Buy Truth and Do Not Sell It - Let's Look into this verse

 In the blog post "About the Floods" I told you that I saw my dad at a belt stall, & I thought he may have been buying one. 

Last week as I was praying, this verse came to my mind "Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding." (Pro 23:23). Symbolically, a belt can refer to Truth. In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to wear the whole armor of God, which includes girding our waist with truth. This girding has also been translated as a belt.

Generally, this is what I understand from Prov 23:23. When you get the truth, do not sell it; keep it. Do not exchange it for anything else like the deception of the enemy, compromise, wealth, people's approval, etc. This includes wisdom, instruction and understanding; keep them. Understanding is the knowledge of the Holy one. (Pro 9:10)

Buy Truth. Jesus refers to Himself as truth. What would you give in exchange for truth?? Matthew 13:45 compares the kingdom of heaven to a merchant whom seeking beautiful pearls, found one of great price and sold all that he had to buy it.

Remember what I also told you (with Scripture) that one of the intentional ways to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, is to know the truth and receive it. Because He is called the Spirit of truth and He testifies of Truth.

In other words, prepare yourself by putting on the belt of truth. Armour is put on by those who are in battle or going for battle. In the previous verses, Paul says we are putting on the armour of God in order to be able to "stand against the wiles of the devil" and to "withstand in the evil day" and remain standing. If you've read the blog post, do you see the dots connecting...

- In the blog post (About the Floods) I shared what I thought the dreams I had were pointing to. You can take a look at it by clicking Here

How to Teach Children to Have Fellowship with the Holy Spirit & Lean on Him

In my previous post we talked about how to intentionally have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Because we may be talking about the importance of the Holy Spirit and His leading, but some of us may wonder; "how does that look like or how do I go about it?"

So we learnt about how we can, then now we can go ahead & introduce Him to our children.

To teach our children to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit & rely on His leading:

1. We teach them Truth

In the previous post we said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and He came to testify of truth (John 16:13). In order for our children to have communion with Him they need to know truth and receive it. Don't feel fear or the pressure to compromise on what the Bible says.

And truth is the word of God. (John 17:17)

2. We teach them about Jesus and salvation.

The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to testify about Jesus, who is truth (John 16:14, 1 John 5:7). He can only have fellowship with those who have received the Gospel; o rather those who are born again (they have repented and believed in Jesus).

When we become born again, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. He is also the one who seals us, marking us as those who belong to Jesus (Ephesians 1:13).

3. By teaching them about the Holy Spirit.

Let them know that there is the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19, Paul met with some disciples and asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit. They told him that they didn't know there was something as the Holy Spirit. 

Let your children know that there is the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) who wants to commune with them, speak to them, comfort them, teach them about God, etc. That He is walking with followers of Christ all the time. 

(In my previous post you can learn more about the Holy Spirit, if you don't know what to tell them.)

4. Teach them Scripture and to pray

Take time to pray and study the Bible together with them. Teach them to pray and study the Bible alone & on their own as well. This way you give God the opportunity to commune with them & allow them to develop these habits early in their life.

Again, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth; so we deepen our communion with Him through prayer, meditating on Scripture, obedience to God & other such Biblical practices.

How Do We Intentionally Have Fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

 First of all, who is the Holy Spirit? According to 1Cor 2:11, He is the Spirit of God. For He is one with God, and He is God, because He is His Spirit.

"For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God."

You can go and take a look at the entire chapter.

So how do we intentionally have fellowship with the Holy Spirit?

1. By receiving truth. 

In John 16:13, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit only testifies of truth. He and God are one; so He cannot speak of anything different from God or His Word.

 
According to John 17:17 the Word of God is truth. We can welcome the fellowship of the Holy Spirit by receiving what the word of God says. The Holy Spirit will be present only where the truth is being testified. Because He is a witness to truth. And He will only bear witness to truth.

 
"For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." 1John 5:7

The Holy Spirit also glorifies Jesus, who is the Word.

2. Bringing us to; We have to receive Jesus.

 The Holy Spirit only dwells and has fellowship with the ones who are born again. When we reject Jesus and the word of God, we cannot have fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

 
"He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:14)

The Holy Spirit is also the One who seals us after we have received the salvation of Jesus.

"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph 1:13)

Moreover, when we reject the Son, we also reject the Father, thereby rejecting the Holy Spirit as well, who is the Spirit of God. (1 John 2:23)

3. By inviting His fellowship.

 
According to Luke 11:13, we can ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. If you are born again (you have repented and placed your faith in Jesus to save you from sin and eternal condemnation) you can pray to the Father for the Holy Spirit. That is if you have not received Him yet or you are not sure that you have Him. (Refer to Acts 8:13-17)

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13)

You can invite the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Just remember that He comes to glorify Jesus, so we have to be living in truth and testifying of it.

4. By keeping ourselves pure through living in obedience to the word of God.

 
The body of a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

 
"Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Cor 18-19)

In Ephesians 4 we are instructed to put off the old man. That we should no longer walk in the ways that we used to when we were not born again. But to live in righteousness and holiness.

 
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." (Eph 4:30,31)

5. Through repentance

 
Scripture tells us that God is light and there's no darkness in Him.  "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

But when we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us our sins.  (1 John 1:5-10)

6. By meditating on the word  of God to renew our mind, then we can walk according to His will. (Eph 4:23, Romans 12:2)

Remember again, that He is the Spirit of truth and the word of God is truth. He is not a feeling either, (though we may feel His presence). So we can have fellowship with Him in faith even when there's no feeling.

Therefore, as we pray for revival, let us preach truth, let us walk in truth, because the Holy Spirit can only testify of truth. Let us preach truth and walk in truth to see the power of God.

(The points I have given are not in order and they are not limited to these only.)

The Power Of Knowing God's Love

Look at what I found in the archives! wow. I wrote this I think almost two years ago and never published, just going through it was so refreshing. Here we go..

I have come to realise that the power we have is in knowing God's love for us. Finding assurance in that love. That is probably the first step in having a close relationship with God. A relationship established on complete trust in Him. In this way, we get to know Him better. You see, when we know that God loves us, when we are sure of the love He has for us, then we can completely trust in Him.

Despite the challenges, when the world around us seems like it's turning upside down, we can still find security in Him. Because we trust Him; Because we know He loves us and has good thoughts for us. John is described and at some point describes himself as the disciple loved by Jesus (John 13:23, 19:26). See, I feel that this close relationship between them was because John knew that he was loved by Jesus and Jesus was probably glad about that. Because that is what He wants us to know; that is what God wants us to know, that He loves us.

Jesus said that if we want to know the Father (God the Father), then we should look at Him, Jesus. This is because He and Father God are one and He is the only one who knows the Father. A similar case as John's is David's. He was sure of God's love and favour. We see that from a young age when David faced Goliath. The Israelite soldiers shook with fear, but David reminded them of the God of Israel.

Throughout the book of Psalms it is also clear that David was sure of God's love, grace and mercy. The bible describes him as a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:14). These are people that rejoiced in God's love. When we are sure of God's love, we become focused on Him, on His favours, the "little things" around, rather than what we lack. Like catching the last seat in the bus, in the next town, after a late booking (my experience).

Easier said than done, I know. I have that challenge too sometimes, but we can continue and grow in this journey together. It is empowering to find assurance in God's love and goodness. I personally feel empowered, not of my own strength but of God's.

💗💗💗

The Everpresent Gladness (How Can I find Joy?)

"There are many who say, "who will show us any good?" Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the season that their grain and wine increased." Psalms 4:6-7

I want to study these verses, especially putting an emphasis on "gladness". I read the verse on gladness last week and it shone light in me; like it was the first I had read it. Peace, joy and contentment seems to be something that many are seeking. And maybe sometimes we think that we will find all that in something, through an achievement or through other people. "Who will show us any good?".

I mentioned joy in this article (Living in the Knowledge of God), as part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is in us as believers by default. Galatians 5:22. It seems like the Lord is the one who puts that joy in our hearts. He is the one who has given us the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist talks about the Lord putting gladness in his heart. A gladness that is not controlled by seasons or conditions. In that while others may be counting on the seasons or affected by the seasons of gain and loss, increase and lack, he has found contentment. More so a gladness that is incomparable to the seasons in which wealth increased and people made merry.

Gladness, contentment, peace, joy, are possible without personal effort to make it happen. Only the Lord can make and has made this possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. So, believe that it is already done and happens when we are born again.  

There are many who say, "who will show us any good?" Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.

Living in the Knowledge of God (Life in Salvation)

"a man of knowledge increases strength;" Proverbs 24:5

Until recently, whenever I prayed for someone to be healed, I would end the prayer with, "nevertheless, let Your will be done." This is because there is this verse in James 4:15 that teaches us to live, speak and do things, while acknowledging the role that God plays in our lives. This is actually something that a lot of us have grown up hearing, in talk and in prayer "according to the will of God." And it is true, it is the Word of God, so it is Truth; until it is spoken without knowledge, the knowledge of God and His Word.

I'm probably not making sense now, ha..Someone mentioned just how we can step out of context when we concentrate on a certain part of the Scripture, maybe on a certain verse, without the knowledge of what the rest of the word of God says. For instance, "Ask and you shall receive", but then we do not ask according to the word of God. So we are probably not aware of this other verse in James 4:3 that says "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss..."

What I'm I driving at? Here I was asking for a person's healing, yet ending with "above all Your will be done". A prayer made without knowledge. Because, for one "by the stripes of Christ we were healed" 1 Peter 2:24 and everyone who receives Christ, receives that healing too. Secondly, God loves us John 3:16 and so He wants the best for us. Refer also to Matthew 7:11, Luke 11:5-13; we will not ask for fish and the Lord gives us a snake instead. 

Thirdly, Christ charged His disciples to go and heal the sick. Such a prayer makes the assumption that God may not want to heal the person.  I probably made these kinds of prayers because we've made prayers before and sometimes seen no healing. So we make the assumption that if God wanted to, He would do it. Reading a book (Better Way to Pray- Andrew Wommack) that I shared on my page, really opened my eyes a lot on the part  that the knowledge of God plays in the life of a believer.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6.

There is a lot to talk about. I also have so much to learn still. The book of Galatians 5:22, also talks of the fruit of the Spirit. Note the Fruit not fruits, so if as a believer you have one "element" of that fruit, you also have the others. The fruit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." I heard a pastor express how at a certain point in his life he was filled with sadness, but then remembered, wait I have the fruit of joy. So my spirit is joyful. What is in the spirit can manifest in the flesh. The next verse in Galatians goes on to say that, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."²⁵ 

 

Generally, living in the knowledge of who God is and who we are in God as believers, is key in our walk of salvation.

The Saved Life (Life in Salvation)

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God"

The minute that we are born again, o rather accept Christ as our personal saviour, our inner beings are transformed. That is why we say we are born again, we are new creations, the old is gone and the new comes. At that very moment our hearts are transformed. The Lord places His love in our hearts. So we do not struggle to find the love for Him in our hearts, but we feel it there. 

Scripture says that God has put His laws in our minds and written them on our hearts. Hebrews 8:10. That He will love us and we will love Him. He is the very life in our beings. We delight in Him and His ways. We are more empathetic and loving towards others. It may not come easily and we may not find it easy to do without surrendering to God, but we know that this is what we should do.

The Lord gives us the inner will to follow Him and do His will. That is why when we wrong there is remorse. He also gives us the strength to perform His will. There is no fear in the Lord. Any time that I experience fear I remind myself that fear does not come from God. In Acts 4:13 we read that the elders and rulers of the Jews marveled when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. Scripture says that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit when he spoke to them. Therefore, the Lord also equips us for the task He has given us.

The life in salvation is walked in the spirit. So we need the Holy Spirit to make the right strides. He is our Helper. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Romans 8:14

The New Heaven and Earth

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..." Revelation 21:1

For the past weeks I have been sharing parts of Revelation 21 and a few verses just before that chapter. We had just been sharing with a group on the book and that chapter was just breathe taking. It is so full of hope...any time I read through it, it just lightens me up, gives life to my soul, makes my heart leap, my spirit is filled with joy; so much to say..

The chapter talks about "the holy city, New Jerusalem", which will descend out of heaven from God. It is too beautiful to perceive. It is full of light, that there is no need of light, nor is there night. It also made of and adorned with precious stones, as well as pure gold that is as clear as crystal.

The best part is that God Himself will live with us. Can you imagine that, God with His glory will be living among men! Wow! That is quite something. God will also wipe away every tear from our eyes, that is, He will comfort us. I can say that we are already experiencing this. The minute that a person believes in Christ and receives Him in His life, the Holy Spirit also comes and dwells in Him. Now "the fruit of the (Holy) Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control"  Galatians 5:22

So it's a fruit, not fruits; so believers of Christ, born again persons, already have all these as one fruit present in their spirit. There is a certain kind of peace and joy, that comes or manifests even in times of sorrow. Thereby we are already experiencing the comfort of God, when we live in the truth. There shall also "be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."  Revelation 21:4. 

We are talking about everlasting life and joy all our days; isn't that just beautiful?!. Right now we experience physical death, though we live in hope even in death because we have the knowledge and faith in where we are going. It is important to also note that eternal life begins the minute a person becomes born again. Isaiah 65 also speaks of the same, "the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her"¹⁹; "No more shall an infant from there live but a few days"²⁰

 

Through the chapters Christ emphasizes that He "will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." That eternal life beginning from today is free to everyone who receives it. God is not holding it back, nor is there any more work that needs to be done for us to receive the gift of everlasting life. Christ already did it, now it is up to us to receive it and start living the life in abundance.

This begins the minute we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that He is the Son of God and He has been resurrected by the power of God Romans 10:9. It is no longer up to God, but up to us, He has already given. Now we make the choice to receive. God is ready to embrace us when we turn to Him; He calls unto you and me. Lastly, the angel asks John not to seal "the words of the prophecy of (the) book, for the time is at hand." 22:10. Salvation is free.

God is not Angry at Us

God thinks peace 

towards us

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" Jeremiah 29:11

Attention is on these words today. God is not angry at us. This verse talks about the thoughts that the Lord has towards us. He thinks peace towards us. He wants to do us good. At the time that this word was shared by Jeremiah, the Israelites had been taken into captivity. This had happened because they had sinned and had failed to obey God and live by His statutes.

Quite an irony that they were in captivity, had disobeyed God, yet He said that He had good thoughts towards them. At a time when the remission of sins had not yet been made and so they had not yet experienced the grace of Christ. Still the Lord declared that He had good thoughts towards them. He wanted to do them good. How much more for us who live in the era of the grace of Christ.

When we have been living in sin and disobedience towards God's word, we may be shy about approaching God. Our conscience condemns us and we think that God is angry. From such a point of view, we may be born again but constantly experiencing condemnation, because we are not living under grace. Sure, He hates sin and does not want us to live in sin. Still He loves all of us, born or not born again; and wants to transform us and our lives.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (underscore mine) John 3:16. God has unconditional love for each individual (the world) and not just the "well-performing" ones. Salvation and life in abundance has been available for everyone who will believe in Christ. He wants to take care of us and show us love and for us to love Him back. His thoughts are not of evil and He wants to do us good; but we need to let Him do that by believing in His Son Jesus Christ and receive the price that He paid for us.

Don't be shy to approach God because you think He is angry. Don't think that He is punishing you either for something you did, He chastens/disciplines Hebrews 12:4, but the price for our sins has already been paid by Jesus. Anyone that calls unto the name of Jesus will be saved.

We are not looking at how perfect we are, but at the perfection of Jesus. Neither are we waiting to be "good enough" or until we have changed this or that to approach Him or receive gift of Jesus; in that case then we would never get to that place, because we cannot do it without Him. We need the help of God through Jesus. 

Faith Comes by Hearing (Hearing What Though?)

Faith comes by hearing..which faith?

Even as I write this article, I cannot help but wonder; where is our faith placed? what are we building our faith around? In a motivation speech by TD Jakes "The Source" created from one of his sermons, one of the things emphasized is "consider the source". What is the source of that information? That we should always consider the source of any information that we come across and from what knowledge or perspective is that information based on. 

And it is also a similar thing when it comes to building our faith by hearing and through the environment that we surround ourselves with. What is our faith anchored to. What do we believe in and what are we listening to or feeding ourselves, that keeps building this faith with. Faith is a belief on something that cannot be seen. It does not have to be godly though; Consider the source.

The Scripture talks about the "faith that comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" Romans 10:17. This is Godly faith, it is based on Scripture. It also grows with Scripture, with the Word of God. In order to build our faith, we have to spend time with God. We have to spend time in his Word. I could be at a different level, but the minute that I read the Word of God or listen to bible based information, it creates an immediate impact in me.

I don't know about you either but the more that I also listen to other material that may not be according to Scripture, it slowly starts stealing the life out of me. It has some kind of impact because there is some kind of faith that I am building; faith comes by hearing. In the same way if you frequently spend some alone time with God and then you go for a while without doing so; you may feel the negative impact, I have. All day everyday there are all kinds of information coming my way and I have to be able to deal with that or counteract it.

One of the things that Terri Savelle Foy, a motivational speaker, encourages, actually emphasizes on, is constantly listening to faith building messages in order to experience change and growth in our lives; because faith comes by hearing.

So faith comes by hearing and hearing what? What are we building our faith around? what are we listening to, looking at or what have we surrounded ourselves with? What has our faith become based upon?

I have also written other articles on faith, check them out "Stepping out in Faith" and "As We Exercise Faith, It Increases"