LIFE OF PURPOSE

 

As you travel life’s journey, you can take the road from insignificance to significance. Pray this prayer with us...
"Dear Jesus, I am tired of the feelings that my life is meaningless and that I do not matter to anyone, I am lonely. Please forgive me of my sin and bring meaning and fulfillment into my life. I surrender my heart to you and ask that you take control of my life now. Thank you."

Guiding People

Your guardian angel may be constantly praying for you, asking God to help you even when you’re not aware that an angel is interceding in prayer on your behalf. “From infancy to death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.” People believe that angel watch over people listen to people’s prayers and join in with the good thoughts that people pray.

Guiding People

Guardian angels may also be guiding your path in life. In Exodus 32:34 of the, God tells Moses as Moses is preparing to lead the Hebrew people to a new place: “my angel will go before you.” Psalm 91:11 of the Bible says of angels: “For he [God] will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Popular literary works have sometimes portrayed the idea of faithful and fallen angels offering good and bad guidance, respectively.

Advice Worth Ignoring

Whenever a student enrolls in university, more often than not, he or she is assigned an academic adviser. These advisers are paid full time to help students know what courses to take and when to take them in order to reach graduation in the most efficient way possible. Inexperienced advisers who lead inexperienced students can unknowingly recommend unnecessary courses which lead to additional semesters and years in college. However, good advisers with proactive students can actually achieve an early graduation! Success is dependent on the advice given and the advice taken. The same is true of life. The more logical and expedient the advice is that is given, the better the outcome, right? As John 7 begins, Jesus is given advice as He prepares for another feast. How He responds to this advice speaks volumes to how we should interpret advice in our world today. Here are the three voices one would have heard on the way to the Feast of Booths.

The scene of the next series of events is set in the opening verses of John 7. “After these things,”loosely ties what follows with the all that occurred in connection with the feeding of the five thousand. As suggested by this opening sentence, Jesus limited His scope to Galilee. The reason for this geographical restriction was simple; the Jews wanted Him dead. This desire was nothing new. In fact, ever since Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath (5:18ff) and made several startling Christological claims, the Jews had been seeking to kill Him. This verse serves to reinforce the escalating pattern of hostility (cf. 5:10, 18; 17:19-20). Because Galilee and Judea were under different jurisdictions, Jesus enjoyed a certain amount of protection.

As in 6:4, 5:1, and 2:13, chapter 7 begins another discussion that takes place around a Jewish festival. Also known as the “Feast of Tabernacles” this Jewish celebration was regarded by Josephus as the “greatest and holiest feast of the Jews.” The name of the Feast, “booths,” was used because the people during this celebration lived in booths to commemorate God’s faithfulness to the Israelites during the desert wanderings.  Several important traditions in this feast involved the water-drawing rite and the lamp-lighting rite to which Jesus clearly refers later (7:37; 8:12).

In this context, the brothers of Jesus enter into the narrative and offer some advice. Here, they request that Jesus move into the public eye, from the shadows to the limelight, from Galilee to Judea, and from safety to danger. Because the feast was approaching, Jesus is encouraged by His brothers to make His way to Judea. These “brothers” were Jesus’ younger half-brothers (born of Mary and Joseph).

Aware of the recent defect of so many disciples, they suggest that Jesus take advantage of the feast which promised to draws thousands to Jerusalem and perform miracles before any last vestige of followers completely vanish. Not only would the biggest crowds of His career enjoy the signs, but the word of His signs would spread very quickly. Better still, most religious people of the nation would be there. What better place for this religious leader to put His powers on display?

From all appearances, they believed Jesus was not helping His cause by doing things in secret or avoiding the Jewish crowds. In verse 4, they encourage Jesus to make His ministry fully public. A public figure who wants to advance must make the maximum impact. What better place for that than at the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem?

Often for maximum impact, a VIP, political figure, or famous personality will have a grand entrance in order to capture the full attention and awe of people around him or her. This is what the brothers desired for Jesus.

But John, the evangelist, sees irony in their request. Though the readers of this gospel know that miracles do not necessarily engender belief, these brothers are hoping that Jesus perform signs to achieve just that! This recommendation also reveals that Jesus’ brothers were unaware of the Jewish authorities plot against Him. Not only that, but the fact that they are giving Jesus advice and coaching Him along suggests that they do not understand who He is. Worse still, their attitude resembles Satan’s at Jesus’ temptation, who misconstrued Jesus’ messianic calling in self-seeking terms. How could they have missed the mark this much?

The answer is simple. Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in Him (7:5). Just as proximity to Jesus during His earthly ministry did not immediately lead to conversion (see 6:59ff; 18:2ff), living with Jesus in His early years did not necessarily lead to belief in Him as the Son of God. In their unbelief, Jesus’ brothers were in no position to help Him, only hurt Him. As agents in the hands of Satan Himself, they were unknowingly encouraging Jesus to put Himself in a compromising position.

Patiently, Jesus responds to this ill-conceived advice in 7:6-9 with the voice of truth. First, He begins by saying, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.” In other words, the “time” for His going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths is not yet at hand. However, they were free to make their way there whenever they wanted. In His supernatural knowledge, Jesus understood when would be the best time would be in order to avoid a riot, or worse, a premature uprising leading to His death. What His brothers did was largely inconsequential. Jesus was a marked man who must who had to plan His steps carefully.

Next, Jesus exposes the reason behind His marked status, “the world…hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil” (7:7). The world hates Jesus for two general reasons. First, He does not belong to the world. He was an outsider that the world failed to understand, appreciate, or embrace. Second, He testifies that what the world does is evil. The world and everyone in it always hates to have its evil exposed. This is why the brother’s advice was so misplaced.

But why should they know that? “The world cannot hate” them (7:7). In so many words, Jesus lets his brothers know that they belong to the world and because of that are friends of the world.

In Jesus’ third statement to His brothers, He returns their encouragement with an encouragement of His own, “Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come” (7:8).  In other words, Jesus says, “you can go whenever you want, but my itinerary is regulated by the Father and at this point, I must remain here for a while.” Until the Father directed Him there, He would remain in Galilee (7:9).

Jesus reveals here that even if it did not make sense in the world’s eyes, He was going to listen to His Father and obey His Father’s will. The same conviction needs to be present in Christ’s followers today. The world’s advice may at times make sense, be expedient, and even profitable. However, if it is inconsistent with the Father’s will, it is ill-conceived. In fact, as in this case, when believers follow the world’s advice, disaster soon follows.

Changing Lives Forever

The health, growth and movement of our Kingdom Ministry is measured by the stories of changed lives. From the person who is not yet a follower of Jesus to the person who has been following for years, we are here on this earth to 'be transformed' into His likeness by "The Word". God gives us the privilege to know and unite with Him in loving our neighbors and serving the 'least of these', and the Good News is that even in our struggles, challenges and mishaps, God still changes our lives.

Do your actions reflect your priorities?  Several years ago I heard a message on "priorities".   It really hit home when I heard that how others look at us and what we are doing in our lives, we are revealing where our priorities lie.    Listening to a mentor on a phone call recently, I was reminded of this very same thing.  If I say that I am prioritizing God and my family first in my life, that would mean that I am prioritizing my TIME in these areas.  I need to be doing my devotions and spending time in God's word on a daily basis.  By doing this, I am more likely to be obedient to His word in all areas of my life, specifically as it comes to being patient with others, being kind, showing mercy and grace to others, loving unconditionally, being disciplined, etc. 

By prioritizing my family, I need to make sure my actions reflect that they are a priority.   I need to turn off the lights in the office after putting in my work time, and spend quality time with my spouse.    Eating dinner together, taking a walk – just spending time catching up with what's going on in each other's lives - shows he is a priority.  I also treasure time with our daughters, their spouses and our little grandchild.  Thankfully, our children live close enough that we can do these things, and I love that we can schedule time together (whether it's out to lunch, exercising, having the kids over for a dinner and/or game night, or just hanging out).  I love spending time with our little grandson as well - reading books and "playing" with him is a priority to me.  When he says "I wuv you vawyyyyy much,"  my heart melts.   I love my family!  I also enjoy phone conversations with my widowed mom and want her to know she is a priority.  I care about the things she is going through and want to encourage her.

I need to PLAN the hours that I do have in my day so that I can accomplish the things that I say that I prioritize.  I need to exercise on a routine basis to be physically fit.  This means I need to schedule on my calendar when I am going to do this each day. On days when I cannot get to the gym, I can use workout videos, jump rope, take a walk (if it's not icy — I broke an elbow years ago jogging on the ice!) .  The point is, I need to make sure that what I am doing is in alignment with my priorities.   I want to be physically healthy so that I enjoy my other priorities!

My home-based business is very important to me.  Even though I have a part-time job outside our home, I am committed to spending so many hours in my day working on my business.   It has become a priority to me because it is an opportunity for me to not only do something I am passionate about, but it allows me the opportunity to help others in a variety of ways. (being an encourager, sharing an opportunity).    My long term goal of having freedom – both time and money freedom - will allow me  to bless others; the time I spend working toward this goal is worth the hours I am spending now.  Again, it's a priority to me.  I don't miss watching TV or shopping at the mall, because I am serious about what I am doing.

My friends are extremely important in my life — My friends include my family as well as special people who have come into my life through church, work, Social Media and those I have grown up with.   I love that I can encourage and support them.  Whether it be a phone call, connecting through Social Media, special planned activities with them, or simply praying for them; my friends are a big priority in my life. 

My prayer is that my actions will always reflect my priorities…

Train a child

 

Train up child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart form it. A child left alone to him/her self bringeth shame to his father, remember now is the right time to lay a solid foundation for them teach them to pray, and read the bible for it is you soul responsibilities to do starting from this very moment. If the foundation of the righteous be broken, what can they do?.

For me i do encourage for rebuilding the foundation because that is the only way you can build a solid foundation. Give it you best to impart into lives for me my vision is wide and nothing can put it off not every me. For the Lord is the source of my all in all. Be a mission builder and reflect Christ to our younger generation to come for out of them are the issues of life.

Be a blessing to someone

Life is a better place when you can put smile in others. How well do you affect your generation for good or evil. The Bible says that "If you are neither hot or cold, you will spilled out of God's mouth", Look inside of you for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
This are part of the children i do impart, teaching them the ways of the Lord, that they may grow in it and be a blessing to their own generation. God bless you as you make impart in your own little way.

My Heart knows

The heart of man lies every issue he/she has to go through, and only the heart can provide solution to any situation. The word of God said; "the heart of man is deceitful and above all desperately wicked".
It may interest you to know that only good will from your heart can heal you and can make others around you get better, if only we can convert the deceitfulness of our thought into truthfulness and make others people believe in us, and also change from our wicked ways and do good at all times. You are important to life and to other people around you, if only you knows how you can change the situation you and others are going through.

Listen to your heart before taking a step and watch your input to providing solution to issues around you and other. Understand that you can make this world a better place like Steve Job (RIP) and other great men who makes impart in there generation. Get this evil is easy to learn and adapted to but that is not what we are created to live for, but rather to be co-creator.

For God so love the world and the world comprises of you and me, He gave His best. So the question is what have you given to your world, let me lesson it, what are you given to yourself. I Love you and i want to give you something, and that thing is CHRIST, if only you can accept Him into your life all thing will become a new with you and you will beging to fill your heart.

If you are will to accept CHRIST into your life say this prayer with me:

"LORD JESUS, I COME TO YOU AS A SINNER
PLEASE FORGIVE ME MY SINS AND MAKE
ME A NEW MAN IN CHRIST TODAY. FOR IN
JESUS NAME I PRAY".

What you need do is to get a Bible believing church near you and tell the pastor your present state and you will see how you will be loved and taken care off, ensure you do something in the house of God even when you are not recornise, God do and He will be speaking through your heart.
Remember God loves you and i do love you too.

HOW MUCH DO YOU WORTH

TEXT: PSALM 139:14 "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well".


Everything in life has its price, and the price you place on yourself is what you worth. Many people are very costly to be bought off while some are too cheap to be bought. I have come to find out that the cheapest people in life are the sinners because they fall for anything and everything, SIN is "simple instruction neglected" and sinners stands for nothing that is why they fall for anything.
You worth a lot and most not be allowed to be bought off by sin, "For God so love the world that he gave us His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16.
The fall of Aden in the garden of Eden cost him Adam's apple, the fall of Samson cost him Delilah's lap just to mention a few.
Remember Joseph will not fall for sin because he knows his worth even when it cost him going to prison, he still came out to fulfill God's will for his life.
You are priceless that is why David said in psalm 139:14 "...I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." how many of us know this if you don't please know it now and stand for something in other not to fall for anything. God bless you and the works of your hand in Jesus name! (Give your response below)

SCHOOL WITHOUT E-LEARNING AND ICT

It is important that we all have a shared understanding of what we actually mean by ‘e-learning’. 

Enabling e-Learning is defining ‘e-learning’ as learning and teaching that is facilitated by or supported through the appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). 

e-Learning can cover a spectrum of activities from supporting learning to blended learning (the combination of traditional and e-learning practices), to learning that is delivered entirely online.

Whatever the technology, however, learning is the vital element. e-Learning is not simply associated with modes of delivery or the functionality of a particular technology, but forms part of a conscious choice of the best and most appropriate ways of promoting effective learning.

Best practice e-learning enables accessible, relevant, and high-quality learning opportunities that improve student engagement and achievement. e-Learning has the potential to transform the way teaching and learning takes place. It is about using technologies effectively across the curriculum to connect schools and communities and to provide accessible, relevant, and high-quality learning opportunities so that every student is better able to achieve their full potential.

A Polytechnic faced some major challenges when it came to installing a computer network. Limited access to computers and electricity had a long way to go in getting their ICT department up and running. The five PCs previously in place were insufficient given the number of students and the dusty climate caused frequent maintenance issues. To discuss the options available and recommended NComputing for its power saving capabilities. Once the IT lab was set up, the teachers were fully trained on how to use the new technology, giving them the necessary tools to pass onto their students. The teachers have been able to improve their lessons with access to current content, which is more interesting, varying and interactive for the students. In addition the teachers can now easily monitor students’ work from their own desk.

 Motivation is at an all time high with plans afoot to increase the number of computers in classrooms and even offer a standalone ICT course. Deputy Manager and Fashion and Design Instructor commented “I feel more motivated because before we used to use chalks but now we are using computers and we can type our work. We have moved from analogue to digital.”

NComputing has worked with a number of African customers and technology partners, on important projects such as solar powered digital classrooms, a growing network of computer labs will be necessary.
NComputing will be showcasing its latest desktop virtualisation solutions, as well as these real-life examples at eLearning Africa, the international conference on ICT for development, education and training in Africa. extensive experience of working with African educators, governments and entrepreneurs to deliver reliable and high-quality ICT access to all educational institutions.

Your worth

Is a person who built a beautiful marriage, raised healthy children and did his best to pay the bills, but whose bank account is in the four digits, worthless?

Does status on Forbes tell us a person’s worth?Is the 40-year-old tycoon who’s divorced for the ninth time, has kids who don’t speak to him, and has earned his money stepping over others, worth it?

There are many wealthy people who are decent and honest fellows, and I am not a socialist who wants to rob them of their earnings. The point I wish to make is: Does status on Forbes tell us a person’s worth?

Or is it other stuff—like the charity we give, the family we raise and the accomplishments of the spirit—that determine our worth?

In the end of the Book of Leviticus , we read about a person who decides to donate his or her “worth” to G‑d.
How much does this individual pay?
That depends on the age of the individual—in other words, the person’s productive capacity.
Our worth is in our actions, not our credit score. It is not the business magazines that tell the world how much we are worth; rather, it’s the love letters in our drawer and the charity diplomas on the wall that tell us how much we are worth.

So, how much are you worth?

Prayer for you

This i require of God for you, that as you read you will find the peace of God inside of you to achieve your personal desire in life, and as you share this to your friends and loved once, the hand of God will mightily rest on you and those you send it to. In Jesus Name.

Laugh a while

The minister was preoccupied with thoughts of how he was going to ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for repairs to the church building. Therefore, he was annoyed to find that the regular organist was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play.
“Here’s a copy of the service,” he said impatiently. “But, you’ll have to think of something to play after I make the announcement about the finances.”
During the service, the minister paused and said, “Brothers and Sisters, we are in great difficulty; the roof repairs cost twice as much as we expected and we need $4,000 more. Any of you who can pledge $100 or more, please stand up.”
At that moment, the substitute organist played “The Star Spangled Banner.”
This is one of my favorites lol – An FYI for Our Non-American readers:The Star Spangled Banner is the name of the US National Anthem – So on hearing the anthem being played, everyone had to stand up  !!

Joke.................

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
“And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?”
One bright little girl replied,
“Because people are sleeping.”
.......................................................................................................................................
Johnny’s Mother looked out the window and noticed Him “playing church” with their cat. He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work.
A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.
She called out, “Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!”
Johnny looked up at her and said,
“He should have thought about that before he joined my church.”
.......................................................................................................................................
Sunday after church, a Mom asked her very young daughter what the lesson was about.
The daughter answered, “Don’t be scared, you’ll get your quilt.”
Needless to say, the Mom was perplexed. Later in the day, the pastor stopped by for tea and the Mom asked him what that morning’s Sunday school lesson was about.
He said “Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming.”
.......................................................................................................................................

The Success of Biblical Christianity

The Success of Biblical Christianity

But if atheism fails in this regard, what about biblical Christianity? According to the Christian world view, God does exist, and man's life does not end at the grave. In the resurrection body man may enjoy eternal life and fellowship with God. Biblical Christianity therefore provides the two conditions necessary for a meaningful, valuable, and purposeful life for man: God and immortality. Because of this, we can live consistently and happily. Thus, biblical Christianity succeeds precisely where atheism breaks down.

Purpose of Life

Purpose of Life

Finally, let's look at the problem of purpose in life. The only way most people who deny purpose in life live happily is either by making up some purpose, which amounts to self-delusion as we saw with Sartre, or by not carrying their view to its logical conclusions. Take the problem of death, for example. According to Ernst Bloch, the only way modern man lives in the face of death is by subconsciously borrowing the belief in immortality that his forefathers held to, even though he himself has no basis for this belief, since he does not believe in God. By borrowing the remnants of a belief in immortality, writes Bloch, "modern man does not feel the chasm that unceasingly surrounds him and that will certainly engulf him at last. Through these remnants, he saves his sense of self-identity. Through them the impression arises that man is not perishing, but only that one day the world has the whim no longer to appear to him." Bloch concludes, "This quite shallow courage feasts on a borrowed credit card. It lives from earlier hopes and the support that they once had provided."Modern man no longer has any right to that support, since he rejects God. But in order to live purposefully, he makes a leap of faith to affirm a reason for living.
We often find the same inconsistency among those who say that man and the universe came to exist for no reason or purpose, but just by chance. Unable to live in an impersonal universe in which everything is the product of blind chance, these persons begin to ascribe personality and motives to the physical processes themselves. It is a bizarre way of speaking and represents a leap from the lower to the upper story. For example, Francis Crick halfway through his book The Origin of the Genetic Code begins to spell nature with a capital "N" and elsewhere speaks of natural selection as being "clever" and as "thinking" of what it will do. Fred Hoyle, the English astronomer, attributes to the universe itself the qualities of God. For Carl Sagan the "Cosmos," which he always spells with a capital letter, obviously fills the role of a God-substitute. Though all these men profess not to believe in God, they smuggle in a God-substitute through the back door because they cannot bear to live in a universe in which everything is the chance result of impersonal forces.
And it's interesting to see many thinkers betray their views when they're pushed to their logical conclusions. For example, certain feminists have raised a storm of protest over Freudian sexual psychology because it is chauvinistic and degrading to women. And some psychologists have knuckled under and revised their theories. Now this is totally inconsistent. If Freudian psychology is really true, then it doesn't matter if it's degrading to women. You can't change the truth because you don't like what it leads to. But people cannot live consistently and happily in a world where other persons are devalued. Yet if God does not exist, then nobody has any value. Only if God exists can a person consistently support women's rights. For if God does not exist, then natural selection dictates that the male of the species is the dominant and aggressive one. Women would no more have rights than a female goat or chicken have rights. In nature whatever is, is right. But who can live with such a view? Apparently not even Freudian psychologists, who betray their theories when pushed to their logical conclusions.
Or take the sociological behaviorism of a man like B. F. Skinner. This view leads to the sort of society envisioned in George Orwell's 1984, where the government controls and programs the thoughts of everybody. If Skinner's theories are right, then there can be no objection to treating people like the rats in Skinner's rat-box as they run through their mazes, coaxed on by food and electric shocks. According to Skinner, all our actions are determined anyway. And if God does not exist, then no moral objection can be raised against this kind of programming, for man is not qualitatively different from a rat, since both are just matter plus time plus chance. But again, who can live with such a dehumanizing view?
Or finally, take the biological determinism of a man like Francis Crick. The logical conclusion is that man is like any other laboratory specimen. The world was horrified when it learned that at camps like Dachau the Nazis had used prisoners for medical experiments on living humans. But why not? If God does not exist, there can be no objection to using people as human guinea pigs. The end of this view is population control in which the weak and unwanted are killed off to make room for the strong. But the only way we can consistently protest this view is if God exists. Only if God exists can there be purpose in life.
The dilemma of modern man is thus truly terrible. And insofar as he denies the existence of God and the objectivity of value and purpose, this dilemma remains unrelieved for "post-modern" man as well. Indeed, it is precisely the awareness that modernism issues inevitably in absurdity and despair that constitutes the anguish of post-modernism. In some respects, post-modernism just is the awareness of the bankruptcy of modernity. The atheistic world view is insufficient to maintain a happy and consistent life. Man cannot live consistently and happily as though life were ultimately without meaning, value, or purpose. If we try to live consistently within the atheistic world view, we shall find ourselves profoundly unhappy. If instead we manage to live happily, it is only by giving the lie to our world view.
Confronted with this dilemma, man flounders pathetically for some means of escape. In a remarkable address to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 1991, Dr. L. D. Rue, confronted with the predicament of modern man, boldly advocated that we deceive ourselves by means of some "Noble Lie" into thinking that we and the universe still have value. Claiming that "The lesson of the past two centuries is that intellectual and moral relativism is profoundly the case," Dr. Rue muses that the consequence of such a realization is that one's quest for personal wholeness (or self-fulillment) and the quest for social coherence become independent from one another. This is because on the view of relativism the search for self-fulfillment becomes radically privatized: each person chooses his own set of values and meaning. If we are to avoid "the madhouse option," where self-fulfillment is pursued regardless of social coherence, and "the totalitarian option," where social coherence is imposed at the expense of personal wholeness, then we have no choice but to embrace some Noble Lie that will inspire us to live beyond selfish interests and so achieve social coherence. A Noble Lie "is one that deceives us, tricks us, compels us beyond self-interest, beyond ego, beyond family, nation, [and] race." It is a lie, because it tells us that the universe is infused with value (which is a great fiction), because it makes a claim to universal truth (when there is none), and because it tells me not to live for self-interest (which is evidently false). "But without such lies, we cannot live."
This is the dreadful verdict pronounced over modern man. In order to survive, he must live in self-deception. But even the Noble Lie option is in the end unworkable. In order to be happy, one must believe in objective meaning, value, and purpose. But how can one believe in those Noble Lies while at the same time believing in atheism and relativism? The more convinced you are of the necessity of a Noble Lie, the less you are able to believe in it. Like a placebo, a Noble Lie works only on those who believe it is the truth. Once we have seen through the fiction, then the Lie has lost its power over us. Thus, ironically, the Noble Lie cannot solve the human predicament for anyone who has come to see that predicament.
The Noble Lie option therefore leads at best to a society in which an elitist group of illuminati deceive the masses for their own good by perpetuating the Noble Lie. But then why should those of us who are enlightened follow the masses in their deception? Why should we sacrifice self-interest for a fiction? If the great lesson of the past two centuries is moral and intellectual relativism, then why (if we could) pretend that we do not know this truth and live a lie instead? If one answers, "for the sake of social coherence," one may legitimately ask why I should sacrifice my self-interest for the sake of social coherence? The only answer the relativist can give is that social coherence is in my self-interest—but the problem with this answer is that self-interest and the interest of the herd do not always coincide. Besides, if (out of self-interest) I do care about social coherence, the totalitarian option is always open to me: forget the Noble Lie and maintain social coherence (as well as my self-fulfillment) at the expense of the personal wholeness of the masses. Rue would undoubtedly regard such an option as repugnant. But therein lies the rub. Rue's dilemma is that he obviously values deeply both social coherence and personal wholeness for their own sakes; in other words, they are objective values, which according to his philosophy do not exist. He has already leapt to the upper story. The Noble Lie option thus affirms what it denies and so refutes itself.

 

Meaning of Life

Meaning of Life

First, the area of meaning. We saw that without God, life has no meaning. Yet philosophers continue to live as though life does have meaning. For example, Sartre argued that one may create meaning for his life by freely choosing to follow a certain course of action. Sartre himself chose Marxism.
Now this is utterly inconsistent. It is inconsistent to say life is objectively absurd and then to say one may create meaning for his life. If life is really absurd, then man is trapped in the lower story. To try to create meaning in life represents a leap to the upper story. But Sartre has no basis for this leap. Without God, there can be no objective meaning in life. Sartre's program is actually an exercise in self-delusion. Sartre is really saying, "Let's pretend the universe has meaning." And this is just fooling ourselves.
The point is this: if God does not exist, then life is objectively meaningless; but man cannot live consistently and happily knowing that life is meaningless; so in order to be happy he pretends life has meaning. But this is, of course, entirely inconsistent—for without God, man and the universe are without any real significance.

Value of Life

Turn now to the problem of value. Here is where the most blatant inconsistencies occur. First of all, atheistic humanists are totally inconsistent in affirming the traditional values of love and brotherhood. Camus has been rightly criticized for inconsistently holding both to the absurdity of life and the ethics of human love and brotherhood. The two are logically incompatible. Bertrand Russell, too, was inconsistent. For though he was an atheist, he was an outspoken social critic, denouncing war and restrictions on sexual freedom. Russell admitted that he could not live as though ethical values were simply a matter of personal taste, and that he therefore found his own views "incredible." "I do not know the solution," he confessed."7 The point is that if there is no God, then objective right and wrong cannot exist. As Dostoyevsky said, "All things are permitted."
But Dostoyevsky also showed that man cannot live this way. He cannot live as though it is perfectly all right for soldiers to slaughter innocent children. He cannot live as though it is all right for dictators like Pol Pot to exterminate millions of their own countrymen. Everything in him cries out to say these acts are wrong—really wrong. But if there is no God, he cannot. So he makes a leap of faith and affirms values anyway. And when he does so, he reveals the inadequacy of a world without God.
The horror of a world devoid of value was brought home to me with new intensity a few years ago as I viewed a BBC television documentary called "The Gathering." It concerned the reunion of survivors of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, where they rediscovered lost friendships and shared their experiences. One woman prisoner, a nurse, told of how she was made the gynecologist at Auschwitz. She observed that pregnant women were grouped together by the soldiers under the direction of Dr. Mengele and housed in the same barracks. Some time passed, and she noted that she no longer saw any of these women. She made inquiries. "Where are the pregnant women who were housed in that barracks?" "Haven't you heard?" came the reply. "Dr. Mengele used them for vivisection."
Another woman told of how Mengele had bound up her breasts so that she could not suckle her infant. The doctor wanted to learn how long an infant could survive without nourishment. Desperately this poor woman tried to keep her baby alive by giving it pieces of bread soaked in coffee, but to no avail. Each day the baby lost weight, a fact that was eagerly monitored by Dr. Mengele. A nurse then came secretly to this woman and told her, "I have arranged a way for you to get out of here, but you cannot take your baby with you. I have brought a morphine injection that you can give to your child to end its life." When the woman protested, the nurse was insistent: "Look, your baby is going to die anyway. At least save yourself." And so this mother took the life of her own baby. Dr. Mengele was furious when he learned of it because he had lost his experimental specimen, and he searched among the dead to find the baby's discarded corpse so that he could have one last weighing.
My heart was torn by these stories. One rabbi who survived the camp summed it up well when he said that at Auschwitz it was as though there existed a world in which all the Ten Commandments were reversed. Mankind had never seen such a hell.
And yet, if God does not exist, then in a sense, our world is Auschwitz: there is no absolute right and wrong; all things are permitted. But no atheist, no agnostic, can live consistently with such a view. Nietzsche himself, who proclaimed the necessity of living beyond good and evil, broke with his mentor Richard Wagner precisely over the issue of the composer's anti-Semitism and strident German nationalism. Similarly Sartre, writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, condemned anti-Semitism, declaring that a doctrine that leads to extermination is not merely an opinion or matter of personal taste, of equal value with its opposite. In his important essay "Existentialism Is a Humanism," Sartre struggles vainly to elude the contradiction between his denial of divinely pre-established values and his urgent desire to affirm the value of human persons. Like Russell, he could not live with the implications of his own denial of ethical absolutes.
A second problem is that if God does not exist and there is no immortality, then all the evil acts of men go unpunished and all the sacrifices of good men go unrewarded. But who can live with such a view? Richard Wurmbrand, who has been tortured for his faith in communist prisons, says,

The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe when man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil. There is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, 'There is no God, no Hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.' I have heard one torturer even say, 'I thank God, in whom I don't believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.' He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners.9

And the same applies to acts of self-sacrifice. A number of years ago, a terrible mid-winter air disaster occurred in which a plane leaving the Washington, D.C., airport smashed into a bridge spanning the Potomac River, plunging its passengers into the icy waters. As the rescue helicopters came, attention was focused on one man who again and again pushed the dangling rope ladder to other passengers rather than be pulled to safety himself. Six times he passed the ladder by. When they came again, he was gone. He had freely given his life that others might live. The whole nation turned its eyes to this man in respect and admiration for the selfless and good act he had performed. And yet, if the atheist is right, that man was not noble—he did the stupidest thing possible. He should have gone for the ladder first, pushed others away if necessary in order to survive. But to die for others he did not even know, to give up all the brief existence he would ever have—what for? For the atheist there can be no reason. And yet the atheist, like the rest of us, instinctively reacts with praise for this man's selfless action. Indeed, one will probably never find an atheist who lives consistently with his system. For a universe without moral accountability and devoid of value is unimaginably terrible.

 

The Practical Impossibility of Atheism

About the only solution the atheist can offer is that we face the absurdity of life and live bravely. Bertrand Russell, for example, wrote that we must build our lives upon "the firm foundation of unyielding despair."Only by recognizing that the world really is a terrible place can we successfully come to terms with life. Camus said that we should honestly recognize life's absurdity and then live in love for one another.
The fundamental problem with this solution, however, is that it is impossible to live consistently and happily within such a world view. If one lives consistently, he will not be happy; if one lives happily, it is only because he is not consistent. Francis Schaeffer has explained this point well. Modern man, says Schaeffer, resides in a two-story universe. In the lower story is the finite world without God; here life is absurd, as we have seen. In the upper story are meaning, value, and purpose. Now modern man lives in the lower story because he believes there is no God. But he cannot live happily in such an absurd world; therefore, he continually makes leaps of faith into the upper story to affirm meaning, value, and purpose, even though he has no right to, since he does not believe in God.
Let's look again, then, at each of the three areas in which we saw life was absurd without God, to show how man cannot live consistently and happily with his atheism.

No Ultimate Purpose Without Immortality and God

No Ultimate Purpose Without Immortality and God

If death stands with open arms at the end of life's trail, then what is the goal of life? Is it all for nothing? Is there no reason for life? And what of the universe? Is it utterly pointless? If its destiny is a cold grave in the recesses of outer space the answer must be, yes—it is pointless. There is no goal no purpose for the universe. The litter of a dead universe will just go on expanding and expanding—forever.
And what of man? Is there no purpose at all for the human race? Or will it simply peter out someday lost in the oblivion of an indifferent universe? The English writer H. G. Wells foresaw such a prospect. In his novel The Time Machine Wells's time traveler journeys far into the future to discover the destiny of man. All he finds is a dead earth, save for a few lichens and moss, orbiting a gigantic red sun. The only sounds are the rush of the wind and the gentle ripple of the sea. "Beyond these lifeless sounds," writes Wells, "the world was silent. Silent? It would be hard to convey the stillness of it. All the sounds of man, the bleating of sheep, the cries of birds, the hum of insects, the stir that makes the background of our lives—all that was over."3 And so Wells's time traveler returned. But to what?—to merely an earlier point on the purposeless rush toward oblivion. When as a non-Christian I first read Wells's book, I thought, "No, no! It can't end that way!" But if there is no God, it will end that way, like it or not. This is reality in a universe without God: there is no hope; there is no purpose.
What is true of mankind as a whole is true of each of us individually: we are here to no purpose. If there is no God, then our life is not qualitatively different from that of a dog. As the ancient writer of Ecclesiastes put it: "The fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All come from the dust and all return to the dust" (Eccles 3:19-20). In this book, which reads more like a piece of modern existentialist literature than a book of the Bible, the writer shows the futility of pleasure, wealth, education, political fame, and honor in a life doomed to end in death. His verdict? "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity" (1:2). If life ends at the grave, then we have no ultimate purpose for living.
But more than that: even if it did not end in death, without God life would still be without purpose. For man and the universe would then be simple accidents of chance, thrust into existence for no reason. Without God the universe is the result of a cosmic accident, a chance explosion. There is no reason for which it exists. As for man, he is a freak of nature— a blind product of matter plus time plus chance. Man is just a lump of slime that evolved rationality. As one philosopher has put it: "Human life is mounted upon a subhuman pedestal and must shift for itself alone in the heart of a silent and mindless universe.''4
What is true of the universe and of the human race is also true of us as individuals. If God does not exist, then you are just a miscarriage of nature, thrust into a purposeless universe to live a purposeless life.
So if God does not exist, that means that man and the universe exist to no purpose—since the end of everything is death—and that they came to be for no purpose, since they are only blind products of chance. In short, life is utterly without reason.
Do you understand the gravity of the alternatives before us? For if God exists, then there is hope for man. But if God does not exist, then all we are left with is despair. Do you understand why the question of God's existence is so vital to man? As one writer has aptly put it, "If God is dead, then man is dead, too."
Unfortunately, the mass of mankind do not realize this fact. They continue on as though nothing has changed. I'm reminded of Nietzsche's story of the madman who in the early morning hours burst into the marketplace, lantern in hand, crying, "I seek God! I seek God!" Since many of those standing about did not believe in God, he provoked much laughter. "Did God get lost?" they taunted him. "Or is he hiding? Or maybe he has gone on a voyage or emigrated!" Thus they yelled and laughed. Then, writes Nietzsche, the madman turned in their midst and pierced them with his eyes

'Whither is God?' he cried, 'I shall tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night and more night coming on all the while? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? . . . God is dead. . . . And we have killed him. How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves?5

The crowd stared at the madman in silence and astonishment. At last he dashed his lantern to the ground. "I have come too early," he said. "This tremendous event is still on its way—it has not yet reached the ears of man." Men did not yet truly comprehend the consequences of what they had done in killing God. But Nietzsche predicted that someday people would realize the implications of their atheism; and this realization would usher in an age of nihilism—the destruction of all meaning and value in life.
Most people still do not reflect on the consequences of atheism and so, like the crowd in the marketplace, go unknowingly on their way. But when we realize, as did Nietzsche, what atheism implies, then his question presses hard upon us: how shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves?

 

The Absurdity of Life without God and Immortality

The Absurdity of Life without God and Immortality

If there is no God, then man and the universe are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we await our unavoidable execution. There is no God, and there is no immortality. And what is the consequence of this? It means that life itself is absurd. It means that the life we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose. Let's look at each of these.

No Ultimate Meaning without Immortality and God

If each individual person passes out of existence when he dies, then what ultimate meaning can be given to his life? Does it really matter whether he ever existed at all? His life may be important relative to certain other events, but what is the ultimate significance of any of those events? If all the events are meaningless, then what can be the ultimate meaning of influencing any of them? Ultimately it makes no difference.
Look at it from another perspective: Scientists say that the universe originated in an explosion called the "Big Bang" about 13 billion years ago. Suppose the Big Bang had never occurred. Suppose the universe had never existed. What ultimate difference would it make? The universe is doomed to die anyway. In the end it makes no difference whether the universe ever existed or not. Therefore, it is without ultimate significance.
The same is true of the human race. Mankind is a doomed race in a dying universe. Because the human race will eventually cease to exist, it makes no ultimate difference whether it ever did exist. Mankind is thus no more significant than a swarm of mosquitos or a barnyard of pigs, for their end is all the same. The same blind cosmic process that coughed them up in the first place will eventually swallow them all again.
And the same is true of each individual person. The contributions of the scientist to the advance of human knowledge, the researches of the doctor to alleviate pain and suffering, the efforts of the diplomat to secure peace in the world, the sacrifices of good men everywhere to better the lot of the human race--all these come to nothing. This is the horror of modern man: because he ends in nothing, he is nothing.
But it is important to see that it is not just immortality that man needs if life is to be meaningful. Mere duration of existence does not make that existence meaningful. If man and the universe could exist forever, but if there were no God, their existence would still have no ultimate significance. To illustrate: I once read a science-fiction story in which an astronaut was marooned on a barren chunk of rock lost in outer space. He had with him two vials: one containing poison and the other a potion that would make him live forever. Realizing his predicament, he gulped down the poison. But then to his horror, he discovered he had swallowed the wrong vial—he had drunk the potion for immortality. And that meant that he was cursed to exist forever—a meaningless, unending life. Now if God does not exist, our lives are just like that. They could go on and on and still be utterly without meaning. We could still ask of life, "So what?" So it is not just immortality man needs if life is to be ultimately significant; he needs God and immortality. And if God does not exist, then he has neither.
Twentieth-century man came to understand this. Read Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. During this entire play two men carry on trivial conversation while waiting for a third man to arrive, who never does. Our lives are like that, Beckett is saying; we just kill time waiting—for what, we don't know. In a tragic portrayal of man, Beckett wrote another play in which the curtain opens revealing a stage littered with junk. For thirty long seconds, the audience sits and stares in silence at that junk. Then the curtain closes. That's all.
French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus understood this, too. Sartre portrayed life in his play No Exit as hell—the final line of the play are the words of resignation, "Well, let's get on with it." Hence, Sartre writes elsewhere of the "nausea" of existence. Camus, too, saw life as absurd. At the end of his brief novel The Stranger, Camus's hero discovers in a flash of insight that the universe has no meaning and there is no God to give it one.
Thus, if there is no God, then life itself becomes meaningless. Man and the universe are without ultimate significance.

No Ultimate Value Without Immortality and God

If life ends at the grave, then it makes no difference whether one has lived as a Stalin or as a saint. Since one's destiny is ultimately unrelated to one's behavior, you may as well just live as you please. As Dostoyevsky put it: "If there is no immortality then all things are permitted." On this basis, a writer like Ayn Rand is absolutely correct to praise the virtues of selfishness. Live totally for self; no one holds you accountable! Indeed, it would be foolish to do anything else, for life is too short to jeopardize it by acting out of anything but pure self-interest. Sacrifice for another person would be stupid. Kai Nielsen, an atheist philosopher who attempts to defend the viability of ethics without God, in the end admits,

We have not been able to show that reason requires the moral point of view, or that all really rational persons, unhoodwinked by myth or ideology, need not be individual egoists or classical amoralists. Reason doesn't decide here. The picture I have painted for you is not a pleasant one. Reflection on it depresses me . . . . Pure practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take you to morality.1

But the problem becomes even worse. For, regardless of immortality, if there is no God, then there can be no objective standards of right and wrong. All we are confronted with is, in Jean-Paul Sartre's words, the bare, valueless fact of existence. Moral values are either just expressions of personal taste or the by-products of socio-biological evolution and conditioning. In a world without God, who is to say which values are right and which are wrong? Who is to judge that the values of Adolf Hitler are inferior to those of a saint? The concept of morality loses all meaning in a universe without God. As one contemporary atheistic ethicist points out, "to say that something is wrong because . . . it is forbidden by God, is . . . perfectly understandable to anyone who believes in a law-giving God. But to say that something is wrong . . . even though no God exists to forbid it, is not understandable. . . ." "The concept of moral obligation [is] unintelligible apart from the idea of God. The words remain but their meaning is gone."2 In a world without God, there can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments. This means that it is impossible to condemn war, oppression, or crime as evil. Nor can one praise brotherhood, equality, and love as good. For in a universe without God, good and evil do not exist—there is only the bare valueless fact of existence, and there is no one to say you are right and I am wrong.

The Necessity of God and Immortality

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Man, writes Loren Eiseley, is the Cosmic Orphan. He is the only creature in the universe who asks, "Why?" Other animals have instincts to guide them, but man has leamed to ask questions. "Who am I?" man asks. "Why am I here? Where am I going?" Since the Enlightenment, when he threw off the shackles of religion, man has tried to answer these questions without reference to God. But the answers that came back were not exhilarating, but dark and terrible. "You are the accidental by-product of nature, a result of matter plus time plus chance. There is no reason for your existence. All you face is death."
Modern man thought that when he had gotten rid of God, he had freed himself from all that repressed and stifled him. Instead, he discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself. For if there is no God, then man's life becomes absurd.
If God does not exist, then both man and the universe are inevitably doomed to death. Man, like all biological organisms, must die. With no hope of immortality, man's life leads only to the grave. His life is but a spark in the infinite blackness, a spark that appears, flickers, and dies forever. Therefore, everyone must come face to face with what theologian Paul Tillich has called "the threat of non-being." For though I know now that I exist, that I am alive, I also know that someday I will no longer exist, that I will no longer be, that I will die. This thought is staggering and threatening: to think that the person I call "myself" will cease to exist, that I will be no more!
I remember vividly the first time my father told me that someday I would die. Somehow as a child the thought had just never occurred to me. When he told me, I was filled with fear and unbearable sadness. And though he tried repeatedly to reassure me that this was a long way off, that did not seem to matter. Whether sooner or later, the undeniable fact was that I would die and be no more, and the thought overwhelmed me. Eventually, like all of us, I grew to simply accept the fact. We all learn to live with the inevitable. But the child's insight remains true. As the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre observed, several hours or several years make no difference once you have lost eternity.
Whether it comes sooner or later, the prospect of death and the threat of non-being is a terrible horror. But I met a student once who did not feel this threat. He said he had been raised on the farm and was used to seeing the animals being born and dying. Death was for him simply natural—a part of life, so to speak. I was puzzled by how different our two perspectives on death were and found it difficult to understand why he did not feel the threat of non-being. Years later, I think I found my answer in reading Sartre. Sartre observed that death is not threatening so long as we view it as the death of the other, from a third-person standpoint, so to speak. It is only when we internalize it and look at it from the first-person perspective—"my death: I am going to die"—that the threat of non-being becomes real. As Sartre points out, many people never assume this first-person perspective in the midst of life; one can even look at one's own death from the third-person standpoint, as if it were the death of another or even of an animal, as did my friend. But the true existential significance of my death can only be appreciated from the first-person perspective, as I realize that I am going to die and forever cease to exist. My life is just a momentary transition out of oblivion into oblivion.
And the universe, too, faces death. Scientists tell us that the universe is expanding, and everything in it is growing farther and farther apart. As it does so, it grows colder and colder, and its energy is used up. Eventually all the stars will burn out and all matter will collapse into dead stars and black holes. There will be no light at all; there will be no heat; there will be no life; only the corpses of dead stars and galaxies, ever expanding into the endless darkness and the cold recesses of space—a universe in ruins. So not only is the life of each individual person doomed; the entire human race is doomed. There is no escape. There is no hope.

TOPIC: THE MYSTERY OF THE FOURTH WELL

In the sixth month of this year, we were led to adopt “O God, Arise! Bring Me To My Personal Rehoboth’’ for a theme. Thank God for the testimonies that followed. We are in the seventh month of 2013; the Lord is prophetically taking us a step beyond Rehoboth to the next prophetic well that Isaac dug, which Abimelech and his men could do nothing about. The God who enlarged your room and brought you into a broad place in June, is about to establish His covenant of seven with you in this seventh month of the year.
In Genesis 26: 2, God had promised to guide Isaac to the place where he should dwell. Little did Isaac realize just how God was to lead him back to the place of His promise and presence. To a large degree it was by means of adversity and opposition.
On the surface, opposition seemed like the last thing which Isaac experienced. Staying on in Gerar after Abimelech had confronted him, Isaac harvested a bumper crop and then his trouble started as he became the object of envy and jealousy.
Isaac was rather seen as a threatening personality, not only because of his prosperity and power, but also because of his father Abraham. The Bible says:
Genesis 26:15 (KJV) 
For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. 
The sentiments of the Philistines were concisely expressed in Abimelech’s terse suggestion that Isaac depart from Gerar (verse 16). Rather than fight for possession of this property, Isaac retreated.
It would seem that Isaac had developed a strategy by which he determined where he was to sojourn. Essentially, Isaac refused to stay where there was conflict and hostility. Being a man with many animals to tend, he must be at a place where water was available in abundance. He not only re-opened the wells once dug by his father, but he dug other wells also.
He dug four wells; of which two were closed out of envy, strife and hostility.
We shall be dealing with the last, of the four wells, which Isaac dug. There are some wells that must close in your life, and others, that must stay opened. Of the four wells that Isaac dug two were closed, while the other two stayed. We are in the era of the fourth well.

The third well brought Isaac into a broad place in God, while the fourth  well brought him into a place of covenant. It was the well where Jesus met the woman whom He told about the living water. The Bible says:

John 4:10-14 (KJV) 
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. [11] The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? [12] Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? [13] Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: [14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

The third well, Rehoboth, brought Isaac into a struggle-free zone, but God has more than just being free; He wanted him to proceed to the next level-the place of covenant. We were told that Isaac dug the third well and proceeded further to Beer-sheba where the Lord appeared unto him.

Genesis 26:22-25 (KJV) 
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. [23] And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. [24] And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. [25] And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well. 

Up to this time Isaac’s decision as to where he should stay was based upon the findings of abundant water and the absence of hostilities. But now, having dug a well that was uncontested, we would have expected Isaac to dwell there. Instead we are told that he moved on to Beersheba, with no reason stated for this move: “And he went up from there to Beersheba” (verse 23). This month, somebody shall go up in Jesus name!

When Isaac got to Beer-sheba (verse 23 -25), the sequence of things changed. He did not start by digging a well but by building an altar for God. In the new order:
·    He had an encounter with God
·    He built an altar for God
·    He called upon God, and
·    He digged a well there.

The place for God’s people is the place of God’s presence. The place of intimacy, worship, and communion with God is the place to abide. We must secure the presence of God before we take over a place. The moment he did the above, King Abimelech moved to meet him where he was, to make covenant with him. The Bible says:

Genesis 26:26-30 (KJV) 
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. [27] And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? [28] And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; [29] That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the Lord. [30] And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 

From this point on everything seems to take on a different hue or colour. Previously Isaac had been directed more providentially, but now that Isaac’s priorities have been rearranged, the blessings and guidance of God are far more evident in his life. Abimelech, Ahuzzath, and Phicol all paid a state visit to Isaac.
Can you imagine the man that was against him turning around to make a covenant with him? God shall force your enemies to be at peace with you. They say, if you cannot beat them you join them. All those who have been afflicting you in the past shall bow down to you.

Isaiah 60:14 (KJV) 
The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 

Isaac made a great feast and entered into peace covenant with them. The Bible says:

Genesis 26:30-33 (KJV) 
And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. [31] And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. [32] And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. [33] And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. 

But why did Isaac decide to move from the place of Rehoboth when he was no more facing hostility from the Philistines? If you look back at the importance of Beer-sheba to his father, Abraham, you will see the reason. Beer-sheba was connected to the place of promise after he came from the mountain of sacrifice, the Mount of Moriah. There was a promise waiting for his generation there which he must not miss. The Bible says:

Genesis 22:15-19 (KJV) 
And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, [16] And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: [17] That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; [18] And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. [19] So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. 

He decided to go the way of his father by raising an altar in Beer-sheba. No matter how prosperous you are never depart from the landmark of your father. When you build upon the covenant of your father you will prosper more than when you stepped into a strange and unfamiliar ground. Earlier God had told him not to step out of the place of covenant with his father if he must prosper. The Bible says:

Genesis 26:3-5 (KJV) 
 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; [4] And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; [5] Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 

Isaac passed through Ezek, Sitnah and Rehoboth before ending it all in Beer-sheba. No matter the battles you face in life, God is always there to lead you into your place of covenant and peace. The Bible says:

Proverbs 16:7 (KJV) 
When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. 

Psalm 66:10-13 (KJV) 
For thoxsxu, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. [11] Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. [12] Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. [13] I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows, 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BEER-SHEBA
·    Abraham named it and made a covenant with Abimelech in his days (Gen. 21: 22-32).
·    It was the place where Hagar miraculously saw a pool of water when the water in her bottle was spent (Gen. 21: 14-19).
·    It was the place where Elijah was fed by an angel when he was running from Jezebel (1 Kgs 19: 1-8).
·    It was the place where Isaac dwelt and made a covenant with Abimelech (Gen. 26: 23-30).
·    Isaac opened up the well of his father, Abraham, and raised an altar for God.
·    It was the place where Jacob offered sacrifice to God and God appeared to him and gave him assurance that He will be with him (Gen. 46: 1-4).
·    It became the seat of government for the two sons of Prophet Samuel when he became too old (1 Sam. 8: 1-2). 
Out of reference to the covenant with Abimelech or maybe out of respect for his father Abraham, Isaac named the well “Shebah,” which literally means “seven,” a word that has an association with the oaths of blood covenants. Back in Chapter 21 Abraham had made covenant at Beersheba with Abimelech’s father (also named Abimelech) and his commander, in which the Philistines recognized Abraham’s right to the well at Beer-sheba. The name Beersheba comes from two words. One means “well.” The other is translated “oath,” but it actually means “seven”. When it says in v. 31 that they exchanged oaths, it literally means they “sevened themselves.”
Why seven? This is some speculation, but the number seven in scripture often points to completeness or to divinity. In a blood covenant between humans, a deity was often invoked within the oaths taken, as a sign of the solemnity of the oath. To seal his covenant with Abimelech, Abraham gave him seven female sheep.
So the “Well of the Oath” served as the place where three covenants were affirmed: the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech, the covenant between Isaac and the son Abimelech, and the covenant between Isaac and the Lord.

THE PROPHETIC NUMBER 7 IN THE BIBLE
In Hebrew, 7 is shevah. It is from the root savah, to be full or satisfied, to have enough of. Hence the meaning of the word "seven" is dominated by this root, for on the seventh day God rested from the work of Creation. It was full and complete, and good and perfect. Nothing could be added to it or taken from it without marring it. Hence the word Shavath, to cease, desist, rest, and Shabbath, Sabbath, or day of rest.
It is 7, therefore, that stamped with perfection and completeness that in connection with which it is used. Of time, it tells of the Sabbath, and marks off the week of seven days, which, artificial as it may seem to be, is universal and immemorial in its observance amongst all nations and in all times. It tells of that eternal Sabbath-keeping which remains for the people of God in all its everlasting perfection.
In the creative works of God, seven completes the colours of the spectrum and rainbow, and satisfies in music the notes of the scale. In each of these the eighth is only a repetition of the first.
Another meaning of the root Shavagh is to swear, or make an oath. It is clear from its first occurrence in Genesis 21:31, "They sware both of them," that this oath was based upon the "seven ewe lambs" (verses 28-30), which points to the idea of satisfaction or fullness in an oath. It was the security, satisfaction, and fullness of the obligation or completeness of the bond, which caused the same word to be used for both the number seven and an oath; and hence it is written, "an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife." Beer-sheba, the well of the oath, is the standing witness of the spiritual perfection of the number 7.
God is going to break protocol for your sake this month. He is going to intervene in your life with a 7 fold grace.
Seven miracles wrought by Christ on the Sabbath day: -
1.    The withered hand, Matthew 12:9.
2.    The unclean spirit, Mark 1:21.
3.    Peter's wife's mother, Mark 1:29.
4.    The woman, Luke 13:11.
5.    The man with dropsy, Luke 14:2.
6.    The impotent man, John 5:8,9.
7.    The man born blind, John 9:14.
When God called Abraham He promised him a 7-fold blessing in Genesis 12:2, 3: -
"I will make of thee a great nation,
And I will bless thee,
And make thy name great;
And thou shalt be a blessing;
And I will bless them that bless thee,
And curse him that curseth thee:
And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

God promised the Israelites to establish a 7-fold covenant with them in Exodus 6: 6-8. He declared in vs. 4 & 5 thus:

Exodus 6:4-5 (KJV) 
And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. [5] And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 

What were these covenants? Vs 6-8 contains 7- I wills:

I will bring you out from Egypt.
I will rid you of their bondage.
I will redeem you.
I will take you to Me for a people.
I will be to you a God.
I will bring you in unto the land.
I will give it you.

Can God do the same number of things in your life this month? Of course, He can if you trust Him to.

What are the 7 miracles written about in the gospel of John?
·    The water turned into wine. (John 2:9)
·    Healing of the nobleman's son. (John 4:47)
·    Healing of a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. (John 5:4-9)
·    The feeding of 5,000 people from only five loaves of bread and two fishes. (John 6:10)
·    Healing of the man born blind. (John 9:1)
·    The raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John 11:43)
·    The catching of 153 fishes by some of the disciples. (John 21:6)
Seven weak things recorded in the book of Judges which God used as instruments of deliverance, marking and stamping the spiritual perfection of His work: -
1.    A left handed man (3:21), - Ehud delivering from Moab's oppression.
2.    An ox-goad (3:31) in the hand of Shamgar, delivering from the Philistines.
3.    A woman (4:4), and
4.    A tent-peg in the hand of Jael (4:21) [delivering from Jabin, king of Canaan].
5.    A piece of a millstone (9:53), thrown by another woman, and delivering the people from Abimelech's usurpation.
6.    The pitchers and trumpets of Gideon's 300 (7:20), delivering from the hosts of Midian.
7.    The jaw-bone of an ass (15:16), by which Samson delivered Israel from the Philistines.
You can begin to ask God concerning your 7-fold blessings this month as you provoke the His covenant in your life. As I conclude this message you can ask God to fill your seven dry wells with water this month. You need God’s miraculous intervention. The Bible says:

2 Kings 3:17 (KJV) 
For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. 

Congratulation for giving your life to Jesus, and picking up your miracle-without-sign or battle in the beginning of the second half of 2013.

BREAKTHROUGH PRAYER POINTS FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2013
1.     Blood of Jesus! Arise; pull down the stronghold of sin in my life and family.
2.    Every dark creature contending with me at the mouth of my well, die by fire.
3.    You serpentine spirit! Chasing people from my life, die by fire.
4.    Every power polluting my well, manifest and die.
5.    O Lord! Send your angels to dig out rubbish from my well.
6.    O God, arise! Repair every damage done to the mouth of my well.
7.    Every bush that has grown and covered the mouth of my well, burn to ashes.
8.    O Lord! Arise; send a mighty angel to roll away every great stone                                                                                                                                                                &a mp;a mp;n bsp;                                                                                                                                 covering the mouth of my well.
9.    Every dream of well programmed to swallow up my blessings, expire by fire.
10.    Where my destiny has been caged in a collapsing well, my Father, arise; deliver me by fire.
11.    Jehovah Nissi! Arise; break evil cooperation against the manifestation of my God-ordained dream.
12.    Every good thing that is waiting to drown in my life! I rescue you by fire.
13.    Satanic well of my father’s house! Vomit all the wealth and riches you have swallowed.
14.    Satanic well of my mother’s house! As I begin to pray, give up all our inheritances.
15.    Demoting well of my ancestors! Close now by fire.
16.    Every power that wants me to fetch water with a bucket with holes, fall down and expire.
17.    Every power that wants me to commit suicide by jumping into well, die in my place.
18.    Every coven well of blood dug to collect innocent blood, close by fire.
19.    All those labouring to collect and transfer my blood into coven blood bank, die by fire.
20.    Let all those who are assigned to empty my life from my dwelling place be brought to open shame and disgrace.
21.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, my God shall terminate the journey of mockers and emptiers in my life.
22.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, the God of Abraham shall open every closed well of my life.
23.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, the God of Akoria shall open every closed well of children.
24.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, the God of Elijah shall miraculously fill dry valley with water for me. 
25.    Well of indebtedness, collapse now.
26.    Every power digging the grave of my tomorrow, be buried in your own grave.
27.    Every well and dark river of evil inheritance flowing in my family, dry up by fire.
28.    My Father! Make me a well of prosperity to my generation.
29.    My Father! Arise; bring me to the place of covenanted well.
30.    Holy Ghost! Bring me to my personal Beer-Shebah by fire.
31.    My Father! Humble my personal Abimelech by lifting me up
32.    Power to travel through my destiny and end up with rest, break forth in my life.
33.    Father! Open my eyes to see the well of destiny after the order of Hagar.
34.    My life! Arise; break forth into unending praise and worship.
35.    As I begin to praise and worship, God let every dry well of my destiny spring up with water.
36.    Holy Ghost! Arise; bring me to the place of covenant wealth and riches.
37.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, God shall convert every weakness to strength for me.
38.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, every well of sickness and infirmity shall dry up by fire.
39.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, every well of tears and sorrow shall close.
40.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, my life shall burst out with living waters.
41.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, my prophetic well shall experience overflow.
42.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, grace shall speak for me where my strength cannot carry me.
43.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, Holy Ghost shall arise and open my eyes to see what my competitors are not seeing.
44.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, I shall be promoted above my enemies.
45.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, my God shall dry up every stream and well of bitter water.
46.    In this month of, “The Mystery Of The Fourth Well”, Jehovah God shall release helpers who would help to roll away the great stone covering the mouth of my well.
47.    O Lord! Arise; connect me to the river and well of joy forevermore.
48.    O well of my father! You cannot be closed; open now by fire.
49.    I hook out every dark creature living in my well.
50.    My Father! Connect and satisfy me with the Well of Everlasting Life.