Christmas: God Moved First

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, – Gal 4:4

I know we say it all the time, but the Bible doesn’t really say that we can move God by our Faith, does it? It does say that faith pleases Him (Heb 11:6), and our Lord was impressed when Gentiles exhibited it (Mt 8:10; 15:28), but to say that it moves Him is misleading. The last time I checked, it was the MOUNTAIN that faith was supposed to move, not God, (Mt 17:20; 21:21).

Stop thinking you’re going to move God with your “audacious” faith. Before you ever thought of that prayer point, that miracle, that need… before you even got Born Again, God has already moved and provided it for you. That’s an implication of the Christmas Story: God was the first to move.

The “Messiah” wasn’t Israel’s idea, it was God’s. Salvation wasn’t man’s request, it was God’s provision. Adam never asked for an atoning sacrifice, and you never needed to tell God you needed deliverance from sin, the solution was made available before your saw the need.

That big prayer request of yours may require bold and audacious faith to you, but it isn’t bold and audacious for God. Not just because He’s Almighty and can do anything; but because, well, He thought of it first. It’d be absurd if Adam was trying to use faith to make God give him a wife, when it was God that noticed he needed one.

Beloved, whether it’s a baby or a business, your marriage or your ministry, etc. know that we’re not trying to get anything from God, He’s the one offering His gifts to us.

Even the faith for the miracle is a gift from Him. When we stop seeing our faith as a way to make God do something, and instead see it as a key given to us by Him with which we can access all of His graciously-provided bounties, we’ll stop trying to move Him and move the mountains instead.

“If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?” – Rom 8:32  (MSG)

May the blessings of God be upon you and yours this Christmas, and always.

AMEN.

GREG ELKAN

Christmas Faith Lesson: It May Not Look Like It

...wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. – Lk 2:12

Lk 2:21-39 tells us of two different persons – a man (Simeon) and an old woman (Anna) – who had both been waiting and praying for the coming of the Messiah prophesised centuries ago. For Simeon, it was even prophesied that he would not see death before he saw Yahweh’s Messiah! So we can imagine his excitement when the Holy Spirit told him one day to go to the Temple because the Messiah child was going to be there.

Note, however, that the baby Simeon handled at the Temple was exactly that – a baby. There was no Harry-Potter like scar on his forehead, no hint of lightening in his eyes, no electricity cursing through your body as you lifted him up… no nothing. If Simeon had let go of the baby, it wouldn’t have executed a perfect backflip and landed on its feet. No. Jesus would have smacked his head on the hard Temple pavement and pierced the air with crying.

Alternately, put yourself in Anna’s shoes. Decades of fasting and praying, only to be shown a baby. “Great! It’s a fine, chubby boy. Now what?”

Beloved, the beginning of your miracle may not look like it. The prophesied ministry, the dream marriage, the envisioned business enterprise, etc. may not arrive spectacularly. The picture you saw so vividly in your heart may not look like what you’re seeing in your hand: you were expecting to see God in the flesh, but what you see is just flesh – and a rather vulnerable one at that.

Others may have had a faith-boost to help them. The shepherds in the field wouldn’t have had a problem believing that Jesus was the Messiah; not after all that spectacular display and angelic fanfare. But most of the time, we find ourselves like Simeon and Anna; having nothing to hold on to except God’s sure Word, and a blob of bouncy flesh.

This is where we can learn from them. They didn’t act disappointed; instead they both rejoiced and celebrated the baby as the fulfilment of the prophecy. Your miracle has already started, Beloved. Like the babe in a manger, it need not look spectacular; or even miraculous (Simeon and Ana were unaware the babe was virgin-born), but it is it. Celebrate and believe in the little currently in your hand, and see the great and powerful things that will follow.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

What You Need To Conceive Your Miracle

“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground”; – Mar 4:26

When Mary reminded the Angel Gabriel that she was a virgin and thus unable to give birth to this “Jesus” that he talked about, he replied that she’ll conceive because the Holy Spirit shall come upon her. However, Scripture gives us no record that anything dramatic happened to Mary after the angel left; all we do know was that a few weeks later she was walking around with a bump, (Lk 1:35;41). That means that, for all practical purposes, a baby started forming inside Mary the moment she believed what the angel said!

In explaining the Parable of the Sower much later in Lk 8:11, Jesus said “The seed is the word of God…” Even the Apostle Peter in 1Pt 1:23 compared the word of God to an incorruptible “seed”. What happened to Mary literally is what happens to us metaphorically; the faith for your miracle comes when the seed of the Word of God is planted in your heart; because “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).

An expectation for a miracle that was not provoked or instigated by exposure to God’s Word is probably just daydreaming or fantasy. It’s God’s will that everyone lives a good life (Jn 10:10); but your good life is not my good life, so your prayer point cannot be my prayer point. It’s under the atmosphere of the word of God that our faith is provoked to specifically believe for “the things that are freely given to us of God” (1Co 2:12).

And just as a woman mustn’t expose herself to just about any man in the physical, you mustn’t expose your heart to just about any “word”. Real, God-inspired miracles are only birthed in an atmosphere of faith-filled, grace-based words of the New Covenant.

So, Beloved, “Let the word of CHRIST dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16); read the word daily, listen to good messages, read grace-filled books and devotionals, etc... and watch your spiritual life birth a miracle that’ll be just as spectacular (at least for your level) as a virgin giving birth to a baby.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

What Christmas Teaches About Faith

...has He spoken, and shall He not make it good? – Num 23:19

Admittedly, the Christmas story is full of wonderful metaphors and rich symbolism. And among the myriad of lessons that we can draw from it is one that’s most profound: the lesson of faith.

Faith is vital to life. As Believers, everything that pertains to life and godliness has been provided for us in Christ (Eph 1:3; 2Pe 1:3,4); all we have to do is receive it by faith. Each one of us has something that we’re believing God for; a life-transforming miracle that we expect to happen in our life based on a scriptural revelation, a word of knowledge, a prophecy, etc.

Whatever it is, you need faith to birth that miracle; that’s why the Christmas story is inspiring and encouraging. Because if there’s one thing it tells us, it’s that God keeps to His word.

It started with the promise to Eve in Eden, then through Moses, David, Isaiah and the prophets. For years, the Israelites heard and heard the prophecy that a Messiah was going to come to deliver them from their enemies. Judges came and left, kings came and left, prophets came and left; as a matter of fact, there was even no prophetic voice for 400 years before Angel Gabriel came.

And just like that, a virgin girl in one small town conceived, and a 4,000-year-in-the-making prophecy began to unfold.

Beloved, you may be going through a period of silence right now. It may look as if nothing is happening. You may feel as though God has reneged on His promise to you. But like the open-eyed prophet, Balaam, declared “God is not like people. He tells no lies. He is not like humans. He doesn’t change his mind. When he says something, he does it. When he makes a promise, he keeps it,” (Num 23:19 GW).

Go back to your prayer closet today and pray about that long sought after miracle, for as sure as the first Christmas, it will surely come to pass.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The (Not) True Meaning of Christmas

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested...” – 1Jn 3:8

It’s Christmas Season again! Time for carols and cantatas, hymns and hollies, plastic doves and mistletoes, rice cookies and roast Turkeys… No, right?

We’re all aware of the perennial debate Christians hold over the blatant commercialisation of the festival that’s supposed to commemorate the birth of Christ and how it’s been turned into a merchandising pretext. We can’t also pretend to be ignorant of the attempt to secularise the Christmas holiday (literally “Holy Day” in Old English) into an inoffensive, politically correct end-of-year festival.

Nevertheless, aren’t some of our counters in reminding people of the “True meaning” of Christmas just as scripturally incorrect and  spiritually effete? How many times have you heard people say that Christmas is about “giving”? Or about “selfless love”, or about “family”, or about “caring for the downtrodden of society”, etc.? The Bible never said any of those things. That’s like saying your father sent you to school to demonstrate paternal responsibility, or to show parental love, etc. If you asked him, he’d more than likely tell you he sent you to school to get you EDUCATED, period! Whatever mushy reasons you take away from his actions is left to you.

Similarly, if we asked our Father (the One in Heaven this time), to tell us the reason why Jesus was born two thousand years ago, would He reply that it was to exemplify “human love and sacrifice”?

NO! He would say to us what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, the Christ Child was born to save us from our SINS! (Mat 1:21).

Granted, that probably wouldn’t earn you cheers at the office End-of-Year Dinner, but it does help for us to at least be aware of the distinction between a moral derivative lesson from and the “Real meaning of” CHRISTMAS.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN