John the Baptist has brought us a message of life changing significance. Responding to his message prepared the people of Israel for the coming of the Lord. Understanding and responding to his message will be critical to the church in the coming days. Are we the Elijah generation?
Picture by Moyan Brenn on Flickr.
Dreams and Visions are similar. Matthew chapter 2 reveals many spiritual truths about them. In it, we can see how God communicates and interacts with us through dreams. We see also that it is not enough to receive His instructions; we need to obey them. God has always a purpose when He communicates with us. When he does, we are changed and enabled to overcome. Continue reading
Through spiritual dreams, Joseph received divine guidance and protected Jesus’ life. We can also have similar experiences. Joseph the carpenter, Jesus’ guardian and Mary’s husband, is an example in the Bible of how this works. Continue reading
Gerard van Honthorst [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Rationalism is the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. It is the natural response of people ruled by sense-knowledge because that is where most of our information comes from. Continue reading
Matthew starts his account of Jesus’ life with a detailed genealogy of Jesus starting from Abraham (Matthew 1:1-17).
Luke also gives the genealogy of Jesus starting from Adam (Luke 3:23-38) and the two do not match.
It is interesting to see the number of studies and theories developed to explain and to prove these two genealogies and find the real meaning/importance they have.
Scholars and students from the beginning of Christianity have addressed this problem. I will not give all the arguments proposed, if you want to find out more, you can look up the following references and those mentioned in them: Continue reading
The coming of the Lord will be with a great “storm.” The spiritual and the physical dimensions are closely connected. In Psalm 29, David shows how natural forces are types of spiritual realities.
A Poetic Description of a Thunderstorm Showing the Mighty Power of God
Like other parts of the Word of God, we can read this psalm on many levels. In some passages, these parallel realities are clearer and this is one of these passages.
On the surface, it is a powerful and poetic description of the violence of a thunderstorm. The mighty physical forces displayed in nature are presented as a song of praise to the Creator (Psalm 29:1-9). Continue reading
Psalm 28 shows how David used the emotional effect of his circumstances to stir up his heart and stir up the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Born-again believers can do it too because they have an advantage over David. They operate under a new and better covenant with God.
In reading and applying the concepts in the Bible, we must consider some important principles: Continue reading
Psalm 27:4-14 shows how David overcame fear and developed his confidence in the future by ensuring his partnership with God in his battles.
David was a man of war. He knew that to fight a war you need the proper strategy. You must prepare the battleground and succeed in the battles until you defeat the enemy and the victory is yours. Continue reading
Psalm 27 shows you how your faith in God can overcome all fears.
We worry when fear is actively working in us. At that moment, we do not trust that God will take care of us and imagine all types of negative outcomes. In other words, we do not believe that He is faithful to His promises, even if the Word of God declares that He is faithful. Worrying therefore is lack of faith and because what is not of faith is sin, worrying is sin. It separates us from God and hinders us from receiving His help.
These verses show both the strength and source of David’s strength. Because he was fully convinced that the Lord was his light, his strength and his salvation, he had no reason to fear anyone or anything.
David describes his expectations:
These are no words spoken in triumph. They are the voice of a heart that rests in the faithfulness of God.
In the beginning, Adam had absolutely no fear. Fear started after the Fall because he became separated from God.
“The wicked flee though no one is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” (Proverbs_28:1)
David was a man after God’s heart. He was righteous in his relationship with God and reading 1 Samuel 17 we can see that he had experienced God’s salvation in many difficult situations. Even if these situations did not come from God, through God, he overcame them all.
He met a lion and a bear when he was looking after his father’s sheep (1 Sam 17:34-37). With God’s help, he killed them.
Through his experiences, David had learned to depend on God for direction, strength and victory and had learned to overcome fear by trusting in God.
In 1 Samuel 17, the brothers interpreted David’s attitude towards the challenge of Goliath as pride, but it was not. They could not understand David’s attitude because they did not have the same relationship with God and the same experiences.
You can develop trust in God in the same way as you develop physical strength. Exercise it when it is tested. As the apostle of faith, George Muller said, you must start exercising your faith with small needs to develop a faith capable of succeeding with big needs.
Psalm 27 shows us how to overcome all types of fears following David’s example. Here I will focus on irrational fears.
Most people experience irrational fears in some specific situations. Consciously or unconsciously, these situations remind them of previous incidents. Even after many years, you still interpret similar situations as dangerous, and you become fearful. It does not matter if the danger is real or imaginary. It will cripple you. Your interpretation of the situation completely determines what you will experience.
Irrational fears come from expectation or potential danger and not real, present danger. They include:
To address them, our normal reaction of fight or flight is not very effective. The general advice to overcome fear, “You go on and do what you are afraid of doing even if you are fearful,” does not apply in these cases because these fears do not relate to a specific action you are afraid of doing.
The good news is that the Word of God addresses irrational fears.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy_1:7)
The words “spirit of fear” refers specifically to our irrational reactions to perceived danger. This fear does not come from God. The enemy has used your previous experience to create a stronghold in you. However, Jesus has overcome the enemy and God has given you power, love and a sound mind to do the same. With His help, you can overcome all your irrational fears.
Because there are many types of irrational fear, I will focus on only one specific example, the fear of disease. This fear is very common and often not addressed at all. Yet, it can have many consequences on your life. Therefore, it is important to understand how to overcome it.
Further, the principles learned for handling this irrational fear is valid for all the others.
Today the statistics on degenerative diseases show clearly that each person is at greater risk than in the past. Further, the statistics on the effectiveness of the advertised cures leaves us with many unresolved doubts.
The situation is aggravated by the flood of psychologically designed advertising of alternative cures and supplements using fear of disease as the marketing trigger.
Consumers respond to these carefully designed advertisements by purchasing products, often without solid evidence of their effectiveness, in the hope of improving their probability of avoiding the diseases.
However, no matter what is the real effectiveness of the products, the continuous exposure to negative information in the media and the targeted advertising contribute to leaving the fear of disease practically unchanged.
Generally, younger people who had a healthy life think that they are invincible. Therefore, this type of fear may affect them less. However, they develop fear of disease, when they or someone they love falls sick with a serious illness.
The truth is that both lifestyle changes and preventive help can cut our risks but cannot fully eliminate them. Therefore, the fear remains and contributes to greater vulnerability in many ways, including a negative impact on our immune system.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 5:8-11)
In 1 Peter 5:8-11 we have clear instructions about what we should do when we worry:
Therefore, whenever fearful thoughts come to you,
This is how you can overcome worrying and all irrational fears. The simple and effective strategy will produce almost immediate evident results physically, mentally and spiritually. As you go through this process on different occasions, it will become easier and you will become stronger.
In the next post I will continue with other principles from this psalm.
By trusting in God, we learn how to walk in integrity, to separate ourselves from evil and to fellowship with God and other believers. Psalm 26 shows the principles for living in the presence and power of God.
Different commentators try to find the event that originated this psalm, but there is no agreement between them. It is not profitable to speculate on the different possibilities. What we should consider is how to interpret and apply the psalm to our ife. Continue reading
How to apply the Word of God to receive your healing.
