Red Flags

SPIRITUAL WEATHER

Matthew 16:3' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?”

The Pharisees and Sadducees ( the so called spiritual people) were unable to see Jesus as the Messiah in their midst, they treated Him shabbily and thus missed the wonderful opportunity of salvation and redemption. Thus Jesus out of sheer frustration looked at them and said ‘you cannot discern the signs of the times?”

What is discernment? We should be able to distinguish, identify, recognize the good and the bad. You should be able to see through the veneer, which means, we should be able to "see the inner side which is hidden or covered by its appearance or look. You need to pause and think here…

RED FLAGS: Don’t you think we need this discernment, as we are living in a very crucial period in the history of the world surrounded by wars, threats of nuclear war, financial crisis, famine, violence, uncertainty and much more. When the students studying in the Ukraine University were asked to leave the country due to possibilities of attack by Russia; yet, they carelessly shooed it away and later faced horror. Likewise, all of us, we need to look at the ‘red flags’ in our life, that is ‘SIGNS’ which Jesus mentions in the above scripture and we need to be cautious. If we as Christians, throw caution out of the window then our life would be mayhem. Anybody listening?

HARD-HEARTED PEOPLE ARE UNABLE TO SEE SPIRITUAL THINGS: Jesus had already performed hundreds of amazing miracles such as multiplying the bread and fish to feed the multitude, opened blind eyes, healed the lame and drove out many demons from people; however, they asked for more, their hearts remained untouched by this and they did not consider these signs as authoritative and proof enough. After I received my miraculous healing and the birth of my son Joshua, I would enthusiastically go around and narrate the whole episode of healing to each and everyone I meet, during this time, one of my relative, who was an atheist said, “every woman has pregnancy related problems and they get healed, why is Bala creating a big mountain out of this?” I felt sad for that man who did not experience Jesus and was resisting the Truth because he was materialistically very blessed. “…But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”(Proverbs 28:14)

CRY OUT LOUD: An unbelieving heart cannot see or experience the power of God, only when we desire to get beyond the normal and seek God for wisdom and understanding, can He open our spiritual eyes to see His magnificence.

These scriptures from the book of Proverbs kind of created fire in me:Proverbs 2:

3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding;

4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.

When you don’t care to read even one chapter a day from the Bible and when you carelessly scroll through the pages, then you cannot see beyond the surface, BUT when you CRY for discernment, did you read that? Cry. How many of us cry for wisdom, discernment and knowledge, we cry out loud and pray for frivolous but when your heart is this serious about knowledge then God would open His treasure house and bless you. Amen.

Faith causes our spiritual eyes to see that which is important, to discern the purposes of God. Two women in the Bible, in the midst of pain, chaos, suffering and emptiness were able to discern the ways of God and save their lives.

WIDOW: 2 Kings 4:1 “Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha..” The woman lost her husband, she was in severe debts and the creditor were about to come and take her two sons away, at this point of crisis, she cried out to the right person – prophet Elisha.. Glory to Jesus! You need to have spiritual discernment to call the person with wisdom.

The Shunammite Woman :

2 King 4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food.

9 She said to her husband, "Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually.

The Shunammite woman was not only wealthy, influential but she had sharp discernment to realize that Elisha was no ordinary man but a holy man of God. Hallelujah! She wisely invested in him, she prepared food for him, prepared a place for him to stay comfortably in her house during ministry and thus God saw all this and opened her barren womb. Glory to Jesus! You need to have this wisdom to see with spiritual eyes and thus be blessed.