discussed above? Is this not carnal talk aimed at divisions and showing off superiority? Now besides love that should govern our relationship with others, some Christians simply don’t have a spirit of tolerance (Colossians 3:13-14). In their zeal to humiliate their fellow brother or sister, they expect their fellow brethren to be perfect and sinless. It is as if they were just waiting for the slightest mistake to attack.

As a matter of fact, some Christians are very judgmental forgetting that their fellow brethren were sinners before they came to the Lord and that they are still a work in progress (1 Thessalonians 5:14), and in order to continue the work of God in people who are a bit weaker we should learn to forgive, encourage, correct and help our brothers when they have stumbled (1 Corinthians 8:11-12). Some few years ago, we had a sister in our Ministry who fell into the sin of fornication and when we asked the Lord how to deal with her situation since she confided in us and confessed to us. He knew her heart and that she had genuinely repented before Him, so the Lord said He forgave her and that she was welcome to continue in her service to Him (John 8:11).

Additionally, we had a young brother in our ministry who just did not grow up in his faith, in fact he sinned at will, but the Lord loved him and was very patient with him, as much as his disobedience frustrated us, the Lord commanded us to encourage him and not to condemn him to destroy his faith in the Lord. Similarly, we once asked the Lord a word on behalf of a brother who shared with us his frustration with his brother for neglecting his spiritual life and being a burden to others. In His reply, the Lord graciously encouraged the brother to pray for his brother and to encourage him in the Lord instead of looking at his failures and criticize him.

Finally, if you have been in the habit of destroying the faith and confidence of your brother or sister in the Lord, repent my friend for God will use the measure you used to discourage others from following Him as the sole Judge (Matthew 7:2). If we forgive and act mercifully towards others, the same will be given to us (Matthew 18:26-35). We are thus all servants and no one should treat others disrespectfully or shamefully just because you either support their ministry or family.

As always, we would like to extend an invitation to anyone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ yet, or of you are not born again, to pray our suggested prayer on this link Prayer of Sincere Repentance by faith and follow the Lord (Matthew 4:19). You may also contact us for any questions or comments about this article or our ministry.


Blessed Grace

Brother Glenn

Involve God In Everything You DO

Seeking God's Glory In Our Work Output

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).

As a point of departure, we are being regarded as proclaiming a very strict message and how we wish (the flesh speaking) the Lord could have made it easy on us but we stand judged and convicted through the message the Lord gives us to share.

Now a few weeks ago, I (Charis) received a dream from the Lord that I was reading this article on our website and after prayer the Lord laid it on my heart to work on sharing this article with the brethren.

Now dear people, making it to Heaven will be real hard for many of us, because the Lord expects us to ‘simulate’ or live our lives down here as if we are in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). As it is, we do so by employing our faith, emotions, intentions and strength (Matthew 22:37), in other words we should be fully conscious-willed towards God as the Lord Jesus Christ was before us (1 Peter 2:21; Luke 22:42). 

Now, from the New testament Scriptures, it is evident from the many miracles the Lord did, He was able to do it on demand and whenever the need aroused because ‘God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ’ (Colossians 1:19). WHY? Let’s hear it from the Lord Himself, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work," Jesus told them (John 4:34 HCSB). Also, what is remarkedly humbling is the Lord Jesus Christ actually giving thanks to God the Father just for a piece of bread as He gave it to His disciples and we have so much ungrateful people towards God (Luke 22:19). in here we can see the Lord included the Father even as He broke bread and the cup to share with others.

How God Test Our Walk With Him?

Admittedly, surely this is not a simple test to ‘measure’ our output in Christ. As is apparent, only the Lord knows our hearts and He tests our intentions (Jeremiah 17:10). Thus, if we labour to impress others our labour would be fruitless irrespective of our following. We need to re-emphasis this important fact; our large following does not reflect we are walking with God and that He is included in our projects. It is therefore human to make ourselves likeable to others (by saying things they like to hear) so that we may enjoy being accepted and being showered with gifts and praises isn’t it?

Testing Allows God To Change Us

Now this is the real test, firstly if our message is being truthfully conveyed it will be aimed at pleasing God rather than what our hearers want to hear? (2 Timothy 4:3). Secondly, the quality of our message brings with it persecutions, insults and mavericks against the will of God (1 Thessalonians 2:14-15). In other words, it is a message that reminds us of sins and judgment and we know the world and disobedient Christians do not take kindly to such messages (John 16:8). Thirdly, viewing things from scripture, we often followers of the truth are few and these are those who have decided to include God in their walk and to be humble, obedient with child-like attitudes when it comes to being corrected (John 6:66; Matthew 18:1-5; Philippians 2:15).

Furthermore, as a family, we have learned that doing things excluding God bring us no joy but ill will and ill-feelings towards others and this is always evident through the complaints, confusions and lack of joy (Ephesians 6:6). By this I am referring to normal chores around the house, school work, real-time employment or any other project the joy in our work is in the Lord no matter how unpleasant it might be (Genesis 22:1-2; Exodus 5:20-21). Furthermore, what we can learn and derive from the preceding scriptures, the Lord test-grow us through unpleasant situations to strip of us our ever self-reliance and to engrave the mark of humility which means being a servant and, reliance on Him. This then reminds us of what Abraham aptly remarked ”…God Himself will provide…” (Genesis 22:8), meaning he has accepted that things be done according to God’s will.

Being Spurred Into Action And Avoid Being A Superficial Talker

In conclusion, as Christians not many of us come close to being servant-minded and including God in our lives. What we mean is this, a Christian is not just one by confession, but by the fruits of his or her service and is God visible to receive glory through our output (Matthew 7:16). Also, there is no falsehood in this, those who includes God in their every walk suffers insults and persecutions (materially and physically) from worldly Christians and those who show no committed faith but demands actions (Matthew 27:42; 2 Samuel 16:12). 

Finally, as we include God in our lives let us allow God to test-grow us through God-ordained stress-tests so that we will reflect the humility and servant hood of Joseph, Daniel, Job, Abraham, Moses, David and the apostle Paul. As believers, we can all attest to the unswerving attitudes of these pillars of our faith who continue to inspire our lives and God will not give us anything short of a soul-penetrating test to surrender and about this we wrote extensively in articles such as in our witnessing and prayer articles on how the Lord answered our prayers and those experiences are imprinted in our hearts to be always humble before God almighty as our preceding faith heroes. 

“Is God with you in everything you do”? (Genesis 21:22), then show it, not with loud words but through the riches of your humility and consistent faithful giving of yourself to soul-winning, works of service to the body (you need not be an ordained minister to serve the body or others) and leading a disciplined and dedicated live to Christ.

If you would like to repent and make that faithful commitment once and for all repent by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and be freed from fear and lukewarmness please get started by praying this Prayer of Sincere Repentance. As always, for any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.

Blessed Grace
Brother Glenn and Charis