Revival is Now.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbzI3EsBXU6/?igsh=eXpxMW5na2VqdTRj

I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to see the power of God in my life. And when I first saw this video I felt power pulsate through my being and I couldn’t help but share this in the hope that you would have the same experience and the same encounter too.

I see the likes of the Acts church in the apostle that is represented in this video and it gives me great hope for what God is doing in the earth right now and what he is going to do in the future , because this is just the beginning of revival🔥

So let’s spark off revival, wherever we are and become willing vessels for God’s power to flow through us also in whatever measure we are annointed to perform the works of Jesus –  healing the sick, casting out demons, bringing about deliverances, sharing testimonies, letting God manifest miracles, praying and interceeding, declaring the Word of God not only over our lives but over our communities, our nations, other nations and  really , really bringing glory to Jesus through all!

Ask God how he wants to use you and then just get ready to see how he will use you in the greatest and the most miraculous and majestic move of his Spirit that the world has ever seen…according to Scripture , the glory of the latter day shall be greater than the glory of the former day and the word of god will prove true…

I pray great and mighty breakthrough over your life and that wherever you go, you would let your light shine so that everyone would see the commendable and  good works you do and praise the Father in heaven!

Hallelujah 🤍

Lord of the Harvest

When Elizabeth came into my life last Dec, I really had no idea about the life & weight she carried for me. It was my response to the Lord’s gentle nudging from within that had me get her from the local nursery, but little did I know that a journey of sorts had just begun.

Over the months, I saw her go from a beautiful, bright red-leaved plant to a dry, dull green-leaved survivor that honestly, was quite discouraging.

Presenting Elizabeth!

After a 3-week battle where I shifted her in and fought for her, I knew I had to let her go.

So I prayed for her, committed her to the Lord and sowed her as a seed in the ground before finally bidding her adieu.

Friend, how often do we hit a curveball like this in life, and then think it’s all over when it’s actually only a new beginning?

Had I simply dumped Elizabeth on the pavement, it would have been a different story. But committing her to the Lord as a seed buried in the ground has fetched me a completely different result.

A few weeks later, I began to notice the entire landscape & geography of my living space shift. The Lord had been working within me, through me and also on my behalf in a way that has served to release a most beautiful, diverse and buoyant plant family in my life!

These folks initiated the release 💚
My first succulent planter 🪴
Except that it’s a snail 🐌 🙃
Yes he is! 🌴
In a capsule 🙂

All this to say that should you have lost any thing/person dear and precious to you, then take heart. All is not lost.

As surely as I grieve with you, I also simultaneously encourage you to sow the thing/person as a seed in the ground, for Jesus is faithful to receive your seed, honor it and multiply it. In the kingdom of God, what is dead and buried is often used to raise a harvest of righteousness and bring in newness of life that could never have been anticipated.

For me, it looks like a brand new plant family springing up to life in the wake of one seed – Elizabeth – that was an unwitting sacrifice. For you, it can look completely different. But what we do have in common is the perfectly righteous God we serve who can and who does use all things for our good and his great glory!

Don’t hide it, deny it or bury it.

Sow it – for he is the Lord of the harvest.

Hallelujah!

🪴🌱🌻🌿

Pure Mischief: Redeeming Chidhood through Relationship with Christ

As a child, I remember myself as a very naughty, bratty kid.

True story.

Staying up till late could see me jumping on beds in front of our prized summer-time cooler, while the next day noon would witness me running through our garden in round circles, my mom and maid on their heels chasing after me.

I would pull at the beard of the menservants working at home, and unabashedly demonstrate affection for my next door neighbor, an adoring uncle, by pouring half-a-litre worth of my favorite oil (Brahmi-Amla Kesh Tel – you’ve got to Google this one!) over his head (and perhaps down his shirt) in front of all the dinner party guests! After all, the one I dearly love must have the same oil as me, right?

The festival of Holi a certain year had me go over with friends to the nearby mess hall, mix all the colors together with water and splash them on one another, and that too with my brand new birthday gear on!

I mean the girl needed rescue.

And rescue is what I got – but not from my sense of child-like innocence, awe and wonder; but rather into it.

I reckon friend, that as the years go by, life happens. There is pain, grief, suffering and before long, we know we are living on the east of Eden.

The glint in our eyes that said, ‘Anything’s possible!’ begins to wane; the spring in our step that took us on brave adventures reduces to a cautious shuffle; and the song in our hearts that connected us to the heartbeat of heaven dims itself to a tired whisper.

So the question on the Table today is –

“Before trauma ever happened – who were we?”

Well…

Let’s see..

We were childlike, innocent and unashamed to live in awe & wonder.

We were the object of our Father’s affection and delight, and we knew it.

We were living in a free-flowing communion with the Lord and walked with him in the cool of the day.

We were free.

We knew no sorrow, but then it happened – the Fall of man.

The crafty serpent slithered into the Garden of Eden – a heavenly potrait of perfect bliss – and tempted Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit; a demonic strategy of deception to create division between God and man, leading to death and destruction.

And those were the birthing grounds of all of humanity’s trauma, which essentially means, ‘heartache,’ caused first and foremost by creating a rift, a barrier, a separation between God and his beloved children, and that too in a place that was purposed to enjoy unbroken communion – the Garden of Eden.

Now given that we are living on the other side of the Fall – how do we reconcile that?

Well..

Let’s see..

Friends, we reconcile that through the Person of Jesus given to us by the Cross of Christ.

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

He is our Redemption, our Song, our Hope. He is the Prince of Wholeness,  Everlasting Father, Immanuel – God with us.

He is the one who holds our promise of restoration – back to the original design that was in God’s own heart concerning us.

But how really?

Well…

Let’s see..

CHILD-LIKENESS RESTORED:

Our childlike innocence and purity is now redeemed in Christ. We are the apple of our Father’s eye, his song and his prize. He sung us into being, and still rejoices over us.

He is not ashamed of us or disappointed in us. He is a wise Father who knows to demarcate between our ‘who’ and our ‘do.’ He is quick to diss the latter, but keep and nurture the former.

For our Identity in Christ is independent of anything that we have done or has been done to us. He has paid the price for our freedom, and has obliterated both, our sin and our shame. He has given us the gift of ‘shalom’ instead – wholeness, victory and peace.

Our childlike awe and wonder is also redeemed in him. He has untethered us from the tentacles of this earthly realm, and tied us to the reality of heaven itself – our true Home.

Friend, Heaven is the domain of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. It is a place of endless possibilities, and zero limitation, sickness or sorrow. It is here that dreams live and destiny manifests – it is the realm of glory.

Our very mission and mandate is, “On Earth as it is in Heaven,” and the currency of our exchange is belief – “everything is possible for him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

So as we pull down heaven with our words and declarations of faith, a new flow is released in and through our lives – Heaven Come.

For we were designed and destined to not just go there ‘one day when,’ but to usher in it’s reality ‘here and now.’ Our God is moved by faith, and when God is moved, he moves mountains.

It is in this love that he invites us on a journey of child-like trust and adventure where anything is possible – the sick can be healed, the dead can be raised, the past can be redeemed and dreams can be fulfilled.

Now doesn’t that sound like a child’s imagination?

Precisely.

Jesus in his earthly ministry told his disciples that anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child cannot enter in (Mark 10:15).

This is our Father.

He stirs the inner child within us, looks at us with pure mischief in his eyes, calls us out from the crowd and says,

“Delightful one! Take my hand and follow me. I have not created you to lead a life of mediocrity, but of Heaven on earth.

So come.. let us walk on the water with our eyes on the prize. Step away from the safety and familiarity of the comfortable shore, and step into the deep, blue unknown of the ocean waves, where I assure you, I have greater things in store.

Do not fear, for I am with you.”

So even though I don’t anymore run wildly through sprawling gardens, jump on my bed at 2 AM or pour oil down my favorite person’s head and gear; I am yet a Child of God.

My sense of child-like innocence and purity, awe and wonder, trust and adventure has not only been rekindled, but also fully restored in Christ, and perhaps in a way that even surpasses the gait and gumption of the 5-yr-old riot that I once was.

I maybe an adult to look at, but my heart has come alive.

Trying my best to language this experience accurately has been a fun attempt in faith for I feel that a phenomenon like this points not only to the perfect wisdom of God, but rather to the pure mischief of the Father who sees us and says,

‘I know you. I love you. I want you. And I’m going to see to it that nothing stands in the way.’

Friend, looking back at the full-of-life, five-year-old kid that I used to be, I was tempted to think that maybe I was the queen of mischief, but no.

Wait a minute.

I got it from my Father.

And he’s the King.

Food for Thought

This past season I have found myself sautéeing vegetables, cooking quinoa, tossing salami, soaking sprouts and making myself cups of tulsi-ginger tea.

I could never imagine myself in the kitchen a couple of years back, yet here I am. Though I came into this year with Covid, it was precisely this area – physical health, wellness & nutrition – that I found God breathing upon.

Honestly, I have had a propensity to believe that God is a fearsome dude who is only interested in the big moments of my life.

But my experience proves something different.

God, I’m learning, is a Good, Good Father who isn’t just present in the mighty mountain top moments, but also in the ordinary everyday. And he isn’t just present,  he cares.

He cares about how I’m doing on a daily basis – what I am consuming and putting into my body. He cares to give me an understanding about my physiology and how it is that he has wired me up to work.

As a result,  I have seen myself morph from someone who really didn’t give much thought to food but was mostly seeking ‘food for thought,’  into an identity that cares.

I care about what I eat and put into my body, because my body (and yours) is not a dumpyard, it is a temple of the Holy Spirit – the very house of God.

Having gone from a diet where I barely knew what I was ingesting to a largely organic diet composed of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, leaves and seeds has seen a sure shift in my thinking,  believing and subsequently,  my feeling.

I feel so much more alive and awake than ever before. I am energised by the scent of wind-tossed herbs, the feel of green lettuce leaves under cool, running water; and the sight of new life as I witness inch-long sprouts freshly emerging from my lentils and red gram.

And new life is exactly what he offers us, friend.

Gathering us, his Sons & Daughters, around the Father’s Banquet Table, Jesus calls us to dine full – receiving generous portions of new life that renew, refresh and revitalize.

I just didn’t realize that sometimes he means it literally.

👩🏻‍🍳🥬🍅🥕🍳🍋

Did you?

Our Rock

“When the rug was pulled out from under me, I found solid rock beneath my feet.”

A lot has been burned up. A lot has been shaken. A lot feels lost.

As I write this, I am keenly aware that so many of us have been trudging through impossible circumstances, trying to scale insurmountable mountains.

But friend, I want you to know that there is healing in the valley and there is honey in the rock.

Our setbacks may have caught us by surprise, but God knows the end from the beginning. And He still has a plan, a purpose and a sure path of victory moving forward.

Do not fear. Hold onto Hope.

All of us want to know the miracles of God, but very few of us want to know the God of miracles. The latter always requires us to be in a position where we need him to show up – a posture of vulnerability in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Here it is important for us to remember the nature and character of our God – he is rich in mercy, abounding in grace, perfect in love and unrestrained in power.

He rules the earth with the scepter of his throne, and works on the behalf of truth, humility & justice. Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, the Word of the Lord endures forever.

Stepping into the rocky landscape of this post-pandemic world, I see God creating a new reality, and he is doing it by the power of the Spoken Word.

Certainly we have seen our circumstances cave and crumble, but the power of God’s Word has withstood the test, the tribulation, the hell, the highwater, the fire and the storm.

Jesus told us that God’s Word is firm foundation for us to build our lives on. And I have found that in a time when everything that can be shaken has been shaken, it is only that which cannot be shaken that remains – all things built upon the kingdom of God.

The kingdom still remains unshaken, and always will be.

So the waves can roar and the winds can blow, but I will be still and know –

.. the ground where I stand is not only rock solid, but rather solid Rock.

🪨

Eucharisteo

“The Eucharest: Receiving the holy grail of peace, grace and joy with thanksgiving.”

It was on Holy Thursday that Jesus broke bread with his disciples. Before the Passover Lamb could be sacrificed for good, he wanted to have one last meal with his friends & followers. 

Dr. Luke in the gospel account records the words of Jesus thus, “and he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them…” (Luke 22:19).

In the original language, ‘he gave thanks’ reads – ‘eucharisteo.’ The root word of eucharisteo is ‘charis’ which means ‘grace.’ Jesus took bread, saw it as grace and gave thanks.

So ‘eucharisteo,’  thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, ‘charis.’  And the Greek word for grace, charis forms the very heart of the word, eucharisteo.

Because it was soon to be the grace of God found in the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb which would form the very heart of the table of the eucharisteo – the table of thanksgiving.

And this brings us to the deeper meaning of the Greek word – charis. For it is derived from the Greek word, ‘chara’  meaning ‘joy.’

Because deep chara joy is found only at the table of the eucharisteo – the table of thanksgiving, where the grace of God that brings with it the promise of wholeness and shalom is enfleshed for us in the Person of Jesus – the Living Bread that was broken to give us new life.

Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Charis. Grace. Chara. Joy.

The days after The Lord’s Supper were days that were going to see the deepest kind of wounding inflicted on him, followed by a day of gloom and despair, before he would finally be raised back to life again.

And the days that we are now walking into this Holy week commemorate & celebrate the same reality – if we suffer with him, we will also be raised up in glory with him (2 Timothy 2:12).

A Friday that saw Jesus suffer as the Lamb of God, a Saturday that marked a bridge between his suffering and his glory, and a Sunday that saw the resurrection power of God triumph over hell and death for all time to come are not only a testament of great hope to us, but also serve to take us on a brief journey that we will from time-to-time embark upon this side of heaven.

Take my hand, friend and let me lead you through it.

Good Friday:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

(Hebrews 4:15-16)

The above passage of Scripture reveals that though Jesus was sinless, he was not pain-free. He was in fact, ‘tempted in every way, just as we are.’ He too was familiar with the pain of abuse, persecution, insults, ridicule, rejection and betrayal; so much so that he eventually surrendered even to a most terrifying death on the cross!

This tells me that as we walk through the pain and trauma of this fractured world, we can trust that even when no one else understands what we are going through, Jesus perfectly does.

And he doesn’t tell us to deny it, bury it or numb it.

Much the opposite really.

He encourages us to bring our wounding to him, because by his stripes, we are healed. The day we reckon as, ‘Good Friday’ is proof of that.

For the crown of thorns on his head to be bartered for the wreath of peace we now wear, this was a day when the righteous died for the unrighteous, the godly for the ungodly, the sinless for the sinner.

It wasn’t fair, but it was necessary.

Likewise, your suffering and mine has purpose too. There is nothing glamorous about it, but it is glorious.

How, you ask…

Our pain, whatever it may be, when brought to the foot of the Cross, enables a divine exchange –

Brokenness for wholeness.

Human suffering now embraced by his glory becomes not only shared and dignified, but immensely transformative.

Eugene Peterson puts it like this,

“…people do not suffer less when they are committed to following God. But when these people go through suffering, their lives are often transformed, deepened, marked with beauty and holiness, in remarkable ways that could never have been anticipated before the suffering.”

Our pain produces purpose when it is embraced by the beauty and power of who God is. For this is the truth of the cruciform life –

The Lord walked through unjust suffering, we will too. There is nothing right about it,  but I’m reminded that love is the logic of heaven.

So if our Savior hung on a tree that we may have hope in the midst of our pain and suffering, then let this somber yet sacred day called, ‘Good Friday’  serve as a reminder to us that our brokenness on this side of eternity does not disqualify us from the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. In fact, it is through our brokenness that God works all things together to qualify us and to script songs of glory for all generations to echo.

So, as we have opportunity, let us approach the throne of grace – the table of the eucharisteo – to find the help we need in our time of need, but to do so with hope and joy, praise and expectation …

.. and a ton of thanks.

Silent Saturday:

“Wait for the Lord;

    be strong and take heart

    and wait for the Lord.”

(Psalm 27:14)

Sandwiched between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection was a day where darkness seemed to have prevailed and all hope felt lost in Jerusalem. Grief and despair hung in the air as the disciples huddled together, without any comprehension of what was next. God had orchestrated this pregnant pause of sorts, but the atmosphere was thick with sorrow and suspense.

Friend, in our walk of faith, we too will have moments when we feel hopeless and discouraged. But when we do, we can always find comfort and camaraderie with the disciples. We can know that just like this wasn’t the end of their story, what we are walking through isn’t ours either.

‘Silent Saturday’ – a day riddled with fear and doubt – was in fact, a necessary bridge between the disciples’ history and their destiny. It was a purposed cross over between what was and what was yet to be – the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, which meant but one thing:

Life would never be the same again. But on a despondent Saturday wedged between a catastrophic Friday and a monumental Sunday, this secret was hidden from them.

And somewhere I suspect the same holds true for us too.

We may not be able to fully understand or comprehend the ‘why’ behind our perceived delays, but one thing we can be certain of –

God is in it with us, and he is not busy preparing the blessing for us, but rather he is engaged in preparing us for the blessing he has already prepared for us.

In other words, our waiting is not the end of us, but rather the ‘becoming’ of us. He is the Alpha, he is the omega; but the journey?

That’s where we’ll find him.

Resurrection Sunday:

“It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”

(1 Peter 3:21-22)

I took a walk with the Lord the other day – a phenomenon I love calling, ‘walking with the Lord in the cool of the day.’

And as I walked on, I found myself toying with the two keys I currently possess. One is the key to the main entrance of my home, while the other unlocks my personal almirah. Wrapping each key ring around my right and left thumb respectively, I smiled.

Peering into the face of Jesus, I suddenly realised that what I really had in possession was not just the two keys that opened up portals in the natural realm, but rather keys that had authority in the spiritual. As this epiphany came through, it brought me right back to the message of Easter:

“Because on the third day, he rose again, I now have the keys to hell and death, in Jesus’ Name.”

He is Risen!

I am Risen!

Hallelujah!

So this is the Good News we celebrate on Passover.

Death has been swallowed up in victory, and darkness has been eternally vanquished!

Therefore, we can never be deadlocked in any situation because the Lamb of God has  overcome. As prized children of the most high God, we can rest in the assurance that what seems to be the end is now only a new beginning in his hands – which makes our lives a saga of unending hope, brave adventure and ceaseless glory.

The Bible states that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). So as we lift up the cup of the new covenant this Passover, let us look at our challenges square in the eye, pick up the sword of the Spirit, and decree what he has decreed over our lives, thereby enforcing the triumph of the Cross and establishing God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

One of the Lord’s last directives to his disciples was to take the bread, the wine, and to remember. Do this in rememberance of me. Remember, and give thanks.

For the truth is that after what the Lord has done for us, we can never repay him. But we can remember him.

And as we remember him, it is we who will be reminded of who we are and whose we are. The Psalmist puts it like this,

“So now, what can I ever give back to God to repay him for the blessings he’s poured out on me? I will lift up his cup of salvation and praise him extravagantly for all that he’s done for me.”

(Psalm 116:12-13, TPT)

So friend, as we approach the Holy Week, let us lay hold of the life that is truly life, let us celebrate the Lord’s grace with peace, joy and thanksgiving.

Let us take the bread, take the wine and take communion.

Let us remember..

…and let us give thanks.

Eucharisteo.