Heralds Digest

  “ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest .”” Matthew‬ ‭9:37-38‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ There is no doubt in every labourer’s concern about the harvest from the field of life and ministry. Most times, we struggle with varying degrees of confusion, especially when our harvest does not appear to align with the Lord’s harvest. Whereas, the perception of the Lord about the state of the harvest during His earthly ministry could be quite revealing to today’s disciples. Even after a series of apparent fruitfulness on the field, Christ was concerned about the need for compassion in labourers (rather than confusion about the state of the harvest). When the labourers’ life and ministry are solely motivated by their passion for the unconverted souls, the Lord of harvest will fully become the Lord of the labourers. Unfortunately, there are many labourers on the field whose lords ar...

  “ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house .”” Matthew‬ ‭9:5-6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Human desires for divine encounter depend mostly on the physical or material needs for restoration. Those who are physically challenged are often concerned about physical restoration; while the same expectation goes for the other aspects of the challenges of life, like economic, material, emotions, health concerns, etc. Whereas, without the restoration into the original status for continual fellowship with God, there is no true rest in all other types of restoration. That was why Jesus openly threw out the invitation to all, saying “ Come unto Me, and I will give you rest ”. And when He perceived the expectations of the team of the paralytic and his bearers, He said “ Your sins are forgiven you ” before “ Aris...

  “ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. ” Matthew‬ ‭6:34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ If the progression between today’s tour and tomorrow’s troubles in life is limited to planning, there will be no such thing as worrying. Whereas, everyone knows that worrying starts where planning stops. This reality of life is simply a revelation of either our faith in God; or our fellowship with all that the scriptures simply called mammons (people, riches, position, life’s privileges, etc). We plan when we use mammons; but we worry when mammons use us. Therefore, Jesus says ‘do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things ’. Worrying  about tomorrow’s troubles is a serious distraction from our supposed Guide in today’s tour. If Jesus is our only Guide in the life’s journey, and He is always involved in the planning, life’s focus should be on doing His Will and not worrying about the consequenc...

  “ For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ” Matthew‬ ‭6:14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ There is no doubt in the fact that access into the presence of the Lord requires clean hands and a pure heart. Even when grace has cleared the mess in the seeker’s hands and the trespasses in his heart, the heart is still sometimes not released to freely access the throne of our Heavenly Father for a consistent fellowship. Fruitful fellowship with God requires more than the physical and emotional presence; the heart is judged to be absent when it is knowingly distracted by a wounded fellowship with fellow men. If grace seeks to attend to the wounds imposed by our daily  interactions with the world, our hearts cannot afford to be distracted by the offences against fellow men. This offense overload is simply unnecessary, grossly unacceptable, and quietly unreasonable...

  “ And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. ” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:7-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ If God is more sensitive to our needs than we often think, the whole essence of prayer is probably more about listening than asking. Unfortunately, additional investment of praying resources is easily focussed on pouring out our needs, requests and heart desires to God. Whereas, God truly knows the things we need of before we ask Him. More often than not, prayer is meant to train our hearts to listen to God more than begging God to listen to us. In fact, when we eventually transition fully into the spirit of prayer, we basically ask God what He has settled to do for us. Therefore, rather than coming into the presence of God with vain repetitions of empty desires, the singular aim of prayer from a sincere child of God is learn...

  “ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly .” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:3-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Corporate collaboration promotes unity, cooperation, and efficiency in every system with an evidence of divided interests. Even in the household of faith, Christian services and offerings are often assembled for a corporate collaboration in prayer, fasting, and in the rendering of common interests. But when a private attention is drawn to an individual interest, the rendering of a private service in this case is called a charitable collaboration between two parties (i.e., a benefactor, and a beneficiary). Beyond the common good of a corporate collaboration, it is acknowledged that the hidden interest of many benefactors is fame and attention seeking. Therefore, even when a charitable collaboration is intended, a carnal-minded benefactor will ext...

  “ Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ For those who have truly found grace in the sight of God, the pursuit of righteousness or the unconditional obedience to the commandments of the Lord is the only path to greatness. But outside the provision of grace that enables walking in the Spirit, doing these commandments is grievous enough; needless to mention the odious efforts of teaching fellow men to follow the righteous path. Obviously, what is gracious in heaven’s parlance is grievous in all carnal considerations. Therefore, it is better to accept Christ’s admonition on the best way to pursue greatness in life. You cannot plan to adopt the pattern of pursuing greatness in the world and think to succeed in teaching others absolute obedience to the commandments of the Lord. In...