Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:14-15)

Two years ago, we started experiencing sewer back-ups in our basement. Not a pretty sight. Not a pleasing smell.

We turned to the City of St. Catharines for help. A crew came out, sent a camera down the sewer pipe and showed me a “live” shot of the problem.

Roots.

The tree that shaded one of the bedrooms from the direct heat of the sun had sent down roots that managed to penetrate the porous pipe. Now those roots were blocking the sewage from flowing out smoothly.

They were able to cut out enough of the roots to clear a way for the flow to resume. But they warned me that since they could not get them all, chances are they would be back for another call unless…

Unless we replaced the sewer pipe with one made of PVC so that roots could not penetrate and wreak havoc again. Of course, this could end up costing a minimum of $3000.

We took our chances on the $300 service call.

Sure enough, a few months later, the sewer backed up again. Same ungodly sight. Same ungodly smell. Same unhappy crew. Same unequivocal advice.

The time had come to move past periodic fixes to a permanent solution.

When we eventually excavated the area and found the sewer pipe and the connected weeping tile, I was shocked to see how big the roots had grown (see attached photograph).

Since they had an ample supply of water, they experienced prodigious growth to the point of taking over every bit of available space in the pipe. No wonder the sewage could not flow through!

The sight of the blocked pipe reminded me of the verse from Hebrews 12 in which we are warned about allowing any “bitter root” to grow up in our spirits.

I used to envision those roots as being much thinner and spread out all over the place.

The sight of the roots in the sewer pipe alerted me to a danger I had not considered before…that those roots don’t stay small in an environment that promotes their growth!

They can completely take over every bit of available space in our spirits and dominate our thoughts to the point that nothing can flow through.

Wow! What a frightening prospect, eh?

What begins as an angry thought or feeling starts growing into resentment and eventually turns into bitterness. It is at this stage that bitterness can so totally permeate us that we cannot see anything different. And we will not permit anything or anyone from entering that space, including the Holy Spirit 🙁

We too can opt for periodic fixes—a little prayer here and there, reading a book and repenting whenever the stink is too much to bear—but, friends, there is no substitute for removing the root entirely and protecting our spirits from any future penetration.

When Sulojana and I took a week of our lives to receive intense prayer ministry, it was amazing to see how Holy Spirit completely renewed us, so that there was no more of the bitter root left. He would also equip us with the means to prevent bitter roots from having a chance at growing by giving us a new covering, so to speak.

Dear DWOD, friend, a bitter root is one of the greatest obstacles to advancing into your destiny.  Would you ask Holy Spirit to show you if you have allowed this to happen…or if you are facing the imminent danger of allowing an angry thought or a resentful attitude to grow into a full-blown bitter root?

Would you then seek the help you need to allow Holy Spirit to remove it completely? If we can help you in this process, please send an e-mail to jeeva@destinywordoftheday.com or facebook message to Jeeva Edward Sam.

“You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:13-15)

Washing smelly feet is no ordinary feat. In Jesus’ day, it was reserved for the servants and slaves. Even servants did their best to avoid being assigned to be the foot-washer.

You can tell that the disciples were quite taken aback that evening in the Upper Room when Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin and started washing and drying their feet.

Peter expresses the sentiment of the entire group: “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Try reading it this way: “Lord, YOU’RE not going to wash MY feet, are you?” (with a tone of incredulity).

Now you get the shock value of what Jesus was doing.

The apostle Paul would express Jesus’ choice in these words: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…”  (Philippians 2:6-7).

But, Jesus does not stop with simply washing his disciples’ feet. He then drops the bombshell: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

He was not just teaching theory or speaking metaphorically. He demonstrates it in a very practical way.

Jesus raises the bar way up high by stooping way down low.

“For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”

Did they get the point? Did they follow His example?

The pagan emperor Julian lamented that the Christians showed greater charity than the pagans: “These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also… Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity.”

History records that when an epidemic of the plague hit Alexandria in the third century, most of the population fled in fear, leaving the sick to fend for themselves. The Christians, however, stayed back to care for the sick and bury the dead. Many of them were infected in the process and died.

Wow! Clearly, the disciples had duplicated Jesus’ example enough for it to become the norm for the Church many generations down the road.

A number of years ago, Sulojana and I were introduced to a leader in a home-based business that we were building at the time. He was a sharp dresser, a smooth-talking and energetic motivator. While we admired him, we were also not entirely sure that he had our best interests at heart.

All of that changed when we were at a conference in Winnipeg together. When a tire went flat in our car, he came with me to the parking lot, put on the “donut”, took me to a garage and made sure it was all fixed up. He did not hesitate one bit to go low and get down and dirty. I was now ready to accept him as my leader.

Perhaps it should not surprise you to discover that he too was a follower of Jesus.

Dear friend, how high you rise in office depends on how low you go in service. As Jesus said elsewhere: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.” (Matthew 20:26-27)

Has anyone set such an example for you? Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. (James 2:23)

When we first choose to make Jesus the Lord and Saviour of our lives, we are, in the words of the apostle Paul, adopted into His family. We are now “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:16-17)

This is and always will be our primary identity in the family of Christ.

The defining question of this relationship with the Father is almost always: “What can YOU DO FOR ME, Daddy?”

There is nothing wrong with asking this question, really. After all, Jesus encouraged us to do exactly that, didn’t He?

“Ask, and it will be given to you…For everyone who asks receives…If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7, 8, 11)

As Barry Adams pointed out in yesterday’s DWOD, this revelation of our identity permits us to walk in the humility of a servant heart. Jesus made this very clear when he said: “I am among you as the One who serves.” (Luke 22:27)

Jesus asks us to also declare something similar: “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10)

The main question a servant asks is: “What can I DO FOR YOU, my Master/Lord?”

But Jesus does not want us to stay there. He reveals His desire for us to move into a higher level of relationship with Him in these words: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

For the most part, we do not do something FOR our friends, but WITH them, amen? So, now the key question becomes: “What can I DO WITH YOU, Jesus?”

How do we move into this level of relationship with Jesus? The key is in these words from Mark 6:31: “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

As we accept Jesus’ invitation to go rest with Him and grow in intimacy, we are no longer siblings and servants only. We become friends. Now we have the confidence to ask how we can co-labour with Him.

It was this intimate connection that permitted Abraham to negotiate the number of righteous people who could negate the impending judgment on Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 18:22-33). No wonder he was called “the friend of God.”

Dear DWOD friend, do you see yourself as a friend of Jesus?  That is the new identity from which He wants you to function, don’t you know?

So, go ahead. Make His day. Ask:  “What can I DO WITH YOU TODAY, JESUS?”

Sing along with Israel Houghton…I am a friend of God

Today is not only the first day of a brand new week and a brand new month, it is also the first day of the second half of 2013.

It is a time to “consider your ways” (Haggai 1:7), to evaluate how far you have advanced toward your destiny during the first half of the year.

How would you rate your progress?

Have you taken giant strides? Baby steps? Normal steps? Leaps?

Have you moved forward or fallen backward? Or have you not moved at all?

Now that you’ve answered these questions, here are a few more to consider:

1. What has helped me advance toward my destiny?

2. What has hindered?

3. What must I keep on doing?

4. What must I stop doing?

5. What must I change/modify?

6. What must I start doing?

Let me share with you my answers to these questions:

I would rate my progress as more than satisfactory. I have taken normal steps. Definitely moving forward.

What has helped me advance is “constant use” (Hebrews 5:14) of the prophetic gift, delivering destiny words to others, in person whenever the opportunity presents itself, and also online, through a ministry called Prophetic Kingdom.

What has hindered is the lack of consistency in doing this on a regular (daily?) basis.

I must keep on practising the prophetic. I need to do it more consistently with more/different people in other avenues. To this end, I will start offering prophetic ministry on a facebook group called Frontliners Prophetic Ministry as of today.

I will also be more consistent in spending quiet time with the Lord. To help me stay on track, I am enlisting the help of an accountability partner.

There, I trust that this will provide you with an idea of how to answer these questions.

Please feel free to share the results of your evaluation with the rest of your DWOD family.

Our desire is to do all that we can to help you advance into your destiny. If there are specific ways in which we can help, would you please let us know as well. Thank you.

On this first day of the second half of 2013, please Take Stock, Take Charge, Make Changes and Make Progress.

God bless you one and all.

“Give according to what you have, not what you don’t have.” (2 Corinthians 8:12)

There are times in life when it seems as though we are being called to do the impossible. By Jesus, of all people!

Case in point.  The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish as recorded in Mark 6:30-44.

A huge crowd has been swallowing every morsel of manna that came out of Jesus’ mouth for quite some time now.

The disciples recognize that soon that same crowd would be eager to gulp down portions of earthly food into their mouths.

They counsel Jesus that it is time to cut bait. “Send them away, so they can go to nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”

Jesus begs to differ. He says: “YOU give them something to eat.”

Their response? “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

They focus on what they do not have. Money to BUY food.

Jesus does not bother to address their objection. Instead he shifts their focus with this question: “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

Once they take their eyes off what they do not have and start looking for what they do have, their response changes as well.

“We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

They don’t have the huge sum of money that they thought they’d needed. But they have a little bit of food that Jesus wanted.

As a matter of fact, he only asked for loaves. Not only did they find five loaves, but they also came up with two fish.

Funny, isn’t it, how when they started focusing on what they already had, they discovered that they had more than what they thought they had!

You see, Jesus did not expect them to come up with all that was needed to feed the crowd–which they clearly did not have.

He just wanted what they did have, so that he could use it as seed that could be multiplied to satisfy the multitude.

On the journey toward your destiny, you too may sense that Jesus is calling you to do the impossible. Like the disciples, you may wonder how you could ever fulfil that calling.

Sadly, satan can get you to focus on what you do not have. You can easily get discouraged, dispirited and even despondent.

The result? You give up on our dream. You conclude that it is impossible to achieve. Because you do not have all that it takes.

Today, Jesus wants to shift your focus from what you do not have to what you do have. Make a decision today to offer him what you have right now, however small and insignificant it may seem to you–the kernel of an idea, faith the size of a mustard seed, a small amount of money, an hour of your time, ____________ (please fill in the blanks).

Watch what He does with what you have. It will be nothing short of miraculous!

For a number of years now, I’ve been meeting regularly with a group of pastors and leaders who are mentored by Pastor Steve Long.

Our meetings follow a predictable pattern. We begin with a time of sharing, receive teaching and then move on to what we affectionately call “hot-seat” prayer.

For the uninitiated, this means that one person sits on a chair, a.k.a. the hot seat, while the others gather around, lay hands on him/her and pray for them.

The person receiving prayer can state a specific need which the rest of us then lift up before the Lord. The pray-ers also relay any words/pictures/impressions they may receive from the Lord for the pray-ee.

While taking my turn on the hot seat at one of these gatherings, I heard a friend say: “I see you standing tall on stilts where the dogs that are yipping and yapping and trying to nip at your heels can’t get you.”

For one who had never ever attempted to stand on stilts or even contemplated the possibility, her words seemed silly at first. As a matter of fact, visualizing myself in this rather preposterous posture gave me the giggles.

Yet, there was something very powerful about the relevance and timing of her revelation that spoke to the predicament in which I found myself at that time.

To say that I was under attack would be an understatement. At times I felt as though I were being ripped to shreds. But the picture she got suggested that this would turn out to be no more than a nipping at the heels. And even those nips would not cause any damage.

A few hours later that same day, at a Conference in Toronto, one of the speakers casually remarked that we should make it a habit to read out aloud two passages of Scripture on a daily basis—Psalm 27 & Psalm 91.

As one who had quoted copiously from both psalms over the years, I was quite familiar with their content. Yet, something incredible happened as I started reading out aloud the words of Psalm 27 that evening in my hotel room.

The first verse was the most familiar one: “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” That in itself was reassuring.

I kept on reading the rest of the psalm without any aha’s until I hit verses 5 & 6: “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me…”

At that very instant, my mind flashed back to the picture that Teresa Wells had given me earlier in the day. Standing tall on stilts no longer gave me the giggles. As a matter of fact, it gave me goosebumps!

I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she had not conjured up this image in the creative crevasses of her cranial matter. This was indeed something she had received from the Lord and relayed to yours truly.

I’ve lost track of the number of times that this picture helped sustain me on my journey through the yips and the yaps and the attempted nips of the following months. To this day, I cannot read Psalm 27 without seeing myself on stilts.

Ever experienced something similar? A word, a verse or a picture that someone gave you that turned out to be a lifesaver? Would you kindly encourage the rest of your DWOD family by sharing it with us? Thank you.

“Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well.” (I Timothy 1:18)

Isabel Allum, who is one of my mentors in prophetic ministry, once said (not an exact quote): “Whenever Ivan & I run into a negative situation, we go through all the prophetic words we have received to see what God had to say about it.”

When they found something that was relevant to the situation, they would read them out aloud and pray: “God, you made this promise to us through your prophets. We stand on your word and praise you for the victory.”

You could see how the Allums were putting into practice the words of wisdom that Paul gave to his spiritual son, Timothy. By “recalling the prophecy”, they were “fighting the battle well.”

They focused on what they were going to, not what they were going through.

The enemy of our souls would love to see us stay focused entirely on what we are going through. This way we will not be able to see where we are going to, according to God’s promises.

Our attitude becomes negative. We see no way out. We prophesy doom and gloom over ourselves. And we end up getting defeated.

But, Pastor Jeeva, what if I don’t have a prophetic word that addresses my situation?

Fear not! The Word of God is full of promises that cover the entire spectrum of circumstances anyone will ever face in this life.

Dealing with fear of any kind? “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

Feeling inadequate or weak? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Worrying about lack of something? “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

Coping with illness? “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:17). “By His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Get the picture?

As we focus on those promises, something shifts in our attitude. King David puts it this way in Psalm 27:13: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.”

And we too will come to the conclusion that is stated by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings (what we are going through)  are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (what we are going to).”

In December 2010, as I was dealing with the loss of 30 pounds over 6 weeks and excruciating pain brought about by a polyp in my colon, the enemy would often whisper that he would take my life.

One of the weapons I used to fight this battle was a prophetic word given to me by my friend Drew Maxwell more than a year earlier. He saw me as an old man with white hair and declared that I would live to a ripe old age.

God in His mercy had given that word through Drew for such a time as this. I also stood on Psalm 91:15-16: “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him.  With long life I will satisfy him.”

You can hear all about the miracle that followed by clicking here.

Take it from me, dear DWOD friend. Shifting your focus from what you’re going through to what you’re going to will make a world of difference to you as well.