Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Power of the Word
After God elected Abraham in His heart, He called him and told him clearly: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12.1)
This was the first test of Abraham. He had to leave his homeland, his properties, his customs, his friends, in short, he has to leave everything behind.
His surrender to God meant separation from his familiar world. God’s divine plans demanded his total departure from that place. The Lord could not shape and mould him according to His will, whilst he was subject to the influences of that society.
Getting him out of there and teaching him to depend on his faith in the promises of God was fundamental for the creation of a strong, invincible and unshakable nation.
On the other hand, to go out into the desert without a map and without a clue where he was going, was a true challenge to his faith. At first God gave him no direction where he would start, let alone direction to the north, south, east or west.
First, he had to leave the place where he was, and only then the Lord would guide him. Abraham had to learn to depend on God to provide the daily bread, day after day, through the desert.
Similarly the Lord Jesus teaches us; “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)
But follow Him where? It doesn’t matter! Whoever wants to follow Him doesn’t need to know where/ it is enough only to trust in His leadership. Christians live by faith, in other words, in the certainty that God will do exactly what he promised to do.
Ur was a city in Mesopotamia, the Land of the Chaldeans, situated between the river Tigris and Euphrates. It was a prosperous, important and well- developed city.
Abraham needed courage and boldness to give no ear to his relatives and friends, but only to God. The Lord Himself would guide him through the desert and show him the Promised Land. The absolute certainty that God would fulfill what He had promised was the only evidence that would beat in his heart.
Bishop Macedo
Monday, October 26, 2009
One Word!!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Righteous and The wicked
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Thief and Those Who Are Cursed
The Thief and those who Are Cursed
God is very clear when He identifies non-tithers as thieves, as people who are
cursed.
When parents curse a child for something he does wrong, that curse wreaks havoc
in his life for as long as he lives. Genuine conversion to the Lord Jesus is the only
thing that can free him from that torment.
Imagine what happens when God Himself labels a thief as cursed.
Obviously He does not curse anyone. But when you persist in being a thief, you’ve
chosen to be on the team of the chief of thieves — the devil. And when you live in
the devil’s territory, God has no way of defending you. God has the authority to
deliver a person only when he, of his own free will, decides to move into God’s
territory! Then the Lord of Hosts comes into action and frees him from the devourer
and the curse. But as long as he remains a thief or lives in the territory of the devil,
his future will be governed by that curse.
It has been determined that the devil has no authority over the faithful ones of God
(Psalm 91). But when it comes to thieves, he has unrestricted freedom to destroy
and to lead them to hell.
The curse that God prophesied is addressed to the thieves of tithes and offerings.
The Devourer
This is how the devourer works. When there is theft a thief is present, and when a
thief is present, the devourer is at work to curse the work of people’s hands and
destroy the fruit of the earth.
It’s important to notice the name that the Bible uses for God in this passage. When
the authors of scripture referred to God, a common expression was: the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Israel—but in the text above we see
that God is referred to as the Lord of Hosts.
Why is this?
When the Bible uses the term Lord of Hosts it’s referring to God as the Supreme
Commander of the Armies of Angels. This makes us think of war, since the job of
an army is to defend its country and people. By identifying Himself as the Lord of
Hosts, God is declaring that He is the defender of the health, prosperity and wellbeing
of His people, His nation, His Kingdom.
This war is a battle that heaven wages against the powers of hell in defense of
God's people.
When it comes to people’s finances we’re not dealing with a simply case of a little
more or a little less prosperity. It’s battle between Light and darkness. After
creating all the marvelous wealth of the earth, God entrusted it to Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden and gave them Divine authority to rule over all things.
But with their disobedience, the devil seized their authority over the earth and
began to rule it himself. And yet the earth remains the property of the Almighty
and He gives it to those who obey His Word.
The faithful not only push themselves to stay far way from sin, they also regard the
Lord of Hosts as Lord of their lives! And when you give to God what is God’s, the
Lord has an obligation to fulfill His promises of abundance in your life.
A person’s intellectual capacity is not important, neither is a noble birth, whether a
person is white, black or Hispanic, young or old, male or female, widowed, single,
educated or uneducated...
None of this matters to God!
What pleases God is obedience to His Word by faith!!!
The Lord of Hosts has personally commanded His armies to fight against the
devourers who dare to touch the wealth of the obedient.
The armies of the Almighty are always ready to defend those who have made the
Lord of Hosts the Lord of their lives.
Because of this the people of God have the obligation to take back what belongs
to God.
It is totally unacceptable for the children of darkness to rule over the children of
Light!
Is it just for the children of God to be slaves of the children of the devil? This was
the situation of the children of Israel in Egypt!
In the Garden of Eden, Adam offered the devil his authority over the earth on a
silver platter. But in the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus was separated from
the Father and the Holy Spirit in order to rescue Adam’s former authority.
The tree in the middle of the Garden with the forbidden fruit belonged to God. It
represented the tithe. When he touched that fruit all communion with the Creator
was immediately lost.
The same thing happens when a person touches God’s firstfruits. When Adam and
Eve were expelled from God’s presence, they were immediately transferred to the
devil’s side. In other words, they were under the yoke of the one who came to kill,
steal and destroy: the devourer.
But when a person begins to obey God with his tithes and offerings, he is
immediately transferred to God’s side. Then God’s will comes to pass: Return unto
Me I will return to you...
And from that moment on that person has armies of angels under the command of
the Almighty to enable him to take possession of the Kingdom of God and all its
blessings.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Secret #1
Have you ever asked for yourself how you can prevail against all your enemies and problems? Which exactly should be the perfect step to be taken in order for you to claim your victory in every areas of your life? Well! These and many other questions have probably moved back and forth in the most inner of your mind and maybe up to this very moment you haven't found a suitable answer.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Faith of Abraham
Most people have faith in God, but not everyone has achieved success in their faith simply because their faith lacks foundation. When faith is based upon the solid foundation of the Word of God, it has quality. And it is exactly this kind of faith that we can call quality faith - a faith that promotes or brings a life of quality.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Do you know your Enemy?
Who is our Biggest Enemy?
Friday, October 9, 2009
The Devourer Spirit
There are different ways in which the devourer spirit can work and destroy people's financial life. He doesn't necessarily need to touch their money directly, he many times works in the mind, and how does he do that? Simple, he convinces you that your financial situation is not that bad as someone else's, he starts putting in your mind that if you don't have everything you want, at least you have something. Something that you can afford to living with, he destroys your strength and motivation of fight for something better than what you have. The devourer spirit makes you compare your financial life with someone who materially speaking has less than you do and then, he creates in your mind a false sensation of well being and conformism. Well, if you feel comfortable with your situation, where are you going to gain strength to fight for more?
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Doubt and fear
4 October 2009
Doubt and fear are the opposite of faith and courage. Whilst Good uses the voice of faith to encourage us, evil uses the voice of doubt to put us down. Whom should we follow? Whom should we serve? What decision should we make?
There’s only one way out of the fierce battle between these two voices: it’s to doubt the doubts!
To doubt doubts is to doubt the force of evil. When evil says: “Be careful”, “It might not work as you expect”, “It didn’t work for so and so”, our immediate response must be: “If God is with me, I want to see it with my own eyes that He is with me.” And then go ahead without fear.
This battle against doubt is fought inside of us, and that’s exactly where victory begins as well.
This is to fight the good fight of faith in order to take possession not only of a good life but above all, of eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12).
To believe in God is much more than to believe in His existence. It is to believe that He will do what He promised to do.
Bishop Macedo
Friday, October 2, 2009
Faith and courage
2 October 2009
Faith and courage walk together. There’s no faith without courage and there is no courage without faith. One depends on the other in order to conquer.
God told Joshua three times to be strong and courageous. Not strong in the physical sense, but spiritually, which is related to a person’s convictions.
Everything in life depends on faith and courage: faith to believe in oneself and above all, in God; and courage to put this faith into practice.
Faith must be focused on a person’s partnership with God—faith in him or herself and in God. When faith is focused only on God, it doesn’t work, which is the case with religious people. They learned to believe in God, but not in themselves. That’s why they lack strength to act out their faith.
Although Joshua had been called, chosen and anointed, he had to follow God’s advice in order to succeed. Because his success depended on this, God told him to be strong and courageous three consecutive times. Moses had also given him the same piece of advice, just as David did with Solomon (1 Kings 2:2).
Has this advice lost its meaning?
Every conquest, including eternal salvation, depends on the practice of this very same advice.
God’s command is: faith and courage. In other words, be strong and courageous.
God bless you all.
Bishop Macedo