When God moves man...

Background: In Israel, kings came and kings went, some were good, some weren't. Samaria lost its land and stand before the Lord, due to their disobedience as they chose to worship gods rather than the One True Living God who had brought them up out of Egypt. They chose death, rather than life. Jerusalem on the other hand, stood strong a little while longer, but soon saw kings who would lead them down the same road, Samaria had taken, into forfeiting their inheritance and land God has promised them. The book of 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, give a detailed history of Israel, their acquiring their promised land and then forfeiting it "15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. "

Lessons: While reading of the way Israel had lost its glorious walk with the Lord and its glorious inheritance, I noticed some very important things about how and why God works in our lives

1. Man's heart constantly seeks to do evil, knowingly and unknowingly-God had seen this behaviour in man, from the beginning of creation-Genesis 6:5 "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."-Evil begat evil and it went on.
2. God seeks to move man, to enable them to do the good works He has planned for us-Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." and also in Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Among all the accounts of kings I read through in 1 st & 2nd Kings and 1st &2nd Chronicles, I found God had seen and known how satan had diluted our minds with evil and God wanted to bring us back to the original image in which we were created, to do good.
3. The choice is with us-Every time, God moved man, He left the choice with man, to either go God's way or go your own selfish way. I call man's own way as selfish because, rarely now does man think of someone else when they are working towards something. I will earn this degree I will get a good job, have a good house, have lots of money, I will take care of my kids. Rarely do we think, I will pay for that man on that road, to go to college, have a good life, it doesn't matter what happens to me!!! I don't and I dont think others do too, unless, their hearts have been moved by God. The choice still remains with us, to be moved and be movers of lives into the Kingdom of God, or just get by life with the minimum we think we can do.

Conclusion-What if Noah, had not listened to God's voice about the flood that day? What if Abraham had not been moved by God's promise of his own land and generations to come? What if you and I heard God's voice regarding our lives and were moved?

Cleanup and See God Work

Sometimes our lives pile up with incidents, hurts, words accumulated from so many years of life on earth and people we come across. If we had had encouragers to meet, all our lives, we would all be achievers of amazing feats, but its not always that way in reality. Words that we hear from people around us, looks that we get from them, sometimes, (in case of elders or parents or government) actions that they take, impact our lives as well. They choke our growth in the Lord and we are blinded from seeing God's work or experiencing His power in our lives. Those thoughts, those, decisions made by someone else long ago, even seem to try to take control of the very decisions we make. For example, if a child is constantly told he's not good at singing, that child will never even attempt singing(by his own decision, becuase he was told to believe he could not), even though he/she may have the most amazing voice.

Here's another king of Judah named Josiah(2 Kings 22-23 ,2 Chronicles 34-35) , he did some major cleanup in Jerusalem, because he desired to follow God. The kings that had preceded him(Manasseh and Amon), had turned away from the little good that Hezekiah had done for Jerusalem. The Word of God records the following about Josiah "2 Kings 23:25Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

Lessons I learnt

• Begin seeking the Lord-v3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.
• Started purging all the idols from the temple of God- v3 In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images. In our hearts we might have set up someone as an idol(meaning-any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion)Someone or something we are devoted to, and that idol is taking up space, instead of God and this is destroying our life, whether we know it or not. We need to ask God to help us identify these idols and remove them. This does not mean, we become disrespectful to the ones who are in authority over us. We can ask God to guide our supervisors, that they may make the right decisions, especially when the decisions are going to affect us and we realise that. Sometimes this idol could be ourselves too.
• Started purifying it, by building the temple of the Lord-v8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the LORD his God. Merely removing the idol is not enough, we've got to set our life with the right stuff, it need to be built. Like, a strong word of correction is good, but we also need to give words of encouragement that the person may be built up in the right direction.
• Humbled himself to receive God's Word-v14 In the process of cleansing and building, they found the book of law and it was read to King Josiah, he immediately tore his robes realising how terribly, far they had moved from the Law of God and sought God's direction immediately
• He opened way , through his humility and obedience, for God's Work in Jerusalem and his life-"27 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. " Its not that God does not hear our cries, the Word of God says, in Isaiah 59:1-3 "1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
• Renewed God's Covenant-"3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. "

Conclusion: "33 Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the LORD, the God of their fathers." Josiah, had caused such a change in the people during his reign, that in spite of, wayward rulers who had misguided them, led them astray and made them worship idols, the people stuck to following God. Oh.. if there were more kings who would have stuck onto Josiah's commitment, Israel could have seen the power of God like in times of Abraham, Isaac, Moses and all.

I strongly think, the way God works His plan for our lives is, in partnership with us. It is possible for God to work without us, but He made us in His image to have fellowship, friendship and partnership. Remember, before Jesus came, there had to be done something, so we could be prepared for His arrival-John the baptist preached" Matthew 3:3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

Purpose of Prophecy

Today, as we were having breakfast, an advertisement came up on the TV regarding some event which included Prophecy and end time events and stuff. My husband said,"It doesn't make sense if people prophesy, and know whats to happen, but do nothing about it."
My mind quickly ran back in reference to Hezekiah, isn't that what went wrong with Hezekiah, I thought to myself. Hezekiah passed away and his son Manasseh came to throne, and he did exactly the opposite of what his father had done. (2 Kings 21:1-3).
I remembered what went wrong in Hezekiah's story. The Bible says in (2 King 20:16-19) "16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD : 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
19 "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"

Lessons I learnt

• Hezekiah did nothing about the Word of God that came through Isaiah the prophet-The Bible actually notes down, that Hezekiah was satisfied that the horrible event that was going to happen was not going to come about during his lifetime and he did nothing about it, since it didn't affect him.

Conclusion:The gift of prophecy is a powerful thing. It gives a person an edge over the others to know in advance. If the people in India and Indonesia had known a Tsunami was coming, they would have moved away from the sea. It is a powerful thing, especially with weather to be able to know when, how, what is going to happen. We have the book of Revelation in the Word of God, constantly warning us of the impending judgment waiting upon the earth. We've got a lot of people to be moved into the "safe zone", into the strong shelter(Proverbs 18:10), the fortress(Proverbs 14:26) and refuge(Psalm 9:9). We as believers know the way to the shelter. Are we working at sharing the route map to our Heavenly Father, with an urgency? Or are we not so worried about it, since its not going to affect us much??? On the other hand, maybe we have been trying to usher people into the right direction, through our life, through our prayers, through our actions...but we also, cannot deny the fact, that there will be some who think all that we say is a hoax. To such I'd say, I wish we'd learn a lesson from Katrina, everyone was warned, everyone was given a choice, some accepted a helping hand, others did not. To the believer who is continuing in that prayer for salvation for their loved ones I say-Don't give up. Lets continue to pray with urgency for our loved ones who have not yet heeded God's voice of prophecy, that God would continue to send them His people, His messengers until they are convinced and safe in the blood of Jesus. Their price has already been paid by our Lord, they need to know it asap. Great things can happen, as men and women of God learn to develop camel knees, in prayer.

What am I doing with my blessings?

Without much ado, I move on from this victory Hezekiah received from God, over the tyranny of the Assyrian king. I skip over the incident of healing that God worked out for Hezekiah, when he was almost on the verge of death. God healed him and extended 15yrs of his life. As a proof of this miracle that God would do for him, God moved the shadow 10 steps behind, on Hezekiah's request.
I now move on to one very disappointing episode from Hezekiah's life. Hearing about his illness, envoys from Babylon sent their regards and gifts for him. Hezekiah received those messengers from Babylon and showed him everything he had, from his storehouses full of gold and silver, tohis armory with all battle equipment. He showed them everything in his palace. The word of the Lord then came to Hezekiah "16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD : 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, that will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

Notice Hezekiah's reply 19 "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. For he thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"

Though Hezekiah lived an amazingly close life with the Lord, obeying the Lord and was even blessed, was miraculously healed and had an extension from an almost ended life, to 15more years, he was a selfish believer. As long as all goes well during the time i live, I am ok!!!

Lesson I learnt

• A good believer not only lives a blessed life, but "is " a blessing to others-Abraham,Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, they all followed the Lord God, but they also were blessings to their descendants. Am I seeking to be blessed, not just for myself, but that I can extend God's blessings in my life to others?

Conclusion:It was clear to me, that Hezekiah loved his life more than loving others. He did right in following God and he did receive God's blessings for his faithfulness and devotion, but his name does not receive mention when God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Or when God says "For my son David's sake I will do this.....". Remember the time, when David was so very grateful for all the blessings God would give his descendants. Hezekiah was happy with the blessing being just for him.

As I read this part of Hezekiah's life, I was reminded of a time in my life, when I wanted to get by on God's blessings, atleast I would be blessed, atleast I could live well and my living well was all that mattered to show others of God's love for "me". Well I learnt, in order for them to see or experience God's love, I had to share my blessings, it wasn't enough for others to see what I was being blessed with, rather what I was doing with those blessings!!!

"1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

God is ready to fight your battle

Background:Hezekiah has been recently threatened by the Assyrian king, to either give in to him and surrender or fight and die. Hezekiah has decided to fight, rather than to give in. Isaiah, God's prophet sent a reply to Hezekiah's request "6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! I am going to put such a spirit in him that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.' "
Soon after this word had come from God, through Isaiah, the Assyrian commander had to withdraw from Jerusalem(Judah) because the Assyrian king had gone away for another battle to Lachish. Instead of going on to fight his enemy, Assyrian king Sennacherib sends a letter to Hezekiah threatening him and discouraging him from believing God for his victory.(2 Kings 19:10-13)
Hezekiah didn't budge from him faith but goes with that letter straight to God and says a beautiful prayer "14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD : "O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
17 "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men's hands. 19 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

Lessons I learnt

1. In despair turn to God-Hezekiah turned to God when the Assyrian commander came to threaten him with words. More often than not, the enemy works in our lives with negative words and negative suggestions, or luring temptations. The way to turn away from them is to turn to God.


2. God always has an answer for any situation, in His Word-The moment Hezekiah sent his men to ask Isaiah for the Lord's Word, they got their answer. God has our answers ready, if only we turn and go to His Word. There is one special request I have made to God and He sure did answer my situation through His Word. It made me glad.


3. Enemy will not let go easily-In our walk with God, sometimes when we've heard the Word of God and found an answer for our situation, things don't seem like they're changing the way God said it would, oreading about the way the Assyrian king did not immediately go away, but in fact sent him a letter, discouraging him to believe in God, trying to cause doubt in Hezekiah, thats the 1st attack our enemy the satan tries to put in our heart, when we have and we know God has directly given in our heart His Word.


4. Take it to the Lord in prayer-Thats what Hezekiah did with the threat letter he received from Assyrian king Sennacherib. He took it to God and prayed a simple prayer, surrendering all to God. Thats what we must do when the enemy sends waves of doubt and fear, and tries to say, God's Word won't work. This is the time we have to wait in order to see God's word at work in our lives. It's the only time the enemy can make his last attempt to defeat us. Hezekiah trusted God's Word over the enemy's word and he saw glorious victory in a battle he didnt even have to fight. "35 That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. "

Conclusion: The essence of it all, I realise, is to stand. Ephesians 6:10-15 "10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.". God didn't want us to fight alone, He just requires of us, to wear His armor, His protection from the enemy, and "stand". God didn't say to wear all that armor and fight, but to "stand". So while we're standing who's fighting? God is.

Believe that you may See

Lessons from 2 Kings 18-19. Be blessed in reading through this.

I have been reading through Hezekiah's life and seeing how God was working in it. During his reign in Judah, he had seen the Israelites, being captured by the king of Assyria and being deported from Samaria to Assyria. He also watched as the new settlers, the Babyblonians came to Samaria and the changes were uncomfortable.
He was more tensed during this time, as he had received a threat from the Assyrian king, to either comply with him and become his vassal or lose his kingdom, like the other kings . Hezekiah wasn't willing to give up yet. He had trusted the Lord wholeheartedly like David (the only one compared in likeness of his faith to David).
There by the city aqueduct the Assyrian commander in chief, had come and was giving a speech to the Israelites (the remnant in Judah). People watched as he spoke in their own language, they understood it all, as he described what a loser Hezekiah is to stand up against the king of Assyria. How other kings like him had been dethroned by the Assyrian king and how foolish it was for these remnant Israelites to depend upon their God. He even dared compare their God to the gods who didn't help the other kingdoms which had fallen before the Assyrians.

Facts are facts and we cannot deny them, so the Israelites had nothing to say to him. They did good in that they didn't speak or try to argue. Up until that time, whatever the Assyrian commander said had been right, and Hezekiah knew, the ONLY way to prove it all wrong would be to win a battle against them and prove to them Y-H is the ONLY true God. In my life too, sometimes reality stares into my face and screams "I am the truth, this is what you've got and you can't do anything but to give in. Where is your God?" The only way out, I know, is the unseen, powerful power of the resurrection of God working within me(Ephesians 1:19-21), which requires my believing before seeing, rather than the way the world would like to have it. I guess thats what Hezekiah might have felt.

At the wall that day, in Judah (Jerusalem) v36 ..the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king(Hezekiah ) had commanded, "Do not answer him." That makes sense to me, I know I have tried a debate with the enemy, through words, through my experiences of faith earlier, but it only left me without words and more with doubts. Faith must be renewed and every situation requires its own level of faith, yesterday's faith cannot win today's battles. Maybe thats what God was teaching the Israelites from Egypt and gave them Manna to be collected each day and not on a weekly basis. Hezekiah, had to renew his faith, right then if he wanted to prove those enemy's facts wrong.

Hezekiah could have given in, but he didn't want to, he had experiences of triumph with God(2 Kings 18:5-8) and knew God could come through for him, no matter what came up in life. It is true, he was very afraid, watching his guards by the city wall, his messengers updated him on the speech they had heard. He was very disturbed, devastated and tore his robes and went into the temple. He didn't go in the fancy, he didn't remain in the cloud, he was being human, man with grief in that situation. In those days they didn't have the Bible to read the Word of God and find out God's will, so he called his administrator and secretary and sent them to talk to a man of God Isaiah, so they would know God's plan for them, now.

The word from God, through Isaiah, came almost immediately(2 Kings 19:5,6). It is amazing the way God work. Ever ready for the children who would call Him in their times of trouble.I have seen in my trying situations, God truly is an ever present help. When my circumstances are desperate, and when I open the Word of God in desperation, in total dependence, as if -if I don't get a Word from God, I don't know what I'm going to do- I have found Him. In my desperations I have found my God waiting with a Word for me, just for me and so apt and so powerful that all doubts and fears must leave and again I believe, that for me believing is seeing and I believe hard in order that I may see.

Conclusion: God waits for His children, looking out for them, every turn of their life. Waiting to see when they will turn to Him and seek His presence, His friendship, His love. Will they try to go on life through their own feeble strength. He knows the enemy is powerful, He has made him and He knows whats needed to overtake Him. The only thing between His hand and ours is whether we are willing to extend our hands towards God. He doesn't need to be defended from the enemy, and He knows, we need help because, the enemy is out to destroy us and He wouldn't be able to intervene in our lives, until we reach out to Him, the clause of free will. No matter what you're going through, no matter what the enemy is shouting by your wall, no matter what his facts say, that is not the TRUTH. For God is the ONLY WAY, the ONLY TRUTH and the ONLY LIFE. Believe that you may See Him at work in your life.

Studying Enemy Strategy-II

How does the enemy attack?
When you stand and resist the enemy-

1. he will try to attack, your basis of confidence even your faith-"19 The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: " 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 20 You say you have strategy and military strength—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?" For those who have no clue what they're depending on or who have not enough knowledge of their Saviour, may lack in confidence, but for us the children of God , we have a wonderful God who has opened all knowledge of the Kingdom of God to us. He has called us friend. "John 15:15 "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." God has opened His heart and His plan in His wonderful book the Bible, and nothing about Him is hidden, so that we may know Him and become confident in Him. God has opened heaven's knowledge to us, through His Son Lord Jesus Christ, that all may be made plain to us and it is not difficult that we dont understand, but that we might know and understand the height and breadth and depth of our Saviour Lord Jesus' love for us. Now more so, that we may have confidence in our God's Love for us, no matter what the enemy may say.
2. he will attack your actions of faith-"v22 And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"-isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem"? " Hezekiah had earlier broken down the bronze snake which Moses had made, because people had idolized that snake and were burning incense to it!!! Those who did not understand Hezekiah's motive behind that, would not be able to fight this argument placed by the enemy. If we are doing things we don't know why we're doing, that could become a point of attack for the enemy. For e.g if we're fasting every Friday, and come to the point where we're just doing it without any plan or any knowledge (like automatic) then that fast becomes a 'thing' that you do on a Friday and you're supposed to do every Friday...is that fast a time, you deliberately spend with the Lord to know Him better? what would happen to you if you were to shift it to a Monday, would it still mean the same to you? We cannot idolise the "fast" but our main reason for fasting should be for knowing our God, fasting as submission to our Lord, not because everybody does it, not because fasting is good for health, not because it is convenient...but because it gives me an opportunity to come closer to God. Fast anyday every day, as the Lord leads you, to fast and pray for some loved one, or for yourself to overcome habits..making sure you can counter an attack for your actions of faith.
3. he brings in a good-looking bargain- v23 " 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen [f] ? Hey this sounds like a good idea, I get horses, all I have to do is give some men. That sounds like a really good deal, but how much do we know about the dealer? In my Christian walk too, I have come across times, when I have fallen for this bargain For e.g. if I spend my time watching TV rather than reading the Word of God I will have more knowledge and insight in the ways to operate in this world???? Well great as it may sound, most of the right and basic winning principles to live successfully are already mentioned in this many hundreds of years old book ,the Bible and it holds true, beyond the barriers of the socio-economic condition of the world at any given time. When Jesus was given this bargain of getting riches and stuff, in exchange for bowing to satan, Jesus countered it with the Word of God. Thats our way to counter this bargain-attack too.
4. he talks in your language-"26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall." ........28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew" Something unique and special to a man is his language. In India we've got many different languages, and I happened to learn a new one, and I've seen people's face light up and almost an immediate bonding form, when I spoke in a South Indian language and they know I am from North India. It touches their heart. So also, satan knows what is closest to you(he has agents that keep track of what you're upto), what can really move you and will speak to you in that language. If you are an emotional person, he will work in your life through emotions(probably people trying to manipulate your stand through emotions). If you're a person who is intellectual(he will get you into fantastic debates at the end of which you would be so confused, you wouldn't know right from wrong). So bring everything to God, for He judges the motives of every mind and every heart and He is able to direct your steps.

Studying Enemy Strategy-I

This post has blessed me and opened my eyes to see clearly and I know it will bless you too. While reading through Israel's journey through spiritual darkness, with kings that didn't follow the Lord wholeheartedly, worshipping all other gods and forgetting God's covenant, I've come to the point where Israel (one division of the entire Israelite tribe) was taken captive after a 3 day siege by the Assyrian king. The Israelites lost their promised land and were deported to Assyria and the Assyrian king brought in other people babylonians and others to resettle Samaria. In the meanwhile, Judah was under the rule of king Hezekiah. For the first time after a long time, the Bible now describes Hezekiah as a man who did like his ancestor David "3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.". He saw what had happened to the Israelites for being a traitor to the Assyrian king, but that didn't stop him from rebelling against him. I now focussed on the way the Assyrian king behaved with Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a god-fearing man, he trusted God and God gave him victory in all he undertook.

Let me show you the lessons I learnt
What is the enemy like?

1. The enemy wants to take it all-Assyrian king was not satisfied by having the entire Samaria as his newly captured state, but he wanted more. He wanted to take over Judah as well. So it is with our enemy the devil, if you think he will let other people be, just because a few have already traded themselves with him. No. We the children of God, who want to live for the Lord are his nightmare. He knows he cannot defeat us, but he will not stop trying. So we've got to keep our guards up, the Sword of the Word of God sharpened at all times.
2. You are deceived if you think you can make a fair trade with the enemy-After capturing Israel out of Hoshea's hands, the Assyrian king turned to Hezekiah, to take over Judah too. Sennacherib the Assyrian king attacked Judah and captured it, but Hezekiah begged him to leave and that he would give him all he wants (2 Kings 18:13-16). Hezekiah gave Sennacherib everything even to the point of, stripping the gold with which he had decorated the temple of God. It might have given him temporary relief from the attack, but that wasn't going to be for long. Sometimes when we knowingly let go of our stand on some "harmless" things, like backbiting, lying, tolerating evil, we're making trades with the enemy. It might give you temporary relief, but soon we might get trapped. I fall many times, but the key is to get up, ask for pardon and move on never to return to that trade again.
3. Give the enemy a little space and he'll want to stake a claim-When Hezekiah paid Sennacherib with gold from the temple and everything he could find within his jurisdiction, that didn't stop the Assyrian king from sending his commander in chief to make another trade with Hezekiah, to the point of making him his vassal as well (like king Hoshea of Israel was). He wanted to claim the entire land little by little. He wasn't going to stop at the point where he got all that gold. He wanted the people in the land as well and more. So the Bible says to counter this attack "Resist the devil and he will flee from you". Resistance needs something within you which will counter what's trying to happen to you. Without Jesus we would have no resistance, but now for us we have this assurance ,"1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.. So stand and resist.

there are more lessons than I could probably try to fit into this one post...therefore to be cont'd

God's wonderful ways, even through dark times

Background:The Israelites now exiled from Samaria, by the Assyrian king, have been resettled in Assyria. The king brought other people, the babylonians, the 24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.(2 Kings 17:24) . When these new settlers came in, for the first time, 25 When they first lived there, they did not worship the LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. 26 It was reported to the king of Assyria: "The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires." (2 Kings 17:25-26) The king of Assyria then sent one of the priests taken captive from Israel, to go to Samaria and train the people on how to worship the LORD. Had God rejected His people the Israelites?

Lessons:

1. God is faithful to His promise, no matter how long ago He made it, it still holds true-You know, God had promised that land to Abraham, about 300-400 yrs ago. Even though the people, His people, Israelites, were exiled-God remained there. It was the land He had promised to the faithful man Abraham, whom He had addressed as friend. God defended His promise. Abraham's descendants had mingled with other people and had lost their first love, the faith of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, but God remained faithful.
2. God's plan is higher than our plan, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts-I've been thinking recently, even more so, looking at the stubbornness of the Israelites to return to God, that in all this, what we are enjoying now, the presence of our Loving Lord Jesus, His power of the cross, was initially a plan for the Jews, but the Lord opened up the banquet for all (wedding banquet in Matthew). Wow, His plan for the entire mankind. Oh the beauty of the gospel waiting to come full round, as summed up by Paul in Romans 11."11Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!" For the first time, an Israelite priet went on a mission to train new people, the ways of the Living God.

Conclusion: If it weren't for this stubbornness, God's mercy wouldn't have been known to the gentiles. In all,God's plan always works together for the good of those who love Him. God didn't leave His people, even though they left Him. God did not forget His promise, even though they forgot Him. For now, even though Israel was exiled, we know they will be reunited with God, in our current future. I am in awe of it all. It is because of God's amazing grace, that we are able to experience the Love, the Power, the Life with the One and Only Living God, the God of Israel.

Pauls says "25Lest you be self-opinionated (wise in your own conceits), I do not want you to miss this hidden truth and mystery, brethren: a hardening (insensibility) has [temporarily] befallen a part of Israel [to last] until the [c]full number of the ingathering of the Gentiles has come in,
26And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.(F)"(AMP)

All this so that we, the gentiles could know the mercy and Love of our Living God, it is beautiful and I am without words to express my gratitude to God.

Don't Stop Running the Good Race

Background: 2 Kings 14:1-21, talks about a story from the life of a king named Ahaziah. He did what was right and followed God, though not wholeheartedly. He did some nice things during his reign, but made one grave mistake. I take details of his life from 2 Chronicles 25( since it has a detailed account of his works).

Lessons from the mistakes of king Amaziah

1. A good start of reign- "3 After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. 4 Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law," He tried to keep the law of God.
2. Followed or listened to God's prophet-"7 But a man of God came to him and said, "O king, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel--not with any of the people of Ephraim. 8 Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow." When Amaziah was planning for the battle at Edom, he has hired some Israelites to be in his army, but a word came through a prophet of God saying he shouldn't take them with him else he'd lose.
3. Diluted motivation for obeying God-No doubt he listened to the man of God, but now his motive had been diluted by greed. He weighed the question about how he could get the money back, which he had paid to get those Israelite soldier, "9 Amaziah asked the man of God, "But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?" The man of God replied, "The Lord can give you much more than that." and Amaziah sent the Israelite troops back, not because, now he was being obedient, he was being obedient, because he was waiting to get something in response. His motivation so easily swayed right away from obedience to reward zone membership!!!
4. Pride and foolishness- I think the easy win, got to his head and "14 When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them." Can you see that? He forgot who had given him victory and immediately turned to gods who weren't even gods.Moreover, in his arrogance and defiance, he threatened the man of God who had guided him through good counsel from God.

Conclusion: He started well, he kept the law laid long ago, but he fell right at the very first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" . He allowed pride to take the best of him. Sometimes we stop at one big move of God and want to make camp there, making that moment a shrine, rather than knowing the God who did it. This man was so blinded by the achievement he had found through God he forgot God was behind it all the while, in spite of having heard from God's prophet. I asked myself, do I love God the way I do, for something I need from Him, or because He is God and He loved me first and I am simply reciprocating His love for me?? How about you? Let's not give up the motivation of Jesus our Lord's love for me.

Galatians 5:7 "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"

Deal or no Deal?

Background: Elisha has passed away and Israel now is under oppression from Hazael, king of Aram. Elisha had prophesied earlier, that Hazael would oppress Israel after killing the king of Aram and taking his place. The Bible says in 2 Kings 13:22-23"22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "

Lesson: If you read the previous and next chapters you'll find there were many kings that got a chance to rule Israel and Judah, but none of them were sincere as David was. They all went astray or obeyed God partially. Yet God was gracious to them , every time they were oppressed, or they sinned, or someone attacked them...and all other problems that they had....because of His covenant with Abraham!!!
I wanted to see the details of this covenant, and in order for us to truly appreciate verse 23 from 2 Kings 13, we'll have to go back atleast a 1000yrs from this verse, to the time of Abraham.
In Genesis 15 we read the details of God's covenant with Abraham. In their times, when 2 parties were entering into a covenant, they would walk together between halves of a heifer, a goat, a ram and dove and pigeon. "9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half."
This covenant would mean that they would share their sorrows, their joys, their wealth, their lives, to the point that if any one of the parties be in trouble, the other would be there to defend them even at the cost of their life. Almost meaning the life they lived would no longer be only for oneself but for the other person too, as if one man.
And God went into a covenant with Abraham that day " 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river [d] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-"
You know what is the most beautiful part of this covenant?-- Abraham didn't walk through it, only God did. In verse 12 you'll find " 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him"

Conclusion: The past few days, with all these holiday shopping and all, everyone wanting to get the better end of the deal, the shopkeeper for their profit, the end user for the cheap and best, no one wants a bad deal, but God kept showing in my heart, He was always willing to be at the bad end of the deal, so that I would get the best of it.

He chose to be poor that I might be made rich.

He chose to die, that I might live.

He chose to be wounded, that my sins be forgiven.

He chose to exhange His beauty for my ashes.

God knew, a mere man and his descendants wouldn't be able to fulfil the covenant, it meant death to the one who failed to keep the covenant, yet He walked alone, between the covenant symbols, while Abraham was put in deep sleep. All Abraham had to do was to believe in God's unfailing love.Thats the kind of God we have, willing to take up everything for us, in order that we will see His love and love Him back. Thats my Living God, who loves me when I'm good, and loves me when I'm bad. He loves me in my joys, He loves me in my sorrows. He made a deal with a mere man, Abraham, who couldn't return anything that God could do, and God remained faithful even till this day, to the same covenant He made with Abraham so many thousands of years ago. If you do not know this Living and Loving God, here is your chance again, to make the deal, you have nothing to lose. For those who lose their life in Him, have found it. So here's the question Deal or no deal??

An Associate Child of God

Background: 2 Kings 13:20-22 "20 Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. 21 Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
22 Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence. "
These verses bring me to the end of Elisha's valiant life, in the Living God. It was amazing for me to see that even though, Elisha had passed away, his bones still had the power of God. In Acts 19 we read "11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." More than that, even with our Lord Jesus, when the woman with the issue of blood, touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was healed.

Lessons I learnt:

1. Associate-When we hang around someone too long, we start getting impressions of that person on our life as well. In our terms we call it to "rub off on"-meaning: to become transferred or communicated to by example or association". Elisha had been associating with God so closely that God's power rubbed off on him, even to his bones. God's power was so intense on Jesus and His disciples that even the inanimate objects like clothing carried the power of God. I had never thought of associate as a powerful word, probably because I hear of it more in a business perspective, but it is, it even goes as far a meaning "union". The Amplified Bible expands associate as [closely and habitually]. So can you imagine what can happen to our lives, when we closely and habitually associate with our Lord Jesus.


2. Realise-Can we know God's power has rubbed off on us or not?? We may not know immediately, but the people who will see us, outside of us, they will know, because they will experience it. I had a friend who I used to like a lot for her happy nature, she had a british accent, soon in a few months I was sounding like her, no, I didn't know I was sounding like her, other people told me so. Well I liked that accent a lot so I didn't mind that. You see, we will not know, even Moses did not know his face was shining after he had met God, people were afraid when they saw him and then he realised something was different about him, his face shone. Exodus 34:28-30.


3. Demonstrate-For us who are already steadfast about our Living God, believing is seeing.(Hebrew 11) but for those who do not know, they would need to see first in order to believe. What best example there could be than to show through our lives. People read us first through our behaviour and then our words. Our words will have no impact, unless our life can demonstrate it. Before we can even share the gospel to anyone, we must have our lives in close and habitual association with our Lord Jesus, once we've got the association right, you're life automatically starts demonstrating signs of the Saviour in it, may not be to you, but definitely to others who see you.

Conclusion: We may have a heart to serve the Lord, but we may not be finding an "opportunity". Looking at the example of Elisha's bones, I don't think Elisha might have had a clue what his bones could bring about. Also, for Paul, I don't think he would have himself been aware of the power his handkerchiefs were bearing. For both Paul and Elisha, they could share God's love and power with the obvious crowd, but their lives bore far more results than that. Their associated life with God, touched the obvious before them, and also those in the bakground who had watched him from far. Our lives are capable of being an example of association with the Living God and touch lives far beyond the obvious. No matter how dead we may feel, when our lives come in contact, in associations, with the Giver of Eternal Life, His life flows right through us and people will see the results of the association.

Strike

Background: Here's an episode from Elisha's life. He asked the king of Israel Jehoash, to bring his bow and arrow with him and shoot out the east window. Then a strange test, Elisha asked the king to take the arrows and strike the ground. "He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."

Lesson: Elisha was disappointed and rather angry with the king of Israel, to have not shown diligence in striking the ground. The enemy is not a friend. We've got to have passion for the victory-My prize is to see all my loved ones entering into the kingdom of God, young and old. Jesus wanted His home in heaven filled with All of His loved ones, and for that cause, He diligently persevered and didn't dilly dally in making the utmost sacrifice, a filthy rag like me should have never deserved. How desperately do I love my loved ones to be so moved that I sincerely did something about it.

An episode from my life-My brother Abraham, had been sidetracked for a long number of years, did all the things wrong that we could have possibly thought of. Whenever I went home from college for my summer vacations, I would be broken hearted to see the amount of pain my parents were going through because of his behaviour. In my final year in June when I went home I was soooooooo agitated by the entire atmosphere at home, I couldn't stand it any longer. For the first time in my life, I felt indignation rise up inside of me against the evil one trying to take away my brother, and I prayed the longest and most sincere prayer I had ever prayed with tears and longing and agonising, with my parents. From that day on I continued to pray for my brother every day, with my best friend Mary, at college. Then in October, my brother called me at college (he had never talked to me properly before that) and the first thing he said was "I want you to pray for me right now". Now in our hostel the phone would be in a common area where everyone would come and hang out, I felt awkward but I wasn't going to let go of the opportunity I had found. I prayed. My brother listened quietly on the other end, without so much as a word. At the end of the prayer, he said "I am feeling so much better now". By the end of that year in December my brother went for a Holy Convocation through our church and was baptised in water and gave his life to the Lord. I met him on the 31st of December and my heart was sooooooooo overjoyed to meet him, like having a brand new brother. Beautiful, peaceful, humble, loving caring, wanting to share of God's love. Now during his wayward days, he had destroyed his career and after 5 yrs from that incident, God has blessed him with a wonderful job now and he is doing so well. He recently received an award for being a good employee, in the 1st month of his work!!!

Yes I struck the arrow 1 time, 2 times and definitely 3 times like the Israelite king and I was going to give up, when I read this chapter from 2 Kings 13 and God's Word encouraged me, not to give in like the king did and to keep on striking the enemy with the sword of the Word of God until he is completely destroyed.

Conclusion: I encourage you my brother my sister, to not give up, but to keep on. If we've become luke warm, lets ask the Lord to ignite the fire of Holy desire in our hearts, that we may win souls into the kingdom of God, no matter how difficult the situation may look, we've got a Saviour Who can sympathise with us, because He has been there and He never gave up, even when I didn't deserve it, he went ahead and hung on the cross for me. Let's take up our crosses, for His yoke is easy, let's work with passion for the one thing that pleases God, to be united with His loved ones. Us and our families. God's family.

Fight the Good Fight

Background:After a long list of kings who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. God directs Elisha to send his servant to anoint Jehu, king of Israel. He would be the one to purge Israel of all the remnants of Jezebel's followers, baal worshippers and to avenge the blood of all Lord's servants (2Kings 9). While reading of the accounts of kings from 2Kings 9 onwards until 2Kings 13, I find that, there were people who longed to be kings and queens of Israel and Judah and were willing to do anything for it. However when they went into power, they didn't care about following the Living God, they did what they desired, they sinned against God, they worshipped idols, turning their face from God. One of the kings mentioned in 2Kings 11 is Joash. Joash organised the task of repairing the temple of the LORD, but when the Aramean king came to attack Jerusalem he gave away all the gold from the temple, that had been dedicated to the Lord, to the enemy???

There are quite a few lessons I have learnt from reading about these kings, and find some bit of myself in their behaviour.

1. Is it easy to follow God in hardships, or during prosperity ?-I've noticed in my life, that my spiritual life has grown more during troubled times, than during times when I was well-fed. The learnings I got through the valley, were the ones, that changed my life. It brought meaning to my relationship with the Lord. Those times are the times, when I no longer learnt by listening or observing, but by experiencing God's amazing Love. His power to forgive, His power to provide, His power to heal, His power to help me live righteously before God. In order for us to be in our best behaviour during prosperity, we would need to be trained in difficult times, else we would never appreciate what we got, if we had it all easy.
2. Never give away, what has been dedicated to God, Fight- We are more than conquerors, we are a royal nation, a holy priesthood. For Joash, when the Aramean king came to attack Jerusalem, instead of fighting against him, he paid him with dedicated items from the temple of God!!! How often, we do that. Of course our battle is no longer against flesh and blood, but you know our battle is more subtle and spiritual and moral. The Bible says, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are not ours but were bought with a price and Jesus our Lord dedicated us ,so to speak, to the Father in heaven. When satan throws in a scene, or a picture, or some people in an attempt to attack our spirit, how many times have we given away our eyes, our ears, our mouth,the instruments of God from the temple of the Holy Spirit, to the enemy!!!
3. God still has room for forgiveness-In 2 Kings13 I read about a king, who wasn't actually living the kind of godly life, but "4 Then Jehoahaz sought the LORD's favor, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. 5 The LORD provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before." God never leaves us alone to face the difficulties or the attacks that satan makes on our lives. He is well aware of the oppressions we face and is more than willing to forgive and provide deliverance.

Conclusion: No matter what satan throws at you, to attack your spirit, run to God, cry out to Him for He is able. The biggest lie that he tries to blind you with is that "you can't do anything about this ". I don't believe that, I am more than a conqueror in my Lord Jesus Christ. I am a royal nation, a holy priesthood, a people separated for my God and I am not going to give from the temple of the Living God, what belongs to God, even His people. God has given me the armour for spiritual battle, not to stand around doing nothing and compromising, but to fight the good fight. The fight of faith.(1 Timothy 6:12) And as I know how God rescued Lot, " 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.(2 Peter 2:6-8 )

God Listens to us Seriously

Background: A lot of kings have changed since the time David was king, Israel and Judah have separated themselves after David passed away (they just wanted different kings). The Israelites have changed a lot. The recent kings, during the time Elisha has been the prophet, haven't shown any signs of devotion to the Living God like David did. During such a time the Bible records in 2 Kings 8:16-19 "16 In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever. " What caught my eyes is this "19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever. " Just that verse alone says so many things about our Lord God Almighty the Maker of heaven and earth.

Lessons I learnt

1. Our Lord's faithfulness surpasses our lifetime- Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. As we sow our lives in God and make every effort to love Him as He loved us, we can be rest assured our God will take care of our following generations. Isn't that (as we all have experienced Jesus as Lord of our lives know) the most beautiful and precious gift we could leave for our children, and their children's children. David has long gone, but God remembered His promise to David much much after he was gone.
2. Our God's Love endures forever- People may love you today, for whatever reason they have, even our loved ones may love us for whatever reason they have, but when the reason is gone, the love goes with it, but not with our Living Lord, our God's Love endures forever. When I gave a search in the Bible online for the phrase "love endures forever" I found sooooooooooo many references and most of them are from David. This man knew that he knew that He had found a love that never fades, a love that never gives up on him, a love that is forgiving, a love that restores, a love that heals, a love that comforts and a love that endures(meaning:To carry on through, despite hardships; undergo OR also To bear with tolerance) Isn't that so wonderful.
3. What God has promised He is able to do-God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:18-20 Many a promise we would have received from people and they haven't made it. Many a times we've trusted a promise of a man or a company or a friend and it has failed us, but not with our Lord. When God promised Abraham he would be the father of many nations, little did he know how many nations God had on mind and aren't we all living witnesses of the effect of this promise to Abraham. No matter what country or language we are from, Abraham's blessing touched us wayyyyyyyyy out there. And lets not forget about the vast difference in centuries and continents and languages and climates and distances and yet, God's promise to Abraham didn't fail. Abraham is my father of faith, in a way his story of obedience taught me faith.

Conclusion: In this world of selfishness and hypocrisy, even among believers, there is a God whom you can trust your life with. A God who cares for you and thinks about you daily.Did you know that? God cares for you daily. The psalmist writes "Psalm 68:19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Selah" and what were we thinking. David responded beautifully when he came to know the promise of God's faithfulness to his family and to his children and their children and the whole generation after him.(2 Samuel 7) Little did David know, how seriously God had considered the words he spoke before God that day (mentioned in 2 Samuel 7) when he went into a room and prayed 27 "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you.' So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. 28 O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever." 2 Samuel 7:27-29.

We have talked about God watching over us, but the verse that David wrote reads like this "Psalm 34:15

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;"

People Can See when God's at Work in your life

Background: The knowledge of the works of God and His power amongst the Israelites spread out to the Arameans as well, while Elisha was the prophet in Israel. In 2 Kings 8:7 the Bible records "7 Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, "The man of God has come all the way up here," 8 he said to Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the LORD through him; ask him, 'Will I recover from this illness?' " Can you see, the Aramean king also called on Elisha to consult regarding his sickness!!! Well the king didn't recover, just as Elisha had said. Hazael his attendant killed him.

Lesson: When we are knitted together with God, people near and far will see it. When our lives are dedicated and we are determined to walk with God daily, our life will shine and people will see it.

• Joseph worked dedicatedly keeping the honour of the Living Lord not giving up no matter what the situation he went through. He kept his integrity and Genesis 39:5 says "From the time he(Egyptian) put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field." God worked so wonderfully in Joseph's life that even the pharoah put him incharge of everything, in Egypt Genesis 41:41 [ Joseph in Charge of Egypt ] So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt." and then in Genesis 41:44 "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt."
• Abraham 5 The Hittites replied to Abraham, 6 "Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."
• For Moses his face shone because of his constant face to face conversations with the Living God and the Bible says Exodus 34:35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD."
• Peter remained faithful to the commission that Jesus had given him. Acts 5:15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. More than that there were more and more people coming to the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: If you read all the miracles that Jesus did and how people thronged to meet Him. They came to hear Him, they were all around Him all the time. Sick people were brought to Him, children were brought to Him. His life was something in which people could see God's work. When we've been with the Lord and been obeying and walking with Him, people will see. Romans 8:11 "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you"

Blessed Over and Beyond

2 Kings 8 :1-6
Background: It has been some time since the siege, Israel has been through another bout with drought. During this period of drought, Elish told the Shunnamite woman, who's son God had restored , to sojourn somewhere else, until the drought passes. She obeyed and left for 7 years as asked by Elisha. When she returns, she goes straight to the king to ask for her possessions she had left behind. At this time the king asked Gehazi to tell him of the wondrous things the Lord had done through Elisha, "5And as Gehazi was telling the king how [Elisha] had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and land. And Gehazi said, My lord O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life."6When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land even until now.

Lessons I learnt

1. God Himself is with us, wherever we go when we obey Him-This Shunnamite woman was blessed, in her obedience to Elisha's word regarding the drought in Israel and had gone out of the country as told. Its not an easy decision to leave your home, your people and your country on a word for something that has not yet happened. But the Word of God has more examples than one, of people who did seemingly unintelligent things in obedience to His Word and were blessed. Noah(boat on land), Abraham(leaving house to have his own son at 75yrs) , Joseph(obeying God without cribbing following a dream), David(what was he going to slay with a stone), Jesus(leaving his heavenly abode to be born in a manger and being killed brutally). All these didn't make sense, but in the end they were blessed beyond measure. The promise for us is God Himself being with us, no matter where He takes us as we obey Him. John 14:23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. We may not be in a familiar locality, but our heavenly family is with us.
2. When you've obeyed, blessings pour in-The woman, (unlike what we've read from Ruth) sojourns for a while and does return. The instruction to sojourn, is to go away from the country for a while and return. She obeys it completely and in this she is blessed. Not only does she get back what she had left behind, but also all the fruits of the field since the time she had left until now. Isn't that amazing.

Conclusion:The Word of God says "Matthew 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." God is not talking about abandoning everything and running away from your responsibilities. He is talking about people who will reject you for your believing Jesus, it happens a lot in India. Many people are thrown out of their houses, left out, beaten or not given food. All this by their own family members and sadly some turn back too. Jesus promises to more than make up for our sacrifices; do we believe him enough to sacrifice whatever our calling demands? Let us be encouraged through the life of this Shunnamite woman, God's word is true and when He says He will bless us for our obedience, He truly will, more than we can imagine. Also, let us pray for those who have been shaken by emotions of family and given up or turned away, that God will strengthen His Words in their heart once again and give them courage.

Unwanted People Wanted by God for Missions Impossible

Have you ever thought or wondered, when you're in a tough situation and hoping that one day things will get better but that day seems it will never come??? Samaria faced one such situation. The Aramean king decided to lay a siege on Samaria and the siege lasted many days. Here are some lessons from this episode.

Lessons

1. Only someone outside the siege can help-"25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels [a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab [b] of seed pods [c] for five shekels. [d] "
   Siege (meaning : the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible) doesn't kill people immediately like in a battle, but forces them to surrender slowly by cutting off their supplies, cutting them off from what could sustain their physical life. Siege, as I think more of it, seems to be a state wherein, you cannot help yourself from inside your fort or your area. A country in siege can only be helped if they've got someone outside of the siege who can probably attack the enemy surrounding their city and thereby freeing them. In case they even think of fighting the battle from the inside, all they are going to do is exhaust their resources. In essence their own strength cannot help, they WILL NEED external help. Sometimes, situations in life are like a siege, you feel locked up in full pressure, probably in your emotions, in your health, in your finances and the list could be endless. However no matter how worse the situation gets, there is a way out, as the people in Samaria find later in this episode.
2. Things we counted worthless becomes valuable-"a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels [a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab [b] of seed pods [c] for five shekels. [d] " When in a life's storm, we'll find that the people you were counting of much worth and working to please them are nowhere to be seen to help, but in that mess there still stand a few people who we didn't care much about when things were going good, and they're worth so much now, just because they are there for you and with you. It changes our perspective for value drastically.
3. If we don't have an answer to our problem, we cannot blame the cause on someone else-The king of Samaria, couldnt provide a solution to 2 women's dilemma in this episode and instead goes ahead and blames Elisha and resorts to taking his life!!! That doesn't make sense, Elisha had nothing to do with the siege.Blaming Elisha and trying to kill him would have sought nothing for victory or freedom for the king. Sometimes we do this and still find no answer, only make oursleves more bitter, more trapped, and giving in to the enemy's game plan of making us helpless.
4. What economy is all about?-When the king reached Elisha to kill him "1 Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah [a] of flour will sell for a shekel [b] and two seahs [c] of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." Seems impossible right, but it is possible, when you're NOT thinking the way the enemy wants you to think(trapped), when you don't depend on the limited resources within the boundaries which the enemy is trying to bind you in, when your strength in the situation comes from outside, from someone who has authority over all authorities, anything becomes POSSIBLE. No difficult situation can stand before that realisation of having a Wonderful, Powerful, Living, Loving, Allknowing, Omnipresent Almighty GOD.
5. Unwanted people, wanted by God -In olden days, leprosy was treated as a curse and the lepers were sent out of the city gates forever, there they lived and died, no one cared for them, no houses, no provisions except if someone be kind so as to throw something down from the city wall. These were the people who would accomplish God's miracle of overturning Samaria's economy. Read about their endeavour and you will find, the worthless unwanted people of Samaria were the ones whom God used to bring forth His word to pass.

Conclusion: During painful times in life, when you're like in a siege trying to find an answer which is almost seeming impossible to you, take heart, look for the answer not in blame, but in Jesus Name. The Name above all names. If you've been treated as useless, untouchable, unworthy, take heart, you're of much worth for God to do the missions that are normally impossible.

Insight

Its amazing what we can do with our sight, not only in the physical, in appreciating the beauty of nature, seeing our kids grow up, having a watchful eye...In a similar way, our spiritual eyes are also of great importance and power. The following episode from Elisha's life helped me to see the special tool, God gives His children in terms of seeing in the natural and seeing in the spiritual.

Background: 2 Kings 6:8-23.
As I read this event, it slowly came upon me that this episode is more about insight, sight, seeing, opening the eyes, blinding the eyes and I found some very good lessons here. I thought to myself, it would be so great to have insight about the enemies doings and be on guard of the enemies ways lest we be tricked, like Jesus always asks us to be. It would be even greater to know what to say or do when we want to share the "right" words with an unbeliever, so as to usher them into the Kingdom of God. Many times we lose a soul, for something vague or unclear that we've said, because we had nothing better to say. Jesus wasn't tricked by the devil when he was tempted, because He had insight through the Word of God. Every Word Jesus said, brought forth its results, nothing went out of His mouth without impact. That, to me, is the demonstration of a life of a believer in his full capacity. Jesus "lived" what He believed and showed His life on earth as a demo for us. A life with insight, knowing what to do and more than that, knowing what God the Father would have us do. Not groping through the task set for us, but marching on in confidence.
Insight-(meaning:an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, esp. through intuitive understanding )

1. God grants insight to those who ask for it- God given insight, Solomon had it, because he asked for it "1 Kings 4:29[ Solomon's Wisdom ] God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore."
2. Encouraged to seek insight, wisdom and discernment-After receiving insight himself, Solomon, begins his book of Proverbs with words to exhort us to seek insight, wisdom and to love wisdom (meaning:the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight. )
3. Insight, comes through meditating upon the Word of God -"I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes" says David in Psalm 119:99

Outcome of Insight

1. Preparedness: God let Elisha know every time, the enemy planned to attack them, and hence the Israelites found protection through this insight. They were able to make their forces stronger and be prepared, exactly where the enemies had planned to attack. There is no point in defending Gate number 1 when the enemy is attacking Gate number 2???? How does this apply to us? God is able to give us the insight, so we can be prepared, when the enemy knocks on our door, they will not find that gate empty or unprotected, but guarded by the child of God. The doors could be our heart, our eyes, our family, feelings...anything, but when our lives are guarded by the Insight from the Word of God we're prepared for anything.
2. Protection: Elisha could see something his servant could not, that made Elisha calm about the situation of being surrounded by the enemy troops. This situation could have caused panic(meaning:a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons or animals), if they didnt know what was going to happen. They would have been overwhelmed by the situation...but as God opened the servant's eyes, he was able to see what Elisha saw. When Jesus was about to be crucified, Peter came up to him and even rebuked Jesus for talking about His crucifixion, he could not "see" the plan. In Jesus crucifixion was the resurrection of the entire human kind.

Conclusion: There is more to this than just Preparedness and Protection, I'd say why don't you, my readers list out a few things that an insght from God can do to our lives. Elisha's insight on what God was doing with them, turned a probable defeat into victory. All the men in the Word of God, knew that they knew inside of them, that what God had planned for their lives is beautiful and powerful and did not weaken to do the tasks they were called to do, be it building a boat on land, sacrificing their only son, being tempted after a fast of 40days and nights, for Jesus, even to the point of death....having the insight, knowing, that He would rise up on the third day.

The "insight" : as Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:21-23 "you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." : is to have in mind the things of God.

Lesson from a floating axehead

2 Kings 6
An Axhead Floats
1 The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live." And he said, "Go."
3 Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?" "I will," Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Oh, my lord," he cried out, "it was borrowed!"
6 The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 "Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it."

A short episode here from Elisha's life, I learnt some lessons here on how to tackle life's problems.

1. No matter what the weight of the problem, it will float when surrendered to God-Have you ever caught yourself, worrying about life sometimes, and it weighs us down. As I was reading this passage, God showed me that the weight of the axehead didn't matter. Elisha wasn't wondering what to do when that man cried out. He didn't even try diving into the problem or jumping into the waters. He just threw a stick at it!!! And the axehead floated. What is impossible for man, is possible with God. I don't know how many times I would need to hear that.
2. Know where it went wrong/down and start your work there-It doesn't make sense to search for something in the house when you know it got lost in the streets. Elisha asks this man ""Where did it fall?" It is more than likely that YOU yourself will know what went wrong and where. Thats where we start working from. For e.g. if I have an overweight problem, I don't beat up the person who sold me the burger or fries. I acknowledge where the weakness lies and work at it, right there. Not around the bush.
3. God sends in the solution-Like Elisha, cut the stick and threw it into the water where the axehead had fallen, God also sends in the solution. When Abraham went upto the mountains to sacrifice Isaac, God saw his obedience, and his solution was sent there, the ram. When Moses was telling God how weak he was in speech, Aaron was already on his way to meet him. When the widow and her son had only enough bread and oil left, Elijah was already on his way to meet them. There are more examples like so, if we read through the Word of God. Once we know where we should start work, God already has sent his solution.
4. It is for us to "Lift it out"-It is for us to take action and come out of the problem, the final work is ours. God has already done His work on your situation, now it is upto us to come out. God sent Aaron, it was upto Moses to get to work from then. He had no excuses left to run away from the work God had planned for him. When Abraham saw the ram it was upto him to untangle the ram and make the sacrifice. When Elijah asked the woman to make bread for him first, it was then left to her to take that step and see God's miracle of provision.

Conclusion-No matter how heavy the problem in our lives may seem, God has already sent the provision/solution for it. Its only upto us to identify where the problem is and what we must do in obedience. If Moses hadn't gone to the burning bush, he wouldn't have ever come out of the guilt of murdering an Egyptian. If Abraham had feared sacrificing his son, he would have never seen God's provision of the ram. If the woman had not dared to make bread for Elijah from what was only for she and her son, she would not have seen God's provision.

Dear Lord, open our eyes that we may see where the problem is, to obey you in doing what is asked of us according to Your Living Word, and to be obedient so that we will see Your might and provision and power to save our lives. In Jesus our Saviour's name we ask.

Amen