Being Still in God's Love.

I tell you the truth, being a child of God does not always seem like the easiest or sweetest thing but in reality it is. The love of God for us is so strong that it makes life so much easier and so much sweeter. That love fills us with a joy that is indescribable despite whatever we may be going through. It is love that fills one from deep within and makes you walk on high places and guess what! As we yield to Him, He actually lives through us.

Having said so much, I must admit that God also allows us into very difficult situations. In those situations, one just does not see a way out or an end in sight. It feels like God is really far but there is a knowing inside you that He loves you. Though these situations always eventually bring us to a better place, if we allow God bring us through them, they are tough- period! The strangest thing is when in such difficult situations, one hears the voice of God declaring the scripture in Psalm 46: 10NLT – “Be still, and know that I am God!”

I don’t know about you but for me, it is always very tough when God says to be still at times like that especially when everyone is looking and wandering why you don’t appear to be doing anything about the situation and there are several different things you could do to make it better. The truth is God is working out something at such times; something you and I can not work out. The act of stillness in itself, though tough, improves character and ultimately ensures that one comes into the ‘wealthy place or place of great abundance’ that is waiting.

Psalm 66: 10-12NIV – “for you, o God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Now the strange thing about God is that if we need to be still and we are not being still, He makes the situation even tougher and that is because of His love for us. He can make it impossible to move even if you wanted to. One is so constrained that it is literally like being in a prison. How can one explain Him leaving Joseph in prison for so long that other people came, met him in there and also left Him there all because He was going to a place of abundance. The interesting thing is that Joseph did not even commit the offence for which he was being held and God knew. At such times, the thing to do is to learn to make the most of where you “are at” because God will not do it sooner than it should be done.

Isaiah 28: 16B KJV – “…a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.”

It is amazing how God sometimes wants us to be totally inactive even in a world that is consistently in motion. The sun, moon, even the earth are all moving but God says ‘be still’. I have noticed that God constrains us to increase us. He soothes the pain while He is at work putting things together and also preparing us to enjoy the fullness of the coming abundance. He also reveals Himself to us at such times, in a new and deeper way. In truth, it is not as bad as it feels.

The Hypocrisy MUST Stop!

I am a true Nigerian. Born in Nigeria to fully Nigerian parents, schooled and lived all of my life in Nigeria. Even when I am holidaying outside of Nigeria, I am in a hurry to return home. I also got saved in Nigerian and I am a part of the church of Christ in Nigeria. I don’t now about your country but one of the biggest problems of the church in Nigeria is hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy, according to my Webster’s dictionary is “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion”. Anyone who acts in any manner that can be described with the sentences immediately above is a hypocrite.

When one pretends to be what one isn’t, the person is not real and in my country we say the person is “fake”. Having this “fake” people in the church is a problem to the church as an institution and to the body of Christ. They are so “fake” that even when they come before God in prayer they are not sincere.

When we get born again, God accepts us just as we are. He does not need us to be wonderful for Him to come into us. When He saves our souls and as we yield to Him, He begins to do a work of transformation in our lives. He did not save us because we are good people but because we can’t be good without Him. He wants us to be honest at each point about our state. God already knew Adam’s state when he called out to him in the Garden of Eden

Genesis 3: 8b NLT – “…So they hid from the Lord God amongst the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, where are you?”

God can see all things so he knew that they had hidden from Him and also knew where they were but He still asked them where they were and hoped that they would tell the truth which they did.

God did not bring us into the church to compare ourselves with ourselves so that we do not become envious of one another. Neither did he save our souls for us to pretend to be what we are not. We do not need to obtain by false pretences what God is able to give us. Whatever one gets by pretending to be something other than what they are was stolen because it was obtained by falsehood (whether it is a position of leadership, money, spouse etc).

Hypocrites have lost sight of God and are indeed very short sighted. They cannot see beyond what they want to achieve; all their ambition is very selfish and they are selfish. They are definitely menpleasers who do not care about the destructive power of their acts of hypocrisy..

Gal 1:10B NLT – “if pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant”

Hypocrites please men so as to achieve their own purpose. No one can be a hypocrite and yet please God. I am convinced that hypocrisy is orchestrated by a host of demons. We must not allow them continue to rule our lives and conversely, the church. It is time to love God sincerely and destroy this bane of the church.

Christian Contentment

One word I consider very important for us as Christians, in the times that we live in today; and which we hardly remember is “contentment”. We just seem to have an insatiable appetite for everything – clothes, money, food; it is an endless list. We keep wanting more and yet we are born again Christians empowered to control ourselves by the Holy Spirit who is in us. The sad thing is the unbelievers are even more content than we are. Now people are forever in debt (buying clothes, shoes, jewellery and other things they cannot readily afford) because they need to look a particular way when they go to church. The bible says in 

1 Timothy 6:6-7 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out”

I checked my Webster’s dictionary as I usually do (I wish I could learn to check the Greek and Hebrew dictionaries for some of these words instead of the English dictionary. It sounds so theological and spiritual to say the Greek and Hebrew meaning of words. Who knows, I might be able to do that one day.)  Anyway, I went to my dictionary and found that contentment is derived from the word 'content' and 'content' amongst other things means ‘to be satisfied’. It also means ‘to limit oneself in requirements, desires or action’

The word appears to have become so obsolete that it sounds so totally out of place when used in the midst of Christians. We excuse our greed, envy, discontent and covetousness with ambition, strong drive and every other seemingly nice word but the truth is more often than not the ambition is selfish and the drive is greed and an endless list of ungodly things yet we want to express the nature of God. We quote various scriptures to support all of these “fruits of the flesh” meanwhile we are just a bunch of discontent, greedy , selfish, uncaring people who are always lusting after all that is going on in another person’s life and never grateful for what God is doing in their own lives and so are very “unthankful”. We have become very selfish and uncaring; thinking of ourselves only.

The all-wise and all knowing God says it is profitable to add contentment to our godliness. God says – it is great gain. It helps one to appreciate where God took one from, where He has brought one to and gives the confident assurance that He will also take one to heights of fulfilment in His own time and way. Contentment helps us live a real and true life instead of always dreaming of how your life could have been and is not; living in the future and not enjoying the present then one day you find that your entire life is gone and you did not enjoy any of it just because you refuse to be content and enjoy life as it is whilst trusting God to take you forward.

It is time to begin to learn contentment otherwise we may soon start having born again believers who are robbers. People who lust after other people’s things so much that they steal them; is that not the basis of adultery? You want a person that belongs to another by reason of marriage. You want the person so much that you steal the person. It is lack of contentment. We must reinstate that word immediately and give it the attention required in our lives. It is time to learn again to limit oneself in desires, requirements and actions. God is looking to you and I to express His nature and the entire creation waits for us to manifest the nature of God. If you are ready, ask God for help please and I can assure you He will send help in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Are You Manifesting the 'Sonship' Of God?

Romans 8: 19 Amp– “For (even the whole) creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known (waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship”.

This scripture never ceases to fascinate me because you and I are the sons that the scripture is talking about and I am wondering – why is creation waiting for us to manifest sonship or could there be something we need to be and are not?

To manifest sonship is to manifest the nature of God. It is to allow the light of God shine through us. It is to be God here on earth. The manifestation of sonship must be really important to God because it is to manifest Jesus thereby destroying the works of the devil. God’s ultimate purpose in sending Jesus is that he may destroy the works of the devil.

I John 3: 8b – “but when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil”

Whenever the son of God is revealed, it is the light of God shining in darkness and darkness has to give way so Jesus puts an end to the works of the devil wherever He is manifest. This suggests that manifestation of sonship will definitely enthrone the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.

It is sad to note that despite the number of Christians that there are on earth, evil appears to be getting stronger. The question we need to ask ourselves is this – are we manifesting as sons of God? The bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church but it appears to me that the gates of hell are prevailing. The church is barely breaking into the kingdom of evil. Instead of us pushing back the forces of darkness, they appear to be pushing the church back. Isn’t that sad?

It can’t be okay to say we are born again and not behave like we are sons. It is of utmost importance that we reveal the nature of God. The sons of God must begin to imbibe the culture that is taught in the bible and yield to the Holy Spirit to help us as we get conformed to that image. Like a preacher once said – satan is not worried about the number of people that say they are born again and even attend church regularly, he is worried about those who actually conform to and manifest the nature of God. A man that just says he is born again and yet continues in sin is a liar. According to the scripture above, he belongs to the devil.

The time has come to resist the devil and chose to manifest sonship. The time has come to be tired of living in sin though you have proclaimed publicly that you are born again. It is time to push the enemy and not let him prevail against the church. We have to manifest sonship. That is who we are and who we will ever be. We can not light a lamp and put it under the bushel. It is time for our light to begin to shine. The earth and all that is in it, is waiting for you and I to reveal the God that we carry on the inside of us.

Tough Times? In God We MUST Trust.

People! These are tough times; and it has nothing to do with whether or not one is a believer and follower of Christ. We are in trying times in the world today. Even nature itself is going through issues. There is climate change and all sorts of things going on – earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis and several other things. It appears to me that all created things must go through challenges. 

As Christians, we often think we should not share in all the difficulties going on around us but the truth is we live in the same world and moreover, we more often than not, do exactly what the unbelievers do yet we think we should be insulated from the things that trouble them. The issues of life do not revolve around only a particular group of people. They afflict us all but the key thing is our response to the issues plus the fact that we have a God that always causes us to triumph.

2 Cor 2: 14 KJV – “Now thanks be unto God, which always always causeth us to triumph in Christ”

Romans 8: 37 NLT– ‘No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

With the scriptures above at the back of one’s mind, it is easy to see the end of a bad situation through your mind’s eye. The fact that we can see the end gives us some kind of energy and will to go on. The thing I like the most about going through difficulties as a Christian is the fact that God goes through it with us. He is right there comforting and encouraging us to go on. If we only have man to depend on, a lot of people would die while going through these issues because man has the tendency always to fail but God never fails.

Also, apart from using every experience to bring us to a better place, God also uses them to make us better people. In an interesting way, the experiences increase our level of maturity and help us understand the God kind of love. What I like the most is the fact that it helps to increase our level of faith and trust in God so that with every challenge, you know that the God that brought you out of the last challenge will surely deliver you from this present one.

Romans 5: 3 NLT – We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.

I don’t now what experience, challenges or issues, you may be going through as you read, I just know that God can and desires to cause it to work for your good if you allow Him. Don’t try to work out the good yourself because the thoughts and ways of God are far from ours so you may make a big mess in trying to work out the good in your own strength just rest in Him. I am not by any means suggesting that this is easy but I know it is truth. I have been there several times and He has never failed me. PLEASE LET HIM

Romans 8: 28 NLT – “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them”