Today, I am reposting an article I posted on June 28 2021. I would love to receive your comments.

            There’s an interesting verse in Micah 4:9. It says the following: “Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken you like a woman in labor?” (Amplified Bible, italics mine). I’m sure if the Body of Christ was asked this question today, we would give the right answer. “Yes, there is a King among us, Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.” So why, then is the church not making more of an impact on the world?

           
​         Perhaps it’s because we’ve lacked a kingdom perspective.  In the Scriptures, Joseph, Daniel, and Esther, to name a few, were chosen, taken out and raised up to represent the Kingdom of God before the kingdoms of this world.
   
         As born-again believers, we too have been brought out, trained up and sent back with the good news and demonstration of God’s kingdom. “… you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light.” (1 Peter 2:9 The Voice). “The reason the Son of God was revealed was to undo and destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8 TPT). We as His church are to be the enforcers of the victory Jesus won over satan and his minions when He rose from the dead.

          “Jesus replied, “While you were ministering, I watched Satan topple until he fell suddenly from heaven like lightning to the ground.  Now you understand that I have imparted to you my authority to trample over his kingdom. You will trample upon every demon before you and overcome every power Satan possesses. Absolutely nothing will harm you as you walk in this authority.” (Luke 10:18-19).

​          “Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!” (Colossians 2:15 TPT). Sometimes I think we as Christians, myself included, act as if we’re satan’s prisoner rather than him being under our feet.

        “So don’t ever be afraid, dearest friends! Your loving Father joyously gives you his kingdom with all its promises!” (Luke 12:32 TPT). Another translation says that it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom (MEV).

            “Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakable kingdom we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights his heart…” (Hebrews 12:28 TPT). The kingdoms of the earth are extremely volatile. But the kingdom we belong to – the Kingdom of God, is unshakable. It is God’s desire to see His will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10).

​            “For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.” (Colossians 1:13 TLB). After reading over these verses, my heart is singing. As believers, we need to remember who we are in Jesus. We are not victims but victors. Let us rise up as citizens of God’s kingdom and do what He has appointed us to do.

            The Jews were exiled to Babylon in multiple waves. In 538 BC, the King of Persia, Cyrus the Great,  conquered Babylon and gave permission for the Jews to return to their homeland.

            The focus of the first return from exile was building Zerubbabel’s Temple. The second addressed spiritual reformation and relearning the laws of God. Under Nehemiah the Prophet in 444 BC, the third return concentrated on rebuilding the broken walls of Jerusalem.

            Like Jerusalem’s fallen walls, we as born-again believers can have fractured walls in our lives – walls relating to our health, finances, relationships, past mistakes. What can we learn from the Book of Nehemiah in dealing with the crumbled walls in our lives?

1. Nehemiah Prayed and Fasted

                When Nehemiah heard from his brother, who had just returned with others from a trip to Judah, that things were not going well for those who had returned there, and that the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and the gates set on fire, he wrote in Nehemiah 1:4 (NLT), “When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.”

            Nehemiah repented for his own sins and for the sins of the people. Before God restores us, He wants us to repent of any unconfessed sin. Joel 2:13-14 (NLT) says, “Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead. Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love...” If we truly repent, God has promised to forgive us (1 John 1:9).

    2. Nehemiah and the people gave themselves fully to the work of God
                To get the work done, the people gave time, money, resources, and energy. Men and women together put their lives on the line. Amazingly, in spite of enemies who didn't want to see the Jews succeed, they reconstructed the walls in just 52 days.

            As born-again believers, we must work together as a community in beseeching God to restore our fire and desire for Him. We need to support each other as we allow God to go behind the closed doors of our hearts and clean out the dirt and garbage.

   3. We need help from the good hand of God
            In Nehemiah 2, when Nehemiah asked the king for letters requesting safe travel to Jerusalem and timber for rebuilding the walls, it says, “and the king granted these requests because the gracious hand of God was on me” (Nehemiah 2:8 NLT).

​         When the enemies of the Jews scoffed at the rebuilding of the walls, Nehemiah answered them, “...The God of heaven will help us succeed” (Nehemiah 2:20 NLT). In everything, we must acknowledge the hand of God at work in our lives – changing us, purifying us, and making us into the image of His Son, Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV).

         The Apostle Paul wrote, “Today I am who I am because of God’s grace, and I have made sure that the grace He offered me has not been wasted...” (1 Corinthians 15:10 VOICE).

        “God is good to one and all; everything he does is soaked through with grace” (Psalm 145:9 MSG). God’s good hand is on each one of us. Will we cooperate with Him and allow Him to rebuild our broken walls and make us into the people He wants us to be? My prayer is that for His glory, we will.

         Do you get tired of the repetitiveness of everyday life? I know I do. I think that’s why we enjoy a vacation or a special holiday so much. It gets us out of our familiar routines and allows us to experience new things.
        
        The idea of new things made me think about people in the Bible God called out of their comfort zone and what the consequences would have been if they hadn’t accepted that call.
        
        Abraham is a perfect example. God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans - to leave his family, friends and everything he had ever known and go to a new place, somewhere he had never been before. “One day, the Eternal One called out to Abram...Abram, get up and go! Leave your country. Leave your relatives and your father’s home, and travel to the land I will show you. Don’t worry-I will guide you there” (Genesis 12:1 VOICE).

      Although Abram got waylaid in Haran, he did eventually make it to Canaan, the land of promise. He decided to trust God and the result was the nation of Israel and the lineage of Jesus.

      What would have happened if Abram (Abraham) didn’t go? God’s purposes will prevail and He would have chosen someone else. But Abraham would have missed out on all the blessings. “’I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you’” (Genesis 12:2-3 NLT). “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith” (Genesis 15:6 NLT).

       The disciples Peter, his brother Andrew, and brothers James and John are another illustration. They left everything familiar and their source of livelihood to follow Jesus. At the time they answered His call, they only knew they’d become fishers of men, as Jesus told them. They didn’t know that in the power of the Holy Spirit, they would turn the world upside down.

     The Apostle Paul is another case in point. Circumcised when eight days old, a citizen of Israel, member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee, one who obeyed the law without fault. He left everything he knew about how to be righteous in his own strength and accepted the call to be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). What a paradigm shift he underwent. But he had to be willing to let go of the old.

       If he had clung to his old ways, he would have missed seeing the salvation of Jews and Gentiles alike, as well as being used by God to pen at least thirteen letters in the New Testament.

       I would like to conclude with a prayer.

      “Father God, we ask you for strength and boldness when you call us to step out of the comfort of our everyday world. In our own strength, we are weak, so we ask for Your divine power to obey.
     
​      "Fill us to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit. Replace our fear with unwavering confidence in You and in Your promises. Give us the courage to follow You, our Shepherd, no matter the cost, trusting Your plans are for our good. In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen.”

 
            I recently read about a grandmother watering her freshly planted vegetable garden while her young granddaughter watered the flowers. Suddenly, her grandchild said to her, “Don’t water the weeds, Nana.”

            That got me thinking about weeds. Actually, I’ve been thinking about weeds quite a bit lately because my front lawn is full of crab grass and bit by bit, I’ve been pulling it out. Some of those roots go deep and I have to pull them out with two hands. It’s a lot of work.

            In my research, I learned the following about weeds.

1. A weed is a plant that grows unwantedly, and is very often prolific and persistent
2. Weeds compete with crop plants for space, nutrients, and light and can reduce the harvest by as much as 40 to 60 percent
3. Although weeds resemble plants, they do not bear fruit
4. Some weeds can be parasites, feeding either partially or totally, on plants
5. Weeds increase labour costs and interfere with agricultural operations

          In short, weeds are nasty things. The weeds in my lawn also got me thinking about the weeds
which can invade our lives, like selfishness, jealousy, lying, greed, envy, anger, and pride. In this blog post, there are three types of weeds I want to talk about in more depth.
  
        The first is the weed of spiritual laziness. Proverbs 24:30-31 NKJV says, “I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles, its stone wall was broken down.”

         One of Satan’s strategies is to make us lazy about reading the Word of God. He’ll put thoughts in our minds, like, “you read your Bible yesterday, you don’t need to read it today.” That type of thinking wouldn’t work with physical food – and it doesn’t work with our spiritual food either. We need a daily intake of God’s Word. Without it, we starve spiritually.

        Unbelief is another deadly weed. When the seed of the Word of God is sown into our hearts (see Luke 8), the weed of unbelief can grow up and render it null and void. “But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned” (Hebrews 6:8 BSB).

      The above verse shows the condition of the soil is important. Is it producing weeds or good fruit? What is the quality of the soil in our hearts? Are we keeping it moist with prayer and the washing of the water of the Word? “...For he (Jesus) died for us, sacrificing himself to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God” (Ephesians 5:25-25 TPT). Is our heart soil holy, pure, and cleansed, ready to receive the Word, or full of weeds ready to choke it out?

    The third weed I want to mention is fear and worry. This weed grows quickly and devours everything in its way. It must be dealt with as soon as it appears and yanked out by its roots. How do we eradicate it? With the words of our mouth. “Your words are so powerful, that they will kill or give life, and the talkative person will reap the consequences” (Proverbs 18:21 TPT).

     When the weeds of fear and worry raise their ugly heads, the solution is not to speak the problem, which will cause them to proliferate, but to speak the Word of God. If the fear is about finances, God has promised to supply all our need (Philippians 4:19), if it is about our health, He heals all our diseases (Psalm 103:3), and when it is about our children, He has promised that all our offspring will be taught of the Lord (Isaiah 54:13).

    Because weeds choke out the harvest, we must be diligent in rooting them out of our lives. If we want a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the weeds must be gone. 

     So, like the granddaughter told her grandmother, “don’t water the weeds.” Instead, treat them like the enemy they are, and get rid of them.

            Whether the controversial segment of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France was a mockery of Jesus, the Lord's Supper, and Christianity, or the depiction of a pagan celebration featuring Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine, and revelry, I think it provided insight into the current decadent state of western civilization.

            How should we, as Christians respond? My heart rejoiced when I saw believers in France filling the streets of Paris, not to perpetrate violence, but to sing praises to God. It brought to my mind the concept of “remnant” which we see in the Bible.

            The definition of remnant is what is left over from a larger portion or piece. It can be a portion of food, or material a garment is made from, or even a group of people. Although the world may see a remnant as a worthless scrap, God sees as valuable those He has set aside for holy purposes, people He calls a remnant.

            Isaiah 10 talks about a remnant. There, Isaiah writes about God’s judgment on the Assyrians. Isaiah 10:12 says, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.” Verses 17 and 18 go on to say, “The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briars...”

            Further on, Isaiah writes that Israel will turn back to God as a result of His display of strength against the Assyrians. “In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God” (Isaiah 10:20-21).

            Even though God doesn’t use the term to describe them, Noah and his family are an example of a remnant saved out of all those on the earth before the flood (Genesis 6). And when Elijah cried out to God that he was the only one left in Israel who had not bowed his knee to idols, God told him He had reserved a remnant of seven thousand “...whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18 NIV).

            Another remnant is the Church, the Body of Christ, those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus and love and serve Him wholeheartedly with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Jesus made it clear the remnant would be small when compared with the number of people on earth throughout history, when He said, “Heaven can be entered only through the narrow gate! The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes who choose its easy way. But the Gateway to Life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it” (Matthew 7:13-14 TLB).

            As previously stated, Isaiah writes in Isaiah 10:17 that God would destroy the King of Assyria for his pride and “the Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame...” I believe that in His Body today, Jesus wants to become a fire, a flame burning in each one of us, consecrated first of all to our Saviour, and then set ablaze to spread the Good News of the Gospel.
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            At Pentecost in Acts 2, the fire of the Holy Spirit rested on each of the believers, and they went out and changed the world. Today, let’s be like the men (and women) of Issachar “...who understood the temper of the times...” (1 Chronicles 12:32 TLB). As the world around us becomes increasingly dark, as Christ’s “called out ones”, His remnant, let’s shine ever brighter with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

            In the Bible, the Valley of Baca is mentioned only once, in Psalm 84. “What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings” (Psalm 84:5-6 NLT).

            In most translations, as in the NLT above, Baca is rendered as “weeping”.  The Hebrew word baca is related to bakah. Bakah means “to weep”. Baca refers to a type of weeping tree – a tree that drips with resin or gum-like tears, such as balsam, mulberry, or aspen trees. In 2 Samuel 5:23, in the ESV, bakaim is translated as “balsam trees”.

            Verse six of the Psalm says those on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem walk through the Valley of Weeping. They don’t make it a permanent place to dwell. It’s a place the people of God occasionally walk through. So when we’re in that valley, we’re not to lower our shield of faith and give up. No! We’re to shout that the Valley of Baca is not where we live. We’re headed to a better place. We’re just passing through.

            This is similar to what David wrote in Psalm 23. In verse four, he states, “Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me...” (TPT). David was going through. Not staying in.

           And David certainly knew about deep darkness. In Psalm 3:1-2 (TPT), he wrote, “Lord, I have so many enemies, so many who are against me. Listen to how they whisper their slander against me, saying: ‘Look! He’s hopeless! Even God can’t save him from this!’”

       Sometimes when we’re travelling through the Valley of Baca, we’ll run into naysayers who will speak unbelief and doubting to us. For certain, Satan will. He’ll whisper in our ear that God is not faithful. Our heavenly Father may have helped us in the past, but He won’t this time. The problem is too big. Like Satan did with the Israelites, he'll point out the giants and the walled cities and tell us we’re too puny.

         When that happens, we must not listen. We mustn’t talk the problem, but dwell on the covenant we have with God. That’s what David did. Verse 3 of Psalm 3 says, “But in the depths of my heart I truly know that you, YAHWEH, have become my Shield; You take me and surround me with yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head” (TPT).

      As you read through the Psalms, you’ll notice David often began in sorrow and ended in faith and praise. In verses 6 and 7 of Psalm 6, he wrote, “I’m tired of all this-so tired. My bed has been floating forty days and nights on the flood of my tears. My mattress is soaked, soggy with tears. The sockets of my eyes are black holes; nearly blind, I squint and grope” (MSG).

      Then it seems to dawn on him that speaking his misery is not helping him, for he says, “Get out of here, you Devil’s crew: at last God has heard my sobs. My requests have all been granted, my prayers are answered” (verses 8-9 MSG).

      Going back to Psalm 84, the Valley of Baca can be a place of blessing. “When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger...” (verses 6-7, NLT).

      Our God is the God of the valleys as well as the mountains. We must not make the mistake the Arameans made in 1 Kings 20, where they stated Israel’s God was “a god of the mountains and not...of the valleys” (verse 28). They attacked the Israelites on the plains near the city of Aphek. The Israelites were vastly outnumbered, but God gave His people a great victory, showing He is Lord, not only of the mountains, but also of the valleys.
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      So when we’re in the Valley of Baca, we must keep marching through. We’re not to stop and set up our tent in defeat. If we’ll continue to trust God and walk in faith, He WILL bring us out the other side to a place of refreshing springs and numberless blessings.

 
            Before I get into the meat of what I want to say, I would like to talk to you about The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, where my husband, Carey and I volunteered from October to December, 2019, as greeters, guides, and servers.

            The Garden Tomb, located on Conrad Schick Street in Jerusalem, contains an ancient tomb, considered by some to be the empty tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. An older tradition is that the death and resurrection of Jesus took place at a site known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located in the northwest quarter of the Old City. As no one knows for sure the correct site, there are pros and cons for each location, which is not my purpose to discuss in this blog.

            Adjacent to The Garden Tomb is a rocky knoll with a skull-like appearance, known as Skull Hill. Some Christian scholars in the mid-nineteenth century proposed that Skull Hill is Golgotha. The Garden Tomb is a non-denominational charitable trust based in the United Kingdom, known as The Garden Tomb (Jerusalem) Association. It is a member of the Evangelical Alliance of Israel and the World Evangelical Alliance.

            The Association does not claim the Garden Tomb is the authentic tomb of Jesus. Instead, it emphasizes the site acts as a place for contemplation on the death and resurrection of the Saviour. As a person who has lived at the site, I can tell you it is a beautiful place with colourful flowers, olive trees, and the singing of birds.

            More importantly, however, than whether The Garden Tomb is the correct site of Jesus’ death and resurrection, is what Jesus accomplished when He rose from the dead. Romans 1:4 (ESV) says that Jesus Christ...”was declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead...” The resurrection is God’s clear signal that Jesus is His Son.

            Peter, at Pentecost, stated that “God raised [Jesus] from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24). Death lost its grip on Jesus! And death lost its grip on those of us who accept Him as our Saviour.  “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NIV).

            The resurrection of Jesus means His sacrificial death on the cross was sufficient, and our sins can be forgiven. 1 Corinthians 15:17 says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins”. But as we saw above in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.

            As believers, we have been buried and raised with Jesus. “But God still loved us with such great love. He is so rich in compassion and mercy. Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace! He raised us up with Christ the exalted One, and we ascended with him into the glorious perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, for we are now co-seated as one with Christ!” (Ephesians 2:4-6 TPT).

            Did you catch that? When Christ rose from the dead, we, as born-again believers, ascended with Him into the perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, co-seated as one with Christ. You can’t get any better than that!
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            When things improve in Israel, I am slated to return to The Garden Tomb as a volunteer. I can’t wait. And whether it is the correct site of the death and resurrection of Jesus doesn’t matter. For while I am there, I will constantly be reminded of all Jesus accomplished for us when He rose from the dead.

           We all have ideas about what love is. Oxford Languages describes love as “an intense feeling of deep affection”. Your Dictionary defines it as “a strong feeling of affection and concern toward another person, as that arising from kinship or close friendship”.

            The Greeks had up to eight different words for love, such as: Storge: affection; Philia or Phileo: friendship;  Eros: sexual, erotic; Agape: unconditional, divine, selfless; Ludus: flirtatious, playful, casual, uncommitted; Pragma: committed, long-standing; Philautia: self-love; Mania: obsessive, possessive, addictive, dependent.

            The Bible describes love the following way: “Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 MSG).

            In our lives here on earth, as we interact with our family members and those around us, we can come to believe that love is conditional and has to be earned. Through what we’ve experienced in the past, we may accept as true that no one will ever love us unless we are perfect, that in the end, love will always walk away, and God will only love us if we do such-and-such.

            But God’s love for us is a commitment, an unbreakable covenant – undeserved, unconditional, and unceasing. His Word says that “...while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display – the Anointed One died for us” (Romans 5:8 VOICE). “Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, (God) united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace!” (Ephesians 2:5 TPT).

            God’s love can’t be earned because we already have it. And it can’t be lost because we don’t deserve it in the first place. And how much does God love us? Let the following words from the Apostle Paul sink deep into your spirit. “So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love...his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens...There is no power above us or beneath us- no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!” (Romans 8:38-39 TPT).

            Why do we struggle to accept God’s agape, unconditional, divine, selfless love? Probably because we live in a broken world that accepts conditional, inconsistent love as normal. Long-term marriage commitments are becoming fewer and farther between, and divorce is the norm. Parents give up on their children, and children abandon their parents.

            1 John 4:16 says we can trust in the love God has for us because God IS love. God doesn’t have love. He is love. John 1:1 (AMPC) says, “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.” Jesus is God incarnate. He is love incarnate. We can trust the love He has for us.

            When we first learn to float, we have two options – to struggle and have difficulty believing that the buoyancy of the water will hold us up, or to lie back and trust Archimedes’ principle – the physical law of buoyancy.
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          Jesus said, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love...” (John 15:9 MSG). God wants us to believe the love He has for us, to lie back, and rest in the loving arms of His Son, Jesus. His love will NEVER let us go.

 
            Today, more than ever, we are surrounded with voices. Our friends, family, the news, social media, and advertisements are constantly speaking to us. I recently read that we hear approximately 30,000 words each day and between 4,000 and 10,000 commercials in a twenty-four hour period. That’s a lot of voices.

            At the command of His voice, God created the universe. “The unfathomable cosmos came into being at the word of the Eternal’s imagination, a solitary voice in endless darkness. The breath of His mouth whispered the sea of stars into existence” (Psalm 33:6, VOICE). “God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared” (Genesis 1:3, MSG).

            The words voices speak contain messages. The verses above show God created the universe with words. He communicated the Gospel through His Son, Jesus, the Word. He spoke humanity into being, made in His image. Like God, we are able to communicate through our voices – to influence what is created.  “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]” (Proverbs 18:21 AMPC). Our words and the words of others carry weight and influence.

            With words, we can build up or tear down. We can speak hope or proclaim fear. We can give thanks or complain.

            In addition to voices on the outside, there are voices on the inside. They can be voices of hope, encouragement, and love, or they can be voices of fear, shame, and guilt. The question is, what voices are we listening to – the ones which tear down or the ones which build up? Which voices will we accept and believe and which ones will we reject?

            In simplest terms, the words of the voices we hear speak either fear (from our enemy, Satan) or faith (from our heavenly Father, God).

            The words that come from Satan are full of lies and murder (John 8:44), accusation (Zechariah 3:1-2), lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and deceit (Genesis 3:1).

            But the voice of God through His Word tells us that as believers in Jesus, He is for us, and not against us (Romans 8:31), He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), He has poured His glorious grace upon us (Ephesians 1:6), He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), He will give us His wisdom when we ask for it in faith (James 1:5), He has poured out His Holy Spirit upon us (Titus 3:6), given us His peace at all times and in every situation (2 Thessalonians 3:36), welled forth His love within our hearts (Romans 5:5), and shown us His special favour (1 Corinthians 15:10).

            Jesus said in John 10:27-28 (VOICE), “My sheep respond as they hear My voice; I know them intimately, and they follow Me. I give them a life that is unceasing, and death will not have the last word...” The voice of Jesus leads us to Heaven and life eternal.

        We first meet Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, in Acts 4, when he sold property he owned and gave all the money from the sale to the church. Joseph was a natural encourager. How do I know that? Because the apostles called Joseph Barnabas, which means “Son of Encouragement”.
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       It was Barnabas who vouched for the reality and faith of the newly converted Saul/Paul, when the Christians in Jerusalem were afraid of him. When news of the burgeoning church in Syrian Antioch reached Jerusalem, Barnabas was sent to encourage the believers to remain true to the Lord. Later, Barnabas went and found Paul in Tarsus and brought him to Antioch, where the two of them ministered to the church there “...and taught great numbers of people” (Acts 11:26 NIV).

            Everyone needs to be encouraged. Hebrews tells us, “Encourage each other every day – for as long as we can still say “today” – so none of you let the deceitfulness of sin harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:13 VOICE). If we don’t encourage each other, sin’s deceitfulness will make us discouraged. “So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind...” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 MSG).

            And what about Titus? How was he an encourager? In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “For even when we arrived in Macedonia we had a wretched time with trouble all around us – wrangling outside and anxiety within” (2 Corinthians 7:5 Phillips). Paul had battles on the outside, which struck fear on the inside. What encouraged Paul? It was the arrival of Titus. “But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus” (2 Corinthians 7:6 NLT).

        The Bible doesn’t say that Titus spoke with perfect words or delivered a divine message. What did he do? He showed up. He made himself available to God and was obedient in telling Paul about the longing and concern of the Corinthians for him. Although it wasn’t exciting or spectacular, it was exactly what Paul needed. Sometimes, to be an encourager, all it takes is to show up.

         And if there’s no one to encourage us, what should we do? We should do what David did – encourage ourselves in the Lord.

       In 1 Samuel 30, the Amalekites raided and burned Ziklag, David’s home base. They carried off all the women and children. When David and his men returned to Ziklag and found  what had happened, his men talked of stoning him. “David was in serious trouble: the people were talking about stoning him to death, because all the people were in such deep grief...But David strengthened himself in Adonai his God” (1 Samuel 30:6 CJB).

       When there’s no one around to encourage us, we can draw on the strength of the Holy Spirit inside us, the Word of God, and prayer, to give us the courage we need to go on and keep our eyes fixed on the good plans God has for us.

        So as God’s children, dearly loved, let’s build ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 20), step up, show up, and find someone to encourage today.
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Adapted from Dennis Burke’s article, “The Power of Encouragement” in Believer’s Voice of Victory, May 2024.
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