Sonlight Devotional

Where Judgment Begins

March 19, 2020 by Admin

Scripture reading: I Peter 4:17

The children of God who believe in justice and mercy, must agree that a loving God who is abundant in mercy must judge the children of His household before He judges the world.

I Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

God’s judgments take many different forms, some of which include the allowing of His enemies to come against His people to punish them. One of the staunchest laws of God is the law of Sowing and Reaping.

Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Only the Blood of Jesus Christ remits sin, otherwise all sin must be punished. Sometimes we only see the effects on the outward man, and we tend to wonder why would God allow this? But we should never forget that God is righteous and whatsoever is done of God is righteousness.

As an accountant it is very easy for me to understand that there must be a time of reckoning when all the accounts must be balanced. At the end of the business year there is a time of reckoning, but if the business is being liquidated, then all the accounts must be closed at the same time. This concept is the one which the Scripture speaks of in I Peter 4:17. – The time is come – for what? – for the judgment of the Church.

It is not enough to accept Jesus as Saviour, we should know him as Lord and follow Him. The majority of Christians dwell in the realm of accepting Jesus as Saviour, but following foolish shepherds who are not following the Lord or who follow Him afar off. The present darkness into which the world is entering demands that we follow Jesus the whole way in order to overcome.

Midnight, as mentioned in Matthew 25, is going to separate those who had the work of God done in their souls from those who frustrated the Holy Spirit, not allowing him to do the transformation within the area of the soul. Jesus Christ redeemed our souls by His death, and he came to save our souls. If in the final analysis, we reject the completion of this work in the soul, then the mind and the emotions will remain unregenerated and we will fail to overcome Satan in the power of his strength.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1982)

Thought for today: It is not enough to accept Jesus as Saviour, we must know Him as Lord and follow Him.

Posted in Christian Walk | Tagged Blood of Jesus, Galatians 6, I Peter 4, Judgment of the Church, Law of Sowing and Reaping, Matthew 25 | Leave a Comment »

Open My Eyes, Lord

March 18, 2020 by Admin

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: John 9:1-7

Did you know that it is not everybody who believes the message of the Kingdom that is in the Holy Place? It is not everyone who has the Holy Spirit that is in the Holy Place. When you get into the Holy Place, the Holy Place has to get into you in order for you to be in the Holy Place. Can you understand it? In other words, if you are in the Holy Place and you are acting like a tramp, do you think God will say, “You are in the Holy Place, therefore I will just take you in.”? No, no. You have rejected the Spirit of God that makes you holy. We cannot be holy without the Spirit of God. If you are acting like John Brown, you can’t claim to be holy. You cannot act like your mother or your father and expect to be holy. You can preach like Paul, you can sing like angels, you can do anything else and bless God’s people, too, but remember: to be holy you have to follow the Holy Spirit.

There were two blind men in the New Testament. There was blind Bartimaeus and there was the other blind man that God made the spittle, put on his eyes and sent him on. Praise God. I want to talk about those two. The eyes of the one man were gone, clean gone. He was blind because he probably had no pupil, but Jesus Christ created eyes right there. He used the power of creation; He took spittle, made clay, put it over his eyes and said, “…Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash…” (John 9:11). When the man washed the clay off of his eyes, his eyes were perfect, 20/20 vision. Let’s take Mark 10:46 first and then we will go to Luke 18:35.

Mark 10:46, “And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. 47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” Now, Jesus cannot disregard that kind of a plea. You know, when God says sometimes, “Command Me,” that is what He means. If you work according to God’s plan and God’s law, God must. Jesus could not pass him. “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 48And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” The words “Son of David” have a special meaning; it means that He was the Messiah. That is what it meant in the Hebrew. He was saying, “Jesus, Messiah, the One that should come, the promised Son of David have mercy on me.” Verse 49, “And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. 50And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. 51And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.”

We are talking about the optometrist. Do you understand? You are to go to the optometrist and you must ask for what you want. He is not going to give you sight unless you ask for it. Tell Him what you want and it must be from your heart, brethren. This man was hollering. They couldn’t shut him up because he knew that God was passing him by and he did not want God to pass him by. He wanted his eyes healed.

Verse 52, “And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” Do you understand what happened here? Jesus never touched him. It wasn’t necessary. He touched Jesus with his faith.

When you look at John 9:1-7, you see another case. In this case, God wanted that blind man as a minister. God wanted him so He made him born blind, then He sent Jesus to heal him. Isn’t this a wonderful God? That is a different case. That man didn’t ask for anything. He was just made by God, set there, punished, suffered blindness all his life so that God might glorify Himself in him. Some of you are like that, but don’t count on it. You go and ask God to open your eyes.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, May 2009, pg. 28-29)

Thought for today: Remember: to be holy you have to follow the Holy Spirit.

Posted in Christian Walk | Tagged Blind Bartimaeus, Holy Place, Message of the Kingdom, Spirit of God | Leave a Comment »

“I Want to Be Like Jesus!”

March 17, 2020 by Admin

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Romans 8:29

Did you know that we feed through our eyes? When we enter into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, there are twelve loaves of bread set on the Table of Shewbread. We can eat from whichever loaf we prefer, but we must know that we feed with our eyes, we feed with our ears, we feed with our minds by feeding from the Word and from others. God wants the children of God to feed from the twelve loaves that He has provided, the apostolic teaching. However, oftentimes we feed on other things: we see something in the world there; something there; something attractive there; something attracts us and all that feeding goes into the mind and it disrupts the power of God from taking charge of the mind.

Brethren, we are at the hour when the power of the living God is going to take charge of the mind of man. Do you hear me? The power of God is going to take charge of our minds. Begin to offer up your mind to God. “Oh God, I bring You this offering this morning. You need to cleanse it. I don’t want to think evil of my brother. I don’t want to think evil at all. I don’t want to do this and that and that.” Faith is the substance of whatever you hope for. If you hope to be like Jesus, tell God. “I don’t want to be like Mary, John or Tom. I want to be like Jesus. This is my cry, Oh God. I want to be like Jesus. Break down every separating wall, pull down every fence, wreck all my plans, but make me like Jesus, my God.” Oh yes! Thank You, Jesus.

I am so blessed. You know, every night the Lord comes to me in the early morning hours and teaches me. Sometimes I forget the lessons. Sometimes I don’t remember it until I am speaking and then something flashes in my mind. Sometimes one message will go over and over for hours and hours and that is for you. But when He gives me a message for you, I am not fool enough to believe that I am exempt, because, you see, you must divide/separate the man or the woman from the gift. You are two different people and the gift of God is trying to make you like Christ. So, you are not like Christ yet, but the gift of God is working on you to make you what God wants you to be. Therefore, we are fellow travelers, except that one day He is going to stop the traveling and put everybody who wants to go one way on one side and who wants to go the other way on the other side. That is why He said that those who come in the morning get the same pay as those who come in the evening. The thief on the cross spent his entire life killing and murdering. He had a lowdown mind. But bless the Lord, he had eyes to see Jesus. The other man could see nothing but another thief hanging on the cross with him. But this man saw Jesus and he said, “Remember me, Oh God.”

Don’t you understand, beloved brethren, that righteousness is not how many times you pray or read your Bible, but it is how you submit to the Spirit of the Living God? Anybody could surpass all of us in righteousness tomorrow morning by just saying, “Yes, Jesus.” You know, sometimes, the poor little ones, those who we look at as weak and poor in the congregation, they are the ones that will be able to submit, because it is hard for the mighty big people who want to rule to submit. Thank You, Jesus.

It is such a pleasure to have Jesus using you. You know, sometimes I hear the music and I feel like dancing. There is something to dance about. Yes, sir. To know that God Almighty has forgiven my sins, my errors, my weaknesses. When I look at my weaknesses, I say to myself, “A wretched fellow you are.” Yes. I look at my grandfather and I look at my father and I feel like them. My mother would shake her finger in my face and say, “Don’t be like your father. He is a nasty man.” How would you like that? You would pretend that you didn’t understand and cover up your face but you well knew what she was talking about. Blessed be God Almighty.

It is good to obey the Holy Spirit. It is good to have the Spirit of the living God in you and to obey Him. When you feel rebellious and bad and the Spirit comes, it is good to straighten up and say, “Yes, Lord Jesus Christ. I am wrong.” A little song says:

Violent, full of sin I am
Thou art full of truth and grace
Plenteous grace with Thee is found
Grace to cover all my sins
Let the healing streams abound
Make it pure within

Praise God Almighty. Sometimes you sing those songs and they really bring a blessing. When I get up in the morning or in the night singing one of those songs, I know God is talking to me. And I know He is talking to you, too. Amen.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, May 2009, pg. 28-29)

Thought for today: If you hope to be like Jesus, tell God. “I don’t want to be like Mary, John or Tom. I want to be like Jesus. This is my cry, Oh God. Break down every separating wall, pull down every fence, wreck all my plans, but make me like Jesus, my God.”

Posted in Christian Walk | Tagged Apostolic Teaching, Feeding on Christ, Forgiveness of Sins, God Almighty, Offering to God, Table of Shewbread | Leave a Comment »

“Get Rid of Delilah!”

March 16, 2020 by Admin

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6

God Almighty has been speaking to us, His people, that our eyes are not in good condition. He showed me how we should repair our eyes. I look at the prophets, the prophets God has given us. Now, I am not talking about the two men that you know as prophets. I am talking about you. You know that the index finger represents the prophet. But all the sinews that go towards making this one finger move are in the prophetic ministry. The dreams and the visions and the thoughts that God is bringing through His people should channel a clean word of God’s intention, in this hour, to the world. But it seems that all our prophets are seeing is the dog in the back yard. Local. We are local. Do you know why we don’t see what God is doing? Because we can’t even see our own, how are we going to see out there? If you can’t see close/near, you are farsighted, but God is saying, “I do nothing unless I reveal it to my people.” Paul was saying that Jesus said, “No man knoweth the day nor the hour, but you are not like those that sleep in the night.” You are not like those who can’t see or can’t hear; God will let you know. He said, “It shall not come upon you as a thief in the night.” God will tell His people what He is doing.

Our situation is like Samson’s and how he got involved with Delilah. That was the bottom line, you know. He had been going down, going down, going down. He judged Israel for twenty years without being involved. Then he couldn’t take it any longer. He got Delilah and she took him down in the valley. There is so much of Delilah in so many of God’s people but we need to get the Delilah out of us. The Delilah was in Samson’s heart. Yes, it’s not Delilah that was bad. It’s Samson that was bad because he wanted a Delilah. Is your heart pulling you towards a Delilah? He was steady for twenty years, had no problem for twenty years and then he must have been looking at Delilah, watching her and finally he capitulated. Dagon is the god of erotic behavior (to be less explicit). That is where they took him. That is where he was going to make his grave.

God is talking to us. The same Spirit that is in your spirit, that makes it so we can function in the Spirit, is the same Spirit that God wants in our souls, that our minds should function normally in the mind of Christ, clean. God is saying to us, “Get rid of Delilah.”

Sisters, do you know what it means if a woman wants to wear pants? It means she wants to take over the house and rule. That is one part of the spirit of Delilah. The other part of it will follow. But God is saying that we, brothers and sisters, must get rid of the spirit of Delilah, for Samson had the spirit of Delilah as much as Delilah had the spirit of Delilah. We should probably not go too far with that. We will just leave it at that and leave the Holy Spirit to deal with His people.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, May 2009, pg. 27-28)

Thought for today: God is saying to us, “Get rid of Delilah.”

Posted in Christian Walk | Tagged Prophet, Prophetic Ministry, Samson and Delilah, Thief in the Night | Leave a Comment »