As Jesus walked slowly through the town “A leper came and worshipped him saying if you are willing you can make me clean.” To encounter Jesus in worship you have to come to Him. He came to worship; he came focused and determined. It was premeditated; I will worship. He didn’t say now that the music is slow and they are playing the songs I like. He worshipped him saying. “You can make me clean.”

When we worship we are always saying something out of our heart. The heart and the mouth speaks. Sometimes we think that worship is not a vocal but is quiet. Of course, praise is never quiet; praise is always expressive, whereas worship could be quiet; but still, every worshipper is saying something. The leper worshipped Jesus by saying make me clean- not make the famous, rich or even employed but make me clean. To encounter Jesus in worship our first need is not understand me or even please forgive me but please cleanse me. That’s repentance! We can ask for forgiveness and never want to give up our sin and be clean. But the voice from the heart of a worshipper says wash me clean.

Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Mat 8:3
Friends, If purity is the desire of our hearts it is likely that we will encounter Jesus consistently. And we never have to question whether Jesus is willing to make us clean. If we cry out to be clean - He will touch us immediately.

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The book of Romans describes the reign of two kings who seek to rule in our lives. There is a king of sin and death and the King righteousness and Life
As believers, King sin used to reign in our dead and mortal body but now King righteousness reigns in His domain which is our spirit and our mortal body now quickened by His spirit.
We are a spirit who possesses a mind (soul) and who lives in a body.
You’re a spirit being. We are made in God’s image. With our spirit, we contact the spirit world. With the mind, we contact the world of thoughts and with the body, we make contact with the physical world. The world only seeks to develop the soul and mind and body. So university professors can’t stay married. They can become educated idiots. Bodybuilders with perfect bodies, can’t cope with life and may jump off bridges.

Mankind can’t be normal until they live by the Spirit. The Spirit is to give the orders and tell us how to live. The mind/soul is the servant and needs the education to know what to do and how to act. And the body is a slave needing to be told what to do. Its voice needs to be judged for its legitimacy.

Friend, before we were believer there was no King righteousness reigning, only king sin reigning in our life. The King of righteousness and Jesus now lives in our spirit, soul and our body. Let’s walk in the spirit and allow the King of Righteousness to rule in every part of our life.

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Credibility among those we serve is important. Credibility takes time to gain but can be lost in a moment. Credibility is gained when we are consistent in character.

If we find ourselves secretly wishing we could be recognized more, like Judas who as part of the team was more mindful of his area of service than the good of the whole team our credibility is in danger

If we won’t allow another person to hold a different point of view from ours, we’re not giving them the same dignity we demand ourselves. Or if we are envious when they are “promoted” in the fellowship, perhaps it’s time to humble ourselves before God again and remember that He will promote us in due time.

Perhaps our insecurity is crying out. The insecure get security from what they do, not who they are. These people need a greater revelation of the Father so they can grow in security. Most believers are not villains: in the body of Christ, there are no heroes and no villains.

When we recognize a lack of godly attitude or lack of character we need to go back to Jesus and ask Him to live through us again.
Friend, conflicts are opportunities to develop or destroy your credibility as a leader or as a believer. Remember ministry is based on credibility. If we have little credibility with people we will have a little ministry to people. As credibility grows our true authority grows.

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Paul writes to the believers at Philippi “I’m in prison but God is at work. I’m not preaching around the nations, but God is at work and so I’m confident that God is at work in your life too, no matter how difficult your life seems”.

If we think God is not at work in our lives to will and to do of his good pleasure during the hard patches of life, we end up thinking that others are in charge of our life and not God. We will murmur in unbelief thinking that other people, not God are determining our circumstances and happiness.

We actually become idolaters because we reduce God down to the size of a small Sunday god, a quite time god or a good time only god. He may not have caused the hardship but He certainly can use while you are coming out of it.
Friend, the apostle understood God is always at work, so he says to his friends in lesser trouble, rejoice in the Lord always. The Lord is at work.

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Jonah hit the beach thankful that God had spared him and was keen to complete his preaching mission in Nineveh. As he preached repentance he could hardly believe the success of his crusade. The whole city from the king down to donkeys clothed themselves in sackcloth. Jonah’s message had melted the coldest heart; what a crusade. But was God content or was Jonah a success/

Jonah did the right thing, but he was not yet the right person. So God comes to him again in Chapter 4.2 because God wanted him to learn to love. As he sits down in the glow of his success, God prepares a vine to grow over his head to give shade which Job enjoyed greatly. Then God prepared a worm to kill the vine and the shade, and Jonah wanted to die. God brings the whole lesson to close. Until you learn to love like me, you have not yet succeeded. To be a true prophet; to speak for me, to represent me, you need to represent my love.

Jonah’s failure was not really rebellion but actually a lack of love; he could not love as God did. Most failure is just a lack of love.

Failure helps us to see that we need to abide in His love, in order to love others. In the parable of the two debtors the man who failed to forgive failed to love! True success is not just persevering or never quitting. We may be inspired by the story of Disney who went broke seven times before he had success or Edison who did 10,000 experiments to perfect the light bulb before he had success, but real success is not about accomplishing something so much is becoming someone.

Friend, success is not the ultimate triumph but ultimate love it’s not what we have done, but who we become.

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I had a prophecy over me once, that there would be times when I would feel an absolute failure, but this would be Gods guard upon my spirit to keep me from pride. I didn’t know whether to feel good or bad about that prophecy! Failure often destroys self-confidence. We are not self-made men and we are not self sufficient. Nothing helps us to see our self more accurately, than failure.

The prodigal son saw himself in a much more accurate light, after he failed. The oldest son seemingly without failure, ends up graceless, loveless and bitter. How often has the failure of someone, worked a work of grace in a person’s life to such a degree, that their usefulness to man and God is taken to levels which could never have been possible before their fall. The real benefit of failure, is the ‘recognizing the weakness of self. Pride and self-confidence can be dealt with by God and failure often opens a person up to the possibility of help from others. Failure worked for good in Peter’s life, to rid him of his self-confidence and to thrust him upon the Lord. Failure is something God can use to bring about a greater quality of union with Christ and gives us a better perspective about the weakness of the human vessel.

In all it seems often that the humility and character of Christ is more able to be forged on the anvil of human failure, than it is by a perfect record of performance. Jonah had great revival after his failure. Peter became a nation shaker and even Samson saw things very differently after his failure and delivered the nation.
Friend, failure is not a person, it is an event! It can even be an important event, that opens us up to more of God’s love and power than ever before.

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There is confusion about the importance of self in today’s world. As disciples, we are all called to deny self as we take up our cross.

This is not talking about self-hood (being an individual) God has made you with a personality and you are uniquely you and you should be grateful for what God has done. We call that self-acceptance.

The self we are to deny is the selfish desires that put ourselves before God and others. The self that wants to be the boss and be in control. It must be denied. All of its little outbreaks of self centred-ness, selfishness, self-protection and self-promotion.

Too many believers think the only one dying in the gospel is Jesus. We have proclaimed loudly the death of Jesus to gain us but speak with less conviction about our death to gain him. Like the song says “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.” He died for our sins but we are to die to our sins.

Friend, Jesus is perfect and doesn’t change so it is us that need to adjust. “Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Let’s take up the cross and imitate him

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King Nebuchadnezzar thought he had done it all by himself. Pride gets us imagining something of ourselves, which is not true. Nebuchadnezzar thought “My own power has gotten me this wealth.”

And it manifests in our attitude to others too. We become obsessed with disputes and arguments, or maybe we won’t listen to others advice. Some people are unteachable, they think that know best. Pride enters into their heart and instead of receiving grace which leads to success, they blunder into the darkness alone, making all the mistakes the unaided person is prone to make.

But worse, if we are proud we will be resisted by God. It’s just a law. It’s not that God wants to resist you, it’s that He must. He doesn’t want his children to hurt themselves, but He knows if they seek to break the law of gravity they will and similarly the laws of the kingdom can never be broken. The way up is down. The only way to know success in life is to have Gods grace upon us. Success is to become a servant. To serve your wife; to serve your husband; to serve your parents.
Friend, it is the law of humility. God gets behind the humble and pushes them but He gets in front of the proud. We either lose our pride or we lose our possible destiny, it’s our choice.

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The ten spies returned to the camp from the Promised Land, focused upon the giants and forgetting the promise. As the talked about what they couldn’t do but there were two who talked about what they could do. The difference was how they saw themselves. Sometimes we don’t realise the problem is with us. We may not get on with other people but not realise it’s not them, it’s us. Were unable to love them or relate to them and connect with them because we don’t love or like ourselves. When someone is insecure it’s hard to talk to them. If they feel bad about themselves, it conveys to everyone around them. “I don’t deserve God’s blessing because I am too unworthy; I don’t think He wants to bless me.”

It won’t be the size of the task before us or the lack of experience but it will be how we see ourselves that stop us from touching our world. When you have a bad attitude about yourselves, everything is too hard. We have to see ourselves in Christ! In Christ, we are everything to God. Not only do we have everything in Christ we are everything to God in Christ.

We are not worthy of any kind of blessing but Jesus is worthy of every blessing. Christians do not get what they deserve they get what Jesus deserves. We deserve punishment but we get a blessing because Jesus deserves it.
Friend, you are going to be a great leader in the house of God. You will make a difference in the kingdom of God. He’s not looking for people whose upbringing was perfect. He’s not looking for people who have a lot of money but He’s looking for people that can believe that in Christ they can do everything God desires them to do and be.

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When Philip the evangelist arrived at Samaria he expected to reap a great harvest from the seeds sown there by the Samaritan women and Jesus. When he got there, he found the devil, already had someone there. It seems to be a pattern in the Book of Acts that where the gospel goes, there was a stronghold needing to be broken. The devil brought Simon there as soon as he realized that God was planning something big in Samaria. The devil always tries to mess up your present life, before God “arrives.” He seeks to tie you up with business, porn, poverty or sour relationships. He wants you to discourage you with shame and regret or the pain of abuse. He wants you to stay distracted, because if he can stop you here. Your destiny will remain unfulfilled.

If there’s bondage or weakness right through your family; alcohol, adultery and divorce from generation to generation, the enemy has come to your family because he knows that God is planning to do something really great in your home and family. The devil filled Legion with hundreds of demons but it never stopped Jesus from reaching the legion and setting him free and if you keep praying, the tide of the battle will turn.

Friend, if it seems that the devil has been at work in your life, it’s because God is planning to do something great in your life.

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A number of years ago some teenagers from a local school were killed in a tramping tragedy. The rains came and the swollen river floated them away. One cried out to Jesus and he is saved but others are washed away. Presumably, they are praying too, wanting to be rescued but they die.

The parents gather around and wonder why one child is saved another is lost. Outside the theologians defend the sovereignty of God and console themselves with the mystery of Gods plan for the accident. Some people look at the tragedy and think God can’t look after his own so he’s either powerless or if he is powerful, maybe not as loving as we think he is. We are better to admit that God is loving and powerful but there are mysteries when it comes to tragedy in His people lives.

A man called Helmet Thielecke says “When you look through a magnifying glass at the cloth, the fabric is sharply in focus in the centre and blurred at the edges. We know edges are really ok because we have seen the centre. Life is like that too. There are many edges that are blurred but because we have seen the centre, the cross, that greatest demonstration of God’s love, we can accept that the edges we don’t understand will be woven by Gods love too.

Friend, we can understand God enough to trust his character when we can’t understand our circumstances

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Sometimes we expect more from God that he ever actually promised. Elijah thought God would use him to change the whole nation for God.

Perhaps we thought we would have a great success we’d become the greatest businessman. We expected we’d become exceedingly wealthy like Abraham, and have no financial difficulties. We expected we’d be much better off than our fathers. Better off, better educated, better resourced. But God never said you will be better than your father. He has no favourites but then you don’t love any less that you father either.

God never promised we would see a whole nation turn back to God in one concert, one service, one year or one lifetime.

Perhaps we thought by serving God fully, we’d be protected from harm (actually every one full of Holy Spirit was killed by evil men) We expected to have no troubles in life, for our family and home to be shielded from every pain and that our children would all sere God every week of their life. But every wrong expectation will only increase our disappointment and pain.
Friend, God wants to heal and restore pain in our heart is meant to alert us to the need for healing.

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While Elijah slept fitfully in the shade of the tree, he felt the sharp hit on his arm and woke to hear an angel speaking.

Elijah was depressed but God in His compassion and mercy takes the initiative to seek Elijah out. He ate and drank and went back to sleep till again the angel woke him so he could eat some more. Sometimes in life, you just need to rest. If your feet are tired have asleep; if you mind is tired go for a walk.

Yet adversity always introduces us to ourselves. We see the real us. The question was the same as to Adam “What are you doing here?” How did you end up in this position?

Friend, the journey of life, is too great for us alone without God, without His food and His touch but after he ate and drank and rested, he was ready for a 40 day walk to Horeb. Is it time for fresh food and a fresh touch from God? Rest in his presence till you get hungry and thirsty for Him, He will not disappoint you.

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Sometimes we get into season in life where intimacy seems to go from our marriages. Usually, there has been a conflict which is not fully resolved. The couple says they have forgiven but really they have withdrawn their heart from their spouse. Their heart is not fully given to their spouse as it was on their honeymoon.

We are designed and marriage is designed to give our heart away 100 per cent to another person. Withdrawing of the heart is actually hardening of the heart toward someone you supposed to love? Sometimes offence occurs because expectations are not met, so you harden your heart to protect yourself from further hurt. We find we are less able to trust them and we build a protective barrier around the heart.

Soon after the heart doesn’t work emotionally like it used to; the same words the same environments don’t make the heart feel the same as before.

To feel intimacy and connection once again, you have to unconditionally give your heart back to your husband or wife. That may be scary but the alternative is to stay in the prison you’re in.
Friend, if that sounds like you today, confess that you have taken back part of my heart from your spouse and declare that you will not make them fulfil your list of requirements before you give them your heart. Choose to give them 100 per cent of your heart from this day forward and thank God for restoring intimacy in your marriage.

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You are the handiwork of God. God doesn’t make any junk. Some of you probably think “If I had someone else’s personality and looks I’d be happy with how I am.

In the US they took a survey amongst 100s of bright and good looking kids from well adjusted Christian families and 95% said there were things they didn’t like about themselves and if they could, they would wave a wand and change things about their life.

In a troubled home, where there has been abuse and pain, it’s hard to think it could be the handy work of God, and the abuse isn’t! Not every bad thing that happens to us in life is from the hand of God. God does not cause it, nor does He plan it or want it to happen, but God will show His love and healing kindness in the midst of our pain.

The whole world is built upon the system of comparison but a comparison of yourself with others is not wise. We can’t all sing like Celine Dion but God didn’t want you to or He would have made you like that.
Friend, if you concentrate on what you don’t have and what you are not rather than on what you are and what you have, you miss out on Gods call and potential of the unique gifting He has put in your life.

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How many people look in the mirror and say “You are awesome¸ you look so cool.” How many of us ever look in the mirror and say “I wish I didn’t have such small eyes, or I wish I wasn’t so tall.”
It may seem strange but many young people find it hard to dedicate her life to God because of how they look or the circumstances in which they were bought up. They think if God really loved them surely would have made him look like Cindy Crawford or Mal Gibson.
They reason. “If God didn’t make sure I was brought up in a perfectly loving and holy family, surely he can’t be as wise or kind as we think. Some people think that God made them on Friday afternoon, hurrying to get finished for the weekend! But there is no Miss universe or perfect man in the Bible. God has no pattern person as far as looks go. This is an invention of commercialism who want you to buy the products that they say can make you gain a perfect skin, body or look in life.
The only pattern or standard God give us in the Bible is for character and that picture is Jesus. Self acceptance is accepting that how God made you to look, the personality you have the back ground you came from is absolutely perfect for you. Not perfect but perfect for you!

Friend, God’s plan is that we come though life and become as much like Jesus Christ as possible even if it means that sometimes we have to face difficult situations and people.

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The problem with the past is that it is exactly that; the past.

If you live in the past, you will only ever be what you were; a failure, a drunk, an abuser, hopeless or depressive. You can’t change your past you can only change your future. The only place you can make things to be different is the future. The only place you can meet with God is in the future starting right now.

You can even be captive to a good past. Some people and some companies are bound to the success of the past and it limits them. They think it was the best year; no year could be better.

Some of you have had dreams not yet fulfilled but dreams only come to pass in the future. If you thinking about something that has already happened it’s a memory. It may be great memory but its fading fast and you can’t change memories whether they are good or sad. You can sit at the feet of a memorial stone but it can’t help you.

You can’t undo the sad and painful events of your life but God can totally remove the guilt and shame of every mistake you made. God is able to change the meaning of the past. Somehow God has used the past to bring us the place where we were ready for Him and that is worth any price.
Friend, He can’t change what happened but he does change the result of what happened and He changes it for good.

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We all either tend to focus upon our past or our future. We can become tied to our history or our destiny. It is our choice. Obviously the people of faith are moved by their sense of destiny but many people are handcuffed to their past; they drag around with them the scars and the disappointments of life and they are still not free to embrace the future.

For some people the past is like a badge of honour. “You must understand me because I had a hard time growing up or I had very difficult time in the last few years. You have to let me be a bit sad and miserable. They think they can never be different because of their past. I didn’t have the right father or the right education or the wrong friends. I’m like this because of that!

But there are some great souls who say “In spite of my past, I’m like I am today. I’m bold, I’m confident; I’m free from bondages, addictions and the victim mentality. I’m free because I’ve tied myself, not to my history but to my destiny. They know that the past can’t affect their future unless they let it. They have decided not to be a prisoner of their past but a door keeper to their destiny.

You know you can do nothing about your past but you can do a lot about your future. Don’t blame anyone for not being with you or not helping you in the past. Because frankly, it doesn’t make any difference.
Friend, God is writing a new story and the past is only the prologue to give His message of grace in your life, a context.

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Elijah was strengthened but he still took his time to walk to Horeb. As he walked he thought about his destination ahead, the mountain of God. It was only 250 miles but it took Elijah 40 days. That is a slow amble!

He couldn’t see God in his life circumstances. God isn’t doing as he thought He would. Elijah had stopped counting his life valuable to God. He even asked God to end his life. His fault reasoning was this “If my circumstances are rubbish and valueless, then I must be of no value.

Elijah arrives at the cave; possibly the great cave in the rock where Moses met with God and revealed Himself as the merciful God (Ex. 34) and sits in the cave amongst the mess of his life. He’s been thinking of what to say to God but when God turns up, instead of following the speech he rehearsed, he blurts out his troubles; all of his depression, paranoia negativity, defeat and hopelessness. “I’m no better than my fathers.”

He felt a failure. Sometimes we get our value from the perceived value of our life and circumstances or even our lack of wealth of profile in church or in the body of Christ. But we are valuable to God because we are His special creation.
Friend, when we realize that we are of great value to our Father then we can be assured that every situation we are in, is crafted and designed. Both us and our circumstances are part of God workmanship. Don’t equate your value with your circumstances. Jesus life was strewn with difficulties and trouble yet he was so loved by His father. So are you!

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