To Be A Pattern

Luke 12:48(KJV); …For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The responsibility of every child of God to whom much has been entrusted is to become a pattern to them that must come after.

Everything that is added to you, whether it is the anointing, glory or power comes with this responsibility.

Take the example of the life of Christ. He was anointed of God; He was mantled and crowned with wisdom; He was strong in power.

The testimony of His life is that whatsoever He did was a pattern to be followed.

The way He healed teaches; the way He related with His persecutors, disciples, rulers and children teaches; the way He responded to situations teaches.

There are those who look at the anointing and glory as a means to a better life for them; a way for them to have enough to feed their children and have bigger homes.

That is a narrow and shallow view of divine purpose.

You owe the world something and heaven is counting on you.

You must look at yourself as a pattern.

Your life must be that whenever someone looks at you, you are like a book that teaches them about God whenever they read it.

Glory to God!

FURTHER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 4:2, 2 Corinthians 3:2

GOLDEN NUGGET:

The responsibility of every child of God to whom much has been entrusted is to become a pattern to them that must come after.

PRAYER: Father God, I thank you for this instruction. You have invested too much in me that I can never be mediocre. Greatness is my portion and story. I am an epistle written by the spirit and read by all men. When the world looks at me, it sees the great work that you are doing in and by me. My life teaches and instructs. To the glory of your name. Amen.

Do Your Part

Apostle Grace Lubega

Luke 16:10 (KJV); He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

God rewards faithfulness above gift.

I have been approached by Christians who seek to know their destinies and what they will be in the future.

Indeed, the Lord by His grace may allow a minister to see your future and what it is you must become but that should not be the primary focus for a man or woman on a journey of purpose.

Even if it is good to know where you are going, it is important that you do your part in the small things that you have been entrusted with now.

Simply because God has called you to be a great minister who will stand before multitudes does not mean that you start to find ways of gaining access to a pulpit and the spotlight.

Some Christians who know that great destinies await them have folded their hands and are waiting for those destinies to somehow fall into their laps.

That is not how it works, child of God.

Moses’ calling was to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land but he had to be faithful at the point when God put him to tend Jethro’s sheep.

Joseph was called to be a great statesman. He had a dream where he saw his family bowing to him but there was a process that required faithfulness under the hand of Potiphar.

Yes, you have a great call upon your life. Your future is bright and your destiny is great.

However, as led by God, you ought to find something to do and to be faithful in that.

If it is ministry, be part. If it is responding to instructions on the altar, do so.

As you are faithful in the little, you will be propelled toward your God-given destiny.

FURTHER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 4:2, Matthew 25:21

GOLDEN NUGGET:

God rewards faithfulness above gift.

PRAYER: Loving father, I thank you for this instruction. I receive it in humility because this is the wisdom by which I grow. What a great privilege to serve the Almighty God! I do so with the greatest joy wherever you have placed me. I choose to be both available and committed Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God Of Faithfulness

Apostle Grace Lubega

Isaiah 66:9(KJV); Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.

God finishes what He starts.

It is not in His nature to begin and not end something because He Himself is the beginning and the end.

Like our theme scripture reveals, He is not the God who can bring a woman to the point of birth and does not cause her to bring forth.

God has not brought you this far to let you fail.

He has not brought you this far to allow what He started to be ended by the enemy.

He has invested too much in you.

That is why, regardless of the circumstance you might be facing, you will come out because God is not done yet.

No matter how bad the diagnosis is, you will not die because the Lord is not yet done!

Walk with this understanding. Face your days in this blessed assurance.

His name be praised!

FURTHER STUDY: Revelation 1:8, Hebrews 12:2

GOLDEN NUGGET:

God finishes what He starts. It is not in His nature to begin and not end something because He Himself is the beginning and the end.

PRAYER: Lord, I thank you for this Word. What truth! I stand in the knowledge that you are for me. I am yours and you are mine, you are the author and the finisher of everything pertaining to my life. Nothing is done until you say so. Nothing has ended until you say so. This is my song of victory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Principles Of The Birthright: Lessons From Reuben

Apostle Grace Lubega

Genesis 35:22(KJV); And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it.

Reuben was Jacob’s eldest son(Genesis 35:23).

He was his father’s “might, the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power”(Genesis 49:3).

However, there is something that Reuben did that greatly affected his position in the spirit.

Reuben, like our theme scripture reveals, slept with his father’s concubine Billah. In Genesis 49:4, his father told him that he was “unstable as water and shall not excel because he went up to his father’s bed and defiled it.”

What was the effect?

In Matthew 1, when the Bible speaks of the genealogy of Christ, Reuben is not considered as the firstborn of Jacob. The Bible says in Matthew 1:2; “And Jacob begat Judas and his brethren.”

What does this tell us about the principles of the birth right?

What you do to your father, whether biological or spiritual can affect your birth right.

In your home, labour not to grieve the heart of your parent.

As a child in any ministry, seek peace in all things.

If you are part of a vision, let it not be that you are building your own and not associating for the sake of what you stand to benefit.

Let your actions speak of a purity of heart that is not after selfish gain.

FURTHER STUDY: Hebrews 13:17, 1 Timothy 5:17

GOLDEN NUGGET:

What you do to your father can affect your birth right. This includes both biological and spiritual fathers. As a child in any ministry, seek peace in all things.

PRAYER: Lord, I am grateful for this wisdom. I understand the patterns of submission and live by their dictates. I respect spiritual authority and give honour where honour is due. By your grace, I grow in what it means to treat those who have gone before me with the esteem they deserve. To the glory of your name. Amen.

To Believe Without Seeing

Apostle Grace Lubega

John 20:29(MSG); Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

It is a great liberty to see Christ as He is in the Spirit.

There is a blessing that follows this revelation and understanding. As such, the scriptures have declared that blessed are those who believe without seeing.

The reason why this is a great liberty is because to behold Christ in His spiritual form is to behold Him in all dimensions. That is where the limitlessness of the experience of the Christ is.

Christ delights in manifesting and ministering to you in the spiritual form more than in the physical. This is because the formation of all we see has its source and genesis from that which is spiritual.

We are spiritual beings with occasional human experiences, and not human beings with occasional spiritual experiences.

It is possible to see Jesus everyday and everywhere; if our focus shifts to the Christ, who now has His habitation, in the hearts of men.

Glory to God!

FURTHER STUDY: 1Peter 1:8, Luke 13:35,

GOLDEN NUGGET:

We are spiritual beings with occasional human experiences and not human beings with occasional spiritual experiences.

PRAYER: Blessed Savior, I thank you for this day. Thank you for choosing me to be your habitation and dwelling place. I am not limited to what my eyes can see . I define your manifest presence with what I experience in the spirit. I see you as I ought to see you, through the very lens of eternity and of the Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The God Of The House

Apostle Grace Lubega

Genesis 28:17-19; 35:7(KJV); And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel… And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

Denominations have no place in Christ.

In Him there is neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave nor free, Catholic or Pentecostal, Baptist or Methodist, Anglican or Protestant (Galatians 3:28).

But the sad reality is that the body of Christ is heavily denominated, majorly along doctrinal lines.

There is a tendency for men to worship affiliations above the person of Christ; Christ is no longer sacred but what the affiliation regards as truth is what is sacred.

This is attachment to “the House of God.” It is hinging your faith on your church and how it does what it does; it is what the denomination believes and not what the Bible teaches as truth.

In our theme scripture, God takes Jacob from the experience of ‘Bethel’ translated to mean the House of God to El-Bethel, translated to mean the God of the house.

God was interested in Jacob getting to know Him as God and not merely the “House.”

God expects the church of Christ to grow past attachments to religious assemblies or an association to the knowledge of Him.

He calls us to understand His nature, desires, thoughts, and purposes.

His name be praised!

FURTHER STUDY: Ephesians 4:13-15, John 17:3

GOLDEN NUGGET:

God expects the church of Christ to grow past attachments to religions of men to the knowledge of His person in the face of Jesus Christ.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for this Word. I receive it in humility and with understanding. My heart is ready and pants after a deeper experience with you. I choose to lay aside what I think I know and launch out into deeper waters of the knowledge of you. May knowing you be my daily experience. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Power Of Praise

Apostle Grace Lubega

2 Chronicles 20:21-24(KJV); And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

In our extensive weapon armoury as children of the Most High God, the Lord of Heaven’s armies and the Lord of Sabaoth, praise is a great weapon of choice.

King Jehoshaphat in our theme scripture employed it rather beautifully.

He was faced with a battle against a great multitude of the Moabites and Ammonites.

He could have chosen fear, despair or anger against God for allowing this to happen. However, he chose to praise God and see what happened!

When he chose to praise God, the battle was shifted into the capable hands of the Lord Himself.

The Bible reveals that real confusion befell the enemy camp; the Ammonites and Moabites turned against their allies, the inhabitants of Mount Seir. Having destroyed them, they turned against each other.

Imagine that!

Praise is the confirmation of your affirmed victory in God.

That is why when you come to praise, don’t spare, forget about your neighbour or the person that will weigh you on the scales of propriety, just praise!

If you are moved to dance, dance! If it is worship, forget everything else and worship the Most High God.

If you ever find yourself faced with the enemy’s advancing battle, don’t despair, simply put on your dancing shoes and praise God!

Glory to God!

FURTHER STUDY: 2 Samuel 6:14, Acts 16:25-26

GOLDEN NUGGET:

Praise is the confirmation of your affirmed victory in God.

PRAYER: Loving father, I thank you for this wisdom in the art of war. Regardless of what I am going through, I choose to praise you through the storm. You, my God, inhabit the praises of your people; you my Lord break through prison doors when we choose to praise. With my heart lifted up, I praise and worship you. In this is my victory; in this is my breakthrough. To the glory of your name. Amen.

Principles of the Birthright: Lessons from Ephraim And Manasseh

Apostle Grace Lubega

Genesis 48:14-20(KJV); And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

Manasseh was Joseph’s firstborn son.

However, our theme scripture reveals that when Jacob was blessing the sons of Joseph, he set Ephraim, the second born before Manasseh despite Joseph’s protests.

Why was this so?

The Lord revealed to me that the reason was in the naming of these two boys.

The Hebrew meaning of the name Ephraim is “doubly fruitful” while the Hebrew meaning of the name Manasseh is “causing to forget.”

This teaches us that a child’s position in the spirit can be affected by the name they carry.

Be careful about how you name your children.

There are names with grave spiritual implications. Yes, they might relate with the circumstances of their birth but that does not mean that the name of a child should reflect anger, bitterness, death or calamity simply because those were the circumstances of their birth.

As a parent who understands the testimony of the victory of Christ, regardless of the circumstance of the birth of a child, give names that resonate with their identity in God.

Praise the Lord!

FURTHER STUDY: Ephesians 3:15, Genesis 35:18

GOLDEN NUGGET:
A child’s position in the spirit can be affected by the name they carry. Be careful about how you name your children.

PRAYER: Lord in heaven, I thank you for this wisdom. I understand the spiritual implication of names and determine that my children will have names that reflect an identity in Christ. They are the first and never the last, above and not beneath because of what I have determined by their names. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Knowledge, The Experience

Apostle Grace Lubega

Ephesians 3:19 AMP; [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

Knowledge is an experience.

This is why to know God is to EXPERIENCE God.

In our dispensation, God is pouring out knowledge like never before. However this new knowledge and revelation comes into question in the hearts of many who have not fully understood these things because it has not been exercised in the arena of experience.

For example, the depth of God comes in the form of knowledge but it is an experience. The dimensions of the spirit and the laws by which one functions in them may come in the form of knowledge but they are an experience.

True acquaintance with the realm of God is not merely through knowledge but through experience.

You will never have the richest measure of the divine presence by knowledge alone but by experience.

This begs the question, what does it mean to experience God?

We experience God in the exercise of our spiritual senses every time we encounter knowledge.

Moreover, there is a knowledge that can never come to you until you learn to exercise your senses. This is why Paul says “Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

When you hear of the manifold wisdom of God, that is knowledge. You KNOW that His wisdom is many sided. But a man who hungers for experience will ask, ‘what is the sound of wisdom? (Proverbs 1:20), what is the taste of wisdom? (Proverbs 24:14) How does wisdom look to the eye? How does it feel like?

Like our theme scripture compels us, desire for more than mere knowledge.

Hunger for the experiences in knowledge.

FURTHER STUDY: Hebrews 5:14, 1 John 1:1

GOLDEN NUGGET:

True acquaintance with the realm of God is not merely through knowledge but through experience. You will never have the richest measure of the divine presence by knowledge alone but by experience

PRAYER: My Father, I thank you for the knowledge you have imparted in my spirit today. I receive not just the knowledge but the experience of these things. My senses are exercised to see, touch, feel, taste and hear the Word and to live it as my very reality. To the glory of your name. Amen.

The Heart Beat Of The Christian

Apostle Grace Lubega

Acts 17:16-17(KJV); Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.

Christians are the moral conscience of their societies.

It is a Christian with a seared conscience who will look at moral debauchery in his society and feel nothing.

It is a Christian with a seared conscience who will ignore social injustice.

Take an example from history. In the era in which William Wilberforce lived, slavery was as acceptable as birth and marriage. It was so woven in the fabric of human history that uprooting it had to take the very hand of God.

For his almost twenty year struggle, he came to be known as the “moral conscience of the nation.”

He and his battle companions like Granville Sharp, Hannah Moore under the spiritual guidance of John Wesley were Christians with Methodist leanings.

This in itself rendered the abolitionist movement Christian in character.

The early Christian church stood against inhuman practices such as infanticide.

A Christian with the heartbeat of God will always be stirred in his spirit when he encounters an order of things that is contrary to the will of God. Such was Paul in our theme scripture.

What did Paul do? The Bible says that he went about preaching in the synagogues and in the market. He did something about what he saw!

So what are we as the church doing?

Are we taking the front line against poverty?

Are we taking the front line against child trafficking?

Are we taking the frontline against child prostitution?

God has called us to be forces of social and cultural change and every day, we ought to rise to the occasion.

FURTHER STUDY: Matthew 5:16, 1 Peter 2:12

GOLDEN NUGGET:

A Christian with the heartbeat of God will always be stirred in his spirit when he encounters an order of things that is contrary to the will of God.

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for the responsibility upon my life. I thank you because it is a responsibility coupled with divine authority. You have equipped me as an architect of change; the world is a much better place because I am in it; my children will live in a better world because I am making change. To the glory of God. Amen.

To Multiply By Sacrifice

Apostle Grace Lubega

Genesis 22:2(KJV); And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Sacrifice does not kill your seed, it multiplies it.

Abraham was asked by God to take his beloved son Isaac and sacrifice him. It was a hard decision, anyone could have questioned his sanity but because God had spoken, our father of faith obeyed.

The result? Multitudes for sons and daughters.

The Christ in the garden of Gethsemane was faced with the hardest choice in His earthly life. His life was to be given up as a sacrifice for a fallen world. In the agony of His decision, He sweated blood. For the first and last time ever recorded in scripture, He bemoaned the will of His father and cried that peradventure the cup be taken away from Him. Nevertheless, He endured (Luke 22:42).

The result? Many sons brought to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

The Church of Christ has multiplied at the altar of sacrifice. Whole villages of aggressive Red Indians were brought to salvation by the sacrifice of missionary Christians. In the age of Catholic Christianity (70AD to 312AD), as Christian blood flowed at the stakes, on the cliffs of Rome and at the mouths of lions, Christianity advanced across the borders of Roman civilisation. This was the seed of the Christian faith multiplying by sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul worded his life of sacrifice in this simple statement, “I will gladly spend and be spent for you.”(2 Corinthians 12:15).

The result? At the end of his life, he was so full to overflowing that he was “being poured out like a drink offering” (2 Timothy 4:6).

We should not downplay the power of sacrifice in the advancement of the gospel.

Let us make the choice to give our all and hold nothing back.

Let us lay our lives down for the sake of men for IN GIVING ALL, WE GAIN ALL.

To the glory of His name. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: Mark 8:36, Matthew 16:25

GOLDEN NUGGET:

We should not downplay the power of sacrifice in the advancement of the gospel. Let us make the choice to give our all and hold nothing back. Let us lay our lives down for the sake of men for IN GIVING ALL, WE GAIN ALL.

PRAYER: Loving father, I thank you for this great Word. I embrace this wisdom and walk in it. You have taught me that when I lose my life, I gain it. Lord, I choose to spend and be spent for the sake of the gospel; to spare nothing; to give of my time; my gold and silver; my intellect and heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Knowledge: The Idol

Apostle Grace Lubega

Acts 17:21-23; (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

We live in a dispensation of the increase of knowledge.

The Bible through the prophecy of Daniel the Prophet clearly stated that in the last days, knowledge shall increase (Daniel 12:4).

As such, we see this reality IN THE WORLD with the advancements in medical science, space exploration and technology: generative adversarial networks, the internet of things, virtual reality, health wearables, artificial organs, and robotic surgery. Knowledge is increasing.

Sadly, the increase of knowledge in the world is not proportionate to increase of knowledge in the body of Christ.

The implications of this are truly grave.

There is a general tendency for men to make idols of anything new which was the vice of the Athenians in our theme scripture and is a general vice of men that seek for wisdom outside the Christ.

It is the same vice that consumed some scientists when through discovery of new wonders in the world got lost in the very wonders of the world and forgot the God of wonders.

Today’s greatest secular universities were originally theological seminaries started by Christian men of God but fell prey to the idolisation of new knowledge.

It is therefore a caution to the church that in the face of all these advancements (which in themselves are very good), we yield to the increase of the revelation of God lest he become UNKNOWN as we learn more about our world.

The Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the deep and is ready to reveal the bottomless depths of God.

Embrace revelation.

FURTHER STUDY: Ephesians 1:17, Colossians 1:10

GOLDEN NUGGET:

Yield to the increase of the revelation of God lest he become UNKNOWN as we learn more about our world. The Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the deep and is ready to reveal the bottomless depths of God.

PRAYER: Loving father, what a great privilege to live in our times! I know that revelation is available and is being poured out in torrents. Lord I choose to drink from the eternal brooks of knowledge. Lord, at these waters, I don’t take by spoonful, by cups or even by drum full. I take it all, I soak in it until I am drenched in the very spirit of revelation. To the glory of your name. Amen.