Here I am

When the lift to love is broken, try the stairs! 

So if you happen to take to one direction, possibility is that there could be more than one.

And what do you do? Do you sit and say Hey I tried one way and I’m tired to try another. Or do you just rest a bit and then get up with all the energy that you have build and say,

“When faced with a mountain, I will not quit!

I will keep striving until I climb over,

find a pass through,

tunnel underneath or

simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine, 
with God's help." - Robert Half.

We live in a wonderful world-and do you know what makes it so wonderful? It’s just the thought that does. And there is one thing that I have learned about God: God never quits on us! Isn't that wonderful?

Faith is a belief-in God. So if you believe in something to happen, and are convinced in your heart-for reasons beyond a shadow of doubt, then that is what brings a miracle to pass.

I have heard a lot of people speak on Faith. And the ones that I love are the ones that come close to the heart-where faith speaks with a conviction. But all said and done faith no matter how well rendered, in a topic-still needs to be tested. And God is the best judge of that.

I personally feel there has never been anytime in history, where there was a lack of devotion, to God. I think if one generation fails in their acknowledging of the True God-then there arises another that builds the bridge to God.

While this may seem absurd, I remember this one holiday, when I was watching all the kids as they were playing. I made them some orange drink. They were thirsty and so they were glad. Except for a nephew of mine-who I was aware never had anything other than what he wanted. So when I called him-I knew what his response would be. I told him that his drink was on the table. Twenty minutes later-he came and just helped him-self. I watched and I was glad. I said so much for every-ones theories. Children are innocent. They learn quickly and they adapt. It’s we adults that are mostly responsible for leading with the wrong examples which we seldom realize.

Yesterday the 12^th of July, I attended the mass with my mom. And while attending the mass I realized that there are so many things I really am grateful to God for.

But what I am most truly grateful for is the dream that God has put in my heart. For that I am and will always be eternally grateful.

When a dream dies, dream another dream. What is meant by this is – DON’T QUIT. This is my message to you. They say when God closes one door, He opens another (or maybe He opens a window)-no matter which way the saying goes, ultimately what it means-is God knows how important the dream is to you. He never wants you to go feeling dejected. So He opens up a window or a door (me thinks-God opens the entire universe for you)-just to let you know that You are going to win. Dream another dream-just means look at it from another point of view. So Hang on! . . . It may be bumpy, at first. . . but God is aware of the altitude. Safe journey!

God’s loved you since He has existed. God is love. It is His very nature. He loved us as a sinner. He loved you in the womb. He loved you before the world began. There was no beginning to His love for you—and there is no end to it.

Surrender is the natural response to God's amazing love and mercy. Why? "because He first loved us.”

Trust God: The more you realize how much God loves you, the easier surrender becomes. How do you know God loves you? The greatest expression of this is the sacrifice of God's Son for you. ‘God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.'
If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with His arms outstretched on the cross. When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that He is but a savior-a friend.

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” Philippians 2:1-2

Pride: When faced with our own limitations, we react with irritation and resentment. We want to be smarter, stronger, more talented, more beautiful, and wealthier. We want to have it all and do it all, and we become upset when we can’t, when others won’t let us or it doesn't happen. Then when we notice that God has given others what we don't have, we respond with envy, jealousy, and self-pity. Pride is a great barrier to knowing God.

No-confusion: “Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus.”-Philippians 2:5
Surrendering is best demonstrated in obedience. You say "yes, Lord" to whatever He asks of you. An aspect of a fully surrendered life is trust.

Abraham followed God's leading without knowing where it would take him. Hannah waited for God's perfect timing without knowing when.

You know you're surrendered to God when you rely on God to work things out. You let go and let God-work.
The supreme example of self-surrender is Jesus. “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”-Philippians2:6-7.
Jesus prayed, "Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet Your will be done, not mine."

Surrendered people are the ones God uses. God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus, because she was totally surrendered to Him. When the angel explained God's improbable plan, she calmly responded, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever He wants." Nothing is more powerful than a surrendered life in the hands of God.

Surrender: Paul says: "I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me, that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency."-Philippians 4:13

When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, your decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient or seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel like doing.

On the 18th of April, 2012, I had just come out from the Bible study class. It was 08:35 p.m. and I just visited the Church before going home. I sat to pray, and heard Fr. Byron singing to the music being played for ‘Here I am’. I loved hearing the hymn. On walking back home, God reminded me to open my Bible and read carefully to what I had written. So on reaching home, I did. And there on the first line of my letter I read the-title of the Hymn.

On the 14th of February, 2010, on my Bible, I wrote a letter to God the Father. The line read as ‘I Love You immensely. Here I am lord, do with me as You please.' And the time that I had written the letter everything was just going wrong. But I believed God always.

The letter was my personal heartfelt to 'Abba, Father'. Basically I thanked God, for the promise, God had made with me. I have the promise locked in my heart. And I wrote like I had received what was promised, because I know I have. I signed, Here I am-with my name at the bottom. The last sentence read, `Teach me Your ways oh Lord.’
Have you ever signed anything like that with God?

Know His voice!  God wants you to be absolutely convinced that He desires to talk to you—to tell you things you’ve never seen or heard before.

I believe that three things are required of those who would hear God’s voice:

1. Have an unshakable confidence that God wants to speak to you. Be fully persuaded and convinced of that.

2. You need to be willing to shut yourself in with God.

3. To truly believe that God is able to convey His mind to us and enable us to understand His perfect will.

Jesus said, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will He give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?”-Luke 11:11-12.

When God speaks, peace follows! God does indeed search our hearts; He said as much to Jeremiah: “I the Lord search the heart”-Jeremiah 17:10. The Hebrew meaning for this phrase is, “I penetrate, I examine deeply.”

Through Time: Paul faced his court trial in Rome. He was guarded around the clock by soldiers, his feet chained to a soldier on either side. Think about it: Here was a man who had been very active, loving to meet with God’s people. But now he was chained down. Paul knew his steps were ordered by the Lord. Philippians 1:20 states “Now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death”.
Sometimes it’s possible to waste all our tomorrows anxiously waiting to be delivered out of our suffering. If that becomes our focus, we’ll totally miss the miracle and joy of being freed from our bondage in our trial.
In Philippians 1:12. Paul is saying, “Don’t pity me or think I’m discouraged over my future. And please don’t say my work is finished. Yes, I’m in chains and suffering, but the gospel is being preached through it all.”

Test Of Faith: God’s looking for a lifetime faith to believe Him for the impossible. And we have this calm because we’ve settled once and for all, “My God is bigger than all the problems.”

God wants faith that endures the ultimate test, a faith that won’t allow anything to shake you from trust and confidence in His faithfulness.
Faith is a commitment we make to obey God. Obedience reflects belief.
As Israel faced Jericho, the people were told not to say a word, but simply to march. These faithful believers didn’t whisper to themselves, “Help me to believe, Lord. I so want to believe.” No, they were focused on the one thing God asked of them: to obey His Word and go forward.
That is faith. It means setting your heart to obey all that is written in God’s Word, without questioning it or taking it lightly. And we know that if our hearts are determined to obey, God will make sure His Word to us is clear, without confusion. Moreover, if He commands us to do something, He’ll supply us with the power and strength to obey: “Let the weak say, I am strong”-Joel 3:10. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”-Ephesians 6:10.

God’s Heart!:  “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers” 1 Peter 3:12.
Jesus suffered and was crucified. And when Christ called Paul to preach the gospel, He showed him how many great afflictions awaited him. Yet afflictions prove that God has set His heart on you. “That no man should be moved [or shaken] by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto”-1Thessalonians 3:3.
When God sets his heart on you, you will be tried often. But the fact is the longer and harder your affliction, the more deeply God has set his heart on you, to show you His love and care.

Every Battle: The Holy Spirit drives out all fear from us—by implanting in us His joy. We are to go forth rejoicing, as David did, because God has assured us we will prevail.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”-Hebrews 11:6. Our God is a rewarder, and He’s so anxious to shower us with His loving-kindness that He blesses us way ahead of time.
Maybe you’re in a storm right now. The wind is blowing hard, shaking you violently, and you think you’re going down. Don’t panic! God is developing in you a deepening humility, a greater mourning and sorrow for sin, a heightened hunger for His righteousness.
God is making you a courageous person. You may get down on yourself at times—but the Lord never does. The fact is, He could have acted in His Sovereignty at any time to pluck you out of your struggle. But He didn’t—because He saw it producing in you a greater thirst for Him!

Love: God loves us so much that He is so anxious to bless us, so ready to fulfill His loving-kindness in our lives, that He can’t even wait for us to tell Him our needs. So He jumps in and performs acts of mercy, grace and love toward us. That is just what David was saying in Psalm 21-“Lord, you pour out blessings and loving-kindness on me before I can even ask. And you offer more than I could even conceive of asking.”

The power that is-Christ: As Jesus spent His last hours with His disciples, He said to them, “Very truly I tell you, My Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”-John 16:23. Then He told them, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. “-John 16:24

And they’d heard Jesus declare to the multitudes: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”-John 14:12–14

Claim the power Jesus has made available to you. You simply ASK . . . . .

Our Lord is grieved by the ever-growing lack of faith in His promises……and by a people who claim less and less of the power that is in Christ.
Ask! Ask for wisdom, ask for guidance, ask. But it must be asked in faith, nothing doubting.

Never be intimidated: In Acts 16 Paul was grieved—meaning “disturbed, troubled.” He allowed it for many days, but the Spirit of God welled up in Paul, and he said to the demon power, “That’s it—that’s enough! In the name of Jesus, be gone!”-Acts 16:16–18.
When you take authority and command devils to flee, Satan will come at you with everything in his arsenal. Just after Paul had cast the demons out of the possessed girl in Acts 16:16–18, Satan started stirring things up. He enflamed the crowd against Paul and Silas—and suddenly they were in a terrible crisis!
The city magistrates had them whipped and cast into prison. The devil didn’t seem to know that the more you whip a servant of God who walks in the Spirit, the more praise you whip up from him! If you throw him in a crisis, tie him up with problems and troubles, he’ll sing, shout and worship!
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them”-Acts 16:25.
If we are to walk in the Spirit, then we must believe God for supernatural deliverance from every-bondage of Satan. It doesn’t matter if God has to create an earthquake to do it. That is exactly what He did for Paul:
“And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed”-v. 26.
Satan will try to bring upon you the most dreadful temptation or trial you have ever faced. He wants you to get bogged down in guilt, condemnation, self-examination. Dear friend, arise in the Spirit and get your eyes off your circumstances. Start praising, singing and trusting God—and He will take care of Your deliverance!

REMEMBER: God loves you in your testing times. God knows exactly what you’re going through. Let him complete His work of building into you utter dependence and trust in Him. You’ll come out with confidence—and godly compassion and strength to help others.

Praying “in the name of Jesus” is not a formula. The power is in believing that Jesus takes up our cause and brings it to the Father on His own merits. He is the Advocate—He is doing the asking for us. The power is in fully trusting that God never denies his own Son and we are the beneficiary of the Father’s utter faithfulness to His Son.

I urge you: Take hold of your trial by faith, and believe God has allowed it. Know that He’s using it to make you stronger…to make you a blessing to others…and to sanctify it all to His glory.

CONCUSION: Important aspects of believing God and walking with Him in faith.
1.God’s control of our lives.
2.We are rewarded with—a certain-“knowing”.
3.Protection from all our enemies. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper”-Isaiah 54:17.

PRAYER: Abba, Father, teach me to do Your will always. Let me come in complete obedience to You and say, “Here I am”. Keep me always faithful. This prayer, I make in Jesus name. Amen.