Life Starts From The Heart

Apostle Grace Lubega

Romans 6:17(KJV); But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have OBEYED FROM THE HEART that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Obedience is a heart issue. For this reason, our theme scripture uses the language, “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”

It does not start from the things you say or do but from the state of your heart towards the things you say or do.

In fact, it is possible to confess right when you are disobedient, that is, to speak what the scriptures say about your life and any circumstance you are facing yet your heart is not in agreement with what you say.

The heart is ground, which means that out of it grow [into full-fledged plants] the seeds of your deepest convictions.

The scripture says, guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Some people are keen to guard their hearts from the negative things that people say.
When someone says something contrary to scripture, for example, “You are poor”, they are quick to say, “That is not my portion. I cancel it is Jesus’ name!”

However, they do not guard their hearts from their own PERSONAL REFLECTIONS; they easily entertain negative thoughts and dwell on them endlessly.

The MESSAGE version of Proverbs 4:23 says; “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; [that’s] where life starts.”

In all that you say and do, always ensure that your heart AGREES because life starts from the heart. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: Proverbs 4:23, Philemon 1:6

GOLDEN NUGGET:

Some people are keen to guard their hearts from the negative things that people say. However, they do not guard their hearts from their own PERSONAL REFLECTIONS; they easily entertain negative thoughts and dwell on them endlessly.

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for this wisdom. I receive it with my spirit and yield to it’s work in my life. My heart is right before you and is aligned to what I do or say. My meditations are pure and my confessions are of truth. As I continually exercise myself in this pattern of life, I bear fruit to the glory of your name. Amen.

Up The Tower

Apostle Grace Lubega

Habakkuk 2:1 (AMP): [OH, I know, I have been rash to talk out plainly this way to God!] I will [in my thinking] stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower or fortress, and will watch to see what He will say within me and what answer I will make [as His mouthpiece] to the perplexities of my complaint against Him.

In our theme scripture, the Prophet Habakkuk was bothered by many questions and he desired answers from the Lord.

He chose to go up a tower to see what God would say WITHIN him.

Think of this as more than a physical tower but a higher place from which you make the choice to view your circumstances.

Issues will always seem bigger than you as long as you observe them from the same plane on which they are. You must always look at any problem from a HIGHER and GODLY perspective. Hallelujah!

The prophet went on to say that on the tower, he would watch out to see what God would say WITHIN him.

On the tower[higher places of perception], God sends a WORD within you and that WORD will make you His mouthpiece to perplexities and issues in your life.

Whenever you are struggling with a problem, SEEK for God to speak a WORD within you.

Once that WORD is planted inside your spirit, you will become a mouthpiece of God.

The WORD He gives you will be God Himself speaking to that situation. And once God speaks, there is a guarantee that that situation will be judged.
Praise Him!

FURTHER STUDY: Isaiah 55:11, Psalms 107:20

GOLDEN NUGGET:

On the tower[higher places of perception], God sends a word within you and that word will make you His mouthpiece to perplexities and issues in your life.

PRAYER: Lord I thank you for this day. I thank you for the blessed assurance of your WORD. When you speak, it does not return to you void but prospers in the thing in which you have sent it. Today, your WORD judges every negative circumstance in my life. Even as I speak it forth, issues hear the sound of your voice. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Of Spiritual Maturity: Wisdom In Judgement

Apostle Grace Lubega

Philippians 1:9(KJV); And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and [in] all judgement.

Christian maturity has many facets.

Today, I wish to open your eyes to one of these facets; this is the wisdom in judging matters.

Part of this wisdom is to never judge issues before time.

God in His infinite LOVE always gives men the opportunity to repent and turn to Him (2 Peter 3:9).

When you judge a matter before time, you over look God’s patience and mercy toward a man whom He has allowed the chance to change.

Another aspect of this wisdom is the constraint of love (2 Corinthians 5:14).

The MESSAGE version rendering of this scripture is that His love has moved us to EXTREMES and is the first and last word in everything we do.

Take this example;
A man may be extremely provoked by another and immediately judge him. He may speak a word that dooms his fellow man.

But merely because the words spoken against another man have come to pass does not make you a mature Christian.

I have heard ministers of the gospel boast over the fulfillment of words spoken against fellow brethren–that is not maturity!

Look at Christ, the epitome of maturity, He continually imputes righteousness.

At the cross, with nails in his hands and feet, His heart still bled with love and He said,” Forgive them…”(Luke 23:34). That is maturity!

Maturity causes you to never hold grudges, to see a man fall in a pit he dug for himself and get on your knees to pray for him.

Maturity will cause you to intercede for those who HATE you and not to seek for their destruction because you understand that Jesus died for them too and that He wishes that no man perish.
Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: Matthew 5:44, 2 Corinthians 5:14

GOLDEN NUGGET:

Maturity causes you to never hold grudges, to see a man fall in a pit he dug for himself and get on your knees to pray for him. Maturity will cause you to intercede for those who hate you and not to seek for their destruction because you understand that Jesus died for them too and wishes that no man perish

PRAYER: Father, you perfect me in your love and for this I am grateful. I thank you that this day, I walk after its pattern. For the Bible says, by this love shall the world know that I am your disciple. Mysteries are not a mark of discipleship; gifts and miracles are not a mark of discipleship but your LOVE is! Today men identify me by it’s overflow in my speech, attitude and character. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How Deep Are Your Waters?

Apostle Grace Lubega

1 Corinthians 2:10 [AMP]; Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny].

Some Christians have this mindset that they can run dry or empty and are thus in constant need to be “refilled” by the Holy Spirit.

This is because they have not understood what it means to draw from eternal wells and depths.

Deep calls unto deep [Psalms 42:7].

But what is deep calling you to?

It is [God] calling you to true eternal experiences because these experiences carry the ultimate revelation of the BOTTOMLESSNESS of the things in Him -GOD!

However, to every believer, even the bottomless things of God have a bottom called FAITH.

In God, you can only go as far as you BELIEVE.

You have the liberty to dig as deep as you wish. Never be afraid to tread greater places in God.

He has promised that when you pass through the waters [these are waters of the Spirit], He will be with you and the rivers shall not overwhelm you [Isaiah 43:2].

He says, “I WILL BE WITH THEE.” This is more than just a blessed assurance of His constant presence.

He is drawing you to the fact that no matter, how deep you go, He will still be there.

There will always be more of God. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: Psalms 42:7, Isaiah 43:2

GOLDEN NUGGET:

Deep calls unto deep. But what is deep calling you to? It is [God] calling you to true eternal experiences because these experiences carry the ultimate revelation of the BOTTOMLESSNESS of the things in Him – GOD.

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for the experiences in you. I have the understanding that you are bottomless. I refuse to be satisfied with what I have seen and tasted. My faith cries that there is more. I recognize the sound of deep calling unto deep and yield to your Spirit as He leads me to deeper places in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Things That Make Ministers: The Father’s Heart

Apostle Grace Lubega

1 Samuel 18:7-8 (KJV); And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands; and what can he have more but the kingdom?

Saul turned against David and desired to kill him simply because David had “killed ten thousands” while Saul only killed “thousands.”

David assumed that he had a father in Saul but this was not so. Saul was provoked to jealousy because he did not carry a father’s heart toward David.

When a man with a father’s heart, sees his son draw millions of people, he sees it as his victory too. One without a father’s heart will see it as a threat.

Take the example of biological fathers. If your child does something greater than you have done, it is natural for you to be proud because you see it as an extension of yourself doing better things.

It would be strange for you to fight your son–his success means that you have your part in him, unless he is not yours.

A ministry can be destroyed when a father looks at the success of a son and does not see his part in him.

FURTHER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 4:15, 1 Samuel 19:1-18

GOLDEN NUGGET:
A  ministry can be destroyed when a father looks at the success of a son and does not see his part in him.

PRAYER: My Lord, I am most grateful for this wisdom. It teaches me to celebrate the success of others because those are things that prove ministers. I walk in love towards those that do great things in the kingdom and I never seek to fight or compete against them. I understand my part and lot in this gospel and with this wisdom I supply as each individual joint is mandated to. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Why We Continue To Behold

Apostle Grace Lubega

2 Corinthians 3:18(AMP); And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

The power of truth is that every time you hear it, you are changed.

The Greek word for changed in our theme scripture is “metamorphoo” which is translated to mean changing into another form or to be transfigured.

Beholding in the realm of glass [the Word] does not ONLY make you a “good and loving Christian.” We do not sit under the Word just to become better people.

There is a higher purpose to it–we change form! This means that we adopt the reality of our spiritual identity and take on a supernatural radiance in the spirit realm.

The language in our theme scripture is “because we CONTINUED to behold.” It is not something to do occasionally, it ought to be CONTINUAL.

No time is ever wasted in the presence of God. You are constantly changing.

I wish to encourage you today dear Christian, pursue EVERY opportunity to be in the presence of God and never assume that nothing is happening by your constant attendance of Christian meetings or constant study of the Word.

The more you behold this glory, the more you are changed. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: Colossians 3:16, James 1:23

GOLDEN NUGGET:
Beholding in the realm of glass[the Word] does not ONLY make you a “good and loving Christian.” We do not sit under the Word just to become better people. There is a higher purpose to it–we change form!

PRAYER: Father, I thank you for this great Word. As I continue to behold in the kingdom of glass, I am transformed. I radiate glory and shine by the power of your Word. I am more than a man, I bear the identity, nature and character of Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Of The Rapture

Apostle Grace Lubega

Matthew 24:14 (KJV); And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

We are living in an era of radical apocalyptic speculation.

Christians sometimes apply unsound hermeneutics to world events in a bid to explain the end of the world.

To some, every new technological invention which they may not necessarily understand means that the end of the world is here.

If a global leader makes a statement that is contrary to their understanding of truth, to them, “the end of the world is near.”

But often times, some miss the ultimate prophesy that the scriptures reveal shall usher in the end of days.

Christ, in his great Olivet Discourse, a portion of which is our theme scripture said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

The preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth shall usher in the end.

So you may say, “The gospel has been here for a while and many have heard it. How come the end has not yet come?”

The answer to this is that there is a particular level of knowledge that must firstly settle in the church before it (the Church) is raptured.

This knowledge shall cause men who are terrestrial (physical) beings to be so utterly consumed by the Word of God until they start to have terrestrial-celestial experiences.

The Bible speaks of celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies and that they differ in glory (1 Corinthians 15:40).

God is not going to get terrestrial bodies and carry them off to heaven like some assume. No, flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50).

God is coming for a church that knows Him so much that it will easily transition into eternity celestial. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 15:40, 1 Corinthians 15:50

GOLDEN NUGGET:

God is coming for a church that knows Him so much that it will easily transition into eternity celestial.

PRAYER: Father, this day I pray, that you launch me into deeper things. I desire your Word more than necessary food. Let knowledge be my satisfaction and fullness. Cause me to hunger for the real things, God. Lord flood me with knowledge, flood me with your experiences, and flood me with the reality of spiritual things. I choose to fall deeper in love with you, that I will be hungrier for you today than I was yesterday because of the things I see in you. I see more. I hear more. I taste more. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Realm of Glass

Apostle Grace Lubega

2 Corinthians 3:18(KJV); But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Glory cannot be beheld through human lenses. As such, God has given to us an eternal lens, the realm of glass [the Word] which magnifies the reality of spiritual and divine things.

There are men who have studied the scriptures diligently and became atheists for it.

The issue was how they looked into that realm.

How does this lens work?

The Word is spirit and life (John 6:33).

So how do you read spirit? How do you look through the lines of the Bible and see spiritual substance?

Our theme scripture teaches that it is by the Spirit of the Lord.

Studying the Word through human lenses/eyes will cause you to erroneously attach a physical form to spiritual substance [in the mind that the physical gives reality to the spiritual] and thus ascribe limitation and weakness to what is essentially eternal and limitless in nature.

On the other hand, studying the Word by the eyes/lenses of THE SPIRIT will cause you to behold the spiritual reality of these things before your intellect reconciles them with the physical.

Take an example of how we behold the characters in the Bible.

The scriptures say, “wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know him no more” (2 Corinthians 5:16).

The Amplified rendering is, “From now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view.”

In other words, what is the spiritual identity of these men in the Bible?

When the prophets looked at Elijah, they only saw him as the master of Elisha because of how they looked into that realm of glass (2 Kings 2:3).

But Elisha, because he looked into the realm with a different lens saw him as the CHARIOT of Israel and its horsemen thereof (2 Kings 2:12).

So you must ask questions like; who is Paul in the spirit? What is the Spirit of Christ?

When Jesus asks his disciples, “who do you say I am?”(Matthew 16:15-17), He was testing their understanding of this reality.

Deeper than that, the Bible calls you a written epistle (2 Corinthians 3:2).

By this qualification, you are part of that realm of glass.

When it says you are read by all men, this is not a physical reading, it is spiritual!

As you behold in the glass, you understand your true spiritual identity, the glory upon your life and the crown on your head. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: 2 Corinthians 3:2, 2 Corinthians 5:16

GOLDEN NUGGET:
Glory cannot be beheld through human lenses. As such, God has given to us an eternal lens, the realm of glass [the Word] which magnifies the reality of spiritual and divine things.

PRAYER: God, today I thank you that you open my eyes and cause me to see these things. I see through the glass of the Word and behold the glory of God. I am translated in the name of Jesus. Father, like you killed a certain sight in Paul and gave him true eternal vision, do the same for me this day. Kill my flesh towards anything worldly and open my soul to eternal things. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Understanding The Time Dimension

Apostle Grace Lubega

Hebrews 13:8 (KJV); Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

God is eternal. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

This means that your present experience to Him is as current to Him as your past and your future: your past is NOT past to Him and your future is NOT a future thing to Him.

Take this example; God is deliberate in His use of the word “WHEN” to reveal to us the mind of predestination: how He views events in the lives of men.

He says, “WHEN you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2); “WHEN the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).

When He uses this language, it does not mean that somewhere in God’s future, you will go through waters, or the enemy will seek to attack you. He is already in that experience and in itself, it is past, present and futuristic to Him.

Time has the limitation [and weakness] of trapping human experiences in a restricted matrix and thus magnifying their consequences to the end that men easily take their eyes off God. Impossibility thrives in the arena of time limitations.

But God wants you to look behind the veil of time.

When you separate the time series of the earth [past, present and future] from the events of your life, that gap is filled by the ultimate experience of God Himself.

You will start to understand that it is Him in the waters, Him in the fire, Him raising a standard when the enemy comes in.

When you read the story of Job, the Bible talks about Job’s end as being the Lord’s (James 5:11).

But understand this: It is not God’s intention that we only look to the end of a matter as carrying the testimony of God but that in the past, present and future experience of any event GOD IS!

This is the mind that causes men never to set their eyes on circumstances because the wisdom of God that numbers days (Psalms 90:12) has taught them to look at life through the lens of eternity.

In any event of your life, you behold Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. (Hebrews 12:2). Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: Psalms 90:12, Revelation 1:8

GOLDEN NUGGET:
When you separate the time series of the earth [past, present and future] from the events of your life, that gap is filled by the ultimate experience of God Himself. You will start to understand that it is Him in the waters, Him in the fire, Him raising a standard when the enemy comes in.

PRAYER: Father I thank you that today the eyes of my perception are cleansed and I behold this ultimate truth, that all things are infinite. This day God, may I draw from eternal wells, rivers and depths. Your Word says deep calls unto deep. May I dream and look at life past the limitations of time to deeper places in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Greater Things Shall You See

Apostle Grace Lubega

John 1:47-50(KJV); Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

Access to the spirit realm can either be by the light of God or the “light” of the devil (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Sadly, we are living in a dispensation where some Christians are too gullible to tell the difference between these lights.

Not everyone who sees in the spirit does so by the light of God.

Even on our pulpits today, there are men who see by a false light and so God calls upon us to have the wisdom to tell the difference.

Our theme scripture explains a vital aspect of the true light (John 1:9) by which we must see.

Christ, being God in flesh, had full access to the spirit world and there are many things he could see.

Regardless of this, there was a difference between what he saw and the importance he attached to some of the things he saw.

For example, when he saw Nathaniel under a fig tree, he told him as much.

But when this kind of vision excited Nathaniel and formed a basis for his faith in the Messiah, he, [Jesus] was quick to “undermine” the importance that Nathaniel had given it.

He asked, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree?”(John 1:50 MSG).

The point here was that it was shallow for Nathaniel to attach his faith to the fact that Jesus had seen him under a tree.

Even a man operating under the false light can see some of these things.

BUT there are things a man operating by the false light cannot see, because they are too deep by virtue of the altar (Hebrews 13:10).

These very things are what the Christ calls “the greater things” we must see.

The language Jesus uses is not “more things” [that would mean similar things of the same category like he had just seen] but it is “greater things.”

Lust [carnal desire to simply see in the spirit with no sense of divine purpose] is non-existent in a man whose genuine desire is to see greater things.

In fact, it is no mistake that Christ here is addressing a man [Nathaniel] in whom he admits there is no guile because guile in itself is a form of inner deception that provokes lust [and not genuine desire] for spiritual vision.

So you must ask the question, “What are the greater things in God?”

In the greater light, men walk the unsearchable places in God (Jeremiah 33:3 NIV), men see the blue prints of divine purpose, men see God face to face (Exodus 33:11). Praise Him!

FURTHER STUDY: Matthew 6:23, 2 Corinthians 11:14

GOLDEN NUGGET:

In greater light, men walk the unsearchable places in God, men see the blue prints of divine purpose, men see God face to face.

PRAYER: My great God I thank you for spiritual vision. By this word, my eyes are opened to see greater things in you. Even as I behold in the spirit, I see the things that align me to divine purpose, that launch me deeper in the knowledge of you and that defines the true substance of eternal life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Christian World View

Apostle Grace Lubega

Hebrews 11:3(AMP); By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.

Christianity is not merely a set of beliefs, it is also a world view. Sadly, it is one of the weaknesses of the Christendom in failing to acknowledge it as such.

Christianity has for a long time existed in an ethos whose world view has been predominantly shaped by the men of this world.

A mythological world view caused men to create gods in their own image. As such, we see Greek and Roman gods having very human temperaments and therefore prone to human weaknesses.

Even today, major world religions have strong mythological foundations.

The natural philosophers shaped human thought by their concern with the natural world and its processes.

Modern thought today is often influenced by humanism and a form of science that seeks to eliminate the existence of God.

But, our theme scripture reveals that the worlds, including the physical world in which we live was framed by the Word of God.

This means that the Word must inform our view of the world and thus we as Christians must be in a position to shape contemporary thought.

Consider these two examples; The forces that influence the economics of this world base their predictions on market factors, human behavioral patterns and various political players. But how does Jesus asking Peter to get money out of the mouth of a fish fit in this setting? (Matthew 17:27).

The world view on health and medicine. This is founded on the views of Hippocrates whose medical tradition sought to find natural explanations for sickness and health.

This definitely differs from the Christian thought that sickness is spiritual and consequently demonic (Acts 10:38).

When the Bible in our theme scripture says that what is seen/visible was created by what is unseen/invisible, it means that the reality of the spiritual world shows us the spiritual form of everything that is physical.

God has not called us to acquire a world view through the set institutions, systems and ideas of this world.

We owe an accountability to the Word to influence men’s view of the world through it. Hallelujah!

FURTHER STUDY: John 17:16, 1 Corinthians 3:21-22

GOLDEN NUGGET:
God has not called us to acquire a world view through the set institutions, systems and ideas of this world. We owe an accountability to the Word to influence men’s view of the world through it.

PRAYER: Father I thank you for the gift of your Word. It shaped the world and created everything that I see. I choose to see the world through your Word, to pattern my thinking according to its dictates, to align my ideas and vision to its precepts and to influence my world through its commands. In Jesus’ name. Amen.