This Week With Jesus

"By his strength he had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed...."  Influencing God through Prayer! Paul said to make our appeals to God through faith and thanksgiving. There are many examples in the Bible of people who had influence with God through prayer, and today we want to talk about this as well.  We call this prevailing prayer, something we can fall back on, when answers from God are not forthcoming.  Let's understand this. According to the Apolistic Faith Magazine, Prayer is the most intimate form of communication between God and His creation, because it is the heart of man communicating with the heart of God . What an amazing definition of prayer!  The word prevail means “to endure, accomplish, triumph or overcome, and have power or influence. A clear example of this is Jacob wrestling with God. Not for a moment do I believe that the night Jacob spent was only on a physical wrestle, I believe it was a spiritual wrestle as well, converti

Sunday the 4th was Father's Day in Australia and on this occasion, Pastor Rajiv delves into the parable of the Prodigal Son and the role of his Father

"This is the way; walk in it” Read Exodus 13 17 to 32 When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn’t lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, even though that was the shorter route. God thought, If the people have to fight and face war, they will run back to Egypt. - Exodus 13:17 Everyone, each one, go through a period of dark days, extreme needs and see no solution in sight. We pray, possibly day and night, for relief. Yet we don't see it in our sight. Over the years I have come to realize that dark days do not mean the end days, but a major turn that God has planned for us and because of our antipathy to change, has to close all doors but one: the one he wants us to go through. The Israelites were led through a longer way so that they would not run back to Egypt. I am sure that longer way would have been very painful, but God in His wisdom, needed them to do that. When all doors seem closed, I now try and look beyond what I want, to find that one door which is open becau

 

One of the principles of physics is that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In essence, whatever we do has consequences - good or bad. In  Christian life, similarly there are consequences of wrong decisions, trusting ourselves rather than godly guidance, etc . While Jesus will not change those consequences, He will change us and our attitude if we ask Him to do that. David prayed day and night for his baby to be saved and not die. But that did not happen. When he realized he had to bear the consequences he stood up, had a bath, thanked God and moved on, having borne the consequence of his sin with Bathsheba. And that is one of the biggest disconnects in our understanding of Gods forgiveness. When we make a mistake and ask God for forgiveness are we truly looking to be forgiven or are we asking for an escape route from the consequences of our wrong doing? Let's understand this better with a fictional example. Let us say I owe the government 10,000 in taxes and

 

The blessing of a "No". When God says no,  it's a lesson to be learnt or a disaster being averted. Learn the lesson, don't tempt the disaster. Give thanks and move on. Gods blessings are not always in His giving but also in His with holding as well . God knows better than we do, and his ‘no’ is always merciful, even when it hurts.” And that is usually when God wants a change in direction for us, from where we want to go to where he wants us to go .  C.S. Lewis once wrote, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” How insightful is that?  The best is often painful because the human emotion is to resist change in our thinking and doing. We are so invested in the past we often fail our own future. The only way to alleviate that pain is to trust, understand (through His word) and obey. And only after that will be able to say in all honesty - Let thy will be done . Amen.