Heralds Digest

  “ For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.” Nehemiah 6 : 9 , 11 - 12 NKJV When people say an idle hand is the devil’s workshop, it is important to note that the devil and his agents doesn’t wait on free idleness to operate. Great works readily attract aggressive enforcement of idleness for satanic manipulations. With reference to the employment of miserable manipulations to frustrate the great project by Nehemiah and his team in Jerusalem, it is not strange for good family prospects, great business ideas, and glorious ministerial outreaches to suffer deliberate doses of panic attack...

  “ These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of Lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful” Revelation 17 : 14 NKJV The essence of Christmas is the making of Christians by the mercy of God, and not the mending of churchianists. But in the loss of the essence, our churches are readily filled with congregants with wrapped gifts for the world with sworn swords to steal, kill, and destroy the fabrics of righteousness in the hearts of all followers of Christ. Whereas, Christ was born as the Gift of God to save humanity from sin and to outrightly keep sin away from the heart of man. And by His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, He made war with the world of sin and unrighteousness on behalf of Christians; and He overcame for His chosen to step into the battlefield as over-comers. Therefore, Christians are the chosen of Christ on the battlefield, but with a sense of confidence as over-comers only by tho...

  “ He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy. ” Psalms 147 : 10 - 11 NKJV If hope for help through the hand of God upon another man is called mercy, little wonder why hope for help of man without the hand of God is simply referred to as manipulation. No man has ever resisted the temptation of playing god in his use of hostile hope for help in the absence of the hand of God. Unfortunately, prayerlessness breeds the spite of manipulation in Christendom today. People’s delight in the gains of high-speed internet, advances in artificial intelligence, fast-paced social networking, and political connectivity with principals and principalities have often resulted in an outright rejection of or a futile reference to the relevance of the mercy of God. Whereas, an heavenward hope is expected to leverage on the advances of earthly gains and human resources. For ...

  “ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God, The Lord shall reign forever— Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord! ” Psalms 146 : 5 , 10 NKJV Even in the human economy, hope is freaky because its demands are fundamentally unattainable by the ordinary. Most people hope only in the status and not really in the person of the character. Their hope in a celebrity lasts as long as the celebrity gives acceptable performances or lives out their dreams. Likewise, true hope in the Lord is not dependent on the handouts from the throne of grace; it is based on absolute faith in His prominence and providence, even while His promises hang in the balance. Yes, the status and circumstances of most believers’ expectations can change; but God remains unchanged from generations to generations. With holy hope in God, believers are consistently fascinated by the fresh access to the throne of grace for fresh revelation of His purposes and pl...

  “ These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. ” Revelation 14 : 4 NKJV In our days of chatGPT and google maps, following the lamb lane can only navigate to somewhere like Golden, Colorado in the U.S. and London in the UK. To all carnal minds, the lamb lane is misconstrued as the rejection of the senses of men on morality, modality and methodologies. The revelation of Jesus Christ to Apostle John about the 144,000 redeemed elders represents those who followed closely the lamb lane, irrespective of its narrowness and strictness. These redeemed believers are those who will be satisfied with wherever Jesus wants them to go, rather than just following their self-will and logical lanes in life. Actually, it is unfortunate that advances in human knowledge, social class, and political privileges make many people fight the ...

  “ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. So I was encouraged, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me .” Ezra 7 : 27 - 28 NKJV It is important to see the great connection between the heart of king Artaxerxes and the hand of the Lord upon Ezra. Obviously, it shows that the true battles of life are not fought with the fists of human hands; but rather by the lifting up of holy hands. It all started by the acknowledgement of Ezra’s engagement with the Lord: “ For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel (Ezra 7 : 10 )”. He knew that it wasn’t in vain that the scriptures say elsewhere that “ The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord...

  “ Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon…For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.”   Ezra 6:1; 7 : 10 NKJV It is believed that the trust in the principle of sincerity makes the human justice system come up with the axiom “ ignorance is not an excuse !”. This implies that the concept of “I don’t know!” is always not tenable; and anyone who really wants to know will definitely search and get informed. For example, when king Darius wanted to know the facts about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, he supported his sincerity with a decree-backed search warrant into the treasury and the truth surfaced. Unfortunately, in the absence of sincerity, we give spurious excuses for our inaction, injustices, indifference, and indiscipline at homes, workplaces, and the society. Whereas, a sincere search is not complicated….i...