“Warn (admonish, urge and encourage) one another every day…..that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin….(Heb. 3:13;  Amplified Bible).

“Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together (as believers) as is the habit of some people, but admonishing – warning, urging and encouraging – one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the
day approaching” (Heb. 10:25 – Amplified Bible).

These commands are almost totally ignored by the vast majority of believers, yet they highlight two of our chief responsibilities as members of Christ’s Body. The word translated “admonish/encourage”
in the above passages is the Greek word parakaleo. The noun form of this verb is parakletos, which (translated as “Comforter”), is the word Jesus used to refer to the Holy Spirit in John chapters 14 to 16.

This would seem to indicate that encouragement and admonition are two of the chief ministries of the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us as members of Christ’s Body, He will seek to express Himself through us to one another in a mutual ministry of encouragement and admonition. We shall therefore be quenching the Spirit if we fail to engage in such a ministry. Hence the Word of God exhorts us:   ”We earnestly beseech you, brethren, admonish (warn and seriously advise) those who are out of line…..encourage the timid and fainthearted….Do not quench the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:14,19 – Amplified Bible).

This does not mean that we shall be spending our time encouraging and admonishing others all the time. No. There is a time and place for exercising any ministry. We must, however, recognize our
responsibility in these areas.

It was probably to this ministry that Jesus was referring when He told His disciples at the last supper, “You also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Washing the feet would both refresh and
cleanse them – after they had tramped the dirty roads, wearing only sandals.

Likewise, encouragement can refresh a weak and discouraged brother and correction can cleanse a straying brother. We must be willing to wash others’ feet and have our feet washed by them in return.

Paul and Barnabas strengthened the souls of the disciples in the churches they had established, “by encouraging them” – so the record reads (Acts 14:22).   We too can strengthen others through a ministry of encouragement – not only through the preaching of the Word, but also by offering appreciation where it is due.

Jesus was always quick to give a word of appreciation where due. He praised a centurion for his faith (Matt. 8:10), a repentant woman for her love (Luke 7:47) and Mary of Bethany for her devotion (Luke 10:42;
Mark 4:8,9). To His failing disciples, He said, “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials” (Luke 22:28).

Paul when writing to the churches – even to the most carnal ones – usually found something to appreciate in them. To the church in Corinth, riddled with factions, disputed and immorality, Paul began
his letter thus:  “I can never stop thanking God for all the wonderful gifts He has given you, now that you are Christ’s. He has enriched your whole life. He has helped you speak out for Him and has given you a full understanding of the truth; what I told you Christ could do for you has happened! Now you have every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and power for doing His will are yours during this time of waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He guarantees right up to the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when He returns. God will surely do this for you, for He always does just what He says, and He is the One Who invited you into this wonderful friendship with His Son, even Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:4-9-TLB).   Only then did he go on to say, “But, dear brothers, I beg you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves’ (verse 10).

Paul tried to begin with something positive. So must we. This does not come naturally to all of us. Most of us tend to see the negative side of others first. But if we submit to the discipline of the Holy
Spirit, we shall find Him showing us something to appreciate in everyone.

A teacher once spread a large white sheet of paper with a small ink-spot in one corner, in front of his class and asked the children to write down what they saw. All of them described the small ink-spot and no-one mentioned the large area of un-spoilt paper. So too, in human relationships: We often tend to concentrate on people’s minor defects and do not see the good in them.   Altering one’s outlook requires determination but it is worth the effort. Gradually the habit of noticing people’s good qualities can be acquired. The next step is to tell them how much one appreciates those good qualities.
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For more information write to: wftw@cfcindia.com
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A Christian is a human being in the hands of an Extraordinary God. It is an awesome truth that Jesus himself has given all authority in heaven and on earth to every child of God.  Most of us know this truth, but we just don’t exercise this authority that God has bestowed upon us. We are very happy to be a spectator and are satisfied with the crumbs that fall off the table. 

My dear friends you need to have the hunger for more and more manifestation of God’s power through you in the lives of other people. Just as how your intimacy with God comes with more time spent with Him (prayer life), your boldness in exercising God’s authority or engaging in a spiritual battle comes with fasting. Fasting is one way of repositioning yourself for God’s divine power and strength to flow through you. When you fast and wait upon the Lord this is the promise that you can hold on to. 

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Isaiah 52:1

Free yourself from the chains on your neck   Isaiah 52:2 

Once you are saved, Jesus the Son of God indwells in you by the Holy Spirit. You are a new creation on the inside, but on the outside you continue to live among the same people, same environment. It becomes a difficult task for you to yield to the Holy Spirit’s instruction and to your good old friends’ advice as well. You cannot have two masters, so you must choose who your master is. Is it Jesus whom you have accepted as your Savior or is it your friends who don’t know Jesus or who don’t obey his words. Look at Jesus for a model. He didn’t go to the religious leaders of that time the Sadducees or the Pharisees but he went to John the Baptist, the man who followed God’s call and exercised his leadership to prepare the way for the Messiah. Watch out with whom you are hanging around. Take a closer look at your friends, your traditions, and your fellowship; are they in line with the Word of God? Reposition yourself with godly friends, in a fellowship that helps you to grow strongly in His Word. You cannot expect to see changes unless you begin it in you or with you. 

You must then move on to the next level. You need to grow from the natural into the supernatural. What you see yourself, as of now should not be your focus. What you want to see yourself as in the future should be your focus. Your vision is very important. Hebrews11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. When you have faith you will not sit idle. Doing nothing to achieve your vision is by itself a failure. So what is that you need to do? Remember being in the natural you are called to function in the supernatural. You need to be spiritually empowered. Fasting is the effective way of repositioning yourself to be empowered in the Spirit. Fasting is the price that you need to pay to be trained, equipped and be victorious in both the spiritual & physical.  Luke 4:2 says “Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days”. After the forty days of fasting and testing was over Luke 4:14 say “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit”. Yes my friend fasting is the heavy price you need to pay to increase in the power of the Spirit. 

Today many take up fasting, but actually they end up starving or dieting. Initially when I started to fast I was also doing the same mistake. Only in 2001 I learnt the way to fast from a great prophet from Africa. I started with 7 day fast, then increased it to 10 days, and then to 40 days. The results were awesome and mind blowing, There are three method of fasting. 

1. Absolute Fast: This is the kind of fast that is taken up for one day or a maximum of three days, without food & water. In Esther4:16 we see that Esther and all her people took up the Absolute Fast for three days. In Joshua7: 6 we see Joshua take up a one day Absolute Fast before the Lord. In Judges 20: 26 the Israelites took up the Absolute Fast for one whole day.  

2. Breakthrough Fast: This is the kind of fast that is taken up for seven days or ten days or a maximum up to forty days, consuming only water or fruit juice to keep your system on. Jesus fasted for forty days but he never ate anything during those 40 days, as it says in Luke4: 2 “He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry”.   

3. Casual or Normal Fast: This is the kind of fast that is ideal for the elderly or sisters who are in the family way, where you just skip a meal just once and seek God’s face.

You can begin with a half a day fast or a one day fast, but the condition is you must fast. Make it a point to fast 1 day a week. It shouldn’t be legalistic or religious tic. It should be out of a true desire to seek the Master’s face. It is a special time of privacy with the lover of your soul, willfully indulging in praising & worshipping Him, reading & meditating His Word, joyfully staying away from food, snacks, phone calls, or anything that would draw your attention from Him. Friends those who are working don’t think that it is impossible for you. Choose at least a half day of the day you are at home, switch off every device that would disturb you, and connect yourself with your Creator. If you choose to fast for several days, you may have water, limejuice, tender coconut water, butter milk or milk. Read His Word more, meditate His Word more, sing more songs of praises, worship Him more and more, you will find yourself being drenched with the anointing from above.  King David says in Psalm 63:1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you”. That should be your cry and thirst for the living God.   

What happens when you fast!! What are the benefits of fasting?

a) Repentance and Sanctification: Joel 2: 12 “return to me with all your heart, with fasting & weeping & mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments.”  Fasting causes you to repent from your secret sins & justifies you by the covering of His blood against the wrath of God.  Fasting allows the indwelling Holy Spirit to sanctify your mind, renew your spirit and release you from the chains of sin & bondages of wickedness.

b) Empowerment & Deliverance: Luke 4:14 says, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit”. Fasting humbles us before God the Creator, causes us to adore & worship Him. Worship brings down the presence of God and makes us swim in the depth of His anointing. We become so empowered in the Spirit that our fragile human frame itself can’t bear. No doubt that all the yokes, bondages, generational curses, diseases, evil habits or addictions to alcohol, smoking, adultery, pornography, cheating, sorcery, witch craft or any demonic attacks will ever prevail before you when you are under such an anointing.     

c) Wisdom & Revelations: Fasting imparts the wisdom of God. Esther5:1-8;   7: 1-10 tells how Esther carefully planned the most appropriate approach for making her request. To make a request of that magnitude needed precise timing and that required divine leading called wisdom. Fasting also unlocks the hidden details and enables you reveal mysteries. In Daniel1:12 we read of Daniel abstaining from certain food for 10 days and Daniel 9:3 says, “So I turned to the Lord and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting”. No wonder King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and appreciated him for revealing the mysteries.

Many Christians never fast as they do not know the importance of fasting and even do not know how to fast. Our ancestors never knew the importance and the method of fasting and so they neither taught nor trained their descendants. Even today most Christians take up a religious tic fast during the lent season by abstaining from non-vegetarian food & alcohol, but never live a true Christian life by increasing their time in prayer or meditating His Word. No wonder they continue to live in bondage, fail to have breakthrough. Hosea 4: 6 says, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge”. Today your limited knowledge about fasting has been expanded through this message of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Fast regularly and train your generations to be children of God who fast and pray. Just as how the apostles grew in strength, power and boldness when they fasted, your fasting will also cause you to soar in God’s divine anointing of power. Isaiah60: 1 says, “Arise & shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you”.

Yes my friend your fasting is going to bring God’s divine light and glory right into your life, into your family, into your workplace and into the nations where you live. Every wall will shatter, every hurdle will be burnt and every opposition will melt under the bright light that is in you. Revelation 22:16 calls Jesus as the Bright and Morning Star. Star shines brightly at night, but the Bible talks about the Star that shines brightly in the morning (day). Yes your fasting will clothe you with such a powerful anointing that will make you shine like the star (sun) unmatchable & life giving.  Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, reposition yourself through your fasting, and arise to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke. Come on, it’s high time you start the fast now and be blessed.

May God Bless You

Brother Brite Sundar

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Jesus Entering Jerusalem

Author: Jaisam Daniel

It was an exhilarating day for the City of Jerusalem the whole city welcomed Jesus Christ as their King and Messiah, The sound of Joy erupted all around the city welcoming the deliverer, but the star attraction of the crowd was a little donkey on which Jesus rode from Bethphage to Jerusalem, The news spread like wild fire to all the donkeys in Jerusalem, on that night the donkeys want to celebrate this day and called for a meeting, because the savior of the world bypassed horses, chariots but chose a donkey to ride in to Jerusalem. All the donkeys gathered to see and to hear from this little donkey that carried Jesus.

The felicitation meeting started, some one said oh great donkey you have made us all proud. Some one said the way you walked in to the city is so wonderful, some one said the sound you made while walking was so nice to hear, another said the dress you wore was so beautiful and glittering. Many donkeys appreciated this donkey. Finally the turn came for the donkey to give the acceptance speech. The whole stadium was quiet to listen this little donkey speak.

 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; – Psalm 113:7

The donkey started by telling, how it was in a very unknown village in Bethphage bound for years, it’s previous master treated it so badly, it suffered persecution and never knew of freedom, but one day two persons came and they untied me, my previous master was so furious and shouted who is that untying my donkey, they said the Lord wants it. Immediately the old cruel master let me go, that’s the first day I felt the freedom from oppression and bondage, that is the day I realized there is some body who can free me. On the way the two persons told many wonderful things about Jesus, One person said Jesus healed many people and opened the eyes of the blind and made the lame walk. The other person said oh you should hear his words, full of compassion, it is so comforting, full of hope and he is the deliverer for all of us. Today he is the one who asked us to untie you and bring you to him.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. – John 10:10

The two persons presented me to Jesus, when I saw him he asked his disciples to wash me first and he himself cleaned all my wounds and applied oil, healed all my wounds and I heard his words of life, I was in awe of his unconditional love, I surrendered myself to this wonderful master for the love. And he asked me whether I can give him a ride to Jerusalem and I happily and joyfully carried him to Jerusalem, what ever you saw on me today in the street of Jerusalem, my talk, my style, all my talents are nothing if my deliverer is not on my back.

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ – Luke 17:10

Yes my beloved, I am one of his donkey in this world to carry him to the broken hearted, because he can heal broken hearts and give us new life a new beginning. I feel unworthy when people appreciate our efforts for the Lord. Lot of my friends used to ask me what is so special about this Jesus, It’s simple, I was once lost a wretched sinner lived a life with out a purpose, Oh what an amazing grace he gave me new life and changed me, washed me, gave me a new robe.

Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! – 1 Corinthians 9:16

My beloved let us not focus on people who carry Jesus, but focus the Light Jesus himself, who is the Alpha and Omega the author of our Life. If you are preaching the Gospel today let us humbly tell like John the Baptist “He must Increase, I must Decrease”, our work is to direct people to Jesus Christ not to ourselves, build his kingdom not our kingdom. God uses the humble people like this donkey to build his kingdom, he does not need mighty race horses, and he just needs ordinary people who believe in their extra ordinary God.

Today the Lord asks you

Will you be my legs so that I can walk to the dark places shining the Light?

Will you be his arms to help people in their need?

Will you show the Love of Jesus as he loved you?

Lord here I am, I will carry you.

Prayer:

 Lord, help me to walk according to your word during all the day of my Life.

 ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ – Luke 17:10

Note: Post your comments and share your thoughts for the Glory of Jesus.

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