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Author: Ps Oswin Jamestudd

28
Sep

Looking Up To The House Of GOD

Members of the Roman Catholic and CSI communities hold a deep reverence for the sanctuary of God. They aspire to see His house adorned with grandeur. However, within the Pentecostal group, the belief is that the house of God is not confined to a physical structure; rather, we ourselves are considered temples of God. Wherever we gather, His divine presence is felt. However, it’s essential to acknowledge a crucial aspect: God designates a place for His name, which He calls “My Name”. It is a spiritual principle that as we look up to that place bearing the name of God, it is a source of pleasure to God. The Pentecostal perspective acknowledges the freedom to gather in any setting, even humble or unconventional spaces. However, the house bearing the name of God should be a place that everyone would look up to. Cultivating such an attitude towards the house of God is important. The house of God should not only be our focal point but also a place that draws the world’s attention. In the Old Testament, during the journey from Egypt to Canaan, the people erected the Tabernacle in the wilderness. All twelve tribes positioned their tents to face this tabernacle so that every home was oriented towards it. God intended for them to regard His house with utmost reverence and look up to it as it bore the name of God. He held it in a special regard. We should establish a profound connection with the house of God and take pride in the place that carries His name. We must adopt an attitude that seeks to elevate it further. God takes pleasure when He sees our hearts turned towards it. We should strive for excellence in all that we do for God. The house of God, which bears His name, should look the best. When our hearts are primed for grandeur and great deeds, our lives undergo a transformation, and blessings pour forth as we earnestly pursue this goal. God extends His blessings and recognition when we possess a heart driven by the exemplary desire to serve His name. 2 Chronicles 2: 5-6 “5The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. 6 But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?” In the verses above, Solomon emphasizes that the temple he intends to construct will be magnificent, reflecting the greatness of our God who surpasses all other gods. When we envision our God greater than any other, we look up to the House of God. It’s important to always envision the House of God as a place of excellence and unparalleled quality. Constructing a dwelling for God doesn’t imply confining Him to a specific location. Solomon used silver, gold, and precious metals in building the House of God, not to confine God but to demonstrate His greatness. Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool. However, the church serves as a place where we offer sacrifices to Him. In the Old Testament, it involved animal sacrifices, while in the New Testament, it pertains to the sacrifices of our lips through praise. We don’t go to church to meet God as He is in us. Rather, it’s a place where we come to present our offerings and extol Him, and as such, it should stand as exemplary to our God. Solomon adorned the House with gold because it symbolizes bearing the name of God, and it’s imperative that we align our minds with this profound understanding. A HIDDEN KEY TO SUCCESS 2 Chronicles 2:7 “Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled workers, whom my father David provided. Solomon’s request is for talented craftsmen to contribute their skills to the construction of the House of God. This place is dedicated to worship, and Solomon sought to adorn it with gold, silver, bronze, iron, blue yarn, and the expertise of skilled artisans. Solomon’s motivation was to transform the House of God into a pinnacle of excellence, ensuring that everyone would look up to the House of God. To live a victorious life, it’s essential for us to nurture a mindset that envisions our God much greater. This is the secret to success. 1 Kings 9:2-3 “The LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The LORD said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.” 2 Samuel 7:13 “He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” The above verses clearly state God conveying to Solomon that the temple has been consecrated, and while He doesn’t physically reside within its walls, He has put His name upon it. God holds this place in the highest regard, underscoring that the house is to be constructed specifically for the honor of His name. 2 Chronicles 2:8-10 “8Send me also cedar, juniper and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber there. My servants will work with yours 9 to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent. 10I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths e of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.” Solomon asks for the best wood and skilled people to engage

By: Ps Oswin Jamestudd|pastors blog
15
Apr

Know Your Calling

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth  and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah: 60: 1-3 In the Bible, we see that anyone who had an encounter with God was never ordinary. When God intervened in the life of Mordecai, Abraham, David, Isaac, Daniel, Joseph, Esther, and others; their life never remained ordinary. As anointed children of God, we are their descendants in their spiritual lineage. Confess: My grandfather is Mordecai, Abraham, and Isaac. My genetic makeover is from Daniel, Joseph and Jacob. How I operate is going to depend on how they operated. Devil will create situations that will make you feel irritated, tensed and behave rude. Before going in to meeting, before getting out of the house, rebuke the devil in every part of your life. Rebuke the devil to get free from every hold he has in your life. Confess: As the spirit of Jesus is in me, I will operate in the wisdom of Jesus. I will nail it today, because I am the best resource of God. In my office, at the end of the presentation, I will get a standing ovation. There is no wisdom in this world against the wisdom of Jesus. We shouldn’t be a mere Christian but a spiritual Christian who walks in power and authority. We should allow Jesus who is inside to operate outside of us. We should not block Jesus and show ourselves to the world. When we are born again, we are born as a Lion. Don’t play safe like a chicken, try to be like a Lion.  Even if we fail once or twice, we should still walk like a Lion. When we keep operating on this, one day we will become a lion. Always remember that God is inside of us. We don’t operate by sight but by faith. You may be one among a thousand other people in the company. Are you afraid of retreating? Getting lost in the crowd? If you are operating as a Lion, you will never retreat. Women might think that I am just a house maker, how does this sermon relate to me? We should remember the story of Rahab. Though she was a harlot; a prostitute, she had a vision and she was wise. She knew that the Israelites won every other battle they fought.  When the right time came, she made a deal with God. Her house was not in the middle of the city, it’s on the most vulnerable part of the city. It was on the wall. The plan of God was that the wall should fall. She desired to be an honourable woman and made a deal with the God of Israel; the whole wall fell down. But her house was spared. In the same way, every woman has a God-given vision and is called to operate on that vision. The spiritual realm operates on what we know, what we understand and what we confess. When we know our calling, when we understand our power and authority in Christ, we will start desiring supernatural, unquestionable spiritual dominion in every part of our life. The moment we get the confirmation about the greatness of our calling, we will start operating on it. We are called for greater things. May my God open our eyes to understand our calling!

By: Ps Oswin Jamestudd|pastors blog
15
Apr

Is discipline a hardship?

The Bible is filled with promises of God for his children but we barely see them manifesting in our lives. We might be holding on to promises that God gave us regarding our future or husband or children. But the situation around us might look horrible. As we wait for the promises to manifest, we get frustrated and depressed. We only see a hopeless situation around us. The Lord is here to strengthen us! In Isaiah 35:3-5 we read ,”Strengthen the feeble hands; steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Fear is the weapon of the devil. The devil uploads fear in our system like a virus, so fear keeps accumulating and takes control of the whole being. Fear is from a demonic spirit. Fear is an imaginary hopeless situation that the devil creates. When we look at the life of Israelite people; they had to go around the wall of Jericho for 7 days for 7 times to take the victory. During the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th round nothing happened. They got the victory only on the 7th day. We might be in a similar situation; the devil might say that the situation won’t change and it is hopeless. But we have to turn around and say that “something is happening inside”. This is what we call faith. We may not be able to sense what is happening but we know that we are nearing the victory. As it is written in Deuteronomy 29:2-4, “Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. With your own eyes, you saw those great trials, those signs, and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear”. Israelites saw the wonders of God, but Moses knew the ways of God. Confess: I see but I do not understand. Lord, please teach me. Though the Israelites saw the things happening to Pharaoh and his officials, they didn’t have an open mind to understand the mysteries of God. So are we! We fail to understand the mysteries of God. In order to understand this, we need to endure hardship as discipline. In Hebrew 12:7-8 it is written “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating us as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all”. Hardship is no pain or shame. It is to strengthen us. For example, when we are under the discipline of a coach; we eat, sleep and train according to his schedules. If we have to win a medal, we have to submit under a coach and train according to the instructions given by the coach. The moment we say hardship, we visualize meeting with an accident and losing a leg, heart problem, diabetes, etc. But the actual meaning in the context is different.   In Hebrew 12:9-10 we read, “Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness”. Punishment and discipline are two different sides. In schools, teachers beat us with a stick and call it discipline. But actually it is a punishment. Discipline is falling in line with certain regularities. Training ourselves in a particular way is discipline. If we are not disciplined to follow certain regularities in school or in college, we have to undergo punishment. Similarly, God disciplines us so that we will pursue and be victorious. If we are not disciplined, we will not grow spiritually. Through discipline, God shows us what we are capable and what God is capable of. Before God directed the Israelites to Canaan, he took them through the wilderness to make them understand “how big GOD is and how precious the people are”. But the Israelite’s hearts were so hardened that they didn’t like the discipline, they murmured and complained. When God led the Israelites through the wilderness, he asked them to leave with the same cloth and sandals they were wearing and not to carry anything additional. “During the forty years that the Lord led the Israelites through the wilderness, their clothes did not wear out, nor did their sandals on their feet. God provided them in every step of their walk. Discipline is to trust God and walk in faith. The Israelites had fought a lot of battles. They were not warriors. They were slaves for nearly four generations. They didn’t know how to handle the sword and spear. But God disciplined them to trust him and trained them to win the war. Let us look at the spiritual aspect of discipline. When we are born again, our spirit is liberated. Our flesh and soul remain the same. Spirit is from God and it carries our destiny. The spirit is all blooming and bubbly. Imagine that the spirit is one day old and our soul is 35 years old. The soul will obviously try to dominate the spirit in every aspect. At this point, God intervenes. The spirit has to submit to the father of spirits and confess the goodness of the Lord. When Jesus and his disciples were on the boat, Jesus was below the deck sleeping. In the middle of the night when the storm and lightning came, the disciples had a hard time to hold the boat.  When Peter and other disciples tried to control the boat, they tried everything

By: Ps Oswin Jamestudd|pastors blog
15
Apr

What is in your spirit?

The Israelite people knew that they were the chosen people of God. But, when Goliath came, what they knew did not manifest. They knew they were called to win, but the knowledge in their mind was not able to manifest when they were facing Goliath. There was this little boy David who got it in his spirit. He was anointed, he was moving with a different attitude, different vibration, and different idea because it was in his spirit. Nobody taught him karate, Kungfu and all the tricks, but it was in his spirit. David chose five stones from the brook. The king and the army of Israelites did not know that David was led by the spirit. They knew the sword fight, they knew the armour, they knew the spear fight, and they knew all the tricks. They knew the technology to calculate the height, weight, the biceps, and triceps of Goliath. For forty days, the kingdom of Israel fasted and prayed. They did their physical, chemical, biological, spiritual exercise and whatever they knew. We see that such people are not outside the church, they are in the church, they are spiritual, and they praise God and worship the Lord. They do what they could do in their physical strength. They are not bad people; they are not wicked people; they are the children of God. The difference is David was anointed and he knew in his spirit that he was called for greater things.  The moment David heard about Goliath; he knew that Goliath was his victim. Sometimes we feel it right? This is me; this place is mine; this is where I will go, this is what I will do. We feel it in our spirit, but we do not know how to move about it. I know this is mine, I know I should hold it, but I do not know how to hold it.  That is why we need to understand the experience of moving in the Holy Ghost. Jesus himself says, “The spirit is like the wind. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going”. Like that is the man who is led by the spirit. You can’t explain, you can’t understand, you can’t comprehend, you can’t believe. David did not know what he was about to do, that’s why he took five stones. He was led by the spirit to go and pick stones. What was the logic behind picking stones? No logic, he just got it in his spirit. What is the logic behind suddenly applying to a company? No logic, you just feel it. That is meant by “led by the spirit”. There is no logic or theological background behind picking five pebbles from the river. We think theology is everything and we make it so hard and rugged. As we start operating and are led by the spirit, then we understand things very differently. It is the same situation in the wall of Jericho, it is the same situation in the red sea, it is the same situation in the place called Marah, where the water was bitter. God just told Moses to cut the tree and put it down. We don’t need any distillation, titration, and filtration. Just cut the tree and put it down, that’s it. There was the great city of Jericho covered with a great wall. What are we supposed to do? Do we need a bulldozer or an atom bomb or something to break it? No, we just got to praise. So, according to your situation I am not telling you to follow Jericho method, I am not telling you to follow David method, I am not telling you to follow Daniel method. That’s the mistake of the church, that’s the problem of the church. We try to follow Jericho method, we try to follow Esther method, we try to follow Moses, Abraham method, we try to follow everybody’s method, but the Holy Ghost method is not being followed.  In your life, in your situation, you have the Holy Ghost. The spiritual law is the same, the spiritual move is the same, and God is the same. But according to your situation, your circumstances, you have the Holy Ghost who will teach you the method and let you know what you are supposed to do. You don’t have to follow anybody’s method. You are led by the spirit; do not expect everybody to agree with what you do. This is called “being led by the spirit”. If you are led by the spirit, you shall live, not by the flesh, not by the criminal tricky plans of the mind but by the spirit of the Lord. The man who is led by the spirit is open-minded, he doesn’t have to hide anything, he doesn’t have to squeeze and create things. His mind is free, his mind is relaxed, and he senses the presence of God. He has a song in his lips all the time. He walks with a spring in his feet all the time.  He is a jovial, happy, jolly guy. He is always smiling and charming. He is the one who carries and senses the presence of God.  If you are full of your mind, your soul is overtaken; you cannot sense the presence of God. You are filled with tension, anxiety, worry and fear. So, the spirit of God cannot connect to you. The cool word belongs to us but the world has taken it away and the church is so hot, tensed and angry. Be cool, no matter what the doctors say, maybe it is a malignant tumour, let them take a biopsy and prove but our trust is in the Lord. There are things that doctors can do; there are things that God can do. Do not be fearful immediately and say “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani”. We read in Romans 8:28, we know that in all things God works for

By: Ps Oswin Jamestudd|pastors blog
15
Apr

The Lord of all spirits

Christmas is all about honouring the Spirit of Jesus that came to this world. The Spirit which came to deliver, to bless, and to liberate every one of us is Jesus. There are lot of spirits active in the spiritual realm. Jesus overcame the world and is the most powerful and brightest spirit of all. When we connect to this spirit, our spirits get ignited. In Isaiah 9:6 we read, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace”. The name Lord to Jesus is given for a reason and it is because He Reigns and He Rules the whole earth. Jesus is the Lord of all spirits. There are lot of spirits in this world like the evil spirits, satan and demons. God is also a Spirit. “But which Spirit to follow?” Human beings cannot live in this world without the support of a spirit. The evil or the demonic spirits of the world dominate us. We can decide to worship and follow one particular spirit. We can choose to worship the evil spirits or the spirit of Jesus. People choose to worship a spirit and call it as God. Many people follow different spirits in the world. Why do they follow? They follow, because, these spirits have some power beyond the human level. These spirits come and connect to the human beings. Why do they connect? They connect, because they need a soul. Without the soul, the spirit has no power. Only human beings have soul, mind and flesh. All the other spirits do good to people to some extent and have made them believe that they are good and show themselves as Gods. People believe them because they receive certain good things from them. When they provide blood sacrifices to these spirits, they take control over the souls. People might be making a lot of money, but some where they are losing their energy. People get deceived by the earthly things and end up being cursed and put in darkness for eternity. Today, we have good news! The Spirit of Jesus is Alive. He is the Spirit of light and life. Jesus is the spirit that gives an eternal and everlasting life.  “Every day, we need to make a conscious decision to submit to the Spirit of Jesus, else we will slip in submitting to the other spirits.” As we live in the earthen vessel called flesh and we know that flesh is always against Spirit. (Galatians 5:17) When we consciously surrender to the Spirit of Jesus every day, the truth, goodness and brightness of the Spirit of Jesus gets imparted in us. As I always say, “Everything is Spiritual.” If a man dies a righteous death, the Spirit of Jesus will come to take his soul. But if a man dies as a wicked man with sin and karma, the evil spirits will take his soul under their control.                Only the Spirit of Jesus comes to create. All other spirits come to manipulate, steal,kill and destroy. “What do they steal? Your energy, joy, peace and happiness from your family, whereas the Spirit of Jesus creates happiness, Joy and Peace in your life.” At the mention of the name Jesus, every other spirit trembles. When he died on the cross, His Spirit fought every other demonic spirits in hell and rose victorious on the third day. This is the reason; Jesus is called “The Lord of All Spirits”. He is not just God but “The Lord of all Spirits”. If you are wondering, where is it mentioned in the bible, about the Spirit of Jesus, here are the references. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9 “They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.” 1Peter 1:11 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6                “You can discern and overcome anything spiritually if you have this revelation that Jesus is Lord and He reigns forever.” If you confess that your soul is submitting to the spirit of Jesus , no other evil spirits can ever defeat you! You can live a victorious,joyous and peaceful life in the name of Jesus.Amen!!

By: Ps Oswin Jamestudd|blogs