Our King Entered Jerusalem On A Donkey – How Would You Have Entered?

I think about Jesus and that “long journey into Jerusalem and I wonder how He did it knowing what lay ahead of Him. I am grateful He did it because that entire journey and His subsequent death and resurrection are some of the reasons we are who we are today – children of God. This is the journey that led Him to His painful death for mankind. It is interesting to note that the only person who knew what was ahead of Christ was Christ. As He sat on that donkey and people shouted “blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” His mind was on what was set before Him. How could he have even enjoyed the adulation? The people were so excited about him that they threw the entire city into an uproar yet it was not long before the same people turned against him later. Even worse is the fact that He was aware that the same people who shouted hosanna would very soon shout “crucify Him” yet He endured the praise knowing that He had to remain focused – His mind was fixed on His mandate as He rode on that donkey

 

Mathew 21: 10 “The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered, ’who is this? They asked.”

The ordinary man would think that Jesus came to that place of crucifixion “foolishly” because He went to Jerusalem knowing what was going to happen to Him just like Paul did when he insisted on going to Jerusalem even after he had been told what would happen to Him. Sometimes we have to be foolish to accomplish God’s purpose for our lives. God writes the path and pleasurable as the path may sometimes seem, we do not have the right to choose our own preferred path. Paul must have appeared very strange to Agabus who spoke by the Holy Ghost concerning what Paul would face in Jerusalem when Paul insisted on continuing his journey to Jerusalem. God does not compel us to follow His chosen path for us but honors those who love Him enough to pay the price for His will to be accomplished on earth. Jesus did it and was honored as was Paul who wrote almost all the books of the bible which God could have chosen any other person to do. It takes a lot of humility to know the evil people will do to you and not “act out”. It kind of feels good to let them know that you know what they are up to but Jesus did not and He rode humbly on a donkey. This route is definitely a humbling one.

Mathew 21: 5 “Tell the people of Jerusalem, Look your king is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey – riding on a donkey’s colt.”

Philippians 2: 8 – 9 “he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.”

It is worthy of note that Jesus upon entering Jerusalem, despite the painful future He had there, went about His Father’s business. He did not let the pain or agitation of that which He was about to face hold Him back from completing His work. Jesus had other things to accomplish in Jerusalem before facing the cross and He accomplished them. I can only imagine how tough it was for Him accomplishing other task knowing what was before Him. Anyone else would have understood if He was too weighed down by sorrow but Jesus knew the consequence of disobedience and understood that excuses don’t make disobedience right and God is would not be unjust. This was the only begotten of the Father; if God would not allow mediocrity with Him, I wonder if He would with us. Obviously the way to greatness with God is paved with humility alongside other things, hard-work bring one of them.

Mathew 26: 39b “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

God obviously wanted us to know that Jesus found His death a very tough experience otherwise it would not have been recorded in the scriptures for us; yet Jesus died anyway. Death is the ultimate of humility so that as the author of our faith, He walked the entire route to the very end and set Himself the example for us to follow. Many have walked that path after Him but are we ready to make that sacrifice today? It is time to search our hearts once more and ask ourselves the hard question – are we willing to be humble enough to look away from ourselves that the will of God may be done? Can we do it without announcing to all what we about to do and why? The temptation to announce why He accepted to hang on the cross must have been real especially when he was taunted yet He humbled Himself. I wonder, can we resist the taunting knowing that we had the power to put an end to that torture? Jesus deserves the reward and God has His reward for us as we follow in the steps of our Saviour. Happy Easter.

LIFE – That School You Never Graduate From Until Death

I have seen several people who think they have gotten to that place where they know all there is to know about life or an area of life but I disagree with them; instead, I belong to the school of thought that says life is indeed a school which no one graduates from as long as they are still living. There is another group of people who believe there is nothing to learn from a certain group of people because they know what such people know or even more and they may be right. I bet Balaam thought he knew all a donkey would ever know or do until his donkey spoke. There is no master at this game called life or any part of it. You would be surprised at who God would choose to enlighten your understanding. For we all are in this school of life until we return to our maker. The only master at this is Jesus Christ the son of God. He is indeed life. He went through it and came out victorious passing every single examination even the worst of them all which was death on the cross.

John 14: 6a “I am the way, the truth and the life”

Just when you think you know almost everything, then you find that there is more to know. I love learning new things and like to think I am open enough to learn new things fast but I must admit that I often don’t like the way life teaches. The lessons are not in a book which one reads neither are the exams written; the lessons are active and real whilst the exams are even more real experiences that one will never forget, for the pain, though as life progresses one then begins to remember them with joy. I believe God sometimes allows pressure to force our minds to expand. The truth is there is no going forward in life without facing mountains; we will have to either, destroy and go through or climb them but go forward we must. We have to determine which ones we need to climb separate from the ones that must be brought down so we don’t waste energy that we need for the journey of life bringing down what one should go over. Interestingly, there is nothing any one is going through that someone else hasn’t been or is going through and will yet go through successfully. We are made to go through it all successfully and graciously and the only way is to keep our eyes on the one who wrote and finished our faith. You have to be very focused on Him. No wonder God counselled Joshua to remain in the word.

Hebrews 12: 2 “we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfect our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.”

Joshua 1: 8 “Study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.”

Going through life successfully requires courage. To expand, we must confront our fears and whilst confronting it, one may still have fears but like they say “you have to do what you have to do.” The entire experience one goes through as they confront their fear is in itself, a victorious experience. I heard Bishop Jakes say that in his opinion, God was calling Moses to confront his fear when He made him pick up the snake which Moses was afraid of because he ran away from the rod when it became a snake. I agree because there must purpose to God insisting that he pick up the snake for it to become rod again because God could have done it even without him picking it up. That is the way we go through life. We don’t know what lies ahead of us and we don’t go forward because we have it all together or know how to deal with the things that we will face but deal we must otherwise we will never go forward. Each step forward is an experience that someone else could learn from as you learn bigger things, breaking from everything that threatens to hold you bound including even when people threaten to damage your image and lie against you. You must break from who you must break from; it is what it is and God must be given glory. It will be an experience that will like Moses after he confronted his fears, move you forward. After all, we have been made of no reputation.

2 Timothy 1: 7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.”

 

Meanwhile let us not be quick to guide others with our experiences because we may be a little different. Who you are or God’s purpose for your life impacts on what He guides you into and/or away from and how you go through. If you must share your experience, by all means do so and please note that I share mine too, but share only as you are led to by the Holy Spirit and let everyone decide for themselves what to make of it. The Holy Spirit is a very present Helper; for we all come to life differently and will end up facing God differently one day. I guess this must be one of the reasons God counsels that we be slow to speak and quick to hear. We must also listen well to deal appropriately in life. If we don’t listen well enough to hear and interpret correctly those things left unsaid, slight changes in details can change a story when it is reported. We must be sensitive to the reality of the fact that there are wolves in church today so we indeed dwell amongst wolves who are in sheep’s clothing. If they came like wolves, we would have known from the very beginning but they did not and still have the cloak on; they must not kill before we realize they are wolves.

Sincerity & Guided Passion – A Must For Effective Prayer

I like passion and passionate people. I am of that school of thought that says passion is necessary to be truly successful; as the saying goes “follow your passion.” So passion is a good thing but good as it is, it is an emotion so our passion has to be guided and/or controlled. Unguided passion is a big problem. Everything needs to be controlled hence the bible admonishes us to be “temperate in all things.” Interestingly, God also looks out for passion when we come to the place of prayer especially when we come to ask for something. We have to really desire “it” when we get to that place of prayer because He says we get what we desire when we pray so that it is not just about talking but also about how much we desire it. Unfortunately, we often come to the place of prayer without desire or with one thing on our hearts whilst we are asking God for another so that the two don’t often come together enough to form passion. Just as an aside, this might also be a good time to remind us that God sees our hearts for Himself so we don’t have to talk about that thing we want all the time compelling others to listen and frustrating them thereby for God to know we really desire it; He is able to see that longing if it is in our hearts. Sometimes also, It would seem like we have been so battered by deferred hope that our hearts have “become sick” or could it be that our insincerity is affecting our ability to be very honest even with God so that unburdening our hearts and telling Him the truth has become difficult. Now more than ever before, we need to fix these issues that impact on our prayers negatively. With all that is happening in the world today, we definitely need our prayers to be effective.

James 5: 16b KJV “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Proverbs 13: 12a KJV “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”

Mark 11: 24 KJV “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”

Unfortunately, our prayers may be losing strength. If our prayers cannot cause God to move for us, then they are ineffective. When we ask God to please do a particular thing for us, it should be because we want it enough to ask Him and I believe that God also often desires to do it but God requires us to do the asking in a particular way. Unfortunately, today we are always faced with several options; different ways that appear to be able to give us that which we are asking of God so we keep trying them and sometimes we are praying whilst trying those options but our hearts are not really in the prayer. If anything we are trying to get God to follow up and ensure that our chosen option gives us our desired result and God would definitely prefer to have His way which is in truth, the best way. God will not be used and He is not deceived. We cannot compel Him to do what we want Him to do and God demands sincerity. Please do not get “smart” with Him.

James 5: 17 “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed…”

Elias was passionate too but it was controlled. A man that comes to the place of prayer often, would know that He needs passion. We can always learn to channel our emotions appropriately like Elias instead of letting it get the better of us and by the time we come to that place where it is required, there is nothing left. If we want to move God, we must be careful not to abuse or exhaust what we need before we get to the places where we need them; we certainly need the answers to our prayers. Our prayers do need to be marked by great intensity of feeling and if you need to shake your heads to make that point please go ahead and shake it like we often do, just don’t shake it without impact. If we continue to pray these ineffective prayers, we would eventually get very frustrated, disappointed at and angry with God as many of us are but in truth, that will not change God or make Him any less; it is also not of any benefit to us. Let us believe God afresh and call Him in the way that He would prefer for us to. If we do that, even if we don’t get what we want, we would enjoy the comfort of knowing that He is working on it though His timing isn't aligning with ours.