HEPHZIBAH MINISTRIES
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Isaiah 62
For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Next »
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Isaiah 62
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured: « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. « Previous Next »
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Isaiah 62
And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. « Previous
November 2007
November 26, 2007
2 Timothy 1:9
We have been saved by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But do we know that God's purpose for us and the grace to fulfil it had been given to us before time began? His purpose for us did not begin on the day we were saved but was there all the time waiting for us to repent and accept Him as saviour and Lord. At that point it begins to come alive as His grace ( enablement) comes surging through our soul.
We note here that our calling is holy. It is pure and uncontaminated with the world and ways of the flesh. We should therefore never think that our calling is inferior to another. Every calling of God is holy and we need to see its purpose from His standpoint. While we may never have very flamboyant ministries, every calling is important to God. Who do we want to impress? If we wish to impress God, He will be impressed when we fulfil His calling and His purpose for us using the grace that He has given to us and not the strength of the flesh. When we envy others, it is the flesh that is trying to assert itself and cause us to replace the grace to fulfil the call with works of the flesh.
We need to take time to reflect on the calling that we all have from God. It is indeed holy, not according to our own works but is in accordance with His own purpose and grace which He gave to us in Christ Jesus. So without Jesus, we cannot fulfil the holy calling. He is the source of everything which is pertaining to life and we will be just struggling in our ministry if we try to fulfil it without Him. Praise God, He has called us and given us the grace to do it in Jesus.
November 19, 2007
2 Corinthians 4:1
We have all received a ministry. The Bible clearly says that Holy Spirit lives in every one of us (1Cor 3:16) and because of this, the gifts of the Holy Spirit reside in us. He manifests them in us as He wills ( 1 Cor.12:11). Many of us sit in the pew not knowing that we have been given gifts and the grace to use them for the honour and glory of God. We are expected to manifest the gifts in harmony with the other gifts of Holy Spirit in our church so that the power of God will be seen by all who attend.
When we all allow Holy Spirit to use us as He wills, the church will indeed become a dynamic force to be reckoned with. It is necessary for the leaders of the church to allow the manifestations of Holy Spirit in the operation of the church. There should be no need for the leaders to fear that they will lose their positions as Holy Spirit has appointed them as such. Leaders must recognise that Holy Spirit is in charge and if they do not acknowledge that He is, then it will be difficult for such operations in the church.
These manifestations of Holy Spirit did not only take place through the apostles in the Bible. We have Timothy as an example of a young man who was mightily used by Holy Spirit and he was not one of the apostles. We need to focus on serving the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of our lives and while we are followers, we do not just follow without making contributions. God expects us to serve in the ministry He has put in us and this must be done in the context of the local church. The grace has already been given so we should not lose heart at what lies ahead.
November 12, 2007
Psalm 118:6
The Psalmist declares that the Lord is on his side and because of this he will not fear. What about us? Do we know that He is on the side of those who know Him as saviour and Lord and are living faithful and obedient lives. The problem may well be that we are unsure of our condition before Him and so the confidence that the psalmist projects is not ours. We are truly challenged today on every side to live the life of holiness that Jesus has called us to live and we are therefore not very confident as to where we stand in Him.
This uncertainty manifests itself in fear. This fear is not from God as it does not drive us to repentance but paralyses us and causes us to run from God rather than draw near to Him. We are stopped in our tracks by the devil because our heart condemns us and we accept the condemnation because we know that it is true. We need to run to the place of repentance where we can confess our shortcomings and get back into fellowship with God. As we draw near to Him, He promised that He will draw near to us. We need to make to the first move.
What a confession of faith! The Lord is on my side! We are prevented from following Him by the fear of what man will do to us. Is our God faithful? Will He not deal with our enemies as He did in the Bible when the people prepared themselves and obeyed Him? He is the Mighty God but we hold Him as incapable of delivering us. How can He work when there is doubt and unfaithfulness? We need to shake off unbelief and make our bold declarations in our God as this will assist us having our situations dealt with by His mighty power. No man can stand before Him so we need not fear their threats and intimidating tactics. Let us declare today that He is on our side and jealousy guard His presence in us.
November 5, 2007
2 Corinthians 2:10-11
Paul was showing how important it was to forgive. He was willing to forgive those whom they had forgiven. Sometimes we are guilty of holding something against someone when God has already forgiven them or the person that has been wronged, has already forgiven them. Our willingness to hold that person in unforgiveness works against us. We are unable to be forgiven by God in that we are holding that person for whom He died in a state that should be foreign to us. Our nature should be to forgive as our Father's nature is to forgive. If we do not forgive, then we are stifling the life of God in us and many times unforgiveness manifests itself as sickness is our bodies which medication can only control but not cure.
So Paul was making it clear that he will forgive those the Corinthians had forgiven, and he was doing it for their sakes in the presence of Christ. Unforgiveness has no place in the presence of Jesus. In His presence, there is forgiveness and love for the repentant sinner. We therefore should consider whether we can truly enter into the presence of the King when we have unforgiveness in our hearts. We apparently have no problem holding up holy hands when in fact our hands could not be holy because of unforgiveness. Are we playing games with the HOLY ONE? Are we telling him that He must accept us as we are because we are not willing to forgive what our brother has done to us?
In vs 11 he says that unforgiveness permits the devil to take advantage of us. We do not realise that we are in more trouble that the one whom we have not forgiven. Unforgiveness opens doorways for the devil to enter into our soul and begin to influence our thoughts, emotions and actions with his poison. We end up being outside the fellowship and protection of God and are in danger of being taken over by the devil. We begin to find excuses for not being in church and we criticize everything. We end up being miserable and tormented. Let us understand that unforgiveness should not be allowed to enter our souls or we could end up dead before our time. It is time to forgive and in turn receive forgiveness from our merciful Father.
2 Timothy 1:9We have been saved by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But do we know that God's purpose for us and the grace to fulfil it had been given to us before time began? His purpose for us did not begin on the day we were saved but was there all the time waiting for us to repent and accept Him as saviour and Lord. At that point it begins to come alive as His grace ( enablement) comes surging through our soul.
We note here that our calling is holy. It is pure and uncontaminated with the world and ways of the flesh. We should therefore never think that our calling is inferior to another. Every calling of God is holy and we need to see its purpose from His standpoint. While we may never have very flamboyant ministries, every calling is important to God. Who do we want to impress? If we wish to impress God, He will be impressed when we fulfil His calling and His purpose for us using the grace that He has given to us and not the strength of the flesh. When we envy others, it is the flesh that is trying to assert itself and cause us to replace the grace to fulfil the call with works of the flesh.
We need to take time to reflect on the calling that we all have from God. It is indeed holy, not according to our own works but is in accordance with His own purpose and grace which He gave to us in Christ Jesus. So without Jesus, we cannot fulfil the holy calling. He is the source of everything which is pertaining to life and we will be just struggling in our ministry if we try to fulfil it without Him. Praise God, He has called us and given us the grace to do it in Jesus.
November 19, 2007
2 Corinthians 4:1We have all received a ministry. The Bible clearly says that Holy Spirit lives in every one of us (1Cor 3:16) and because of this, the gifts of the Holy Spirit reside in us. He manifests them in us as He wills ( 1 Cor.12:11). Many of us sit in the pew not knowing that we have been given gifts and the grace to use them for the honour and glory of God. We are expected to manifest the gifts in harmony with the other gifts of Holy Spirit in our church so that the power of God will be seen by all who attend.
When we all allow Holy Spirit to use us as He wills, the church will indeed become a dynamic force to be reckoned with. It is necessary for the leaders of the church to allow the manifestations of Holy Spirit in the operation of the church. There should be no need for the leaders to fear that they will lose their positions as Holy Spirit has appointed them as such. Leaders must recognise that Holy Spirit is in charge and if they do not acknowledge that He is, then it will be difficult for such operations in the church.
These manifestations of Holy Spirit did not only take place through the apostles in the Bible. We have Timothy as an example of a young man who was mightily used by Holy Spirit and he was not one of the apostles. We need to focus on serving the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of our lives and while we are followers, we do not just follow without making contributions. God expects us to serve in the ministry He has put in us and this must be done in the context of the local church. The grace has already been given so we should not lose heart at what lies ahead.
November 12, 2007
Psalm 118:6The Psalmist declares that the Lord is on his side and because of this he will not fear. What about us? Do we know that He is on the side of those who know Him as saviour and Lord and are living faithful and obedient lives. The problem may well be that we are unsure of our condition before Him and so the confidence that the psalmist projects is not ours. We are truly challenged today on every side to live the life of holiness that Jesus has called us to live and we are therefore not very confident as to where we stand in Him.
This uncertainty manifests itself in fear. This fear is not from God as it does not drive us to repentance but paralyses us and causes us to run from God rather than draw near to Him. We are stopped in our tracks by the devil because our heart condemns us and we accept the condemnation because we know that it is true. We need to run to the place of repentance where we can confess our shortcomings and get back into fellowship with God. As we draw near to Him, He promised that He will draw near to us. We need to make to the first move.
What a confession of faith! The Lord is on my side! We are prevented from following Him by the fear of what man will do to us. Is our God faithful? Will He not deal with our enemies as He did in the Bible when the people prepared themselves and obeyed Him? He is the Mighty God but we hold Him as incapable of delivering us. How can He work when there is doubt and unfaithfulness? We need to shake off unbelief and make our bold declarations in our God as this will assist us having our situations dealt with by His mighty power. No man can stand before Him so we need not fear their threats and intimidating tactics. Let us declare today that He is on our side and jealousy guard His presence in us.
November 5, 2007
2 Corinthians 2:10-11Paul was showing how important it was to forgive. He was willing to forgive those whom they had forgiven. Sometimes we are guilty of holding something against someone when God has already forgiven them or the person that has been wronged, has already forgiven them. Our willingness to hold that person in unforgiveness works against us. We are unable to be forgiven by God in that we are holding that person for whom He died in a state that should be foreign to us. Our nature should be to forgive as our Father's nature is to forgive. If we do not forgive, then we are stifling the life of God in us and many times unforgiveness manifests itself as sickness is our bodies which medication can only control but not cure.
So Paul was making it clear that he will forgive those the Corinthians had forgiven, and he was doing it for their sakes in the presence of Christ. Unforgiveness has no place in the presence of Jesus. In His presence, there is forgiveness and love for the repentant sinner. We therefore should consider whether we can truly enter into the presence of the King when we have unforgiveness in our hearts. We apparently have no problem holding up holy hands when in fact our hands could not be holy because of unforgiveness. Are we playing games with the HOLY ONE? Are we telling him that He must accept us as we are because we are not willing to forgive what our brother has done to us?
In vs 11 he says that unforgiveness permits the devil to take advantage of us. We do not realise that we are in more trouble that the one whom we have not forgiven. Unforgiveness opens doorways for the devil to enter into our soul and begin to influence our thoughts, emotions and actions with his poison. We end up being outside the fellowship and protection of God and are in danger of being taken over by the devil. We begin to find excuses for not being in church and we criticize everything. We end up being miserable and tormented. Let us understand that unforgiveness should not be allowed to enter our souls or we could end up dead before our time. It is time to forgive and in turn receive forgiveness from our merciful Father.
