There are very many of God’s children who cannot easily accept that God has forgiven them and like wise they find it so hard to forgive those who offend them.

I want to remind you that forgiveness is God’s nature and if we are transformed to be per takers of his divine nature, we must accept his forgiveness and must forgive our offenders unconditionally everyday.

In Luke 17:3- 4: Take heed to your selves: if your brother trespass against you, rebuke him: and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying I repent; you shall forgive him.

Though this sounds very hard for someone to sin against me intentionally seven times in a day and I keep forgiving him unconditionally, it is what exactly our Heavenly Father does for us and he cannot tell us to do what he does not do.

Jesus did not say forgive once a day, or a week but seven times every day for a person when they offend you and come back to you Repenting. In this, he was calling for unlimited and unconditional forgiveness to our friends with no strings attached regardless of our feelings.

I want to emphasize that it is God’s nature to forgive so it should be ours as his children who are per takers of his divine nature.

In Psalms 86:5 for you Lord are good and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them who call upon you.
If we be partakers of his nature, we should also be ready to forgive unconditionally seven times a day to whoever offends us. The father of the prodigal son was ready to forgive and receive back his son unconditionally setting up an example for us.

We need to open up all the doors and the windows of our Hearts to the Holy Spirit and allow him to flood our souls with the unlimited, unconditional forgiving nature of our heavenly father.

Our goal as God’s children is to sin not but if it happens and you find yourself that you are falling or have fallen into sin, do not give up on your walk with God; he is willing to forgive you, if you come back in repentance. Please read 1John 2:1-2

God’s love for you is unconditional and he is always ready to forgive and receive you back if you repent. Jesus is still our advocate and sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours, but of the whole world. So stop condemning yourself for your past that you have repented of to the lord.

For how long will you carry that guilty consciousness? Accept God’s gift of Forgiveness to you by faith and also forgive others. You will get much out of life.

EVANGELIST STEVEN SEBYALA

He also came to govern us, guide us, teach us, lead us in all the truth and to comfort us in all areas so that God will be glorified in and through our lives. Read John 16:13, 14:26

Our faith journey may be longer than we think but it doesn’t matter, our master did not leave us helpless, he sent the Holy Spirit to be our
helper in this journey and he is much able to help us all the way.

Our adversary is extremely mad and will always do his best to fail us but the good news is that even though he has done this for thousands of years, the Holy Spirit has empowered and helped very many reach their destiny, he wants to do the same for you.
Read Hebrews 12:1

The Holy Spirit has been at work from the very creation but I want to specifically point at his great work in Genesis 1:2 “and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. By the working of the Spirit of God, the chaos Satan had brought upon God’s creation was overcome and order came back and every creation found its position. The Spirit of God wants to bring order in our lives if we let him.

We can have more victorious reports in our faith Journey a midst the storms, turbulences, trials and temptations we go through on the daily basis in different forms, If we permit the holy spirit to do his work in and through our Lives.

Unfortunately most of us have stubbornly resisted the leading and the guidance of the Holy Spirit resulting into continued failures and being over thrown from our faith just as it was in the history of the children of Israel’s Journey. See 1 Corinthians 10:1-6.

Walking in the spirit is to allow the Holy Spirit do all his work in and through our lives, not limiting him to what we only want. Many Christians only allow some of his gifts and the power manifestation but not his guidance and leading in their lives.

It’s high time we stopped grieving the Holy Spirit by limiting him from doing his complete work in and through our lives. If we do so, we will experience great victories, we will no longer beg for Prayers, Deliverance, the anointings etc. Let us allow the spirit of God to be in full control of our lives.

LET US REPENT, CHANGE AND NOT GRIEVE HIM AGAIN.

Matthew 9:37-38 “He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.’”

Heaven’s prayer request is for laborers (workers) to be sent into the harvest fields of this world. In verse 38 Jesus emphasized that we should pray to God to send out laborers into the harvest fields.

Anybody who is heavenly bound (Christians) should have this heavenly concern and pray seriously about it. In order for God to send the laborers, somebody has to pray. Only the God sent Laborers or workers can be able to endure the Hassles and hardships in the Harvest field.

Often as we read or watch news channel, what you see happening in different parts of the world against Christianity and the gospel can be frustrating and even tempting to give up on those areas even thinking that they cant be reached especially when considering the thousands of martyrs that have been killed in brutal ways for the gospel’s sake. This may discourage you even to pray to God to send others.

Despite all what we see or hear, I want to encourage you to keep praying because our God is able to tear down all those iron curtains and walls and send people to work in those hard and rough areas to bring in the harvest.

In our times, the frustrated and determined enemy will make it hard by scaring away everyone from the harvest fields but through our prayers, God will make a way and empower somebody and send them to bring in the harvest.

In Acts 13:1-3; Paul and Barnabas were sent to the harvest field through prayer and fasting. This was so important because the leaders and Christians of Antioch gave themselves to praying for the harvest. I want to assure you that if we make praying and fasting for the harvest fields a priority in our prayer life, the Holy Spirit will create a sense of urgency in people’s hearts and make them give up every benefit the world offers them for the sake of reaping the harvest.

Again, I want to encourage you to continue interceding, praying, and fasting for through your prayers, the lord will send laborers into the harvest field and the Holy Spirit will continue convicting people’s hearts to either go into the harvest fields themselves or support those going. Please take this very serious that we do not loose this harvest, and your reward will be great.

Matthew 26:36-45 “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called
Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and
pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and
he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep
watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the
ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken
from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ Then he returned to his
disciples and found them sleeping., ‘Could you men not keep watch with
me one hour?’ he asked Peter.  ‘Watch and pray so that you will not
fall into temptation. The sprit is willing, but the body is weak.’ He
went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible
for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.’
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes
were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the
third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples
and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is
near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.’”

There are moments that can come to us in this life and create great fear and uncertainty in and around us, but the way we respond to them can determine where they will leave us.  According to the biblical predictions, evil, darkness, and bad times are not going to decrease.  Instead they are going to increase more and more.

Matthew 24:12 …And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall
wax cold.

Our only way out is prayer.  Praying people will always prevail over all evil invasions.

One of the prime targets of the devil is to weaken and overthrow your prayer life because then your destruction becomes easy.  In these times of terrorism threats, political unrest, and economic declines everywhere, God is still committed to answering our prayers but not our complaints, grumblings, fears, and political debates.

Jesus set the best example for us to follow and told us to learn from him when he could not stop praying even when his own disciples could no longer stand with him when his heart was exceedingly sorrowful until the Holy Spirit raised a standard that the enemy could not overthrow. Prayer is the only way to go for all of us; prayer works even when you are left
alone.

Daniel’s testimony is also a great encouragement to us when he took an extra step; extra hour and minute in prayer when all hell broke lose against him.  (Please Read Daniel 6) His response was more prayer, not less prayer.  Because he prayed more, the situation elevated him to a better position in life.  Let us also respond through prayer. It’s time
to pray.

EVANGELIST STEVEN SEBYALA

There are times in this life when we come into very hard situations where no human hand can help. Sometimes these situations are created by our selves, our friends or family members and our enemies or the devil.

In 2 Tim.4: 16 – 18, we see Apostle Paul, facing a very hard situation alone.

The enemy had created this situation for the man of God and scared away all his companions from standing and identifying with him and they all forsook him.

Paul later testifies how the lord stood with him, and strengthened him for what he had appointed him for. The lord delivered him from the mouth of the lion, and re-assured him that he will always deliver him from every evil work and preserve him into his Heavenly kingdom.

In case you or your friend happens to be going through or facing a very hard situation, regardless of how it was caused, and almost every body is scared to stand or identify with you, and may be many or all have forsaken you, do not fall into the temptation of getting angry, hating, criticizing, blaming, getting bitter at them, but quickly forgive and pray for them for your God and your redeemer is alive and has promised to stand with you and deliver you from every evil work always.

Another example is the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke: 10:30 – 35

A certain man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, we do not know what time, but he was ambushed by robbers who stripped him of his raiment, wounded him, left him by the road side half way dead, I think he was beaten so much that even his own people could hardly recognize him.

He had more chances of dying than living. Then when the two religious leaders who were thought to be so kind loving and caring saw him and passed by him, all hope for his salvation was gone.

But God had a great plan for this man’s salvation. He had prepared a Good Samaritan to take care of this dear man and I think this man got greater help than he would have gotten from any friend, family members, religious leaders, etc.

Like wise, our God has prepared a Good Samaritan for each of us when we are in such situations.

Your Good Samaritan is on the way, wait for him.

Any body can forsake you for any reason, but your God will never forsake you He will stand with you, strengthen you and deliver you from every evil.

Read again 2 Timothy.4: 16-18.

Steven Sebyala.

GOD’S COMMITMENT TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE “PSALMS 34”

Beloved, this week, I would love us to focus on God’s deliverance for his people. Psalms 34 shows us God’s commitment to deliver his people. Despite our selfish and independent decisions which make us land in trouble, still when you go back to God genuinely his commitment is always there to deliver us.

King David tells us in Psalms 34 how he sought the Lord, how the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his fears, failures and troubles.

He goes on to tell us that when the righteous cry, the Lord always hears them and delivers them out of all their troubles.  There are moments when you cannot even pray audibly, when you are surrounded by enemies and you don’t want them to hear what you are saying, Meaning that sometimes we may cry loud within our hearts without audible voices but the Lord hears both the audible cries and the silent cries and brings deliverance to us.

Sometimes we can be overcome by terrible circumstances and we cannot even speak out, we can be overwhelmed with situations beyond our ability and we don’t know even how to pray. But our hearts are crying out to God saying, “God Deliver me from this situation.”

Acts 27: 18-20
“And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; and the next day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”

Apostle Paul tells us also how much God can deliver. I don’t know whether you have been or you are being overwhelmed by your circumstances or surrounded by different waves of floods and you don’t even know what to say and how you got where you are now.

King David wrote Psalms 34 after seeing God’s great deliverance. David was captured by the philistines and he was in a situation so over whelming asking himself, how he has come in such a situation.

1Sam. 21:12-15 KJV says
“…..and David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of A’chish the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said A’chish unto his servants, lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, which ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?

With many questions in his heart, I believe David was crying so loud in his heart to the Lord for help but without an audible voice that the enemy could hear his prayer. On the outside, you could only see actions of frustrations, to the point of acting insane.

You may be in the same situation now and you don’t know what to do, but deep in your heart, there’s a loud cry even though it is not audible. I want to assure you of God’s faithfulness, He alone can hear that deep cry in your heart and He will surely deliver you from all your fears, frustrations and troubles.

I would love to encourage you to read and meditate on Psalms 34 throughout this week. God is our great Deliverer.

Steven Sebyala

The Dangers or Consequences of Unbelief

Hebrews 3: 12-13 “ Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God………”

Dear Beloved,

This week I want to encourage you to avoid the dangers and consequences of unbelief.

Throughout the Bible we see what happened to those who believed and those who did not believe. I think unbelief is the biggest sin we can committee because it makes God look like a liar to us. Please Read with me.

Hebrews 3: 18-19
And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Those verses are a warning to us to learn from the example of the children of Israel. If we fail to learn, we certainly will be over thrown like them. And descend into the same or worst dangers of unbelief and reap all the consequences of unbelief that can turn our lives into along and continued drought or wilderness.

I want you to consider what happened to the unbelieving generations whom God turned back into the wilderness and his hand turned to fight them instead of blessing them.

And from there all they knew was distress and leanness of their souls. They could not continue believing to see the glory of God but were only focused on their needs and problems.

What happened to them then is exactly what happens today to all unbelieving children of God, who are always consumed with their own needs.  With no sense of God’s Presence in their lives, faithless prayers, not concerned about others like friends and the lost world. The entire focus of their lives is only their problem, their trouble etc

They go from one crisis to another, living in pain and suffering and all their days are filled with confusion, Strive, Envy and divisions.

In Hebrews 11: 6 it says that without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

For example When God divided the red Sea for the children of Israel to cross, they danced and rejoiced for only three days and then returned into their old life of unbelief, grumbling, Complaining and murmuring because of their next need, quickly forgetting what the Lord had just done for them.

I want to believe that Moses, Joshua and Caleb among others who believed and trusted God with all their Hearts all the way were deeply concerned as they saw their brethren being overthrown one by one in the desert because of their unbelief.

They saw all what God promised coming to pass and even the hand of God stretched against the whole generation who did not believe until they were all consumed and they all missed the rest God had promised them.

Please read (1Corinthians 10:1-6) and I pray that you avoid those dangers too as many Christians of our times are caught up in great unbelief, staggering around, even you can hear it from their talks and prayers.

They will not take any risk for the kingdom of God, neither committed to maturing or growing up and their hearts are getting hardened through unbelief as they are moving around looking for temporally relief. Please avoid that life, develop and build your faith strong.

Steven Sebyala.

Beloved, I want to encourage and remind you that the Lord knows all your battles. He has fought and will always fight for you. So many times we are tempted to think that we have labored in vain, and we get cast down with a sense of failure over our shattered expectations.

Prophet Isaiah once thought like that, and many of us feel the same today (Isaiah 49:4 – 6): 
I replied, “But my work all seems Useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.”

And now the lord Speaks –
He who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring his people of Israel back to him, the Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the Earth.”

It is possible for the lies of the Devil to penetrate our minds and weaken our hearts. Isaiah could not stop thinking and judging himself as being ineffective, until he eventually surrendered the judgment to God. I think God is telling us through these verses to stop judging or passing verdict against ourselves while serving him. It is not our business judging how effective we have been.

You have no right calling your self a failure, because you may not be able to know the extent of your influence or impact of your ministry. Not seeing the fruit of your labor earlier does not mean that you have failed, and in God’s timing he will faithfully and mercifully judge your work, bless and multiply the fruit of your labor – and that may not be far from now.

Prophet Isaiah was not seeing himself fulfilling what God had told him to do. God had called him to bring Israel together but he was not seeing it anywhere coming to pass, the way he had expected. So, he thought his labour was in vain. But God was seeing it different and was not judging him as a failure, because he was still empowering and working with him to fulfill the mandate he had given him for Israel and beyond. (See again Isaiah 49: 4-6)

You may be among those the Devil has lied to, that all your Labor is in vain and will not see your expectations fulfilled, and perhaps your faith is almost overthrown and you are almost throwing in the towel (giving up). But around that very time, God is preparing a greater blessing and has better things beyond and above what you could think about or ask.

So Beloved, I encourage and pray for you not to listen to the Devil’s lies. Whenever you feel frustrated or disappointed, rest in the Holy Spirit, believing him to empower you to fulfill your ministry which will greatly be rewarded, I therefore pray for you to arise from your despire and stand firm on God’s word as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: 58.

Be Steadfast, Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the lord as much as you know that your labour in the lord is not in Vain.

Together in the Harvest Field,
Steven Sebyala

When we read the story of Jonah (Jonah 1:1-17) we see that we loose favour with God if we stop doing what God has instructed us to do. Jonah was sent to Nineveh but comfortably paid a good fee in a boat headed in the opposite direction. He was even able to sleep comfortably against the conviction of his heart. The storm and loss of favour with God would be just enough warning but if we harden our hearts storms keep on multiplying and bigger things stand in our way just like Jonah was swallowed by the Whale.

Every defense we put on with the people doesn’t save us from the storm. Jonah would have told the people to turn the boat back to go where God had wanted him to be, but when we lose God’s way people get tired of us; the people readily threw Jonah overboard so as to get out of the storm. Jonah did not calculate the cost of his disobedience earlier, or he would have avoided sinking.

The people on whom God has put His finger – when they disobey, all the people around them share in the consequences of their actions just like the men on the boat experienced harsh time in the storm and lost their merchandise all because of Jonah’s disobedience.

When the storm alone could not change Jonah’s mind, God had to apply something stronger than a storm. He was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a whale, which later helped him to realize his wrong actions. He repented, and then obeyed God’s instructions.

When Jonah left the boat, all was calm and life came back to normal. Jonah comes back to his mind under very hard circumstances and realizes in his spirit how much he had sunk, was restored and went back to God’s direction in his life.

Beloved, analyze where you are, why you are going through what you are what you are going through, what has swallowed your life, the favour you have lost with people. It is time for you to come back to where God wants you to be and do what he wants you to do. Otherwise you will sink deeper than Jonah and worse storms will blow every thing we collect away.

Its time to fully obey God.

Steven Sebyala

Beloved I am sharing with you a simple illustration that will encourage you as you carry your cross and follow Jesus on a daily basis.

Luke 9:23-26

“And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it.

For what is a man advantaged; if he gains the whole world and loses himself or be cast away?

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his fathers of the holy angels.

This period of Easter reminds us of the cross of Jesus, His death and His resurrection. He dearly paid the price which you can never understand in this life time. There is a good parable about carrying the cross I want you to reflect on during this Easter period.

Three men were given a cross each by their master, to carry them to a certain Destination and they had to carry the cross for a long Journey, their master knew that by the time they get to the end of the journey they would be extremely tired because the crosses were too heavy and long.

But as they set off for the journey their crosses became so heavy for them yet they were not allowed to seek any assistance in carrying their crosses. As they were laboring and sweating on their way, different people advised them to trim their crosses and make them lighter and smaller for them to carry, convincing them that what matters is not the size of the cross but the image.

They tried to labour but eventually two of these men gave hid to the advice and trimmed their crosses to become shorter and lighter for them. So the crosses were no longer heavy for them to carry, but the third one refused to temper with his cross by making any alteration on it. These two gentle men traveled a 30 days journey within in one week as they went they could not stop, mocking criticizing and scorning their third friend who did not take the advice and had to pay a huge price. When the two gentle men who had trimmed their crosses arrived to the spot next to their destination, they got their so comfortable with no sweat, no bruises without any sign of traveling with some thing so heavy for them.

There was a very big and deep river where their master was supposed to find them and help them to cross to their final destination. But when they reached there their master was not there because it was not the time they were supposed to be there, so they had to wait for him while complaining and murmuring as to ask why their master was not there when they reached.

Finally the third person arrived extremely tired with scars and bruises and when these two guys saw him, they laughed at him, ridiculed him calling him old fashioned. While he was taking all the insults from the two friends, their master also arrived with refreshments among other things because he knew the repercussions of the journey. And all the three were very glad to see him and they all told him their stories of the journey to that destination, then he told them that those crosses he gave them were going to act as bridges for them to cross the river to their final Destination  and every cross had to only carry one person, so he told the first one to lay his cross on the river and the cross had been trimmed so it just sunk, told the second one to do the same and the same thing happened to him then the third one put up his cross and it fitted so well and he walked on it to the final Destination, so the two friends could not cross to the final destination and their master had nothing to do for them and that was their end.

But the master did not need the cross to cross over neither could he do anything for them from that point however much they cried to him.

With this story I need to encourage you to carry your cross as the lord gave it to you without trimming or modernizing it and to follow Jesus as the Bible tells you, not as any Pastor, Bishop, Priest, Apostle, Rev or any preacher but as the bible tell you.

Today many have tried to modernize Christianity lightened the cross and telling others that Christianity costs you nothing, please do not listen to such, the lord knows the time, the journey will take you.

Let us not be ashamed of our old raged cross and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is worth suffering for; you exchange your cross someday for the crown. Keep the faith

Steven Sebyala

Listen to Pastor Steven’s Sermon: The Cross