Site completed

I have decided to keep the site “daughters of the kingdom.net” should people want to access past posts. There are over 1,000 essays and a large number of spoken messages and talks on the other pages…

I will not add anymore new material to the site, but hope you will enjoy looking at what is here already. I have said many things and hope they will be a help and encouragement to you.

I pray God will bless the content of this site to those who will continue to read it and those who will search for it. Please pray for me that God will give me a new direction in my life and open other doors of opportunity.

Thank you Christian friends and those who are still wondering about the Lord. May we all find His sweet peace and eternal life…

The Woman

She held Him in her arms a bonnie wee child

So full of love and peace but thoroughly wild.

A child born out of wedlock and future scarred

For a life of suffering and words ignored.

Yet He would change the world with one bold act

The death and resurrection the recorded fact

That humankind will one day forever rise

As He rose, triumphant and eternal in the skies.

We must listen, believe and put our trust

In the holy Lamb so pure and just

Who gave His life a random that we might live

Avoid the darkness around us and freedom give

Into His world of heaven’s glorious light

Into our eyes the ability of spiritual sight

To see our Lord in deep contrition

This our souls only Christmas ambition.

Happy Christmas everyone….💛🙌🏼🙌🏾🙌🏿🙌🏽

Break

Dear readers,

I am thankful for the support and encouragement you have given me as I have written this blog everyday for some time. I am hopeful that it has been some help to a few, and it has blessed me as I have studied and written about the Scripture.

I am feeling very tired at the moment and am taking a break from posting. I will finish my commentary on First John and publish it for Christmas.

I hope you will have a break too and enjoy the presence of the Lord in your life.

Christian love and kind regards, Shirley Hamilton.

Boldness

“This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.”

It is no empty title to belong to the family of God. We are given immense privileges and advantages to being legally brought into the holy family of heaven. When we belong to God we have access into the throne room of heaven to speak with our Father God, because of what Jesus our brother has done for us. He has bourn away all our sin and all our shamefulness and makes us worthy to speak to the Living God. We can come into His holy presence and ask things of Him. We ask according to His will and He hears us. If we ask in the name of Jesus, God will hear us.

“If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 14:14

This verse presupposes that we know His will, or that we know the Lord well enough to know what kinds of things we should be asking for. It is clear in this Scripture that we learn how to pray and what to pray for through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and God teaches us how to pray, as Jesus taught His disciples. The Spirit teaches us the deep things of God from the Word of God, so that we know God as He is revealed to us.

The Holy Spirit gives us the boldness to speak and ask for all the mercy we require for our pains and troubles. He invites us to worship and adore the Lord and enter into divine communion with God through our prayers.

“You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Jeremiah 29:12

This amazing statement in this short verse should astound us. The majesty of the holy God is willing to listen to us and take account of our prayers in the outworking of His will. He will take note of us and answer all our prayers that are prayed under the proviso of His determinate will.

We can come with confidence that He will hear us and listen to us. He is our loving Father who has revealed Himself to us that we might believe in Him and know Him as our Lord and God. We know our friends through talking and sharing, and so also with God. As we talk to Him in prayer He hears us and will answer our prayers according to His will. We can come to Him with holy boldness that trusts in Christ and comes with the confidence that we are covered by the shed blood and now worthy to enter to the mercy seat to find help in times of need.

“Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16

Continue to believe

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

The Word of God is carefully written for us so that we have a concrete revelation of who God is and His truth. The Bible is the revealed Word of God and has been inspired and protected by the Holy Spirit so that it is a reliable book for our education and edification in the things of God. It is primarily written that we might know and find the truth about God and have the message of salvation as to how we can come to Him and know Him for ourselves. It is written for the teaching and uplifting of the people of God so that we can know and be sure we have eternal life and can rejoice on the provision of God.

The Scripture is full of teaching and doctrine and all hangs together as a body of truth that will show us what God is like. We can know there is a God from the creation because His being is clearly revealed there and we are without excuse to not believe in Him.

“For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse.”

Romans 1:20

God has shown His glory and power in the world He has made but His person and glory are more fully revealed in the Scripture. This is why it is recorded for us, so that we are left in no doubt as to what God is like; what He requires of us; how we can be reconciled to Him; what is kept for those who believe and trust in Christ. We need the Scripture more than our daily food, for it feeds our soul and keeps us right with God. Our faith needs food, the food of the Word of God to sustain us and keep our faith in God bright and strong.

As we read the Word of God we are strengthened and the Holy Spirit witnesses to the inner soul of each of us and teaches us about the Lord. We learn how to please Him and how to live our Christian life for the glory of God.

Beloved, let us continue to put our faith in our Saviour; trust in the eternal Word of God; obey and conform our life to God’s precepts.

He who has the Son has the life

“He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.”

In this verse we have another conclusion from the reasoning the Apostle John has been leading us through. If we do not possess Christ and His person in our lives, we do not have love and we do not have true life – eternal life. If we do possess Christ in our life, we have eternal life as we still live on this earth.

Jesus brings us eternal life through His sacrificial death on the cross. That sacrifice has paid the price of our sin and when we come to know Him and trust in that sacrifice, we receive eternal life. This is not just a hope in heaven, but a quality of life in the here and now, and a strength in our souls that we did not have before we were changed by Christ. We have become new people – new creations in Christ, made for His glory and not our own sinful self. Self is now put on the cross with Christ and we have a new nature that can fight and overcome temptations and sin and live for God.

Those who know Jesus as their Saviour and Lord have this eternal life and those who do not have this living relationship with Him are lost to life and live in this world under the condemnation of God. To have eternal life means your sins are dealt with and there is no condemnation over you at all.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:1

Those who have been changed by Christ now live their lives in the power of the Spirit of God and have put to death the compulsion of the flesh, to follow it’s desires and wants. Instead we put on spiritual life and live to God, which we are able to do because of the Spirit within us and the eternal life that we now possess.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”

Galatians 2:20

This is the quality of life that the Christian possesses and we live it by faith because we have been so loved. The old self is put to death and we live in the life of Christ which has been put in us by the Spirit. It is a resurrection of the soul and we are now alive to God and dead to self. This is true living and will last forever in joy and peace as we walk with God.

The testimony

“The testimony is this: that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

What exactly is the testimony spoken about here in this book and series of verses? The Apostle tells us clearly.

The testimony of the Word of God and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit is that God has given us eternal life as a free gift because we are in His Son, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world. This is a kind of life and a quality of life we do not naturally possess, but it is given to us as a free gift when we put our trust in the Son. This life is in us now, who believe, by the Spirit and we enter into the full reality of it at death or when Christ returns for His people. It is a life that will last forever in the bliss of the presence of our Father God and we will see our Saviour, Jesus in all His glory.

Heaven will be filled with all those who have believed to the saving of their souls, and the whole redeemed family of God will be together; people from every nation, tribe and tongue.

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

Revelation 7:9

What a gathering that will be, together in eternal joy, all tears wiped away and troubles all over. Death and hell will be long gone and no memory of any hurt or disappointment.

“He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

This life is promised to all who believe and the offer of this salvation is open to all who will humble themselves and come to Christ. He is the only Saviour and the only mediator between God and man. We come in humility and repentance to Him and He will freely forgive and take us into the family of God.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

1 Timothy 3:5

This is the true testimony of the Scripture and we can be sure, for those who come to the Lord Jesus are never disappointed. We have the testimony of God which is sure and the testimony of all those who have believed. We can see the truth of God working out through eyes and the mind that have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This is what pleases the Lord.

Made Him a liar

“He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.”

Our own validation of our faith is also important. We must know if we are believing in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scripture and counting on His salvation to rescue us from sin and make us part of the family of God. The inner testimony of the Holy Spirit and the witness of our own conscience confirms our faith and walk with God.

God Himself testifies to us, in His Word, that we are of the family of God. The testimony God gives about His Son is true and so His promises and judgement towards us is also true. If we do not believe what God says concerning His Son, then we make God out to be untrue and therefore unrighteous and unjust. We are passing judgment which is inappropriate, since we are mere creatures and not God. This is the pride of the human heart, that we feel able or have the right to make such judgments.

If we are to count God unreliable in our salvation, then He is also unreliable on other counts too. We end up undermining our faith and counting the efficacy of the blood of Jesus to forgive us as having no effect. This is really blasphemy against the holy God and pure unbelief. If we disbelieve the Word of God then there is no other testimony that is reliable and no foundation for faith but our own feelings and futile thinking.

It all or nothing. We either believe in the Lord our God and what He says to us or not. Our faith is founded on the truths and promises of His Word and so, is reliable. All who trust in Him will never be put to shame…

“Yes, no one who waits for you shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.”

Psalm 25:3

The witness of men

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son.”

It is satisfying to be recognised, especially as a sister or brother in Christ. It is assuring when others see your Christian testimony and are able to embrace you and accept you into their circle. To have a witness before each other is so important as by our outward testimony we encourage each other to believe and grow and progress in faith and the Christian life. To be a singular Christian is very difficult and we easily fall into lazy and complacent ways, because we are neglecting to meet together with other believers.

However, even if others do not recognise us and sideline us, we have the witness of God who encourages us in the Scripture and assures us that we belong to Him. This witness is of greater value because of who is saying it. God is the ultimate judge as He knows His own people.

“However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

2 Timothy 2:19

As we conform to the standards of the Word and grow as Christian people, so we are assured that we belong to Christ. Faith saves us and obedience causes us to grow. We know we are of the household of faith because we are obedient children and love the family of God. This is the message of this book and is the testimony that we belong to God. Job also testifies to the comfort of this witness from God, as God’s witness is 100% reliable.

“Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.”

Job 16:19

The Lord will vindicate His people and bring all things to justice on their behalf.

God’s testimony is of the same ilk as His testimony about Jesus, His Son, and the whole of Scripture vindicates and validates Him. The testimonial and reassurance of the Lord is the greatest assurance we can have and is far superior to the faulty judgment of human beings. We again take our comfort from the Word of God that we belong to Him because we are trusting in Christ.