Miki Hardy

The Bible is the spiritual food of the Christian. Jesus even said that no man can live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. No christian can pretend to walk victoriously without constantly reading and meditating the word of God. Ignorance of the word of God is detrimental to the christian and he should not dare believe that he can live without it, it would be mere deception. There is no substitute for the word of God. It is a way for God to speak to us, to encourage us, to confront us, to revive our faith, to remind us of His plan etc. We need to constantly hear from God, our Father through His word.

Every christian should answer the following question: ” How many minutes do I pray everyday”? His answer will give him the confirmation why he walks in victory or defeat. A praying christian is a victorious one  and a non praying christian is a defeated one. Prayer cultivates our hearts and put many things in the right frame of mind. Prayer is a time to hear from God, our Father. Prayer is a time to be restored in the faith. Prayer is a time to renew our strength in Jesus. Prayer is a time to keep the vision of the Kingdom of God alive in our hearts. If the devil or our flesh can keep us far from the throne of God, we will be a defeated christian. There is no substitute for what prayer can bring to our spiritual lives.

Salvation by faith in Jesus Christ brings men to a life of victory. This victory has been won when Jesus died on the cross for humanity. Sin, sickness, disease, satan, principalities and powers all have been defeated by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross so that we could walk in victory. Colossians 2:15. If we walk with a righteous heart before the Lord, we should have faith for  nothing less than victory in all aspects of our lives. If we know the price that was paid at Calvary and our inheritance in Christ, we should always have a positive attitude, talk a positive language and think positively. This is not “positive confession”  but the fruits of our faith.

There is no doubt that children should be taught in the ways of the Lord. All christian parents know that, but unfortunately a small percentage would spend that time to pray with their children and teach them the Bible. They do not realize that slowly but surely their children are drawing away from the Lord and losing interest in the things of God. Parents are losing control over their children at a very young age and it is alarming to see children resisting their parents, and having very little respect for them. Children will obey the Lord with the same attitude and with no greater degree that they obey their parents. Obedience has to be ordered to and demanded from the children with discipline and perseverance if parents want to assure the future of their children spiritually. Pride and rebellion have to give way to obedience.

When king David and his men came back to the city of Ziklag, the amalekites had burnt it with fire and their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. They all wept until they had no more power to weep, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. 1 Samuel 30:6. God then instructed him to go and overtake the amalekites and to recover ALL. Nothing of theirs was lacking which the amalakites had taken from them. This is the key when all looks dark and lost. David could not go and fight that battle in his own strength, he did what we all should do, when we are in the midst of trouble. God will always make a way when there is no way.

We have embrace the vision of CTMI in our hearts and we are called to take part in spreading the message of the cross. It is so easy to care for our own lives, take part in our local church program, and lose sight of the whole picture, the real vision. We are called to enlarge our hearts and become zealous at all times to reach out to others with the message of the cross. We have many ways to accomplish that; give Cd’s, Dvd’s, share our own testimony of the power of the message of the cross that has transformed our lives. Let us wake up and keep that fire burning in our hearts. The time is short.

Three rich days of sharing the gospel of the cross with about 125 leaders and pastors of churches in Durban. The gospel was powerful and challenging, and the pastors responded positively and most of them showed a sincere desire to embrace the gospel of the cross. We established many contacts, and a wonderful relationship in the spirit is starting with many pastors. They showed a great interest to meet together regularly, and we are looking forward to that. CTMI partners are not praying and supporting the gospel in vain, the gospel is gaining ground.

Every christian is called to experience the joy of giving. It is not good spiritually to always be on the receiving end. The bible says “there is more joy to give than to receive”. Our first reaction can often be to make sure that all our needs are met before we can start giving. And most of the time there is nothing or very little left that we cannot give much to the Lord. That is quite alarming because in this situation, we still pray and believe that God will bless us so that we could give!  And it becomes a vicious circle and nothing changes. The result is that our lives are ruled by our needs instead of by the way we want to bless the kingdom of God. Our first priority is to honor God with our finances and He promises to take care of us. Why should we close the door to the blessings of God?

When Jesus left the disciples to pray in the garden of Gethsemane, and came back to find them sleeping, He said to them: ” The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is a truth that no man can deny, we have all experienced it, we have all submitted to the desires of our flesh. Our flesh will easily lead us to sin if we are not prepared to crucify it daily. It is one of our greatest enemy and we should certainly not try to compromise with it. The Bible says: ” Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” Romans 8:12.

It is amazing how persecution benefits the church spiritually. It is a reality that as CTMI faces more opposition, we experience more of the blessings of the Lord. The church experiences growth, both spiritually and in numbers. The bible says that all things work together for good to those that love Him… and we can expect miracles during the time of persecution. It is exactly like that at this time and we thank the Lord for His grace and for the way He is taking care of us. I thank God for the free advertising CTMI is receiving from our persecutors. Thank you Lord.