Wait! He Has Not Forgotten. He Is Just Working It Out

I have heard Bishop Jakes say a couple of times that "God orders steps and not elevators." His statement is based on the scripture that says the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God. Bishop Jakes suggest in his statement, that God would usually not be in a hurry and is also a God of process. I totally agree with him. However, I must admit that I believe that sometimes God needs to do something immediately in a man's life so that everything would happen fast and suddenly but that is not His usual way of dealing in the believers life. He follows a process. No wonder the blessings of God make rich. They are carefully crafted by God who would look it over again to ensure that it is well suited to be a blessing in our lives at the right time. Whatever God does in a life, He ensures that it is truly beautiful and permanent.

Ecclesiastes 3: 14 "And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him."

There is no doubt that God has a purpose to the way He works. In the way God worked during creation, He reaffirmed that He is a God who likes process and also pays attention to details. God is Almighty and He could have spoken everything into existence in one day. He was the biggest boss who had all the materials and/or power required for the work yet He decided to craft everything carefully so that it took Him one week to put it all together and then He rested on the seventh day after working really hard. One of the most interesting things for me was how God checked His work Himself to see if it could have been done better. He did not assume that it was perfect because He did it. He always went back to check. This was clearly a personality that believed in excellence. Clearly, God following process is not to make us unhappy but to ensure that everything is perfectly done so that our joy is full. The process is time consuming but all for a good course.

Genesis 1: 31 "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

To work in the fullness of that which God ordained for us, patience is required. The decision as to the timing is His. It is true that we sometimes suggest to Him when and how He should give us miracles but He ultimately does as He pleases. Anytime I think of how long it took God to dry up water from the earth in the time of Noah. I just wonder because I honestly believe that He could've done it much faster. I can imagine how it must have seemed for Noah and his family who were in the boat. They must have started out thanking God for not destroying them but after a while you wait for so long for the next level that you get tired of waiting and can't help but wonder if God has forgotten that He has left you in the middle of a process that He started. One thing I can say for certain at this point in my life is that God never starts something He does not intend to finish; will you let Him?

Hebrews 6: 12KJV "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Of course, process takes time and waiting can be painful. I really don't know which one is worse, whether it is the waiting and not seeing any signs or waiting even after one has started seeing signs of God working to fulfill the promise. These are the times when one is very tempted to help God out. It almost feels like God must be stuck, having set the process in motion, He seems to need some help getting it going but it is not so. He is at work and is just ensuring that it is as it should be. We indeed have need of patience that we may enjoy the fullness of that which He has ordained for us. I cannot pretend like patience is easy but it is a virtue. Whilst one is waiting, at some point, everything may seem contrary but please wait. Sometimes you may not even fully understand where He is going but please wait. The devil at this time will present several different options to move you forward but please wait on God. Whilst waiting, you just keep doing what He has has provided for you to do. He is definitely working out something; He always has a purpose to all that He does.

Remember how He took the Israelites through the longer route on their way to the Promised Land. Though He did not tell them that there was a shorter route nor did He explain why He did that but He had a good reason. He knew Israel would not be in that Promised ever if they went through the shorter route because the battles they would have faced would have been too fierce for them. Even in the matter of taking over the land when they got there, in His usual way, He gave them the land piece by piece. He drove out the enemy systematically. The more land they took, they more land He made available for them to take. He could have just driven out all their enemies as they approached the Promised but He did not. He did it procedurally. Do not give up on God. If your eyes are on Him, you will not be ashamed. The ultimate victory will be yours.

We Must Allow Change In Our Lives - It's Our Decision

 Change is not often the easiest thing; even when we desire the needed change, it takes a lot to actually allow change fully when there is no apparent compelling factor. If we must see the change in our lives that God ordained for us in this new season, then we must allow change in our minds. Change that does not start from our minds, would be flitting, lasting only for a while before one falls back. The sad thing about falling back to one's old ways, is that one then unwittingly downgrades one's self from the better place God has brought them to. Any change initiated by God is always to improve us for a higher level of operation and comes with benefits. No matter how hard we pray, if we don't allow these God initiated changes, we would most likely not see the results that we desire when we pray and even when we do, they would not be permanent

Joshua 24: 15a "But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve."

Allowing change in our lives starts with a decision which we have to make ourselves. No one, one even God can make the decision for us. God lets us know, through the Holy Spirit, that we need to make changes to accommodate the new things about to happen in our lives but He won't make the decisions for us to allow or disallow the change. That becomes our responsibility and one we must take seriously. A lot of us would rather leave our decision making to God so that if anything goes wrong, we take no responsibility for it. Some people would just never go forward because they are "waiting one God" when God has already done all that Is required of Him. Unfortunately for everyone of us that would rather not think or prefer to pass on the buck, God has always left us with that final right to make decisions. He lets us know what is right for us to do but we make the final decision. If God will not compel man to serve Him, why do we think He would force anyone to make any decision. We even have the right to choose a contrary path though God would always do His very best to provide all the help we need to make the right decisions

Galatians 6: 7 "Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant."

I do not think God judges us for making the wrong decisions but we would have to leave with the consequences of those wrong decisions. We set things in motion in the spiritual when we make decisions though the Almighty God has the final say and can step in at anytime to help us with the consequences of bad decisions and this He does in any way He deems fit which said way never negates His very character and His names reveal His character. One thing we enjoy as believers is the fact that if at anytime we repent from making bad decisions and turn around and begin to make the right ones, God is always willing help us by empowering us to make the right decisions continually as well as ensure that we enjoy the benefits of the new decision so that with God, it is never too late to make the right decisions.

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."

Making the right decisions don't often seem to produce the desired result but it will only be a while, the results will surely manifest. Also, there is the tendency to always fall back to making wrong decisions even after we decided not to, but we must guard against it with all our might. We must not take for granted the grace that enables us make the right decisions and see it through. We have to carefully watch our decision making of we must become who God has ordained for us to be. No matter how little we may think the decisions we have to make are, we must check that it does not contradict in the true sense what God has said He will do in our lives. These decisions are much more powerful than a lot of us think.

We must Understand Satan’s Game, To Fight Effectively

As we settle in the year, please remember that the devil is always busy going around looking for even just one more person to destroy despite that he knows that God has good things in store for us and is working out the manifestation of every one of them in our lives. The bible already says, anyway, that God lays out a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Thank God for already equipping us with all we need, including providing help in the Holy Spirit, for victory that we may manifest all that is ours. Whilst not magnifying the devil/thief or his stupid ways of trying to destroy us, we must, in a manner of speaking, “respect” what we are up against as we press to go forward. If you make light the battles that the enemy stirs up in our lives, it is most likely you will suffer deep losses and untold hardship though that was never and still isn’t the plan of God. It is foolish to make light of the enemy’s attacks. He is certain about his goal which he pursues assiduously and the goal is to steal, kill and destroy. We must know the matters that are serious and give them the serious attention they require. 

John 10: 10 “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.”

2 Corinthians 10: 3 & 4a “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons.” 

Please bear in mind that the enemy also wages war with words. He knows the power that words carry and not only uses it to wear us out but also attempts to make us say the wrong things so he can destroy us using our confessions. Do not ever forget that there is power in your tongue. Believers must be on “high alert” in their spirit man in this season of life. Every age presents its own challenges; I must tell you that this is one of the toughest times we are in and satan is much more sophisticated in his mode of attack. He misleads many believers and they don’t even know that they are being misled. Don’t let experience teach you to “respect” what you are up against because you may have suffered irreparable damage. Be very careful to respond to situations or people. We must all learn to think on things before we speak so that we would respond appropriately as well as only say things that will take us forward instead of things that will ruin us. We must make every effort to be deliberate so that our responses and/or decisions would be appropriate. We have to learn to be slow to speak and not be very controlled. We can’t afford to get carried away. Seriousness is required of us and this is a posture we take in the Spirit that leaves our enemy worse off.

Proverbs 25: 28 “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.”

Proverbs 2: 12 “Wisdom will save you from evil people, from whose words are twisted.”

Wisdom, which is knowledge rightly applied, is absolutely important; the bible says it is the best way to wage war. I dare to suggest that to be wise, one has to first admit that they are not because just when one thinks they already have all the knowledge, they find there is yet more to know and there is nothing wrong with admitting that we don’t know everything. If we knew everything anyway, we would be God. Wisdom is a very potent tool in fighting this enemy who is fierce and purposeful. Thank God we have the support of our God who has all the knowledge and is a Mighty Warrior. Only with spiritual weapons can we enforce the victory that Jesus already won for us in our lives. In these times, we must increase our study of the word of God that we may acquire knowledge to fight and having done all, to stand.

Let us start afresh – Welcome to 2015

Happy New Year! So 2015 is here and we are excited but we must be careful to ensure that we enter this year with a very different attitude. I do know that a number of believers experienced difficulties and/or hardship in the past year which already colored 2015 for them but in truth, this year is different. The world’s prognosis for 2015 is obviously not exciting particularly in Nigeria, but we must remember that we are different and belong to another nation so that we operate under a completely different government. Our God is the Governor of our own nation and His prognosis for this year, is that we will shine. God is not moved by all that we are going through or the seeming deadness of our situation; none of that impacts on or is relevant for whatever He chooses to do. 

Genesis 1: 1 – 2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

There is nothing too difficult for Him; He is able to bring order into disorder like He did in the beginning when everything was so messed up that it was described as having no form. I cannot imagine anything that could have been worse than the situation of the earth as described hereinabove. It was so bad; its form could not be described. It must have been really twisted and it was empty yet the Holy Spirit was hovering over it so God was well aware of all that earth was or had become; though He was close by, He waited until the right time to step in. It is said that there is a number of years between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis so that something had happened to the earth God created in verse 1 before verse 2. If that is correct, then isn’t there cause to wonder why God did not make a move to stop the destruction of the earth before it got so bad especially since He knew He would have to fix it. These are some of the things we can’t explain about God so that the fact that He watched your life getting messed up by the devil or you has nothing to do with whether or not He can or will fix it.

Genesis 1: 3 “Then God said, let there be light, and there was light.”

No matter how bad it was last year, please lift up your head again and look up to Him in this year. Set your eyes on Him who is light that you may see through His eyes because if you can see with your spiritual eyes, it makes a huge difference. When a king sent soldiers to capture Elisha, Elisha was calm because he saw God’s army all around them and not just the army of the enemy but Gehazi was troubled until his eyes of the spirit were opened because he only saw the enemy’s army. Reality was that the enemy had surrounded them but Elijah had a different perspective to the mess or troubled situation they were in; He saw what God saw and so was certain that God was in control. If you can see, then your perspective can change and that is the beginning of liberty. We must do all we can to see through God’s eyes this year so that we will not be miserable. Even God needed to see for Him to make changes to that crazy situation described in Genesis 1: 2. God is not moved by the extent to which one’s life can get messed up because He is certain that He is able to fix it all just like He did for Job.

Job 42: 12a “So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.” 

So please let us write out who we are on a piece of paper, put it in front of us or where we can always see it so we can be reminded always of who we are and whose we are. It goes a long way to increasing our faith. Remember that your current situation, good or bad, does not describe you; God in His word describes you. You shall fulfill your destiny in the name of Jesus. Also, remember to apply yourself to doing what your hands find to do. There is no room for laziness with God.