God's ABCD economics

Always overspend... in praise to the Lord  (1 Thess 5:16-18)
Brutally retrench... sin in our lives (Psalm 51)
Commit our reserves... to the Lord (Mal 3:10-12)
Declare bankruptcy... in ourselves (Rom 3:9-12)

Beware the end-time spirits

There are 3 demonic spirits that seek to draw believers away from God in these end-times.

1. spirit of apostasy   (cause a person to move away from God)

^{2 Thess 2:3} Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. (NIV)

(KJV : Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Apostasy (Greek (apo stasia), a defection or revolt, from apo, "away, apart", stasis, "stand", "standing") = a defection from truth; to forsake.

Similarly divorce has the same Greek root (apo lu-o), from apo: “away, apart”, lu-o: “loose” = (to leave, depart from, to give up)

The spirit of divorce is a spirit of apostasy ( to depart from God is spiritual divorce) that is why God hates divorce in the physical realm because it reflects in the spiritual realm the tendency for us to break faith with God. 

^{MAL 2:13} Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. ¹⁴ You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.¹⁵ Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.    ^{MAL 2:16} "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty.  So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.

As the bride of Christ, we are betrothed to Him and should not ‘divorce’ Him. The marriage covenant is a reflection of our spiritual covenant with God. 

2.  spirit of achan (self-absorption/ self-worship) –Achan in Josh 7:1 (cause a person to move towards self – the ‘’I’’)

^{1JN 2:15} Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

^{2 Tim  4:10} for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. 

^{2TI 3:1} But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Let us watch against this spirit that draws us to self-centredness rather than Christ-centredness.

3.  spirit of antichrist  (cause a person to influence others to draw away from God ) –this is the spirit of division

    ^{1JN 2:18} Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

  ^{JUDE 1:17} But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." ¹⁹ These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

Unity is the key to spiritual revival in the Body of Christ so let us maintain this unity through the Holy Spirit.

Bind these spirits and let the Holy Spirit filled you with

-        His fruit of faithfulness to counter spirit of rebellion and divorce

-        His fruit of self-control to counter spirit of self-centredness (sin)

-        the spirit of unity to counter spirit of division

^{JUDE 1:20} But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹ Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

God wants us to desire Him so much that we are prepared to meet Him in heaven.

Check your heart: if you desire Him, you have the Holy Spirit. Let Him have more of you.

What matters most

What matters most in my life? in yours? Family? Health? Happiness? Satisfaction? Worthwhile work?
What if you and I lose everything even our health? What's left?
Job was a man who experienced a loss beyond what most men have lost - his children were killed, his possessions and wealth all gone and his health was affected with severe sores in his body.
On top of all this he had un-empathetic and non-understanding friends and wife.
What did he do? What was his response?
Strangely, his response recorded in Job13:15 was : Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
The 'he' and 'him', Job was referring to was God. Job was saying: Though God kills me, I will still hope in Him.
What profound faith! Job's faith was that even if God took EVERYTHING from him including his life, he will still trust, hope, believe, remain faithful to Him.
Do we have this in us? Have we come to a point in our Christian faith that we can completely cast our ALL to Him who loves us deeply. Or is our faith still a 'vending-machine' faith where our relationship to our Lord and God is bless me, bless me, bless me ... or else...
God knows our hearts. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to change us from inside out to have this 'full surrender' faith like Job each and every day. That WHATEVER happens, we declare to all, both humans and non-humans, that God is my God.

From D to C through steps of GRACE

We need to take up the shield of faith to quench the deadly darts of the evil one:

Dart 1: the spirit (demon) of doubt who makes you question God's Word and His goodness

Dart 2: the spirit of discouragement who makes you look at your problems rather than to God

Dart 3: the spirit of diversion who makes the wrong seems more attractive than the right.

Dart 4: the spirit of defeat who makes you feel like a failure so that you don't even try or trust God for victory

Dart 5: the spirit of delay who makes you put off doing something so that it never gets done especially in obeying God.

Our counter-offensive through the Holy Spirit for each of the darts.

Let us daily put on the Lord Jesus and His Spirit will give us :

1) Confidence (believe and trust) in God, His Word and His Goodness

2) Courage (encouraged and empowered with boldness) to see God bigger than anything or anyone else

3) Concentration (focus) on what God said and move forward in truth 

4) Conqueror's attitude ("we are more than conquerors through Christ") that to fail does not mean we are a failure

5) Control (by the Spirit) so that we are quick to obey and disciplined to live out our lives under Christ's Lordship

GSHR

Lord I pray that my workplace will see a transformation from sin-stained to Christ-touched culture. Change the elitist to gracious practices. Transform "two-faced" to sincere relationships. Make 'butt-kissers' become humble and respectful persons. Thank You. Amen and amen.

Why BGV?

BGV stands for Blessed Grateful Victor which is my pen name for this blog. Blessed because without God's blessing I will not be where I am today. Grateful is what I intend to be everyday (hence my other blog a Heart of Gratitude Praise Journal) for every of God's blessing. With His blessing and my gratitude, I will be victorious every day!

New versus Old

When one is born again after trusting Jesus Christ as his Saviour, there is a new nature created in the image of Christ. This is the New Man, filled with spiritual insight and strength because of the Holy Spirit who now resides in him. But the Old Man, the sin nature of each one of us is still there as it can only be removed if we are apart from the physical body we now have.
Hence daily it is a constant battle of the New Man vs the Old Man in us. The New Man has victory if we listen and do the will of God daily. But if we listen to the temptations of the evil one and obey them, we lose and the Old Man in us wins.
Thanks be to God for the victory that we have in Christ who now cancels our sin nature and replaces that with His pure nature.
SIN is, as the middle letter represents, the 'I' nature - self-centred, egoistic and proud. 
CHRIST now replaces our SIN nature when we trust and submit to Him. Notice that the I is still there, as trusting Christ does not make us a robot but we are still unique in our person-hood. But now the I does not occupy the centre position but is subsumed in CHRIST as He lives in us through the Holy Spirit.