Caption: FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Hymn: Into your hands we commend our spirit
Reference: Luke 17:26
Importance: Healing by faith
Story: Human Architecture
Testimony: Roman Protestant
Reference: Luke 17:26
Importance: Healing by faith
Story: Human Architecture
Testimony: Roman Protestant
GOOD NEWS
Luke 17:26"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. I got this strange message on an even more strange spiritual trip. I have read and heard many stories and illustrations on Noah and his ark, but always missed the point.
Generally most elders talk about the boat Noah was asked to build, take the animals in, shut the door and then it rained for 40 days. They would talk about every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was saved, and those with him in the ark. The story would end like every other fairy tale, “they all lived happily ever after” and then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
I am closing in to forty years of my life as a meaningless Christian when suddenly I remembered the verse
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man”. I began to decode the message and would like to share the same light with everybody. Just like God commanded Noah, he remained faithful to God, he enjoyed heavenly security. What do I get from all this? Imagine that if God commanded 40 years ago, He needed another ark 5 feet 6 inches tall, 36-26-36 in size, 60.2 kgs in weight. Remember the accuracy of His commandment could be seen by human standards forty years later. Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Here the ark is ‘I’, ‘you’ is me and the ‘whole family’ is myself.
Just as God promised there will never be a flood like that ever again, He kept his promise to Noah. But the commandment He gave forty years ago is of a human ark by size and weight I definitely fit into his brilliant work of human architecture. We all get a call for obedience, but are we listening? That is the question I want to pursue and so I find the answers in the New Testament Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
I may have not seen any flood in all the years of my life but I have seen terrorism, recession, plagues, environmental disasters, dysfunctional families, spiritual warfare flooding from the window of my ark. The Lord speaks to me to set the dove free, my dove is my faith and He has commanded a time to free that faith. The first time I set my faith free it may return back to my ark, knowing that it is not the right time to offshore. The second time I set my faith free, it may come back to me with some feedback. The third time I set my faith free and if it comes back to me with a token of love, this shore is meant for me.
We all are arks of different colors, creed, size and weight, we all have different views of floods from our window, but God has established a covenant for all of us, and most of all He will fulfill His promise. For Noah it rained forty days, for me it rained forty years because unlike Noah who was perfect, faithful, and obedient instead of being all this I kept asking God, “why me?” I would have easily been consumed by the world outside had God not chosen me. If we keep thinking who, what, when and why, we may just see the wrong side of the window, but if we are perfect, faithful and obedient, it is mentioned in the following verses:
1 Peter 3:20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
2 Peter 2:5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
John 17
Jesus Prays for Himself
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
Luke 17:26"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. I got this strange message on an even more strange spiritual trip. I have read and heard many stories and illustrations on Noah and his ark, but always missed the point.
Generally most elders talk about the boat Noah was asked to build, take the animals in, shut the door and then it rained for 40 days. They would talk about every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was saved, and those with him in the ark. The story would end like every other fairy tale, “they all lived happily ever after” and then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
I am closing in to forty years of my life as a meaningless Christian when suddenly I remembered the verse
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man”. I began to decode the message and would like to share the same light with everybody. Just like God commanded Noah, he remained faithful to God, he enjoyed heavenly security. What do I get from all this? Imagine that if God commanded 40 years ago, He needed another ark 5 feet 6 inches tall, 36-26-36 in size, 60.2 kgs in weight. Remember the accuracy of His commandment could be seen by human standards forty years later. Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Here the ark is ‘I’, ‘you’ is me and the ‘whole family’ is myself.
Just as God promised there will never be a flood like that ever again, He kept his promise to Noah. But the commandment He gave forty years ago is of a human ark by size and weight I definitely fit into his brilliant work of human architecture. We all get a call for obedience, but are we listening? That is the question I want to pursue and so I find the answers in the New Testament Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
I may have not seen any flood in all the years of my life but I have seen terrorism, recession, plagues, environmental disasters, dysfunctional families, spiritual warfare flooding from the window of my ark. The Lord speaks to me to set the dove free, my dove is my faith and He has commanded a time to free that faith. The first time I set my faith free it may return back to my ark, knowing that it is not the right time to offshore. The second time I set my faith free, it may come back to me with some feedback. The third time I set my faith free and if it comes back to me with a token of love, this shore is meant for me.
We all are arks of different colors, creed, size and weight, we all have different views of floods from our window, but God has established a covenant for all of us, and most of all He will fulfill His promise. For Noah it rained forty days, for me it rained forty years because unlike Noah who was perfect, faithful, and obedient instead of being all this I kept asking God, “why me?” I would have easily been consumed by the world outside had God not chosen me. If we keep thinking who, what, when and why, we may just see the wrong side of the window, but if we are perfect, faithful and obedient, it is mentioned in the following verses:
1 Peter 3:20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
2 Peter 2:5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
John 17
Jesus Prays for Himself
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
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