Preparing to Fast (Part V – Word of God cont’d)

By Odon Bulamba

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Those who want to live according to God’s will they will receive abundance. Many Christians want to live a good Christian life. Everywhere people want to live a good Christian life, they want to be powerful in prayer, heal the sick and cast out demons, read the Bible and evangelise.

God says, “Blessed are those who have this desire, for they will get it”. Many people want a perfect Christian life but nobody helps them. In a few churches you’ll see that people are thirsty for the Word but can’t find it. They need someone who can explain it in depth to them. Many Christians are disappointed with their Pastor’s or Preacher because they don’t pray with them.

Maybe their Pastor doesn’t have the time to read his Bible in depth and because of this it makes his flock sick. Christians don’t know where to go to be healed. These people need the Word. Jesus says that, “people will look for the Word but will not find it”. People will be thirsty but will not find water and this is what we live today. You can read a verse in the Bible and you’ll see that it is something new, it is like you’ve never read that verse before and you will see how thirsty you are for the Word. Many people are like that today. Many people don’t even know one verse in the Bible. They may know it off by heart but they don’t know what it means. You can know the story Moses or the story of Jacob but that’s all you know, you still won’t know the spiritual meaning. May God give to those who thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. How many times are you merciful to others? This is the most important thing. Christians who want to grow and discover joy and happiness in Jesus Christ must meditate on this verse. To be merciful towards others is a necessity. Bartemaus didn’t ask Jesus to heal him but said, “be merciful to me son of David”. He knew that speaking about mercy he would receive mercy. How much time do we take to be merciful towards others? Let’s pray for my dad who is not saved for example and that is it. If you are not merciful to your dad and can’t see the danger for his eternal life then you’ll never be merciful. The Bible dictionary says this about mercy,

“The aspect of God’s love that causes Him to help the miserable, just as grace is the aspect of His love that moves Him to forgive the guilty, those who are miserable may be so by breaking God’s law, or circumstances that are beyond their control. God shows mercy to those who have broken His law or though such mercy is selective demonstrating that it is not deserved. God’s mercy on the miserable extends beyond punishment, which is withheld. Withheld punishment keeps us from hell but does not get us into heaven.

God’s mercy is greater than this; God also shows mercy by actively helping those who are miserable by circumstances beyond their control. We see this act of mercy in the life of our Lord Jesus. He healed blind men and lepers; these acts of healings grew out of His attitude of compassion and mercy. Because God is merciful He expects His children to be merciful.”

75% of this is correct. If you are merciful you can do anything. You will sacrifice your life for others. That is what Jesus did for us. He sacrificed His life for us because He was merciful to us. All mature Christians should pray to be merciful towards others. If you are merciful towards others you will pray for them, fast for them, you will sacrifice your time for them and you will give to them. If you are not merciful to them you risk becoming a selfish person.

Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. The people we are going to pray for and sing with need some purity in their lives. If Jesus was to come back today, are you sure those people will go to heaven? You can see these people need purification because nothing impure can go to heaven, that is why we are going to pray for their souls so that God may help them find purity. If it’s God’s will for them to be saved then it will happen but if God doesn’t allow it then they won’t. But we must be merciful towards them and pray for them.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. I wanted to talk about this verse after verse 10 which is “blessed are those who are persecuted,” because verse 9 is the ninth commandment and has a secret. Anyway it doesn’t matter too much, we’ll talk about this verse. What is the ninth commandment? You shall not covet what your neighbour has, wether it is his wife or belongings. The ninth commandment teaches us something about God.

Our neighbour is the devil and our neighbour is sin. We are not allowed to covet what the devil has, even if it is his wife. Do you know the meaning of wife? The wife represents the church, which is you and I. The devil also has his church so we must be careful not to covet it. The devil has his belongings so we must be careful. We must be content with what we have. Because we are Jesus’ wife, Jesus is sufficient for us. So we are not allowed to covet what the devil our neighbour has. You must know that your wife, husband and children are not closer to you than the devil. When we walk the devil follows us like our shadow. He is just waiting for that little hole to sneak in. This is why God says, “be careful not to covet what our enemy has”.

The Bible says we must be in a watchful situation at all times and if we don’t open our eyes the devil will take us away and we’ll see what we have coveted. To keep us from this we must respect Matthew 5:9.

We must try to seek peace; Satan is not the God of peace but of fear. We must seek peace with everybody and with God and we’ll see that we will never covet what the devil has. What is peace according to the Bible? What is peace according to the world? No war, no crime, a good life and lots of money. This is worldly peace. Is there peace in New Zealand? On the outside it looks like peace but there is war. The Maori don’t agree with pakeha and this is cold war. For the tourists it looks peace but war is happening. There is war in our brains. When you go to some churches the white people don’t sit with the Tongans, and the Tongans also don’t sit with Pakeha. It is like a rule in this church, they are there but don’t have peace. The Tongans have their Pastor and the Pakeha’s have their Pastor, the Tongans have their counsellor, the Pakeha’s also have their counsellor. There are two types of faiths in one church.

It is like the Vatican, it belongs to Italy but has its own flag. This is happening in churches today and is written in the book of Revelation.

We must open our eyes to see what is happening around us and seek peace with those around us. Revelation 18:17 will reveal itself one day. People don’t have the time to seek peace. God has called us to be one as Jesus and the Father are one, but because of tribes we have spiritual divisions. These people need prayer, we must not criticise them but pray for them so that God can release them.

Woe to the Vatican and Italy for they will never be released. The example in Revelation 17 about the prostitute represents what we call today the Roman kingdom. We must be careful so that the seven hills God talks about (which are seven heads) may not be around us. People who have travelled to Italy know there are seven hills around Rome; everybody knows this and the prophecies say it. All the rivers are there; the ten horns are there. We must break these mountains.

Jesus said, “If you have faith you will tell this mountain to move”. If you have faith like a mustard seed you will move mountains. These mountains exist in many Christian lives because they don’t have peace because they don’t look towards Jesus. In Thessalonians it says we must seek peace with everybody. Peace is so important for our lives. Jesus said that in the last days there will be wars and famines. The war will not be in the world as people think. Jesus is talking about the war in churches, war between Christians. How many churches are in conflict today? Every church. War is everywhere. This Word is fulfilled.

Those who don’t have discernment are waiting for the Maori to fight against Pakeha. If you wait for this you’ll be left behind, war is everywhere. Even a pagan will tell you that there is war in the church. So who doesn’t know this? We have eyes but can’t see. We need peace. Jesus said peace will never be on earth. So what peace are we looking for if the Bible says there will never be peace on earth? Jesus talks about spiritual peace and worldly peace; this is the difference between them.