“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

Sulojana and I were blessed to spend 7 days together in a cabin on the “thumb” of Michigan, close to Port Austin. It was the first time in nearly 25 years that we had taken the time to do nothing but rest on a holiday.

You may not be surprised to hear that simply unwinding was not easy. Coping with the deafening sound of silence was quite a task, but we did it. Other than a few excursions to the beach and a couple of trips to the neighbouring town on rainy days, we spent as much time as possible in the cabin—reading, writing, reflecting, soaking and sleeping.

It was quite an experience to simply rest and relax.

During this time, Holy Spirit reminded me of how much rest is valued by our heavenly Father. In the fourth commandment quote above, the people of Israel are told to “remember” the Sabbath.

God then reminds them what they need to remember. He takes them back to the very beginning and points out how He Himself rested for an entire day following the six days of Creation.

Was it because God was tired? Of course, not! He rested because He was setting a pattern for all of His Creation to follow.

Although, over the years, the “holy day” aspect of the Sabbath has turned it into a day of worship, the fact remains that the primary purpose of the Sabbath is for us to simply rest, to cease and desist from all labour.

Our bodies need down time to get us back up and motoring again. Our minds require rest to be renewed. And our spirits need a Sabbath to be refreshed by Holy Spirit.

That is the way God made us. That is how we are wired. It is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity.

Holy Spirit reminded me how easy it is for us to focus on observing the Sabbath by going to church and worshipping God and completely neglect the rest for which it was intended.

As a matter of fact, the word ‘holy’ simply means ‘set apart’. In other words, what makes the Sabbath holy is the fact that we choose to set it aside for God’s purposes, which begin with rest and end with worship.

You could call it “Idle Worship!”

Dear DWOD friend, as you advance toward your destiny, please make sure that you take the time to observe the Sabbath. Whatever you do, please do not neglect to rest as you must, as your Creator has commanded.

For when you do, you are following His pattern. And you will bring a smile to His face.

(For the record, I have decided to take Mondays off completely beginning Aug. 11. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.)

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.” (Proverbs 3:27)

Quick Quiz: Where in the Bible do you find the verse: “God helps those who help themselves?”

Correct Answer: Nowhere, even though many Christians have been known to quote it as Biblical truth.

Yet, in reality, “God helps those who cannot help themselves through those who can help them” would be closer to the truth.

Right from the get-go, God insists that His people go out of their way to assist those who do not have the means to provide for their own needs.

Here is one example: “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” (Deuteronomy 24:19)

To this day, we continue to honour His commitment to care for those who cannot take care of themselves, amen?

Whether it is assisting those in your family or church family with financial support, supplying your local Food Bank with provisions, adopting a child through World Vision or Compassion International, sending a portion of your harvest to the Foodgrains Bank as some farmers do—there is a host of ways to help!

Sometimes the resources needed are not material, but human. Thus you give freely of your time as a Big Brother/Sister, a volunteer caregiver at a nursing home, a helper with Habitat for Humanity—there are so many opportunities to do what you can for all who can’t do it themselves!

When Sulojana and I were at the Rising Fire Revival Camp last weekend, the Lord opened my eyes to see another way in which His servants honoured the desire of His heart.

Our friend Mark Redner, who carries an extraordinary healing anointing, hung around way past most people’s bedtime (including his own) and ministered to every single person who came up for prayer.

Incredible miracles were happening, the most notable of which was a woman who experienced an amazing turnaround in her struggles with MS and lupus among other ailments.

Pastor Mark was like the Energizer Bunny in the famous battery commercial—indefatigable, pressing in and pushing for healing. We found out the next day that he had stayed on till 1:30 a.m., two hours after Sulojana and I had left following his prayer ministry to us. Wow!

Mind you, this was not the first time I had seen a servant of God give himself away in this fashion. Peter Kumar and Darren Canning are two who simply will not rest until they have offered prophetic ministry to everyone in the room who seeks it—no matter how large the crowd, no matter how long it takes.

I found it quite fascinating to read how Eugene Petersen paraphrases this verse in The Message Version of the Bible: “Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God’s hand for that person.”

That was literally the case with Mark Redner’s ministry on Friday night. It is also exactly what happens when you step up and offer your help in any way at all to those who cannot help themselves.

Dear DWOD friend, as you advance on the road to your destiny, would you make sure that you do all you can for all who can’t? For when you do, you honour the heart of your heavenly Father and follow the example of your Lord and Saviour Jesus, who always ministered to all who came to him.

And the best part of it all? Your hands become God’s hands!!!

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6-7)

From time to time, someone will ask those of us who are used by God in prophetic ministry: “Why are you not saying anything negative to those receiving prophecy? Why are you not offering too many correctional words? After all, isn’t that how God spoke through prophets, according to the Bible?”

Yes, it is true that many prophetic utterances recorded in Scripture do indeed contain words of judgment, particularly in the Old Testament. However, the primary purpose of prophecy, according to the revelation received by the apostle Paul is threefold: “To build up, encourage and comfort.” (I Corinthians 14:3)

This morning, as Sulojana and I were relaxing on lounge chairs at a beach on the shores of Lake Huron, the Lord gave me a revelation of why He chooses to release more words that are “positive” in content than not.

It is all a matter of perspective, He said. To illustrate, He took me in a vision and placed me in front of a person who was a bona fide rebel who had willfully chosen to disregard the warnings he had received from others to repent.

Just as my eyes were glued on his sinful ways and my mind started making a list of all his violations, I suddenly felt myself being yanked out of my chair and going upward very slowly, until it seemed as though I had reached a cloud that was in the sky directly above the spot where we were lounging.

He said to me: “Look at him now and tell me what you see.”

Needless to say, from this lofty perch, he was barely visible and the details of his life were definitely not discernible. Indeed, all I could see was how he was cloaked by a shaft of sunlight.

The Lord said: “Now you are seeing him as I do.” He went on to say: “Jeeva, it is so easy for you to see him as he is in reality…but I see him as I created him to be. Your perspective is earthly, mine is heavenly. When you see him, you can easily stop with condemnation. When I see him, all I feel is compassion. That is why I give my prophets a picture of who he can be that they can release to him. Then Holy Spirit takes over and brings about conviction in his heart.”

At that point, I started to come back to earth. Funny thing, but when I looked at him after this encounter, all I could see was how he was clothed in the brilliance of righteousness.  The Lord had graciously masked his filthy rags from my eyes, so that I would prophesy from heaven’s perspective and release a vision of how the Father saw him.

It reminded me of the time when Peter was so full of guilt and shame over denying that he ever knew Jesus. Yet, when Jesus took him aside after He had risen from the dead, He said nothing about Peter’s failure. All he said was: “Feed my lambs…Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)

Jesus did not dwell on his sin of commission. Instead he dealt him a new commission. He prophesied destiny over Peter.

If we are indeed “seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), could we do anything else?

This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, He listens to us.  If we know that He listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from Him. (I John 5:14-15)

Mark Redner, pastor at The Oasis in the Ottawa Valley of Canada, made a statement on Friday night that stopped me in my tracks and gave me cause to pause.

Pastor Mark was opening up the Rising Fire Revival Camp in Thamesford, Ontario with a great message which included a list of shifts we need to make in our lives.

He pointed out how when it comes to prayer, we come to God with our list of needs, wants and desires and then posed this question:

“You know what’s on your list…but do you know what’s on God’s list?”

He followed it up with a supplementary question: “Have you ever asked God to tell you what’s on His list?”

Would it surprise you to hear that I was not the only one who had to push the pause button at that particular juncture in his talk?

You have to admit that this quite a shift we’re talking about here. Yet, he was, er, right on the mark with his pointed question.

For many Christians, prayer only goes one way—from earth to heaven. Yet, we have a Father in heaven who loves to communicate with us. He longs for moments when He can talk to us and share His heart with us.

If we stopped at the point of sharing our list with Him, then we do not give Him a chance to let us know the contents of His list, amen?

Mark Redner suggested that we simply ask God: “Father, what would you like me to pray for?” and then wait for Him to talk.

Once He reveals His list to us, now we are praying according to His will and when we pray according to His will, then every prayer is answered.

You may be surprised to discover that His prayer list is very different from yours! You may be praying according to what you think are your greatest needs, but His perspective may shock you.

When we were pressing in for healing three years ago after doctors discovered a huge polyp in my colon that was threatening to cause bowel obstruction, Sulojana was shocked to discover that God’s list called us to pray for a couple we had not even thought about for quite some time.

You see, a few years back, there had been a fall-out between us. Truth be known, there was still some residual anger and bitterness in our hearts.

Healing seemed to be our priority, but forgiving them was tops on the Father’s list. So, we prayed as He had directed. That prayer led to Him issuing a further directive: To contact them and initiate a process of reconciliation.

We did. We reconciled. Healing followed in an amazing way that we could have never imagined or orchestrated!

Dear DWOD friend, will you make this shift right now in your prayer life? You will be amazed how praying according to God’s list will change your life and accelerate you toward your destiny. You may also discover as we did that He will cross off items on your list in the process!

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

In yesterday’s DWOD, we discovered how an earthquake 19 miles (30 km) beneath the ocean floor triggered a tsunami that resulted in the loss of nearly 250,000 lives on Dec. 26, 2004.

When we dig a bit deeper, we find that the earthquake itself was triggered by a shift in the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust. In this particular instance, it was the Indian and Burma plates that shifted, leading to the earthquake.

Hard to believe, but all it took was a small shift deep down to have such a great impact. Geologists did not know that the shift had happened until the earthquake hit.

What does a shift have to do with your destiny, you ask?

Everything.

Consider this scenario. A boy and a girl have been going to the same school, the same church, the same games and dances since childhood. They know each other’s names, parents, siblings, likes and dislikes…in short, they know all the significant details of each other’s lives. They are good friends.

At one particular point in time, they begin to look at each other with slightly different eyes. It may have happened, just like that, one day. Or it may have been building up over a few days, weeks or months.

Now they see each other not just as friends for life, but as husband and wife. A period of courtship begins, wedding bells follow and a lifelong relationship of marriage begins.

What got the ball rolling toward holy matrimony? It was a shift in the way they saw each other. Once the shift happened within both of them, everything changed!

Think about how you became a follower of Jesus.

No matter whether you were raised in church or not, if you simply viewed Him as just a good man, a good teacher, a miracle worker, reformer or whatever else, nothing changes.

And then one day, you see Him for who He really is—the Saviour of the World! No matter where it happened—at a crusade, a church service, a youth camp, a café, your home—once that shift took place within you, then nothing could hold you back from receiving Him as your Lord and Saviour.

Now that the Holy Spirit has engineered this shift, everything changes. You are born again, you become a new creation and the adventure of Christian living begins!

Even as you continue going down the Christian journey, more shifts follow.

One of the shifts that happened in my Christian walk was the day I heard Pastor Steve Long point out that if Jesus, as a human being like me, lived a supernatural life through the power of the Holy Spirit, so could I!

Not only did he teach this at a pastors’ gathering, he then went on to demonstrate it. When I saw a woman with excruciating back pain leave that meeting pain-free, my life had changed forever.

Of course, I did not know that it had…but the shift had happened within me. There was no going back. (You can read more about it here.)

How about you, DWOD friend? Can you think of similar shifts that have changed everything for you?

Praise God! Would you please share them with the rest of your DWOD family? Thanks in advance.

 

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:6-7)

Do you remember the tsunami that caused widespread global devastation on Dec. 26, 2004? How could you not, eh? Perhaps you were affected personally by this unexpected avalanche of water upon the land, as members of Sulojana’s family were in the southern tip of India.

What is the first picture that comes to your mind when you hear the word “tsunami”? Chances are you saw a huge tidal wave such as the one that accompanies this DWOD.

Granted it is an awe-inspiring sight to see a huge wall of water come barrelling toward land.  But that is not how a tsunami gets started.

Here is how one expert explains it: “A tsunami is usually caused by a powerful earthquake under the ocean floor. This earthquake pushes a large volume of water to the surface, creating waves. These waves are the tsunami…A tsunami can also be triggered by a volcanic eruption, landslide, or other movements of the Earth’s surface.”

You do not get to see the earthquake that gets it all started, do you? Its tremors can be picked up by sensors and its location identified, but no one gets to see the beginning of a tsunami wave which can happen miles below the surface.

By the way, the tsunami of 2004 was triggered by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale at a depth of 19 miles (30 km) below sea level.

No quake. No Wave.

Why all this talk about the tsunami today, Pastor Jeeva? Glad you asked 

Over the years I have heard many followers of Jesus long for a tsunami wave of the Holy Spirit to sweep over individual lives, the Church and our world with furious love and overwhelming power, so that our lives may be changed forever. After all God Himself has promised that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)

You can count me in among the company of those who long for that day as well.

However, if we simply wait for the wave to manifest, we might be missing the boat. Because, you see, without an internal earthquake there is no external tsunami wave.    It is time to put away the telescope and start looking through the microscope.

It is time to ask: “Holy Spirit, what deep work do you need to do inside of me?”

That is a dangerous question to ask, because the answer might lead to a shaking of what has been built up over the years—not only sin and regret, but also valued church and family traditions, established patterns of worship, fellowship and outreach, the “business as usual” casual approach to life and to God—you name it, it is up for grabs!

After all, God promised to shake everything including heaven and earth in Hebrews 12:26. Will our lives and our churches be exempt from that shaking?

So, dear DWOD friend, are you as eager for a God-sized quake as you are for a Holy Spirit tsunami wave?

No quake. No wave.

Say Yes to being shaken. Get ready to be overtaken. By His love, His Power, His Blessings, His Very Presence.

Don’t owe anyone anything, with the exception of love to one another—that is a debt which never ends—because the person who loves others has fulfilled the law. The commands given to you in the Scriptures—do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not take what is not yours, do not covet—and any other command you have heard are summarized in God’s instruction: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Does love hurt anyone? Absolutely not. In fact, love achieves everything the law requires. (Romans 13:8-10, The Voice)

“Love God and Sin Boldly.” Ever heard this statement before?

No, it is not from a proponent of cheap grace who mistakenly proclaims that the gospel gives one permission to live as they please, because grace covers it all.

St. Augustine and Martin Luther are both given credit for these words, among others.

Matters not who gets the credit (or the blame!), let’s examine why any Christian leader would make such a statement.

The passage from Romans 13 cited above gives us a clue.

Paul proposes a simple principle by which followers of Jesus should live. Simply put, it involves asking one simple question:

“Does my action have the potential to hurt someone?” If Yes, it is not love. If No, it is love. Because love does not hurt anyone.

(By the way, the word “hurt” needs to be clarified. Many translations use the expression “do no harm/wrong” to convey the original meaning of the Greek words which can be literally translated: “work no evil.”)

Let’s apply this criterion to the first commandment listed in this passage: “Do not commit adultery.”

It should not surprise you to know that in 31 plus years of ordained ministry, I have met with those who have broken this commandment on occasion.

Of course, in every instance, the offending party came up with all sorts of reasons why they did what they very well knew they ought not to have done—everything from “I don’t love my wife anymore” to “He did it to me, so I did it to get back at him” to “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time” to “Things just got out of hand” to “I have no idea why…I was under too much stress to think properly.”

You may have noticed that none of them gave any indication that they had paused to consider how their intended act of disobedience would do harm to those around them.

If they had only taken the time to ask: “Does my action have the potential to hurt someone?” and wait for an answer (my spouse, my children, my extended family, my church), would they have still proceeded to commit adultery?

Chances are not…unless they deliberately wanted to hurt someone in the process.

Take a moment and apply this principle to any other situation in which you may be tempted to sin.

Ask: “Does my action have the potential to hurt someone?”

If the answer is Yes, then you are not loving your neighbour as God has commanded.  Since Jesus tied the commandment to love God inextricably with the commandment to love our neighbour, by extension, you are not loving God either.

On the other hand, if you are sure that no one is being hurt by what you are contemplating, then you have clearly passed The Love-Hurt Test. You are indeed loving your neighbour and God.

Try to sin now…it is impossible 

No wonder St. Augustine or Martin Luther or whoever else could say: “Love God and Sin Boldly!”

Dear DWOD friend, may this simple principle/test be of help to you as you advance toward your destiny.

For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. (Malachi 3:2-3)

FIRE! FIRE!

Those words can strike fear in any heart…especially if you’re inside a crowded hotel on the 11^th Floor.

We have seen enough of the destruction that can be caused by fire to property and the loss of lives that could result that our first response is to run away from it.

Evidence of the destructive nature of fire is found in the pages of the Bible as well, especially when it brought down the wrath of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Even Jesus spoke about how the chaff would be burnt. (Matthew 3:12)

There is also a kind of fire that is a sign of God’s approval. Usually this fire fell on sacrifices (as in Genesis 15:17). Of course, who can forget that famous incident when Elijah called upon the God who answers by fire (I Kings 18:24)? Sure enough, the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! (v. 38)

In our key passage from Malachi, there is yet another reference to another purpose for the fire of God. This fire also destroys, but it purifies a person in the process.

The impurities that are found in metals such as gold and silver cannot be removed in any other way. They need to be subjected to the flaming heat of fire.

This is not a pleasant prospect for the priests of God who are meant to be refined by His purifying fire.

Just in case you are tempted to believe that this only applies to a certain cadre of God’s people known as the priests, let me sober you up by pointing out that in the Church Era all of y’all, including those of us set apart for service in the “temple” are all part of the royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9).

In other words, you are a priest as well. You and I both need to be refined by this fire.

We need not fear this fire or run away from it when God applies heat to us, but indeed need to learn how to welcome its warm embrace.

After all, we are the bride of Christ that He is coming for, a body “without spot or wrinkle or blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Do we not need to be as pure as we possibly can?

Could Jesus be sending us fire so we may allow it to burn up every sin and offense from our system? Is there any jealousy, hurt, grief, disappointment, anger, bitterness, sorrow caused by betrayal that needs to be burnt up in you?

What else does the fire of God need to remove from you so you can be as pure gold, refined by the fire?

Dear DWOD reader, will you welcome fire today so you can advance into your destiny tomorrow? I hope so.