A time for miracles

And when it was evening, the disciples came to Him, saying, "The place is desolate, and the time is already past; so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" (Matthew 14:15-16)

I was told that this coming year was going to be a year of miracles for us, and that we were going to see some of the greatest miracles we have ever witnessed because we are going to need them! 

Many want to see miracles, but how many are willing to be put in a place where they need one? Miracles are not given for our entertainment, neither are they given to build our faith. They are the result of our having faith. Almost every miracle was the result of a desperate need. The greater the need, the greater the miracle. 

How great would the miracle have been to feed the five thousand if the disciples had hundreds of fishes and loaves, and just needed a little more? It was a great miracle because they had so little in their own hands with which to do what they were asked by God to do. 

When we are called by God to do a task, we often begin to look at what resources we have to perform it. This can be the beginning of our fall from the faith that will be required to do the true works of God. It is at the point that we see our resources running out that we will experience the power of God. What we need to do the true works of God will not be found in our own resources, or our own wisdom, but in the limitless resources of God. 

We know that "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (see James 4:6). However, there is a false humility that is an offense to God, and can keep us from being useful to Him. It was this kind of false humility that Moses displayed when God first called him at the burning bush.

When the Lord told Moses that He was sending him back to release His people from bondage, Moses responded by saying that he was not adequate for this great task. This seemed humble, but it caused the anger of the Lord to burn against Moses. The Lord was angry because this seeming humility was actually an ultimate form of pride, and an affront to God. Moses was saying that his inadequacy was greater than God's adequacy. He was focusing on himself instead of the Lord. This is the one thing that may have caused more people to fail to fulfill their calling than any other single factor. 

We will never be adequate within ourselves for what the Lord calls us to do. In our flesh, which is our natural strength, we cannot accomplish one thing for the Lord. That is why Paul the Apostle told the men of Athens that the Lord is not served by human hands. Only the Spirit can begat that which is spirit. We are utterly dependent on the Lord to do His work. We will never be adequate within ourselves for His work, and if we ever start to feel adequate we will almost certainly be in the midst of a fall from grace. 

True faith is not a feeling of adequacy in ourselves, but rather of our focus on the adequacy of God. True faith is not a faith in our faith, but a faith in Him. The greatest faith is that which can see and believe in His provision in the time of the most pressing need. We need to see every circumstance that is beyond ourselves as an opportunity to see a miracle. If we are faithful in the little opportunities, He will bless us with greater ones. And yes, those blessings are trials. 

We are about to see great miracles, because He is going to allow us to come into places where we are going to need them. Let us determine now that we are not going to focus on the need, or ourselves, but on Him. Let us prepare for these opportunities by focusing on Him today.

Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;
while it is said, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me" (Hebrews 3:12-15).

resource by :
http://morningstarministries.org/Groups/1000022226/MorningStar_Ministries/Media/Daily_Devotional/Daily_Devotional.aspx

BenjaminGen Devotional: The sun never fails to shine :)

Hey peeps! This is supposedly last week's devotional hehe sorry kl telat yaa.. God bless you!

The sun shines everyday

Have you ever taken some time to look at the behavioral paern of the sun? This has never come across my mind before until one day, I received wisdom from the Spirit as I was driving to church. I just felt the Holy Spirit teaching me this:

The sun doesn’t care what day of the week it is; it still shines every day, from Monday to Sunday! Granted, there may be rainy days where the sun is covered by dark clouds. But, the sun is always there! The

presence of the dark clouds doesn’t change the fact that they sun is always shining every single day!

Jesus - the Man unmoved by circumstance

If there’s one man in the Bible who resembles the sun, that man is Jesus. No maer what situation He was in, His light will always shine through. Whenever He passed by the sick, He never fails to heal them. A woman with an is- sue of blood for 12 years? A man bound by leprosy for 18 years?No problem for Jesus! In an instant, they were completely healed! Jesus’ triumph over the curse of this fallen world is independent of His surroundings, but is de- pendent on who He is! The healer isn’t shaken by the different kinds of diseases, but every disease falls under the healer! He is just like the sun, whose light shines brightly every morning regardless of which day it is!

Granted, there are times when we can’t see the sun’s rays because of the dark clouds. But, the sun still shines (albeit behind the clouds). At the end of the day, no maer how heavy the rain is, we will always see the sun’s rays when the rain stops. This is exactly what happened when the waves came crashing in against the boat of Jesus and His disciples. No maer how ferocious the waves are, they had to obey the orders of the Prince of Peace. Why? Be- cause the Prince of Peace had peace that was much more domineering than the ferocity of the waves!

Beloved, your circumstances change according to what’s in you! Just like how Jesus calmed the storms that came crash- ing in, He will do the same for you! Allow Him to dwell in your inner being, and see you outward circumstances change! Hallelujah!

Thought of the Week: With Jesus in you, you WILL have dominion over your circumstances!

BenjaminGen Devotional: Your God is a God of hope

Hi fellas! I'm really sorry for posting this so late; this is the devotional for the 4th week of October and I'm currently working on the 5th's and the 1st week of November's. Apologies for the wordiness and the lack of any graphics on this devotional, but I hope that you could take time to read it :) Thanks!

Intro

In the Bible, God is recorded with different names. He is called God the Father, God the Healer, the God of peace, among others. This day, I believe that God wants to manifest in our lives as the God of hope! When everything seems to be crumbling down, He wants to know that there is still hope! And that hope can be found in Him! Why? Because He loves you too much to let you be stuck in your own rout!

The first mention of God as the God of hope is in the New Testament under Romans 15:13. The preceding verse, actually talk about Jesus reigning over the Gentiles’ (us) lives. Now friends, if you put them together, God can now manifest in our lives as the God of hope because of Jesus!

When you surrender everything to Jesus, the God of hope will surely redeem you from your troubles!

Miracle at the Red Sea

When the children of Israel were led out of Egypt, Pharaoh didn’t let them have the easiest way out. He continued pursuing them till the Red Sea. When the Israelis saw that the Egyptians were coming to get them, they were “very afraid”. Guess what they did? They blamed Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness! Because of fear, they have forgoen the fact that God was with Moses to lead them out of slavery from the Egyptians. But what Moses said at the Red Sea was very interesting. He said, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord...” The following verse says, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” And the miracle that God performed after was remembered as one of the most memorable miracles of God in the Bible. God divided the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed over safely on dry land.

Something interesting was also mentioned in the same chapter. Verse 19 said that the Angel of God was behind them. Do you know that the Angel of God actually speaks of Jesus? Jesus was watching their backs as they moved!

What can we take away from this?

Do you notice how Moses instructed Israel not to be afraid, and asked them to hold their peace? Friends, that is the same thing that God wants us to do as we wait for our hopes to come to fruition! When we are not in ease, it is very easy to see the bad side of things, just like how Israel forgot that God has freed them of slavery. Not only that, we tend to blame others for our circumstances, just like Israel blamed Moses although he did no wrong. So friends, let us hold our peace as God fights for our victory! And how do you do that? By giving prayers to God in all things [Phil 4:13]! Make your prayers known to God and see God’s peace manifest in your hearts!

God also wants you to pay no aention to what is at your back. I believe that is why Jesus [the Angel of God] was standing behind their backs as they moved. God wants you to focus on what’s ahead and forget what has already passed! If you place too much focus on the past, you will try to reason all you can to convince yourself that no good will come in the future. How can you hope then? Surrender everything - past, present and future, to God and see Him work wonders with it!

Lastly, the chapter also talks about how God had Moses “stretch his hand over the sea.” Translate that into real world terms, and God is saying to you to speak faith to your troubles! Jesus said that with faith as small as a mus- tard seed, we will be able to move the mountains. Friends, that is the same thing that God wants you to do! You don’t need to have a great deal of faith to speak to your troubles. With faith even as small as a mustard seed, speak victory over your troubles and see God’s miracle in your situation! Hallelujah!

Thought of the Week: A hope in God is a hope that will never disappoint!

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