Why Christmas?

Having just celebrated Jesus’s birth on Christmas day, 25th December, the real reason for the season, have you ever wondered why God had to send Jesus as a baby?    

Although the Nativity story is told in the Gospel books of Mathew and Luke, having recently finished a study on the book of Hebrews, I was amazed to come across many verses pertaining to why Jesus was born. 

So, I thought I’d share them with you as you ponder and reflect on the celebration of the birth of our King and Savior…

1. Jesus was born so that He could become the son of God that would make us His children and God our Heavenly Father - Hebrews 1:5; 5:5
2. Jesus was born as a human of flesh and blood so that He would no longer be immortal but would be able to die so that His blood could be poured out for us. - Hebrews 2: 14
3. Jesus needed to be born, so He could die in order to destroy the devil through His death- Hebrews 2:14
4. Jesus needed to die to deliver and free us from sin and break the power of death and the devil - Hebrews 2:15
5. Jesus was born so He could become human like us and know how it feels to be tempted and suffer - Hebrews 2:18
6. Jesus was born to become the guarantee and mediator of a new covenant between ourselves and God - Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15
7. Jesus was born so He could have a body that could be sacrificed like an unblemished Lamb for our sins- Hebrews 10:5

When you add the cross to Christmas, it gives meaning to the purpose of Jesus’s birth.  Our wreaths of holly and berries symbolize a wreath for His death and represent the crown of thorns He had to wear and the berries, the drops of blood that dripped from His brow. 

The Christmas lights represent the light that Jesus brings to the darkness of the world and our own dark places within us.   Whether you have a star or an Angel on top of your Christmas tree, both are symbols of God’s glory that ushered in the announcement of Jesus’s birth.  

The ornaments we put on our trees could represent things we should nail to the tree that was cut up to become the cross. It can also represent hanging our blessings and inherited gifts we have through the death of Jesus Christ.  

Christmas offers us the hope of eternity in Heaven. The Old Testament’s sacrifices were just a parole but with the New Testament and Covenant, we are given a full pardon. Yes, the devil may still seem active in our lives, but he is like a dog that has been chained up to the stake of the Cross.  He can growl and bark, but he can no longer harm us, as long as we stay out of his reach. 

Christmas is God reaching out to us.  It is the celebration of His incarnation that He is Emmanuel and always with us.  It is not just a holiday tradition, but our response to God for sending Jesus to restore our relationship with Him.

Gearing Down to a Powerful Finish to 2022

With my daughter getting her first car recently, our family conversations have leaned a lot towards driving and cars. This got me thinking about how you need to gear down when you need extra power and how appropriate this seemed for finishing this year off well.

So here are 3 things to help you gear down to give you more power, so you can finish this year less weary and drained, and more in the Christmas mood.

1)   Be Mindful - In this season of ‘rush, hurry, perfect’, focus your mind on being fully aware and conscious of your thoughts and actions, and stop cruising on auto-pilot by just going through the motions.  Focus on being kind, finding joy in simple tasks and looking for the blessings in each day. Make every moment memorable, by choosing to be mindful of it. Be wise in accepting invitations.  If your body is crying out for rest, listen to it and pause instead of trying to make up for all the lost opportunities caused by Covid.

2)  Be Meaningful - Have a purpose for every action and choose to manage the time in each day, that brings meaning to your life and others.  Stop following the crowds by chasing after traditions that you cannot afford or have no meaning to you. Discover what Christmas and this season mean to you and then purposefully choose how you want to celebrate it. When buying gifts, don’t just choose the one on special, but find something with meaning that the recipient will appreciate.

3)  Be Merry - I used to associate being merry with being intoxicated, but according to the dictionary, merry also means to be jovial, jolly, showing high spirits, cheerful, joyous and carefree. We can choose not to be a grinch during this season and instead of being impatient and rushed, slow down to chat with the person next to you in the long queues.  Give someone a gap in the hectic traffic jams. When we wear a smile each day, instead of a frown, we welcome a friendly response that will turn our days from being mundane and manic to being merry moments.

In closing, this season is what you will make of it.  We all know the real reason for this season, so don’t let the shops and the world make you focus on anything but Jesus.  Jeremiah 31:25-26 promises us that those who feel tired and worn out, will find new life and energy, and when they sleep, they will wake up refreshed. 

Let’s stand on that promise and not grow weary in this season, but draw our strength from Jesus, as we keep our eyes and mind focused, with purpose, on Him.  Gear down to get that extra power and speed needed to finish 2022 well, so we can start 2023 feeling refreshed and ready for a new year, and not exhausted and depleted from overextending ourselves during this season.  

Halloween - Halo please!

I’ve never understood how a parent can dress their child up as a devil, and then act surprised when they behave like one. As a Christian parent, Halloween has always been a challenging holiday for us raising our only daughter. With her growing up in Scotland, we never wanted her to feel left out or excluded from the fun of dressing up, the Halloween school parties, or the trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood.

Halloween’s original roots may surprise you. All Saint’s Day on the 1st of November is also called All Hallows Day. It’s a day when many believers around the world thank God for His faithfulness to their loved ones who have died. It’s a celebration that they died in the faith and are resting in the presence of God.

The day before, the 31st of October use to be called ‘All Hallow’s Eve’, which was later shortened to Halloween. Unfortunately, the day’s original reason to celebrate has since been twisted by Satan, where the focus has been moved from celebrating the life of the deceased to death itself. Satanic worshippers have even chosen this night to do their most evil work, which is why many Christians choose to reject participating in Halloween altogether.

However, when you consider the story in 1 Corinthians 8, we see that the Church in Corinth faced a similar dilemma - to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples. Although not totally the same thing, we can learn from Paul’s advice that it’s a matter of our conscience. If we have doubts that celebrating it will condemn us, then we shouldn’t eat the meat/candy.

Doing anything that does not proceed out of our faith is a sin. Our righteousness is not determined whether we participate in Halloween or not. We are saved by the work of Christ alone (Acts 4:12), not by observing or abstaining from holidays (Colossians 2:16). Christians that take their kids trick-or-treating are still Christians. And Christians that stay home and ignore the doorbell are also Christians. We shouldn’t judge others by the choices they make.

For me, rejecting Halloween altogether is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I believe that with the right discernment and wisdom, this holiday can offer us opportunities to share our faith in a practical way. As long as we can steer our children away from dressing up as zombies, devils, witches, and other evil personas, this part of the holiday can still be fun. I have purposely not included a ghost, because we all grew up with Casper the friendly ghost. One year, a lady from my church added a halo to her daughter’s ghost costume and proudly announced to everyone that she was the Holy Ghost! I am not sure if God would have approved, but it sure did make us laugh!

This photo is of my daughter’s first Halloween outfit as a pumpkin, which makes me so grateful for the inspired Christian pumpkin message. If you’ve never heard it before, it goes like this: - God picks us up from the pumpkin patch, washes off all our dirt, scoops out all our yucky seeds of sin, carves out for us a new smiling face, and puts His light inside of us, to shine out for all the world to see. This story started a fond family Halloween tradition when we use to live in Scotland, where we would carve out a pumpkin with a smiley face and leave it by our front door.

Living back in South Africa, it seems we are fast following the trends of America, the UK, and the rest of the world, by welcoming the hype and consumerism around this spooky holiday. It would therefore be foolish to try to avoid or shield our children from taking part in it altogether. However, we can change our perspective on how we choose to engage with it and thus use every opportunity to our advantage.

For example, we can share the Gospel of faith over fear and try to educate unbelievers about the schemes of the devil and the path it leads to when you choose to focus on death and all things evil. It may seem like just a bit of fun to many, but if they knew the gates they were opening into their soul, they just might think again.

Trick or treating also offers us the opportunity to get to know our neighbours and is a good platform to be friendly. Your selection of treats doesn’t always have to be sweets either but can include fruits or healthier, less sugary sweets, which I’m sure every parent will thank you for.

I am grateful that many Churches choose to offer an alternative party to Halloween, such as using a Superhero theme, where kids can still participate in the full fun of the holiday, but without the reasons that cause many young children to be plagued by nightmares.

So, however, you choose to observe Halloween this year, do it with a clear conscience, knowing that God sees your heart and your motives. Rejecting the evil part, whilst keeping the good can be achieved when we do it from faith. And as we carve out our pumpkins and take photos of our children in their cute costumes, let us also spend time in prayer for the protection of our loved ones, our Churches, our nation, and for every unbeliever’s eyes to be opened to the spiritual realm that they are innocently dabbling in.

The Spiritual Symbolism of Sukkot

The recent week-long Jewish celebration of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is one of the Bible's most joyful holidays. Besides building temporary huts or booths and feasting together, Sukkot is also an agricultural celebration of God's provision during the harvest season. It's a time to rejoice in His abundance and give thanks for all that He has done. As my Jewish boss aptly shared, sitting inside the sukkah shelter feels like God wrapping His arms around you in a hug after the sombre season of repentance ending with Yom Kippur.

As families gather together to build and live in a temporary, handmade shelter, they remember the 40 years their ancestors spent wandering in the wilderness of the desert on their way to the Promised Land, after escaping slavery in Egypt. The first two days are considered the holiest where work, other than that related to Sukkot, is forbidden.

The word Sukkot or Sukkah means shelter, which is a significant part of the observance of this joyous holiday. You could say it is a visible symbol of God’s presence, protection, and His gracious provision. As they leave the comfort and security of their homes, they place themselves, symbolically, in God's hands.

The building of the Sukkah is a fun family affair where the children will have fun decorating it and where they will gather for the eating of the feast. Some even choose to sleep there under the elements, looking up at the heavens through the gaps in their shelter’s roof. The Feast of Tabernacles was an annual reminder that God chose to ‘tabernacle among them,’ to protect and bless them wherever they wander.

There are specific rules about how this shelter is to be built, and what materials are allowed to be used, but what I find fascinating are the rituals that accompany this holiday, and how they all foreshadow Yeshua (Jesus) in their symbolism.

The first ritual is the drawing and pouring of the water, which can be referenced back to the origins of this practice found in Isaiah 12:3 which says “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation”. We know from many verses in the Bible, like John 7:37, that say that Jesus offers us living water, which we can interpret to mean the Holy Spirit.

The second ritual is to illuminate the shelter with the lighting of candles. This glorious blaze of fire is to remember the pillar of fire by day and smoke by night that accompanied their ancestors throughout their wanderings in the wilderness.  Again, we know that in John 8:12, Jesus refers to Himself as the Light of the world.

The third ritual is to eat an olive-sized piece of bread or mezonot (grain-based food) inside the Sukkah on the first two nights.  In John 6:35 Jesus says He is the ‘Bread of Life’; therefore, eating it is just like taking communion. (1 Corinthians 11:24)

The fourth ritual is the waving of branches, typically 4 different species of trees, although, in Israel, many choose 7 to represent all the species of the harvest, with each having a special meaning. Each tree type symbolizes the different personalities of everyone, and how we are all joined together to complement each other’s weaknesses and strengths. A blessing is recited over them and waved in 6 directions, north, south, east, west, up, and down, to emphasize the omnipresence of God.  On the last day of Sukkot, they make a procession around their Synagogue or room seven times whilst waving the branches of Palm leaves, known as the lulav, where they cry out with shouts of praise and beat the bundle on the ground.  This reminds me of how Jesus was welcomed on Palm Sunday with the waving of Palm leaves. Circling around for seven times, also reminds us of the story in Joshua 6, where the Lord gave the people victory over the city of Jericho.  

It seems a fitting end to Sukkot to celebrate with drinking of wine, the fruit of the vine, for in John 15, we are told that Jesus is the true vine, who we are to abide in.

Just like the Sukkah is a temporary dwelling, it should remind us that the Holy Spirit now dwells in us permanently. The Tabernacle where the Holy Priest visited on our behalf, is no longer necessary.  The curtain separating us from God’s Holy presence was torn when Jesus died on the Cross, where we now can enjoy direct and permanent access to dwell with Him.

Below are some Bible verses that refer to this joyous, week-long holiday. As you consider this festival, may it remind you of Jesus and the significance of His message through the traditions of Sukkot.

Genesis 33:17 - And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore, the name of the place is called Succoth.

Leviticus 23:39-40 - On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you are gathering in your produce of the earth, you shall celebrate a celebration of God for seven days... And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree (etrog), palm branches, the branch of a thick tree (myrtle, hadas), and brook-willows, and you shall rejoice before God for seven days.

Deuteronomy 16:13-16 - Celebrate the Festival of Sukkot for seven days, when you gather in from the grain and the vine. And you shall rejoice on your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and widow who live in your gates... and you shall be only joyful.

Embracing Life’s Disruptions

Health is Wealth

As an adult who is rarely sick, I recently had a hard time embracing a 6-week illness, with pleading prayers to God to make me well quickly.  I had religiously taken my multi-vitamins and minerals, with immune booster properties, so when the first symptoms arrived, I believed, like always, that my famous Scottish ‘Hot Toddy’ would nip it in the bud and that would be it. 

However, no matter what I tried, and believe me, I tried everything, it just seemed to get worse.  From a simple cold, to full-blown flu, to bronchial asthma, to bronchitis to laryngitis, it continued to morph. 

After 2 doctors’ visits, and countless medicines, including antibiotics, penicillin, and a nebulizer, I was still far from well.  I even tried all the herbal, natural combinations that my well-meaning family and friends suggested. I was desperate to get better!

Obviously, I had everyone praying in agreement with me for healing, with myself taking communion every night and declaring my healing, but still, God chose to make me wait, which got me to the point of asking why.

This all happened when our tax season had just started and the work that I do was not able to be paused, which left me with two choices, either to work from home or increase my backlog. I stoically chose the first option, which I believe might have delayed my healing.

I had been sensing in my spirit to slow down, but I continued to work full-steam ahead, and I believe now that when your body or God tells you to rest, you must obey!  If you don’t, He will, like Psalms 23 says, bring you to green pastures, and for me, this was through an unexpected, unexplained, unfair and lengthy illness, where I was forced to put my life on pause and rest if I wanted to be restored to wellness.

During this season of ill health, I was so focused on getting better, instead of focusing on God and trusting Him for my healing, which I realise also delayed it. Sometimes we can get so caught up in trying to rush God, that we lose sight of why He has allowed it in the first place.   It was only when a sermon at my Church reminded me that we are to embrace life’s disruptions, that I started to fully rest and accept my fate.

I have learned that, although I still trust doctors, in most cases, they are only treating the symptoms and not the root cause of our illnesses.  I have also learned to listen when I need to rest and embrace life’s disruptions instead of wrestling with them. There is a great peace to discover, when you put your life on pause and rest, both physically and mentally, when it is needed, and allow God to fully refresh and restore you back to health.

So, next time I am faced with the sudden disruption of illness, I will drink lots of water, eat nutritiously well, rest often, and continue to pray, trusting only in God for my healing.  For I have learned that health truly is our greatest blessing, for without it, you cannot enjoy any of His others!

Seeking Comfort from God instead of Food

I don’t know about you, but the lockdown during this Corona virus pandemic has thrown many people like myself further into emotional or comfort eating.  My friend and Bible Study partner Leisha and I recently looked at why we are not running to God for our comfort and what is making us turn to food instead. Let’s begin by looking at the definition of comfort -

• noun - a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. 
• verb - the easing or alleviation of a person's feelings of grief or distress; to give solace or to soothe.

The verb comfort comes from the Latin word comfortare, which means to “strengthen greatly.” As a noun, comfort is anything that provides satisfaction or a relaxed and easy feeling.

We escape to food for many reasons, but sometimes it can become our hiding place, where we eat our feelings or emotions that we’d prefer not to deal with, or find hard to express.  Unfortunately, as delicious as some food can be, it can never fully satisfy us or fill that void we are insatiably trying to fill.   

If your diet is full of sugar, carbs, salt or additives, these are addictive, in which case you need to ask yourself if it is time to fast these or do a detox so you can break their stronghold.  Anything you are craving, is for a reason.

God gave us His Holy Spirit, who should be our built-in Comforter, but when we choose to turn to food instead, it blocks out His power and defeats us from gaining victory in this area. 

Some of the things we can try to stop us turning to food is the following:-

1. Ask God for help – not for the willpower to stop but to give you a true hate of this sin of gluttony
2. Fast from thinking about yourself and focus on God and others – doing this will stop our thoughts turning to food
3. Turn to your Holy Spirit and read your Bible, until you feel satisfied and comforted
4. Recognize your triggers and addictions – I need a…
5. Be accountable to one another in your successes and failures.  When you share your triumphs and struggles you will no longer be hiding the problem, and by exposing it, you can find healing.
6. Be mindful when you eat, and savor each bite slowly, focusing and celebrating God as the provider of it.
7. Stop eating on autopilot and start listening to your body when it says it is full 
8. Eat for fuel and nourishment and not for entertainment or pleasure.

Food fixations or desires is a sign that food has become your master and that you are a slave to food.  Yes, even food can become an idol, especially when we are worshiping it instead of God!

When we are going through a tough time, we need to assess our thoughts and problems and name our emotions.  When we speak them out aloud, we will find we won’t be tempted to run to food for comfort.  Instead, eat a ‘daily bread’ verse and ask God to fill you with the kind of comfort that you are needing.

We need to have a good relationship with food and stop obsessing about it. Even healthy eating to the extreme is bad for you. When we seek to find our satisfaction in God and not in food, we will realize that only God can give us the kind of comfort that sustains us and brings us joy.

Food is not our enemy.  It is a good and delicious gift from God, that was designed to be eaten and enjoyed in fellowship with others, to give us the energy and nourishment our bodies need.  It is not God’s design for us to be bingeing on our own, with junk food or snacks that adds no value.

Satan is our enemy who has used food to distort our relationship with God and uses food to hijack our intimacy with our Comforter. The lies that the devil uses are: -

• I need to finish what’s on the plate
• I deserve this if you’ve had a bad day (reward yourself with a treat)
• A little bit more won’t matter
• I’ll do better tomorrow – my diet starts on Monday

A small bite of something delicious can become an act of worship – you don’t need to eat the whole cake or the whole packet of crisps.

We need to start craving God and developing an appetite and a hunger to consume His Word as our Daily Bread.  When we hide God’s Word in our heart, (memorize it) He will use it as a sword of truth when we need it.

Here are some bible verses to help use as weapons when we are fighting this battle: -

Psalms 34 – Taste what is good. Change your delight focus from the food to the source of the food. 

Psalm 23:4 – staff & rod comforts us – for protection and rescue 

Isaiah 55:2 – nothing can satisfy us except God 

Isaiah 66:13 – God comfort’s us like a mother 

Psalm 119:50/76 – God’s love and promises comfort us 

Proverbs 13:25 - a righteous man eats until his heart (soul) is content or eats enough to satisfy his appetite.  

Matthew 5:4 – the mourning will be comforted 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit - therefore honour God with it 

1 Corinthians 10:13 – you will not be tempted beyond what you can bear. Endure it, until it passes 

1 Corinthians 10:31 - eat or drink for the glory of God 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – the purpose of comfort is for it to be a cycle – God comforts and encourages you, so you can comfort and encourage others. (Give a dose of hope) 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 – God gives us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comforts our hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

My prayer is if you too are struggling in this area, that this information will be of benefit to you in helping you to seek and receive your comfort from God, instead of from food.

As I continue daily, to resist the temptation to turn to food and by acknowledging my emotions and what kind of comfort I am needing, I am finding it easier to turn to God instead, and I hope you will too. Each opportunity is a choice we must make to either turn to food for our comfort, or to God, our true and only real source of Comfort.

Trash to Treasure

I love living in my complex at month end, especially one with such a well utilised, effective recycling area. The end of April saw the delight of another great find at the ‘Pre-loved’ corner in our bin area, where I got to rummage amongst a huge box of books. In God’s gracious, amazing goodness, there were even books on writing, as well as a Christian devotional, which you could say, had my name on them!  I also claimed a bag full of brand-new gift bags, which now just needs gifts to fill them. Previous treasures have included plants, Tupperware’s, magazines, scarfs and even fancy boxes.

I have always been perplexed at what a throwaway society we have become, and although I wouldn’t quite call myself a dumpster diver, I must confess I get very excited to see what treats have been left aside at month end or when residents clear out or move out.

It has made me reflect on how sometimes our dreams can be someone else’s nightmare.  Whilst one person may be praying for a spouse, someone may be wishing they were single again.  Likewise, someone is longingly broody for a child, whilst another may not quite enjoy being a parent.  I realise this is quite extreme cases, and not as superficial as ‘trash’, but it makes the point that what one person throws away, another is delighted to receive.

The key is all in our perspective of what makes something truly valuable.  Although I applaud the actions of residents moving out to gift their unwanted belongings to someone else, I have to wonder on what value they placed on the items in the first place. To throw away anything would imply that it is unwanted ‘trash’, but to someone else it could be regarded as a quite a treasured treat.

I leave you with the thought that whatever you don’t want, someone else might love, so learn to be grateful with appreciation of what God has blessed you with. Value what you have, sell or gift what you no longer need and please continue to recycle…

The Passover Blood of the Cross

The Church I belong to (Life Changer’s – Century City) has been studying the Exodus story in their series ‘Move Again’, and I’ve come to see how the final plague of the Passover night was a foreshadow of Jesus on the Cross at the time we celebrate as Easter.

The Passover is a beautiful illustration of the gospel. It’s a story of redemption and deliverance from bondage. It’s a story of faith in the grace of God and it’s a story of victory. The tenth plague was God’s wrath on sin, idolatry, pride, false religion, cruelty, and so much more. The Angel of death would sweep through the land of Egypt and lay waste in one of the most heart-wrenching ways of killing every first-born. But, as always, God made a way.

God instructed Moses for the people to put the blood of a sacrificed, innocent lamb upon their doorposts, which would rescue and save them from death. When the angel of death saw the blood covering the doorposts, he passed over them, sparing them from death. However, it was not the blood itself that protected them, but what the blood represented, as a sign of a covenant.

When you think of the action of those people who painted their doorposts with the blood from a basin, using the leaves from a branch of a hyssop tree, they were performing the sign of a cross. The blood from the top crossbeam would have dripped down the center, and painting the blood from the left -side post to the right-side post, would have completed the sign of the cross.

In the Old Testament, blood was used to seal covenants and to create an inseparable bond of relationship, a blood link between two parties. The sacrificing of an animal without blemish and the sprinkling of its blood was also used to consecrate, to purify and to atone for the sins of the people.

The night of the Passover gives us a picture of what Jesus did when He shed His innocent blood to save us from our sin and give us eternal life. It is Jesus’s blood that covers our sins, like it did on those doorposts, so that when God looks at those who believe and have placed their faith in Jesus, He sees His child because of our precious blood covering and passes over us, sparing us from the penalty of our sin and giving us eternal life.

Jesus hung on crossbeams and bled for all of us. His blood covers anyone who surrenders to put their faith in Him. We don’t have to be innocent or perfect, because Jesus was on our behalf. Those rescued from Egypt were imperfect people, and so are we and just like those who God rescued from Egypt, we have to follow Him out of slavery. God didn’t deliver Israel so they could stay put in bondage.

Jesus came to sacrifice His life to rescue and save ours. He was perfect, without sin, and through His sacrifice, He offers deliverance from the power of sin in our lives. Jesus was our Passover Lamb.

When we plead the blood of Jesus over our lives or over our situations, we are not doing a ‘Harry Potter’ like incantation of breaking a curse, but we are acknowledging and standing on the promises of the power of what His blood signifies, and celebrating our inheritance of what His blood has given us.

So as you partake of Communion this Easter, consider this verse:-

1 Corinthians 10: 16-18 “The cup of blessing that we bless—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s blood? The bread which we break—isn’t it a sharing of Christ’s body? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body—for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?

 Wishing you and your family a blessed, holy and meaningful Easter!

Supernatural Miracle of Time

I know that with God all things are possible, but recently I experienced God doing what would seem the impossible!  Something like the story of multiplying the fish and bread, but in my case it had to do with time.  I had two important deadlines for the next day but felt that there was not enough hours in the day to meet them. Although the deadlines weren’t life-threatening or anything, they were very important to me. My only solution I could see was to burn the midnight oil to get finished in time, which is what I did. Climbing into bed at 3am, I whispered a quick prayer for help, knowing that I would need to waken again at 6am.  I was sure to set the alarm and resigned myself to the fact that I would probably be needing lots of coffee and a red-bull to see me through the day!  Little did I know that God had heard my prayer… You see, when I woke up to the alarm buzzing, I felt completely wide-awake and totally refreshed!  It was as if God had supernaturally given me my full 8 hours of sleep in the mere span of 3 hours! I know it is hard to believe, but it’s true – and if He can do this with time, I know He can do it for energy too!  All He needs is a single cry for help from us, accompanied with righteous motives…

2 Keys to your Spiritual Growth

During the past two months, of what could be called a wilderness season, I discovered that there are two areas of spiritual growth that determines whether you are just a surviving Christian or a thriving Christian. Firstly, it is knowing your identity and who you are in Christ, i.e., who God says you are and what you have inherited as a child of God. And secondly, it is knowing who God is and who He says He is, by having an intimate relationship with Him.

You cannot walk in victory if you still have the mindset of a victim and behaving in defeat. To fully discover your identity in Christ and operate in your inheritance of what you have been given and how God sees you, a great start is to read Ephesians 1, and on a piece of paper, write down all the “I am” statements.  Read these as declarations to yourself every day, until you start believing them in your heart.  Acknowledging that you are loved, chosen, redeemed etc, are the building blocks to your true identity as a Royal Prince or Princess of our King.  Once you have sealed those in your spirit, do this for every passage of Scripture that you read, and you will discover many more powerful “I am” statements for you to declare. Once you start believing them, you will start walking, talking and acting like God intended you to.

You cannot fully trust God if you don’t really know Him. We may know of God, and be familiar with His role in the Bible stories, but until you can fully grasp who God is as a person, and have an intimate relationships with Him, you will always lack a confident trust and belief in Him and His promises. To learn who God is and what He has promised you, you need to be reading His Word to discover this, and be open and quiet to listen to His Holy Spirit speaking to you. A helpful way I was taught, is to get A4 sized paper, and mark down in the left column A to Z, leaving a few lines in-between each letter.  Then, whenever you are reading your Bible, look out for the many characteristics of God that you can find, and write them down in the corresponding first letter of that word.  For example, under H, you will eventually have one of the words as ‘Holy’, and under K, you will need to write ‘Kind’.

My prayer is that you will join me on this adventure of discovering and building ourselves up in these two areas.  I am confident that as we start walking in our true identity and discovering how great is our God as we grow closer in our relationship with Him and start believing it, these keys will help set us free to fly like an Eagle and excel at being a true Christian disciple.