Author: root (Page 2 of 4)

Today I share the conclusion to the revelation of us always triumphing in Christ in all aspects of our lives.

This concern is not merely about missing one moment in life because a missed opportunity can take a long time to recover from. It may require waiting until circumstances align again before the person can return to the place where the opportunity was available.

This truth reinforces Jesus’ instruction to His disciples in Luke 12:35-37 which reads these words: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.

Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.” The emphasis in this word from Jesus is on our readiness, alertness, and immediate obedience to what we have been taught. The servant does not know precisely when the Master will arrive or what will be required of us at any particular moment. Therefore, as servants we must remain prepared.

My heart expresses the importance of this lesson by saying that “I never want to be the reason for the Lord’s will not to be fulfilled in any situation because I did something wrong or was not prepared ahead of time to capitalise on the opportunity.” This fact produces within me a commitment to remain spiritually prepared so that whenever the Holy Spirit creates an opportunity, I am always ready to respond.

The opportunity the Holy Spirit creates must be met with our availability, so the central question for every follower of Jesus is therefore: I know the Lord will always lead us out in triumph in Christ, but will we make ourselves available for the fragrance of the knowledge of God to be manifested everywhere through our lives? The issue is not whether the Lord has the ability to triumph. He does.

The issue is whether we will cooperate with His purpose sufficiently for that triumph to become a testimony and manifestation through our lives. This requires a deliberate commitment to the Lord that our bodies, time, attention, strength, and resources will be available for His purposes. We must refuse to let unnecessary concerns, fear, weakness, inconvenience, or personal priorities prevent us from responding when the Holy Spirit opens a door.

The goal is not simply to have the Lord work for us, but to allow Him to work through us which requires a deliberate commitment to the Lord that our bodies, time, attention, strength, and resources will be made available for His purposes. We must therefore refuse to let unnecessary concerns, fear, weakness, inconvenience, or personal priorities prevent us from responding when the Holy Spirit opens a door.

Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria is a perfect example which provides the model of this fact in John 4. In Samaria, Jesus encountered the woman at the well and even when He was tired and thirsty, He deliberately remained there waiting for her. Jesus could have moved on because of His physical condition however, He made Himself available for the divine appointment. His willingness to remain in that place allowed the fragrance of the knowledge of God’s Kingdom to be released into Samaria.

So the encounter with one woman ultimately became a doorway through which an entire community was affected and transformed. Jesus demonstrated what it means to recognise and embrace a God-created opportunity even when it requires personal sacrifice. The lesson is therefore not merely to recognise divine opportunities but it is for us to remain available long enough for the purpose of the opportunity the Lord created to be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit’s message is ultimately a call to constant spiritual readiness.

Remember that the Lord is continually working for us, by opening doors, arranging divine appointments, and preparing people to encounter Him. He desires to release the fragrance of Christ through His people wherever they go. Therefore, we as His followers must cultivate a lifestyle of fellowship with the Holy Spirit so we can recognise these divine opportunities and receive the grace to respond appropriately to them.

Our weakness and failure does not have to become the end of the story. So even when a person has missed an opportunity or failed to respond as they should have, fellowship with the Holy Spirit can reveal the truth that restores our perspective, removes shame, and teaches us how to move forward in triumph.

The goal for us is to become a vessel that is always ready, available, watchful, and obedient whenever the Holy Spirit provides an opening for us to manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere. When we make ourselves available, the knowledge of Christ can be spread through our words, actions, presence, obedience, and willingness to serve. In this way, the Kingdom of Jesus is continually expanded and the glory of the Lord is manifested through our lives.

I declare that the grace of the Holy Spirit is released upon you to remain spiritually alert, prepared, willing, and available for every divine opportunity God creates for you. You will not miss the doors of opportunity that the Lord opens before you. You will not allow fear, weakness, worry, family concerns, inconvenience, disappointment, or personal circumstances to prevent you from fulfilling the assignment of the Holy Spirit.

I declare that your spiritual senses are becoming sharper and more resolute so you will be able to recognise divine appointments and know when the Master is calling you to act. Your waist will be girded and your lamp will remain burning, and you will be found watching and ready when the Lord comes and knocks. (Luke 12:35-37).

Where you have previously missed opportunities, the Holy Spirit will teach you, then restore you once again, and position you in readiness for the fulfilment of His purposes for your life. Shame and disgrace will never have the final word over your life because you will arise from weakness with renewed strength and walk forward in the triumph of Christ.

The Holy Spirit will make your body, your voice, your time, and your life available as instruments through which the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is released everywhere you go (2 Corinthians 2:14). You will not merely experience the Lord’s triumph, but you will become a vessel through whom His triumph is manifested to others.

I declare that people will encounter Jesus because you are available to demonstrate His glory. Families, communities, and nations will be touched because you have refused to withdraw when the Lord opened the door.

May you have the grace to recognise every opportunity the Holy Spirit makes available yo you, with the courage to embrace it, and the strength to remain faithful until His purpose is fulfilled. The fragrance of Christ will spread through your life, and the Kingdom of Jesus will advance through your obedience, as the glory of the Lord will be revealed through you in every place He sends you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Holy Spirit wants to reveal to you a truth that can keep you moving forward even after weakness, failure, or even an inability to lay hold of a present opportunity which has caused you to pull back due to negative energy. Through fellowship time with the Holy Spirit, you can discover “nuggets” of truth that bring you out of extremely difficult life threatening situations and show you a way forward that is still triumphant in impact, by removing the shame and disgrace which has plagued your life.

The Holy Spirit drew my attention to 2 Corinthians 2:14 which reads these words: “But thanks be to God, who in the Messiah constantly leads us in a triumphal procession and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of what it means to know him!” This declaration is especially significant because it follows an occasion when the Apostle Paul appears to have failed to capitalise on an open door the Lord had provided for him in Troas.

Paul was always continually looking for opportunities and open doors in different regions where he could preach the Gospel for which Christ had chosen him. He had repeatedly endured difficult circumstances, opposition, dangerous terrain, and persecution simply with the aim of reaching places where the Gospel could be proclaimed.

So even when he eventually had to leave those places, he was normally willing to fight through tremendous obstacles to take advantage of any opportunity that showed up. Therefore, it seemed strange that in Troas, when the door was open by the Lord and there were no adversaries preventing him, Paul did not remain and minister the gospel. Instead, he left and went away to go and find Titus. This fact raised an important question as to why did Paul not take advantage of this God given opportunity?

The situation appeared to be everything Paul would normally desire an open door, no opposition, and people already prepared to hear the Gospel. Why would he leave that stage when everything seemed ready? I wondered why Paul did not first seek the Holy Spirit’s confirmation concerning Titus, or at least remain long enough to speak words of encouragement and edification to those who were ready to receive his message.

Paul had taught others the importance of walking by faith and not by sight, yet on this occasion he seemed unable to take hold of an opportunity that appeared perfectly suited to his calling, which led me to ask an even deeper question concerning 2 Corinthians 2:14. How could Paul say that the Lord always leads us in triumph and spreads through us the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ when this episode appeared to contain a failure on Paul’s part?

The Precious Holy Spirit answered me with a revealing question as to whether Paul was led out in triumph on this occasion? The answer was yes. So the Holy Spirit did not fail to lead Paul out in triumph. The revelation was clear that the Holy Spirit never fails to lead us out in triumph in any situation because the Lord’s triumph is never dependent upon the perfection of our performance. However, our response and availability to follow through the door of triumph determines whether the fragrance of the knowledge of God is actually manifested through us in that situation.

So Paul was led out in triumph, but he did not spread the fragrance of Christ in Troas because he did not remain there to minister the gospel which would have manifested the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ for them to behold. This distinction the Holy Spirit pointed out is crucial because the Lord’s ability to lead us into triumph never fails, but our failure to make ourselves available can prevent the manifestation of what the Lord intended to release through us in a particular moment of time.

The Holy Spirit emphasised that He needed Paul’s physical body to be present so that Paul could speak and minister the gospel of the Kingdom to the people. The Lord had prepared the opportunity, but Paul still had to make his body available for the divine purpose to be expressed through him. The fragrance of Christ does not simply manifest automatically because an opportunity exists because the human vessel must be present, willing, prepared, and obedient for the Lord to be made manifest.

This revelation became a pivotal lesson to me personally concerning the danger of allowing our personal weakness, family circumstances, worry, concern, or other distractions to interfere when the Lord creates an opportunity to release His glory through our lives. Through this revelation I recognised the importance of always being ready to share what the Lord has entrusted to me rather than allowing weakness or personal circumstances to stop the process of revealing the fragrance of Christ.

I declare that the grace of the Holy Spirit is released upon you to remain spiritually alert, prepared, willing, and available for every divine opportunity God creates for you. You will not miss the doors of opportunity that the Lord opens before you. You will not allow fear, weakness, worry, family concerns, inconvenience, disappointment, or personal circumstances to prevent you from fulfilling the assignment of the Holy Spirit.

I declare that your spiritual senses are becoming sharper and more resolute so you will be able to recognise divine appointments and know when the Master is calling you to act. Your waist will be girded and your lamp will remain burning, and you will be found watching and ready when the Lord comes and knocks. (Luke 12:35-37). Where you have previously missed opportunities, the Holy Spirit will teach you, then restore you once again, and position you again for the fulfilment of His purposes for your life.

I declare that shame and disgrace will never have the final word over your life because you will arise from weakness with renewed strength and walk forward in the triumph of Christ. The Holy Spirit will make your body, your voice, your time, and your life available as instruments through which the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ is released everywhere you go (2 Corinthians 2:14). You will not merely experience the Lord’s triumph, but you will become a vessel through whom His triumph is manifested to others in Jesus name. Amen.

Today I share the conclusion of my Communion time with the Holy Spirit on understanding the operation of the Kingdom in our lives.

We must understand that, the promises and revelations of Scripture must be understood in their proper spiritual context, and as the followers of Jesus we must allow the Holy Spirit to bring them into the place where we can genuinely partake of what the Lord has made available to us. Returning to Mark 4:9, the Holy Spirit emphasised the big difference between us possessing an ear to hear and us actually applying that inner ear to hear. To say , “I have an ear to hear,” is one thing, but to actually hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts is another.

True spiritual hearing involves us receiving knowledge from the Holy Spirit, then owning it, understanding it, and being able to apply it to real situations in life. The proof that we have truly heard from the Lord is that the truth becomes operational in our lives. As hearers of the word we have the responsibility to hear the truth in our hearts. Then we must make sure the truth we receive is clearly understood by us receiving and owning what we have heard, to ensure we apply that truth correctly by allowing it to produce its intended result in our lives.

Jesus reinforces this principle in Mark 4:24 when He speaks these words: “Take heed what you hear…”This reveals the fact that what we hear matters, and how we hear also matters because the manner in which we receive and process truth will influence our ultimate result.

The operation of the Kingdom involves spiritual processes during the different seasons we have to pass through. Therefore, as followers of Jesus we must allow the Holy Spirit to develop the constant character traits and mental dispositions necessary to survive and triumph through each stage we pass through till our triumph is achieved.

Trust, patience, endurance, obedience, repentance, humility, and perseverance are not incidental qualities which we must develop. They all form part of the spiritual equipment necessary for us to reach our God-intended goal and lay hold of the inheritance assigned to our individual lives. This is why Galatians 6:9 says these words: “Don’t grow weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap if you do not faint.” The warning here is very clear that if we faint, we lose out and if we grow weary in doing good, we can impede the harvest that the Lord intends to bring forth on our behalf.

There is therefore an important role for us as followers of Jesus in working through the operation of the Kingdom in our lives we must make. We must take our responsibility seriously and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. The lessons which the Holy Spirit teaches us are not merely interesting spiritual information we use to boast to others about how spiritual we are. They encompass the necessary preparation for the transitions we must make as we move into the blessings and purposes the Lord has prepared for us.

So the more we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the greater and ultimately easier our path becomes to navigate because the Holy Spirit teaches us how to respond correctly in each season we pass through. We must remember how the Holy Spirit is continually available to bring back to our remembrance the things the Lord has taught us over the years.

Therefore, we should maintain a tender, repentant heart. So that when we miss it, we do not become stubborn, defensive, or remain separated from the Lord based on our pride. We should quickly recognise our error, repent, turn back, and allow the Holy Spirit to realign us with the Lord’s present agenda for our lives.

This message connects this reality with Jesus’ words in Mark 4:12, where turning back and receiving forgiveness are associated with us being restored rather than remaining outside. Repentance therefore becomes our pathway back into the Lord’s purposes because when we turn, we can experience deliverance through the forgiveness of sins and regain our alignment with the Kingdom plan Jesus has for our lives.

A repeated observation I have made from Scripture is that when people could not find a place for repentance from their mistakes, their life was lost. This makes the warning against the hardness of heart and stubbornness especially serious. Hard-heartedness will rob us of the Lord’s best because it prevents us from receiving correction and making the adjustments necessary for our forward movement.

As followers of Jesus we must therefore guard our hearts against becoming rigid when the Holy Spirit corrects us because correction is not a rejection of us but it is an invitation back for us into alignment with the Lord’s program. The Kingdom life requires constant cooperation with the Holy Spirit which is the overall message is that the Lord’s promises us not to bypass the process He has established for bringing us into manifestation of the promise of the Lord.

We must trust the Lord fully when we cannot yet see the desired outcome, but we must wait patiently while maintaining a disposition of gratitude through the different seasons of the process. Be open to hear the Holy Spirit in this time rather than merely listen to negative words by asking the relevant questions and seeking greater understanding. Take responsibility for applying what the Lord teaches you by allowing the truth to become operational in your life rather than it remaining theoretical in your experience.

Develop the character traits necessary in your hearts for the season we are entering by refusing to grow weary or faint before the harvest arrives. Maintain a repentant heart so that your mistakes do not become permanent barriers against you by allowing the Holy Spirit to correct and realign us whenever necessary. Take the time to meditate on God’s Word, especially Mark 4, so that further revelation can emerge concerning the operation of the Kingdom in your life.

Remember that your cooperation with the Holy Spirit is vitally essential to remain successful operating in the Kingdom. The Lord has made the Kingdom available to us, but we must learn how the Kingdom operates and cooperate with its principles in our hearts. The goal is not simply for us to know Scripture but for us to understand the operation of the Kingdom well enough to live it out successfully.

Remember that what the Holy Spirit teaches us today may become the very key we need to navigate tomorrow’s season. This message closes with a prayer for anyone who has been trapped in a particular situation that has baffled them, especially a stubborn situation that has caused you to repeatedly return to negative patterns until you are almost ready to quit and throw in the towel.

The prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit will grant you a supernatural avenue of escape so that where there has seemed to be no way forward, the Lord would reveal a miraculous way forward that could only have come from Him. May there be such a miraculous intervention that startles you, breaks the cycle, and gives you an entirely new testimony of victory and triumph.

The purpose of this divine intervention is not merely to solve your immediate problem but to build in you a renewed confidence in the mighty ability of our heavenly Father to act on your behalf. The invitation from the Holy Spirit is therefore to stop, then meditate deeply on Mark 4, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any additional truths concerning the operation of the Kingdom in your life.

I declare in the name of Jesus that I have spiritual ears to hear, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit I will truly hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to me. I will not merely listen to the Lord’s Word with my natural ears and move on, but I will seek understanding, by asking the right questions, to receive further revelation, own the truth, and apply it correctly in every area of my life.

I receive the grace to understand the mysteries and operation of the Kingdom of God. I declare that my spiritual understanding is increasing, and the Holy Spirit is teaching me how to walk through every season of the Lord’s process triumphantly with wisdom, patience, endurance, faith, gratitude, and obedience.

I declare that I will not grow weary in doing well and I will not faint before my due season. I will not abandon what the Lord has instructed me to do simply because the manifestation has taken a longer time than I had expected. I will let Patience is having its perfect work in me, and I am becoming complete, mature, and lacking nothing.

I declare that every lesson the Holy Spirit has taught me will become my ever increasing spiritual equipment for my journey. I declare that the truth will never remain dormant in me, but it will become active, living, and productive in my life. I will gird my heart with what the Lord reveals to me, by walking in it, and seeing the miraculous fruit it produces in my life circumstances in Jesus Name. Amen.

I receive the grace to maintain a tender and repentant heart so that when I miss it, I will not harden my heart, make excuses, or run from correction. I will quickly turn back to the Lord, to receive His forgiveness, by accepting His correction, and allowing Him to realign me with His purposes. I declare that every negative cycle that has kept me trapped is broken off me and every pattern that has brought me repeatedly to the point of discouragement and almost caused me to quit is being interrupted by the mighty hand of the Lord.

I declare that the Holy Spirit is showing me the way of escape, the pathway forward, and the adjustment necessary for my breakthrough. I declare that what has baffled me will become a testimony in my life. What has caused me to become weary will become an opportunity for me to see the faithfulness of the Lord. The supernatural intervention of my Father is coming into my situation, and I will behold a new story of victory, triumph, and manifestation.

I declare that I will not merely know about the Kingdom but that I will understand clearly how it operates and walk in its reality. I will inherit the promises after I have done the will of the Lord. I declare that my confidence in the mighty ability of my Father is increasing, and my life will testify that those who trust, hear, obey, endure, repent, and continue with the Lord will see His purposes fulfilled in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today I share part One of my communion time with the Holy Spirit concerning understanding the process of the Kingdom.

In my communion time with the Holy Spirit, He emphasised the central reminder of the fact that there is a process for us to see the will of God become reality in our lives. From the natural standpoint, certain necessary spiritual ingredients must work together before the cycle of the Lord’s purpose for our lives reaches manifestation.

So we cannot treat the process by which this happens casually. We must be willing to work with the Holy Spirit, by allowing Him to show us the necessary adjustments, corrections, and realignments we must make to bring us into the fulfilment of what the Lord has spoken to us.

We must remember that the same Lord who tells us to trust Him also tells us that we need patience and endurance, so that after we have done His will, we may inherit the promise. Patience is not merely a word we confess by simply saying I am patient, but it requires us actually waiting things out while maintaining an attitude of gratitude and trust in the process.

Without our willingness to wait for things to happen, patience cannot accomplish its work in us. James 1:4 teaches us that we must allow patience to have its perfect work in us so that we may become complete and lack nothing.

Jesus gives us an extensive teaching on this process in Mark 4:3-34, where He explains the operation of the Kingdom of God to His disciples and those gathered around Him. He starts the teaching with a parable, knowing fully well that many who hear it may not truly understand it.

They could hear the words He spoke concerning their lives, then simply walk away, and by the end of the day forget them or lose sight of their significance. Jesus therefore declares in Mark 4:9 these words: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

This statement points to the reality of us hearing beyond the physical ear to the inner ear, which speaks to our spiritual capacity to hear, perceive, understand, and track with the Lord from our hearts. So not everyone who hears Jesus speaking through their natural ears is actually hearing what He is saying because His words are speaking to our spirits/ hearts, and there is a huge difference between us hearing words and our hearts receiving revelation.

Those disciples who followed Jesus were positioned to go further in the process because they had the opportunity to ask Him questions and seek deeper understanding. Mark 4:10 says these words: “But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.”

This fact reveals a very important Kingdom principle that only the people who stayed close enough to Jesus to ask questions ever received clarity on a subject He taught, while those who merely heard the parable with the natural ear just moved on and did not receive anything from the life giving words He spoke.

When Jesus began addressing the specific Kingdom issues contained within this parable, the facts of their reality became clearer. A process of understanding began that would not have been available to someone who simply heard the parable and continued on without seeking further explanation.

Therefore, their willingness to stay back and ask the relevant questions by seeking further explanation is what made the truth concerning the operation of the Kingdom available for us to understand, live by, and apply in our individual lives.

Jesus then goes on to explain the distinction between those who are inside the Kingdom and those who are outside. In Mark 4:11-12, He says to His followers these words:“ To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables…”

This clearly points to the fact that there are privileges given to those who follow Jesus which includes the grace to know the mysteries of the Kingdom. But that privilege to hear must be engaged with for it to benefit us and it requires us taking the time to seek the Lord for deeper understanding.

Through my years of personal study and communion with the Holy Spirit, the realisation came to me that not every statement in Scripture is presented indiscriminately to everyone without qualification.

The Holy Spirit began revealing to me that the promises and declarations in the word have contexts, audiences, responsibilities, and qualifications. So the question became when approaching the promises in the word Who is being addressed, what are they being offered, and what qualifies us to partake of their reality?

This has led me to a deliberate determination to do whatever is necessary to qualify myself for the benefits Jesus offers, because those benefits always bring more abundant life. This same principle became evident through my studying of the introductions and contexts of the letters written by Paul, John, Peter, James, and Jude. Careful study and meditation of those introductions reveals clearly who each writer was addressing and who actually qualified to walk in the particular promises or declarations they were addressing.

One clear example given is the contrast between the church at Corinth and the church at Ephesus. The Corinthians could not simply operate as though they were the Ephesians and take up the whole armour of God to fight and overcome the schemes of the devil while they remained in a carnal condition walking out the truth with only their natural physical senses rather than through the lens of the Holy Spirit. Their carnality placed them in a state of enmity with the Lord and collaboration with their flesh, thus making them spiritually immature.

The point is perfectly clear that you cannot fight effectively against the one whose interests you are siding with. In other words you cannot operate from the standards of the world which is pride as your basis to fight for the Kingdom of God which requires humility for us to access its benefits. Paul also could not then give spiritually immature believers in Corinth the deeper truths of the Spirit because they were still babies. Solid spiritual food would have been harmful to them because they were not yet prepared to receive it.

I declare in the name of Jesus that I have spiritual ears to hear, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit I will truly hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to me. I will not merely listen to the Lord’s Word with my natural ears and move on, but I will seek understanding, by asking the right questions, to receive further revelation, own the truth, and apply it correctly in every area of my life.

I receive the grace to understand the mysteries and operation of the Kingdom of God. I declare that my spiritual understanding is increasing, and the Holy Spirit is teaching me how to walk through every season of the Lord’s process triumphantly with wisdom, patience, endurance, faith, gratitude, and obedience.

I declare that I will not grow weary in doing well and I will not faint before my due season. I will not abandon what the Lord has instructed me to do simply because the manifestation has taken a longer time than I had expected. I will let Patience is having its perfect work in me, and I am becoming complete, mature, and lacking nothing.

I declare that every lesson the Holy Spirit has taught me will become my ever increasing spiritual equipment for my journey. I declare that the truth will never remain dormant in me, but it will become active, living, and productive in my life. I will gird my heart with what the Lord reveals to me, by walking in it, and seeing the miraculous fruit it produces in my life circumstances in Jesus Name. Amen.

Today I share the conclusion of my communion time with the Holy Spirit on choosing to be Cheerful in every situation.

We possess endless eternal life working on our behalf from our hearts, and therefore our ultimate outcome is never determined by temporary events. The Lord is committed to bringing His people through triumphantly and victoriously no matter the challenge or obstacle. The circumstances may be real, but they are not sovereign and the storm may be fierce, but it does not have the final word. The threat may look overwhelming, but it cannot cancel the Lord’s purpose.

The Holy Spirit’s instruction is therefore direct that we should submit ourselves to the truth and lay down the lie. The lie which always insists that circumstances must determine how we feel, think, speak, and respond. However the truth says that we have a choice on how things turn out. So we can choose to be cheerful. We can choose to remain hopeful and can choose to allow the joy of the Lord to rise afresh within us.

So we can come out of every threatening situation with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Instead of allowing sorrow and sighing to dominate us, we must allow the joy of the Lord to spring up again in its place. The invitation from the Holy Spirit is for us to experience the awesome power of the Most High working on our behalf. The command for us is to: “Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice in the Lord.”

This is the emphasis of Philippians 4:4. which alludes to the fact that rejoicing is not merely a response reserved for favourable circumstances, but it is a deliberate spiritual choice rooted in the Lord Himself being for us. Therefore, become consumed with His cheerfulness, by saying goodbye to sorrow and sighing, and watch what the Holy Spirit will accomplish on your behalf for the honour and glory of Jesus.

The Choice moving forward is ours because the final reminder is simple yet profound: which is that we have the choice concerning how we respond with cheerfulness or sorrow. Paul chose cheerfulness in the middle of a fourteen-day storm when others had concluded that death was inevitable. He chose hope when circumstances offered no visible reason for hope. He chose faith because his confidence was in Christ rather than in the condition of the ship. And just as Paul experienced the Lord’s faithfulness and came through the ordeal safely, you too are called to make the same wise choice.

Never let circumstances ever become the determinant factor of your conduct and never allow temporary trouble to dictate your permanent disposition. Do not allow what is happening around you to make you forget Who is working within you and Who holds your life. On purpose choose cheerfulness, choose joy, choose faith and choose to rejoice in the Lord. As you make that choice, expect the Holy Spirit to work powerfully on your behalf and bring you through every threatening circumstance into triumph and victory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I declare in the name of Jesus that circumstances will never again govern your response in any situation. You will never again be controlled by what you see, hear, feel, or experience around you becauseyour heart is anchored in Christ, because your life is hidden with Christ in God, and your confidence rests upon the eternal Word of the Lord.

I declare that every spirit of sorrow, heaviness, anxiety, fear, discouragement, and sighing loses its influence over you as the joy of the Lord arises afresh within you. You receive abundant grace to remain cheerful, hopeful, peaceful, and full of faith even when circumstances appear threatening.

Like Paul in the midst of the storm, you will remain steady when others are losing hope becauseyou will hear the word of the Lord above the noise of the storm, and what the Lord has spoken concerning you will come to pass. So no temporary circumstance will overturn theLord’s eternal purpose for your life in Jesus name. Amen.

I declare that nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God. No tribulation, distress, persecution, peril, or adversity will ever have the final word over your life. You are more than a conqueror through Him who loves you andthe Lord will bring you safely through every storm, and you will emerge with a testimony of triumph, victory, and divine faithfulness.

Therefore, I decree that you arise and rejoice, by letting your heart become cheerful again. Let joy unspeakable and full of glory spring up within you. Let all sorrow and sighing depart andlet the power of the Most High become evident in your circumstances. So you will see the hand of the Holy Spirit working for you, and your response of faith will become part of your testimony of victory.

You will once again rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice in the Lord. You will walk by faith and not by sight, and you will come out of every storm with far greater confidence in your Father’s power and ability to deliver you. Your life will bring honour and glory to the name of Jesus as a witness of His resurrection powerin Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

Today I share Part One of my communion time with the Holy Spirit concerning the importance of always being cheerful.

The Holy Spirit spoke in my communion time about the importance of us deliberately choosing to remain cheerful regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. Our Cheerful countenance is not to be determined by what is happening around us but by what is governing us from within. Proverbs 15:13 establishes the connection between the condition of the heart and the expression of joy by saying these words: “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.”

This points to the central lesson is that no situation in life should determine how we respond or react to it because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. 1 John.4:4. Life events are never meant to become the masters of our conduct.

We may not be able to choose what happens to us in life, but we can choose how we respond to what happens. 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that we walk by faith and not by sight, while 2 Corinthians 4:18 teaches us to fix our attention not on the things that are seen, which are temporary, but on the things that are unseen, which are eternal.

Therefore, our spiritual maturity is demonstrated when natural events no longer control our responses, regardless of how powerful, painful, threatening, or disruptive those events may be. The Holy Spirit brought my attention to the Apostle Paul and his journey to Rome in Acts 27–28.

Paul did not choose the circumstances that unfolded during that journey. Indeed, if he had been permitted to choose based on the foreknowledge the Holy Spirit had given him concerning what was ahead, he would likely have avoided travelling at that particular time to spare himself the tremendous loss, pain, and anguish that followed.

This highlights the priceless value of the Holy Spirit’s guidance because His leading always saves us from enormous pain, loss, and anguish, and His direction is therefore beyond measure. However Paul found himself in circumstances he had not chosen and his wisdom was despised.

Just imagine what they endured including fourteen continuous days in darkness, without seeing the sun, moon, or stars, while being tossed around on the sea by violent winds. They did not even know when a new day was breaking. The storm became so severe that the people aboard eventually concluded that all hope of survival was gone and that death was inevitable.

This message compares in a sense to the ordeal of the Johnson spring rains in Sierra Leone which I experienced, where there are seven consecutive days of heavy rain which can become an exhausting experience of so much water everywhere. Yet even that does not compare with being confined to a ship in the middle of the ocean, completely at the mercy of extreme winds and waves.

The continual complaints people make during such heavy rainfall provide a small glimpse into how difficult it must have been to remain calm during Paul’s fourteen-day ordeal on the sea. Yet Paul remained cheerful, composed, and full of hope throughout the journey.

He did not allow the severity of the circumstances to determine his conduct or composure. Instead, he offered a solution to the devastating situation and encouraged everyone that they would survive after all hope of being saved was lost. Paul declared that there would be no loss of life, although the ship itself would be lost.

Paul could have become angry and responded harshly, complained, or behaved abusively, and from a purely human perspective, people might even have considered such a response understandable. After all, had his warnings been heeded, some of the trauma and loss might have been avoided.

However Paul did not allow the actions of others or the severity of the circumstances to dictate his spirit. His life was not ultimately dependent upon what was happening around him. His life was hidden in Christ. Colossians 3:3 declares that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Paul had received a visitation from an angel of the Lord whom he served faithfully.

The angel told him what would happen, even though nothing in the physical circumstances had changed yet. The storm was still raging. The ship was still in danger. The darkness was still present. The people were still terrified. But Paul had received a word from the Lord.

Therefore, Paul’s confidence was not based on what he could see. The circumstances did not have to change before his attitude changed because his attitude was governed by the word he had received from the Lord. Since the Lord had declared that Paul would live, Paul was going to live. Everything else would ultimately have to align with that divine reality.

This explains the essence of us walking by faith rather than by sight because nothing can separate us from God’s love. The Holy Spirit’s message is therefore a call for us to choose cheerfulness even in adverse circumstances.

As followers of Jesus we must remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God working for us and in us. Romans 8:35–39 establishes this truth with tremendous certainty by saying that: neither tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, nor sword can separate us from the love of Christ.

Through all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Consequently, there is no reason for us to surrender ourselves to depression, worry, fear, or continual agitation over circumstances.

I declare in the name of Jesus that circumstances will never again govern your response in any situation. You will never again be controlled by what you see, hear, feel, or experience around you because your heart is anchored in Christ, because your life is hidden with Christ in God, and your confidence rests upon the eternal Word of the Lord.

I declare that every spirit of sorrow, heaviness, anxiety, fear, discouragement, and sighing loses its influence over you as the joy of the Lord arises afresh within you. You receive abundant grace to remain cheerful, hopeful, peaceful, and full of faith even when circumstances appear threatening.

Like Paul in the midst of the storm, you will remain steady when others are losing hope because you will hear the word of the Lord above the noise of the storm, and what the Lord has spoken concerning you will come to pass. So no temporary circumstance will overturn the Lord’s eternal purpose for your life in Jesus name. Amen.

Today I share the conclusion to my communion time on the benefits of walking in a Covenant with the Lord.

We are to remember that the Lord provides the necessary correction that leads to us reaping the Harvest the Lord intended for us to have for obeying Him. Isaiah 58 does not leave us the Lord’s people without an answer because the Lord responds to their question about why their fasting was not producing the expected results and shows them what they were doing wrong and how they should correct it.

He gives them the pathway by which they can once again experience the full benefits associated with fasting and devotion to Him. This fact is a demonstration of the Lord’s willingness to correct us rather than abandon His covenant people which reveals clearly that their lack of results did not mean that the Lord had forsaken them. So their question became the doorway to the path of correction, and the correction received became the doorway to their restoration and harvest.

This message therefore encourages you not to become discouraged after you have obeyed the Lord and have not yet seen the expected manifestation of the expected harvest. Instead, you should ask the relevant question of the Lord by seeking the Holy Spirit’s insight. Then allow Him to expose and reveal to you whatever has been missed, misunderstood, neglected, or incorrectly applied.

The goal is not merely to know that something went wrong but to receive the correction that leads to repentance which brings you back into the pathway of the Lord’s intended result which is to recover missed harvests. Endeavour to understand how this principle works to cause you to reap harvests from past bad experiences.

There may be times of fasting, obedience, prayer, giving, or other acts of faithfulness for which you have never seen the corresponding harvest. This message declares with clarity that you should not simply write those experiences off as being lost. Instead, it is time to ask the Lord what happened and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the missing pieces in the puzzle of your harvests.

Remember that with the Lord there can be recovery of harvests from previous seasons of fasting and obedience that you have not yet fully benefited from. So the call is therefore to arise again in the strength of the Lord, by becoming harvest-conscious, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit so that what the Lord intended to produce through your obedience can come into manifestation.

The central word of encouragement to you is this: Do not merely sow and forget about the harvest. Do not obey and then assume that the absence of immediate results means the Lord has refused you. Ask the Holy Spirit your Helper the relevant questions, then receive the Lord’s correction, by making the necessary adjustment, and positioning yourself to reap what He has promised.

Always remember that when the Lord’s promised result has not followed your obedience, don’t quickly conclude that the Lord does not care or does not want to answer you. Ask Him what you have missed because the right question you ask can open the door to divine correction, and divine correction will bring you into the designated harvest.

I declare that the Holy Spirit is awakening in you a fresh understanding of the covenant relationship you have with the Lord. So you will no longer become discouraged when you do not immediately see the results connected to your obedience, but you will have grace to ask the right questions, to hear the Lord’s answers, by receiving His correction, and making every adjustment necessary to come into the manifestation of His promises in your lives.

I declare that every place where you have obeyed the Lord but have not yet experienced the corresponding harvest is coming under the light of the Holy Spirit. So that what you have missed out on will be revealed which ensures that what needs to be corrected will be corrected. Then what needs to be restored will be restored, so that what has appeared lost will not remain lost.

It is time to receive the grace to become harvest-minded in your prayer, fasting, giving, obedience, and every other area in which you sow according to the Lord’s Word. You will no longer faint in the process of seedtime, but you will stand in faith for your harvest. Be open to the Lord of the harvest who is bringing you into the results He intended for you when you obeyed Him.

May the Holy Spirit guide you into the recovery of your prayer and fasting harvests from former seasons, and may all your forgotten or delayed harvests come into manifestation in the now of your life. It is time for you to rise in the strength of the Lord, by walking in divine understanding, and experience the fullness of the Lord’s promised results.

Your obedience will produce fruit, your questions will produce understanding, your corrections will produce alignment, and your alignment will produce the harvest in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today I share the first part of my communion time with the Holy Spirit on the benefits of Covenant with the Lord.

In communion time with the Holy Spirit, the Lord brought Isaiah 58:3 to mind as a powerful example of the covenant relationship between the Lord and His people. This passage reveals something important about one of the greatest privileges available to us the followers and lovers of the Lord which is the ability to have an ongoing conversation with the Lord about His ordinances and how they apply to our lives.

The Holy Spirit has taught me over time that asking the Lord relevant questions about His Word, His instructions, and the results we are experiencing is a priority that can produce tremendous dividends and more substantial God-results.

Isaiah 58:3 says these words: “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’” The first important observation is that a covenant partner with the Lord understands that obedience to the Lord’s instructions is connected to us receiving the corresponding result or benefit promised.

These people were essentially asking, “Why have we obeyed Your instruction to fast, yet we are not seeing the result we expected?” They were not simply abandoning the Lord because they saw no immediate manifestation. They were bringing the discrepancy in their results to Him and asking for understanding what had gone wrong.

The Holy Spirit then connected this truth with the disciples’ experience in Matthew 17:19, where they privately asked Jesus the question: “Why could we not cast it out?” This question was critical for them, because if the disciples had simply concluded that Jesus did not want to help them, or that the situation was impossible, they would have missed the correction they needed.

Their willingness to ask why they had not obtained the expected result opened the door for Jesus to reveal to them what they had missed. Once they received the appropriate correction, they could obtain the Lord’s result in that present situation and also carry the understanding forward into future situations they would face.

This fact establishes an important principle that when we have obeyed what the Lord instructed and yet do not see the corresponding result, we should seek the Lord for understanding rather than immediately conclude that He does not want to answer us according to His promise. The Lord never instructs His people to do something without purpose and an expected good beneficial outcome.

Therefore, when the expected God-result has not appeared, it is vital to ask, “Lord, what have I missed? What needs to be corrected? Or what is preventing the manifestation of what You have promised?” Returning to Isaiah 58:3, the people were essentially accusing the Lord of failing to notice their fasting because their expectation was that when they sacrificed food for a season in order to seek the Lord, He would see their sacrifice and respond favourably on their behalf.

They believed they had fulfilled their side of the covenant concerning fasting and therefore wanted to know why they were not experiencing the corresponding benefit which is the Lord stepping in to give them triumph. The Holy Spirit therefore emphasised that we the followers of Jesus should continually examine situations where we are not seeing the results associated with the Lord’s instructions for the relevant situation.

So rather than presuming that the Lord is unwilling to answer favourably, we should cooperate with the process by asking Him what has gone wrong and what adjustment is necessary for us to make. This example from 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 reinforces this principle because it demonstrates the power of seeking the Lord in a crisis and the way the Lord responds when His people turn toward Him.

As followers of Jesus we should therefore remain conscious not merely of the seed being sown but also of the harvest the Lord intends to produce from that seed. The central revelation of this message is that we should become harvest-minded in everything we do concerning the Lord. This is because the Lord is not merely the Lord of the seed but He is also the Lord of the harvest.

Genesis 8:22 establishes the continuing principle which reads these words: “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Therefore, whenever we sow the Word of the Lord into a situation, we should not stop at only just sowing, but we should expect the harvest that Lord has promised for choosing to sow in obedience to Him.

This reality of sowing and reaping is illustrated clearly by Jesus in Luke 6:38 which reads these words: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

The truth behind this principle is that giving always carries an expectation of receiving a return. So if a person does not want anything returned, they should not give; but once we give according to the Lord’s Word, we are obligated to expect the promised harvest.

The return is described as abundant by Jesus which is good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men bring into our bosom. Thus, the follower of Jesus should not merely celebrate the act of giving in obedience, but there should also be an expectation of the God-appointed result/ harvest connected with that obedience.

I declare that the Holy Spirit is awakening in you a fresh understanding of the covenant relationship you have with the Lord. So you will no longer become discouraged when you do not immediately see the results connected to your obedience, but you will have grace to ask the right questions, to hear the Lord’s answers, by receiving His correction, and making every adjustment necessary to come into the manifestation of His promises in your lives.

I declare that every place where you have obeyed the Lord but have not yet experienced the corresponding harvest is coming under the light of the Holy Spirit. So that what you have missed out on will be revealed which ensures that what needs to be corrected will be corrected. Then what needs to be restored will be restored, so that what has appeared lost will not remain lost.

It is time to receive the grace to become harvest-minded in your prayer, fasting, giving, obedience, and every other area in which you sow according to the Lord’s Word. You will no longer faint in the process of seedtime, but you will stand in faith for your harvest. Be open to the Lord of the harvest who is bringing you into the results He intended for you when you obeyed Him in Jesus name. Amen.

Today I conclude my communion time on girding the loins of our hearts with God’s words.

The importance of our response as we see that the lesson is not simply that Peter received revelation but the critical issue was what Peter did with the revelation. He allowed the Holy Spirit to change his thinking then he girded his mind with the revealed truth and he acted promptly upon what the Lord had showed him.

Therefore because he did so, he became positioned to participate in something much greater than his previous understanding could have ever imagined possible. This reveals to us why our response to Holy Spirit revelation matters so greatly.

The Lord may reveal something that challenges our assumptions, traditions, experiences, prejudices, or established ways of thinking and at that moment, we must choose whether we will defend our existing mindset or surrender it to the truth the Spirit is revealing.

Our obedience can become the doorway through which the Lord’s purpose advances. The Holy Spirit therefore calls us to examine our lives carefully by asking ourselves how am I using my time and what am I doing that is not profitable?

What unnecessary things in my life needs to stop? What has the Lord assigned me to do with the time He has given me? Am I still pressing forward towards that goal, or have I become comfortable because of yesterday’s victories?

Remember the Lord has entrusted each day to us for Kingdom purposes to be accomplished. We are called to remain alert and ready, like the servants Jesus described in Luke 12:35-38. We are to gird ourselves with truth as instructed in Ephesians 6:14.

We are instructed to gird the loins of our minds, remain sober, and rest fully on God’s grace being brought to us according to 1 Peter 1:13. And when the Holy Spirit gives us the revelation, we must be willing to act upon it, as Peter did in Acts 10:9, 34-35, and 44-48.

The goal for us is to remain in the bullseye of God’s will and purpose, and prepared to execute whatever He assigns at the prescribed time. The ultimate desire expressed in this message is that we become increasingly fruitful for the Kingdom as the Father desires us to be to bring Him glory.

We are never to become satisfied with yesterday’s accomplishments and we are not to become passive in our stance because the Lord has already answered prayers or performed mighty works. We must continue pressing in through continued listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit. We must also continue allowing the Holy Spirit to expand our understanding as we continue surrendering our minds to the revealed truth. We must always remain ready to act when the Holy Spirit says, “Now.”

The more completely we allow the Holy Spirit to gird our hearts and minds with His truth, the more effectively we can carry out the things He has assigned to us for the advancement of the Kingdom and the glory of His name.

Therefore, we must meditate on these words repeatedly and returning to the Scriptures and allow them to become established within us. As these truths become part of our life, we will experience a greater expansion of the life of Jesus made available to us and increasing productivity for the Kingdom.

Father, in Jesus name by your grace, teach me how to steward the time you have entrusted to me. Please show me what I must stop doing, and what I must prioritise, and how I can use each day more profitably for Your Kingdom. Holy Spirit, keep me alert and watchful and do not allow me to become comfortable with yesterday’s victories. Please give me more grace to press forward into everything You have prepared for me.

Help me to gird the loins of my mind with truth. Please make me sober, watchful, and ready for action by teaching me how to reject every lie, deception, accusation, and thought that contradicts Your truth. Give me the same humility Peter demonstrated in Acts 10 which enabled him to receive truth that challenges my existing understanding and to obey You without doubting.

Keep me dearest Lord positioned in the bullseye of Your will and purpose, to be ready to execute Your assignments at the appointed time. Let my life produce fruit that remains and continually multiplies the Kingdom of Jesus for Your glory I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

I declare that the truth I know will become the truth I apply and the Lord’s truth is active in me, making me free and keeping me free. My mouth will declare the truth, my heart will embrace it, and my life will demonstrate it.

Like Peter in Acts 10, I declare that I will not allow old mindsets, traditions, assumptions, or human limitations to prevent me from obeying a fresh revelation from the Holy Spirit. I will go when the Lord says go and I will act when He says act. I will change when He says change and I will obey without doubting.

I declare that every revelation the Holy Spirit gives me will position me for Kingdom advancement. What the Lord reveals to me will not remain dormant but it will produce obedience, fruitfulness, transformation, and manifestation of His promise in my life.

I declare that my obedience will become a catalyst for others to encounter Jesus. So just as Peter’s obedience opened the door for the Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit in Acts 10:44-48, my obedience will open doors for others to experience the life, power, grace, and salvation of Jesus Christ.

I declare that I am positioned in the bullseye of the Lord’s will and purpose for my life. I am girded, prepared, watchful, and ready so that when the Master comes, He will find me watching, and when He speaks, I will hear. When He commands, I will obey and what He reveals, I will act on in obedience promptly so my life will produce fruit that remains.

I declare that the life of Jesus will expand through me, and my Kingdom productivity will increase, and everything assigned to me by the Holy Spirit to do will be accomplished for the glory of God. I am not finished and I am not settling nor looking backward. I am pressing forward, fully girded with truth, fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit, and fully available for the purposes of the Lord in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Holy Spirit, during my communion time with Him, brought back to me many truths and reminders about our position in Him and spoke of the responsibility we have to steward what He reveals to us. One of the key questions He raised was concerning how we are prioritising our time: We need to watch what we are spending our time doing, and what things we need to stop because they are not profitable for our lives, wellbeing, or our Kingdom assignment? We have been called to use the time the Lord gives us each day wisely and profitably.

Following the Holy Spirit’s daily leading does not mean we should become comfortable with what has already happened through our lives. We must not rest on our laurels because the Lord has already done mighty things for us but instead, we are to press in for more of what the Lord has prepared for us, by maintaining our already gained spiritual momentum and continuing to advance. The time entrusted to us each day carries a Kingdom responsibility which is to establish and multiply the Kingdom of Jesus through our lives and to produce fruit that remains. Which glorifies the Father.

The Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance Jesus’ words in Luke 12:35-38 which read these words: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master…” Jesus describes the servants who remain ready and watchful for their master’s return as being blessed because when the Lord comes and knocks, they are prepared to open the door for Him immediately. Whether He comes in the second watch or the third, the faithful servants are still watching.

This word reveals an important principle for us that although Jesus had taught His disciples about what the Lord had provided and made available to them, He also expected them to respond faithfully in obedience to His instructions. Jesus always pointed out that their faithfulness would be tested at various points in time, and that they would not know exactly when those moments would come.

Therefore, we as His followers cannot afford spiritual complacency because we must remain alert, prepared, watchful, and ready at all times for whatever the Master requires us to do on His behalf. The question is not merely what the Lord has already done for us, but whether we are positioned to respond when He gives the next instruction. Jesus’ command to have our waists girded points to the necessity of us always being prepared for action through truth.

The Apostle Paul emphasises this fact in Ephesians 6:14, where, as part of putting on the whole armour of God, we are instructed to first have our loins girded with truth. The word to gird means in real terms to ready oneself for action by encircling or securing oneself with the truth so that one is prepared to move with it. This means truth cannot merely be something we know intellectually but we must actively establish truth in our hearts and minds.

The enemy on his part continually surrounds us with lies, deception, accusations, and false interpretations. Therefore, we must be confessing and establishing the Lord’s truth with equal or greater intensity in our hearts because we can never defeat lies if we passively tolerate them. We certainly cannot cast down imaginations and high things that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God if we continue to permit them to remain in our thinking process.

So when a thought contradicts the Lord’s truth, we must actively rebuke and reject its right to establish our mindset or control our actions. We must refuse to allow falsehood to pass through our minds unchallenged. The truth that we know and apply is what makes us free and keeps us free. John.8:32 because truth that is not applied remains dormant. It cannot produce its intended effect merely because we have heard or intellectually understood it. That is why Jesus, Paul, and Peter all emphasise the active necessity of us being girded with truth.

Peter makes the same point in 1 Peter 1:13 which reads these words: “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Again, this is an instruction which requires action. Peter speaks of the reproductive or productive part of our minds being deliberately surrounded and secured with truth. We are to be sober-minded, not presumptuous, arrogant, foolish, or controlled by careless thinking.

At the same time, we are to rest our hope completely upon the grace that the Holy Spirit brings to us through revelation. This produces a practical spiritual posture where our mouths must actively declare the Lord’s truth and establish it within our hearts so that we are continually prepared to take whatever action the Holy Spirit requires from us when the appointed moment of manifestation arrives.

The preparation must happen before the moment of manifestation arrives, meaning that the girding we do happens before the assignment. The truth must already be established in us before the situation demands a response. Peter’s experience in Acts 10 provides a powerful example of what it means to gird the mind with newly revealed truth. In Acts 10:9, Peter goes onto the housetop to pray around the sixth hour.

Peter first had to take the initiative to pray and engage with the Lord because it is during this time, that he enters into a trance and receives a revelation from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit goes on to confront Peter’s existing mindset and brings him into a truth that he had previously struggled to fully understand that Jesus always taught them. Peter was a Jew, and his established religious understanding would have made the actions he was about to take extremely difficult.

Yet the Holy Spirit was now bringing him into a greater understanding of what Jesus had already been teaching them. So Peter had to gird his mind with this new truth to then take the necessary uncomfortable action. The Holy Spirit essentially brought him to the point where he could obey the instruction to go with the men who had arrived without doubting.

This was a decisive moment in Peter’s life, so Peter could either cling to his previous understanding or gird his mind with the truth the Holy Spirit was revealing and thank God he chose the latter. Thus that one act of submitting his thinking to the Holy Spirit became a catalyst for something enormously significant which was the Gentiles receiving the message of the Kingdom. Peter eventually went on to declare in Acts 10:34-35 these words: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”

This revelation had enormous consequences because Peter’s obedience opened the way for the reality of salvation through Jesus to be demonstrated among the Gentiles. The truth he received was not merely an intellectual adjustment because it changed the course of his ministry and contributed to making the Gospel available to people beyond the boundaries of his previous understanding.

Then, while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit manifested powerfully. Acts 10:44-48 records that the Holy Spirit fell upon everyone who heard the word. The Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles as well.

They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God causing Peter to respond by saying these words: “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” He then commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord, and they asked Peter to remain with them for several days.

The Lord knew what Cornelius had done in honouring His name and living righteously, and the Lord was determined to reward what He had seen, and Peter’s previous bias could not prevent the Lord’s purpose from being fulfilled. So Peter’s willingness to receive and act upon the truth revealed by the Holy Spirit changed him eternally.

I declare that I am a faithful steward of the time the Lord has entrusted to me. So I will not waste my days on things that are unprofitable, distracting, or contrary to the Lord’s purpose for my life. I receive grace to prioritise what matters to the Kingdom and to use every season wisely.

I declare that I will not rest on yesterday’s victories but I will continue pressing forward into the greater things the Lord has prepared for me. I decree that my spiritual momentum will not stop because I will remain hungry, watchful, alert, and ready for the next instruction of the Holy Spirit.

I declare that my mind is girded with truth and according to Ephesians 6:14 and 1 Peter 1:13, I am prepared for action, sober in my thinking, and fully established in the truth of the Lord. Every lie, deception, accusation, and false thought that opposes the Lord’s truth in my heart is rejected and cast down and it will not control my mindset, words, decisions, or actions.

I declare that the truth I know will become the truth I apply because the Lord’s truth is active in me, making me free and keeping me free. So my mouth will declare the truth, my heart will embrace it, and my life will demonstrate it in Jesus name. Amen.