“Yes, the Lord will give what is good...”

                                                                                                                                                                   (Psalm 85:12)

Dearly beloved in Christ,

New Year Greetings to you in the sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The grace of the Lord has enabled us to enter this New Year. Let us thank Him. From the beginning of the year till the end, may the Lord grant us all that is good, beneficial, blessed and joyful! The Lord wipes away our tears and consoles and comforts us through His word on a daily basis. Let the Lord grant us the grace to be relieved of all worries, to be wiped of tears and to be comforted and healed through His promises daily. The Word of God gives real joy, peace and comfort to those who meditate on it daily and also warns those who go astray from the set path and restores them. The Lord God guides us wonderfully to walk overcoming all diseases, evil forces that cripple life and destroy us. He is alive today. All the good things that He does in our lives promotes joy and peace in our lives on a daily basis. He encourages those who are depressed and girds them with His strength.

Dear child of God, are you disturbed that you have undergone sufferings and tribulations all through the last year? This year He would bestow on you fullness of life and joy, and heal and strengthen and bless you. His promise is one of blessings. Are you dismayed by obstacles in your way of getting employed or going abroad? Dear child of God, first place the Lord Jesus Christ before you. When you so place Him before you, He will remove all the barriers on your way. “The one who breaks open will come up before them; They will break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it; Their king will pass before them, with the Lord at their head” (Micah 2:13). Whatever may be the obstacle, He will do away with it. “I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron” (Isaiah 45:2). David says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8). You will not be assailed. He will stand with you. You will be established. You may not have had permanent employment. You might have to switch jobs or places. Are you upset with the way you live? Dear child of God, do not be dismayed. The Lord is good to give you good things. He is omnipotent. Let us make ourselves worthy to receive good things from Him and be blessed.

 

1. Protection from Witchcraft

“Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; you shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” (Psalm 31:19,20).

Today people resort to evil practices like witchcraft out of jealousy or competition and indulge in all sorts of wicked things. They are driven by selfishness and hatred. They do things harming others through evil spirits. Before I accepted Jesus Christ in my life, I thought all acts of witchcraft are just humbug. I did not believe in them. But after my salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lord bestowed on me the gifts of the Spirit. I could then understand the practice of witchcraft done on individuals, on business houses, families, and other establishments. The very day I was anointed, a neighbour came to meet me. His sister who was quite hale and healthy became sick and died. Then it was revealed to me of something written upside down kept in a tin box at a particular place in his house and that it was witchcraft. The man went to his house and found it there. It was a wonder to me as well.

I was ministering in abroad once. Then I met one man. He was highly qualified and was seeking a job in the US. When he was jobless, he came to me for prayer at the house where I stayed. Then it was revealed that he could not get proper employment because of the witchcraft done against him. I asked him whether any old man gave him a five-rupee note to him and asked him to keep it in his purse, when he had come to India. It was a shock to him. His neighbour had given it to him saying that if he kept it in his purse, it would ever be filled with money. After he kept it in his purse, he began to suffer financially. I asked him to take it out and to tear it and throw it away. After a few days he got a good permanent job. He shared his testimony happily. ‘The strife of the tongue’ is nothing other than witchcraft. The Bible says. “Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words. That they may shoot in secret at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. They encourage themselves in an evil matter; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “Who will see them?” (Psalm 64:3). They use certain cursed words to do harm to others sending certain evil spirits. David says, “For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, Which they have dug without cause for my life” (Psalm 35:7).

Once I was praying for people who came forward for individual prayer at the end of a gospel meeting. At that time a sister belonging to some other religion brought her daughter for prayer. She was dumb and was oscillating like a Tanjavur doll. I asked the mother what had happened. She narrated how a drunkard employed as a conductor of a bus asked to marry her. But she denied the proposal. After that she married her daughter to another man. Soon after the wedding she began to behave in a strange manner. The bridegroom sent her back home in a few hours to get healed and then come back to him. I asked her whether she believed that the Lord Jesus Christ had the power to heal her. Then she told me that she brought her only because she believed so. When I prayed for her, an Alsatian dog appeared before me in a vision. I rebuked the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. The appearance of the dog began to reduce in size a little by little and then disappeared. When it thus disappeared, she became all right and began to speak. I was filled with joy. I then came home.

I began to sleep at home. All of a sudden, that figure of a dog appeared against me. I woke up my wife and we began to pray together. As we prayed, that figure disappeared. That night I began to search the Scriptures what dogs denoted in the Bible. Dogs cannot go to the heaven. “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie” (Rev. 22:15). Again the Bible cautions us: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” (Phil. 3:2). David writes in Psalm 22:16, “For dogs have surrounded me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.” Not only that, he prays, “Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.” Dogs are used in sorcery for a wicked purpose. In visions and dreams the Lord discloses the work of witchcraft through the figure of dogs so that we might overcome it through prayer.

2. Spiritual and Earthly Blessings

“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the Lord— For wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd ...” (Jeremiah 31:12)

One of the good things that the Lord supplies is meeting all our needs. He is mindful of us. Whenever we go before Him in prayer, He supplies our worldly needs of wealth as well as our spiritual needs. Wheat denotes the Word of God. Oil denotes anointing. Wine refers to the gifts of the Spirit. Flocks and herds point to worldly riches. The goodness of the Lord makes us worthy to receive all that we need for a good life. All these good things flow from the Father in heaven. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Such blessings make our soul prosper like that of a well-watered garden. Then there will be no sorrows (Jer. 31:12). This will transform our lives, discarding all worries and mourning. This will fill us with wisdom. When someone argues with us, we would reply them with the God-given wisdom in the right manner.

Once the Lord enabled me to give a message among the ministers. At the end a man from America asked me who helped me meet my expenses to make these journeys. I told him in a funny way that I had an account in heaven from where I withdrew the money I needed. Immediately he also recounted that they also received money in a similar fashion. American United Methodist Church acted as an agent to get the money. The Spirit of the Lord showed me a fountain and induced me to ask the question how water springs up in a spring. He said that he didn’t know. I told him that I took out of the spring the amount I needed. Thus the Lord gives us the wisdom of the Spirit enabling us to reply aptly. God who does everything in its time would fulfil our needs in an astonishing way and lead us perfectly.

3. Healing

“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38).

Healing has to be effected in the spirit, the soul and the body. When a man is healed, he can feel the healing in the body. When healing takes place at the spirit, all traces of worries and sinful nature disappears and there is a transformation with traits of Christ taking over. For diseases of the body, we seek the help of physicians and get their counselling. The diseases of the soul multiply the sorrows of the heart. They affect and harm the people around with words of hatred and insult leading to wrong decisions.

Dearly beloved in Christ, as many of us do not get healed in the spirit, no fruit of the Spirit is found in them resulting in troublesome situations. Harmful rebuttals and wounding words abound in them. They hurt the feelings of others. In churches and congregations, such traits lead to conflicts, divisions, scoffing, insults, and cases in courts of law. When Christ heals a person, it is a total transformation of a person’s being, which makes them accept any situation with complacency. Such people exhibit the love of Christ in their relationship with others in the place of work, in the family and in the church. We would not berate others, but would avoid unnecessary arguments. There would be love and humility in the place of jealousy, boastfulness and greediness.

David killed Goliath and thereby brought a great victory for the people of Israel. He came joyfully celebrating victory by singing and dancing accompanied by musical instruments. The women answered one another and sang, “Saul has slain his thousand, and David his ten thousand.” This provoked Saul in anger as David was exalted above him. He was left with his kingdom alone. He eyed him with envy. The next day an evil spirit let by the Lord came upon him and disturbed him. He wanted to kill David with the javelin he had as he was playing on his stringed instrument. He escaped twice. As Saul was not able to bear David being exalted above him, an evil spirit entered him. Throughout his life he hated David and took efforts to kill him. He wanted to take revenge on him.

Beloved in Christ, the Lord wants to heal and bless those like Saul living in sin. When they plead to the Lord in prayer to heal them, the prayer answering God heals. David testifies: “O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me” (Psalm 30:2).

 

1. Repent

“And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today.  The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers.” (Dueteronomy 30:8,9).

Today we live with the sin of Adam, the sin of disobedience. We have gone astray from the set path of righteousness. We do sin without knowing what sin constitutes. We give ourselves to the lusts of the eye and of the flesh and live in haughtiness. There are such people who wallow in the pleasures of this world and in sin and feel comfortable in them. They have no sense as to what is right or wrong, and earn money and buy wealth. They think that it is the purpose of life. In one of my ministries abroad, I spoke on “remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions” (Psalm 25:7). At the end of the meeting, a lady who came in a luxury vehicle met me for prayer. As she was convicted in her soul of the life she lived selling her body, she was tormented in her soul. She confessed her sins and was concerned about the life of her own daughter who also gave herself to that sort of life. She realized her sins and repented and committed to live a new life in the Lord.

Dear Brother/ Sister, sins and transgression stand in the way between God and man. When you truly repent and confess them and give them up, the Lord has mercy on you. Then He blesses all that your hands do.

2. Seek the Lord

“The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” (Psalm 34:10).

The Lord has concern for the lion’s cubs and that is the way He has created them. Even before the lioness gives birth to young ones, the lion would hunt and fill its cave with food they need. They have enough food for the lioness and the cubs. Before they finish the food kept in reserve, they would gain strength to move out. So these cubs are never in want of food. Even they may face scarcity, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack anything. But they should seek the Lord whole-heartedly, with heart and soul in it and with all their might. Then they would have good things in plenty blessed by the Lord.

3. Praise and Thank the Lord

“Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5).

Whoever offers praise to God glorifies Him. When we are filled with the sacrifices of the lips, all the good promises of the Lord are fulfilled in our lives. Our trespasses will be forgiven and we are healed of our diseases. We will be crowned with His grace and mercy and our mouth will be filled with His goodness. As we praise and thank Him for all that He has done in our lives, of which we are unworthy, we pave the way for Him to bless us.

4. Accept the Lord as Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...” (Psalm 23:1,6)

As we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Shepherd, we have His protection and provisions. He takes us along green pastures and beside still waters. In all situations, He does away with fear and comforts our soul and strengthens us with His living word of staff and rod. He will exalt us in the midst of our enemies and anoint our head. Moreover, in our life goodness and mercy will follow all the days of our lives.

May the Lord bless us so!

In the service of Christ Jesus,

Bro. C. Ebenezer Paul.