Self-denial Is a Sure Path to Victory

If we, believers, will have good success as promised us in the word of God and also fulfill our destinies, then we must be able to deny ourselves of some things such that self-denial becomes a part of our lives. Self-denial is denying one's self of something that one can give one's self. It is exercising your will against your flesh thereby compelling it to learn discipline without which one would also fail. So many things beckon to us in life that will ultimately not work good for us but as we learn to deny ourselves, we are able to connect even more with our God. If we must walk with God successfully enjoying all the benefits that are our portion, then we would have to learn to say no to ourselves especially in those tough times when God's desire is different from our desire and we feel strongly the need to follow our desire; those times when we feel compelled to put another person's desire above ours because that is what God would rather that we do.

Mark 8: 34-35 "Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it."

So the dictionary describes denial as sacrifice of one's wants or needs. In truth, it is turning from selfish ways where one's decisions are no longer instigated by how they feel but what God desires. It is going up to the level where it is no longer "our will but His will be done in our lives." Our faith calls for sacrifice. There is a price to pay for the benefits that we receive. In Christ, you don't pay the price to receive but you are required to give back for what you receive that you may then receive more. His gifts come with responsibilities and/or obligations which I refer to as price to be paid. If you will not take on the responsibilities then you may loose that which you have; according to scriptures, it will be given to those who took their responsibility seriously. We cannot afford to bury that which He gives us but we would have to deny ourselves if we must multiply them. With God, if you must get more or go higher, you will at some point be required to give up things.

Mathew 25: 29 "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away."

As believers, we know that good success is our portion. We get frustrated and angry with God whenever it seems like success is eluding us but the question is what are we willing to give up that we might have this good success which is written into our future? It is never convenient when it has to do with God because it would call for a sacrifice. Some people struggle with denying themselves because they were hardly denied anything as children while some others just feel that they earned the right to have whatever they want despite what God days. Whatever your excuse maybe, the thing to have at the back of your mind is the fact that God has put in your hands the power to be truly blessed or fail; furthermore, sad as this may sound, inability to deny one's self may ultimately cause a believer to end up in hell.

Mathew 25: 30 "Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

I would like to suggest that self-denial was a major part of Cain's problem. He could not be bothered to get for God that which asked for. It was just not convenient. Since God wanted a sacrifice, he did not see why his farm produce was not good enough for God who already stated what he preferred. Going out of his way to get for God that which He wanted was certainly stressful to him. He was one of those who felt God should continue to accept Him just the way He is. It is true that He saves us the way we are but He desires that we then yield ourselves that we may be changed to become like Him. There is a cross to carry, for every believer; to carry the cross requires us to deny ourselves.

We Are Heirs and not Servants: We need to grow up to enjoy the benefits

There is no doubt that there are treasures laid up for the believer; both here on earth and in heaven. The bible says that He has freely given us all things so we obviously have a problem with accessing the things that are ours because we are certainly not like people who have been given all things. Please note that I am not by any means suggesting that the believer's life will then be without challenges, the thing is the word of God testifies that we shall overcome them. Unfortunately, we are running into great difficulties accessing these things that have been freely given to us in its fullness because we are using the methods of the world. Of course they appear to be faster and more result oriented but are they? Also they take one further and further away of God and the results they give are not long lasting for the believer.

1 Corinthians 2: 12 "And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us."

Romans 8: 32 "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?"

Obviously wealth given by God varies from one man to the other depending on your purpose here on earth and so the preparation for handling wealth also differs from one man to the other depending on what He has given you. So you don't decide what you would like to have because someone else has it and the information concerning that which is your portion is discerned by your spirit from the Spirit of God who knows everything that is on the mind of God. Since these things are spiritually discerned, the carnal mind will have a problem tapping into these God given benefits. I now understand why some people are easily inclined toward using the method of the world but you who are spiritual must learn to reach deep into your spirit and connect with the Spirit of God because the methods of the world cannot give us the fullness of the God result. Spiritual things are just that and cannot be obtained using worldly method so that we are cutting ourselves short when we make that our way of obtaining wealth.

1 Corinthians 2: 14 "But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means."

No wonder a number of believers are struggling today. Yet instead of getting spiritual we are learning more and more the methods of the world so that we are becoming more carnal which makes it even more difficult to hear God; and we suffer from such great insecurities that we think we are "cool" by being carnal. On those rare occasions when we feel a little bad because of the worldly things we do, we find nice "spiritual sounding words" to describe them so that our consciences can be assuaged and we still keep our spiritual look. I think the unbeliever who calls evil what it is would probably be doing himself more good because he at least admits to himself that he is doing something wrong but he does not see another way of getting round it and it produces seemingly fast results. The believer however covers up his own sin, not by the blood of Jesus, but by using several different words to describe the same evil.

Galatians 4: 1 "Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had."

So becoming spiritual is actually for our benefit. Now I remember how I used to be amazed at how believers were the real wealthy men in the past years but not so today. These big time business men used to hear God talk to them giving them business ideas and counsel as to when to make their move and so on. It is sad that all that has changed particularly in the environment where I live. No wonder we are struggling today. We are too far from the things which belong to us; for they are spiritual while we are yet carnal and until we get spiritual and are able to discern spiritual information, we would only be getting the portion of servants instead of heirs. I think we need to take growing up to maturity in Christ more seriously. It is costing us too much to remain babes because we are only getting the portion of servants a instead of heirs.

“Blessings” … Do Not Describe The Way God Perceives You

I think I finally agree with my Pastor, I am a “ponderer.” He coined that word to describe me because he says I often ponder.  In the course of my recent pondering, it has become clearer to me that one can be blessed several times over, but end up in hell: that would not be our portion in the name of Jesus. I know you have heard it severally but the “blessings” do not in any way suggest that God is happy with a believer.  He can bless you over and over again yet He considers you evil and vile. He leaves you with the blessings though He sees you returning to your vomit or dirt over and over again. Please be very careful as God “blesses” you; be careful to check that He is pleased with your life. We need to keep checking our lives over and over again to confirm that God is pleased with us.

1 Kings 21: 25 “no one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel.

When I think on God and Ahab, I am amazed that despite that he is declared the most evil of the kings of Israel, he ruled for several years and was “blessed” and God even paid attention to his prayers of repentance when he remembered to repent. Isn’t it amazing that even after he took Naboth’s vineyard and God sent Elijah to him with a hard word; just because he repented in sack cloth and ashes God sent Elijah back with a word of comfort?  This is beyond me. I wonder, should God have shown him mercy and punished his children instead? I think he deserved to have been punished himself; even if it was just so that other people would see and know that God was angry about what he did to Naboth and also that no one would do the same having seen the weight of God’s anger that Ahab suffered. I would have thought that punishing him would be the wise and just thing to do but it is not so with God. The ways and wisdom of God are different. Even His thoughts are far from ours.

1 Kings 21: 28 - 29 “Then another message from the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime. It will happen to his sons; I will destroy his dynasty.”

Not that I understand what God was thinking but the point is this – the fact that you entered the role or God has left you in it, is not an indication that God is pleased with you; neither is God pleased with you because He forgives and gives you other chances when you repent before Him. I say these things so that we judge ourselves using correct parameters. Ultimately, those acts by themselves do not describe how God perceives you. God wants our lives to consistently give him glory. No wonder the psalmist says that it was only after he got closer to God that he understood the end of some prosperous people he had envied. As we understand God we realize that He has more than enough, including mercies which are new every morning, to give. He can choose to give whether or not one’s life pleases Him. 

Psalm 73: 16 – 17 “So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! Then I went into your sanctuary, O God and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.”

If you have been struggling with life and wondering why your expectations appear to be disappointed when God seems to be blessing the believer whose life remains a mess, you need to take your eyes off them and focus on God. If you don’t, you will only get more confused. You think you are righteous, good and just yet you are struggling, don’t worry God is not unhappy with you and has not forgotten you; life happens to both the just and unjust but God does come through and your end is settled. The fact that you have been wonderful does not suggest that everything must go according to your expectation. Please trust God as He takes you through this journey of life.  

A life of Prayer is a must if you must get to the heights that God ordained for you!

I wonder what comes to mind when you see or hear the word prayer and when you hear people talk about a life of prayer. You are probably thinking it is a life for the pastors and intercessors only and then maybe for your mother or wife. I must tell you this - you are the primary intercessor for your own life. Every other person is secondary. As believers, we are meant to live by faith which in reality translates to believing though you do not see; so that believers go forward without a full picture of where they are going but our solace is in the fact that The One that holds our hands to lead the way sees and knows all things so that as long as we remain connected to Him, we will be fine. To ensure that we remain on the right path, guarded by our guide, we have to remain in constant communion with Him. 

Luke 18: 1 “One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.

It is a must that we are in constant touch with Him if we must reach the heights ordained for us and keeping in touch is prayer. A life of prayer speaks of total and absolute dependence on God. It suggests that one is aware of one’s weakness and has elected to tap into God’s strength. Also, God says we are the head; which encompasses seeing from a vantage position. Communing with God helps us see through His eyes giving us a higher perspective than the ordinary which puts us in a class higher than others so that like Daniel, we are more intelligent than our teachers and this has nothing to do with age but the fact that one is rubbing minds with God Almighty.

Daniel 1: 17 “God gave these four men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom.”

Don’t let anyone deceive you, there is only so far a believer can go in life without a good prayer life. Satan, knowing this, has sold us a lie that prayer is tough and we have accepted it so that many of us don’t even try to build a prayer life. In Nigeria, where I live, we have learnt, to ‘contract’ out all our praying to people who talk to God on our behalf and tell us what God is saying concerning us. In return, we ‘bless’ them but the mindset is that we pay them to deal with all our prayer and prayer related matters. How very sad? If communing with God is a chore for you, then there is a problem which can be fixed. Can it really be so tough to commune with a Father? At least make an attempt at cultivating a prayer life and determine for yourself that it is truly tough. Of course, as with any new relationship, it is not the smoothest initially but as you get to know each other better, it becomes more pleasurable. 

1 Thessalonians 5: 17 “Never stop praying.”

What parent would not take pleasure in communing with their child? It is no different with the ultimate Father who takes great delight in spending time with us so much so that He would come down to fellowship with man. Indeed, if we learn to go to Him first when you have challenges, you will find that you don’t need to seek counsel from anyone thereafter. You will operate in such amazing wisdom that even you will wonder at the kind of decisions you make because you know that it is way above your level of knowledge. The truth is God wants His children to operate in dominion and that can only happen if we stay connected to Him so that the Holy Spirit who searches His mind can let us into His mind as we pray. Information empowers you and God is ready to let you into deep things as you commune with Him. Let us not faint in the matter of prayer.