Welcome to September 2015: Our Month of Divine Rest

Texts: Mt.11:28-30 and Heb.4:1-11

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. – Heb.4:9-11.

God’s great heart is being revealed again this month as He has graciously declared this month to be our month of Divine Rest. To get a clear picture of what God is saying to us this month, we must understand rest from God’s perspective here. Rest is not just to take a rest in sleep or from any kind of work. Rest here is referring to a state where we cease trying to accomplish things on our own or in our human strength (without involving God). For instance to receive enduring riches, you will have to stop trying to get it by human means and turn to God’s way [Prov.34:4]. To live a holy life, you will have to mortify the deeds of the flesh through the Holy Spirit or else, your self-efforts would only lead to more and more frustrations as holy living is not humanly possible [Rom.8:13]. This is the frustration the Psalmist observed among God’s creation when He declared in Psalm 127:1 that except the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain that build it and also, except the Lord watches over a city, the security men labour in vain trying to do so. 

This, to the entire human race means one thing; except we reconnect with our Creator God, all the efforts we put into trying to make our lives worthwhile would best be described as exercises in futility. Since the fall of man through the sin of Adam, man has been under the curse of perpetual struggles. This is because of the curse of God that man would always have to struggle to provide for himself [Gen.3:15-19]. 

With the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, the entire creation of God received the fulfilment of God’s promise to bruise the head of the ancient serpent [also known as Satan the devil] and therefore freedom from the curse if they would believe in Jesus Christ and receive God’s gift of eternal life. See Gen.3:15; Rev.12:9-11; John 3:16-18 and 2Cor.5:21. 

This is why in our first text of scriptures; we see the Lord inviting mankind to come to him to find rest from their struggles and pains through learning from Him. Thus the first step into rest is to come to Jesus Christ with one’s whole heart. When this is done, we become saved from sin and the evils of this world. Then we need to take the next step which is to Learn of Him. Salvation is God’s free gift that grants us access to eternal life. However, to enjoy the total benefits of salvation, we must be discipled by the Lord. This is why in John 8:30-31 Jesus said to those Jews who had believed on Him that they had to continue in His word until they know the truth so that they would enjoy the freedom that He alone can give and when He sets free, we would indeed be free. 

Further in our second text in Hebrews 4, we are made to understand that rest is not automatic with the issuing of the promise, it happens when people come to the point of being fully persuaded of the promise that they demonstrate the spirit of faith that enables them obtain the promise. This is why we are enjoined to labour to enter into rest. 

The question is what kind of labour do we need to engage in to really enter into rest. This is what we are going to be looking at this month of Divine Rest. However, like we saw earlier, the first step towards rest in this context is to receive the free gift of God’s salvation if you are yet to. If you do not, then the struggles would continue. Should you wish to cease from your struggles, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud and God will set you free immediately then you can become part of those who can enter into the rest of God:

Heavenly Father, 

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name!

Amen. 

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or email us at jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.    

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Message for Sunday the 30th August, 2015. Topic: Enemies of rest and refreshing

Introduction: God’s will is for us to actually enter into His rest and be refreshed at the same time. This is why we are told in Isa.28:9-12 among other things that this is what God would want us to have but that the people could not because of some of the enemies of rest we are going to be looking at today. Let us also understand that this list is not exhaustive. In our individual lives, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to identify specific causes of unrest within us which will of necessity rob us of our refreshing and deal with them with the help of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. The following are some obvious enemies that if we allow in our lives would rob us of our desired rest and refreshing. 

Fear: This is the opposite of faith. Just as God requires faith to work in our lives, the devil requires fear to work in our lives. We are therefore the ones who would cast the vote as to who wins in our lives. If we embrace faith, then God can move in and give us victory. See 1John 5:4 and Heb.11:6; 1-2. Also, in several incidents when people came to Jesus for miracles, they were said to receive their miracles according to their faith. Two classical examples in the gospels are the stories of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 and the Centurion who came to intercede for his servant in Matthew 8. 

On the other hand, fear empowers the devil to abort the plan of God from materializing in a person’s life if that is what they choose to embrace. This truth was demonstrated by the failure of the Children of Israel to enter the Promised Land. In most of their journeys before they incurred the curse of God that stood them still for forty years, they complained in fear every time they faced any kind of adversity. Their chief fear was fear of death and the death of their children. You will find their account in the book of exodus 14. They kept asking Moses if there were no graves in Egypt that he brought them to die in the wilderness. After a while, God got fed up with them and allowed them to get what they feared because fear usually attracts to its victim what is feared. 

Doubt and unbelief: Doubting the word that God speaks to us is a very big problem because it is synonymous with calling God who cannot tell lies a liar [Titus1:2]. The word of God tells us that God’s word is truth [John 17:17]. This is what prompted Apostle Paul to say in Romans 3:4 that let God be true and every man a liar. The consequences of embracing doubt and unbelief as far as life generally is concerned are devastating. In the case of the children of Israel, they were robbed of their promise to enter the promised land. In the book of 2Kings.7:1-2 & 16-20, we see how a man was trampled to death for expressing doubt and unbelief when Elisha spoke a promise of God to the king of his time. In 1Cor.10:5-6, Paul admonishes us not to walk after the same example of unbelief that the children of Israel walked in and were cut off as a result. Also, in Hebrews 4:1-4, we are told that God’s promise does not profit those who do not mix it with faith. So fight doubt and unbelief with constantly tuning your heart to the word of God so you can stay in faith [Rm.10:17, Jn.6:63; 10:27]. 

Wrong speaking, murmuring and complaining: In Numbers 13-14, we see the Incidence where the children of Israel by a majority vote lost their place as the majority opinion does not necessarily equate what is right. In fact, in that story, God referred to the minority opinion of Joshua and Caleb as demonstrating another spirit. As a result of their heroic stance, they made it to the Promised Land and were also recognized in the New Testament in God’s hall of faith fame in Hebrews 11. Apostle Paul saw them as the best example of faith to follow when he said in 2Cor.4:13 that they also had the same spirit of faith that enables them to believe and declare. When you are in unbelief (usually caused by fear), the first place it manifests is your language and it is usually laced with murmuring and complaining. This can result in self-destruction [Num.21:4-6; 1Cor.10:9-10]. Every time we are faced with discouragement, the best thing we can do to help ourselves is to go back to the last thing we heard from God and all the other things He has promised us and also recall how some of them have come to pass and trust Him. Never give in to discouragement because if you do, you will say things that could tempt Christ and that would be very devastating. The story in Numbers 21 illustrates how we could tempt the Lord. 

Sin: Sin simply means disobedience to God’s word. This is by far the root of all our challenges in the faith. Sin brought about the fall of man in the first place and after we are restored to God, the old sin nature is always working against us to bring us back to captivity. If it does succeed, it will reflect in unbelief and doubt. Sin happens when we stop listening to God and start listening to the devil. See Gen.3 where Eve got distracted by the voice of the devil. It does not matter who the devil speaks through, you should always be able to tell the voice of God different from that of the devil and ensure you follow God’s voice. We are without excuse because Jesus said in John 10:27 that His sheep hears His voice and that they would not follow the voice of the stranger. So if you sin, it is because you made the choice. Every believer in Christ is truly free to choose. See Deu.30:19, Jos.24:15, Rom.10:6-11.

Wrong association: This is one of the worst enemies of rest and refreshing. In fact the bible reveals the secret of success to us through the Psalmist in Ps.1 where He points out that anyone who associates with the ungodly and people who scorn the word of God are doomed to fail. Prov.13:20 puts it more strongly when it discloses to us that a companion of fools shall be destroyed. This is why getting married to a fool is a big deal because it is a sure way to doom one’s self to destruction. A fool is one who denies God and His word. See Ps.14:1 and Matthew 7:24-27. Foolishness is mostly seen in the actions we take based on a wrong belief system; a system that kicks against God’s word.

Evil Reports: Every report you receive that conflict with God’s word is an evil report. An evil report only becomes evil in your life when you act on it because you believe it otherwise; it is merely an evil report. So an evil report need not become your report. For instance, if the Doctor tells you that you are going to die before your time because of a sickness; that is an evil report. The solution to this is to seek God for His good report and use it to change the death sentence to life. Remember, we can choose life. See Deu.30:19. The result of believing an evil report is that you will give it voice and when you do, God would be committed to bring what you say to pass [Num.14:28, Mk.11:23]. So seek what God says and give it your voice and that is what you will have.   

Message for Sunday the 23rd August, 2015 Theme: Refreshing from the effects of heat Topic: The Evidence of Rest and Refreshing

Heb.4:2-3, Acts 3:19

Introduction: At the beginning of the month, we saw that Refreshing can be defined as reviving or reanimating. We also saw that it is to impart vitality and energy. Whereas the manifestation of God’s promise to you is a kind of rest, you actually enter into rest before the physical manifestation of the promise. Today therefore, we are going to be looking at how you know that you have entered into rest and refreshing; even without a physical manifestation yet.  

In Heb.4:2-3, we are told that when we mix the word of God we hear with faith, it profits us and we enter into rest. This is why for the past two weeks; we have been looking at faith and rest to help us see how we can mix the word of God with faith. We also learnt that faith is the key that unlocks the door to rest and refreshing for us. 

The following are some of the evidence of things in a person’s life that point to rest and refreshing:

Peace: Peace is the quiet proof of the existence of faith in a person’s heart. It is usually known as quiet faith. When God speaks to us individually, we have a basis for faith in whatever He tells us. Two ways we know that this is the voice of God are that what we hear brings peace to our hearts that we cannot explain and also, it agrees with the word of God in principle. In Ps.85:8, we are told that when God speaks to His people, He shall speak peace. In other words, the content of His word releases peace in your heart. When you believe in what He says to you and act on it, you automatically enter into His rest and consequently, His refreshing. See also, 2Peter 1:19-21; here, we are made to understand the word of God packaged in the bible is the more sure word of prophecy so that when we hear from the Lord, the authentic way we can verify it is God who spoke is that the contents do not conflict with the principles of The Bible. See 2Tim.3:16-17, John 16:33. 

Joy: Joy is also known as celebrating faith in anticipation of the physical manifestation of God’s promise to you. For instance when in 2Chronicles 20:12-24, God told Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah to set themselves in anticipation of the victory He would get for them from their enemies; they consulted with the ministers of God and realized that they were to set themselves by praise. As they did this, demonstrating that the Joy of the Lord was their strength, they entered into rest and were refreshed as they carted away the spoils of victory without having to fight the enemy physically. This is why Jesus said He speaks to us so that we can be joyful. See John 15:11 – indeed when we are joyful after we hear from God, we are in the rest of faith. 

The fulfillment of what was promised: See Romans 4:17-21 – this is the most visible demonstration of our rest and refreshing; when there is an actual physical manifestation of what God promised. When this happens, it is usually evident to all that God brought it to pass by the following means:

Divine Presence: A good illustration of this is the deliverance of the children of Israel from the 400 years bondage of Egypt. God went with Moses and made him a god to Pharaoh and led them out by a mighty hand going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. See Ex.7:1-3; 13:21-22 & Acts 3:19. Note here that refreshing usually comes from the presence of the Lord. 

Divine Favour: when God is set to bring about the manifestation of His word to a person or people, He usually releases the tool of divine favour to enable the actualization of what He has promised. In Ex.3:21, God promised to give the children of Israel favour before the Egyptians to enable them go with substance. See Ex.12:36, Luk.1:28, 48-50.

Miraculous signs: These are usually the proof of God’s approval for the persons he is fulfilling His promise on their behalf. This is usually necessary especially when the actualization of the promise of God would demand the deliverance of another. For instance God had to demonstrate signs and wonders in Egypt to free Israel. See Ex.3-14. When Jesus came, God had to prove that He was sent by Him by approving His ministry with signs and wonders bringing relief to his people. See John 5:36 and Acts 2:22

Divine Solutions: Usually, when God fulfills His promise to a person, it is usually clear to all; both the discerning and undiscerning that this came to pass purely by the hand of God. For instance the rise of Joseph from the prison to the palace within 24 hours was purely by the miraculous workings of God. See Gen.41 especially verses 37-44. Another example is Daniel; a slave in Babylon rising overnight to become the prime minister. See Daniel 2. 

Message for Sunday the 16th August: Topic: Faith and Refreshing Pt.2

Isa.28:8-12; Heb.11:1-6; Heb.4:2.

Introduction: Last week, we began to look at the relationship between faith and refreshing by first looking at what faith is, how it comes and how it works. Today, we shall be looking at two of these elements that enable faith to produce and five ways that they can bring us rest and consequently refreshing. 

To begin with, we must understand that faith operates by principles or laws and for that reason, faith is made up of some elements. An element for our purpose is one of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. In other words, there are certain vital principles upon which the strength of faith is built and we shall be looking at some of them today and five ways they can bring us the rest and refreshing God has promised us.

 Love: In Gal.5:6, we are told that nothing counts for anyone more than faith that works by love. This is because love is the life wire of faith. Also, without love, it is impossible to really mix faith with the word of God we hear. When faith is not mixed with the word of God we hear, we would not be profited by it and therefore would be eluded of rest and consequently, refreshing because faith only works by love. See Hebrews 4:2. 

Tenacity: Tenacity is the quality of holding your own. For instance holding on to the word God has spoken to you in spite of every adversity you are confronted with. This is why the word of God tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. It is the tenacity of your faith that God finds attractive in you. See Hebrew 11:6. In verse 12 of Hebrews 6, we are told to be followers of those who through faith and patience obtain the promise. This goes to show that God has set the faithful as the standard for our pursuit of Him. The elders were said to have obtained the promise by faith and believe me, the quality that made this happen for them was their tenacity because many of them knew that the promise was not to be fulfilled in their lifetime. See Heb.11:2, 13-16. For instance Job said all the days of his appointed time would he wait until his change came. The man was tenacious. See Job 14:14.

Five products of faith that generate rest and refreshing are:

It is life giving: The entire walk with God from the bible is faith based that is why it is referred to as the faith. The bible say that the just shall live by is faith. Consequently, our entire living and quality of life we live is faith determined. The quality of life we really get to live as believers in Jesus Christ is determined by the quality of our faith. For instance we are saved through faith – Ephesians 2:8-10, we walk by faith – 2Cor.5:7, we live by faith – Hab.2:4, Rom.1:17, Heb.10:38 etc. 

It produces love because faith compels us to walk in love so as to produce. In Gal.5:6 we are told that faith works by love. As a result, we make conscious effort to walk in love so that our faith can produce because in 1Cor.13:1-3 we see that the absence of love in all our activities would result in vanity. See Ps.127:1.

It produces victory as it enables us to activate all the fruit of the spirit which added together grants us victory over the affairs of life. This is why we are told in 1John 5:4 that the means by which we overcome the world is our faith. 

It brings light: It takes faith to generate light from the Spirit and the scripture. Without that quality of loving tenacity in following God, we cannot persist on the word until it hatches understanding and enough faith to empower us. The understanding we glean from the word is what we refer to as light. See Ps.119:130. This is why the Psalmist cried out for God to give him understanding that he might live. Life will really only answer to us to the extent of understanding we glean from the Lord. See Ps.119:144.

It brings freedom from captivity by helping us to renew our minds with the word of God. The result is that we are able to walk in true allegiance to God and actualize our prosperity. This is the way it works. Your desire to embrace, build and grow your faith would help you to continue in the word of God. When you continue in it, by actually studying, meditating on and obeying it, you become a disciple of Christ indeed. As a result, God will bless you with revelation knowledge that would help dispel every darkness of ignorance that had kept you captive up till now. When this happens, you are said to have mixed the word with enough faith to enter into rest in that area you were previously ignorant of the grace of God. The result would be your refreshing. See John 8:30-32, John1:4-5, Ps.119:130, Rm.12:2, 1Tim.4:13-16.

Message for Sunday the 9th August 2015: Topic: Faith and Refreshing

Isa.28:8-12; Heb.11:1-6; Heb.4:2. Part 1

Introduction: The Bible in Hebrews 11:1 defines faith in the King James Version as the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. The amplified version puts it this way: “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. 

From our bible definition of faith above, it is evident that it has to do with what cannot be handled by the senses which are responsible for all the problems that rob us of our rest and consequently refreshing. For instance, a major factor that brings us to a place of bondage that makes it necessary for us to obtain rest from the Lord is fear; fear of the unknown, fear of what the future holds, insecurity and the like. All these fears are rooted in unbelief the chief enemy of faith. The result is that we are driven to act contrary to God’s plan and purpose for our lives because the ways of God are indeed higher than the ways of man. Consequently, not walking in faith would result in the person living less than intended by God and therefore, never getting to fulfill their divine abilities. 

Today let us look at what faith actually is from our definition above, how it comes and how it works. Next week we shall relate faith to refreshing showing how important it is to hear and do the word of God so that people can enter into rest because without faith there can be no rest and without rest, there can be no refreshing. 

Faith is:

Not seen with the physical eyes nor experienced with the five senses; it is a product of divine revelation. In Romans 4:1-3 we are shown the example of Abraham to whom God gave certain revelations and he believed God even when all the circumstances conflicted with what God told him and God credited it to him for righteousness. See Romans 4:17-22.

Faith is the evidence of things we do not see: It is demonstrated in the decisions we make and our general lifestyles based on our convictions. Such convictions must be rooted in what God has revealed to us through our spirit. The natural man cannot exercise faith as it would be foolishness to him. For instance Abraham must have looked foolish to the natural man when he started calling himself the father of many nations as an old man when his wife was barren. Another example is Noah’s action in building an ark for 120 years because of what God told him even though it is not clear that his entire household believed him. I believe some of them entered the ark with him out of family sentiments and not because they actually believed him. His son Ham exemplified this with his behavior after they came out of the ark. See his story in Gen.6ff. Until you act on what God has told you, you do not have faith and your rest is not sure. 

How faith comes:

The word of God tells us how faith comes. In Romans 10:17, we learn that faith comes by consistently hearing the word of God. The Amplified bible puts it this way:

So faith comes from what is told and what is heard from the preaching [or the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).   

If you put this together with John 10:27 which says: “the sheep that are my own hear and are listening to my voice; and I know them, and they follow me.” Amplified Bible.

We can say that the word of God we are talking about here is the word he speaks to you when you hear his voice. His Holy Spirit has been given to us and His responsibility is to lead us into all truths and when we are led by His spirit, we are said to be sons of God. This implies that you must grow spiritually from being a baby in the faith to the point of hearing His voice when you can be led by His spirit. At this point, you can be referred to as a son of God otherwise; you are still a child of God. Children are fed milk; they cannot handle strong meat and consequently, they would be subjected to servitude until they grow up enough to take on the responsibility of sons. See Gal.4:1, Heb.5:11-14 and 1Pet.2:2.

The word of God can come to you as a light while reading your bible after setting yourself up for it through praying in the Holy Spirit. It can come to you while you are being taught by ministers of the word or through reading their anointed books. It can come to you by the voice of the Lord speaking to your spirit and bearing witness with your spirit confirming what He is saying to you. It can come through dreams and visions and trances etc. In the times we live in, we must pay the price to hear the voice of the Lord so as to be protected from the evil the enemy is unleashing on the world. See Isa.30:20-21, Dan.9:2-3, Matthew 2:12-21, Acts 10:1-21 etc.

How Faith works:

Faith only works for you when you take commensurate action based on what God reveals to you. It will show in your changed speech, lifestyle and general dispositions. If you do not act on the word or live a life that agrees with the word you have heard, then you do not have faith even when you claim it. What you have can best be described as mental assent that does not produce any result. All the examples of the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11 met this requirement of faith and therefore obtained good reports. See Heb.11:1-3, 8-19 and Heb.4:2.

What has God told you? What are you doing about it that shows you believe? This is your faith. 

Message for Sunday the 2nd August 2015 Theme: Refreshing from the effects of heat

Topic: Identifying the Enemy’s heat and dealing with it

When a person experiences symptoms of infirmity, on his or her visit to a doctor, the first thing the doctor does is to identify the underlying cause of the person’s medical problems because failing to do so can lead to a misdiagnosis and therefore a wrong treatment that could be fatal in some cases. This same situation is true with life generally. Most of the time for instance people point at others as the source of their particular problems without bothering to identify what role they may have played in bringing themselves under the heat of the enemy. This is so because the enemy can only get as far as we permit him. However, sometimes your situation may be as a result of the trial of your faith but before the enemy can get the go ahead, you must have let him mostly by your fears, ignorance or personal utterances. See Job 3:25-26, Hosea 4:6, Prov.18:21 and Matthew 12:37.

In light of the foregoing, let us see some situations that point at the heat of the enemy. Let me say here that whatever the cause of heat, beginning this month, you shall recover and you shall be ready to bounce back to life in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Recurring troubles especially when they follow each other closely. Job’s testimony is a very good example as we see in the book of Job.1-2. In Job’s case, he was made vulnerable by his fears. However, the adversary did not come at him because of his sin but because he was righteous. His claims was that Job did not truly love God but loved all the blessings he received from God but God knew Job and was willing to take a bet on Him and as usual, God was right and Satan was wrong. At the end, God gave Job double for his troubles. This month, you shall begin to receive double for your troubles.

Unexplainable demonstrations of animosity from envious neighbours, friends and family. A good example of this was the testimony of Joseph in Genesis 37-41.

Persistent sicknesses without real explanation especially when such sicknesses are tagged terminal like the case of Job. However, God terminated his sickness. In the case of the lepers who encountered Jesus also, their plagues were terminated. Also, in the case of Jairus’ daughter the Lord terminated by raising her from the dead.

Persecutions from different people even when they do not know you just because of your faith. This was the story of Apostle Paul in 2Cor.4. All the early Church fathers were persecuted for their faith and most of them were even killed for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you try to plant good seeds of love in the life of others and another person comes to sow evil seeds in their lives to make your efforts vain. See the example of the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13.

You can personally identify many more symptoms of the enemy shooting arrows at you in your life. When we see these things, what do we need to do to deal with them?

First, we must identify any access we have given the enemy into our lives like sin, fear, ignorance etc and repent of those accesses and get back on course with God. While repentance would result in instant forgiveness, the process of recovery from the effect of the heat may not be instant depending on what the consequence of our error was. However, your recovery is sure if your repentance is genuine. See the story of David in 2Samuel and see Hosea 4:6

Second, we have to draw nearer to God for His presence to envelope use bringing us the much needed refreshing from the effects of heat. See Ps.16:11 and Acts 3:19. This is so even when there is no known cause of the heat you are experiencing.

Third, you must seek to fill your life with the word of God especially as taught by the Holy Spirit and anointed teachers. The entrance of God’s word would bring the much needed light that would change your status forever. See Ps.119:130; Isa.28:9-12; 30:20-21; 1Tim.4:13-16 and John 6:63

Fourth, pray in the Spirit without ceasing. See 1Cor.14:14-15, Ephe.4:18, 1Thess.5:17 and Luke 18:1.

Finally, change your language and general lifestyles to conform to the ways of God. See Isa.55:8, Deu.19:30, Rom.12:2, Jas.1:22-25, Matthew 7:24-27 etc.

WELCOME TO AUGUST 2015: OUR MONTH OF REFRESHING

Acts 3:19, Isa.28:9-12 and Ps.16:11

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when

the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” KJV.

Refreshing is defined as reviving or reanimating. It is to impart vitality and energy.

As a ministry so far, we have had to do so much in a short while of just six

months. God has enabled us to commence a kind of foundation laying exercise in

accordance with his next move and this has been tasking and attracted so much

attention from our adversary. In spite of all the shots of their archers, we have

been helped by the Lord to accomplish all that He set out to accomplish through

us so far this year and for that we are very grateful.

This month, God has graciously chosen to revive us after the heats. In fact, our

text scripture above in the Amplified Bible Translation is rendered thus:

“So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God],

that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing

(of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from

the presence of the Lord;”

From our text it is evident that refreshing happens to three categories of people.

They are those who were lost and meet the requirement of the gospel when they

hear it preached, those who were saved but living carelessly not bothering about

fulfilling their covenant obligations to God and those who are actively fulfilling

their obligations and are as a result experiencing heats born out of overcoming

conflicts with our enemies. See Ephesians 6:10-12.

To whichever of these categories you belong, I have good news for you. God has

come to terminate your heat beginning from this month. He has come to grant us

rest for all our stress.

To this end, this month, we shall be looking at “Refreshing from the effects of

heat”. We will learn when to identify that you are passing through the heat of the

enemy and what to do to overcome it. Then we shall be looking at what we

benefit from refreshing and how we can maintain a lifestyle that will guarantee

that we are constantly receiving refreshing from the Lord.

Like we have noted above, the first category of people who must be refreshed are

those who have not yet made their acquaintance with the Lord even though they

have heard the gospel preached several times. Trust me, your struggles will

continue as long as you choose to stay away from the Lord. Why would you not

rather enter into His rest than keep struggling with sin, fear, sickness and disease,

lack and want, poverty and all that goes with it? If you want to take this bold step

today, please say the following prayer out loud and you will be saved and

commence a journey you will live to be eternally grateful to God for:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised

Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my

Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and

embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’

name!

Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in

this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our

blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at

alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl

www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewell-beingcentre.  

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!