WHEN GOD SPEAKS……..

Pr. Geoffrey Kibombo

If God renews his mercy every morning, He can as well renew it every year. That is why the problems of the past don't concern us today. God is going to give us grace to overcome challenges of the New Year. When God speaks a word, he sends it with creating power to bring it to pass. We therefore thank God that we are going to harvest and he is going to create a new world for us this year.

Psalm 65:11 (NLT) – “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”  Harvesting refers to the various things we are going to get and levels we shall descend to this year according to the word of God. All we have to do now is to prepare ourselves. 

Isaiah 38:1 (ESV) – “In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order ………………” When God sends a word that He is going to do something, He also calls on His people to prepare themselves for what he is going to do.

In 2 Chronicles 20:15-17, the prophet of God went to King Jehoshaphat and said;

“Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel.  17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

God uses his appointed servants – Pastors. He speaks through them and His hand is upon them. If you want to see the hand of God, believe his servants, humble yourself and God will exalt you in due time. Jesus said in John 13:20 (NIV); “Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

The hand or arm of God are the signs, wonders and miracles performed in our midst. It's that healing, job, marriage, peace or anything you acquired miraculously. (Psalms 44)

You will not see his hand until you believe the ones he has sent. Matthew 23:39 “For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

GOD HAS AN ANSWER FOR EVERY QUESTION

Pr. Geoffrey Kibombo

Salvation is a journey. In our walk with Christ as wait patiently for his salvation, we meet a lot of obstacles and challenges along the way which form a basis for the various questions we get in our lives, and it seems as though God doesn't hear us or he intentionally delays to answer.

However, God knows our every concern and has a response to every question. He is always present at every conversation and listens carefully to the unexpressed questions. At the right time he will answer us, for he knows them. He has not forgotten, nor does he not hear, but he comes when the time is right for the glory of his name.

Malachi 3:13-18 (NLT)

 13 “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord. “But you say, What do you mean? What have we said against you?” 14 “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? 15 From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’ 16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name. 17 “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child.  18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

OUR POSITION 

Pr. Geoffrey Kibombo

Romans 8:19 (NKJV) - ”For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

Most Christians have not discovered who they are in God according to the word of God, they do not realise who they are in Christ. Our ignorance of not knowing who we are in Christ blinds the ability to stand in our rightful places. Failure to realise what we are in Christ causes a lot of damage to the people around us and those who look up to us. Many people may not have suffered the corruption, evil practices and all kinds of wickedness if Christians were to take up their rightful places or acquired the rightful qualifications to take up places of authority.

We need to discover who we are in Christ and take actions to become what the bible speaks of us. Jesus was able to discover what was written about him in the scriptures. Luke 4:17-18 says; “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised"

In 2 Chronicles 20:17, Josephat received these instructions. "You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you…………....” In a dire situation or during tough times God may instruct you to pray and stand still or praise depending on His will. For you to see God, you have to stand in the rightful place.

The bible says that upon this rock - Revelation, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We need to seek for the revelation in the word of God and take up all the promises that were written about us.

Exodus 23:29-30 - “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land”. Until Christians attain the necessary qualifications and skills, they won’t take up influential-responsible positions. We are meant to work in places where there is bribery, corruption, segregation bad treatment and all sort of bad practices so that we bring fundamental change and ensure availability of genuine services to the masses.

Creatures around us suffer because we haven’t realized the revelation and are ignorant of our positions. We are a source of dependence to other people. The well-being of one born-again Christian benefits a lot of people around him. We are that mustard seed that after God has elevated and blessed you, you benefit and impact a lot of people. Mathew 13:31 (NKJV) – “…………The Kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: 32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

Our children will continue to suffer until we realize what the scriptures says about them (Isaiah 54:13 (NIV) – “All your children will be taught of the lord and great will be their peace.”) and know that God is in control of their destiny.

The creatures groan with us to receive a revelation of our blessing so that they can inherit their promises. After receiving the revelation the creatures around us will stop groaning.

LOVE - GREATEST GIFT and COMMANDMENT

Pr. James Victor Lubwama

Mathew 5:43-48 (NKJV)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Without love you can achieve nothing and can do nothing. Love conquers all. Love your enemies, for if you love those who love you, what difference would you have made? Everything that God says about Him, humanity and His laws all rely on love - Christian faith and belief are held by love. Loving one another is so vital that it fulfills all God's laws as Paul says in Romans 13:8-10 (ESV):

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”.

When you love people, you remain in God because God is love. Whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). When you love not, you go out of fellowship and God's will. The bible further teaches in 1 John 4:8 (NLT) that; "Anyone who does not love, does not know God, for God is love". 
Look out for the positive attributes in people, ignore the negatives and that's how you will be able to have long lasting relationships. 1 Corinthians 13:3-8 (NKJV) says;
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.” 

When you realize how much God loves you; with extravagant and unconditional love, then His extraordinary love will change your entire focus on life. If we don’t receive God’s love, we will have a hard time loving other people, especially people who are unlovely and difficult. You can’t love well until you have God’s love flowing through you, and once it flows through you, then you can ably and unconditionally love others without struggle or bias. 
Love is the way faith expresses itself and where love is felt, it gives rise to hope (1 Cor 13:13). 
Where love is absent faith is dead and we are dead too. The bible says in 1 John 3:14 (NIV);
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” 
The works of love are the evidence of living faith. Galatians 5:6 (NLT) says; 
“For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.”

If you really love someone, then you show it by how you act towards that person. Love is more than attraction. It’s also more than sentimentality, like so many of today’s songs suggest. If love were just an emotion, then God couldn’t command it. But love is something you do. It can produce emotion - love is an action.  
The Bible says in 1 John 3:18 (NLT); 
“Dear Children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions”

In order to love others and to become great people lovers, we first need to understand and feel how much God loves us. We don’t want to just talk about love, read about love, or discuss love; we need to experience the love of God. 1 John 4:19 (NIV) reminds us that;  “We love because he first loved us.”

We were created in God’s image to do two things on earth: Learn to love God and other people - our neighbours.  Jesus teaches on the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV);
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Life is all about love!!

IT’S THE ANOINTING THAT BREAKS THE YOKE

By Pr. J.V. Lubwama

Isaiah 10:27

“It shall come to pass in that day, that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.”

We are burdened by different things in life like; sickness, poverty, debts and barrenness that hold us back in our day to day operation thus hindering progress in our lives. The yokes are the things that hold us in one place and don’t allow us to advance in life or change position or progress. However, a day comes and the time is now when the yoke will be broken from our necks. A burden can be taken away but if someone is still under a yoke, burdens keep being attracted to the person and they progress from one problem to another.

If you want to move freely from one level to another, country to country, position to position, and burdens be removed, you need to be freed of the yoke. After the yoke is broken then all becomes well with you. It's the anointing that breaks the yoke. Seek the one who has the anointing - Christ Jesus. 

How do I break free from the yoke?

1. Accept Jesus Christ and get anointed by accepting Salvation. Israel had failed to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ 

2. Connect to and be filled by the Holy Spirit

3. Tap and plug into the anointing upon the men of God. When an anointed person comes into your life, it changes. 

An anointed man of God has power upon his life to speak and transform lives and situations and, when you draw closer to him, the anointing flows and breaks your yoke. The anointing can be transmitted through association with the anointed men of God. When you plug into the anointing, your life doesn't remain the same.

 You can connect to the anointing by:

- Supporting anointed men of God and the vision upon them

- Giving an anointed person a glass of water. You will never lack your reward. 

- Loving the man of God (Pastor) and establishing a personal relationship with him; 

- Sitting and submitting under the anointing. Follow instructions, accept to be led and guided by the man of God.

- Building the house of God where people have encountered Jesus and been delivered.

- Pouring your expensive oil at the feet of Jesus.

It is the anointing that will enable you to glide through your life challenges. The anointing can differ depending on a place because of the covenant and the calling upon the servant of God.

Seek the anointing!!!