Solly M

Of lately I have been posting articles with biblical verses however, this is different.

Hello. My name's Solly M - if you haven't picked that up already or if you are reading from an RSS. Recently I have been building a personal walk with Jesus after I had been in religious discussions with friends which made me realize that I am still a child spiritually.

However, this article is partially about that but mostly about how I have bridged my communication with God and have developed a personal relationship with Him. As the title say, "I have friends in Higher Places".

Contrary to popular believes God doesn't want us to fear Him. The illusion of the cruel God who will punish you if you don't fear Him is... exactly that - an illusion. God has, and is continuing to, invite us walk side by side with Him as our personal friend. Through Jesus God demonstrated, and always called us, His children. He is a Father to us, a loving and caring Father. He is not cruel nor will He threaten and/or force us to love Him. In fact He has given us the choice to regard Him as our Father the same way He regards us as His children.

His love endures forever.

Christ Jesus demonstrated that as humans it is possible to have that relationship with God. Yes Jesus is God but when He was here on earth as a human, He had characteristics of a human, thus making Him no different from us, except His attitude and knowledge, both of which if we walk like Him we can gain. He was our mentor and still remain our mentor. He referred to our Father as His Father too, thus making us personally responsible to building a proper relationship with God, just like Jesus did.

Today Jesus resides in heaven, in Higher Places. He left behind the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Holy Spirit is also God, and referred to Jehovah as His Father, making Him our mentor too. Also, in Higher Places. If you make God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit your friends and mentors, you will surely experience total blessing of having friends in Higher Places.

May the Living God grant you according to your hearts desires and may your relationship with Him grow everyday. May He shelter you and feed you according to His desire and may your hearts be filled with everlasting joy. In jesus name, forever and ever Amen.

In the bible, God has given us ways of praying and especially having our prayers answered. There are many other books that touches on the subject too.

Matthew 6 from verse 9 teaches how to pray. The widely common prayer requests God's "Will to be done on earth as it is in heaven" among other things.

John 16:24 Jesus says "Until now you have not asked anything in my name, ask you will receive and your joy will be complete". That's an assurance of answered prayer there, in our faces. What more do we want? But this verse calls for faith (Read Hebrew 11:1 for the definition of faith according to the bible).

When you are not certain if you have enough faith, turn to Proverbs 3:5-6 and you will understand that you need to trust God with all your heart...

How often have we prayed, day after day, for the same thing? What do you think that means? I have read other books talking about the force behind a repeated prayer but I will tell you this: if you constantly asking God the same thing over and over again, you are basically suggesting that you don't trust in Him and/or you have to remind Him. This suggests that your faith in Him is limited and you also don't trust that your prayer has been answered.

Suppose then we have seen that and we trust God completely. Question is, when are our prayers actually being answered? John 16:24 says "... (1)ask (2) receive and (3) your joy will be complete". When will you receive? At the time of your prayer? No. By the time you kneel to pay you have already asked God. You have already stated your needs. You have already received. And at the same time your joy SHOULD be complete. One could then say it eliminates praying. No? Let's continue.

When you pray with an understanding that your prayer has been answered... let's replace prayer in this regard with request... when you pray with an understanding that your REQUEST has been answered, your prayer then becomes a prayer (not of request because you know your request has been answered by) of gratitude. You then become thankful that God has granted you what you need. Also with that you have to remember that a prayer of gratitude is NOT a miracle maker. You won't be creating things from thin air because you believe.

You cannot ask for a house and expect to see a house appear out of thin air. No. When you pray, when you request from God, understand your request. A person praying for a house what does he/she really need? A House? No. They need shelter. And God can provide shelter in a split second. But God won't build you a house. NEVER. When you have a big family and you want to buy them food, and ask God to give you money, what do you really NEED? Money? Definitely not. You NEED/REQUIRE food. And God can give you food in a split second. Try not to request the "wants" but the "needs". That way your JOY WILL ALWAYS BE COMPLETE.

Think about these things. Acknowledge God. Trust God. And prosper.

Solly M at work, thinking...

This post is specifically based on Genesis 1 and John 1.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen 1:1, "In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." John 1:1

Now I ask you brethren, which beginning was in the beginning? Clearly God created the heavens and earth... ...the Word was God. So the Word created the heavens and earth. LOL. John's beginning happened before Genesis beginning. You must also look at it in this fashion, that Genesis talks about the beginning of life as we know it (on earth) while John talks about the beginning of the existence of the Word (not really the beginning of the Word but events leading to the Word coming to earth).

The Word became flesh and dwelleth among people. We know the story of God becoming human or, more clearly, of Jesus being born as human. Jesus was made flesh and was born of the virgin Mary. That means Mary didn't sleep with a man to conceive. Nor did her egg meet a man's sperm. No. The Holy Ghost planted an already fertilised egg inside Mary. Otherwise Jesus could have been half human.

Linking the two story we can pick up that Jesus is the Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God. This also tells us that Jesus is God, not the Father but the Son of the Father. So God the Father (Jehovah) and God the Son (Jesus) are two different beings, yet work as one.

Ask not what the world can do for you
But rather what you can do for the world
Great leaders have spoken
Words full of encouragement and
Words full of promises too.
What do we have to offer?
Poor things like us left without hope
Leaders talking about the Summit and 1GOAL
What do we have to offer?
We speak out by signing petitions
But at the end the word is theirs
We, poor things, left with the consequences
Having to pick us what's left of it
Our own leaders living lives so luxurious
But without such as their riches
What do we have to offer?
Eventually their systems empowers them
Those that have led them from the beginning
Leading only to see themselves gain
Telling us "the hand that receives is the hand that offers"
With tears in my eyes and a lump of sorrow in my throat I ask
What do we have to offer?