GATHERED UNDER HIS WINGS

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate.”

Luke 13:34–35 (boldface mine)

There’s a beautiful picture hidden in verse 4 of Psalm 91. It’s a picture of a mother hen protecting her chicks. The Scriptures above record how the Lord Jesus looked at Jerusalem and lamented over it. Later, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43–44). The Greek word for “wept” in verse 41 is klaio, and it means to be so affected emotionally as to sob and wail aloud.

Can you see the Lord’s tender mercies toward Israel as He shed much tears over her? He wished that He could gather Israel under His feathers as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but the Lord could not force His protection on them because they rejected Him. I believe that as our Lord wept, He foresaw not only the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when the temple was burned to the ground and many of the Jews killed or sold as slaves, but He also foresaw the horrors of the Holocaust.

Notice that the Lord said, “But you were not willing!” This clearly tells us that the Lord will not force on us His protection if we are not willing to come under His wings. Beloved, are you willing to have the Lord Jesus protect you and your family today? Then tell Him. Let’s never take our Lord’s protection for granted. Instead, let’s take time daily to let Him know that we are putting our trust in Him for His covering and protection.

Do you want to know what happens when you do that? Look at what Boaz said to Ruth: “The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge” (Ruth 2:12). Wow! It was already a privilege for this Moabite outcast, who was disqualified by the law, to find refuge under the wings of the God of Israel. But God even rewarded her for doing so. In the same way, it is a privilege for us to be able to take refuge under His wings. Yet when we tell the Lord that we need Him and want His refuge, He gives us a full reward for trusting Him and for coming under His wings. What a God!  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission)

JESUS HAS YOU COVERED

Imagine the perfection of Jesus covering you from head to toe in the sight of God every moment of the day. Does that sound like a dream? My friend, that is your reality today because Jesus became your burnt offering at the cross.

In the case of the burnt offering, when the offerer lays his hand on the animal sacrifice (see Leviticus 1:3–4), the perfection and beauty of the unblemished sacrifice is transferred to him, and God sees and accepts him in the perfection of the animal.

In Hebrew, the word “accepted” implies being treated with favour, delight and acceptance. This means that you, for whom Jesus became a burnt offering, are treated by God with favour, delight and acceptance because the beauty and perfection of Jesus have been transferred to you. As your burnt offering, Jesus has made atonement for you on your behalf.

Jesus is your atonement or covering for sin. How precious Jesus is to the Father is how precious you are to the Father because when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus, your atonement, your covering.

So every day, take Jesus as your burnt offering. Come to God and say, “Father, I thank You that Jesus is my burnt offering. He covers me from head to toe with His righteousness. I thank you Father, that You see me without spot or wrinkle. You see me covered in all the value and perfection of the work of Your Son. What He is to You, I am. Who He is to You, I am. As He is now, so am I. I am in Him” (see 1 John 4:17)!

Jesus has you covered. You don’t appear before the Father with all your faults and shortcomings. Jesus proclaims to you what is right with you in spite of what is wrong with you because He has covered you with His perfection. Today, hear Him telling you, “Go, girl! I have you covered. There is nothing for you to worry about!” Hear Him saying to you, “Go for it, son! I am covering you. There is nothing for you to fear!”  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission)

WHAT IMPARTS FAITH

“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

Acts 13:38–39

Paul did not lay his hands on the crippled man at Lystra to heal him. The faith to be healed came from just listening to Paul preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when he simply responded to the apostle’s command to stand up, he was healed. While what Paul preached to the man was not recorded for us, we do have one of Paul’s sermons recorded word for word for us by the Holy Spirit in the preceding chapter (Acts 13:16–41). And the highlight or climax of that sermon is found in today’s Scripture.

Now, listen carefully to this: the power of the gospel that Paul preached to the crippled man is found in the forgiveness of all your sins for “everyone who believes.” There is no other qualification for being forgiven of all your sins. The old covenant was based on justification by works (obedience to the Ten Commandments). You had to perform to be forgiven. But the new covenant of grace is based entirely on justification by faith (believing in Jesus Christ). Can you see the radical difference? The demand is no longer on you, but on Christ. This is the good news: all who believe in Jesus receive the forgiveness of all their sins and are justified from all things! Good news? Hallelujah! There is no better news than this!

We have experienced this time and again in our church services. As people are sitting in the service and hearing the gospel of grace and Jesus’ finished work being preached, healing miracles break forth!

This has happened not just in our church services, but also in other places. One of my dear friends, Marcel Gaasenbeek, shared with me a wonderful healing miracle that took place in his car as he was driving to Romania with a few friends. Marcel is a pastor of a dynamic grace church in Holland, and on this particular day, he was on his way to Romania for a preaching engagement. He was listening to one of my sermons in his car, something that he did often.

Lulled by the monotony of the long drive, one of Marcel’s friends dozed off in the backseat. This friend had been involved in a jet ski accident some years ago, and since then he often suffered sharp pains in his back. Somehow, through the fog of sleep, he heard me preach this: “Jesus has already healed you and the devil is the one giving you lying symptoms in your body.” He said “Amen!” in his heart, agreeing that Jesus had already healed him by taking his sin and bearing his sicknesses and pains on the cross. At that moment, he felt the power of God go through him, and he was completely healed! All the pain in his back was gone!

That’s the power of hearing and hearing the gospel of Jesus. That’s how faith comes! The more of Jesus you hear, the more of His grace you receive. The more revelation you get of His finished work, the more you will receive an impartation of faith for any situation, even the seemingly impossible ones!  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission)

DON’T BE DUST-CONSCIOUS

DON’T BE DUST-CONSCIOUS

Imagine being bowed over for 18 years. All you would see is the dust on the ground. That was the predicament of the woman in Luke 13. Dust was all her eyes fell on, all the time, everywhere she went, until she became dust-conscious. Thank God she finally saw the beautiful feet of Jesus, who brought her good news and raised her up.

Now, dust is the devil’s food. The Bible tells us that God cursed the devil to eat dust all the days of his life (see Genesis 3:14). Dust represents death (see Genesis 3:19). The devil wants you to be like him—to fall flat on your belly, crawl and eat dust. To eat dust is to feed on your shortcomings and lack, until you constantly feel that there is so much in your life that you need to clean up. You may not be physically bowed over, but like the woman, you become dust-conscious and life every day is a struggle.

Having a dust-consciousness also affects the way you see others. You look at people’s faults all the time. You point out their shortcomings and rake up their past failures. When you are dust-conscious, you find your relationships robbed of peace and joy.

And if you, like the woman, keep looking at the dust, before long, that inward position of dust-consciousness becomes so entrenched that you become the devil’s food because dust is what he eats. God’s Word describes him as being like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (see 1 Peter 5:8).

If you don’t want to be devoured by him, then lift your eyes above the dust! Instead of looking at your failures, look to Christ who has delivered you from every defeat. See yourself the way God sees you—righteous and holy in Christ (see Colossians 3:12, 2 Corinthians 5:21). You are not dust because you are not in and of the flesh—you are in and of the Spirit (see Romans 8:9).

My friend, the more you realize who you are in Christ, the more you will straighten up and walk the way God sees you—a new creation with His authority, power and overcoming Spirit! (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission)

IF GOD IS FOR YOU, WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU?

IF GOD IS FOR YOU, WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

When the Almighty God is your loving Father and you are His beloved, what fears can you have? Fear of the future? Fear of sickness? Fear of death?

Beloved, when you have a revelation of how much God loves you and that He sees you completely righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, all your fears will dissipate, for if God is for you, who or what can be against you? What sickness can come against you and successfully bring you down?

So look away from your circumstances and call out without fear to your Father. He loves you and will never condemn you! Feed on His everlasting love for you and receive your healing from Him!  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission)

JESUS IS YOUR SWEET AROMA TO GOD

JESUS IS YOUR SWEET AROMA TO GOD

In Old Testament times, when a burnt offering is killed, its head is severed, the fat removed, and the entrails and legs washed. Then, everything is placed on an altar and burnt, and the sacrifice is a sweet aroma to God.

All this speaks of the death of Jesus, who has “given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:2).

The head of the sacrificed animal speaks of the mind of Christ offered as a covering for our minds. This means that although our minds are often clouded with unbelief, worries, foolishness, filth and human reasoning, God treats us as if we have the mind of Christ, without wrong or displeasing thoughts, bringing pleasure to Him like a sweet aroma.

The fat of the animal speaks of the riches of Christ, His best, for God equates the fat of something with the best of that entity (see Genesis 45:18). The fat of the burnt sacrifice speaks of Jesus giving us His riches, His best, as our covering. So God does not see us in our lack, but in the riches and excellence of Jesus going up to Him as a sweet aroma.

The entrails or intestines speak of Jesus’ motivations, feelings, affections and desires. We often feel fearful, anxious, stressed out or angry (and it affects our stomach and intestines). But God sees only Jesus’ feelings and desires, which are always pure, beautiful and acceptable to Him—a sweet aroma. The legs refer to Jesus’ perfect walk—His power to serve and obey the Father—imputed to our weak and faltering walk. And the fact they are washed shows that even our crooked walk has been cleansed.

Beloved, God does not see your foolish mind, weak nature, inadequate feelings or faulty walk. Instead, He sees you in the perfection of His Son, who gave Himself up for you as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God. (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries, used with kind permission). 

PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON JESUS' FINISHED WORK

PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON JESUS’ FINISHED WORK

I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

Romans 7:9–10

In 1942, C S Lewis wrote a brilliant book entitled The Screwtape Letters. It tells the story of a senior demon teaching a junior demon how to exploit man’s weaknesses and frailties. Along the same lines, I would imagine that Romans 7:9 is probably the most studied and memorized verse in hell. All junior demons would be taught this verse and the lecture would be titled, “How to bring about a revival of sin”! According to Paul, when you introduce the law, there will be a REVIVAL OF SIN! And that’s not all. Apart from reviving sin, the law also kills and brings death! Isn’t it amazing, then, that there are well-meaning ministers who preach strongly on the Ten Commandments, thinking that imposing the law would cause sin to be removed?

According to Romans 3:20, “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In other words, without the law, there would be no knowledge of sin. For instance, you can drive at any speed that you like on a road that doesn’t have a speed limit and nobody can accuse you of speeding. But once the authorities put a speed limit on the same road, you now have the knowledge that if you drive beyond say, 70 miles an hour on this road, you would be breaking the law.

In the same way, Paul said, “For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). That is why the enemy always pours accusations on you using the voice of a legalist. He uses the law and the commandments to show up your failures, to put a spotlight on how your behaviour has disqualified you from fellowship with God, and to constantly point out how you are undeserving of His acceptance, love and blessings! The enemy uses the law to heap condemnation upon you and give you a sense of guilt and distance from God. He knows that the more condemnation and guilt you experience, the more likely you are to feel alienated from God and to continue in that sin. The only way out of this vicious circle of defeat is to put the spotlight on the finished work of Jesus, who by His death at the cross took your condemnation and qualified you to receive God’s acceptance, love and blessings forevermore.