“He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat.”

                                                                                                                               Psalm 147:14

Dearly beloved in Christ,

I greet you in the sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today man buys a plot to build a house and to live there peacefully. To dwell within his boundary, he makes all provisions. His dwelling place becomes his village or town. When we enquire about a person’s place of living, he mentions only the name of the town or village. The Bible says in Acts 17:26,  “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” The Lord promised Abraham, “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” (Gen 13:17). Thus, his descendants came to possess that area.

This is the way the Lord assigns areas of our dwelling according to His own predestined design. He makes way for us to go there and possess the boundary.

In the same way He works His plan for every living thing. “You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever, you covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains; they went down into the valleys, to the place which You founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth.(Psalm 104:5-9). Thus, the sea was formed. Thus, He has prepared everything for man to dwell there. The Lord who said, “Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” is alive. Zechariah 9:10 says, “... He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” This Lord would bless our boundaries in an abundant measure.

1. HE ENLARGES YOUR BOUNDARIES

“For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders...” Exodus 34:24

The Lord who enlarges your borders lives. He says in Isaiah 54:2-3, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left...” You were without any children so far. But the Lord will extend your family so much that “The children you will have, after you have lost the others, will say again in your ears, ‘the place is too small for me; give me a place where I may dwell.” (Isaiah 49:20). As He did in the life of Isaac, He will do things for you also. He said in Genesis 26:22, “So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” Lev. 19:25 says, “...that it may yield to you its increase: I am the Lord your God.” He will make you greater day by day as it is said about David: “So David went on and became great, and the Lord of hosts was with him.” (1Chr. 11:9).

Jabez was named so because his mother bore him with sorrow. “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.” (1 Chr. 4:10). Dear Brother/ Sister, today you may be praying with tears for your business to enlarge and multiply. The Lord who hears prayers would do that for you. Dear child of God, you will see your prayer answered. Your desire will be fulfilled soon. I praise the Lord for saying so.

2. HE PROTECTS OUR BOUNDARIES

“They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads within our borders.” Micah 5:6

Today the enemy Satan comes against us in different forms. The Bible warns us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8). At such times the Lord Jesus Christ protects us from his traps. He would not let our legs get trapped in his net. The enemy wages war daily with us in devious ways to spoil our holiness, peace and joy.

In a Christian family the enemy Satan was working against them in the form of serpent. They were children of God. They were married for 10 years but had no children. The enemy would appear in the form of a serpent in dreams when she got conceived. Then in a few days there would be miscarriage. Sometimes it would be 3 or 4 months after she conceived this happened. Thus, they lost their peace. Then when they realized that it was an act of the devil, they humbled themselves before the Lord and prayed. That very month she conceived and the Lord helped them to give birth to a child. Medically several reasons were given for the miscarriages, but the Lord enabled them and blessed them.

Dear Brother/ Sister, when the devil works in your boundary in deceitful ways, there would be lack of peace, anxiety and sorrow. When the Lord Jesus Christ becomes your Shepherd, the Prince of Peace would pave the way of peace and bless us. This Satan comes in various forms. Sometimes he appears as a beast or in the form of a dead person to spoil their lives. The Shepherd Christ would honour you in the midst of your enemies by anointing you with new oil and bless you by doing away with you troubles. Would you let the Lord Jesus Christ to shepherd you and guide you? He alone can protect you from your enemy. He was the Good Shepherd who came to earth and gave His life on the cross for our sake. When you become a sheep of His fold, no weapon formed against you shall prosper.

The enemy also works through certain wicked persons. These evil spirits sometimes operate through the pictures of dead persons. Isaiah 26:14 says, “They are dead, they will not live; they are deceased, they will not rise..” As people do not know this Biblical truth, they think that these dead persons would pray and do good things for them and get cheated. As these people believed in them, the devil operates through their forms. Ecclesiastes 9:6 says: “Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.” Not knowing this, they worship dead persons. They keep large pictures of them and worship them by garlanding and burning incense before them. The devil operates in their lives deceitfully in the form of the dead ones causing diseases and strife in the family and depriving them of children. Thus, it affects them.

Once I was taken to a hospital to pray for a woman said to be affected by ovarian cancer. That evening she was to be operated upon for removing the affected parts. I asked her daughter to stay outside and began to share the truth. I told her that it was not a disease but an attack of the devil and that the Lord wanted to deliver her that day. She listened to every one of my words with concern. I told her that she thought of her dead husband very often and he appeared in her thought and sight. In sleep she had sexual relationship with a figure that comes in the form of her dead husband. That is why that disease had affected her. Then she realized how she was cheated and I asked her to confess her sin and to have the mercy of God. She was in tears and committed herself fully to Christ and prayed. That evening as the surgeons began making preparations for the surgery, they found that the cancer lump was missing. So, they postponed the surgery. After that they had no symptom of the disease at all. The enemy might come in the form or image of those dead and bring about disaster in your boundary. At such time Jesus Christ is a strong refuge for us. Isaiah 25:4 tells us: “For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall..” He will protect you from plagues by fighting for you. So, you need not be afraid of any pandemic.

The enemy also takes the form of small creatures and acts against us. I was called to pray for the wife of a minister of the Lord. She was a teacher in one of the schools in Tirunelveli area. She had been diagnosed to be affected with cancer in the intestine and she had come to Adayar Cancer Institute in Chennai. She had come to Chennai to her brother’s house. Everything had been arranged for surgery to remove a portion of the intestine. When I began to pray for her, the Lord Jesus Christ out of His love for her revealed one thing. It was revealed as said in Hosea 7:1 for the purpose of delivering her and for the Lord to do a miracle. In prayer, it was revealed that a rodent was doing the damage to her intestine. So, I rebuked the spirit working in that form. She then let out a loud cry. After the prayer was over, she told me that she had seen a rodent damaging her intestine the day before in a dream. So, she cried out as I revealed that. The surgeons then examined her and sent her back that there was no damage.

Dear Brother/ Sister, in your life if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord, Redeemer and Shepherd, you would have wholesome life with no diseases. He will protect you as the apple of the eye from the enemy that may operate in different forms.  He is great. No one else is comparable to Him.

3. SAFETY IN THE BORDERS

“Of Benjamin he said: “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, who shelters him all the day long; and he shall dwell between His shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12

The loving Lord Jesus Christ would move in your borders and protect you. We find people trying to please someone they consider attractive and to take all efforts for the other person to respond to them. In order to attract such a person, they take all measures to meet them well-dressed. They take time to fall in their sight standing in their way time and again. A young man or girl take steps to attract and make his or her desires known through a smile or sending a message through WhatsApp.

Dear Brother/ Sister, if you become a beloved of the Lord, He will dwell with you and deliver you from all troubles and struggles. Daniel was brought a captive; yet he decided not to taint him with the food that was given to him according to 1Peter 1:16, ‘but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.’ He was the ‘greatly beloved’ of the Lord (Dan. 9:23). He blessed him with ‘an excellent spirit’ and wisdom. But the people of the place were jealous of him. They were upset that a man brought captive was ruling over them. They contrived a way to overthrow him. The Lord had given him wisdom to interpret dreams and visions and he could read the writing on the wall. As he could do all that the king had exalted him. He was not given to lust and was restrained in remaining untainted by food. The jealousy of others worked and he was put into a den of lions. But the Lord God sent His Angel and shut the lion’s mouths. They did not hurt him because ‘before Him purity was found’ in him and he had done no harm to the king (Dan. 6:22-23). Because he was the beloved of the Lord and he was faithful, the Lord protected him as the apple of the eye. No kind of hurt was found on him because he trusted in his God. On the other hand, those who plotted against him were thrown into the den of lions along with their families. They were torn to pieces by the same lions even before they reached the bottom.

Dear child of God, if you commit to live pleasing Christ, the Lord will bless you by annihilating all the forces that act against you. Today commit to live pleasing the Lord by doing what He likes – praising Him, and leading a holy and faithful life. You would then be protected from hell fire and would be worthy to dwell with Christ in this life as well as in the life after death.

4. PEACE IN YOUR BORDERS

“He makes peace in your borders,and fills you with the finest wheat.” Psalm 147:14

Our God would make peace dwell in our borders. Jesus taught: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matt. 5:9). The Prince of Peace said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). He will make this peace dwell in our hearts, in the family and in our borders. Dear Brother/ Sister living in situations lacking peace, Jesus Christ calls you so that peace may be multiplied in you, in your children and in your boundary. There are so many people today living in constant fear, with no hope or happiness. They live in tears. Some live separated from their spouses as there is no understanding between them. But the Lord wants to bless you with peace in your borders. Would you please come to Jesus Christ who gives peace freely?  Dear Brother, are you going to the liquor shop seeking peace in the midst of lack of peace in the family, threats because of debt, guilty conscience chasing you all the time, and oppression and suppression on all sides? You seek peace and relief in fleeting pleasures which lead to further problems. The Lord Jesus Christ came seeking you to give you peace that passes understanding. He wants to make you lead a happy life by restoring your peace.

II PEACE TO WHOM?

i) THOSE DELIVERED

“...and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.” 1 Samuel 7:14

Today we need deliverance in several matters. Financially, there are several people under bondage of debt. Proverbs 22:7 says, “...and the borrower is servant to the lender.” According to the Bible, ‘...you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow’(Deut. 15:6). You perhaps do not know the promise of the Lord or His designs. If you abide by the words of the Lord, you would be blessed so. But Satan makes you borrow to trespass the word of the Lord in devious ways. Poor people borrow loans on heavy interest and live all their lives under the bondage of debt. The middle-income group borrows on the basis of instalment payments and this makes them debtors. The rich borrow on credit cards. Thus, there is a way to make everyone a debtor. When you thus borrow, you deny the truth of the promise of the Lord. We are also under bondage to several other things like fear, sin, Satan and diseases. But if you know the truth, it shall set you free truly and you would have peace in your life.

ii) Those Who Trust the Lord

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You; because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

Let us trust in the Lord Jesus Christ fully. Those who trust in worldly things usually suffer a lot being cheated by them. But Jesus Christ gives peace assuredly to those who believe in Him. In the third chapter of the book of Daniel, we read about three youths who believed in the Lord God, and set aside the command of the king. The Lord protected them from the hand of the king. Peace, joy and blessings multiplied in their lives. In Dan 3:28, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.”

3. Love the Statutes of the Lord

“Great peace is to those who love Your law...” Psalm 119:165

We must have the word of the Lord in our hearts. Then only we can guard us from sin. The Psalmist says, ‘Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.’ (Psalm 119:11). The Word of the Lord given to us by the Holy Spirit through men of God is a lamp unto our feet. 1 Peter 1:23 tells us that we have “been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” We should know this and love the Word of the Lord. When you love it and meditate upon it, the Lord makes us prosper in all that we do. The Word preserves us and leads us away from destruction. This can heal you. Let us love it; let us have peace in our borders. The wisdom from above multiplies peace within us. It yields good fruit of wisdom, and peace. It also gives the fruit of righteousness. This wisdom gives us true righteousness and mercy. ‘The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”(Isaiah 32:17). Let us pray with faith for wisdom from the Lord who gives liberally.

Let us submit ourselves to be transformed into His people. Isaiah 32:18 says, “My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” To be His people, let us obey Him as instructed in Jeremiah 11:4, ‘... Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God.”

Dear Brother/ Sister, Isaiah 53:5 says, ‘But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.’ So, let us have peace through Jesus Christ who paid the price for us and be blessed.

May the Lord bless us!

In the service of Christ Jesus,

Bro. C. Ebenezer Paul.