Declare His Glory among the nations

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.” – Psalm 96:3 NIV

The prophet Habakkuk prophesied many centuries ago the quest of God on the earth;

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” Habakkuk 2:14

If you want to understand what our God is up to in the world today, this is it: He wants to see the whole earth filled with the knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea – completely saturated.

Now it does not say ‘the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD’, because that is already the case. The glory of the LORD is already everywhere. It fills the earth. The prophet Isaiah heard the Seraphim affirming this;

‘They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”’ – Isaiah 6:3 (NLT)

So the reality in the world today is not that the Glory of God is not everywhere (indeed even creation testifies of his glory), but the knowledge of that glory is what is lacking in many places. You see, when men see this glory and lack the knowledge of that glory, they (with the help of the enemy) often misinterpret it and end up ascribing that glory to other gods. This was what happened in the Lycaonian city of Lystra;

“The people saw what Paul did. They called with loud voices in the language of the people of Lycaonia, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” They said that Barnabas was Jupiter. Paul was called Mercury because he spoke more than Barnabas. The god of Jupiter was in a building near the gate leading into the city. The religious leader of that place brought cattle and flowers to the gate. He and many other people wanted to burn these as gifts in an act of worship to Paul and Barnabas.”

Paul and Barnabas had to rush out into the crowd to stop them, and then to go on to share the knowledge of that glory with these men, which led to a large number becoming worshippers of the true God.

Today there are millions worshiping all kinds of false gods around the world, ascribing to them the glory that is God’s, just because they lack the knowledge of that glory.

The Psalmist says;

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.” – Psalm 96:3 NIV

This is our call – to declare his glory among the nations. The preaching of the Gospel like Paul and Barnabas did in Lystra is how we declare that glory. It is in the face of Christ Jesus and his finished work on the cross, that men come to know the glory of God.

According to joshuaproject.net there is presently a total population of 3.14 billion people who are unreached (or unevangelised). These are nations who have had little or no chance to hear the Gospel. This then is our call – to go and declare his glory among the nations. Let those who have not heard, hear and turn to him. All the unreached nations need to hear of his glory.

If you want to find out more about how you can be actively involved in declaring his glory among the nations, please contact me by replying to this devotional.

May all the nations worship him!

‘No shaking!’

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” – Psalm 125:1 NIV

‘No shaking!’ is a popular catchphrase in Nigeria and it’s often used to affirm that the person or issue has no need to fear as no matter what happens they will prevail. As I read the words of the psalmist here;

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”

I believe that ‘No shaking’ should be the Christian’s catchphrase because just like Mt. Zion there’s no shaking for him.

When it says here that Mt Zion cannot be shaken it implies that they tried shaking it but didn’t succeed. Mt. Zion has faced all kinds of winds and storm but it cannot be shaken. It has faced all kinds of shakings but cannot be shaken, it just goes on standing forever.

You will never experience the unshakable power of God in you unless the shakings comes. Don’t fear shakings, just know that like Mount Zion you cannot be shaken. Say to yourself as you face life’s storm ‘No shaking!’. It does not mean that the pressures won’t come upon you and sometimes even seem as if it will crush you. It doesn’t mean that the wind won’t push you here and there but it means that you will not be moved from your place. It may not look like it now while the storm lasts, but you will be standing after the wind is gone. You will not be displaced from your place of destiny. Nothing will move you out of God’s love. Nothing can separate you from the purpose of God. You cannot be shaken. ‘No shaking!’.

But the key to all of this is TRUST. It is ‘those who trust in the Lord (that) are like Mount Zion’. It’s those that trust in the Lord that remain unshaken. So don’t bother about looking at the thermometer of the heat around you. Rather watch the trust-o-meter of your heart and set your heart to trust him come what may.

So I’ve given you a new way to describe the Christian life –  ‘No shaking!’.

Do You Sing In The Night?

“… God my maker, who gives songs in the night” Job 35:10 (NIV)

Songs normally follow victories. It is not natural to rejoice while our troubles last. Yet this is the privilege we have as God’s children. God gives songs to his children in the nights of life – the nights of weeping, difficulty, or trouble. These are those times when things seem impossible, when you have waited and waited and there seems to be no solution in sight. When things fail to go the way you hoped, and it seems foolish to go on hoping. Those are the times when God gives us songs.

It is like those three Hebrew young men – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who incurred the wrath of the ungodly king and had to face fire. They threw them into the midst of the fire and I believe that the first thing God gave them were songs of peace right in the midst of the fire. God didn’t stop them from entering the fire but He gave them praise songs inside a blazing furnace!

God longs to fill us with peace and praise right in the midst of life’s storms. I recall having experienced this myself sometimes in my walk with the Lord. I remember one time just before marriage when I was trying to get a new job and transfer to another town. Everything had been working well – the vacancy was there, the establishment wanted me urgently, and the process of employment had begun moving. Then all of a sudden everything froze. They couldn’t locate my file, people became unco-operative and I was running out of time, money and hope. I prayed and prayed and nothing changed. Then one day in the midst of all the trouble, when there was still no hope in sight, I heard a song inside of me. Naturally I wasn’t feeling like singing, yet here was my heart bubbling with a song of praise. So I yielded to my heart and sang out the words.

“Everything is gonna be alright in Christ,

Everything is gonna be alright in Christ,

Lift your hands and praise His name,

For eternity the same,

For I know

Everything is gonna be alright in Christ”

Things didn’t change on that day. But things did change and I found that every word of that song came to pass. If we were to go by human reasoning you would expect God to give us the songs when the morning of victory has come to replace the nights of hopelessness. Yes we must sing when the victory comes, but this kind of song we are talking about here is not the type that victory brings, rather they are the types that bring the victory. When we accept these songs from God and sing them, they go ahead to release the victory.

Jehoshaphat understood this principle of ‘singing-in’ your victory. In 2 Chronicles 20:18, 19 (NIV) immediately he and the people heard God’s promises they “….. bowed … to the ground…. in worship before the LORD ……and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with very loud voice! “. Note that their situation had not yet changed. They were still in danger. Oh, but their hearts had changed –from mourning to dancing – because they chose to believe God’s word. Note also, that their problem was not even solved the day they began singing. Yet the next day they went on singing. They were committed to praising God even though things didn’t seem to be getting better. Then, as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemies. As we receive and sing the songs God gives us in the night, we allow God to undertake for us.

The reason then that God wants to give us songs in the midst of the night is so as to help us walk in faith. He brings those songs to reassure us of His presence and to strengthen our faith. And He knows that as we sing even when we do not feel like it, we win. Please do remember to sing in the nights of life.