DISCOURAGEMENT IS A TOOL OF HELL; IT IS NOT FUNNY

Somebody asked me a question yesterday that made my heart go out to him and this is it “what do you do when you pray for other people and God grants the request yet your own personal requests remain unanswered?” He said he had become very discouraged because that appears to be the story of his life. I can’t truly say I know why God sometimes is slow to provide answers, but I know that the fact that He has not answered does not mean He will not. However, you have to keep doing the good you are doing.

Galatians 6: 9 “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” 

If you feel like the young man who spoke to me or maybe even worse because everyone around you is wondering what is going on and why God appears to be slow in perfecting all that concerns you particularly when you seem to be the ‘right believer’ so that you feel somewhat justified to be discouraged, I want you to know that God will come through for you. The fulfillment of the promise is very important to God because it forms part of a big picture but the process is also very important to Him because without a process that adequately prepares you, you will most likely, abuse the promise. Do you know that the bible says there was a shorter route to the Promised Land? Yet God took them the longer route. God is working in you though you may not appreciate it now and understandably so.  

Numbers 21: 4b – 5 “But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses, ‘Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?’ they complained. ‘There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!’ So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.

Discouragement is a trick of the devil to remove one from the path of victory and wrongly position us so he can then have the victory over one’s life. It deprives one of courage, hope or confidence so that one is then left disheartened and with no fight in them. What is a man without a fight or courage in him? He might as well be dead which is the reason some such believers end up committing suicide which was satan’s goal from the on start. Discouragement is something we must deal with as soon as we see the signs in our lives. There is no room for feeling justified to be discouraged; like David we must encourage ourselves as we trust and wait on God to perfect all that concerns us. Though you may feel alone, the Holy Spirit is with you to renew your strength and bring to your memory, the word you need in that season of your life. 

The truth is there are things that occur in every life from time to time that make us discouraged but we must realize that it is from the devil and its aim is to separate us from God. He is only taking advantage of a situation in your life. You are not a sinner because you were discouraged; it is what you do with the discouragement that could either make you sinner or victorious believer. Don’t be ashamed to admit that you feel discouraged so that you can get help. If you find that the force of discouragement coming against you and it appears too tough to deal with alone then speak to a genuine believer and/or minister of the gospel. You must carefully choose whom you talk to so that you get appropriate help. Let us go over it and get what is ours.

DON’T BE SCARED ABOUT WHAT YOU SEE … REMAIN FOCUSED

Satan is truly a defeated foe. This fact though confirmed in scriptures, is often reaffirmed in various occurrences or incidences in life so that one cannot but smile again and again at the thought of this truth. I suspect that this truth may have been one of the things that flashed through Jethro, Moses father-in-law’s mind, after Moses told him all God did to set the Israelites completely free from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, when he made the profound comment below. He was so moved that he worshipped God with a sacrifice even after the comment.  

Exodus 18: 11NKJ ‘Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.” 

I don’t know what is going on in your life right now; if it is all going according to plan with everything falling into place and in alignment with what God told you then that is fine. However, for everyone whose life appears to be moving further and further away from all you heard from God so that satan appears to be getting his way, please be assured that satan is a defeated foe. God will step into the situation and in that very situation which is making satan celebrate because he thinks he has the victory over your life, God will not only step in but also establish His counsel and ultimate victory will be yours.

I am learning that we really need to be like God; seeing like He sees and thinking like He thinks. We will then have more peace and get greater victory. God is so calm in all situations because He is certain that there is only so far satan can go, no matter how far He appears to have gone. He knows for certain that at whatever point He steps into the situation, satan’s activities are halted immediately and all his influence and/or impact on that situation is reversed to align with God’s counsel.  An example is when God drowned the Egyptians in the red sea when they chased after Israel thinking they had an advantage because the Red sea would be a dead end which was correct but God stepped in and the advantage became their disadvantage; the water that should have stopped Israel stopped the Egyptians forever.

Hebrews 4: 2-3b ‘For this good news – that God has prepared this rest- has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest’

Please ensure that your eyes are continually on God and His word which is the very thing satan would prefer to have us avoid. Just focusing on the word of God brings one into the promised rest of God. This rest is not a physical place but a spiritual state which says though all is not well yet physically, you are certain about the veracity of the word and are constantly focused on the word of God such that you believe even when you do not yet have it in reality; with this attitude of mind and spirit, you will then have it the appointed time. All the storms we experience in life are to prevent us from enjoying this rest so that we end up not getting that which is ours. The instability is meant to distract you and if you are distracted, then your focus changes and you begin to see the storm only. Indeed, you may end up cursing God.  We must fight to remain in the right state not withstanding what we see today in our lives.

GOD IS LOVE

There seems to be some confusion about the true meaning of love, I mean the God kind of love, in the church today. We act like we know what it is yet we struggle with various interpretations; unfortunately, the pulpit has only further increased our confusion. May I suggest that the problem is this; we are explaining the love of God in the context of what the world calls love? We struggle to break away from the world’s interpretation but ours is often a variation of theirs and I really don’t understand that because God is not a variation of anything or being. I believe love can only be understood when we align with the mind of God. God is love and He cannot be boxed so that love cannot also be boxed; love is expressed in the way He deems fit in every situation in the same way that God reveals Himself in the most appropriate way for every situation though it is all within the limits of His written word.

1 John 4: 7B – 8 “For love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

I do not claim to fully understand what love is but I think it is much deeper than we say it is and can only be understood in the context of God so that love is not an attribute we struggle to acquire but a being on the inside of us who wants to be expressed through us. We cannot learn love but yield and/or submit to love because love is more than what we do, love is a person. When we get born again, love comes into us so that as we yield to Him we express Him. It is only to the extent that we are submitted to God that we can love. Isn’t it strange how we force people to express what they are unable to give? How does a life not submitted to God express the love of God? Even with all the best intentions in the world, they are unable to because this love can only be expressed as we are led by God’s Spirit. Anything they give is from the head realm and that is all they are capable of giving though it may seem like God sometimes.

Romans 5: 5 “For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”

The more we are like God the more we love. No point in trying to acquire the attributes of love and yet remain far away from God. This is one of the problems of the church today. Our description of love is definitely too human which is why we think we can acquire it. Even if you know nothing about love, if God is in control of your life, you will naturally express love because His nature is what you will express. I think we have to approach the word of God with an attitude of humility so that we can depend on the Holy Spirit to give us understanding as we study because our minds are too small to understand or interpret the mind of God. We need to catch the Spirit of the word.

RELATIONSHIP CHOICES – WHO IS AROUND YOU?

I dare to suggest that when God wants to bless a person, He sends a man into their life and as is usual with satan who counterfeits God’s ways, he also sends a man into a life he wants to destroy. When God wanted to bless Naaman He sent the maid to his home; when He wanted to work a wonder in the time of Ahab He sent Elijah and there are countless such stories but I must mention that when He wanted to bless mankind, He sent His only begotten son Jesus Christ. So the people we let into our lives definitely matter and add to determine what we become. 

Some people may consider you mean for disallowing some people into your life but you have to remember that you take responsibility for your life. I am not suggesting that you form what we call ‘clicks’ in Nigeria and please note also that being members of your church does not make a person okay to be in your life. Some people are meant to be acquaintances, which doesn’t give them a role in your life, so there’s no point being nice and allowing them in your life. Despite there being so many translations of the bible, there is not one I have found that uses the word ‘nice’ to describe what God expects of us. If you allow any and every one into your life, your life will end up nowhere. Some people just don’t fit no matter how hard they try.

I hope you understand that I am not just talking about bad people because some people though very good, have not been allowed into your life. Indeed, it is very easy to disallow people in your life when they are bad. The problem is usually with good people. Even satan uses good people just like he himself pretends to be an angel of light. If he made his servants outright bad, then it would be easy to identify and disallow them but he does not. Also, if we make these decisions using our physical senses we would most likely make wrong choices so it has to be by discernment. Sometimes, even the people God sends into our lives are not necessarily the best people but God sent them for His own purpose.

2 Corinthians 11: 14 “But I am not surprised! Even satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Let me use the example of Judas who was allowed into Christ’s life; for Christ had to be betrayed. Betrayal speaks of breaking trust/ treachery/ disloyalty and so on; so it would have to take someone you trust to betray you. To fulfill His God given purpose, Jesus needed a ‘slimy’ person in His inner circle and that was Judas. At the end of the day, his evil nature worked for God’s purpose. When God brings such people into your life, He gives you the grace to deal with them yet He opens your eyes to see who they truly are. If however, they are in your life without His consent, they will outsmart and mislead you because you have not been given grace to deal with them. 

However, there are some people God sends into our life but we think are bad because they don’t say what we want them to say. Please let us make the decision to ‘live smart.’ The world advises that we work smart so we can be productive but there is no working smart without smart decisions about those you surround yourself with. Please prayerfully look for new friends if this is necessary. Time is far spent for the night draws closer so we need to be fast about being wise. Emotions cannot really take us far.

HAPPY NEW YEAR – IT’S A NEW SEASON, IT’S A NEW DAY

Please bear with me. I know this article is really late but it has been a period of celebration for me. I have gone from enjoying Christmas to enjoying the entire season and I guess it has been so for you also. I truly give God all the glory. Who says believers do not have fun in Christ? There is joy in God’s kingdom; joy which cannot be described but full of glory.  

Happy New Year and I wish you a very prosperous new year. It would be a great year, one in which those that know their God would truly rejoice in Him because they will not only be strong but also do exploits. You just need to know what season of life you are in or as they say, ‘what time it is for you.’ The understanding of where you are at makes it easier to go through every season of life.

The bible does say that there is a time and a season for everything under the sun; the problem is that sometimes everything gets mixed up and we cannot rightly decipher what season we are in so that we then act inappropriately. Sometimes when we think we are in our lowest season, we are actually entering into the peak of another great season of life.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” 

Though everything may be going bad so that you think the worst has happened, it is just the beginning of a new day for the bible describes a day as evening and morning. Every new day starts from the evening and as it gets darker, the morning is actually approaching. Relax, do not fear when it gets darker, the day is about to break. I guess you are saying “easier said than done’; guess what! I am saying the same thing too, but this is truth that we must accept and live by.

Genesis 1: 5 “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

I have realized that unless the sun rises, there can’t be day because no other light can bring about day. All artificial light is made to go so far and cannot go beyond their sphere of influence. Also, no amount of help can resolve the issues of our lives when God dims the light to bring us into another day but when it is time for the day to break, He sends in the sun and everything goes bright suddenly so that we are like them that dream. He shall be turning on the lights in our lives that you and I may truly shine for Him. 

You may feel now like you are at the end of the road and nothing can happen for you again; you think this article is not for people like you but it is. If God destroyed this entire earth in the time of Noah and yet put it all together then I am certain that He can put you together again. You cannot give up. You have looked to Him too long to give up now. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, in the children’s rhyme, you can be put back together again because the one putting you together again is the King of all Kings.

So what if you keep trying that which He has told you to do and you keep failing? If He has not told you to stop, please by all means try again. Noah may have had to live in the ark for a long time if he did not keep sending out the birds until they did not return. That thing you have been working at will suddenly come together. It was always God’s plan for it to succeed but the ‘waters needed to dry up.’