THE SUPERNATURAL FAVOUR OF GOD

I’ve been meditating on the favour of God a little while now, ever since I was recently told about Psalm 5:12. It’s an interesting verse of scripture. I thought I would go back and look at God’s favour again.

“For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround themwith your favor as with a shield.”

I did a short study on the word, shield, and got some interesting results. I’m constantly amazed at how rich the original languages of the Bible are. There is such depth, and God is truly in the detail. So what did I find?According to Strong’s Concordance (because I don’t know Hebrew yet), the word, shield (tsinnah:H6793), can be translated as a hook, also as a large shield guarding as if by prickliness. I was thinking to myself, do I have prickly favour surrounding me? And then it struck me, VELCRO!!!Everyone has seen velcro unless you’ve been living under a rock. The prickly part of velcro is made up of tiny little hooks.

People favour me because God’s favour has hooked them in. They’re stuck. I like this because it’s an active form of favour. It’s almost like an offensive weapon. You’re not sitting back passively protecting yourself you can run that shield into people and hook them.So what is God’s favour?It’s God’s approval, it’s a debt satisfied, it’s preferential treatment, it’s to be pardoned, it’s to be reconciled, to be pleased with. All I need to do is just accept it, God offered it to me.

Think about it… if I have a debt… God’s favour to me is that debt satisfied. I just receive it. If I need to get something done… God’s favour to me is preferential treatment. If I did something wrong… God’s favour to me is to be pardoned.When you really think about it fully it’s another facet of salvation and wholeness, but that is another study.....

The "Truth" About The 10 Commandments Of God

Hi fellow brothers and sisters in Grace.I have received an email, which I have reproduced below.This brother may be well meaning, however I believe he is obviously wrong, in his comments.

I am opening my blog for discussion.Please feel free, to leave your comments graciously.Thank you.God bless you all.

The article is as follows word for word........

"The Truth About The 10 Commandments Of God

There are many preaching in the world, different teachings on the topic of Grace versus the Law. They say that now we do not live under the Law but under Grace. Stop here, this is a very important statement, why? Because it means we do not need to follow the Law of God again. Can this be true? It's too good to be true. And I would certainly want this to be true, but is this the true?

What does it mean? Come on lets reason, says the Lord. Remember the 10 Commandments were the only statements that God wrote with his own fingers, except for the other one in Daniel, the writings on the wall. But the 10 Commandments were the first writings of God and we can all agree on that, despite all denominations and religious diversions.

What are the 10 commandments?

1. Exodus 20: 3, "You shall have no other gods before me.

2. Exodus 20: 4, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. Exodus 20:7, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

4. Exodus 20: 8, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

5. Exodus 20:12, "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."

6. Exodus 20:13, "You shall not murder."

7. Exodus 20:14, "You shall not commit adultery."

8. Exodus 20:15, "You shall not steal."

9. Exodus20:16, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

10. Exodus 20:17, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

When Jesus was asked what shall a man do to please God? Jesus summed up the 10 Commandments into two commandments, first, love the Lord your God with all your body, soul and spirit, and second, love your neighbor as yourself. How did Jesus sum up the 10 into the 2? Rightly divide the word, and this was the message that God told us to do, to rightly divide the word of God.

The first 4 Commandments was what we must do in order to show how we are to love God. And the other 6 Commandments were what we must do in order to love our fellow human beings, our parents included. Now isn't it very obvious that the 10 Commandments talks about the only one thing in common which is Love, and God is Love. How brilliant can that be? It's fantastic that God gave us 10 things to do to exercise Love.

Now contemplate this, if you love your daughter how would you show it? How can you love someone with words and no actions? So what is the one common simple action that all of us as parents do for our kids and it's not a rule to follow but an action from the heart? Its call giving, we give gifts to our children, we buy them things and by that they know we love them. So if I teach a course about how to love our kids and I say if you love them buy them some gifts, then does this become a rule or regulation? No. It only means that love creates and produces an action call giving of gifts.

Yet some misguided teachers of this Grace called it rules and regulation which makes us a robot. What does this really mean that we have Grace from Jesus? It means that by just following the 10 commandments alone, no one can be made righteous by doing this without the inner sanctification. If we do not receive Jesus as our Savior, and we just obey the 10 commandments alone, we will not receive salvation. Grace is the gift of Jesus' sacrifice, the perfect lamb that sin not died for a world of sinners. So it was by Grace that we are saved and not by obeying the 10 Commandments alone.

However, if the 10 Commandments are no longer valid, meaning it's obsolete, then how are we to live, it's ridiculous since the world's law will punish everyone who steal, let alone commit a murder. How can the word of God nullify the laws of this earth and go against what HE instituted on earth? Did you not know that all authorities, powers and dominions were made by HIM?

Read Colossians 1:16, "16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him." Governments and institutions of the world are created by God, period. And to venture deeper, even Evil was created by God, as all things means all things. How can we know Good without the presence of Evil, Light without Darkness?

Jesus said in his famous prayers that "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Thy will be done, in the human domain as it is in the spiritual domain. When we received the Holy Spirit during baptism of the Spirit and not just water, we actually become indwelled with the Spirit of God. And when we have this Spirit, it then helps us to obey the 10 Commandments of God. For God said, Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." So if heaven and earth is still around, how can his words become nullified by anyone? Therefore, the 10 Commandments can not be obsolete, simple as that, God said so; and I wouldn't want to change what God said.

And again God says, Matthew 5:19, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Saying the 10 Commandments is no longer valid is equivalent to saying that we do not need to follow it; and that is the same as teaching Christians to be lawless. If future sins are also all forgiven, why do Christians still suffer from cancer and terminal sickness, didn't Jesus' beaten stripes healed them all according to Isaiah? How can their preaching and the reality be different? I suspect this is a wrong teaching or they may not be real Christians. The wages of sin is death, was this only for the sinners or for all people, saved or unsaved? You'll have to answer that carefully.

There is no Old or New Testament, there is only the Word of God, and God can not contradict himself, even so is the same with the Holy Spirit. The Old is a shadow of the New and they compliment each other, they do not become obsolete just because Jesus came, only the daily sacrifice by the Priests has been removed other than that nothing has changed, since Jesus became the sacrifice and sits on the father's right hand. Also the veil that covers the Holy of Holies has been torn so that we can now come to God directly without any other human intermediary except for Jesus who became our intercessor and mediator to defend us, while the Devil is the prosecutor who persecutes us and accuses us in front of God.

Although Jesus paid the price, that does not mean we are once saved always saved, for there is a sin for which there is no forgiveness and that is the "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit." Then there was the case of Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5:1, where they sold their property but did not gave the full amount to Peter and both were struck dead by the Holy Spirit. If Grace was the theme in the New Testament why was Ananias and Sapphira not pardoned, yet they were struck by God. And some say God does not kill.

We should not presume what is said by God without first consulting the Holy Spirit else whatever we conceive of our own understanding will become a myth and fairy tale. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." He who does not have the Spirit of God will contradict what God says and in that they have already condemned themselves and become false teachers of the Law. For they teach apostasy against the will of God. Man is not the author of the bible; the Holy Spirit is the real author of this Holy Book. And if anyone shall add or remove from this Holy Book, his reward will also be removed and his punishment will be added unto him. Lastly, the bible says very clearly in Proverbs 19:5, 19:9 and especially in Proverbs 21:28, "A false witness will perish and whoever listens to him will be destroyed forever." If you want to Seek the Truth and get your breakthrough today. God bless you all."

Divine Appointment

Praise the Lord! This is my first time blogging in my life! Today i met Stanley as he had invited me to his place for Chinese New Year.The invitation was from 12-3pm however i reached around 10+ in the morning and I decided to give him a call to check if I could come to his place earlier.

He told me that his family was still asleep and he graciously agreed to come downstairs to meet me.We discussed about the Gospel of Grace and also about his blog on Antinomianism.It was an inspiring discussion.

About 1hr in the midst of our discussion a total stranger greeted us "Happy New Year".I was concerned as this guy was unknown to both of us.Praise God! we found out that he was a fellow believer from New Creation Church in Singapore and he had overheard our discussion.

This brother is a now a taxi driver.He was a Senior Engineer before.He has been saved for 7 years at the age of 58.He is now 65.He shared how God is using him mightily sharing about the Gospel of Grace to his fellow passengers as led by the Holy Spirit.He has also got hundreds of his passengers saved by the Grace and working of the Holy Spirit.

He shared that he has 7 grandchildren and now all his debts have been paid up.He works less than 12 hours a day and he always makes about $100+ in net profit daily.He continued to testify about the mighty wonders that Jesus has done for his life and family.Both Stanley and I sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit as this brother continued to give his testimony.

Later on, I went to Stanley's home and he graciously showed me the basics of how to set up a blog.I had always wanted to learn how to set up a blog and finally the day has arrived today on Chinese New Year.Thank you Stanley!

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone.Be Abundantly Blessed and Richly Favoured in Jesus Christ's Mighty Name!