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“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever“

1 Cor 9:25

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Heb 12:1

Everyone in this world, are running towards their destiny. This world is filled with sins and temptations. Everyday go to the Lord’s presence and ask him to cleanse your heart with blood of Jesus.

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32

It requires a lot of patience and endurance to take control over your thoughts, words and deeds.Take control over your desires on the things of the world.

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. Luke 21: 34

Allow Holy Spirit to take control over your mind and thoughts so your mind will be renewed. Allow Him to correct your intentions and desires.

Yield yourself under the hands of God and trust him completely. He will correct you.

As you learn to humble yourself and allow God to correct you, God will consider you as His own son and He will lead you. It may be painful sometimes but later you will reap the peaceable fruit of righteousness as mentioned in Hebrews 12:11.

There was a time, I did not finish my task on time and I got condemned for it. I felt very bad and prayed about it. Then the Lord insisted me saying, “You should realize your mistake. You should not expect others to show mercy when you are not diligent in your work”. Then I realized my mistake and repented. Lord blessed me with a promotion in my work. Similarly, I got rebuked by a child of God for a mistake I committed. When I humbled myself and accepted corrections, Lord taught me leadership qualities. Thank you, Jesus!

Sol. Benjamin Philip

 “In majestic triumph you overthrow your foes; Your anger blazes out and burns them up like straw”.

Exodus 15:7

While meditating on Exodus 15:7 the Spirit of the Lord led me to Ephesians 6:11-13

Yes indeed we are not fighting against human beings but against cosmic powers of this dark agewhich stole my youthful 13 precious years.

I was born in a Mar Thoma Keralite Christian family and married to a Roman Catholic. Didn’t know the Savior for 45 years till the Lord called me 14 years back in 2007. I was one of the sheep lost in the woods of deep rooted unforgiving and bitterness, unknowingly getting involved in the cold war between my mother and sister-in-law (only brother’s wife) and wasted 13 long painful years in futility.

Then I got associated to AOJ almost three years back. FRP (Forgiveness and Reconciliation Program) Gift School enabled removal of stronghold of unforgiveness and bitterness.

How true it is said in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the evil God of this world has blinded the spiritual eyes of peoples and stopped up their ears.

Further God pointed towards Deuteronomy 9:3 which says

“Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so, you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly. As the Lord has said to you.”

 So God’s cleaning up has to become a forerunner before we start the work.

Exodus 14:14

“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

Numbers 33:52

“Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places”.

So God helped me first of all in cleansing the inner temple of my heart 24×7 so that I keep myself worthy of His calling by driving out all the idols in my life like my pride, position, power, status, achievements, self-righteousness, envy, jealousy, one up man ship, unforgiving, bitterness, critical condemnatory judgemental spirit etc. Everything is only His Grace.

This leading firmly impressed upon my heart to remain firmly on God’s rest (Matthew 11:28-30,  James 4:7)

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

 in the temple of my heart as a speck of dust under Lord’s feet i.e. his foot stool. (Matthew 5:35)

PRAISE AND GLORY ONLY TO LORD JESUS

Sol. Jasmine James

” Put à knife to your throat, if you are given to gluttony”

Proverb  23: 2

Here the Ruler brings best of the food to a man, but be careful what is before you. The fine food given by the ruler can lead you into temptation  to do the will of the Ruler. Therefore ,  guard your heart and do not allow the lust of the flesh rule over you, instead resist it.

A good example we can see in Daniel (1-8) considering about food temptations King wanted to appoint persons with good looking smart and full of wisdom and knowledge to serve the King’s Palace , so he provided all kinds of delicacies and wine, which Daniel rejected and with the wisdom of God he preferred vegetables to eat and water to drink because he wanted to honour his God and not to defile himself.

Remembrance of my childhood days:  My father was a Marine instructor teaching for the Barge and trawler people i.e water transport. Those days the barge Crew  members were not educated so he used to make a model of the boat and practically teach them and use to take his  minimum tuition fees only from  those who could afford to pay. To those who could not afford, he  used to teach  freely. One day it so happened that  one of his students came with a bundle of currency notes  and tried  to give him, but my father refused and told him, “ I will only take my fees”. Even in the difficult times along with  wife and 5 children he guarded his heart from becoming  corrupt , because he feared  God.

As per Bible verses:

1 ) Rom 13: 14 – Godliness teaches you to avoid anything that leads to temptation.

2) 1Cor 9: 27 – Paul was committed to keeping his body’s appetites  under his rule.

3) Ps 101: 3 – David would not allow any evil thing before his eyes.

4) Pr 9:6 – A good man will not even have foolish friends.

So we must be aware of our appetites, know our sins so that we can  put a knife to those appetites and deny them by cutting off  opportunities  for them , even if the loss of those things  is as costly or painful as losing an eye or hand.

Luke 9 : 23 – Jesus called it taking up a cross daily and it was mandatory  in order to be  His disciple.

Sol  Geeta B. Muslekar AOJ 

“He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”.

Luke 1:51

As one serves, it is  always the empty cup that captures the attention of filler to get filled up. Cups that are already filled to various levels with something else get neglected.  Among all, empty cup receive the honour finally.

For God, it doesn’t matter that one is man or woman, virgin or married, Pharisee or Publican, statused  high or statused  low. But it does matter for Him  that one is empty and not filled, i.e, one has the humble servant state heart and not the proud heart.

Mary received the honour of being called ‘blessed woman’ in all the generations to come. God rewarded her *humble hands maiden state *(Luke 1:48). ‘Being young’ or ‘being virgin’ or ‘being woman’ or ‘being betrothed to a man’, nothing hindered. She got her cup filled.

Jesus also received the honour from Father through ‘humble servant state’ of Him.(Philippians 2:7-11). Every man of God as well receive only so!

What would be the process to attain ‘humble servant state’ ? We learn it from Paul !

Paul suffered all losses (emptied) of his confidence in flesh, self righteousness to win saviour God Christ (Philippians 3:8).

Also, longing honour  from  God, he rejected getting secured and obtaining name in the community he belonged to. He got his cup filled.

(NB:  securities and names are nothing but Proud Towers of Babel, which Paul rejected).

How about us ?

Once I was attending troop church , a brother who once an addict,   was giving message. He spoke with almost tears, “Lord I know how much I’m unworthy to even touch this Bible, I’m a sinner. I used to stay out of Church. But you considered me as a man, gave me opportunity to hold Bible, to speak about you”. The humbleness he showed  before  God made me tremble. I felt I’m no way near. I learnt the urgency for ‘emptying my heart’ from that day on.

We might be so and so in this world that we gain confidence in flesh; brought up with good discipline that we boast in self righteousness; well connected to a spiritual community that gives us security and a name to be dependant about. How do we account them all ? As  Profit or loss ?

If we account them loss, we receive the honour !

If we account them profit, we stay proud!

The Lord scatters the proud!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to empty my heart, let me not accept any profit of my flesh or world around, help me to go through ‘humble servant state’  that my cup is filled. Amen.

Sol. Dr. Sujatha Aacha

“Disciplining the body and Bringing it under Submission“

(1 Cor 9:27)

In the year of 2020, As per the Lords given vision to our Nation was ‘Inheriting the Land’ project. I was one among the core team members of Andhra Pradesh. While I was informed about the task to travel various constituency of Andhra Pradesh and inherit the land. The vision was great but I was sick and my body was unwilling to go and work for this vision.

 So much of dilemma was running in my mind and soon after I knelt myself in my room and enquired the Holy Spirit How to deal the situation and What to do? Immediately I heard the voice and also received a Call from the Lord that,” I the Lord God who called you to go and inherit the Land of Andhra Pradesh. As soon as I received these words I also received a strength in my Spirit, Soul and Body to carry this mission.

 Afterwards I packed my bag and started our journey in a car. In three days we could travel around 19 constituency of Andhra Pradesh with the God given strength and grace and reach the goal. Praise the Lord.

Colossians 1: 9 “… We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, … ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might… 

The Prayer of Apostle Paul in above scriptures helps us to achieve any goal that the Lord have assigned for each individual. Every day we need to ask the Lord to fill our thoughts with the knowledge of his will to reach God given task, so that we bear fruit in every good work and we are also strengthened by the Holy Spirit in our spirit, mind and body to carry His will successfully.

Only when we receive Gods understanding in our Spirit about his will (and) then our mind is filled with Godly thought and immediately we can see body is also activated to do his will. Praise the Lord. Amen.

Sol. Vaani Santosh

“We toil, working with our own hands.”

1 Cor 4:12

I had a good job and was earning well, but I also desired to do ministry.  So I resigned my job and thought to join a ministry who can pay me, so that I could do ministry and even earn through it.

I praise God that I had an opportunity to attend the discipleship training called “Be Formed and Form.” It’s here I learnt about market place evangelism sharing the Love of Jesus at our own work place, thereby serving the Lord while I work and also earn for my livelihood. Now I have a good business, I am able to serve the Lord as well as bless others in need.

We all know about Paul the disciple of Jesus Christ, who set an example for true disciples and for ministry in the kingdom of God.  Let us meditate on Paul’s practical life of ministry.

In Phil 3:17 and 1 Cor 11:1, Paul was asking to follow his example.  Though, Paul could earn his livelihood from ministry, he never made use of it.  Instead, he was encouraging the disciples to work with their own hands. In Acts 20:34-35, 1 The 2:9, Eph 4:28, Paul teaches us not to be a burden to anybody. Instead, he wants us to work and earn, so we can have something to bless others too.

Paul did not want to obstruct the advance of the gospel. 2 Cor 2:17, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.” And 1 Tim 6:5 “who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” There are many who do ministry for selfish and wrong motives for financial gain. We should never take advantage of sharing gospel.  We should never charge for prayer, healing, deliverance, counseling, or trainings (Matthew 10:8 Freely you have received; freely give).Paul is enjoying the pleasure of preaching free of charge (1 Cor 9:18).

Paul set an example of diligence before us. 2 Th 3:7-9 “We worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.” We also must be an example for others.  We must work with our own hands in order to not be burden to anyone, instead we should have something to help others.

He could therefore say boldly in 2 The 3: 10 “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

Dear Soldiers so come let’s follow Paul’s example.

Sol Grishma K. Patel

And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with authority

Lk 4:32 

Let us see some more examples how Jesus preached with authority. Jesus went up on a mountain and preached to the people many things.

Mat 7:28-29 And it happened, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at his doctrine.  For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 

Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him.

In Mat 10:1 and Lk 9:1, the Lord Jesus has given us power and authority to do all that he did . Jesus commanded us,

Mar 16:15 ….., Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation. 

Without this power and authority exercised, people will not accept the Gospel. Jesus has given us power and authority freely. Soldiers of the Army of Jesus should also give to the people freely.

To carry out the Great Commission, the Lord gave us,  the Army of Jesus soldiers (AOJ)  many tools  like  Gift Schools, Troop Church.  Let us make the best use of them to reach out to people and to bring all of them to his  feet .

 Jesus, at the age of 12, was found in the Temple of Jerusalem sitting in the midst of the Teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.

Luk 2:47  And all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 

Every believer should be manifested in the same way because the Spirit of the Lord is upon us. We, the Church was, and is (still most of the Christians)  under the misconception that only a few people, say, Church heads and  Evangelists only were given this authority. We  wasted almost 2000 years without using this authority,  given to all believers. What a great loss to the Church and to the Kingdom of God! 

When we, AOJ Sisters  started the first Troop Meeting at Manaparai in South India, as per the command of the Lord, we started with the opening prayer and pledge of AOJ, (2 Cor. 10:3-5) at once one lady possessed with an  evil spirit started closing her ears with both the hands,  shouting, “Stop it , stop it, I won’t allow any Troop Meeting to be started”. But all of us continued repeating the pledge in a loud voice. Then the demon was weakened and finally it  left her. She became normal.  We understood that this verse which is given to AOJ as a pledge, is powerful to demolish the strongholds of satan and to cast them out.

So we recite this pledge in every prayer meeting after the opening prayer.

Prayer: Father give us  the anointing of the Holy Spirit to use this authority given to each of us, so that  we may see the whole world coming to Your  feet .

Sr. Roger AOJ

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted”

Lk 14:11

This is the basic Bible truth. This verse includes all that Jesus taught and set an example for us, when he lived on earth. It will remind us of our nothingness before God.

In Lk 18:14 we read how the tax collector, who humbled himself before God and asked for God’s mercy acknowledging he is a sinner, went down justified. It was just  opposite  with the Pharisee who declared before God his self righteousness.

Daniel 4:1,2 and the following touched me very much. In verse 34 King Nebuchadnezzar praises and exalts the king of heaven who can humble those who walk  in pride.

God revealed to the king through a dream the future events. Daniel was given the grace to interpret the dream. Daniel told the king clearly , “You  will be driven from human society and will make your  home with the wild animals, You will feed on grass, as oxen  do, you will be drenched by the dew of heaven ; seven times will pass over you  until you have learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and confers it on who he pleases (Dan 4:22)

The king forgot all about it. At the end of the twelve months, while stolling on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king was saying , ‘Great Babylon ! Was it not built by me as a royal residence, by the force of my might and for the majesty of my glory?’ The words were not out of his (Dan 4:26-28) mouth when a voice came down from heaven :”Of you , King Nebuchadnezzar it is decreed ,the empire has been taken from you……..

”It happened to him exactly as what was told. He lived with wild animals eating grass and drenched by the dew of heaven. He lost everything. No servants ,No royal food, no shelter, but ate grass to live .

After many years he came to his senses. He raised his eyes to heaven. He blessed the Most High and says, ”No one can arrest his hand or ask him, ”What have you done? Then he realized that God humbles the proud.

Lucifer exalted himself. He was pushed out of heaven . But Jesus emptied himself and came down from heaven. By his humility he makes people come out  of their pride. He became a slave and was obedient to the Father till the end .The Father exalted him and gave him a name above every name.

 Let us analyse our thoughts ,our words and activities .Do we realize that all glory belongs to God ? When others speak in  praise of us do we accept that it is God who gives the grace. Are we worried if people don’t speak in praise of us? Do we seek to be exalted and find ways and means to get it? Let us humble ourselves and glorify God.

Sr. Anitta AOJ

Luk 14:10  But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place.

Choosing to sit in the lowest place exhibit humility in heart.

Even though Jesus here seems to be speaking about social mannerisms to be observed in public, it points out to deep truths. Let us see further verses from Bible which emphasizes this truth.

1Pet 5:6  Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time.

Luk 18:14  …….. For everyone who exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. 

Being exalted may or may not happen in this world but it will certainly on the last judgment day.

I know a brother called Stephen who accepted Jesus Christ from the Brahmin community. He was sharing his experience about how he was inspired to go to the lowest community to serve the Lord. So he selected a place where Naxalites live. The Lord exalted him there and many Naxalites accepted Jesus Christ. Even he served as a liaison between  the Govt officials and the Naxalites there.

Another brother, at present a leader of a Church in India shared his experience like this.

“In prayer the Lord spoke to me. He asked me to go to a particular area where scavengers were living. I was asked to wash and kiss their feet. I did it and thanked them for the wonderful service they were doing for humanity. After that I often visited them and accepted their hospitality. We became friends while sharing Jesus’ love for them. They were in tears. The whole community accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.”

Bible gives a few examples of the results of humbling oneself before God. 

1. Exalted by God and given a name above all names. Phil 2:8-9
2. Spared from evil . 1 Ki 21:29
3. Gathered to grave in peace not seeing evil . 2Ki_22:19
4. Get grace Jam 4:6
5. Lifted up by God. Jam 4:10

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, give me the humility and humbleness of heart which led and took you up to the Cross on Calvary. 

Sr. Angelica AOJ

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Luk 14:8  When You  are invited by any one to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place.

There are many mansions in the Father’s house. The Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. He will come again and receive us to himself. We will be there where he is. (Jn 14:2-3) Then why to look for the best place to sit in the wedding feast on earth! The Lord showed me a beautiful bright glass house prepared for Sr. Susan who was with us. Angels were flying here and there. What a heavenly joy it was that I then experienced. Then you will be incline to throw away all worldly glory as refuse in order to gain the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ Jesus.

Am I not precious in the eyes of the Lord?

He wants me to lay up treasures in heaven. God choose us to dwell in a contrite and humbled heart. (Is 57:15) If God Almighty dwells in me, I am the most blessed. It is no matter where I sit in public places. I am the son/daughter of the Supreme God who is seated on the high throne. The Lord Jesus will make me sit in his throne if I conquer my pride. “He will grant to him, who overcomes, to sit with Him on His throne”. (Rev. 3:21)

It depends on us where we choose to sit-on his throne or the best place on earth.

With one jewel of humility in the necklace around my neck, I will be pleasing my lover, my bridegroom Jesus (Song 4:9)

We are to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:6)

Is there a moment in your life when you chose to sit in a humble place without being hurt.

Prayer: Lord,  help us to look for higher and heavenly blessings but look down upon worldly glory. Amen.

Sr. Leema Rose AJ

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