OUR FATHER IS WORTHY OF PRAISE ( FROM PSALM 71 )
I will shout for joy O Lord
When I sing Your praise
I will tell of what You've done for me
All of my days
I will always hope in You
And praise You more and more
For though I've seen some bitter days
I've seen Your hand restore
You who've done great things for me
And blessed me with new life
Your power and Your righteousness
Reaches to the sky.
Amen.
MAY THE KING (FROM PSALM 72)
LONG MAY OUR GREAT KING LIVE
MAY HIS NAME ENDURE
AS PROTECTOR OF THE WEAK
DEFENDER OF THE POOR
MAY HE RULE FROM SEA TO SEA
REIGN OVER ALL THE EARTH
MAY ALL THE KINGS BOW DOWN
THE NATIONS COME TO SERVE
BLESSED BE OUR MIGHTY GOD
KING OF KINGS, RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY
MAY ALL PEOPLE PRAISE THE LORD
THE WHOLE EARTH IS FILLED WITH HIS GLORY
Amen.
OUR LORD WHOSE GREAT DAY WILL BRING RUIN TO THE KINGDOM OF SPIRITUAL BABYLON
Isaiah chapter 13 verse 7 reads as follows;
Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear.
This verse captures a subtle detail among the events that are recorded in the 13th chapter of Isaiah.
As the war in the spiritual realm between spiritual Babylon and the kingdom of Zion intensifies, the fallout of this war will spill over into the natural realm. These terrifying events will become visible to the people on earth and they will be overwhelmed with fear and their hands will go limp and their hearts will melt.
When humans are suddenly exposed to occurrences that exceed their sensory and processing capacity, they can go into a catatonic state where their limbs become inactive and they become unresponsive to the events that are unfolding around them.
Such will the day of the Lord be when God's spiritual army gathers to battle the kingdom of Babylon and bring her fraudulent claim over the earth to an end.
The earth will shake violently and the sun, moon and stars will not give their light. All of Babylon's structures and administrations will be laid waste and left as smouldering ruins.
Isaiah chapter 13 verse 20 says; "She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations;"
Babylon will fall and will never rise again.
Amen.
OUR LORD WHO WILL PUT AN END TO THE OPPRESSIVE RULE OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS OVER THE EARTH
Isaiah chapter 14 verses 3 - 5 says this;
On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended! The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
This passage foretells of a day that an oppressive regime of darkness called Babylon, will have gained control over the whole earth and will have brought enslavement and destruction to the people.
In due time, however, Babylon will be toppled by the Lord and the king of Babylon will fall.
All the oppressed people will be relieved of their harsh yokes when the king of Babylon is deposed and when all his power is destroyed.
The people will taunt the fallen regime when the ruling agents of the king of Babylon will also have had their power and authority stripped from them.
The whole world will be freed from under the foot of the oppressor by God and relief will be given to all the people of God.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO SENT US A DIVINE HELPER
Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 14 says this;
The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me.
In the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel recorded one of the most profound visions ever witnessed.
In his vision, Ezekiel saw four winged beings each having four faces and four wings and each being beside a wheel within a wheel and lightning flashed between the four beings in a brilliant display of the glory of God.
In chapter two, Ezekiel recorded the message that was given to him by the Son of God which foretold of the children of Israel going into captivity in a foreign land because of their rebellion against the Lord.
In this chapter, when Ezekiel saw the glory of God, he fell face down onto the ground. Spirit of God entered Ezekiel and helped him stand up while the Son of God spoke to him.
In chapter three, the vision came to a close and Ezekiel was lifted up by the Spirit of God and taken back to the banks of the Kebar River and put back among the Israelites there. He was in anguish for seven days as the things that he saw in his vision distressed his mind.
After some days, Ezekiel saw the Lord's presence again and again he fell face down and the Spirit of God propped him up again so that he could listen to the Lord.
We see the Spirit of God, on multiple occasions, upholding the Lord's servant when he had fallen and we see Spirit of God taking Ezekiel safely home after a terrifying encounter with spiritual beings.
The Spirit of God is the Divine Helper sent from God to help and support the Lord's servants.
Give thanks for the ministry of the wonderful counselor, the Spirit of God.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHOSE GREAT DAY APPROACHES
Genesis chapter 3 verse 9 says this;
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
In the garden of Eden, shortly after Adam and Eve had listened to the serpent and had eaten the forbidden fruit, the Lord God came to visit them in the cool of the evening and they were missing from where He usually met them and so God called to Adam, "Where are you?"
Adam and Eve had hidden themselves from God because they had eaten the fruit that they were not supposed to eat. They, after eating the fruit, became aware of their nakedness and they hid themselves from the Lord and from that moment on, lost their unfettered access to God.
After being expelled from the garden, the lot of the human race was the struggle for survival but the whole time, the Lord was asking mankind, "Where are you?" to see if anyone could be found who would turn to Him to be saved.
Most people, caught up in the distractions of life, forgot their God and did not look to Him to save them or protect them.
As Isaiah chapter 17 verse 11 says;
You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Isaiah 53 verse 6 says also;
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
However, the day approaches when all the work of redemption that the Lord has done through all the ages will culminate in the appearance of God in great glory.
Isaiah chapter 17 verse 7 says it this way;
In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
The God from whom we hid and who was hidden from our eyes will be seen and we will turn from our own ways and return to Him from whom we departed and who paid a so great a price to redeem us to Himself.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISE
Isaiah chapter 19 verse 11 says this;
The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”?
This verse highlights one of the ways that the oppressive kingdom of Egypt is defeated by the Lord.
Egypt, in this case, represents the kingdom of darkness that has been set up to oppress and enslave the people of God.
As the kingdom of darkness tries to gain the upper hand, the Lord sends to them a spirit of dizziness that confounds its advisors and counselors.
Even though these agents portray themselves as wise and knowledgable, they give nothing but senseless advise so that the whole kingdom is led astray.
Let us give thanks to God for confounding the wise so that darkness is unable to overcome light.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US A SAVIOUR
Isaiah chapter 53 verse 4 ( x 14 ) says this;
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
This profound messianic prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah foretold of the promised saviour who would arise in Israel.
This saviour would not present Himself as a triumphant King but rather, would be a suffering and tormented servant who would be subjected to pain and suffering.
Even though He willingly took on this severe punishment for our sake to pay for our iniquity, he was thought to be stricken and afflicted by God.
Our great tragedy is that our God visited us and we did not recognize Him. Instead, we despised and rejected Him. Instead of honoring the one who came to save us, we held Him in low esteem and His time with us was one of sorrow.
But our Father in heaven promised our Lord that His suffering would bring a great harvest of righteousness. As Isaiah chapter 53 verse 11 says;
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Let us humbly give thanks to our God who paid so costly a price for our salvation and that we were granted the knowledge of Him who would justify us.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO GIVES FAVOR TO THE HUMBLE
Isaiah chapter 66 verses 1 - 2 reads this way;
This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the Lord.
“These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
This passage starts with a presentation of the relationship between heaven and earth.
Heaven is the location of the administrational headquarters of Zion which is the name of the kingdom of God.
Whereas the Lord's throne is in heaven and He rules over His heavenly kingdom from there, He also rules the earthly portion of His kingdom from heaven as well.
At present, God's earthly kingdom is distributed in and amongst the kingdom of darkness and as it says in Psalm 110 verse 2; The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
Next in this passage, the Lord asks the human race, if given that he has sovereighty over heaven and earth, what kind of provision could mankind supply for him.
The Lord asks why he would need anything from mankind when everything in existence was made by Him.
If mankind cannot offer God anything that He cannot get for Himself and if the Lord is the one who provides everything, He chooses to give favor to those who approach Him with a humble and contrite spirit and who fear His word.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO COUNSELS US TO AVOID JUDGING OTHERS
Mathew chapter 7 verses 1 - 2 says this;
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
This passage reads like an axiom that governs the symmetry of judgement.
Simply said, if we judge others harshly or unfairly, we ourselves will be judged in a way that is commensurate with our own standard of judgement.
Jesus, speaking to his disciples and the multitude of people who followed him as well as we in the future, counselled us not to judge other people so that we may avoid judgement ourselves.
He advised us to take the plank out of our own eye before we undertake to remove the speck of sawdust from our brother's eye.
Such is the nature of acting in judgement over other people: We ignore our own glaring sins while prescribing action against the tiny sins of others.
Let us eschew judgement and always extend mercy and love to others.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO FAVORS HIS SERVANTS
Isaiah chapter 65 verse 13 says this;
Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.
God's servants will have plenty to eat and drink and will be filled with joy while those who provoked God to His face, will remain hungry, thirsty and filled with shame.
Whereas God implored the people to turn to Him, many continued with their practices of sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on altars and sitting among graves and keeping secret vigils.
They also carried out other occultic practices found in Isaiah 65 verse 11 that says; who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
The Lord will favour those who serve Him with peace, joy and plenty. They will draw near to God and He will draw near to them. As Isaiah chapter 65 verse 24 says; Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHOSE PROMISE SETS US FREE FROM SLAVERY TO THE LAW
Galatians chapter 4 verse 9 says this;
But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, was concerned about them because they had reverted to observing special days and months and seasons.
There were people who had come among them who were influencing them towards a form of legalism that included adopting practices that were not part of the gospel that Paul had taught them.
Paul called these, "weak and miserable forces" and asked the Galatians if they wished to be enslaved all over again by them.
Paul clarified the matter by conscripting the two women from the household of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar into an analogy.
Hagar was the slave woman who had a son with Abraham by the initiation of the flesh.
Sarah, Abraham's wife, was the free woman who had a son born by the power of the Spirit.
Whereas Hagar's son, Ishmael, oppressed and persecuted Sarah's son, Isaac, Ishmael was the son of slavery and was ultimately to be turned away. Isaac, the son of the promise, on the other hand, was himself, free and the heir of the promise.
Paul encouraged the believers in Galatia and us in the present time to understand that we were freed from slavery to the law and now, having been born again into the promise, are children of the promise and also heirs of the promise.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO PROVIDED FOR THE OUTREACH TO THE GENTILES
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians in the book of Galatians chapter 2 verse 9, says this;
James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
In this verse, Paul records the acceptance that he and his fellow servant to the gentiles, Barnabas, got from the esteemed pillars of the Church.
Apostle James, Apostle Peter and Apostle John had extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas because they realized that they had been given a special grace to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Having heard the message that Paul presented to them as the message he took to the Gentiles, they recognized that the same grace that was upon the Apostle Peter to take the good news to the nation of Israel, was also upon Paul to take the good news to the non-Israelites.
This accord facilitated the peaceful and unified effort of reaching lost people for the kingdom of God whether to the nation of Israel or to everyone else.
Bless the Lord who led the early church to recognize the necessity of reaching the Gentiles so that ultimately, we too could be reached for the kingdom of God.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO DOES NOT EXCLUDE ANYONE WHO LOVES HIM
Isaiah chapter 56 verses 3 - 4 says this;
Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—
This poignant passage continues on to reassure the foreigners and eunuchs in the land of Israel. Whereas they may have viewed themselves as being outside the main stream, the Lord addresses them and tells them that they are not excluded from His plans.
Th Lord tells the eunuchs who keep the Lord's Sabbaths and do what pleases Him that they are not to call themselves 'dry trees' because the Lord will give them an eternal memorial and a name that is better than sons and daughters.
The Lord then speaks to the foreigners who viewed themselves as outsiders and said that they had no destiny among God's people. The Lord speaks to these and says that they if they keep the Sabbaths and love the name of the Lord, He will bring them up to His holy mountain and fill them with joy and their sacrifices will be accepted because, as even Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56 verse 7, "my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO PROMISED A CROWN OF LIFE TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM AND WHO PERSERVERE
James chapter 1 verse 2 says this;
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
The apostle James, writing to the diaspora, exhorted them to regard the trials and difficulties they encountered as privileges that gave them the opportunity to persevere in faith which would ultimately make them mature and complete.
The struggles that they endured were agents of refinement that helped them to grow into strong believers and if they withstood their trials and loved the Lord, they would receive the crown of life that was promised by Him.
Amen.
OUR FATHER IS THE JUDGE (from psalm 75)
I will declare forever
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob
For the horns of the wicked will be cut
But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted
Exaltation is not from east or west
Nor from the desert rises
One brought down and another lifted up
God is the judge who appraises
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHOSE WAYS ARE HIGHER THAN OUR WAYS
Isaiah chapter 55 verse 9 says this;
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This verse records the words of the Lord describing His own mode of doing things and thinking about things as being elevated above our ways and thoughts.
In context, Isaiah chapter 55 verse 7 says that the Lord invites the wicked and the unrighteous to forsake their evil ways and thoughts. He counsels them to turn to Him and declares that if they do so, he will have mercy on them and freely pardon them.
The Lord says that by showing mercy to the wicked and unrighteous and freely pardoning those who repent and turn to Him, they will be transformed from noxious weeds and thorns into graceful and pleasant trees and be everlasting monuments to the Lord's renown as it says in Isaiah 55 verse 13.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHOSE PRESENCE INDUCES US TO BE REPELLED BY SINFULNESS
Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 14 says this;
The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me.
This verse contains the words of Ezekiel the prophet after he had been lifted up into the spiritual realm and given a message by the Lord to take to the children of Israel telling them to repent for their rebellion.
In the astonishing vision, Ezekiel had seen the majesty and glory of the Lord as well as the indescribable winged creatures that surround the throne of God.
After the events of the vision transpired, Ezekiel was lifted up by the Spirit of God and returned to the banks of the River Chebar where he sat in a state of shock for seven days because of the vision he saw and also because of the enormity of the task that he had been given.
The verse reveals an instructive item surrounding the spiritual encounter that Ezekiel had.
Ezekiel's spirit welled up in bitterness and anger against the sinfulness of Israel when the strong arm of the Lord was upon him. This implies that being in the arms of the Lord can confer God's negative responses towards sinfulness to us and as a result, we find sin intolerable.
This is reminiscent of when Isaiah the prophet first entered the presence of God and was suddenly overwhelmed by the awareness of his own sinfulness and the sin of the people he lived among. This detail is found in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5.
Bless the Lord who permits his servants to visit the heavenly realm and who shows us His holiness and majesty.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO HAS PREPARED INCONCEIVABLE THINGS FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11 says this;
For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The thoughts of a person are generated deep within their mind and are only accessible by the spirit of the person. These thoughts are inaccessible to everyone unless the thoughts are expressed through speaking them aloud or writing them down.
Likewise, the thoughts of God are inaccessible to everyone except to the Spirit of God. As 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 - 10 says;
—However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” —the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
So the Spirit of God, having access to the deep thoughts of God, reveals to us the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard and no human mind conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO EMPATHIZES WITH US
Isaiah chapter 63 verse 9 says this;
In all their distress He was distressed, And the angel of His presence saved them, In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them; And He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah the prophet, in this passage, revealed 0isome truths about the nature of the Lord.
First, we see the description of a reciprocal response that the Lord has to the distress of His people. When they were distressed, God experienced distress.
Next, we see that His compassion for His people caused Him to personally intervene and save them by the Angel of His Presence. He redeemed His people and He bore them up and carried them.
Such is the love of God for us. He empathizes with us and our distress is mirrored in Him and He moves by His great power to save us.
Amen.
OUR FATHER FILLS THE HOUSE OF THE BARREN WOMAN WITH DESCENDANTS
Isaiah chapter 54 verses 2 - 3 says this;
“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
This passage captures the words of the Lord to His bride promising her that she will be fruitful.
The Lord advises her to prepare her house to be filled up with people by stretching the tent curtains and lengthening the tent cords and strengthening the tent pegs.
She must make room for the multitudes who will be her descendants.
The influx of people into her house will overrun the nations and dispossess them and repopulate their desolate cities.
Bless the Lord who fills the house of the barren woman and makes her rejoice.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO BRINGS DOWN OUR OPPRESSORS
Isaiah chapter 19 verses 3 - 4 says this;
The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
The Egyptians, in this verse, are standing in for the world systems that oppress God's people and they, having undertaken to place God's people into bondage, will be undermined by the Lord and all their plans will be brought to nothing.
When the tide turns against them, they will lose heart and they will try make sense of what is happening to them by consulting mediums and spiritists in order to get supernatural explanations and strategies to overcome what is befalling them
While in this state of despondence, a fierce and cruel leader will be installed as king over the Egyptians to bring order and momentum to their evil plans but it will not work.
The Egyptians, however, will get a taste of the cruel treatment they meted out to Lord's people when they are ill-treated by their own evil ruler.
This will be part of the dissolution of the power that Egypt will have over God's people and in the end, Egypt will brought down and many will turn to the Lord.
Amen.
OUR LORD WHO JUSTLY GOVERNS HIS KINGDOM
James chapter 2 verse 9 says this;
But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
In this verse, the Apostle James, adjures the reader with a warning about showing favoritism.
James emphasises that believers who give special treatment and favour to the rich while demeaning the poor by, for example, instructing them to sit on the floor, are judging others with evil thoughts and would be numbered among the lawbreakers.
The poor, James reminds us, have been chosen by God to be rich in faith and are entrusted with spiritual riches that abound to those who move strongly in faith and will inherit the promised Kingdom.
To dishonor the poor is to wrongly invert the order that the Lord has ordained for the church which, as the body of Christ, should be guided by spiritual realities and not by what is seen in the flesh. Such conduct will invite judgement.
Bless the Lord whose manifold wisdom justly governs the affairs of His Kingdom.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO FORGIVES AND CORRECTS
1 John chapter 1 verse 9 says this;
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
This scripture contains a wonderful promise to God's people.
We are assured that our Lord will readily forgive us if we confess our sins and that he will do a work in us to purify us from all unrighteousness.
Once our sins are forgiven and covered, the Lord places us in circumstances and frames of mind to encourage us to eschew our sinful proclivities and pursue His righteousness.
He willingly forgives us and then gladly helps us get untangled from sin so that we can move from living in the flesh to walking by the Spirit.
Amen.
OUR LORD WHOSE SALVATION IS EVERLASTING
Isaiah chapter 51 verses 10 - 12 says this;
Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over?
Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass,..."
This passage gives the reason for the exultant and joyful hope that will fill the people of God.
He is the mighty God who had the power to dry up the sea and make a highway in its depths so that those the Lord was saving could cross over to freedom.
Such a display of power should give comfort to the people of God and should persuade them not to live in fear of 'mere mortals' because in comparison to the Lord, they are but grass.
The Lord's salvation is everlasting and those He chooses to be His people are annointed and protected. As Isaiah chapter 51 verse 16 says;
I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING
Daniel the prophet wrote of a vision that highlighted an enigmatic figure called "the man clothed in linen".
In the book of Daniel chapter 10 verses 5 - 6, this man is described as follows;
I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Later, Daniel chapter (14 x ) 12 verse 7, says this about Him;
The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
In this passage, the man was suspended above the waters of the great river Tigris and angelic figures who looked like men appeared on either side of the river. One of these figures asked the man in linen when the astonishing events in the vision would occur.
The sworn response was that they would occur for a period of a time, times and half a time which is interpreted as three and a half years.
The man in linen then said, "When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
This sombre statement suggests that the kingdom of darkness will unrelentingly press against God's holy people until a point is reached where their power will break and they will be brought down but when this happens, God's plan will be completed.
The period called "the end of the days" will have arrived as well as the time when God's people will be allotted their inheritance. This is detailed in words spoken to Daniel as recorded in Daniel chapter 13 verse 13;
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
Amen.
OUR FATHER MAKES A WAY FOR US EVEN THROUGH GREAT PERIL
Genesis chapter 39 verses 10 - 12, describe the hazard that Joseph was in when he was serving in his master's house.
His master's wife had been putting pressure on Joseph to begin a relationship with her but Joseph resisted her approaches. On this particular day, she finally got a hold of his cloak and decided to use it as evidence to falsely accuse Joseph of assaulting her as an act of spite against him. The passage reads this way;
And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
This incident reveals the dangerous situation that Joseph was in. He knew he could not acquiesce to his master's wife but to escape her, he had to leave his cloak behind and in doing so, was then subjected to false accusations.
Joseph had shown his faith in God by saying that to agree to her demands would be a sin against God as recorded in verse 9;
My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
Thus his obedience to God put him in great peril that could have cost him his life but ultimately, his obedience to God made a way for him to go from being a household slave to being the prime minister of Egypt.
Amen.
OUR FATHER WHOSE CALLINGS DEMAND RIGOROUS PURSUIT TO FULFILL
1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 3 says this;
This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me.
Paul's apostleship was being judged by others and he made a defence of himself in this chapter.
To start, Paul laid out the credentials that qualified him to be accepted as an Apostle. He was free, he had seen the Lord Jesus and he had people who had grown in faith through him who were the seal of his apostleship.
Paul asserted that further to that, he and his preaching companion, Barnabas, had not only conducted themselves as apostles in every way but had in fact, surpassed the standards of apostleship by relinquishing their rights for the sake of the gospel.
They had forfeited food and drink that was rightly due them for the sake of the gospel. They had also lived and traveled as bachelors to simplify their outreach.
They worked with their hands to supply their own needs rather than depend on those they preached to for their livelihood to ensure that there would be no hindrance to the preaching of the gospel.
Paul eloquently defended his apostleship and in doing so, showed us the demanding rigor of accurately fulfilling the requirements of the office which was entrusted to him by the Lord.
Amen.