Third Heaven Discourse

Matt 12:1 (NKJV) At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat .  It was Sabbath day and Jesus passed through the grainfields . The disciples were so hungry that they plucked heads of grain and ate. It wasn't Jesus that told them to do that, but I am sure He intentionally passed through the grainfields because He knew His disciples were hungry and wanted to meet their need. Of course He knew they would eat. This reveals the infinite love and concern of God for us. He knows our needs and He is committed to meeting them . He promised to meet us at the point of our need. He will order our steps, He will make us lie down in green pastures, lead us beside still waters. He will lead us into provision so our needs will be met. Jesus is the good shepherd (John 10:11,14) and we are His sheep, the sheep of His pasture (Psa 95:7, 100:3). In our reference scripture, we see Jesus p...

Psa 46:1 (NKJV) God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Beloved, this scripture provides a wonderful source of comfort and encouragement for us in our days of trouble. It presents some of the attributes of God as our refuge, strength and help.  The psalmist tells us that God is a very present help in trouble. I believe the word "very" in that scripture offers something insightful. There is a difference between "God is a present help in trouble " and "God is a very present help in trouble" . The latter offers more assurance . Let me attempt to show you as inspired. The reason God is very present in times of trouble is because He never left in the first place . He promised He'll never leave nor forsake us; that He will be with us always. Friends, that's why He is very present in our troubled days. If He left us occasionally and still showed up in days of trouble, then we could say " He is present in day...

Matt 5:14-16 (NKJV) You are the light of the world.....Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. In a previous post, I highlighted what Jesus said to His disciples, and to us by extension;  we are the light of the world . Kindly refer to the post if you haven't. Now, what does this tell us about our duty to our families, associations, relationships? Friends, it is crystal. The scripture tells us to be the light.  It also tells us to let our light shine greatly . In all our relationships, in every gathering, in every association, we are expected to provide illumination. Light represents good and knowledge. Our duty therefore is to be good to people  and also to provide knowledge consequent upon God's Word. Let darkness and everything it represents flee from every relationship, association as a consequence of your presence! That's why you are there. God bless you!

John 14:27 (NKJV) Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you;  not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid . The scripture above reveals that we have the peace of Jesus  because He gave it to us. Furthermore, the statement ".... not as the world gives do I give to you"  reveals how He has given us His peace. Beyond that, the bolded statement exposes God's pattern of giving to us generally -  He gives to us not as the world gives . To help us appreciate this, we need to firstly understand how the world gives. It is important to note that " the world"  represents a system that is contrary to what God instituted in the beginning. The world was created when Adam sinned. John 1:10 tells us the world does not know God. So when we think about the world, we think about man with his flaws, weaknesses and his 'less-than God's-standard' way of doing things. However,  if you are saved, then ...

1 John 4:18 ....But perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves torment.... Fear has torment; it is sometimes said that fear is faith in the negative, and because there's an element of 'faith', what we are afraid of sometimes tend to happen . It is important to note that it was Job's fear that eventually caught up with him . He said in Job 3:25, "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me." So, fear isn't something we want to have a strong hold in our lives. It incapacitates, make you powerless, unloving and weak in mind ; that is why we are admonished severally in scriptures to "fear not" . Scriptures say "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7). In as much as He hasn't, sometimes, because of the difficulties and challenges we face, fear does creep into our hearts and then we find ourselves worrying about our is...

Luke 1:34  Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (NKJV) Mary asked the angel, “How can this happen, since I have not had relations with a man?” (ISV) When the angel Gabriel visited Mary with the awesome words of Jesus' conception, she asked a very interesting question out of wonder "How can this happen...?" I find this question intriguing because even though she was a virgin, she was engaged to Joseph who she was going to be married to shortly. So, it would have been expected that she would think that the conception of Jesus would happen when she got married and 'knew' Joseph. In addition, considering that the angel said "...the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David" (Luke 1:32), she probably would have known that King David was an ancestor of the man she was engaged to and thought Jesus would be conceived from their union. This would have been the easy, if not normal, reasoning. However, ...

A Lesson from the Genealogy of Jesus Matthew's account (Matthew 1:1-17) of the ancestry of Jesus shows that 5 women obtained notable mention. From the account, it is clear that of the 42 generations between Abraham and Jesus, 42 men/fathers were rightly named. However, only 5 women/mothers were found worthy of being named. Technically, only 4 were mentioned, while the last one was described as "her who had been the wife of Uriah" (and you could tell who she was). It is interesting that these 5 women were not exactly the most awesome or perfect women in the Bible . In one way or the other, they had issues but it didn't stop them from being part of the ancestry of the Messiah nor being notably mentioned. The women were Tamar - Judah's daughter-in-law who played a prostitute so she could bear children through Judah; Rahab - the prostitute who hid the 2 Israelite spies sent to Jericho; Ruth the moabite; Bathsheba who committed adultery with King David; and ...

Look to Jesus for life, peace and advancement .  Recall in Num 21:8 that, only those who looked to the serpent lived. Those that were bitten prior to the serpent being made died and those who for one reason or the other refused to look to the serpent also died. This clearly establishes that, only those who look to Jesus lives! Jesus is the life (John 14:6, 11:25), look to Him for life. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). If you have Him, you have life for " he who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. " (1 John 5:12).  Furthermore, the Israelites were stuck where they were and were dying UNTIL Moses made the serpent. Those that looked to the serpent lived and eventually " moved on" (Num 21:10). To "move on" means to make progress, to advance. Invariably, only those who look to Jesus "move on" . Moreover, when Peter was looking on Jesus, he could walk on ...

Matt. 14:28-31a (NKJV) And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is  You, command me to come to You on the water.”  So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come  down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go  to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink  he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand  and caught him... The story of Peter walking on water is another beautiful demonstration of the importance of looking unto Jesus. Peter was walking comfortably on water to Jesus because his gaze was on Jesus. Unfortunately, he didn't know that was the secret. He had to learn the hard way that looking unto Jesus is the ONLY way to keep afloat and survive the boisterous storms of life . I mean, it would have been a BIG scare for him that day to be drowning, but I am convinced without a skerrick of doubt that he got the message; it was crystal to him ...

Num 21:8 (NKJV) And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live A familiar and recurring theme of the Israelite's long and arduous journey to the promised land was their murmuring about, well, just about everything. Whenever they had a little challenge, they murmured. It was like the norm. On one of the numerous occasions where they resulted to this annoyingly unbearable act (just imagine over a million people murmuring, poor Moses), God sent serpents to bite them and many died. Eventually they realized their mistake, as they always did, and asked Moses to pray for them and Moses obliged them, as he always did. Many times in the past (even in Egypt), when God sent a plague, after Moses prayed, we saw that God removed the plague. Surprisingly, this time, God didn't remove the plague. Instead, He did something better. He told them to change ...