Jesus our good Shepherd always seeks to save the lost sheep…remember the parable of the lost sheep? The shepherd left the entire herd and went seeking for one lost sheep!
Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.
This word *save* reminds of the time when you want to #save a file or document for storage and future reference, you simply click the “save as” command displayed on the screen. When you click the *save* command in computer operations, it means that the file to be *saved* is of importance and to be used again.
Jesus came to seek and to *save* …because He has plans for you..
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I think towards you, “says The LORD “plans of peace and not of evil to give you hope and a future.”
The Lord wants you to know about the kind of plans He has for you because “outside of His plans, you are bound to fall
1. into plans “that lack peace” and worse still You might fall
2. into “plans that are evil” and then end up
3. into “plans that have no hope” and definitely You might settle up
4. with “plans that lack a future or plans that have no expected end.”
He beckons you to allow Him to do what He’s good at; seek you and *save* you.
You may wonder why Jesus wants to save you? The truth is BECAUSE GOD’S NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!!! You are worth of His saving because you are the sheep of His pasture.
Jesus The good Shepherd will not throw His hands up in the air and say, “After all it’s only one tiny little sheep that has wandered away!”
Jesus The good Shepherd will come calling because He’s a good Shepherd enough to know that His sheep hear and know His voice.
Trials and Temptations may wear you down to the point of lagging behind in the journey of salvation. Jesus The good Shepherd wants you to hear Him calling you “come to Me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
He amazingly CARES for his own sheep. Cast your cares upon God, for He CARES for you.
That’s why Jesus wants you to know Him as The One Who SAVES because Jesus Christ Is The good Shepherd!!!
To be honest I don’t know about you beloved reader, but for me prayer has always worked out in my life. Whenever I engage in prayer, I have the assurance of God’s Faithfulness! Either it’s a yes, or a no or a wait depending on the circumstance but prayer for me is no try and error but tried and true!
When God blessed me with the international job, my faith shifted from one level of glory to a higher level of glory. Not necessarily because of God answering my prayer, but in the process I learnt I can always depend upon the love of God from any deepness and from all angles!
However, the grievous mistake many children of God make after receiving answer to their prayers is to have an ungrateful heart. Yes I know. By now you are probably saying this in your mind, “no I always remember to say Thank You Jesus for the healing, or Thank You Father for your provision” and etcetera etcetera! But this is one mistake that we tend to so easily forget. “An overstayed comfort-zone digs a pit for ingratitude”
An Ungrateful heart can come in so many shades of color that unless one has the spirit of discernment, it is not easy to know you are being ungrateful as a believer!
Take for instance, there was this day years into my international job when I found myself asking out this question. “After the miracle, then what next?” The reason that prompted me to ask myself the above question is what I’d like to share with you in a moment.
“THINGS OF GOD SHOULD BE MAINTAINED BY GOD”
That particular day started out well and was so promising as usual until the spoiler came! I was busy minding my own, and by my own I mean meditating upon the Word of God while reading one of my favorite Newspapers, #TheStandard #KenyaNewspaper . It was tea break.
Then, out of nowhere, a colleague came up to my desk. Initially I didn’t give it a thought. Our office is a large hall partitioned in a way where one floor has like 12 office desks, so it’s the main con of this setup is there’s very minimum privacy, that’s why it was normal for a colleague to just come over to your desk whenever they wanted. However, being an introvert, I hardly encourage chitchat during office hours but like they say “In every marketplace there’s always a mentally challenged character walking around” and this particular colleague of mine was not an exception!
He came over, sat with all nerve at the end of my desk, leaned towards me with his charming smile like he was initiating some flirting, then out of the very blue instead of a kiss on my cheek, He slapped my ears with a very painful statement!
“Tit-tok! When are we going to celebrate your wedding Ms Christine. You are the only one who’s never carried a child in this office.” What! dude, are you now a walking alarm? I was not expecting it to say the truth.
And he said it a such a way no one heard what he told me but when I briefly looked over his shoulder, I saw 10 pairs of eyes all looking my way with deep anticipation as if telling each other, “let’s wait and see, any minute from now she’s going to burst out with anger!” I say ten pairs of eyes without counting the two of us and several eye glasses used in the office leave alone the security cameras! Every single person in the office was for a minute paying attention most probably to have a live catch at my reaction!
That’s the moment when I realized that there was some foul tongue of gossip that was circulating within the office floor.
*…And every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD. And their righteousness is from Me.” says the LORD.* With no physical evidence, my spirit just whispered in me that there was some very bad wind of gossip that was blowing around the office without my prior knowledge. My new international job had apparently stirred up different jealousy levels at my new work environment while I was busy enjoying the blessing of job promotion, a spiritual challenge which I had overlooked out of clear ignorance!
*For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high…
…thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.*
My miracle of the international job had apparently come with it’s share of “spring challenges” which are usually meant to keep us awake as God’s children. See, it is very easy for a child of God to start worshipping the gifts of God without knowing, instead of worshipping The Giver. It’s easy for any believer full of patches from past wounds to start worshipping the creation instead of worshipping The Creator! It’s very easy!-just like that!~
Years into my new job, I was drifting into zones of ungratefulness without knowing. A job that I had birthed in tears, a prayer moment with body fluids flow-out running out of my body in ounces to the tiled floor of my then bedsitter. This very new job was now swiftly and firmly receiving all my praise and attention more than The Giver of that job. “THINGS OF GOD SHOULD BE MAINTAINED BY GOD”
My reader what I mean by saying body liquids flow-out, I am politely referring to tears running down my eyes and there was some from my nose also but very little. So let’s be at peace knowing that the body fluids flow-out being referred to here is tears only, because as you are aware humans have several types of body fluids flow-out and the women have an additional body fluids flow-out for that matter!
Again, my reader, I am in no way suggesting that focusing on your job is sin, no. The problem caves in when you fail to understand what happens next after the miracle! When God answers your prayer, praise Him to the magnitude where you will hear your inner man echoing and being confident of this very thing, that He Who begun the good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. The Creator of the ends of the Earth neither faints not Is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases their strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. The level of strength which I used to birth my job miracle through prayer should have been equally proportionate to the level of strength I needed to “maintain” my miracle. Applying this simple spiritual principle in your life, it doesn’t matter which Formula you use to solve the riddle in here, “After the miracle, what next? the answer is = Depend on God.
After getting my international job through prayer, I was comfortable with the casual “Oh Thank You Jesus for the job!” kind of prayers and I considered it as coming from a grateful heart. See, our Father doesn’t just require us to thank Him and give Him Praise for all He has done with us, all He has done within us, and all that He does through us. God LOVES when we Depend on Him! The time I wasted reciting reprogrammed prayers to God after receiving the international job as the answer to my prayer, was enough time for the devil to stir up jealousy levels within my work environment!
Let’s look at it this way; No country will receive you with a visa entry bearing the name of a different nation other than the name of the host nation. For example, if you are traveling to Kenya, you require a Kenyan visa in order to be allowed into the country. You can never present a Bahrain visa at the Kenyan airport and expect entry.
One fundamental Truth states “The Things of God must be maintained by God Himself.”
The statement that my colleague whispered in me that day was so piercing that I felt the urge to talk to God about it. That day I waited till evening and when I arrived at home, I immediately went to my prayer closet and poured my heart to God. I remember crying heavily that evening not because of the judgemental words of my colleague, but at some point I knew it was time for a “spiritual combat” with my Father. I needed God to make me understand why I was being attacked! In other words, I was experiencing the “why me, where did I go wrong, and when did I refuse” momentous pullback.
Funny enough the my minute I became aware of The Immense Presence of God in my prayer closet that particular evening and that’s when The Holy Spirit begun to pour understanding in me;
” Evil words or negative words spoken to you from the MOUTH of the ungodly people may pierce you like fiery darts of the enemy or be as painful as the intramuscular syringe injection, but they can never be more powerful than The Word spoken to you by the MOUTH of God HIMSELF.” For The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Of course after that incident at the office and after applying the wise counsel of The Holy Spirit, as we speak, that particular colleague of mine though he later apologized for his careless mediocre remarks that day, the damage was already done according to his wife. Days later after everyone else had forgotten about it, his wife is said to have woken up one morning after hearing their teenage daughter screaming in her bedroom.
When the mother went to check out her daughter and when she realized she couldn’t pin why their daughter was screaming frantically, she decided to rush her to their family doctor who after several repeated examinations on the child ruled it as aneurysms of the brain as the problem!
It’s a pity that the damage was already done according to my colleague’s wife, but on my hand that a close reminder after receiving the miracle, then I depend on God all the way! One thing I strongly believe is that I don’t have to wait until God “sends” me to His drawing board when I can freely agree to stay on board with Him to begin with.
“..NEGATIVE WORDS SPOKEN TO YOU FROM THE MOUTH OF THE UNGODLY..CAN NEVER BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE WORD SPOKEN TO YOU FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD HIMSELF”
And if by chance you happen to have wondered away from His presence, can you run to God by faith through prayer after receiving the blessing in this post? And when you receive your miracle..depend on God all the way!
” AFTER RECEIVING THE MIRACLE, THEN I DEPEND ON GOD ALL THE WAY”
– Face your challenge with hope. – Face your challenge with trust – Face your challenge with strength – Face your challenge by Faith – Face your challenge fearlessly – Face your challenge with Optimism – Face your challenge with grateful heart. Face your challenge with God’s viewing points..because He ALREADY HAS A GREAT VIEW OF WHAT IS AHEAD OF YOU. “My hope trust in God, for I shall yet praise Him.”
Good mornings friend.. Wow talk of instant answer to prayer: Yesterday evening I was little bit upset. I overheard someone talking some negative things and lying about me. I tried to ignore it but the person kept talking and telling those he was with more lies and making fun of me. I was somewhere else but was in a position to hear..I guess he was being intentional. So I chose to move away a bit far from them..rather than go confront him..besides it was late and who would want to go to bed with a heavy after and argument! Certainly not me. So, later that day, in the evening when I was getting myself ready to sleep, I remembered the incident and decided to pray about it and I remember binding, rebuking the spirit of intimidation, etc. But surprisingly today this morning I woke up with the intention of binding the same spirit because I knew I was bound to meet with the same person again today, but I found myself THANKING GOD for everything including even him😒, that very same person who was talking and lying about me. I’m in awe of this God beloved friend because this particular prayer God answered instantly. Minutes after finishing the prayer this morning, the very same person came looking for me and joined me in my Breakfast table. I was still taking my breakfast so I willing allowed him to join me. As we continued with the breakfast, we talked a lot ..and it was after our conversational moment, that God made me realized that HE IS ALL ABOUT LOVE. Fellow believers, today WHATEVER YOU DO, walk in the LOVE of God.
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