The Word This Week – YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD – Malaysia’s Christian News Website

28 April 2014 by Rev Dr Jai Kumar –

“COME, FOLLOW ME. . . AND I WILL MAKE YOU FISHES OF MEN”

(Mt 4:19 par. Mk 1:17)

THE RESURRECTED POWER LIVES IN YOU

Rom. 8:11

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

The question is, what are we doing with this power that is available to us? God does not give you any gift to be kept lying ideal in you. God is a God of purpose and plan.

The light is never meant to light itself. The light is meant to light the darkness! The salt is never meant to salt itself. The salt is meant to salt the food!

THE COMMAND IS TO GO

Matthew 28:18-20 –

But Jesus (after he met the eleven in Galilee) came and spoke these words to them, “All power in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. You, then, are to go and make disciples of all the nations and baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you and, remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

IT’S ABSOLUTELY GOD’S WILL & COMMAND FOR EVERYONE

You know what? I get tired of people asking me if it’s Gods will for them to go for missions? Please understand, it’s not only God’s will! It’s God’s command to go and make disciples! God has promised us that He will always be with us until the end. Besides, He has given us the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to take residence in us and be our helper. There is no excuse or compromise in this area. It’s very clear and very plain for us to go and not for us to stay! Mission is touching the heartbeat of the Father! It is impossible to use the pulpit alone to reach out to the world.

HIS PROMISE TO GIVE US THE HELPER

Luke 24:49

“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”

It was the Holy Spirit who gave Jesus the power to preach the truth, feed the multitudes, walk on water, and raise the dead, heal the sick and the lame. Demonstrating that He was indeed the Son of God.

Before His ascension, Jesus made an extraordinary promise to His disciples, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endured with power from on high,” He told them.

In other words, you cannot be an effective witness for Christ without the Holy Spirit in you.

YOU CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

Before Pentecost Jesus told His disciples, Do not go out and preach yet. Do not try to win souls yet. You need a special qualification to carry my mandate. So you tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high!’ Because it’s not flesh and blood you are challenging. You have to fight a war with principalities and powers in high places. Therefore you need the supernatural power to enable you to fight this war.

In Acts, chapter 2, again it says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.. “And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and sat upon each of them.” “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Now the above Scripture is all the more remarkable when you consider that Jesus had taught these men for three and a half years. Yet He is saying to them you need something more than these visible earthly powers.

WE ARE USHERED INTO A PROPHETIC TIME-FRAME

I hope you realise that we are living in a prophetic time frame. You and I are living at the closing of the ages. In fact we are living at the most important time in human history in view of what we are seeing around us.

You know what? We are living in a time where power is shifting and shaking! Something big and phenomenal is ready to be born prophetically in the spiritual, which will manifest in the physical world soon.

But sadly, we get so used to be living in a world that is demonically influenced and we have been mesmerized and hijacked into thinking, that it’s a norm to live like this. We need to wake up and tune ourselves to the signals that are coming from God.

However, we cannot predict the precise timing when Jesus will return. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

We know the seasons though. And the great sign for us prophetically is what is happening on “God’s time clock” concerning Israel. The awesome restoration of Israel in 1948 after nearly 2000 years. Again in 1967 when Jerusalem was restored as the capital of Israel once again.

Acts2:19

I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, ….,,,,…….

God is saying that even nature will react and respond to what He is going to bring about.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Joel states, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.” (Joel 2:31)

and in the Ñ.T Peter is quoting the same message in (Acts 2:20) .The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord..

The celestial blood moon pattern seems to be having a significant event for Israel. In the past every occurrence of the blood moon has been accompanied by a dramatic big event in the history of the world concerning Israel. In 1949 a blood moon appeared immediately after Israel was born once again into a nation. It also appeared again in 1967 after the 6 day war when the Jews regained Jerusalem to become the capital of Israel.

The next appearance is expected in the years 2014 and 2015 on Jewish holy days i.e Passover and Sukkot. What could be expected between this “two years?” We don’t know for sure but one thing we know for certain God is going to shake the world with some big and significant event to change the history of the world.

Jesus said when you start seeing these things you bet, God is going to do awesome things in this world. In other words He is saying now is the time of the end. I believe God is sending His signals from heaven and we are unfortunately tuned to the wrong channel.

NOT THE GOSPEL OF MAN

Matt.24:14

And THIS GOSPEL of the Kingdom will be proclaimed as a testimony to all the nations of the world then the end will come.

It’s not the gospel that we choose to preach. But it is THIS GOSPEL! The Gospel Jesus proclaimed! The Gospel Paul preached! The Gospel Peter preached! It is the triumphant and awesome Gospel of the Kingdom!

Therefore the mission of any Church is to uphold the integrity and authority of God & His Kingdom upon this earth. So the Church has a great responsibility here on earth to preach an uncompromising Gospel.

Secondly, the Church has a great responsibility to train and groom the people God has entrusted in our hands to carry the Gospel into the world. We are supposed to train them to be effective agents for God! And how to carry kingdom principles and release these principles into this earth to change the ethics and culture of this perishing world.

However, I am afraid,” this Gospel” is not preached in many churches today unfortunately. We are hearing a different gospel that has been compromised and diluted, twisted and bent -a seeker friendly gospel so to speak to make people comfortable.

Apparently the Bible clearly and seriously addresses this issue. Jesus said in (Matt.7:21-23) “Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”

And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

I believe a great number of people will be very disappointed at the end. They would find themselves disqualified to enter eternity at the end of the day.

THIS GOSPEL IS THE CURE TO EVERY HUMAN NEED

The Gospel is the ultimate answer! It is the ultimate solution to man’s ultimate need! It is the very cure for all human problems in this earth.

Jesus knew that the earth itself can only function right as we successfully penetrate and infiltrate the whole earth with the standards and ethics, rules and morals of this Gospel. Therefore He is looking out for you and me to carry out His mandate.

The Bible teaches that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Ezekiel 33:11,

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel.”

If we are to be Christlike, then we must not rejoice in the death of the unsaved. It is a sad thing when someone dies and goes into Hell.

No Christian who has God’s love in their heart should be glad to see anyone go to Hell. Many people rejoice that sinners are burning in Hell, but God is not pleased about it. God does NOT want any soul to perish into Hell.

2nd Peter 3:9,

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

GOD IS LOOKING FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON TO BE USED AT THIS CRUCIAL MOMENT

In this prophetic timeframe God will raise up an end-time army that will be able to contain His glory. God wants to commission every believer in Christ to carry His anointing and be instruments of the Gospel. No matter who you are, it doesn’t matter. God is placing a call and destiny upon each one of us, be it where and what capacity of the kingdom you are involved in.

Now, you got to be alert at this time not to allow the enemy to discourage you with his deceiving voice to demoralise you and get you thinking negatively. The devil is a liar! He is a thief! He comes to steal and kill and destroy! Don’t look at yourself and focus on your weaknesses. If you look at yourself you will feel inadequate. The devil will ride on your weaknesses. Whatever little you have God will want to use you if you are available for Him.

You see it’s through this poor group of fishermen that most of the world would have despised, ignored or laughed at that the Lord used to change the history of the world and carried the gospel from nation to nation. None of them had a university or theological degree.

God can use anybody. The more inadequate you feel the more God can use you. God will empower you to carry His anointing to do great exploits for Him believe me!

1 Cor.1:27

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

YOU HAVE TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT

Zechariah.4:6

Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

If you want to sustain and increase in the anointing of God you have to be led by the Spirit of God. You cannot function and be effective in carrying the Gospel to nations without this power. Your academic and theological degrees may be only helpful to a certain level in your ministry.

But if you are looking forward to an exciting ministry. If you are intending to move in signs and wonders healing and miracles and prophetic insights you need to be endued with the baptism of the Holy Spirit power. We need this resurrected power that raised Jesus from the dead to take residence and indwell in us as our helper. Otherwise we will become outdated and browned out and look elsewhere to sustain ourselves.

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Note: Rev Dr Jai Kumar is an ordained & licensed minister of Covenant Ministries International N.J. USA. He is also the representative of Faith International Bible School for Malaysia & Singapore. He is the founder and senior pastor of Full Gospel Outreach Ministry KL, a member of ECCM, Spiritual Adviser & overseer of Full Gospel Christian Church KL. Co-founder and adviser of Kingdom Christian Fellowship, Subang Jaya, he is also the author of a book entitled, ‘God’s Time Clock.’