A Word from Bruce

If when I employ someone I think that I am doing them a favour by employing them, then I will have little or no regard for their well-being. If however, I think that I really need the person that I am employing, then I will tend to take more care of how I treat that person.

Principles are thrown through the window sometimes, as persons will steal or act improperly but will still maintain their jobs, either because they are deemed irreplaceable or they might be news carriers.

Clear rules and guidlines must be laid down and followed, ensuring there is no victimization and that there is equity and fairplay always. There is also a high degree of collusion between managers and workers to rob the companies they work for.

Father I bless you and thank you for guiding us this day, Amen.

There are pastors who believe that if they build a church it belongs to themselves. Even if it was their ‘own’ money that they had used, the church would still belong to God. For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. Ps.24:1, 1Cor10:26.

Some have gone further by collecting monies on God’s behalf and have used it to set up businesses in their own names, with the hope of passing these to their wives and children when they die. It is so easy for us to dishonour God.

Some of us even believe that the gifts that God so freely give to us, is to be used to bring glory to ourselves. To the extent that, if for instant, I pray for someone and that person is healed by God, I would then feel that the person owes me for helping him out, nonsense!

None of us will ever be able to repay God for the possibility of eternal life with Him and all that we do for Him, we will still owe Him, as a value cannot be put on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We have been schooled extensively in how to get persons attached to us, addicted to us as leaders for selfish reasons, instead of hooking each person up to God fully, encouraging them to have that personal relationship with Him and teaching them how to grow their faith.

None of us can grow for any of us. To put it another way, we all have to grow for ourselves. This is not to discredit the help that we give to each other. We grow when we decide to depend on God, when we exercise our faith in seemingly impossible situations and God responds. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Rev.12:11.

Father we come against every deception, every guile, every controlling attachments in Jesus name. For if we are the seed that have been sown in the kingdom of God, then we cannot be quickened, nor can we grow and bring forth anything good unless we die. 1Cor15:36, St.John12:24. Dying is a continuous process that brings us closer to perfection.

If we do not get it right, we might not reach anywhere. For except the Lord builds the house, he that labours, labours in vain…. How we were brought up, how we were socialized or even our world view can rob us of the independence or openness needed to serve God properly.

Say for instance if we grow up with persons who lie constantly in jest or lie to get themselves out of situations, then we become more accommodating to lies and we might even see it as a navigational tool. In a case like this a lying spirit would have little difficulty using such a person on it’s behalf.

If we have issues of sex, where maybe because of abuse we become addicted to sex as I was in my younger days, then we must confront these situations in our lives and break it with the help of God! You see sexual demons, and especially those of sodomy are extremely hard to get rid of because they bring pleasures to the flesh and the flesh loves pleasure.

God sees all the wrong things in our foundations and tries to remove them but many times we refuse to even allow Him. There is a limit to which we can say “God will understand” because if He is angered sufficiently, He will destroy everything, even di puss an di dawg (the cat and the dog).

If we repent and change our ways, then God will repent also of the things He was about to do. Check out the Jonah story, even the animals were made to fast!

For the most part, we all know what it is we are doing wrong and for the things that we are not seeing now, let us look and listen a bit more intensely.

Father we pray that the hearts will not be hardened, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

How many times have we gone before God to say that effectual fervent prayer and have failed? Tiredness and sleep have gotten the best of us or we just can’t focus. Even when we push, instead of a roar, out comes a whimper!

We drag ourselves along for months until hurricane season. We are threatened with a direct hit and that’s when we pray. It sounds like we are about to loose our roof, and that’s when we pray.

A child who is doing exams is freaking out under the stress, that’s when we pray. We are about to loose a husband or a wife to cancer, that’s when we pray.

Praying to and trusting God through the most difficult times of our lives is never easy, but the more we do it, the easier it becomes and the more at peace we are in the storm.

The very things we reject, God will put us through them and we will have to surrender and trust Him! Would any of us like to drive our vehicle without insurance coverage for months, or having to drive our vehicle for months with the gas mostly below empty, knowing that it could run out of fuel, but trusting God that it will not. And each time fuel is added, the gauge goes up to empty or a little above empty. That’s when we would pray a lot.

Without God stretching us to the limit, we will never know what is possible. Scared? Don’t be, He will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus!… Jesus!… Jesus!.. We love you Lord. Amen.

Father, let our every thought and action be pure and that we will apply them to ourselves liberally in Jesus’ name.

To whom much is given, much is expected and the cattle on a thousand hills is for real, as the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. If we exercise our anointings they will grow, thereby enabling us further.

We accumulate wealth and other possessions in this life by various means. The scriptures says that all good things come from above. The same thing that is meant for good for some people, it is meant for bad for others. For example, wealth to some means helping others and is seen as a vehicle to generally do good, while others see wealth as a means to control and corrupt.

We accumulate things by exercising our faith and by favours from God. We gather together by sheer hard work and perseverance. So should we less care or mistreat the things that we have? No way!!

We have all had to borrow from time to time and that is OK, but there are persons who have perfected the art of borrowing. These persons will not seek to own certain things as long as they can get it to borrow, these persons will borrow the same or similar things for years.

So if we have gone to God and have achieved by faith or by favour, we cannot dishonour God by destroying the very things He has given us, nor can we allow others to destroy them, not even other Christians!!

Bless You my God, my King, my Saviour, Amen.

There are times when we think of and pray for a powerful release in our finances but nothing happens. We know in our hearts that we want to do so much for God, and we know that God knows this also, but still nothing happens…… for weeks, for months or even for years.

Lord, maybe that is how you want us to live, simple and humble like Jesus Christ, exercising our faith in all things, living by Your grace which is sufficient. But Lord, what about the bills to pay and our children to go to school??

Maybe we missed that turn You took and so we are on the wrong road. Could it be disobedience or pride that is preventing? Could it be that we have tainted ourselves or that we have allowed others to taint us?

Have You taken down the hedge from around us and have allowed old leviathan to severely test us? Are You teaching us to persevere, to endure, to overcome? Our works shall be tried by fire, and if it is not good, it shall be burnt like stubble.

For unless you instruct us to spoil the enemy’s camp, then we shall touch nothing ill-gotten or tainted. Father we continue to wait and to listen and we ask how long? Father, we bless Your holy, precious name, amen.

For it is giving that we receive. …Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So when we forgive, we are then forgiven, if we ask.

In order for us to attain the best promises of God, we must qualify ourselves. In Isaiah 54:17, God says to his servants, no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rise against you in judgement, you shall condemn (God has given us the authority).

If we fast as in Isaiah 58:6, then when we say Lord, He will say here I am, Isaiah 58:9. It gets even better in Isaiah 58:12, where we will become the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

When the woman obediently gave of her last meal to Elijah, then the miracle of the meal and the oil happened! 1Kings 17:10-16.

Job suffered a great lost, but God only restored him (twice as much), after he had prayed for his three friends, Job 42:10. We are all guilty of focusing on ourselves too much. We have tried so hard to be different (to glorify ourselves), that we have used church doctrine

to separate ourselves from God.

If the things we do are not grounded in the word, then we are bound to go wrong. Let us

try doing James 1:17. Father strip away every false doctrine and help us to embrace Your word in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The best of advice are sometimes not taken because it is given at the wrong time (when persons are grieving or when they are agonizing over an error they made). Sometimes we need to kill the urgency of the spirit (be patient).

We have to literally force ourselves to remember the things we need to do to bring change to our selves. We have to die daily. Jesus we thank you for interceding on our behalf.

As parents, we need to help our children select their friends from as early as primary (elementary) school. This should not be done as a means to segregate, nor should we be training them to be pompous or selfish. This is early training for them to recognize good and bad traits in persons, so they can make the right choices.

Surely we do not want our children being influenced by other children who have been exposed to blue movies, drugs, serious abuse of all types or other antisocial behaviour.

We must encourage our children to become persons of integrity, to speak the truth (no matter the cost), to be honourable (their word must be good), to communicate well, to be leaders, to give their hearts to God, to be thinkers, to seek the truth, otherwise they will fall in the group which believes that Jesus Christ will return to this earth on the 21st May 2011, when Jesus Christ Himself does not know this. Matt.24:36 and Mark 13:32.

Our children must be taught how to be thrifty (to save from their allowances to buy gifts for instant), they must be taught how to be contented with little (in lack) and how to share with others in need. These instances will teach them to exercise their faith in God and to become over-comers.

We must teach our children not to be rude but rather that they should seek to make a positive difference in every situation, to be warriors for God! If we train our children properly, they will impact their peers positively. Our country and the world will benefit.

Father bless our children with good sharp minds. That they will use whatever you give them Lord, for the betterment of others and themselves in Jesus name, amen.

Our lives on this earth will never be perfect but can always be made better. Ever notice how as soon as we fix one situation, another one arises? The initial reaction is usually one of rejection which leads to miserableness and stress. The sooner we accept any given situation as is and start looking for solutions, the quicker we will come out of them. Stress cripples the mind and body and therefore makes a solution less likely.

We must try to see each situation in our lives as a test which we must overcome. Though it is difficult, let us try to enjoy each test…. The word of God says that He chasteneth whomever He loves! So, is not wicked God wicked, it is because He loves us. Why do we chastise our own children?

Just as how God uses the things physical (parables) to teach us of the things spiritual, He uses our relationship with our children to show us the relationship He wants to have with us.

Father we thank you for every test that You have ever put us through, although we fear and we tremble. Father we pull the courage and thank You now in Jesus name, amen.