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“Obey the Instructions of the Lord” by Mrs Matamela Lishivha, Wednesday Service, the 04th April 2012.
The word of God says if you obey His instructions you will get all you want from Him and you will be delighted in Him. This means that if we do His will we will walk according to His ways, and plans and He will provide for our needs.
There are great rewards in obeying the word of God. That is why we are going to believe and ask God to lead us in His ways.
God created us for a reason and He knows that there are certain things that we must get in our lives and when we obey His word we get those things.
2 Kings 20:1-6 “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'" 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 "Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father:"I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."'"” 2Kings 20:1-6 NKJV. (Also found in Isaiah 38:1-6)
This text of the bible ends by saying for the sake of My servant David. Today I want you to put yourself inHezekiah’s place just after having received this message that he is about to die. What were you going to do on receiving this message? What were you going to remind the Lord about yourself?
2 Kings 20:3
“3 "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” 2 Kings 20:3, NKJV.
If it were you, were you going to have the guts to say “God remember me.” Are there things that you have done which are good that you can bring before God. God wants us to be faithful Christians. He wants us to meditate on the word and to always think about Him.
If it should happen that there are times that we don’t think about God we must question ourselves as to what is wrong. We must not say or do anything that doesn’t glorify God. We must always do things that glorify the Lord.
If we keep ourselves aligned to His word we will have the courage to stand before God and say “Remember me, oh Lord!”
This means we need to do some self introspection about our lives.
When Hezekiah went before God, God realised that indeed Hezekiah had been a faithful servant and God reversed His words. He sent the prophet Isaiah to go and give Hezekiah a new message. That God will indeed add more to his life so that Hezekiah can indeed serve the Lord and prove himself again before God.
Can we really convince God, by our lives, that “Yes indeed death is here but God increase and add more life to us” This means we indeed need to change our lives and align to His will and word.
When we die we must be rich of this life. God wants you and me to be faithful to Him. He says He is a jealous God and therefore doesn’t want to share us with other gods.
We are here because we have been chosen by God Almighty so we can be light in our families. If we live right before God we can save others by being a good example. You can even go before God and say “God take away this disease that is bothering us in this family.” God says to Hezekiah
“I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."” 2 Kings 20:6, NKJV.
If God can save the city for the sake of David, He can also save a certain situation because of you. a certain person or persons because of you. Because of you God can take people from the darkness into the light.
Hezekiah was supposed to die but when God checked that he is of the tree of David He decided to save him. If we believe that the lion of Judah can save us for the sake of Jesus Christ and that God sent Jesus so we can be saved through Jesus you must believe that when we take our petitions unto the Lord, Jesus Christ will intercede for us and say “Yes this one is really following the word.”
There are people who are living a mixed up life. We need to pray for them as we have been chosen and when we do this God will have mercy upon them. You will see them come to you and say “I need to go to church.” and ask you for advise on which church to go to. You may even be surprised. God will bring that person into the kingdom of God for your sake.
We need to understand that you and me have been chosen on behalf of our community, our families etc. We must serve the Lord in those communities, families etc
How do we serve the Lord? By interceding for those who are still in the dark. When we serve God with one mind, God will reward us and make sure that those who are near to us will seek the face of the Lord but this will happen if we are faithful in the Lord.
Let’s allow God to lead us, guide us. If it is God showing us the way, it means we will be aligned to the word of God and to His plans. If we allow other things to come into the picture it means we will give the enemy a door into our lives.
When attacks come and we are faithful we will know that they are not from the Lord and so it means He will be able to empower us to defeat them.
The bible says if you flow the command of the Lord you will eat the good of the land. It only happens when we follow the Lord. The devil has not right to take what is ours. When the devil tries to take from us, he will not have any reason to say this one is always doing or wanting my things. The devil must not have any right to say we are his. If we agree that we don’t want to serve the devil anymore but want to serve the Lord with one mind it means God will give us our heart’s desire.
You might be having somebody in your family who is not understanding and who is difficult and you may even have given up. Nothing is impossible before the Lord. Go before God today and ask God, “I am your servant, I ask you to take this relative, friend, and colleague and make his or her to come to you and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour God and to serve God.”
When people are just going up and down in sin, we must not blame them, the devil is holding them and we must pray for them so that God can intervene in their lives so they can come to Him and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Other people are so deep in witchcraft and can’t come out because they believe it is part of their family culture. You and me must go down on our knees and pray for this people to come out of it. Some were just born into it and they can’t help themselves. The devil even deploys some of them to come into the house of God to disrupt the work of the Lord. The danger is that God has given them time to repent and if they don’t do it, God will expose them to the people. God doesn’t want us to live what He doesn’t want us to do. He has created us to worship Him. When we worship Him we do what is right to Him.
Some of us love pleasure, worldly things so much they even sell their own family members.
Hezekiah went before the Lord and reminded the Lord about his life. Let’s stop doing what is wrong before the Lord. Selling your family member or brethren is wrong before the Lord.
We need to walk with one heart (mind) before the Lord. Do what is pleasing before the Lord. This means that we will not back bite each other before the Lord. We must lift each other in our walk before God.
In the house of God we must not be like the one in the bible who was instructed to do something and agreed that he will do it but never did it. The better one is the one who said I will not do it but ended up doing it.
David knew that we must do good things. After he sinned by conducting a census, God asked him to choose from 3 punishments which one he wanted to be meted out to him. He chose the punishment of God as He knows that God is merciful. We saw this mercy being given by God to Hezekiah who was supposed to have died but God was merciful on Him after hearing his prayer. If it was us who was supposed to decide on the punishment to be meted on Hezekiah we would not have reversed the punishment on Hezekiah.
We must go before God and say God have mercy on us. We want to serve you faithfully and we must do exactly that so that one day when we have to be judged we will be able to say God we have served you faithfully. So that we can do what is pleasing before God.
We have been chosen to serve the Lord. Ask God for the spirit of servant hood and to serve in unity.
There are great rewards in obeying the word of God. That is why we are going to believe and ask God to lead us in His ways.
God created us for a reason and He knows that there are certain things that we must get in our lives and when we obey His word we get those things.
2 Kings 20:1-6 “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'" 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 "Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father:"I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."'"” 2Kings 20:1-6 NKJV. (Also found in Isaiah 38:1-6)
This text of the bible ends by saying for the sake of My servant David. Today I want you to put yourself inHezekiah’s place just after having received this message that he is about to die. What were you going to do on receiving this message? What were you going to remind the Lord about yourself?
2 Kings 20:3
“3 "Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” 2 Kings 20:3, NKJV.
If it were you, were you going to have the guts to say “God remember me.” Are there things that you have done which are good that you can bring before God. God wants us to be faithful Christians. He wants us to meditate on the word and to always think about Him.
If it should happen that there are times that we don’t think about God we must question ourselves as to what is wrong. We must not say or do anything that doesn’t glorify God. We must always do things that glorify the Lord.
If we keep ourselves aligned to His word we will have the courage to stand before God and say “Remember me, oh Lord!”
This means we need to do some self introspection about our lives.
When Hezekiah went before God, God realised that indeed Hezekiah had been a faithful servant and God reversed His words. He sent the prophet Isaiah to go and give Hezekiah a new message. That God will indeed add more to his life so that Hezekiah can indeed serve the Lord and prove himself again before God.
Can we really convince God, by our lives, that “Yes indeed death is here but God increase and add more life to us” This means we indeed need to change our lives and align to His will and word.
When we die we must be rich of this life. God wants you and me to be faithful to Him. He says He is a jealous God and therefore doesn’t want to share us with other gods.
We are here because we have been chosen by God Almighty so we can be light in our families. If we live right before God we can save others by being a good example. You can even go before God and say “God take away this disease that is bothering us in this family.” God says to Hezekiah
“I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."” 2 Kings 20:6, NKJV.
If God can save the city for the sake of David, He can also save a certain situation because of you. a certain person or persons because of you. Because of you God can take people from the darkness into the light.
Hezekiah was supposed to die but when God checked that he is of the tree of David He decided to save him. If we believe that the lion of Judah can save us for the sake of Jesus Christ and that God sent Jesus so we can be saved through Jesus you must believe that when we take our petitions unto the Lord, Jesus Christ will intercede for us and say “Yes this one is really following the word.”
There are people who are living a mixed up life. We need to pray for them as we have been chosen and when we do this God will have mercy upon them. You will see them come to you and say “I need to go to church.” and ask you for advise on which church to go to. You may even be surprised. God will bring that person into the kingdom of God for your sake.
We need to understand that you and me have been chosen on behalf of our community, our families etc. We must serve the Lord in those communities, families etc
How do we serve the Lord? By interceding for those who are still in the dark. When we serve God with one mind, God will reward us and make sure that those who are near to us will seek the face of the Lord but this will happen if we are faithful in the Lord.
Let’s allow God to lead us, guide us. If it is God showing us the way, it means we will be aligned to the word of God and to His plans. If we allow other things to come into the picture it means we will give the enemy a door into our lives.
When attacks come and we are faithful we will know that they are not from the Lord and so it means He will be able to empower us to defeat them.
The bible says if you flow the command of the Lord you will eat the good of the land. It only happens when we follow the Lord. The devil has not right to take what is ours. When the devil tries to take from us, he will not have any reason to say this one is always doing or wanting my things. The devil must not have any right to say we are his. If we agree that we don’t want to serve the devil anymore but want to serve the Lord with one mind it means God will give us our heart’s desire.
You might be having somebody in your family who is not understanding and who is difficult and you may even have given up. Nothing is impossible before the Lord. Go before God today and ask God, “I am your servant, I ask you to take this relative, friend, and colleague and make his or her to come to you and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour God and to serve God.”
When people are just going up and down in sin, we must not blame them, the devil is holding them and we must pray for them so that God can intervene in their lives so they can come to Him and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Other people are so deep in witchcraft and can’t come out because they believe it is part of their family culture. You and me must go down on our knees and pray for this people to come out of it. Some were just born into it and they can’t help themselves. The devil even deploys some of them to come into the house of God to disrupt the work of the Lord. The danger is that God has given them time to repent and if they don’t do it, God will expose them to the people. God doesn’t want us to live what He doesn’t want us to do. He has created us to worship Him. When we worship Him we do what is right to Him.
Some of us love pleasure, worldly things so much they even sell their own family members.
Hezekiah went before the Lord and reminded the Lord about his life. Let’s stop doing what is wrong before the Lord. Selling your family member or brethren is wrong before the Lord.
We need to walk with one heart (mind) before the Lord. Do what is pleasing before the Lord. This means that we will not back bite each other before the Lord. We must lift each other in our walk before God.
In the house of God we must not be like the one in the bible who was instructed to do something and agreed that he will do it but never did it. The better one is the one who said I will not do it but ended up doing it.
David knew that we must do good things. After he sinned by conducting a census, God asked him to choose from 3 punishments which one he wanted to be meted out to him. He chose the punishment of God as He knows that God is merciful. We saw this mercy being given by God to Hezekiah who was supposed to have died but God was merciful on Him after hearing his prayer. If it was us who was supposed to decide on the punishment to be meted on Hezekiah we would not have reversed the punishment on Hezekiah.
We must go before God and say God have mercy on us. We want to serve you faithfully and we must do exactly that so that one day when we have to be judged we will be able to say God we have served you faithfully. So that we can do what is pleasing before God.
We have been chosen to serve the Lord. Ask God for the spirit of servant hood and to serve in unity.
“Prayer Points” by Mrs Mabirimisa
Mrs Mabirimisa preaching and Ps Progress Nengome interpreting.
01. Against Road Accidents
This is the time that many will be travelling to and from many places and occasions. We know that this is the time that the devil has armed himself to the teeth looking for the blood of the people.
Psalm 91:10-11
“10 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.” Ps 91:10-11, NKJV.
02. Against all the temptations of the enemy
2 Timothy 3:12-13
“12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Tim 3:12-13, NKJV.
Those who worship the Lord, the living God, will be persecuted. This is the time of commemoration of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. The devil has many plans, ploys and schemes that he will throw our way. Let us nullify is plans.
03. To be strengthened in our walk with Jesus Christ
Hebrews 10:35-39
“5 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 37 "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." 39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb 10:35-39, NKJV.
We need to be patient in our Christian walk. Ask for grace not to be shaken, not to be moved, not to be threatened. Let’s believe that we will always be holding on the cross and that He is always there with us. We know and understand the cross and the power of its might.
04. Grace to accept ourselves and to know ourselves
If you are in Christ you must be in it having accepted that you are a Christian. You also need to know the way you must live.
Galatians 5:17 “17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Gal 5:17, NKJV.
We live in a fleshly world and when the flesh is enjoying the spirit is suffering. The spirit wants us to obey the word of God but the flesh will always force us to do the opposite of the word of God. Let’s ask God to lead us and to help us fight the flesh, to strengthen us to defeat the devil.
05. Grace to be the light of the world
Matthew 5:14 “14 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matt 5:14, NKJV.
Agree and accept that you are the light of the world. Wherever you are, work, home, community. Let your life not bring disrepute to the kingdom of God. Don’t make people despise the life of Christianity. We can only do it when we ask Him to give us the grace to cleanse our thoughts, our tongues, our hearts and lives.
06. For our families, children
1 Corinthians 8:6
“6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” 1 Cor 8:6, NKJV.
Let us be exemplary parents to our children. Don’t be a parent whose children are ashamed of because of your character. Don’t be parents who want to worship both God and gods. Let us be parents of one God, the living God. Let’s pass on these truths to our children, ask Him to lead us so that we can share this gospel with our children.
More verses on this: Psalm 94:9, Job 34;21-22; John 2:24; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 32;1-5; Pastor 51.
07. The Building Project
We must continue to pray for this building project to come to completion. Declare that no weapon that the enemy has fashioned against the project shall prosper.
Ask God for the grace to give for the work of the Lord.
08. Our leaders and the places where we come from
When we pray for our leaders, peace will prevail in our lives and communities from which we come from.
Let’s also pray for the trip to Tembisa and Pastor Kgatse and the work that he is doing there so that God will be with him.
09. Our pastor, his wife and his family
It is not easy to be a pastor. God strengthen and empower them. Let His grace upon their lives abound in them. We must pray for them continually.
10. Thanksgiving for these prayers
Let’s thank God for today’s prayers and for the word of God that was delivered today in Jesus’ name.
This is the time that many will be travelling to and from many places and occasions. We know that this is the time that the devil has armed himself to the teeth looking for the blood of the people.
Psalm 91:10-11
“10 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.” Ps 91:10-11, NKJV.
02. Against all the temptations of the enemy
2 Timothy 3:12-13
“12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Tim 3:12-13, NKJV.
Those who worship the Lord, the living God, will be persecuted. This is the time of commemoration of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins. The devil has many plans, ploys and schemes that he will throw our way. Let us nullify is plans.
03. To be strengthened in our walk with Jesus Christ
Hebrews 10:35-39
“5 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 37 "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. 38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." 39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb 10:35-39, NKJV.
We need to be patient in our Christian walk. Ask for grace not to be shaken, not to be moved, not to be threatened. Let’s believe that we will always be holding on the cross and that He is always there with us. We know and understand the cross and the power of its might.
04. Grace to accept ourselves and to know ourselves
If you are in Christ you must be in it having accepted that you are a Christian. You also need to know the way you must live.
Galatians 5:17 “17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Gal 5:17, NKJV.
We live in a fleshly world and when the flesh is enjoying the spirit is suffering. The spirit wants us to obey the word of God but the flesh will always force us to do the opposite of the word of God. Let’s ask God to lead us and to help us fight the flesh, to strengthen us to defeat the devil.
05. Grace to be the light of the world
Matthew 5:14 “14 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matt 5:14, NKJV.
Agree and accept that you are the light of the world. Wherever you are, work, home, community. Let your life not bring disrepute to the kingdom of God. Don’t make people despise the life of Christianity. We can only do it when we ask Him to give us the grace to cleanse our thoughts, our tongues, our hearts and lives.
06. For our families, children
1 Corinthians 8:6
“6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.” 1 Cor 8:6, NKJV.
Let us be exemplary parents to our children. Don’t be a parent whose children are ashamed of because of your character. Don’t be parents who want to worship both God and gods. Let us be parents of one God, the living God. Let’s pass on these truths to our children, ask Him to lead us so that we can share this gospel with our children.
More verses on this: Psalm 94:9, Job 34;21-22; John 2:24; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 32;1-5; Pastor 51.
07. The Building Project
We must continue to pray for this building project to come to completion. Declare that no weapon that the enemy has fashioned against the project shall prosper.
Ask God for the grace to give for the work of the Lord.
08. Our leaders and the places where we come from
When we pray for our leaders, peace will prevail in our lives and communities from which we come from.
Let’s also pray for the trip to Tembisa and Pastor Kgatse and the work that he is doing there so that God will be with him.
09. Our pastor, his wife and his family
It is not easy to be a pastor. God strengthen and empower them. Let His grace upon their lives abound in them. We must pray for them continually.
10. Thanksgiving for these prayers
Let’s thank God for today’s prayers and for the word of God that was delivered today in Jesus’ name.