In this episode of Jesus Can we explore the importance of looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our Faith, and also exploring the areas that we tend to look up to, when challenged. If you need prayers or counseling contact us through an email address houseofsalvation55@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27729110805 .for further information check www.houseofsalvation55. co.
Kingdom Community TV Podcast
Look unto Jesus!
(upbeat music) - Are you weary and heartbroken? Do you need healing and deliverance? Welcome to the program, Jesus Can with your host, Dr. Bongyu. Our mission is to help you step by step live a victorious life in Christ. Enjoy today's program. (upbeat music) - We are reeling from the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 22, King James Version. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him enjoyed the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heaven and Father, we thank you for the reading of your weight. We thank you that your weight is you, Holy Spirit, speak to us for the good I pray that you touch each and everyone. Accordingly, in Jesus' mighty name, Amen. Today, we are talking about looking unto Jesus. When we say we look up to Jesus because he is the author and the finisher, what we mean is that he knows our beginning and he also knows our ending. If it's the author, it means if it's a race, he is the one who's touching the race. And at the end of the race, he is the one who finishes the race and he is the one who's the judge. So he is the author and the finisher of our faith. So when we say he is the author and the finisher, we mean that he is alpha and omega. We mean that he is the first and the last. We mean that he is the beginning and the end. So now everything he knows about us, he knows what is in the middle. We know he knows what is in the beginning. He knows what it's also at the end. So nothing takes him by a surprise. Maybe there is something that at the moment you didn't expect and it's happening to you, but with God, he knew about what is happening to you. Nothing takes him by a surprise because he's a God who is alpha and who is omega. So it's important for us to understand that when we see we should look up to him, being the author and the finisher of our faith, why should we look up to him, being the author and the finisher of our faith? Firstly, the help comes from him. In Psalms 121, verse one, two, three. We read about David. David says, "I look up to the hills where comes my help." My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. So now it tells us that the help doesn't come from east, no west, it doesn't come from south or north, but it comes from the Lord. So we should expect to get our help from the Lord. So that's why every time we should call unto the Lord, even if we are facing situations that we don't understand our first point of contact should be the Lord because our help should come from the Lord. Look at David. David is known as the man after God's heart. Yes, people say David is an adult, David is a murderer, but God says this is the man after my own heart. But when you look, David was looking up to Jesus. When he fought the bear, he looked up to Jesus. When he fought the lion, he looked up to Jesus. When he fought Goliath, he looked up to Jesus. When even Saul was attacking him, he looked up to Jesus. When he had a scandal with Pachiba, he looked up to Jesus. Even when he was dancing now for the Lord, praising for the Lord and others away, this approving the wife, especially not approving of the dance, but he didn't care. He looked up to the Lord. So now we also need to look out to God. Like even if there are challenges, even if people are talking, even if there's criticism, but we should know that our help comes from the Lord and we look up to him, the one who is our helper. Secondly, our future comes from the Lord. Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11, he says that the plans that he has for us, it's not to harm us, but to prosper us. So now we should know that God is a God who prosper us. Like the harm can happen, but we should know that it's not God who has a plan to harm us. But God his plan is that we should get an unexpected end. And now if it's not good, you should know that it's not the expected end, the expected end is still on the way. You are just still like awake in progress. God is still busy with us giving us the expected and as his plans are to prosper us and not to harm us. Thirdly, direction comes from God. That's why we need to look up to him being the author and the finisher of our faith. You know, it's so important to know that we are being directed because he sees he order our steps. So our steps are being ordered. Like God is the one like who decides which direction should we follow, because he's the God who gives direction, direction, true direction comes from him. That's why we need every time to be in tune with him so that we can hear where does he guide us and follow accordingly. Fourthly, provision comes from God. In the book of Matthew 6, verse 11, he says, "Give us our daily bread." So he wouldn't say that we should pray like that to say, "Give us today our daily bread." If he didn't like keep to his way to say, "When we ask for that daily bread and provide," he will provide for us. So that's why in the way he says, he gives the bread to the eater and he gives the seed to the sower. So he is a promised keeper. He's a covenant keeping God. He stands in his ways, his ways, I, yes, and amen. So now we should know that provision comes from him and nowhere else. Sometimes we just think that maybe provision comes from our job or maybe comes from our government or comes from our business, but we should know that the who is the creator of all those things, it's God. So provision comes from God. And then also the eternity is from God. If we can just look at eternity, eternity sometimes we just look at it vainly like that and not like looking at it the harmony of eternity. Because eternity is not 100 years, eternity is not 1000 years, eternity is not million years, eternity is not billion years. Eternity is more like we can think like it's eternity. Eternity is eternity. It doesn't stop. It doesn't have a beginning. It doesn't have an end. It's eternity. So now when we see our eternity is with God, so we mean that he's the one who gives us the eternal life. When he says he won't die again. Now he means that you will live forever. You have passed the stage of dying and you are in a stage of eternity what a gift to be given. A gift of life that is abandoned in life that doesn't end. That is continuous eternal life, so alive. So that's why we need to look up to him, being the author and the finisher of our faith. Now with looking up to Jesus, sometimes when we have challenges and also trials, we tend to not look up to Jesus. Sometimes we tend to look at ourselves. Our selves are limited, but sometimes maybe we try to say maybe I have this profession, maybe I have this gift, maybe I have this talent, I have this skill, and now we look at our level, like we stitch ourselves to say, or maybe I do have this, but I don't have this. I don't qualify for this because I like one, two, three, but like we don't understand that God is with us. It's easy to say I am nothing. Yes, it sounds humble to say I'm nothing before God, but what sounds even more good or best is when you say I am with God, and with God I am everything. Because now that lifts up his name high. I'm nobody, it sounds as if we are humble, but if we are with God, then the story changes because if we are with God, you can't be nothing when you are with God. So like we have to look up to Jesus being the author and the finisher of our faith and not look at ourselves because ourselves we are limited. And secondly, sometimes when we are facing trials and tribulations, we end up looking on others. Now we want our help to be on others, but the Bible tells us that a person who puts his trust in another person is cast. She remains 17, verse five says that person is cast. So like we shouldn't put our trust on people. Yes, we should trust each other, we should love each other, but the whom we should put our trust is God. Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will call upon the name of God. He says trust in me and lean not on your own understanding. So God is the God whose jealousy wants us to trust in him and not lean even on our knowledge, not on ourselves. Now, what more of another person? Because a person is human just like you are. So like now that's why the trust has to be like in God and not like in a person. If you look up to the person, you may find frustration. If you look up to yourself, you may find limitation. Now that clearly, sometimes when we're facing trials and tribulations, we look on alternatives. Alternatives, it's either other ways other than like God's way. Now you find that maybe we have tried so much, maybe we need a baby, we have tried, we have prayed maybe for the baby, we have fasted for the baby and the baby doesn't come. And now we end up going to wrong people to find the baby. Maybe we might find that baby. But the truth is that it will come with destruction because only God's blessings that are without sorrow. But these other blessings, they have sorrow. So that's why we need to look up to God. Look like when we look at Abraham, Abraham needed a son and was had a promise on which was Isaac. But Abraham decided to have Ishmael. Now even as we speak now, there are consequences of that action. But now we should know that with him at that point, it was an alternative to say, I've been waiting. So now the better way is for us to try our own means. So sometimes with like waiting, we end up being tired. And the Bible tells us that we shouldn't be weary of doing good things. So but sometimes we get weary and we now resort to alternatives. And the alternatives, they always go with sorrow and destruction. I was just listening to one confession of a person who said like him like went to a traditional healer because he was looking for money. And now the traditional healer like make some means, like some rituals and he got the money. But now the traditional healer told him to bring a chicken. And now he brought the chicken. And then after just one day or so, like his father passed away, but he just thought that it's just a coincidence. And then now it continued after a year. Again, the traditional healer called to say, you know, this covenant that we have with you. Now it needs also another chicken. You must bring another chicken. And now the man brought the chicken. And when the chicken, when you brought the chicken, now the second now parent died now. Now I was surprised to see what's happening. You know, my father and my mother, they are dead every time when I take this chicken, now people like you go, but I continue to say, okay, let's see. Third year, again, the chicken was required. When he now sent the chicken, now the first one son died. So now it was only then that his eyes are open to say, it's these chickens that are eating my people. It's this chicken that ate my parents. Now this chicken is also eating my son. So the problem is the covenant that I have with that traditional healer. And now had to seek like a for deliverance. And as he confessed, he said like he was hurt. And now he's out of that covenant. And he has started a new life and now getting a renumeration in the correct way and not alternatives. Because you know, with the enemy, the enemy like he is quick to give you what you want, but at an expense there, you are going to pay because now it's a blessing with sorrow. But now with God, it's a blessing without sorrow. It might tear you, but you should know that God is a promise keeper. When he has promised you something, he will keep up to eat and he will give unto you. For you is just to rest assured. Like stay in his promises, like rest in his promises. And you will never be put to shame. Fourthly, sometimes when we are facing trials, we end up like a looking at the environment. We look, we see that maybe the grass is greener at that level and we go to that grass, but maybe only to find that it's just a mirage. The grass is not really green. And we are just running around that grass that seems to be green, but not green. And nothing is coming forward. So instead we are in stagnation. That's why now don't like a move because of like a, the environment like that, unless God tells you so, but the good thing to do is always to look up to Jesus, that Jesus be the one that who leads me, be the one that who guides me, because otherwise you may find yourself just moving around, because it's not what maybe God has a plan for you. But now it's just like you are in a place where, like it has no value, like it rather, it just brings stagnation. That's why I said, if you look at yourself, you'll find limitation. If you look at others, you'll find frustration. If you look at the alternatives, you'll find destruction. When you look on the environment, you'll find stagnation. Now also when you look back, because looking backwards is like, it has a way of pulling your back. That's why Lord's wife, when you look back, he turned into a pillar of salt. So now it can be difficult, but you should appreciate what God has like a, the mile that God has already taken you through. But if you look back now, you are calling, yourself to retrograde. You are calling yourself to go back, because now there are things that you'll be thinking of, that have passed and now, but you are still looking backwards, and now it will pull you backwards. That's why Paul says that he forgets about what's behind, and he's pressing on the price of the high calling. So we need people who will press on the price of their high calling and forget about what is behind. Because when you look at what is behind, you are retrograde. Looking down. When you look down, like when you look down, we know most people, when they are stressed, they are just looking down. When they are depressed, they are just looking down. So that's why we need to look out. Jeez, our eyes should look up today. It feels way, come is our help, that our help comments from the Lord. But now, if we look down, we will be depressed. We will suffer depression, which is so much like, so thriving, so much in our society, because we are facing so many challenges. But if we can know that we are not alone, we are with God, with those challenges, if you call upon the name of Jesus, no one can stand before you. If you call upon the name of Jesus, look up to Jesus being the author and the finisher of your faith, you will see God coming true for you. But we fail to look up instead, like we follow what we feel. We follow the problems that we fail. But today, God is encouraging us that we must look up to Jesus. We must look up to the one who's the author and the finisher of our faith, because one will look up to him, then we'll be elevated. One will look up to him, who will be accelerated. So that's why, if there is something that you can do for yourself to help yourself, there is nothing better than coming to in prayer, like looking up to Jesus, who's the author and the finisher to say, "Lord, I am facing this, "but I know that you are bigger than what I'm facing. "I know that you are the creator and not the creation, "so whatever I'm facing, it's a creation, "it's under your feet. "It's under your feet, "because the word has already said "that you are seated at the right hand of the Father "and you are sitting in higher places "and heaven is your footstool "and heaven is your place "and the earth is your footstool, "so everything is under you." And remember, if it's like that, all Jesus, also even ourselves, so we are seated with him in the right place of the Father, so we are at the place of authority, so everything is under our feet. So now it's just up to us to look up to Jesus, being the author and the finisher of faith. In number 21, we read of Moses. When Moses was in the wilderness. Now there were snakes because the people were complaining and now God brought the snakes and the snakes were just crawling around them as they were seated, but now Moses was commanded to put a pole and on that pole, like the snake was a bronze snake was put on the pole, so now everyone who looked at the bronze snake was being hurt, but everyone who looked at the snakes that were crawling around now was being beaten by those snakes. So now in the midst of all the snakes, I can imagine maybe the green mambas, maybe like the black mambas, different kinds of snakes moving around the small ones and the big ones moving around their children, moving around them, like a bit challenging to not concentrate on what you see down, on what is closer to you, because the ones that are down, the snakes that are down, they are closer to you, so they are more real to you, but they had to forget about what is real to them and look up to Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of their feet. In this case, they had to look at the bronze sepent and as they looked at the bronze sepent, their other snakes that were crawling down, couldn't touch them, the other snakes that were crawling down, couldn't bite them, but only if now they focus their eyes on these snakes that are down, then they were beaten. But what I like mostly is that the Bible says that even those who were beaten as they look at the bronze sepent, then they were healed. So in other ways, even if now it happened at some point they looked down, maybe a green member now had beaten them, but now as they changed their focus, as they changed their eyes to see, we are not looking down, we refuse to look down, now we look up to the author and the finisher of our feet, as they decide to see, now we're looking at the sepent bronze, and then now they were healed. That blessed me so much to see, even ourselves, maybe we might have been beaten, but we can still look up to Jesus. Jesus can still heal us, Jesus can still deliver us, Jesus can still comfort us, Jesus can still fight for us, Jesus can still be our victory, Jesus can still be our freedom, Jesus can lift us up from the mighty clay because he's a forgiver, he's a lover, he's our savior, he is everything that we need. So now I'm talking about looking up to Jesus, being the author and the finisher of our faith, and now here the Israelites also, this symbolizes that as they look to the bronze sepent, everything was nullified, the snakes that were moving around were nullified. Even today, Jesus, as we look unto Jesus, all these other problems, all these other snakes that are moving around as they become nullified because now we are looking up to Jesus, who's the author and the finisher of our faith. And now also this reminds me of Jesus when he was working on water, because now as he was working on water, Peter was brave enough to come out of the boat, and as he was coming out of the boat, he was working on water, until it came to him and till he lost the focus of looking up to Jesus, and then now he drowned, because now he saw that he was working on the water and which is not natural, which is supernatural, he saw that there's storm, now that made him to not look up to the author and the finisher of the faith, and now he drowned. So how many times ourselves that now we forget, like because of the challenges that we're facing, because of the reality that we're facing, now we take our eyes to the one who's our helper, and now we find ourselves drowning. We're not drowning because there is no power of us to walk on water. Peter was working on water, but he drowned only because the forecast now was changed. He didn't look up to Jesus. The children of Israel, the Israelites, they were beaten by snakes, not because the snakes had to beat them, but it's because now their focus changed, they were no longer looking at the bronze serpent, but as they lose, like looking at the bronze serpent, now there was now that moment where these snakes could, like the crawling snakes could bite them, but now it's just up to us to choose to say, Lord, we want to look up to you. Yes, we are facing challenges, but we don't want alternatives, we don't want to look at ourselves, we don't want to look at the man, we don't want to look at the environment, we don't want to look backwards, we don't want to look down, we want to look up to you being the author and the finisher of our faith so that we can have our elevation, so that we can have our acceleration, because we know in you there is acceleration, because you are a God who's a restorer, you said you will restore the years that they conquer them, they pamma them, they caterpillar, that the locus that have stolen, because you are a God who's a restorer, so what should take us five years, you can make ourselves to do it in one year, you make us jump some other years, because you are a restorer, you are catching up all what we have lost, so we give you praise, we give on a lot for being such a good God, so that's why I once had one pastor who said so much profound ways, which always stay in my heart, that says whatever God cannot do for me, let it remain undone, whatever God cannot give to me, let me not have it, wherever God cannot take me, let me remain and not go there, because I don't want to go by any other means, if it's not God, then let it not be done, so this is a prayer that I pray that for each and every one of us, let's say this prayer and look up to Jesus, being the author and the finisher of faith, knowing that he's the one who lists people, he's the one who delivers people, he's the one who heals people, he's the one who removes poverty, who removes generational cases, so the help comes only from him, as we look up to him, being the author and the finisher of our faith, amen. - Thank you for tuning in to Jesus Can with Dr. Bongi. We hope you've enjoyed the program. Please tune in again, same time, same place. Always remember that if Jesus can, you can, shalom. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)