Spiritual Hunger: 60 Weekly Devotionals E-Book

Riaan Engelbrecht

• Herausgeber: Riaan Engelbrecht
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

In this volume of work, you will find 60 devotionals. It is intended for you to read one devotional per week, for it serves as a call to action to ponder, to consider, and to reflect on your walk with God. They are written to also challenge your relationship with God. It is authentic, genuine and sincere? Are you truly abiding in His presence? Are you yielding and submitting to the Lord with all your might and strength? The question is simple: How hungry are you for God? How hungry are you to follow Him, to serve, to obey, to yield, to submit and to adhere to His perfect will? Are you really hungry? Are we just hungry for what God can do for us, or are we hungry for Him above all else? Are we just hungry for the work of His hands, or do we truly seek to have a real and meaningful relationship with God? Are we hungry to be faithful, loyal and dedicated to His Kingdom? Yes, do you love Him as you should? Do you serve Him as you should? Do you uphold His Word as you should? Take this journey, devote yourself to God and draw closer to Him. Seek Him, and He shall be found.

Leseprobe

Series of work by the same author:

––––––––

Perilous Times

In Pursuit of God

The Holy Spirit

The Disciple of God

Deliverance

Crossroads to Freedom

The Kingdom of God

The Prophetic

Apologetics

End-Time Remnant

Table of Contents

Title Page

Spiritual Hunger: 60 Weekly Devotionals

Also By Riaan Engelbrecht

About the Author

Spiritual Hunger: 60 Weekly Devotionals

This is a distributed edition from Avishua Ministries.

The author’s intellectual property rights are protected by international Copyright law. You are licensed to use this digital copy strictly for your personal enjoyment only: it must not be redistributed or offered for sale in any form.

Scriptures quotes from the New Kings James Bible, Amplified, and the New International Version.

For more free study material and audio visit http://avishuaministries.wixsite.com/avishua

Foreword

In this volume of work, you will find 60 devotionals. It is intended for you to read one devotional per week, for it serves as a call to action to ponder, to consider, and to reflect on your walk with God. They are written to also challenge your relationship with God. Is it authentic, genuine and sincere? Are you truly abiding in His presence? Are you yielding and submitting to the Lord with all your might and strength?

The question is simple: How hungry are you for God? How hungry are you to follow Him, to serve, to obey, to yield, to submit and to adhere to His perfect will? Are you really hungry? Are we just hungry for what God can do for us, or are we hungry for Him above all else?

Are we just hungry for the work of His hands, or do we truly seek to have a real and meaningful relationship with God? Are we hungry to be faithful, loyal and dedicated to His Kingdom?

Yes, do you love Him as you should?

Do you serve Him as you should?

Do you uphold His Word as you should?

As you read the devotionals, week after week, do not just think about it, but pray over it. Do some self-examination. Draw closer to God. Seek Him, and He shall be found. Read the Word at the same time, for the Word is the final authority of all things. Seek the Spirit of the Lord to help you on this journey. Do you know the Spirit of the Lord was poured out to lead us all in truth (John 16)? The Spirit of the Lord wants to inhabit (dwell) among and within all believers. We must simply allow Him to work in and through us. This is the Spirit of the Lord, therefore part of the Trinity along with the Father and Son. Yes, hunger to dwell with God, to walk with Him and to know Him intimately. This is His desire and should be yours as well.

Sixty weekly devotionals translate into more than a year of reflection. It is a long walk. But remain committed and dedicated to this journey to God. Remain humble before the Lord, and trust in His guidance. The walk will not always be easy, for we all need now and then to make sure we are in alignment with God, and we are utterly devoted to Him. Knowing Him is greater than any other treasure. He is life, hope and joy. He is love. He is light. He is the only God who knows us personally. Yes, hunger for God and His presence in your life.

Before we begin, it is important to first understand our Covenant with God, and how this determines our spiritual foundation. We can only build our spiritual lives to His glory if we are building on the right foundation.

Enjoy the read. Enjoy the Lord. He loves you, so love Him passionately.

Before we begin ... first think about the Covenant

If we truly want to walk in God’s presence, we need to again become so aware of the significance of the Covenant. We need to uphold it and we need to honour it. Those who truly lead Covenant lives, meaning upholding, honouring, respecting and revering the Covenant with God, are seated in the heavenly places and move in the authority and power of a mighty and glorious God.

Remember, Jesus is the capstone of our faith and the church (Matthew 21:42). Since our Covenant has been ratified by Jesus, and we are in Covenant with the Lord, then upholding and honouring the Covenant is part of our spiritual foundation.  Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” If we violate the Covenant by not honouring the Lord, how can our spiritual foundation then stand? As the Psalmist says, what then can the righteous do?

In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches about building upon the right foundation – Jesus Himself. It says, “26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” We cannot remain standing for Christ, rooted and abiding in His presence, if we are not taking the Covenant seriously. The Covenant is God, and we are His Bride. We dishonour God by not upholding the Covenant, and so put our spiritual foundation at risk from collapsing.

We cannot build our spiritual lives if our foundation is not stable. Psalm 82 says of the wicked: “5 They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable.” This aligns with the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7. Our entire spiritual lives are build upon the trusted Rock of Jesus. Our Lord is not unstable, He is the sure foundation who will last forever! If we want to grow spiritually, we then build upon the right foundation. Such a foundation is Jesus, and we serve and love the Lord by honouring and respecting the Covenant. By the Covenant, we follow and obey Jesus. We lead pure lives, and we do as He commands. 

A covenant in the ancient world was similar to what we in the modern world would call a contract, treaty, or will. Each covenant established the basis of a relationship, conditions for that relationship, promises and conditions of the relationship and consequences if those conditions were unmet. One of the most familiar examples of a covenant for us is marriage. Covenant comes from Latin origin (con venire), meaning a coming together. It presupposes two or more parties who come together to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities. The biblical words most often translated "covenant" are berit in the Old Testament and diatheke in the New Testament. The preferred meaning of this Old Testament word is bond; a covenant refers to two or more parties bound together. The New Testament word for covenant has usually been translated as covenant, but testimony and testament have also been used.

Covenant relationships are found throughout the Bible. There are personal covenants between two individuals (e.g., David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 23), political covenants between two kings or nations (e.g., King Solomon and King Hiram in 1 Kings 5), legal covenants with a nation (such as the laws about freeing Hebrew slaves), and so forth. Entering into covenants was a major part of what it meant to live in the ancient Near East. So God partnered with humans through a structure they already understood.

God created man in His own image and likeness for a purpose—to offer man eternal life as children in His family (Hebrews 2:10). Instead, humans chose disobedience and death. It is only through the promise made to Abraham that salvation can come and man can be saved. People must repent and turn away from sin and accept Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf, and then these eternal offers from God can be theirs. This renewed biblical covenant is based on the same laws but has the benefit of the help of the Holy Spirit and better promises. This New Covenant supersedes the Old Covenant and brings us to a point of evaluating our own lives in the light of God’s law, which is holy, just and good. Only in this way can we receive the promise of eternal life, which God has made possible for all mankind through Jesus Christ.

Jesus perfectly succeeded at every point where humanity failed. He is the guarantor and mediator of the new and better covenant (Hebrews 7:22, 9:15). Now people from every nation, tribe, and tongue who trust Jesus can become a part of God’s covenant family. In the new covenant, we receive the forgiveness of sins and God’s empowering Spirit to lead the lost to Christ. Because of Jesus, we can live righteously and partner with Him as He renews the heart of the broken. The New Covenant is the promise that God will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him.

Under the New Covenant, we are allowed to receive salvation as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8–9). Our responsibility is to exercise faith in Christ, the One who fulfilled the Law on our behalf and brought an end to the Law’s sacrifices through His sacrificial death. Through the life-giving Holy Spirit who lives in all believers (Romans 8:9–11), we share in the inheritance of Christ and enjoy a permanent, unbroken relationship with God (Hebrews 9:15). We also have a responsibility to obey Him, follow His ways, will and truth. He remains God, and we God's spiritual children. We do not dictate the terms of the Covenant, for God is the author and mediator of the Covenant. Yet, we live in times where believers want to tell God what to do, and they want to dictate how they want to live, and what to believe in. We are then in violation of the Covenant, and we walk the dangerous road of rebellion! 

How can believers be a danger to the kingdom of darkness if they walk in the dark and do not honour their King, His ways, truth and will? How can we truly pierce the darkness and set the captives free when we walk in rebellion, and violate the covenant because of our pride? Make no mistake, dictating to God how we want to live is pride in action. Yet such pride is rebellion against God. 1 Samuel 15:23 (NIV) says, “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” If we walk in rebellion, we might as well be practisers of divination, or in other words sorcery! Since the kingdom of darkness is a system of the occult (sorcery), how then can we destroy demonic strongholds and tear down anything that exalts itself against God?

If we love God, we must love the Covenant, meaning to obey, follow and yield to the Spirit. Then we shall move in God’s glorious power and by His authority. We cannot be engaged in the spiritual war if we continuously violate the Covenant, for then we mock God. We cannot live in the dark and the light, for then we are neither hold nor cold for the Kingdom. We then play a dangerous game, and such a game within the spiritual realm takes no prisoners.

Remember, Christians are united with Jesus Christ in His resurrected life (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:4). The apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians to understand “the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:19–20, NLT). A little later, in Ephesians 2:4–10, Paul explains that the greatness of God’s incredible power toward believers is rivalled by the magnitude of His love, mercy, and grace.

Before salvation, we were spiritually dead in our sins because our “sinful nature was not yet cut away,” but then God made us “alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins” (Colossians 2:13, NLT; see also 1 Corinthians 15:22). Our transgression no longer separates us from God (Colossians 1:21–22; Romans 8:38–39) because we now share in the life of Christ (Romans 8:11). Since Christ is seated “at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms,” so too are we in a spiritual sense. Since we have been “raised to new life with Christ,” we can now set our sights “on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand” (Colossians 3:1, NLT). Physically, we still live in the natural world. But God, by His great power, and because of His immense love, mercy, and grace, raised us from our spiritually dead status to new life in Christ. We now sit in heavenly places.

To sit in heavenly places is more than a figure of speech. It is a spiritual reality for the believer. Because of our union with Christ, we reap the benefit of His position of divine authority (see Psalm 110:1; cf. Acts 2:34–35). He is our Head and our Representative. Peter taught, “Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority” (1 Peter 3:22, NLT; see also Philippians 2:9–11). The gates of hell will not overcome the church (Matthew 16:18; see also 1 John 2:13) because we are more than conquerors through Christ (Romans 8:37; see also 1 John 5:4–5) who gives us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Our spiritual seat in the heavenly realms is a position of high honor. We have been given the royal privilege of being enthroned with the Son and will one day partake of His glory. If we let this spiritual truth sink in, it will change the way we think and live. Because we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, our position in heaven is secure, but we must never forget that we don’t deserve our place there. We did nothing to earn it, but God graces us with it anyway (Ephesians 2:8; 4:7; 2 Corinthians 3:5).

As we sit in heavenly places while still living on earth, we have access through Jesus Christ to all of heaven’s privileges and spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3–14). The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is available and working on our behalf as we walk in this world (Ephesians 1:18–19; Acts 17:28; 1 John 4:9). We have the whole armor of God at our disposal to help us “stand against the devil’s schemes” and stand firm “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:11–12).

Yet, it is important to remember that if we truly want to operate in power and authority based on such a position, we need to uphold the Covenant. We need to remember we need to remain (abide) in Christ to be seated in such a place. It is because of the Covenant that we enjoy such a seat of honour. Do we truly think we can move in God’s authority and power, based on such a position, if we violate the Covenant and choose to not ‘live’ Christ? Today some believers do not follow God’s truth, who are not even filled by the Spirit of God, and who do not even know the Word of God. How can then we operate from such a spiritual position – ruling and reigning in partnership even now with Christ – if we choose to live in the dark and walk in the light? We simply mock the Covenant and find ourselves at the mercy of a ruthless predator who loves it when people rebel against God and who walk in pride.

Considering to what lengths God went to achieve His master plan through the covenant, surely He then deserves all our attention, devotion and love? The Lord reminds us He is always to be our first love. As the Father called Israel to love Him as their First Love, still today He deserves all our honour and praise. He is a jealous God, and when He speaks, we should listen and we should obey. The greatest commandment in Matthew 22 is clear: “37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.” Exodus 20:3 says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” We are called to love God above all else. He is called to be our first love.

Of the greatest commandment, we read in Mark 12 (NIV): “28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

What Jesus said in Mark 12 is what Moses said in “Deuteronomy 6: 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” God doesn’t change. Of Israel under the Old Covenant, He called them to serve and love Him with all their strength. Of the disciples under the New Covenant, the same applies.

We are called to lead a life that upholds the Covenant of God, all day and every day. And then we shall shake the gates of hell and we will have a lasting impact in this world. By upholding the Covenant, we move in His power and authority. We uphold the Covenant by serving God with all our strength. Do we serve and love God with all our strength? For if we do, then we must make every effort, day and night, to obey God, to follow Him, to love Him, and to serve Him. Then and only then do we uphold the Covenant and we can drive back the darkness. We must do so with every ounce of our strength, with every ounce of conviction, and there must be no room, none whatsoever, for the world to steal our love for God, or our devotion, loyalty and faithfulness. To love God with all our strength (might) is to constantly all the time seek His will, His ways and truth. It calls for us to pay attention to God, to be serious about Him above everything else and to love Him as our First Love.

God is our Life, our Hope and our Strength. Praise Him. Love Him. Obey Him, Seek Him. Know Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Our God is mighty and awesome! He desires for us to fellowship with Him, to share our hearts with Him and to yield our life unto His loving embrace.

Yes, there is a cry from the Lord for believers to again take Him seriously and to fear Him. Yes, fear Him! This is something hardly preached on anymore, yet the beginning of wisdom is to fear God. There is a cry from God for believers to once again seek holiness and purity. There is a cry from God for believers to once again hunger for God and to put the world aside once and for all. There is a cry for obedience - complete and utter obedience and to seek after the perfect will without argument or making excuses. For sadly, a deep complacency has set into the church like rot - a complacency of disobeying God as if He can be toyed with or be mocked. It is complacency in engaging in idolatry, and not considering how we provoke God to jealousy.

We have to be reminded God is always the same and He never changes. He is still the Almighty and His Truth forever stands the time. Yet, more than ever, we have become nonchalant when it comes to dealing with God. Have we truly forgotten who He is? Do we truly love Him? Are we still madly in love with God? Is He our all and everything, all the time? Is He truly our first love? The commandment not to commit adultery also highlights the importance of not committing spiritual adultery, for this then violates the first two commandments of the 10 commandments! For spiritual adultery is idolatry, meaning we do not regard God as our first love.

Our entire life should be devoted to God, and we should be jealous of anything that steals our devotion and adoration reserved for God. We should be passionate about guarding our devotion, and be careful of anything that robs our attention of God. Yes, we must revere the Covenant, and walk by its spiritual truth. We serve god not because of duty, but because we have a Covenant with God. By that Covenant, we are in partnership with God. By the Covenant, God works with His children to establish His Kingdom, and to destroy the demonic strongholds and darkness in the hearts of man.

We cannot serve man and God. We cannot serve the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do, we bow before two altars. If we do so, we burn with God’s fire and profane fire. It is time again that we return to the Covenant by committing our very lives again to the Lord so that there is a cry in our hearts we will serve no other God and that He is our First Love and He is our Master and Lord! There is only the Covenant with one spiritual master that should be in place – and that is with God. We must love a mighty covenant-making God, for by the covenant of the Lamb we have life and life in abundance.

The saying “a match made in heaven” speaks of a relationship or pairing where each member perfectly complements the other. God in His infinite wisdom long ago had a master plan of a royal wedding between Himself and a Bride, and this relationship is a match made in heaven. After all, the Lord is our Bridegroom, and those who belong to Jesus Christ are His Bride. The Lord is perfect, so the marriage He has proposed and designed is meant to last forever. We are His Bride because of the Covenant that was ratified by the Blood of Jesus!

Think about it. We are the Bride. He is the Bridegroom. We are called to love Him, serve Him and follow Him. He must be our First Love. Why? Because of the Covenant. By that Covenant, we are not only saved, but we enjoy His presence, company and fellowship. He protests and provides for His Bride. If we violate and dishonour the Covenant, we dishonour our Bridegroom.

Those who believe have been included in Christ when they heard the message of truth, the gospel of our salvation. As we believed, we were marked in the Lord with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (read Ephesians 1:13). So the moment we hear the message of the gospel and receive salvation we are betrothed to Christ. The Lord is the perfect Bridegroom, and He knows who His Bride is. Such a Bride is sold out for the Bridegroom, seeking to be with Him and to love him for all eternity. Our eternal life begins that very moment of betrothal. There is, however, time between now and when we reach our eternal destination. Keep in mind the betrothed bride is already considered married to her bridegroom.

This church—the Bride of Christ—is not one specific local church or denomination but the entire body of believers throughout the ages. All who have trusted the Lord and received salvation by grace through faith are collectively His Bride. Paul also refers to the church as a virgin waiting for her bridegroom (2 Corinthians 11:2) and uses the relationship between Christ and the church as an example of the importance of wives’ submission to their husbands (Ephesians 5:24). Take note of the word “virgin”, for it implies that the Bride is not supposed to be “sleeping over” before the coming of the Bridegroom. To “sleep around” is a form of adultery and we betray our Bridegroom. We do so by loving things or people or sins or even false gods above the Bridegroom. This is idolatry. We betray the Bridegroom’s love when we flirt with the world, and ‘climb into the bed’ with the world by giving in to its seductions and temptations.

As the Bride today, we must remain faithful to Christ, for we have been reborn by the Spirit just as Jesus was born by the Spirit. We are called to lead the lost to the Bridegroom, but not become ‘pregnant’ by fornicating with the world and its pleasures and sins. A life led in rebellion to Christ is a life in danger of being doomed to the eternal fires of hell.

As the Bride, we are called to have only one true eternal love – Christ. Marriage is an institution introduced by God Himself, so that in marriage between man and woman we may know and understand the spiritual marriage between Christ and the Church. Christ must be our first love, but earthly marriages remain important, for it upholds God’s love for the family, and those who marry can understand more deeply the sanctity of such a union. Such a sanctity of union we enjoy our Bridegroom, who sealed the Covenant (Betrothal) with His Blood. Yes, the Bridegroom loves the Bride so much that He was willing to die a horrible death on the cross for our freedom! What an incredible Bridegroom we serve!

In the letter to Ephesians, Paul compares the marriage of husband and wife to the union of Christ and the Church. As a Jewish Christian, Paul understood that the fundamental shape of salvation history as a whole is nuptial (used to refer to things relating to a wedding or to marriage). In the Jewish tradition, salvation begins with the wedding of Adam and Eve, when the bride is created from the flesh of the bridegroom. Since then, all of salvation history has been the unfolding of God’s covenantal relationship with His people.

The relationship between God and Israel is also a model of marriage. God’s covenant with Israel reveals the union of the Creator with his chosen people whom He has set apart. Similarly, Judeo-Christian marriage is a covenant that both unites together and sets apart from the rest. In both God’s covenant with Israel and the marriage covenant, the acknowledgement of something holy and extraordinary inspires an enduring promise.

The Lord Jesus is our Bridegroom, the Lover of our soul, and we are His Bride! It means that we share His love. It means we bear His Name. In marriage, the bride takes the name of the bridegroom, and the same is true with the believer who becomes united by faith to Christ. We are called to uphold the name of Jesus. Through our actions, words, behaviour and conduct, we must bring honour to the name of our Bridegroom! This reality we need to ponder. We are His Bride, and as such, we must bring honour to our Bridegroom. We must not put Him to shame. What He loves we must love. He must be ours and captivate our attention day and night. In any true marriage, the bridegroom and the bride give themselves to each other, unreservedly and forever; and in this holy relationship of the saved sinner and the Saviour, it is the same. It is not only true that we are His, but it is also gloriously true that He is ours.

In marriages, the man and wife make all kinds of promises, such as loving each other until death do them part. Sadly, if we look at the rate of divorces and how marriages fall apart, such a commitment of “loving until death” holds little weight. Yet this is not true with our covenant with God. This is not something that should be taken lightly. The true Bride is in for the long haul, and even death will not separate us from the Bridegroom (Romans 8). God’s Bride has been called to be with the Bridegroom for all eternity. And this will happen because those who are part of the true Bride do love the Lord and seek to be with Him day and night. This is after all a match made in heaven, so no devil or demon or earthly power or force can destroy such a love.

So yes, the Covenant is important! We must also consider the following Scripture: “2 Corinthians 4: 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” We must be vessels of God’s Glory, but such vessels are the spiritual and living arks of the covenant. We are also called to be jars of clay, so, let us look at a clay pot. Let me explain.

In the days of Moses, there was the physical Ark of the Covenant. God made a covenant (a conditional covenant) with the children of Israel through His servant Moses. He promised good to them and their children for generations if they obeyed Him and His laws; but He always warned of despair, punishment, and dispersion if they were to disobey. As a sign of His covenant, He had the Israelites make a box according to His own design, in which to place the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. This box, or chest, was called an “ark” and was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. The Ark was to be housed in the inner sanctum of the tabernacle in the desert and eventually in the Temple when it was built in Jerusalem.

Hebrews 9:4 says that the ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. The stone tablets were those on which God had written the Ten Commandments. Today, we as God’s people carry as living arks of covenant the spiritual manna of life by the Spirit. Yes, we are now by flesh and by the spirit the living arks of the covenant, and we carry God’s truth (His commandments) within our hearts. After all, John 15 admonishes us to abide in God, so that He may abide in us. As we abide in the Lord, we abide in His provision (the manna), His commandments (The Word of God) and we enjoy His protection (the staff of the Shepherd).

Within us, as the arks of His Glory, should reside the Word and Truth [Manna] who is Jesus, who is the embodiment of the Gospel and the Bread of Life; we should submit as under-shepherds and sheep to the authority of the Good Shepherd as we are led by His divine will and authority and grace [Staff]; we need to carry God’s truths and laws [Stone Tablets] with us, for they have been fulfilled in Jesus and presented to us in Scripture and upheld by the Holy Spirit. How we need to understand that we cannot be true arks containing God’s presence without standing in covenant with the Lord, therefore having taken our rightful place in the shadow of His Glory and Presence (Psalm 91).

Indeed, without the guidance and authority of God by His hand [Staff], as spoken about by David in Psalm 23, we cannot be true arks of the Covenant. How can we carry His glory if the stone tablets of the covenant reside not is us, just as Jesus said in Matthew 5 that the Law is fulfilled in Him? How can we carry His glory to manifest the golden glow of His Shekinah presence if we fail to live in continuous communion with our Lord and Saviour, who is the Living Waters, the Bread of Life and the Way and the Truth? How can we truly be carriers of His manifested glory if we fail to love Him as the Resurrected Lord and the Lord of the harvest? By grace, we have been called and redeemed, and by grace, we are brought into His fold, and by grace, we enter boldly into His presence. Yet there in His presence, we not only bow down to Him as our Healer and Deliverer, but we need to lay down our crowns, deny ourselves and take up the cross. In Psalm 23 we are reminded that the Lord is our Rod and Staff – meaning He must be our Good Shepherd, our Authority, our Master and He must guide and lead us.

Jesus Himself was the first true and complete living Ark of the Covenant, filled by the Spirit when He came to earth. He came to demonstrate how to live in Glory and how the Glory resides in us. He came to show how we, encased in the flesh so encase the Glory that resides in a fully awakened and fully revived and restored spirit. It is written in “John 6:56 Whoever eats my [Jesus] flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

The real significance of the Ark of the Covenant was what took place involving the lid of the box, known as the "Mercy Seat." The term ‘mercy seat’ comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to cover, placate, appease, cleanse, cancel or make atonement for.” It was here that the high priest, only once a year (Leviticus 16), entered the Holy of Holies where the Ark was kept and atoned for his sins and the sins of the Israelites. The priest sprinkled blood of a sacrificed animal onto the Mercy Seat to appease the wrath and anger of God for past sins committed. This was the only place in the world where this atonement could take place.

The Mercy Seat on the Ark was a symbolic foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice for all sin—the blood of Christ shed on the cross for the remission of sins. The Apostle Paul, a former Pharisee and one familiar with the Old Testament knew this concept quite well when he wrote about Christ being our covering for sin in Romans 3:24-25: "...and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." Just as there was only one place for atonement of sins in the Old Testament—the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant—so there is also only one place for atonement in the New Testament and current times—the cross of Jesus Christ. As Christians, we no longer look to the Ark but to the Lord Jesus Himself as the propitiation and atonement for our sins.

By His mercy and grace, we enjoy a covenant with God. By mercy, we have a relationship with God. By mercy, we may abide in Him and He abides in us. When this awesome God dwells in us, then His presence opens the path to victory, enables and empowers us to contribute to the end-time harvest, and teaches us to walk in His laws and He will deliver us from the hand of the enemy. He is God and victory comes to those who stand with Him.

We cannot dwell in God’s presence if the self gets in the way – we need to do it in God’s way. This means upholding the Covenant, for this means following God’s will and ways. And for those who carry His glory, then there is perfect love and perfect love drives out fear. Praise the Lord!  And so David danced before the Lord with all his might, clad in a linen ephod – he humiliated himself for the “Self” was no longer an issue with David. In the presence of God there is no room for the “Self” but only the exaltation of God and Him alone.

Let us be carriers of His glory, with the Lord taking hold of us to His glory. For then there will be joy, deliverance, hope and love. Then we shall go forth into a broken world, unto a state of brokenness where the “Self” has been sacrificed, so that His Glory will shine bright and true light a lighthouse for those still navigating the storms of life. For just as the ark of the covenant carried the tablets and the rod, so we as the living arks of the covenant must carry His Sovereignty and teachings and commandments within us all the time. For then we will truly become vessels of glory, for we will be covered by the gold of godliness that comes by the Covenant.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Yes, we must also be like this Ark. We must always remain like earthen jars [humble], but we must allow God’s glory to work in us so that His glory covers us [Covenant]. Then we will truly become like earthen vessels covered by Gold, just as the Ark was covered by Gold. The only difference is that beyond the gold of godliness, remains the human and earthly fabric of the earthen vessel. In essence, we remain but mortal and sinners, but when we come to God and live in Him, we come under the Covering of the Covenant, and so walk in His Glory and we become new beings covered by His Glory.

And so thus we are called to be His Arks of Covenant, where we carry His teachings and commandments within us, always seeking to obey. We need to walk in holiness so that His Covenant is secure, and we need to walk in submission to our Shepherd, our Leader, our Master and our Great Hope. For just as the ark of the covenant carried the tablets and the rod, so we as the living arks of the covenant must carry His Sovereignty and teachings and commandments within us all the time. For then we will truly become vessels of glory, for we will be covered by the gold of godliness that comes by the Covenant.

How we need to make room for God so that He may bestow His rich favour upon us. The Lord is calling us to be vessels of honour to His Glory so that His abundance can overflow in the containers which are our lives. When we truly walk in His, embracing His truth and commandments, blessings will flow out of us, and there will be enough blessings within our life for the overflow of the spiritual and physical bread.

Word of warning

Just as we as the Bride are called to uphold and honour God’s Covenant, we must also be acutely aware of false covenants that hamper our spiritual growth. Such covenants lead us away from God and lead us down a path of darkness. We cannot build on a pure and holy foundation if we engage in false covenants, for then our foundation will crumble and we be destroyed for our rebellion and idolatry.

Again, consider that a covenant is a contract or treaty. Do you know people make a covenant with the devil or demons for power? Do not be shocked, but even spiritual leaders in churches make covenants with unclean spirits to gain supernatural power! There have been for a long time plenty of rumours how influential celebrities make covenants with entities in spiritual darkness to gain fame and fortune. These are not just rumours but confirmed countless of times by those in the occult who have been saved from darkness. It is not just celebrities, but a lot of people make such alliances to lead long lives, to curse their enemies or to enjoy great wealth. The problem is, where God is good, the devil or a demon also seeks to destroy, to kill and to steal.

Make no mistake, there are plenty of ungodly covenants that have been made in the earth, as man pursues his dreams, ambitions, and selfish desires. People even made false covenants when they condone, advocate, support or follow false religions, ungodly organisations, cults, sects or esoteric teachings (such as the mystical practices of the East).

Weekly people sign a letter of membership at a church. That is actually signing a covenant, and such a covenant tells you to actually uphold the traditions, cultures, truth and ways of that particular church. Covenants between believers can be powerful where it upholds the Covenant with God, but what if the culture, the truths, the doctrine, and the ways of such a church do not align 100% with God or His Kingdom. You then become part of a curse, for they proclaim a different Gospel or truth. They uphold not the values of Christ, but the values of their own kingdom.

For example, during the mid-1970s, a small group movement called the “discipleship movement” became popular in the United States and other western nations. Good discipleship principles were sometimes overshadowed by unhealthy one-on-one relationships where leaders required those under their authority to get their approval before making decisions such as dating, marriage, and even visiting relatives during holidays! In some cases, families were split apart and lives turned upside-down. This movement led to unbiblical obedience to human leaders. The leaders twisted the biblical principle of accountability by stepping into others’ lives and attempting to make decisions for them. Occasionally, believers moved halfway across the country to follow their “spiritual parents” to a new location. They were told they were “in covenant” with their spiritual leaders and could not be separated from them.

We must uphold the holy covenant, which is a promise on the part of God. The only covenants that are holy and last for a lifetime are the one we have with Christ (to serve Him completely) and a covenant we have with our partners (in marriage). For those who stand in Covenant with God, stand in agreement and unity with each because of that covenant. We need to be carful of unholy covenants that lead us away from God. After all, an unholy covenant is made with a person or group that hinders one from obeying the Holy Spirit's leading in his life. 

The adversary of all mankind is a deceiver. The devil lures people into covenant relationships by promising what he cannot deliver with the goal of stealing their God-given dominion. When anyone enters into a covenant relationship with the devil, such individual surrenders his/her God-given authority to the devil. Just as God demands that any covenant made with Him be fulfilled even when such covenant is made in haste, so does the devil have the absolute right to enforce any covenant made with him. The devil will torment such an individual who tries to breach any agreement made with him without mercy.

Remember, every covenant has some consequences which must come to pass upon violation by any of the parties involved (Deuteronomy 28: 15-68). An exchange of precious things and taking an oath by the parties involved in a covenant places a seal on that covenant (Hebrews 7:22). When blood is involved, it is a serious issue. For example, it is a common practice among kids to have a blood covenant as a sign of friendship forever and many have ignorantly brought misery upon themselves as a result of such covenant. Sexual relationship outside marriage is another example.

It is also important to note that covenants made by generations before you may be binding on you and the generations after you (Exodus 6:5, Hebrews 7:9-10). These are called generational curses. That’s why we need to pray and destroy every ungodly covenant that must have been made in our behalf by generations before us.

At the end of the day, every covenant made outside God is a violation of God’s words (Exodus 23:32). God is a covenant keeping God and His covenant stands forever (Deuteronomy 4:31, Exodus 6:5), while all ungodly covenants should be annulled and its false altars destroyed. We can be free because every covenant outside God can be broken and made of no effect by the blood of Jesus.

The covenant by the blood of Jesus is greater than any other covenant (Matthew 26:28). Only those in Christ are covered by this covenant. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you have the opportunity to do it now and take advantage of the new covenant by His blood shed on the cross at Calvary for you and me. It is only then you will be able to destroy every past covenant that you must have entered into (Hebrews 7:22, 12:34).

Where we have violated God through disobedience, rebellion or false covenants, we need to confess our sins (or those of generations before you) for breaking God’s law by entering into ungodly covenant. Ask for forgiveness and mercy. Plead the blood of Jesus upon you and your household. We simply cannot walk in God’s presence, His goodness, His Kingdom and His glory if we have violated His covenant by running after other gods and unholy treaties or alliances. May we truly hunger for God’s Word, and His Truth and to be obedient to His everlasting Covenant. We are the Bride of the Lord, so let us act in such a manner, instead of acting like a harlot. As we uphold His Covenant, the foundation of our spiritual growth will be secure, and strong and bring glory to the everlasting King of kings.

Week 1: Hungry for God’s Presence

Psalm 61: 4 I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.

King David was certainly not a perfect man. Yet, he deeply loved the Lord. His entire life was built upon the foundation of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are plenty of Scriptures that reveal his incredible love for God and how life for him was all about abiding with the Lord.

It says in “Psalm 84: 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

David makes it clear he is not interested in fame or fortune. Only to be with God. Only to be in His presence. For in God is our hope and our strength. Jesus is the hope of glory, not man, and nothing else. And so David cries out to God that even if he must a doorkeeper then that is fine, as long as he is in the court of God and not dwelling in the tent of the wicked. David, who wrote the beloved Psalm 23, makes it clear all that is truly important is for us to know the Lord, to walk with the Lord and to dwell in His courts, thus His Presence.

This was his heart’s cry in Psalm 61, and also Psalm 63 which reads, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.”

So often we have to ask this question, why do we serve the Lord? Is it to be blessed, to become known by others, to maybe be seen as someone with status or power or influence? For David it was simply about being with God, even if he has to be a doorkeeper. Remember, this was a king, but for him his crown didn’t mean much. He just wanted to be with God. He was willing to be nothing as long as he was with the Lord.

We read in the John 15, “4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

In Greek, the word abide is Meno, which means to remain, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, to continue to be, not to perish, to last and to endure. So firstly, when we read of abiding, the Lord is speaking about not departing from His presence. It speaks of continuing, in reference to time, to be within His Glory, and within His Glory to remain so that we are kept within His Divinity. And as we are kept, we shall not perish, and as we shall not perish, we shall endure. This is vital to understand – for our life, for our wellbeing, for our perseverance and strength depend on abiding, and resting in the Lord. In our own strength, we cannot endure, or enjoy abundant life.

Take note again of John 15 which says the following: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless I abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me ...” and also we can do nothing unless we abide in Him. So the Lord says in the Scripture that one cannot bear fruit in one’s power unless one abides. The fruit specifically deals with Galatians 5, which is the fruit of the Spirit. Now consider how a growing baby in the womb in itself cannot grow or develop but is completely dependent on the mother. Just so, we cannot spiritually grow, develop or become mature as disciples unless we continue to abide in the Lord, and this is what is underlined in John 15.

Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. Yes, we can only bear fruit and glorify God when we ABIDE in the Lord, for again the Lord says if we abide not in Him then we can do nothing. Our entire life and our calling are dependent on abiding in the Lord.

Hebrews 12 says (Amplified Bible): “1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, 2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].” Yes, we must make every effort, no matter the cost, to abide in God and not be distracted from such a noble quest.

When we speak of the word abide, the Lord shows the image of a growing foetus within the womb.  Now, consider how while a baby is in the womb, it is situated within the amniotic sac, a bag formed of two membranes, the amnion, and the chorion. The foetus grows and develops inside this sac, surrounded by amniotic fluid. The baby is constantly cared, for, constantly protected, provided, nurtured, and the baby is safe, and while within the care of the mother, the baby shall not perish, and the baby shall last until the determined time of birth. The baby enjoys life, and the hope is alive and true.

And this is how it is with the believer when we ABIDE in the glory of the Lord, where His very glory, divinity, power and majesty are like an amniotic sac. And while we are WITHIN His Presence, - abiding and habitually resting – we are protected, provided, nurtured, and we GROW. Yes, we develop, and we become spiritually strong because we are in God and God in us.

We also need to keep the image in mind when considering a baby in the womb – the baby is completely and utterly surrounded. The baby is completely encased and protected. This is the greatness of God. Just so, as we abide in the Lord, we rest in His glory as a baby rests in the womb –we are continually nurtured, provided, protected and we are surrounded by His Glory. Who then can touch or harm or destroy us when we remain in such a position when we abide and rest in His Glory?

This is after all the reality of Psalm 91. And take note, the baby will never seek to depart from the womb until the right time of birth. But we as disciples of God must continue to abide in the Lord following our spiritual birth, for as we remain in the Lord, we are positioned in the power of His consecration and sanctification for glorification.

In the stillness, and not in the noise, we find our peace and our strength as we listen, as we abide and we rest in His almighty presence. So often we have forgotten what it means to rest. To rest speaks of resting from your own efforts, and seeking to pursue your own path and your own will. To rest and to abide speaks of placing your life in the hands of the Lord, and allowing God to move you, to guide and lead you. Yet so often we would rather toil, instead of bowing the knee and trusting.

To abide and to rest in His Almighty Presence is like a leaf on the water. The leaf never resists where the water goes – it simply follows where the water leads. And just so we must be in the presence of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead. We must not resist the Lord, or His will, or His commands or His Truth, but we must be like that leaf that simply goes and follows.

In this week that lies ahead, may we truly thirst for God. May we truly hunger to dwell with Him, to walk in His presence and to abide in His Presence. As we rise in the morning till we sleep at night, may we long for God and may we yearn to be close to Him.

Week 2: Hungry to serve like Jesus

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

We live in a world where so many people are so concerned about their own lives, welfare and even status that they hardly consider the importance of serving others. The Kingdom of God is all about serving, for even Jesus as the Son of God came to serve. We need to develop a hunger to serve the Lord, and we need to become aware of the utmost necessity that to serve others is God’s love in action.

The world has known many great servants of humanity, like Mother Teresa, but none are greater than Jesus. When we talk about walking with God, then this speaks also of a heart to serve. After all, we are called as disciple of Jesus, and Jesus showed us what it means to serve. As He served His disciples through ministry. He served all mankind by dying on the cross for our sins.  Even a true leader is a servant. A leader within the Faith seeks not to exalt or glorify himself or herself but to lead others to Christ. Jesus was of course the perfect leader. He is the example we should try to follow.