THE UNLIMITED COUNSEL OF GOD!!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

 I completed my undergraduate studies and graduated from Kenyatta University on 15th of October 1999. On that day I was given gifts by many people. Of particular interest is the plaque pictured above that I received from the late Mrs Kigondu and her daughter. I kept it in a bedroom I shared with my younger sister close to the window. At that time it was just a pretty ornament to me , I did not know what a seed they had planted or how prophetic their gift would later turn to be. I moved to the US in 2002 , sensed a call of God upon my life in 2005 and in 2006 the Unlimited in Christ ministry began. It was either in 2013 or 2016 that I finally remembered this gift and its deep meaning to my life and therefore on my visit to Kenya l brought this plaque to my place in Lowell ,Massachusetts. I marvel at the beauty of God , I marvel at His plan in Christ for us. When I received this plaque I was clueless about Christ and what it means to be in Him! I was a believer but I did not have a personal relationship with Christ, the Holy Ghost and God the Father as I do today. The amazing thing is that though I knew Him not, He knew me and He had a purpose and had proclaimed it from the beginning. This brings me to my topic for this blog entry, THE UNLIMITED COUNSEL OF GOD!!
Ephesians 1:10-11 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory
The unlimited counsel of God caused this woman and her daughter to give me a gift that was going to be the foundation of my life and calling which is to declare the Unlimited nature of God and the unlimited nature of a believer in Christ! The verse above in Ephesians declares plainly that God works ALL things according to the counsel of His will!!! Yes including a gift given to someone who is clueless like I was in 1999. Be encouraged the Lord will not leave you without counsel in the name of Jesus.
What is counsel?. For this blog let us define counsel as instruction given for directing the judgement or conduct.  Using this definition here is an example of counsel from the word of God. In Matthew Chapter one we see Joseph perplexed by the pregnant situation of his bride to be and is thinking of putting her away quietly however In verse 20 the COUNSEL OF THE LORD for this situation shows up and instructs him on what to do. Matthew 1:20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
We can also say that counsel is given by a Counselor ! Thank God we have One. Jesus in John chapter 16 tells us that He did not leave us as orphans . He left us in the hands of the Holy Ghost, He is our Counselor .
 John 16:26 But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.
The Holy Spirit does not only provide counsel but is a counselor in terms of bringing emotional healing, the essence of this blog entry is to remind myself and share with you that God in His unfailing love in Christ offers us unlimited counsel so that we can live life abundantly according to His plan. There is no area that God is clueless about whether it is marriage, health, career, known and unknown issues to us are not unlimited to God, He is the God who sees everything, He is the God that fashioned us and saw us in secret, In His book were written all the days that were formed for us,when none of them as yet existed. This God is our God and today we are surrendering to His unlimited counsel in Jesus mighty Name. He is unlimited in scope, in knowledge, unlimited in all ways, He is unlimited by time or advances in technology , He is reliable and this day we enter into His counsel!!!

But if anyone should sin.....

BUT IF ANYONE SHOULD SIN….

Greetings !!It’s November 2017 and I have been thinking of this statement in 1 John 2 verse “But if anyone should sin”.  I have found these words very comforting in the past few days. The Holy Spirit has not left anything to chance or guess work, it is right here in His Word. “But if anyone should sin”-what a phrase! These words were written to believers like me who may sin like l have often in the past, present and future. The word of God is for our instruction and correction. I will examine this phrase from these two dimensions. l thank God that He first loved me in Christ Jesus and that He brought me to Himself. I am saved by grace. It is God that has helped me embrace redemption in Christ Jesus. I was far away but now in Christ Jesus l have been brought near by the blood of Christ. What a joy that Blood was shed for me before the foundation of the earth and l was made a child of God and am a product of the making of God!!! I have been accepted in the beloved, l had no righteousness and I was given the righteousness of Christ Jesus (Luther the reformer calls it alien righteousness)-wow…As I write l stand in Christ, am nearer God just as His Son Christ Jesus is, He had been made to me redemption, sanctification and wisdom!!

Now to our text: - 1 John 2:1-3 My little children, I write you these things so that you may not violate God’s law and sin. But if anyone should sin, we have an Advocate (One Who will intercede for us) with the Father—[it is] Jesus Christ [the all] righteous [upright, just, Who conforms to the Father’s will in every purpose, thought, and action].² And He [^]that same Jesus Himself] is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world.³ And this is how we may discern [daily, by experience] that we are coming to know Him [to perceive, recognize, understand, and become better acquainted with Him]: if we keep (bear in mind, observe, practice) His teachings (precepts, commandments).

CORRECTION.

Jesus was manifested here on earth in the flesh to save us from our sins. What is sin? Sin is existing in a state that is independent from God, sin is self rule, missing the mark. Sin is disobeying God’s revealed will. Sin is a bad thing, infact bad does not begin to define it. Adam and Eve sinned and were chased out of the garden. Check this out after Adam and Eve sinned God acted. He drove them out of the garden, yeah, He did that and even put a guard to prevent them access to their original state.

Genesis 3:23-24 NKJV. therefore, the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. [24] So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

God does not joke with sin and deals with it. No wonder in Hebrews the Holy Spirit reminds us of correction and the discipline of God when we sin.

Hebrews 12:5-11 NKJV. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; [6] For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." [7] If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? [8] But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. [9] Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? [10] For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. [11] Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

When we disobey God an overwhelming sadness comes and thank God it does for it means that the Holy Spirit is convicting us and disciplining us for our own profit so that we will be partakers of His holiness. As His Word clearly states that without holiness no man shall see God. If we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior ,He becomes our destiny and we cannot endure any separation from Him because He has become our life thus when we sin we feel miserable and repent quickly out of our identification with our new identity in Christ. Sin is not the environment in which a born again person thrives and no wonder when we sin our firewall expels the illegal virus (sin) that’s attempting to infiltrate our new operating system (Christ). Holiness is the environment that our new identity thrives!!! praise God for “But if anyone should sin” …there is hope…

INSTRUCTION

The whole verse reads this way “ 1 John 2:1 NKJV My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Yes!! If we sin we have an Intercessor, an Advocate who had dealt with sin once and for all.He is our righteousness. When we sin its like death but being born again the Spirit of God is alive in us and raises us up to righteousness, just like it was when Israel looked up to the bronze serpent in the wilderness and were healed we too look up to the cross repent, receive forgiveness and walk once again without condemnation. We thank Him for dealing with us and giving us freedom to walk in the fullness of the Spirit. We should no longer behave like Achan who coveted, took and hid the Babylonian garment two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, in the earth in the midst of his tent, with the silver under it because we have an INTERCESSOR. There is nowhere to hide anything because we are temples of Holy Ghost fully owned by Him. As we look to the INTERCESSOR The Holy Spirit regenerates and imparts newness of life immediately and we are restored. He quickens our mortal bodies, the virus is expelled, and our new nature is safe, it cannot be penetrated, no wonder the Word of God reminds us that we have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Because we have an INTERCESSOR we draw near to God instead of hiding like Adam did when he fell. This is the instruction, that we should not be separated by sin from God that we should boldly draw near the throne of grace because Christ is our basis for interacting with God our Father. The instruction is to trust fully the FINISHED WORK of Christ in taking away our sins. The instruction is to trust in the unfailing love of God and not make a habit of sin because it has already been taken care of by the LORD JESUS CHRIST at the cross.

Let us pray: = Our heavenly Father we thank You for sending Your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Yourself. Holy Ghost we thank You for continually pursuing us even in the darkest and dirtiest sin alleys. We thank You that by grace You have saved us. We did not choose You chose us. With humility we accept Your choice. We repent our sins past, present and future, we thank You for correcting us today and every other day, we accept the Intercession and Advocacy of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We yield to You. Instruct us. You are our life, Christ is our obedience, we receive Your unfailing love now and forever in Jesus mighty and glorious Name forever. Amen.

Our God is a Consuming Fire

Hello friend, i was drawn to the name of the Lord as a consuming fire . As a result i checked out the following verses , i have to say that the theme of Jacob being led by God alone and there was no foreign God with him has always fascinated me , anyway below are the verses i read and the thoughts that crossed my mind:

Deuteronomy 32:12 (AMPC) So the Lord alone led him; there was no foreign god with Him.

Leviticus 10: 1-3  (NASB) Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying,By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy,And before all the people I will be honored.’”So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (AMPC)..Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

God is reminding us that He alone is God. When He rescues us (Colossians 1:13) and saves us it is to bring us to Himself. He is also telling us that He is Holy and therefore requires us to approach Him according to the way He has established, Jesus Christ is the way we approach God , His blood has drawn us to God and in Him we have a right relationship with God our Father. I hear a warning against idolatry which pursues us in many subtle forms. God is not only a consuming fire in the old testament, His name has not changed, He is a consuming fire yesterday, today and forever , the writer of the book of Hebrews also reminds us of this attribute of God. 

Hebrews 12:28-29 (AMPC) Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire.

This attribute is connected to worship, it is connected with how we serve and regard the LORD, He is to be regarded as holy , He is to be feared and revered . He is our Father , Son and Holy Spirit , He is our Friend but He is God Almighty, King of all the earth , He is to be revered! May our response to pressures that causes us to falter in our belief be carefully crafted by the Holy Spirit so that we can boldly declare like the three Hebrew boys :

          Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, it is not necessary for us to answer you on this point.17 If our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up!

Prayer :=Almighty and everlasting God by faith we declare that we will serve no foreign god or any other treasure , You are our hearts desire , fill us with Your Spirit without measure, unto Your Name we bring our sacrifice, we worship You with gratitude this day, we lean on You our Pillar, our Lord and our God, unite our hearts to fear You, oh that Your beauty will be the only thing we reflect, my Father let Your image and likeness be perfect in our lives as we so willingly live in, through and for You. In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray,trust and believe, Amen.