He Gives Joy Instead Of Mourning

The world’s economy is obviously not the way we would like it to be and the situation in my Country may be worse than in most places. Many of us, believers and unbelievers alike are greatly troubled and rightly so; the more we pray the worse it seems to be getting and though we know that God is working everything for our good, it still is bad and many lives have been turned upside down. People, believers and unbelievers alike, have been impacted yet we must not allow who we are or even our posture to be determined by what we are going through. Thank God for Jesus Christ who always causes us to triumph in every situation and has made us more than conquerors so that we are never a sad people but a people filled with joy unexplainable that flows endlessly from within us. But for the presence of God in us, most of us would be sad for the challenges that life currently throws at us consistently but it requires some deliberateness to maintain the right posture. We must learn to laugh as well as maintain the right attitude of mind despite all that is going on. God wants to be who describes us all the time and He made us much bigger than whatever difficult circumstances we may face at every point in time. It doesn’t need to change for us to see God.

Psalm 112: 1 “Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands.”

1 Peter 1: 8 “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him: and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.”

The sad reality though, is that many of us have been greatly impacted these very disturbing issues and we are letting go of our faith. Of course the challenges are in our faces but we need to be on top of the issues. Most of us have been so adversely affected that we have become really sour and bitter; so much so that we allow us to be described by how we feel. Reality is that we go through several different experiences (good and bad) in life but it is not wise to be so affected by these things that we are described by either. We are who God says we are and how wonderful it is to know have Him always, such a strong defense and an unwavering ally. People tend to think that life must be really perfect for those who don’t wear their challenges as a cloak but they forget that we all have the right to decide what we want to be in every situation. God has empowered us to be who we choose to be. We must remember that we are more than conquerors. We can choose to be Ruth instead of Naomi and we have been empowered to live the path we choose. Never be deceived; it is not for lack of challenges that some appear to be sane. God is that perfect ally who always ensures we are in charge and rule despite the storms of life but we must lean on Him. We have to remember to cast our cares. Storms are a reality of life and it could be anything including challenging economy.

Psalm 112: 7 - 8 “they do not fear bad news: they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their woes triumphantly.”

Reality is that there is a command of blessings over every believer’s life. The fact that we are blessed is a positional thing. As long as one is in Christ, He is blessed in every sense of the word and the manifestation of these blessings get more intense as long as the believer keeps getting more deeply rooted in Him. When Naomi returned to her home land, she was a bitter woman. She had let the challenges of life affect her so much that they charted the course of her life. Her major life’s decisions appeared to have been heavily impacted by what was going on around her and in her life. There is no doubt that terrible things happened but we must hold on to life and not allow ourselves get burnt. When it was tough in Israel, Naomi left and went where life seemed better but she suffered even more loss. It got worse where she went so again she made a decision to return to her home land. It was so bad and she so bitter that she told people to call her ‘bitter’ as she was indeed bitter but thank God Ruth refused to be dragged into the bitterness drama. Ruth was focused on living and living under the control of this God that Naomi had introduced her to. It could not have been easy especially when the person she lived with seemed to have lost hope and no longer found strength in that God. Salvation is indeed personal. No matter how close we may be to anyone, including even the persons who introduced us to Christ, whether or not they are our parents, we must find our own personal relationship with Him.

Psalm 112: 4 “Light shines in darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.”

The sad thing about naming one’s self by the challenges in their lives, is that they just get really sad and even loose hope ending up totally disappointed. It is like prophesying evil over one’s own life. Like Naomi’s situation, some of us have allowed all the pain and bitterness eat so deep in our hearts that we struggle even with seeing the light that already started to shine. It was so bad for Naomi that even when her people greeted her with a lot of excitement, she didn’t see or feel what they did. When we choose to see all what we are going through, we inflict more pain on ourselves and frustrate the people around us. Let us look beyond what we see to what we don’t yet see which will soon begin to unravel in the physical. That which we don’t yet see is more real than we think. God will not leave us without help so please let us expect that help and keep our hopes alive.

Romans 8: 25 “But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.”

Insecurities – Another Destroyer Of Destinies

There is no doubt that the strategy of the enemy is changing to match the present times; which isn’t surprising since he has never acted stupid. Also working really hard to achieve his purpose – to steal, kill and destroy, he is constantly strategizing and re-strategizing. The bible says we must not be unaware of the methods of the enemy so that we know what to do. One tool with which he is holding people back and destroying destinies around my geographical location at least, is ‘Insecurity’. This is a sensitive topic for many but it is one we must face before it becomes a deadly epidemic destroying both the insecure persons, people around them and the body of Christ in general. We currently pretend like it is not that bad. Ignoring the problems it creates, we act like it is a manageable evil; yet, it is fast creeping upon us, ruining believers and holding them back from fulfilling their destinies. It reminds me of the way the church handled the “gay matter.” The church seemed to wish it away pretending like it was not in our face until it appears to have become an epidemic even in the church. As every disorder in the lives of believers can be fixed by God, so it is with the matter of insecurities. Let us not pretend like nothing can be done about it. For not only is God Healer, the blood of Jesus has healing power. I believe God strongly desires to tackle this issue amongst believers because it is the root cause of a lot of evil in our lives and in our midst, inconsequential as it may seem. You don’t need to be a believer to know that it is a destiny destroyer.

 

 

2 Corinthians 5: 17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.”

 

Alongside several other meanings, the dictionary describes it as lacking stability or self-confidence; plagued by anxiety, fear or feeling of been inadequately guarded or protected. One thing was clear from the various definitions I found, it is a kind of un-wellness of the mind that only the word of God which reaches deep down into man can heal and certainly heals if we let Him. When we come to Christ, we sometimes come with a lot of baggage and some more than others, because of the lives we lived while we were still sinners. We were children of disobedience under the control of the devil whom we lived to please as we pleased our flesh which is under his control; but now are we new creations and the old nature is passed away. Insecurities is some of that ugly nature we come to Christ with which has to pass away; for it is not befitting of our new status and should not be celebrated but destroyed. The one thing God says about the old nature is that it be killed but we seem to be doing the exact opposite and sometimes, brethren make it harder to feel the need to destroy it since they keep telling people that it is okay and all in the name of love. Insecurity in the lives of believers makes satan somewhat redundant because the insecure believer does for themselves what satan would have liked to do. Unwittingly fast forwarding his agenda, insecure believers make themselves tools in satan’s hands for the destruction of not just themselves but other believers to whom he may not have had access if he wasn’t working through such persons. Such persons work very craftily to manipulate everyone’s life. If we continue like this, we are setting ourselves up for hell because we will only manifest wickedness and every evil work.   

 

Ephesians 5: 17 “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”

 

Ephesians 4: 17 -18 & 20 – 22a “With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the gentiles do, for they are helplessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. . . But this isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old nature and your former way of life”

 

The consequences of remaining insecure are too devastating both to the insecure individual and the church. As my Pastor, Seye Kosoko, often says, the consequences of one’s action remain the same whether or not they were intended.” Such insecure persons always argue that they never intended harm; very often seeing themselves as victims so they never do a sincere self - examination and thereby miss out on some of the awesome privileges laid out for every child of God. In whatever form it manifest, whether it be jealousy, envy, pride and self-exaltation, low self –esteem and so on, it is the same thing and destroying lives whilst wreaking havoc in the church. Some others feel that they had genuine intentions, and they may be right, but insecurities thwart the implementation. There is no excuse that makes insecurities excusable. If making heaven is important to us, as it should be, then we must deal with this because the fruit of it is sin. Please be not deceived and remember that there is a deliverer and Healer in the midst of God’s people. His name is Jesus Christ. He washes away all the past and restores all our lost esteem and gives us the right to be called “The King’s Child.” It is time to deal with ourselves. This is not the nature of God. We can’t draw close to God and not have His nature. There is power in the word of God to bring healing; for soundness of mind is a promise of God to every believer.

 

Proverbs 28: 1b “but the godly are as bold as lions.”

 

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

 

Psalm 119: 133 “Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.”

 

Enife Atobiloye said ‘Boldness comes from a sound mind and sound mind comes from the presence of God’ and I add “and the word of God.” This statement must be correct because the one with whom we spend time will impact on us and there is no barrier to The Word of God. It reaches deep down to spirit, soul, joints and even marrows to bring about healing that we may be made whole. Wholeness starts from inside and spills to the outside. We must insist on driving out this evil seed that has crept into our lives and church. This very terrible seed that is eating into and destroying lives. What is the point if after having lived the life of a believer, one ends up in hell. Nothing that would take a believer to hell should be celebrated no matter how nice the English word for such things sound.

 

Jesus Is No More Enough

Recently, in the course of a conversation with my Pastor and His wife, Pastor Lanre Kosoko, she said something that struck a chord in me. She said ‘the way believers act today, it is almost as if we think Christ is not enough’ and it has stayed with me. Indeed, I feel like we think God was not smart enough in making Christ just the way He is – Jesus Christ. It is almost like Him just as He is, is no longer enough to be all that He is so that we feel a need to make up for the inadequacy we see. We try to make Him look the way we think He ought to be in these present times so that people can think of Him “highly enough” to accept Him. We forget that the ways of God would normally look foolish in the eyes of man and God is well aware of that yet He worked things like that. Can the created redefine ‘The creator’?  We often try so hard to make Him acceptable that we compromise several aspects of the word of God. People, around where I live, argue that if more people must come to Christ, then people have to be given a ‘soft landing’ to Christianity. Are we suggesting that this life is a burden? Any ‘soft landing’ that compromises the word of God probably leads people elsewhere and not to Christ our Saviour.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is greatly compromised in our times; our gospel is largely ours; put together by our intellect. Pastor Femi Monehin once said and I agree, that “God is not a product of my thinking or philosophy.” He is not a product of any one’s thinking or philosophy. He is God in Three Persons and He is enough for us.

 

1 Corinthians 1: 21a & 23a “For after in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God ... But we preach Christ crucified.”

 

It is the belief of many in these present times, that the intellect of man is more powerful than ever before which said argument is not my focus here, but even if it were true, God has never pretended like He planned to satisfy our intellect. He clearly says that the life that He gives is like a river that flows from within and flows forever. It does not directly feed the intellect. The true gospel is not powerless; it accomplishes its purpose because it is the word of God which is what the world needs. The world needs the healing that only Christ can provide – It is healing that reaches deep down to the soul and spirit of man. There is an insatiable quest for God; a hunger and deep yearning by people who may not even be aware of what they hunger for. Unfortunately, believers do not think highly of what He appears to be and in trying to make Him look better, we are preaching a gospel that is unable to satisfy the world’s yearning. Our intellect is unable to bring anyone to God through Christ; only Christ can do that. Sadly, not even our looks can bring people to Christ. It takes the quickening of one’s spirit-man for Him to become a believer and only the word of God has that quickening power. And until a man’s spirit comes alive, He is not born again. God is a Spirit who can only be worshipped in the Spirit. That hunger can only be quenched by His Spirit.

 

John 14: 6 “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the to the Father except through me”

 

Isaiah 55: 11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it.”

 

It is indeed vain for any man to think that they can describe God in an improved way. The mere thought that any man can better articulate who He is than He has done Himself is vain. Moreover, it is my firm belief that the world is tired of an empty Christianity. The world wants more than the glamour that we seem to only give these days. The glamour is good, but the world knows that they need much more than that. The flesh is unable to meet the need; for it profits nothing. Until we ourselves realize that Jesus Christ is enough, we will never make Him Lord in our lives which is His desire. Until He is Lord in your life, how can you effectively tell another to make Him Lord in their own lives? It is time to get real that we may preach Christ. He is the Redeemer and none other. Sometimes, it is merely the desire to have other people follow us that leads to a little shifting from the Truth. Unlike John the Baptist, we struggle to point people to ourselves because somewhere deep down, we need them to follow us. Unwittingly, a number of us have made more followers for ourselves than we have The Master. As we point people to Jesus and they receive life, Jesus works in us to prepare us for leadership His way. As we follow Him, people will look to us to show them to follow Him. There is only one Lord and His name is Jesus Christ.

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.”

 

Like In The Garden Of Eden And As With Eve

In my part of the world, many believers complain about believers, and definitely not without reason. Some of the worst culprits are found in our midst which is indeed reason for worry. I don’t know if it is the same anywhere else in the world but our story is bad. Though a huge number of us are believers, terrible things are happening. Our lives do not often bear evidence of the fact that we are believers and a lot of this has been attributed to “foundations” i.e. how people got saved and what they were taught as new believers; and maybe rightly so because people do “get saved” in interesting ways and for interesting reasons around here. I am not by any means suggesting that believers are perfect people; but they are people who understand that value and partake of the benefits of Calvary and make this reality evident in the way they live whilst taking on the responsibilities that come with electing to partake of these benefits. They are responsible and also a people of integrity because the Truth lives in them.  Life is not about them and how they feel but about The One who saved them and what pleases Him. Pleasing Him who saved them is their life’s ultimate goal in every situation.

 

1 Peter 2: 5 “And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the meditation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”

 

1 Corinthians3: 11 “For no one can lay any Foundation other than the one we already have – Jesus Christ

 

One thing I have found from reading the scriptures is this, a man is either a believer in Christ Jesus or He is not - there is no middle ground. This is the foundation upon which our faith rest. Accepting Christ as one’s personal Lord and Savior takes a decision; it is not a process neither does He become your Saviour because you made a decision to and actually became a better person. Without making that initial decision, it is impossible to give one’s life a living sacrifice. The life of a believer does not in any way suggest that the believer will always be nice in the way man describes nice; Jesus Christ was often not the nicest of persons but He always did the will of His Father which was always good. To walk with God successfully, one must have a knowing that His thought toward Him are thoughts of good so that even when His actions seem painful, you know it is for a good cause otherwise you will leave Him. It is the same for everyone who chooses to do the will of God, they will often not be the nicest of persons because like Jesus, they are instruments in the hands of God to accomplish His will on earth. It might take some time to realize that they meant well. To serve God requires us to be of no reputation but we desire a reputation and followership. It is impossible to submit to God and yet guard your reputation or care about appearances. Death whilst yet living is impossible without the initial decision and difficult even after the decision; but a must if we must remain believers. This is the only way to be a worshipper. Worship is more than singing.

 

Romans 12: 1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

 

Unfortunately, it becomes tough to understand the need to remain dead with all the different sermons we hear today. The devil is, like in the time of Adam and Eve, slightly twisting The Word of God”, trying to make a sensible gospel out of the gospel that is foolish to the wise and there are many wise in our midst so they gravitate very easily toward this “very sensible gospel” which requires one to hold onto their lives whilst yet remaining followers of Christ. This cannot be the gospel of Christ who Himself laid down His own life that the purpose of God may be fulfilled. Without death to self, we cannot please God. This new attack on our faith deals with seemingly simple subjects like love, being judgmental and so on. It, for example, describes a new kind of love that is so “flesh” and sensible that it is exactly the same love that the world preaches - lust. This love has no Truth in it so that it is not Christ out of it and so unable to release salvation so that people remain bound; for only the “The Truth sets free”. This love makes excuses for evil like jealousy, pride albeit subtle pride, and certainly demands its own way. It never rejoices for truth but for its establishment of its purpose and keeps record of wrongs. This is not the love that the bible preaches so how then can people be set free? Even if one’s faith was established on the right Foundation, you must guard what you believe and keep checking over and over again that you still believe The Truth. It is so easy to like Eve be carried away and not even know it. Moreover, no matter how bad our Foundations may be, God loves man so much that He made room for us to start again. You can rebuild it and if one has left the truth, they can be realigned. My question is – what do you believe today? Selah.

 

Ephesian 5: 9 – 10 “Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in these things people do. For once you were in darkness, but now you have light form the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.”

Mentors Needed Now More Than Ever Before

It is sad that mentoring is no longer a common thing amongst believers. It is fading and I believe this may be a hindrance to the spreading and passing on of our faith especially to generations coming after us. Everybody is in a hurry to get to the ‘next level’ with or without God and as such do not have the time to be properly mentored. Also, people no more feel the need to be mentored since ‘we all know everything and can read up on anything we need to know’ coupled with the ‘busyness’ of life. Meanwhile, there is also a scarcity of mentors because we are either very self- absorbed or too busy to give of ourselves to facilitating someone else coming to maturity. Some argue that they don’t want to be hurt because mentees end up behaving badly when they think they have ‘arrived’ and don’t need the counsel of the mentor anymore. The truth is, at the end of the day, our faith suffers. How can people learn and mature if they are not taught/“parented”? There is no doubt that it demands a lot from the mentor and the reward from the mentee may be ‘ingratitude’ but our God is a rewarder. People need to be taught to rightly divide the word and proper application of that word in our everyday life. These are terrible times when satan is working very hard at engaging people; believers need to be mentored as even the mentors are themselves mentored by other believers and the Holy Spirit. This is the way to make disciples for Christ whilst remaining His. It is one thing to study the scriptures and another to understand and then find its proper application in our everyday lives. God is looking for more Philips who would go to great lengths to ensure that other people understand and live the scriptures.

 

Acts 8: 30 “Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, do you understand what you are reading? The man replied, how can I, unless someone instructs me? And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.”

 

Oxford dictionary describes a mentor as an experienced and trusted teacher so that a Christian mentor is clearly not a novice; he/she apart from having a good understanding of the word and strong desire to know more about God, must have piles of experiences that have tested their faith. Mentors are not just teachers for their great teaching skill or many degrees, but more for the several tests of their faith which has worked experience and a willingness to teach or share all they have learnt and help their mentees live life in to the fullest in Christ. They teach in word and deed. The mentees become a part of their lives so that they can observe them and learn from what they see or how they live which ought to be in alignment with the word of God - Christ. The mentee also has to allow the mentor access to their life and yield or submit to them in a way, so that the mentor can guide them properly also bearing in mind that the Holy Spirit is the master guide. Both parties have to consent to having this relationship; and the mentee is required to have the humility of mind that makes learning from their mentor easy whilst the mentor is also humble enough to take seriously this God given responsibility of more or less ‘parenting’ maybe even an adult who is born again. We see this happen over and over again in scriptures as Moses mentored Joshua, Eli mentored Samuel who attempted to mentor Saul, Naomi who mentored Ruth and the list goes on. Obviously, it is one means of transferring knowledge and Spirit/anointing that is acceptable to God. We are not born knowing everything just like we don’t get born again knowing it all; parents are a necessary part of our growth otherwise we wouldn’t need natural parents.

 

Acts 18: 26 “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.”

 

The fact that our mentors have experiences and knowledge that prepare them for this role does not suggest that they know everything or are perfect. They are human and still make several mistakes; they also are learning on another level. They are work in progress just as much as the mentees but they have made a lot of progress and are still progressing as they help their mentees make progress also. The Holy Spirit is the Master guide for all believers but most of us need a man who is yielded to God and we can see and touch, to “explain the way of God even more accurately” to us. There is need for a period of grooming or preparation for every next level of life and we ought not to skip it. We just need to be certain that we are groomed by the persons God has ordained to help us. If we honor them, we will most likely receive their anointing and maybe even more but please note that the expression of the anointing will be according to God’s working through you. The same anointing may express itself in different people differently, after all there is only one Holy Spirit, but God uses all the variety for His purpose.

 

2 Kings 2: 15 “when the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened, they exclaimed, ‘Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha!’ and they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.”