If the Master had only said, “Let your light shine 

before men…,” that would have been beautiful, 

but  He  emphasized  the  intensity  by  including  the 

adverb,  “so.”  He  wants  you  to  shine  with  blazing 

intensity. He wants men to see your good works and 

glorify your heavenly Father. Also notice that He didn’t 

say, “I’m going to make your light so shine”; rather, 

you’re the one to make it happen!

Even Prophet Isaiah didn’t allude that God is the 

one to make your light shine”; he said,  “Arise, shine; 

for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen 

upon thee”  (Isaiah 60:1). You’re the one to arise, and 

shine! It’s like what we read in Romans 12:11 (AMPC): 

“Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow 

and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.”  What 

a counsel! 

Again, we observe that the responsibility is yours 

to fan your zeal aglow. God is telling you what you 

can  do.  If  you  couldn’t  be  aglow  and  burning  with 

the Spirit, He wouldn’t ask you to do it. He’s telling 

you to do it because He’s given you the power, the 

ability, to do it. 

1 John  3:1  says,  “Behold,  what  manner  of 

love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 

we should be called the sons of God: therefore the 

world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” The 

word, “bestowed” also means “lavished”; the Father 

has lavished His love on you. It’s love without limits. 

Think about it: we who shouldn’t have been known 

of God, who shouldn’t have ever come close to God 

are now, as a result of the superabundant love He’s 

lavished upon us, accepted of Him. We’re now called 

the sons of God. What an amazing reality! 

What is love? It’s that endearing value of a person 

that gives you a sense of his or her importance to you 

as the object of your favour. Therefore, that God loves 

you means you’re special and valuable to Him. This 

understanding will change your life and give you an 

extraordinary mentality. 

Consider  a  man  like  David,  who  had  a  unique 

perception of the love of God; his understanding of 

the Father’s love made him think differently. In Psalm 

23:1 for example, he said, “The LORD is my shepherd; 

I shall not want.” This alone lets you know what David 

The Bible says,  “But God, who is rich in mercy, 

for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us, 

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 

together  with  Christ,  (by  grace  ye  are  saved;)  And 

hath raised us up together, and made us sit together 

in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”  (Ephesians 2:4-6). 

When  Jesus  died,  we  died  with  Him.  When  He 

was  buried,  we  were  buried  with  Him.  When  God 

raised Him from the dead, we were raised together 

with Him. We were in Him in His death, burial, and 

resurrection. 

Romans 4:24-25 says, “But for us also, to whom 

it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised 

up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered 

for  our  offences,  and  was  raised  again  for  our 

justification.” We weren’t justified because He died; 

we  were  justified  because  He  was  raised  from  the 

dead. He was raised from the dead, a new man; He 

was born again. 

Jesus  heads  up  the  new  creation.  He  came  up 

As a child of God, you must feed your spirit 

with the Word, for that’s the only way to grow 

spiritually. You must have a consistent and instinctive 

desire for God’s Word. Peter says, “As newborn babes, 

desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow 

thereby”  (1 Peter 2:2). The life in you is the life of the 

Word, and can only be sustained by the Word. 

The  Word  has  the  unique  characteristic  and 

ability  to  grow  mightily  and  prevail,  irrespective  of 

the situation or condition (Acts19:20). So when you 

consciously imbibe the Word for your health, finances, 

business,  and  other  areas  of  your  life,  there’ll  be 

progress against all odds.  

Acts  20:32  says  the  Word  is  able  to  build  you 

up, and deliver your inheritance into your hands. But 

recall what we read in our opening text:  “…the heir, 

as  long  as  he  is  a  child,  differeth  nothing  from  a 

servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors 

and governors until the time appointed of the father.” 

An heir is someone with an inheritance. But as long as 

Are you aware that in Christ, God has done all 

that He’s ever meant to do for you? What’s 

left is for you to discover these things and walk in the 

light of them. We may say to someone, “God is going 

to heal you today,” or “The Lord will do a new thing 

in your life”; that’s for the spiritual babe in Christ. 

God, in essence, isn’t going to “heal you today” 

or do anything for you today, because He’s already 

done everything for you in Christ Jesus. He healed you 

on the Cross. You might say, “But yesterday, I felt a 

sharp pain in my chest; I prayed and God healed me.” 

He didn’t heal you yesterday. You only appropriated 

yesterday, what He already did for you in Christ over 

two thousand years ago. You tapped into something 

He already did. 

God’s not working on your case in heaven; He’s 

sitting, waiting till His enemies become His footstool. 

That’s what the Bible says: He finished all the work, 

and  today,  He’s  at  rest.  What  did  Jesus  say  on  the 

cross, before His death? “It is finished” (John 19:30)! 

In Luke 11:11-13, the Lord Jesus said,  “If a son 

shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, 

will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for 

a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, 

will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, 

know how to give good gifts unto your children: how 

much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 

Spirit to them that ask him?” Here, He was teaching 

people of the old covenant, the Jews, about faith in 

God; how to “get” things from God. 

However, today, for us as new creations in Christ, 

things are different. We don’t try to “get” anything from 

God, because we have all things in Christ. The Bible 

says, “According as his divine power hath given unto 

us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…” 

(2 Peter 1:3). The tenses show that it’s already done: 

God has given you ALL things that pertain to life and 

godliness.  

Many have misunderstood the teachings of Jesus 

on faith. Those teachings really don’t apply to the new 

creation, because He was teaching a principle to men 

and women of the senses, who didn’t understand faith 

as a lifestyle. They didn’t understand how to live from 

Some  people  marvel  at  us  sometimes  when 

we  pray,  wondering  why  we  could  be  so 

audacious  and  confident.  The  reason  we  pray  with 

such  authority  and  audacity  of  faith  is  that  we  pray 

in  the  Name  of  Jesus.  In  John  14:13,  Jesus  said, “…

whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, 

that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” 

The key is asking in His Name; living in the authority 

of His Name. Many, lacking this understanding pray 

“through” Jesus, instead of praying “in” the Name of 

Jesus.  There’s  a  great  difference  between  the  two. 

When you pray in the Name of Jesus, you’re exercising 

the full legal powers He gave you to act in His stead. 

But to pray through Him is to make Him a medium, 

which isn’t required now that you’re in Him. 

When you understand and have the consciousness, 

of the power and import of the Name of Jesus, and 

what it represents, you won’t have to try to “squeeze” 

up faith when you need it. When you pray or make 

demands  in  His  Name,  it’s  as  though  Jesus  Himself 

In your walk with God, you have to understand 

that there’s a huge difference between sincerity 

and righteousness. Sometimes, we think that God should 

look at our sincerity and count it for righteousness, but 

it’s not so. No matter how sincere you are, it’ll never 

amount to righteousness. 

God doesn’t hear and answer your prayers because 

you’re sincere, but because you’re righteous; because 

of Jesus; and your righteousness is the righteousness of 

Jesus. The Bible says, “Therefore as by the offence of 

one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; 

even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came 

upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18). 

Righteousness is what gives you right standing in the 

presence of God. Your sincerity never gives you right 

standing before the Father. 

A  whole  lot  of  Christians  pray  and  cry  to  God, 

pleading on their sincerity, because they’re not aware 

of the truth of God’s Word. Never use your “sincerity” 

as a currency; that’s not what works; it’s your faith—your 

No matter how many earthly languages exist, 

there’re  not  enough  words  in  the  human 

vocabulary with which to adequately and accurately 

express yourself to God. Our human earthly vocabulary 

isn’t  pure  enough  to  commune  with  the  holy  God 

that our heavenly Father is. That’s the reason the Holy 

Spirit gave us a language, pure and holy, with which 

to communicate in a way that’s acceptable to God: 

praying in other tongues.  

Many only know how to pray in their understanding; 

that is, in their native language, but that won’t take you 

far enough. No matter how beautiful your words are in 

any earthly language, and how loaded with revelation 

they are, they’re no match for the pure language of 

the Spirit. 

It’s for this reason that Paul, by the Spirit, penned 

the words we read in the latter part of our opening 

verse. Notice that praying with the spirit comes before 

praying with the understanding. Sadly, some Christians 

would rather pray with their understanding first, and 

When  you  understand  the  importance  and 

higher purposes of prayer, you’ll always be 

willing and excited to pray, especially in other tongues. 

One of the beautiful things the Holy Spirit has done in 

our lives as God’s children is to give us the ability to 

speak in other tongues.

When  we  speak  in  tongues,  the  utterance,  the 

words we speak, aren’t man-made but from the Lord. 

Moreover, we aren’t speaking to men but to God: “For 

he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not 

unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth 

him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries”  (1 

Corinthians 14:2). When you pray in tongues, you’re in 

fellowship with the Father; you’re communicating with 

Him through the Spirit in a heavenly language. What a 

blessing that is! 

Also, praying in tongues helps to stir up the power 

of God resident in your spirit. Though that power came 

into your life when you received the Holy Spirit (Acts 

1:8),  you’ve  got  to  keep  it  active  and  in  use  for  His 

glory. 

Praying  in  tongues  will  keep  you  more  “fit” 

spiritually,  and  responsive  to  the  guidance  and