Leave All In Jesus Hands

Thankful for God's experiences that come into our lives. Liked what we have been singing leave all in Jesus hands. Many times we do not understand. We would like to learn how to leave everything in Jesus hands. My thoughts are being in Matthew 7 verses 24 to 27 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”

When we are building it doesn't hurt to check the foundations. Check the condition of our faith and in meetings like this we can check the foundation so as we continue to build that we are building on the right foundation. We get a revelation from Jesus and that will help us as we continue on and it will help us in the home, hard days will definitely come upon us, it will depend on how we have started the day. Do we start the day with Jesus? My cousin was laid off from his work and got a lot of money and because the value of the money was going down he decided to build himself a house. He did not look at the ground and he was about to put the roof on when they realised there was cracking in the home already. He was a wise man, he knew it would not last. He was a wise man, because he knew he had to start again. He took the building down and it was a big job. That was wisdom. Sometimes in the way of God we do make mistakes and as we look back we can see, we can not continue this way. We will find if we continue to build it will not last. Meetings like this gives us wisdom to know what to do and be willing to accept our own mistakes.

My cousin had to accept no matter how much he built, he had to humble himself and see he was wrong. He pulled down the building and took out the foundation. We are children of God because we are willing to start afresh no matter how far we have gone, because this building must last for all eternity. If we are building and if we can see cracks, we should humble ourselves and be willing to start afresh. I went to see the house and by that time it was finished and we sat there and enjoyed ourselves and we were very glad he pulled it down and started afresh. When we listen to God we hear certain things we may not like, but as we look back we are glad we were willing to start afresh. When God speaks things to us that we do not like we realise God knows more than us and if we do not see the point in it, it is good to know God knows best. What God has planned for me, is the best for me. Sometimes it is our human nature, we do not like what God is speaking to us, and it is like being in a classroom when the teacher is speaking and not listening. We will never learn anything that way. If we listen to God, He will show us the right way. These meetings are to help us go deeper in prayer. Prayers that will reach God's presence, prayer is the source of our power, without it we will surely fail. It is a very important thing for us to know how to pray. God brings us to these meetings so we will know how to pray and to get His power.

When I started in the work, the older brothers wanted me to learn many things. They said learn the French language, learn music and learn lessons in companionship and I realised I did not have time for all that. I learned a little music. The time I had, I used to practice. Because of a lack of time I would do a little and then it would go a way. I did not get into music too much. But I learned one thing. There is a saying “practice makes perfect”. But the book says that is not true. What it says is “practice correctly makes it perfect.” I was practicing, but not practicing correctly. I took shortcuts and it did not help me to learn music. I learned a lesson in that. And even in praying it is very important not to take shortcuts. We have to pray correctly. We can pray wrongly and get nothing from God.

You remember Joshua, when Israel had sinned and one of them had taken something that belonged to the Lord and Israel was defeated. Joshua prayed all day to the Lord. I felt sorry for him when I read that account. He did not know what the cause of the defeat was. He was praying “What should I do now?” Joshua’s prayers were not being answered, as there had to be something done before they could be answered. Sometimes we may pray and not include God's will in our prayers, that will not help us and our prayers will not be answered. We are practicing but practicing wrongly. James mentioned in his epistle “you asked but you do not receive.” John wrote “if we pray according to His will and our prayers will be answered.” I would like to know what will help me come close to God. Sometimes God brings hardship so we come close to Him.

I once heard a story and a man was with his son and put him on his shoulders. They were walking and enjoying Fellowship together and the father went into the darkness. The boy did not like that and the child said “Why are you doing this?” the father did not answer and later went in again. The child asked him why are you doing this? The father said “I like the feeling of you clinging to me.” God wants us to be close to Him and show our affection to Him. When things are going right we may not feel the need of God sometimes. When I have a very easy companion to be with and have good Fellowship with them and all is going very well, I could easily feel the need of not praying so much. But that is very dangerous. But when I am with companions I did not want to be with I feel closer to God as I had a greater need to pray. May be in the world or in our meeting we do not like it, it is against our human nature, God put things there so we will be close to Him and enjoy better Fellowship. We must remember our life on earth is only temporal. And we do not know when we are going to leave this earth, this life has just been borrowed, just entrusted to us and we need to handle it very carefully. God knows how much we can take. We must handle our life with prayers.

I will tell you a story that happened back in Kenya. There was a man professing and his name was C. and his job was to polish shoes, a very lowly job. He was a happy man, Him and his wife would invite us to their home and we would have a good time and a chat in the evenings. There was a Wednesday night study in his home. I will never forget one time he came home with an extra mattress, I do not know how he got it but it was for the visitors. I could say we enjoyed lovely Fellowship together. The time came when C wanted to progress. He took driving lessons and learn how to drive a car. He then got a job as a taxi driver, but C could not balance his life very well. He did not handle life with prayers, driving a taxi he came home late at night. Because the clients at night paid him more. Little by little he came in later, then he started to say away from home. The workers would go to the home and he was never there. He lost his Fellowship and sold the home. He is out of God's way now and they do not know where he is. They have a little daughter and he does not even worry about her and it is a very sad picture. C did not know how to keep the balance, he failed to watch and pray. We need to handle our life with prayer and remember our life has been given to us and I hope these meetings will help us go deeper into prayer. Pray that it will be answered and will be beneficial to the kingdom. Jesus told us to watch and pray. When we watch we feel the need to pray and when we pray we feel the need to watch and to help each other.

It is easy to watch others, but that is not what Jesus meant when he said to watch and pray. If we watch others we will go astray. We need to watch ourselves. We heard yesterday about Peter asking about John “What will happen to him?” Jesus answer was “You just follow me.” We need to watch ourselves and we need to know how to pray and pray for others and pray for ourselves. We went to a game park one day in Kenya and there are big birds there. They are about 60 cm or 2 foot high. We saw one that had one of its wings broken. My companion made a statement that really spoke to me. He said “That bird is food for a dog.” That thought came to me “If we are not balanced we will be food for the enemy.” We have to be balanced in everything then God can help us. We were hearing yesterday about the verse that says “Set your affections on things above” and if we do that it will keep us humble. I would like to read that verse with the verse in Jeremiah “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and who can know it.”  Our hearts can be deceitful and we may not know it. Our heart is where our affections are and that is why we should set our affections on things above. We need to pray desperately in prayer and that will help our heart. When we get up to go to work and our minds are on our work and how we will make ends meet and the Lord knows that we need to work and we need His help to keep us all the day. We do not know our own hearts. ‘

One day a young boy he came to me with an electronic watch. A complicated watch he said and I need it set and I do not know how to set it. To me it was easy, as I knew more than the boy did. Our Heavenly Father knows more about us than we know about ourselves. We can go to God and ask Him to set our minds on things above. We need our Father like a sheep needs a Shepherd. We were hearing about the spirit yesterday. God would like to give us His Holy Spirit without measure. Many times when I read Genesis I feel sad for Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve heard the word of God and were corrected. Eve went and ate of the tree that God told her not to eat of. Satan told her that it was good. She lost the spirit to obey. The devil likes us to lose the spirit. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness He was full of the spirit and did not obey Satan. Galatians 5 v 25 “If we live in the spirit we will walk in the spirit.” We need to keep in step with the spirit. We must have the spirit and if we do not it will be very dangerous for us. The spirit God has given us we must keep in step with it. Jesus kept in step with the spirit and it led Him all the way back to heaven. May the Lord help us to go deeper in prayer and may we get closer to Him. May God help us.

 

D. MSHANA - 2012 - Conventions - Taiwan,  Hymn 287 “Leave all in Jesus Hands.”