Is Your Race Still 'On Purpose'?

Acts 11: 23b AMP – “And he continuously exhorted (warned, urged, and encouraged) them all to cleave unto and remain faithful to and devoted to the Lord with (resolute and steady) purpose of heart.

As you read this article I would like to encourage you to please ask yourself a few questions. This is a good time to “ponder anew” like the hymn writer wrote. 

When you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, did you do so with a purpose, is that purpose still before you or have you lost sight of it in the midst of all that is fighting to catch your attention today. If you had a purpose, then it is easier to pursue it with single-mindedness.

Every time we lose sight of the purpose for which we cleave unto God, we walk disorderly. As long as we are reminded of our original purpose, our walk with God is better ordered. Purpose guides our decision-making so that we are not carried away by just any emotion or incident. God wants us to follow Him with single-mindedness – totally focused on Him.

Hebrew12: 1-2 –“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith”

All the good things God gives us are add-ons. They are meant to make this race a little easier so that we can get to the ultimate goal. They are not to take the place of God or remove our attention from God. If we allow this to happen then they become a part of the weight that we are meant to lay aside.

We cannot also allow our focus to be affected by the stories we hear of terrible things that happen in the church today. Such things as should not be mentioned amongst brethren. All the Bishops, pastors, other believers are to encourage us as we go along and not to become the focus. Not one of them is allowed to be the focus of our lives. Their responsibility is to keep pointing us to God. Whether they stand or fall is not an excuse for us to backslide because the Bible tells us that there is already a cloud of witnesses cheering us on. This cloud of witnesses is believers that have run their race and finished well and are in waiting for the great end of all things.

The times that we are in are tough and it is going to get tougher. It is time for you and me to make definite decisions concerning our walk with God. I understand that at some point in war, if a soldier dies, his colleagues can’t stop. You don’t have time immediately to cry over the person because the enemy may catch up with you. I perceive that we are in such times. We have to keep running the race: the battle for our souls is fierce.

God is Calling. Draw Near To His Love TODAY!

I hear the gentle voice of God calling me to draw closer. I believe it is time to draw nearer to God. I hear this so loud in my heart; and it really sounds very true to me. I feel so strongly about it that I thought to encourage every one of us to draw closer to Him especially at this time. God has His arms stretched out ready to embrace us but do we run into it? He wants us to run into His open arms and to hold even tighter to Him now more than ever before. As you tighten your grip on Him, He also does the same on you.

Psalm 32: 10NLT –“Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust in the Lord”.

I believe God would love to make the first move to hug us tighter but He would rather not coerce us into making the decision to love Him. After all in sending His son to die for us, He made the first move toward showing us love. How would you feel if you know that you coerced someone into loving you? It may seem okay in the beginning because you feel you won but eventually you begin to want more from that person. You want the person to love you for who you. God does not manipulate us. He lays it all out in the open and hopes that you and I will make the decision to love Him and to keep loving Him.

So now is the time to draw nearer to Him but how do I do that since He is not a physical being? We just need to try to ensure that we spend more time in His Word sincerely studying with a view to having a deeper understanding of Him. We spend more time fellowshipping with Him than with things or people that talk ‘foolish things’ more often than not. The bible says iron sharpens iron. We worship and try as much as possible to create an atmosphere around us, in our home and/or offices, which allows the Holy Spirit ‘hangout’ with us – that is an atmosphere for miracles. You can create it around you all the time.

Psalm 16: 11AMP – “you will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

All of that joy and pleasure belong to you and I. You can not enter into His presence and come out empty. Whatever you take in the spiritual will then translate to abundance in the physical. It is indeed time to draw near to Him. If you do so, rest assured He will draw near to you also. As you go through the week, please meditate on the scripture below and may it be your portion forever in Jesus name.

Psalm 34:5NLT – Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

How To Subscribe To 'The Light' - A Step By Step Guide

Dear Readers

Feedback suggests that many of you would like to know when a new blog is posted here. That's great and I truly appreciate it. This step by step guide will guide you on how to get alerts on your Yahoo pages (it should also work for those of you with Google (Gmail) accounts.

1. Make sure your Yahoo or Gmail (Google) page is open.

2. In another window, open this blog. On the top of this blog, you will see the 'Subscribe to this blog' header, click on POSTS.

3. It should automatically take you to your Yahoo or Google page where you will see that a list of the recent posts of this blog now appears. Click to have it saved on your Main page.

4. To get alerts, click on the OPTIONS button. Then click on ALERTS and then ADD AN ALERT.

5. A window will appear. You are going for Option A. Paste this URL in the window.
http://lettherebelightinourlives.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

6. Choose how you want to receive the alerts. 'As they happen' or 'once a day if there are changes'. 'In your mail box' or 'via your Yahoo messenger' or via your Mobile phone.

5. Save your Alerts.

6. A page will appear to show you that you Alert has been saved. Simply select DONE!

6. Voila! The next time a new blog is posted, you will get an alert in via your chosen route!

Once again, God bless you and I look forward to hearing from you in response to all I, by the grace of God, share on this blog.

Beware! The Subtle Trap of Sychophancy!

“God please deliver me from sycophants and sycophancy”. This is a prayer that I believe we all must pray from time to time as God takes us from one level of glory to another especially in this season when the heavens are opened over our lives. Sycophancy is a killer. It destroys even the best of men. You may think you can handle it but you really can’t. It is an appearance of evil so every wise person must run from it.

A sycophant is a self seeking flatterer and as such is a terrible person to have around us. They have very selfish ambition and take advantage of the victim notwithstanding the impact on the victim. The person they flatter is more or less a victim but the truth is you and I have primary responsibility for our lives. We can refuse to be victims of sycophancy. We must determine who is around us often and who we want to listen to. The Bible says we must take heed what we hear and guard our hearts with all diligence.

The story is told, in Acts of Apostles, of a king who was smitten by an angel as a result of which he was consumed by worms and he died. What a terrible death. The angel smote him because he accepted the worship of some sycophants. The sycophants wanted to make him happy because they had heard he was unhappy with them and were dependent on him for food. So they came to him on this day with an agenda. As soon as he completed his speech to them the bible says in Acts 12: 22 NLT-“The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!”

He was so pleased. He accepted the worship and did not give glory to God. Please note that they did not die for lying and/or worshipping man, because they knew it was the voice of a man that they heard, but he died for accepting the worship. Though he was happy with what they said, he did not ask for it and somewhere in his subconscious, I believe he must have known that he has was not a god but it just felt good to accept the worship.

Satan also tried it with Jesus when he said to him in Mathew 4: 6 after taking him to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem and said to him to jump off the hill. He said since Jesus is the son of God, God would send angels to protect him. Thank God Jesus knew better than to fall for it. He rejected and countered that word from satan immediately with the word of God.

Please permit me to quote my pastor here “it is enlightened self-preservation” to keep from listening to sycophants. Unfortunately, they are many in the church today. Believe me; every time we listen to them, we are in spiritual warfare – a serious battle for our souls that we must win. Nobody needs that.

Please let us also search our hearts, “to thy self be true” – if perchance, you find that there is a trait of sycophancy in you, ask God to kill it because ultimately it would destroy you.

Don't Jeopardise Your Destiny!

Lately, my pastor has been teaching on Temptation. So, I have been thinking about the subtle ways that satan tempts/lures us to destroy our destinies. Isn’t it amazing that he tempted Jesus (the son of God)? Thank God that Jesus did not rise to the bait; otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened to you and me today. Eve and subsequently, Adam fell for it and that is how man fell.

The bible says in Psalm 23 that God prepares a table before us in the presence for our enemies. The table is full of all the good things that God has promised us. So, it would be correct to suggest that a man’s destiny is not hidden from the devil who is our principal enemy. The strategies and timing to take from the table however may remain hidden from him and that is his dilemma.

The devil then goes to work making every effort to prevent us from getting to the table which translates to cutting short our destinies. The most commonly used technique of the devil is deception. It is so subtle sometimes that we miss it. He makes us think that He can help us achieve our already God given purpose and within a shorter span of time; also with seemingly less pain. The sad thing is that a lot of us do not even read our bibles enough to understand that what the devil is offering us is already ours by reason of our being sons of God and joint-heirs with Jesus.

In Gen 3: 4 & 5NLT - he said through the serpent to Eve “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil”

In Mathew 4: 6NLT - he said to Jesus, after showing him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, “I will give it all to you, he said, if you will kneel down and worship me “

In I Samuel 17: 9NLT - he said through Goliath to David “choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves.”

In all three circumstances, he was playing games. Eve fell for his trick because she did not know that we are gods as stated in the psalms. We are also made in the image of God and have his mind so we are like Him. Jesus did not fall for the trick because He knew that as the son of God he was God’s heir to the entire world and their glory. David did not fear because he knew that the Israelites were destined to destroy and/or rule over the Philistines.

The things the devil whispers, suggests or says to you are only tempting. You can either receive or resist them. If you receive them, you may never attain to your destined heights. The bible says we should resist the devil and he will flee from us. It is with the word of God that we resist the devil. Jesus and David resisted him with the word and won.

Have you been equipped to resist him or will you allow him cut short your destiny? Do you know the mind of God for your life or will you allow yourself fall for satan’s tricks? YOU ARE DESTINED FOR GREATNESS.