Reality Shift: Bible Sermons

Isn’t it interesting how the people who knew us from day one are often the ones who despise us the most in success? Here is the context, Jesus was preaching in Nazareth, and in Luke 4:21, it says And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Right after this, the people questioned him, and he replied, Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. It’s a hard lesson that we all have to learn, that those who know you from the start may, and often don’t want you to prosper more than them. Maybe it’s because they are offended that you have done better than them after knowing you for so long? 

No one truly knows, but one thing is for certain, don’t worry about those who don’t like you, and be careful of who you tell your plans to, even if they react positively, they could secretly be praying for your demise. 

Stay discerning my friends and may God guide you to meet the right friends in your future. Comment amen if you agree!

Psalm 84:11 reads:

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord will give grace and glory;

No good thing will He withhold

From those who walk uprightly.

Oh what a beautiful exhortation of our Lord! God will do so much good for us, and more, on the condition that we walk uprightly, which is to allow the fruits of the Spirit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self Control

To show through our actions, and to obey His commands when He nudges us to do something. 

Did you know that delayed obedience is the same as disobedience? While it is better than outright rebellion, we must be aware that God has a timing when He tells us to do something. So if we want the full blessings of Psalm 84:11, then we must be quick to obey our God, and follow the guidance of The Holy Spirit. Amen and follow for more inspirational videos!

God tests us in many ways on our walk with Him. Whether it’s through allowing the devil to give us hardships to see if we will hold on to Him regardless of the situation… or even abundance to see if we will abandon and forget His goodness and mercy that allowed it to happen…. as every good and perfect gift comes from God. 

One unique test God describes in Deuteronomy Chapter 13 verses 1 to 3 is about signs and wonders. We have to remember that just because the person says spiritual things to us, relevant to our situation, doesn’t mean that they were sent from God. The verses read:

If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Nowadays, they will come under the disguise as a Christian, a pastor or a prophet and the other god in modern day scenarios is themself. They want you to rely on them for the word from God, which is a demonic word, and not on your own spiritual senses. This is why we need to have a personal relationship with God and not rely on the prayer life of others to hear from God. He speaks to all of us, we just have to read, pray and use discernment to listen! Amen and follow for more inspirational videos!

Luke 4 verse 13 reads: Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

How insightful a verse this is! Even Jesus wasn’t free from the devil’s temptation, and the verse shows the audacity of satan to lie in wait until an opportune time to try again. 

Jesus already said that in John 13 verse 16 that we as servants are not greater than the Master which is Himself. So that means that whatever happens to Jesus, we should expect that and worse. So ultimately, if the Holy One of Israel, the only One who was born and lived without sin, was tempted by satan more than once, and was still approached by him again during an opportune time, should we expect that we can just say ‘devil go away’ and he will never come back again? 

The Bible says in James 4 verse 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And indeed he will flee, but satan considers that a tactical retreat rather than a complete loss. So always, always be prepared through reading the Bible, prayer, fasting and fellowship with true Christians so that you can resist the fiery darts of the enemy and live a life God will be proud of. Amen and follow for more inspirational videos!

Do you know that if we are fearful, we are directly disobeying God? It clearly says in Joshua 1:9, which reads: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

If you read Deuteronomy chapter 28, you’ll see the reward for obedience and the punishment for disobedience. If you are fearful, that means that you are doubting God's ability to fight for you. Don’t you know that your fight isn’t physical, but mental? It’s not about how strong willed you are either, but rather how much you trust in God. The mental anguish may spring up and hurt, but your battle is to be still and continue to trust that God will deliver you. It’s to continue to pray no matter how hard, and holding God to His promises by meditating on, and praying the scriptures and not just reading it. 

Increase your love for God, and He will reveal Himself to you in all your circumstances. Believe it and receive it! Amen!

You know, if you have GOD on your side, that He will do everything we need before we do anything? Psalm 85 verse 13 sums it up perfectly, which says:

Righteousness will go before HIM,

And shall make HIS footsteps our pathway.

Imagine, GOD’s footsteps are our pathway. Wherever GOD first treads, that’s where we go. This promise of GOD is echoed throughout various chapters in The Bible and signifies the importance of waiting on The LORD. 

We always need to move at GOD’s pace, never faster and definitely not slower. This is because GOD has a perfect timing. Anywhere that GOD sets HIS foot upon will prosper, so wait on The LORD, be obedient to HIS command and HE will set your paths straight. HE will defeat your enemies before you and prosper you with honour, riches and life. Follow for more inspirational videos!

Godly instruction brings life. and if we refuse to listen to it. we risk bringing ourselves much unneeded misfortune. Proverbs 10 verse 17 says it clearly…

He who keeps instruction is in the way of life,

But he who refuses correction goes astray.

It’s really as simple as that. Remember… we are spirits as much as we are humans, and one of the most important things to note about spirits is that they don’t work in isolation, demon or angel they don’t act alone…. Even God Himself has The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. So who are we to think that we can do things by ourselves? Who are we to think that our own self-counsel is the best? That is a foolish man talking.

When we learn to accept correction with humility and grace, we become exalted through the wisdom we receive from it. James 4:6 says: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. So always remember, even when it may burn, swallow your pride and look at Godly correction with wisdom and understanding so you may be exalted in due course. Amen!

Do not be fooled: Bad friends will ruin good habits.

Yep, you heard that right. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33 is speaking directly to our spirit with this one. We often like to think that we can keep the same friends when we become a born again Christian through Jesus Christ. But this is entirely false. While I’m not suggesting to simply block your old friends, you now have to be very discerning when interacting with them.

Remember, if they are living in the world and you aren’t, there is going to be a conflict of interest when it comes to certain activities. You will be different from them, set apart, and then you’ll see who your true friends are. Will they accept that you’ve changed and support you anyway? Will they be inspired by your commitment to follow Christ? Or will they try to take you away from Christ?

Proverbs 13 verse 20 says Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

2 Corinthians 6 verse 14 also says Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

So remember, be careful with the environment you are in. It’s better to wait for God to give you better friends through prayer than to make your current friends work and they take you away from eternal life if your conviction isn’t strong enough. Stay blessed!

Proverbs 9 verse 7 gives us profound wisdom regarding our tendency to want to correct others, even out of good will. We have to be discerning when choosing who to correct. The verse reads: He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself,

And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.

Why is this book of wisdom saying such a thing? Well, let’s think about it rationally, A scoffer is someone who laughs and speaks about a person or idea in a way that shows that they think that person or idea is stupid or silly. This person purposefully doesn’t care about whether or not your correction is right or wrong, their primary focus is not to improve themself, but rather to pull you and others down. Correcting such a person will only put them on your bad side, causing rumors and lies about you to be shared as revenge. 

It’s a similar problem for correcting a wicked person. Someone who will take your correction as an offense will aim to get revenge as well. This puts your goodwill at risk of doing you worse than the person good. 

With this in mind, It is wise before correcting someone, to discern whether they are full of wisdom and understanding so they can accept it with grace. If not, hold your tongue. Let us always exercise Godly wisdom when interacting with others and not be hasty to correct someone who doesn’t want correction. Stay blessed and follow for more inspirational videos!

The story of Perez, Jesus’ ancestor, is a testament to how God’s way of operating is not logical for us. Before getting into the story, let’s understand where he is coming from. Perez is the twin brother of Zerah, who were sons of Tamar and Judah. Tamar was the widow of Judah’s eldest son, Er. However, because of his wickedness, God killed him before he could have children. Afterwards, Judah asked his second son, Onan, to provide offspring for Tamar so that the family  line could continue, but Onan performed coitus interruptus, also known as the pull out method.

His action displeased God and so, like his older brother, God killed him. At this point, Judah promised his youngest son, Shelah, but didn’t fulfill his promise. To make a long story short, Tamar become pregnant by Judah through deception after Judah’s wife had died, and thus Perez and Zerah was born.

Perez means to breach or burst forth, because in Genesis, Zerah’s hand had come out first during the birthing process, and the midwife had tied a scarlet thread around his hand. However, ultimately Perez came out first, completely disrupting natural order. 

In a similar way, God often uses the last to be first, and the first to be last, Matthew 20:16. In this story, God not only used someone who used very questionable methods to get pregnant, but also a son who others would consider a cheat for forcing themself out first after their brother already claimed the firstborn title. God’s plans outweigh our plans, and the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest man, 1 Corinthians 1:25. 

Let us take hope and courage in the fact that God doesn’t look at what the world looks at when calling us to His purpose. Stay blessed and follow for more inspirational videos!