Posted by: pastorapbell | June 2, 2010

As we understand that quality is far more important than quantity of prayer

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions (Psalm 51:1).

Prayer that gets results must be predicated by a heartfelt desire for truth. When we go to our God with a truly repentant heart and in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22) we are fulfilling the criteria for God to fulfil his part of the equation. For as the writer of Hebrews tells us, daily repetitive sacrifices can never completely remove sin. So the frequency of prayer although it is a good discipline, must be balanced by the condition of our hearts and must be underpinned by love.

 So regardless of the fact that you pray five or more time a day at regular intervals, if your heart is not clean, that is your actions betray the words you say to God, your prayers will go unanswered. For as the psalmist says, “if I regard iniquity in my heart then the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18 KJV). This is exactly the trap that the ancient Israelites fell into. And today many followers of Islam fall into the same trap as they would rise from prayer to kill those who have different views from them.

Prayer is a dialogue, therefore when we pray there must be a time of waiting for the person to whom the prayer is given to respond. If this person is an inanimate object or cannot respond, then the prayer is just a religious exercise. However, we know that Yahweh is a God who listens and answers prayer in ways that we can see and recognise.

Today spend time listening to him for he will answer; and as the writer of Hebrews says: “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”(Heb 11:6 KJV).

Read Hebrews 10 &11.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | June 1, 2010

As we leave the lies behind and learn to pray with understanding

Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand (1Corinthians 14:15 NLT).

For this month of June I will be focussing on the spiritual discipline of prayer. Each day I will outline my take on some of the aspects of living a prayerful reflective lifestyle that brings results. However I would like the life that I am advocating to be one that sees prayer not so much as a tool for getting what we want but as a means of communicating with the father to know what he wants for us to do in these times in which we live. The premise of my reflection will be a follow on from the previous month’s line of argument that the most important aspect of our faith is the ability to appropriate and use truth to bring about changes in our lives.

We will start off with the fact that the dichotomy of double consciousness can now be superseded by the fact that we can live in an evil world and shine like bright starts (Philippians 2:15) and still be true to ourselves and to Jesus Christ our lord and saviour.

So for today let us start the process like the psalmist David and speak to tell ourselves; You [God], require truth in the inward parts [my psyche or subconscious being]  therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart [my most private memories]. This prayer starts with a cry for mercy and a plea for the Holy God to cover his iniquity with God’s abundant mercy and love. He then moves on to confess his sin and seek the cleansing that only comes from the washing of the word [the Blood of Jesus] so that truth may rise to the front of his life like cream on top of a warm cappuccino.

This prayer is real and revealing. It is not just a repetition of words or a ritual that is carried out with religious precision. It is a plea for help from a man who loves God but has allowed the position that God placed him in to become more important than his relationship with God. The spirit of pride, which is common among us, gets the better of him and he falls into the sin of believing that he can do it all by himself.  Many of us as Christians reach this place and miss what God is doing ‘Today’. If you are in that place, pray with understanding and become more reflective.

Read Psalm 51 slowly and reflectively and meditate on verse 6.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 31, 2010

As we think and speak the truth

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body (Proverbs 16:24 NRSV).

Although the double consciousness as described by Dr Dubois in 1903 spoke about the reality of living in a world where you were defined by others, and therefore presents difficulty in expressing your true identity, we can now turn this around and use the lesson learned in a positive way.  Not being real with or true to yourself can lead to serious mental health issues. Many psychologists and healthcare professionals have identified a link between health and the capacity to speak truth. Many writers suggest that the problem with identity can now be turned on its head and that double consciousness has given us a worldview with the ability to respond to multicultural postmodern reality. The writer Carlyle Stewart argues that Double consciousness provides a way of responding to the world that enhances the self’s creative capacities.

This response is one that is positive and promotes truth. So we are able to relate to our contemporaries and to our God from a position of truth. Whatever positions we find ourselves in we are able to say like the writer of the Negro spiritual, Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Nobody knows but Jesus, Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Glory Hallelujah.  The hallelujah at the end of the stanza is a positive response in that whatever we go through and are going through, we can conclude with praise to our God for taking us through it.

Read Proverbs 16

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 30, 2010

As we see ourselves as we are rather than how others choose to see us

For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? (Psalm 137:3-4 NRSV).

Once you are in captivity you are defined by your captor’s perception of who you should be rather than who you truly are. This was certainly the case for the people of God taken Babylon by king Nebuchadnezzar. Not only did he decide what they ate, where they lived and what jobs they ended up doing, they were being asked to sing sacred songs for entertainment. When any people are in captivity they are subject to their captors and as such must do what their captors require or they will die. To survive the Trans-Atlantic trade the slaves developed what W.E.B Dubois called double consciousness. This was a situation where they learned the art of wearing two hats or two personalities; one for the slave master and one for their peers. This led to the dichotomy of being defined by other people’s perception of who you really were and not being able to let the real you come to the fore.

This is where faith in Jesus kicks in. He gives us the ability and the self belief to learn to be defined by what God says about us and not by our environment or those who we work for or are contracted to. The word says; ‘‘before you were in your mother’s womb I knew you me and while I was being formed you were writing all my days in your book’’ (Psa 139:13-17 paraphrased).

So we do not have to be defined by others or live in a world where we cannot show our true self. By putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we can become who God ordained us to be and can achieve anything we put our minds to as we allow the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and develop us. Only then will we sing the Lord’s song because we have hope and a prescribed end.

Read Psalm 137 &139.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 20, 2010

As we consider the lie of self-pity

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5 NIV).

Self-pity is a condition where one dwells in one’s misfortune and sorrows. It is characterized by a person’s belief that he or she is the victim of events and is therefore deserving of condolence. Self-pity is generally regarded as a negative emotion in that it does not generally help deal with adverse situations. It is always someone’s fault why this or that happened. It causes the individual to absolve responsibility by passing it on to someone else.

This is a negative emotion that goes hand in hand with depression and leads the individual to see themselves in a particular light.

In essence self-pity is a way of seeing yourself in a totally contradictory way from which God sees you. And the cry is usually woe is me!

God sees you as an individual with lots of potential, you see yourself as someone who is a failure and will never amount to anything.  God sees you as a great leader, you see yourself as someone never able to get beyond the first level and always walking in someone else’s shadow.

We are called to be persistent, resilient and to have a mindset that says ‘I will never give up’. Like Caleb and Joshua from the Old Testament, we must develop the same mental strength to say that the giants who stand between us and our destiny will be destroyed as we possess what God intended for us in the first place (Numbers 13:30).

Today if we develop a mindset where we see ourselves as victims rather than victors we will never aspire to the heights that God intended for us. So let us jettison self-pity and embrace that attitude that says ’I can do all things through Christ who give me strength’, and defeat the giants of Self and Pity.

Read Number 13

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 19, 2010

As we consider the root cause of depression

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God (Psalm 43:5).

Depression is an extremely complex medical condition and is brought about through a variety of reasons. It can occur from having a simple headache to more far reaching conditions such as loss due to death, separation or serious abuse. Whatever the causes of depression are the effects are the same. It affects the mind and therefore how the individual thinks is radically altered. As mentioned elsewhere it leads to despair and hopelessness which eventually can lead to suicide.

So how does the follower of Jesus overcome depression? Here are a few pointers; firstly, since depression is a condition of the mind it is imperative that the individual gets their minds focussed on the right things. We are told in scripture that ‘if there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love any sharing in the spirit then we should think as Christ thought’, (Phil 2:1). Put another way, we are also told that we can only be transformed when our minds are renewed (Rom 12:2).

Secondly, the words that we speak must be positive and not negative. We are to let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts [minds] be acceptable to the Lord (Psa 19:13+14).

Finally we are to develop the gifts that have been deposited in us by Jesus. By doing these we will sometimes get down but not depressed. This occurs since we are able to remind ourselves that we belong to Jesus and therefore are subject to his will for our lives. His words to us are to give us hope and an expected end which is not suicide.

Today read Romans 12

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 18, 2010

As we allow lies about us to cause us to condemn ourselves

O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.  

You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways (Psalm 139:1-3 NIV).

Not knowing what God says about you can have a devastating impact on your life. We are creatures of habit and the words we speak are symptomatic of what is in our hearts [minds]. The whole purposes of lies are to keep you trapped in a cycle of self-condemnation with a mindset that focuses inward rather than towards God. Imagine being in a field of tall trees, it is impossible to see anything but tree from your perspective. However, if you were to take an aeroplane and fly over the same region then your perspective of the whole scenery will be totally different.

Similarly, when we are able to step outside our situations and see ourselves and our conditions from God’s perspective, then our whole vista changes. Examples of this are:- I was born out of wedlock and I believe that I am a bastard and therefore cannot amount to anything. God says, no, no, no, you are wonderfully and fearfully made and I have a divine purpose for your life (Psalm 139:14). He also says that before you speak a word he knows it (v.4), so God know everything about us.  Also God would say don’t worry about this wedlock business, just look at my son, he was born out of wedlock and look at him now, sitting at my right hand in glory.

Today like the woman who was caught in adultery and was condemned by her peers in John 8:1-11, who were also sinners, Jesus is saying, look around, where are those who condemn you. We are the only ones here; you and me, so let’s start again and you go and sin no more. That is, don’t condemn yourself, be careful of your associates and do things God’s way.

Read John 8:1-11.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 17, 2010

As we examine some of the emotional by-products of lying (Rejection and condemnation)

A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14 NIV).

Rejection can be defined as the sense of being unwanted. You desire people to love you, and yet you believe that they don’t or can’t. You want to be part of a group, but you feel excluded. Somehow you are always on the outside looking in, trapped unable to do what you desire most.

Sometimes rejection is so wounding and painful that the mind refuses to focus on it. Nevertheless, you know something is there even though it is deeper than the mind, deeper than the reason, deeper than the memory. It is in your spirit.

The primary result of rejection is the inability to receive love from others and to communicate love to them. That is why rejection is one of the greatest hindrances to divine love. 

With the spirit of rejection comes condemnation of self and others. Although there are many gifts and talents deposited in you, they never rise to the surface as they are dumbed down and suppressed in order to keep you trapped.

Today we have the answer to the question; can I be set free from the spirit of rejection and condemnation? We are told in Romans 8:1&28 ‘that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and for those who are called according to his purpose.’ To overcome the spirit of rejection and condemnation we must first accept that Jesus is lord of every area of our lives and start the process of restoration.

If this process is not started then the following progression will occur: REJECTION –>
LONELINESS–>SELF-PITY–>MISERY–>DEPRESSION–>DESPAIR OR HOPELESSNESS which eventually leads to DEATH.

However, the plan of Jesus is to bring release to each individual and give them abundant life (John 10:10).  Receive your deliverance today and accept the love from God the father through Jesus the son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Read Romans 8

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 16, 2010

As we count the true cost of real lies

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God (Luke 1310-13 NIV).

Lies become a habit and bad habits are formed after practicing them for at least 28 days. It will also take 28 days to break any habit once it is formed. Telling lies leads to physical ailments which are a product of guilt and condemnation. Although lies would appear to be words only, we only acknowledge the power of the spoken word when individuals who are persistent liars end up with diseases some of which are debilitating.

Let us look at the nature of guilt. Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes, accurately or not, that they have violated a moral standard, and bear sole responsibility for that violation. So from this definition we see that lies are thoughts that are thought through. Some are premeditated whilst others are spoken on spur of the moment. This is why as followers of Jesus we must taste our words before we speak them. That is, speak them to yourself and see how they make us feel.

The diseases that guilt and condemnation brings in your body can be reversed by being true to yourself. Only when truth is applied to the damage done by lies and the condemnation that follows, can true restoration occur in an individual.

Today if you are suffering from persistent ailments, examine your thought life and be quick to repent of anything which may have been construed as a lie. Repent so that the healing process can begin in your body. Like a delicate flower the process of healing can be a painstakingly slow one. So be prepared to take time with yourself to ensure that total healing and restoration is wrought in your body.

Read Luke 13

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Posted by: pastorapbell | May 15, 2010

As examine why lies cannot set you free

“Tell your friend a lie. If he keeps it secret, then tell him the truth.”

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you” Proverbial Sayings.

These proverbial sayings are about the impact and far reaching effect that lies has on us. Lies not only ensnare us but trap us into a lifestyle that causes us to believe these lies ourselves. Let us examine these statements to see where they fall down.

The first saying tells us about our friends and how we should react to their fidelity. The fact that we should have to tell our friend a lie in the first place to determine whether or not they are genuine goes against scriptural principles. For example, ‘a true friend sticks closer than a brother’ the writer of Proverbs tells us in 18:24. This implies that a friend who is true will always be that, true and tell you the truth not to appease you but to transform you into the person you were created to be. To counter this mindset then I was taught this proverbial saying as a child; ‘speak the truth and speak it ever cost it what it will, he who hides the wrong he does will do the wrong thing still’. Not only is this position liberating it allows you to sleep in peace at nights.

The second quotation is profound in that the writer is expressing his heart to a close friend or to a lover who has deceived him. As pointed out a few days ago, deception is underwritten by half truths. And I can imagine Adam repeating these words to Eve. The very nature of lies is to tie you up so tightly that it affects your well-being and causes your health to deteriorate. This leads to bitterness, which leads to diseases such as cancer and failure of the major organs in our bodies so that we eventually die.

On the other hand, speaking the truth has the opposite effect. Knowing and speaking the truth is liberating and brings healing to everyone who walks down this road. Jesus said; ‘you will know the truth and the truth will set you free’, John 8:32.

Lies entangle you in a web of deceit, the truth sets us free, but only when we get to know him. Remember that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life’.

Read John 8:12-59

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