Spiritual intelligence is the ability to realise who you are to live your life in that awareness. It is associated with 
emotional intelligence which is the ability to perceive, assess and manage your emotions and that of others if necessary. I am of the opinion that emotions have no intelligence and therefore must be managed by being spiritually alive so that the driving force inside the individual is their spirituality. Your spirituality is the ability to know who you are and to understand the higher spiritual qualities and attributes you possess which are peace, purity, faith, joy, hope and so on, which are attributes of the fruit of the spirit, which is love (Gal 5:22). This realisation allows the spiritual intelligent individual to live on a different level from those in the kingdom of darkness. It is clear in scripture that if you are not in the kingdom of light you are in the kingdom of darkness; and there is no middle ground. Once we realise who we are we are able to exercise our spiritual gifts appropriately. Unlike the Corinthians, we must not use our spiritual gifts for the wrong reasons. They used the gift of ‘tongues’ to demonstrate to those that did not exercise that gift that they were better than them. Let me remind readers here that this gift is given to everyone who has been ‘born again’ of the spirit and it is rightly termed as the ‘evidence’ of the New Birth. As we become spiritually intelligent we realise that there is no other form of exclusive evidence that indicates this new birth [for those who want to contest this, contact me]. To counter this misappropriation of the gifts, the apostle Paul encouraged them to seek to prophesy rather than speaking excessively in tongues, since the former is speaking what you have heard from God, whilst the latter is speaking mysteries to God in ‘angelic’ language. So today try to develop your spiritual intelligence and keep your emotions in check. Remember, emotions have no intelligence! Read 1Corinthians 14.
as I ‘realise’ who the real me is!
Posted in Wisdom | Tags: gifting, gifts, Intelligence, Prpohecy, Spirituality, Tongues, Vices, Virtues
as we live under the canopy of love!
I am intrigued at the lack of spiritual intelligence that there is among believers. We have been conned into piety and the 
inability to bring transformation to our communities by our lack of understanding of the will of God for humanity. There are many Christians who exist or live under the shadow of death because of lack of knowledge. Indeed the prophet Hosea says that the people of God perish because of lack of knowledge (Hosea 6:4). We are in the season [a particular time in history] when natural knowledge is increasing and so must the level of spiritual knowledge increase. For me this means activating the knowledge and living under the canopy of God. What does all this mean? We must become spiritually intelligent, that is, we must know why we exist and understand the purposes for which we are here. If we fail to do this we will leave this life without leaving a mark in the sands of time. As Christians we are called to exhibit our covenant relationship with God to those who are in the kingdom of darkness. We do this by activating the blessing of the Lord. Since the Blessing of the Lord make you, the believer in Christ rich, and he, Christ, adds no sorrow or toil to it (Proverbs 10:22). We are called to live under the blessing rather than under the curse. We are called to love all those we come into contact with by demonstrating the kingdom authority we possess. We are called to exercise the power to govern, to reproduce and to show leadership in all spheres of life. We can only do this when we love those who hate us and forgive those who despitefully use us. so today, let us chose the more excellent way as the précis of 1Corinthians 13 reveals to us.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Dominion, Emotional intelligence, Kingdon Principles, Leadership, Love, Spiritual intelligence
as we give greater attention to developing our minds!
Our body parts are very important and no individual part is of greater importance than any of the others. We can live 
without certain parts of our bodies and can function as though they were never there. However there are certain parts that are absolutely necessary for us to function and if we did not have them we would not be able to exist. Similarly, there are parts of our spiritual body, that is, the spiritual set available to all believers that we can live without. We are encouraged by the apostle Paul to seek to prophesy so that we can bring revelation to people. As you are aware prophets are those who speak as they hear the heartbeat of God.
The body can operate without the little finger, and even operate without one of the hands. However it cannot operate functionally without one of the major internal organs such as the liver or the intestines or the heart. These organs are vital for all human beings to survive. To survive as a spiritual being, we also need our major spiritual organs to be intact. So although we can live as spiritual beings and do so happily without prayer, fasting or reading the word, we cannot exist without a renewed mind. Our mind is like the physical heart in our bodies. Everything occurs in the mind and if our minds are not renewed we will die spiritually. It is from our minds that we activate the various gifts that are available to us. It is our minds that are renewed first when we are born again. It is in our minds that we must first overcome the battle against the evil one. David had to believe that he could defeat Goliath (1Samuel 17); Daniel had to believe that the lions would not eat him (Daniel 6:19-28) and Peter had to believe that he could walk to Jesus on water (Matt 14:28). Today let us cherish all the parts of our body, but let us give the greater attention to our minds, for it is from here that our spirits are renewed and our faith is made alive. Renew your mind and build it on the foundations of love! Read 1Corinthians 13.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: body Parts, Fingers, Heart, Love, Physical, Spiritual, Underpining
as we make our claim for what is rightfully ours!
A family is comprised of many people who are all different. They have different needs and different aspirations. The 
decisions they make at a young age will have a massive impact on them for the rest of their lives. All family members were born with the same raw materials and each one has the propensity to develop into a fully formed human being. We are all given gifts at birth how we use and develop them determines how unsuccessful or successful we become. It is our gifts that makes room for us (Prov. 18:16), it opens doors and brings us into the presence of people of influence. When a new baby is born great celebration is made because another miracle has occurred. The birth of a child is a still a miracle, although our scientists are advanced in their research into the process of reproduction; they cannot produce a living organism without the raw ingredients that comes from God, the seed and the human egg.
Similarly, when an individual is ‘born again of the sprit’, there is great celebration by the father and all the spirits [angels] around the throne in heaven. The new individual is given spiritual gift and these gifts must be worked so that they can develop. It is a shame that many spiritual babies grow chronologically but never develop the spiritual gifts that were deposited in them at birth. There are a variety of gifts (1Cor 12:4) and they are all available to all of us. There is wisdom, knowledge and faith; healing, miracles and prophecy; discerning of spirits, tongues and interpreting of tongues (1Cor 12:8-11); Then there is preaching, teaching and exhorting; giving, leading and showing compassion (Romans 12:5-9). All these gifts are available to us so no one can claim boredom in the kingdom of God. Today say with me; ‘it’s my inheritance, since I am a seed of Abraham because of what Christ has done, and I claim my gift in Jesus’ name.’ Read 1Corinthians 12.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Eggs, gifts, Greatness, Inheritance, Seed, Spiritual Birth, Unclaimed
as get in order and keep in step with the Holy Spirit
Sometimes we forget who it is we are supposed to be worshipping. And this anointing of forgetting allows us to develop a 
false concept of who God is and whose we are. Some men act like women others dress like women. Some go to the extent of removing all evidence from their bodies which would indicate that they were men. In Corinth there were men who used to do similar things. They would walk up and down the streets with well oiled bodies looking for other men to engage with. Sadly this trait is still with us and there are people in positions of authority who condone and even commend these actions. However, in the Church, there is a definite order. And this order cannot be violated. This lack of understanding of who we are will creep into our worship and cause us to propagate the wrong concept of who we are supposed to be and the order we are supposed to follow. When God created the world he set everything in order and then he created man on the sixth day. He put him in charge of everything that was created and commanded him to have dominion over them. After a while he created woman [a man with a womb] as a partner for him. This order continued for some time until the couple were deceived and chaos set in. Today we are the beneficiaries of the deception and the chaos, but we can circumvent this. The only way this can be circumvented is by restoring the original order and this is done by accepting the fact that Jesus Christ has paid the ultimate price for the original deception by dying on the cross and thus atoning for the sin of Adam. So how can we benefit? We can benefit by putting our faith in Christ, accepting him for what he has done and coming under his order. So the natural order for those who want to worship in Spirit and in truth should be:- we worship God the father, through Jesus Christ the son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Although the Father, Son and Spirit are one, there is a natural order in the Godhead and this should be replicated in every church which is the body of Christ. When we are in Christ we are in ORDER. Read 1 Corinthians 11.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Concept, disobedience, Dominion, Forgetting, Obedience, Order
as we allow the eternal blood to remove the indelible mark of sin
As we engage in the spiritual battle we must ensure that we are fully clothed and that there is someone or several people 
covering our backs. Those who have gone before us were also involved in spiritual warfare, however because their relationship was predicated on them obeying a set of guidelines rigorously, they failed. For any relationship to grow and prosper, it must be built on trust and trust must be mutual. God trusted the Israelites to be his representatives and to carry his glory with them from the wilderness to the Promised Land. This was a daunting task and instead of relying on God, they reverted to worshipping the idols they were exposed to in Egypt over the 430 years they spent under the rule of Pharaoh. The problem with slavery is that it leaves an indelible mark on the mind. This mark is hard to remove even with skilled psychotherapy as demonstrated by the Israelite community and even more so in the Caribbean community dispersed from Africa. However, there is a solution and that solution is in the blood of the risen saviour Jesus Christ. To atone for the sin of people, the Lord God required blood, since the life of an individual is in the blood (Lev. 17:11,14). And since the blood of bulls and turtle doves was inadequate to remove the indelible stain of sin, it required a more noble blood, that of the sinless son of the most high God, Jesus. The Israelites were all baptised into Moses, they all passed through the red sea and saw that marvellous works of God in bringing them out of bondage. For 40 years God tried to get them to dream and the visualise living in houses they did not build and eating fruit from trees they did not plant. However, this task was difficult and as they rebelled many were destroyed, even 23,000 in one day alone (1Cor. 10:8). For us to prosper we must jettison the slavery mentality and allow the blood of Jesus to permeate every nook and cranny of our minds. That is, we must allow the word of God to wash away every thought and idea that is not in line with the word. Our trust in God must be total, even when we cannot see the end of the matter. Unlike the Israelites of old, we must trust that he knows the way out of every wilderness. So today, Do Not revert to amulets, idols or charms, apply the blood of Jesus and allow it to remove the pain of the past. Read 1Corinthians 10.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Indellible mark, Obedience, Sin, Stain, The Blood, Trust
as we remove the muzzle from the ox
One of the greatest attacks on an individual is that on their person. What I mean by this is that the enemy will attack you 
and ask you to justify why you do what you do. Why should we listen to you when we also hear from God? Sound familiar! Who do you think you are and who gives you the right to speak into my life? These were some of the questions the apostle Paul faced when he challenged the behaviour of the Corinthians. Rather than go with what the Lord was saying through Paul, the Corinthians chose to challenge his authority to speak to them and questioned his authority as a leader to benefit from their giving. There are many people who attend churches who do not understand or respect the order that God has instituted. Ignorance causes many to disrespect the role that the individual occupies and disrespect the individual themselves. And so it becomes difficult to separate the individual from the role. It is right to remunerate those who work to ensure that your soul is fed with the word of God. However, not all those who do this take the payment. Like the apostle Paul, many do other paid work so that they can keep themselves and be totally independent so that they can speak openly at all times. Some find it difficult to speak openly to those who are paying their salary since this may upset the ‘apple cart’ and could lose their jobs. When you are being challenged about your role and the authority invested in you by the Lord, you can state your ‘rights’, however it is better to speak to the issues and side step the personal or individual attacks. As mature individuals, we must remember that ‘body’ ministry is the ideal and not every part of the body understands their function until it is explained to them. And even when it is explained, there are many who just do not want to come under the authority of a particular leader, for many reasons. As the apostle puts it, ‘does an ox not eat from the grain he is treading to make flour’? Or ‘does the farmer not eat the fruits he is picking’? The questions are posed so as to answer themselves with a resounding YES. So why should someone who is proclaiming the good news not live by it? Even though it is their right receive recompense. Today, if you are being challenged, separate yourself from your role. Know what is expected of you and ensure that those you are leading know also. Misunderstanding can cause frustrations, so make everything plain by writing them down for all to see! Read 1corinthian 9.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Apostleship, Authority, Openness, Order, Respect, Rights, Truth
as we fight the enemy within, the flab
Another one of our weaknesses is our stomachs. Food is a vital part of our survival since the nutrients extracted from 
the food we eat gives life and strength to our bodies. We need to eat to live and to ensure that our systems function properly. I have been in America for the last 8 days and I am amazed at the amount of food consumed by the populous here. It would appear that a large proportion of the population live to eat rather than the other way round. We are reminded by the apostle Paul that we should exercise self-control in our eating and particularly if there are religious connotation associated with our eating habits. So in 1Corinthians 8 he addresses the problem of eating food offered to idols. Here he outlines his case and categorically claims that since idols are man-made, offering food to them is a futile activity. Some people argue that we should not eat meat since Adam and Eve were vegetarians; however Jesus ate fish and lamb! Others argue that we should only eat meat that has been killed in a particular way! The apostle Paul argues that if food is going to be a stumbling block for people to come to know Christ, then he would never eat again (1Cor 8:13). I would suggest as Jesus did, that it is not what goes into the body that defiles it, although too much going into the body will not be processed correctly and hence will collect under the skin as fat, it is what come out of the mouth which defiles or saves an individual. Consequently we are given free reign as to what we eat or don’t eat, but must be very careful about the words that comes out of our mouths. We who know Christ must be disciplined in all aspects of our lives, including out eating habits. And like the psalmist we must ‘let the words of our mouths and the thoughts of our minds be acceptable to the Lord our rock and redeemer!
Today, vet what you eat and what you say. That is, vet what goes in and what comes out. Read 1Corinthians 8 and Psalm 19:14.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Appetite, Conscience, Control, Feasting or fasting!, flab, Food, idolatory, Self-Control
as we fight against the flesh!
As we become armed and dangerous, dangerous to the enemy that is, we must recognise who our greatest enemy is. 
The apostle Paul entreats us to adorn ourselves with the full armour of God and uses the Roman soldier’s outfit as a metaphor of how we are to dress for our spiritual battles. However he recognised early on in his walk with the Lord Jesus that our greatest battle is with ourselves and the ability to control our natural desires. It matters not where you go in the world, the inability of human beings to control their ‘flesh’ has far reaching consequences. Now for me this is crucial since one of the greatest injustices imputed on people of African descent was the breakup of the nuclear family unit. The rape and dehumanising of young African women by slaver, to produce a generation of fatherless off-springs who then go on to perpetuate the cycle, highlights the problem. Two hundred years after abolition of the slave trade in Britain (1807) and nearly two hundred years after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire (1834), we are still seeing the effects of lack of control of the flesh. In fact the slave masters were disposed to taking the strongest men in the community from plantation to plantation to produce off-springs who would be ‘good’ workers. Alas today we have many Black men who think it ‘cool’ to carry on this tradition and boast about the many children they have fathered rather being a father to all their progenies. And so the apostle Pauls writing the first letter to the Corinthian church castigates them for their slackness. Sexual immorality should not be on the agenda of those who follow Christ (Ch 5). Are we not aware that our bodies are ‘temples of the Holy Spirit of God’? (Ch 6:15). Should you then be joined to every woman who takes your fancy? And if you are joined to them don’t you know that you are forming a spiritual bond [a soul tie] with them that allows them to download all their brokenness into you?
Since we have ‘this’ hope in Christ that ‘makes us nor ashamed’, let us fight against the flesh with all out might and teach our youngsters to do the same. In concluding the argument against sexual promiscuity, the apostle encourages those who find it difficult the exercise self-control and remain celibate to marry rather than to yearn after the opposite sex (Ch 7). This advice is applicable to all of us and particularly those of us who are a part of the Diaspora. If you are having difficulty fighting the flesh, then marry one person, this is the word for today. Read 1Cor 5, 6&7.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Debauchery, Desire, Flesh, Marriage, One-flesh relationship, Procreation, Self-Control, Slavery, spirit
as we rely on the power of the Spirit rather than the lofty words of men
Paul writing to the Corinthian brethren reminds them that when he came to them proclaiming the mysteries of God, he 
did not do so with lofty words of wisdom but with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that individuals may put their faith in the power of God and not in human performances. Today, we still have people who use lofty words and charismatic schemes to delude people. There are many who fall foul of these schemers and many who are duped or even lose their lives because of their antics. Do you remember the David Koresh saga in Waco Texas in 1993 where 74 Branch Davidians died, or the Jim Jones instituted massacre in Guyana in 1978 where over 900 people were killed by cyanide poisoning. These are just a few incidences of extremism gone wrong. So the apostle reminds his hearers that he had no scheme to entice them, neither did he come with a quick fix to get to heaven. Nor was he extolling great oratory skills that came from extensive times of learning. He was preaching Christ and him crucified and allowing the power of God through the Holy Spirit to work on people’s heart through faith. So irrespective of the preacher you are following or the organisation you belong to, if Christ was not the focus then all the preaching and postulation was in vain. As it was then, so it is now, people have their favourite preachers and their favourite churches and favourite TV shows. However if Jesus Christ is not the focus of all that is being said, then it is all in vain. And the vanity of men will end in suicide as the ultimate means of escape from the humdrum of everyday life. For us who have experienced the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, let us remember to preach the word with passion and conviction and allow the Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus to bring transformation, healing and deliverance to all those who hear, accept and believe. Today, allow the shield of faith to help you filter out those things which are not for your spiritual edification. Read 1Corinthians 2.
Posted in The Armour of God | Tags: Faith, Heaven, Hell, Human devices, Humanity, Oration, Powr of the Spirit
Pastor Bell's Words To Live By 