BE PATIENT; HE IS WORKING!

I’m wondering - how does God feel about all our complaints, ingratitude and consequently lack of faith in Him. We are even angry at His seeming slow pace to do what He promised particularly because we see believers’ who are succeeding using ungodly means when we are trying to do things right. Reality is that in all this, we only see ourselves and what we want; not really caring about God’s desire. In all our selfishness and self-righteousness, we are unfaithful to God and in the things of God. We fight for positions even in church with no intentions of taking on the attendant responsibilities; only doing what is convenient for us yet demanding answers from God and insisting that He move to accomplish our desire when we want. I wonder – is He now our slave? David in similar circumstance cried out below:

Psalm 12: 1-2 “Help, o Lord, for the ungodly are fast disappearing! The faithful have vanished from the earth! Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts”

Indeed where are the godly all gone? A people who trust in and rely on God’s capability to move them forward and His guidance for the management of all He gives them; a people who care about Him/the things that pertain to Him so that their lives cause men to give Him glory. I believe God is looking for such people that He may entrust heaven’s resources to them. If God has to work for us, He will have to use His method which starts with a cleansing, then a reorientation of our thinking because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. All that may take a while before He even gets to work creating the answers.

Psalm 14: 2 “The Lord looks down from heaven at the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God”

I know His process is tough; indeed even Paul knew that which is why he counseled Timothy to “endure hardship”. In Christ, the end does not justify the means; the end is as important as the means so God has to ensure we go through the process that we may do right. We can’t mix the world with Christ. We can’t trust God and trust our ability. If we do, we won’t get bible results. Choose one and stay with it.

Psalm 12: 4 “they say, ‘we lie to our hearts’ content. Our lips are our own-who can stop us?”

In truth, nobody can stop such people. They are convinced that they can prevail with their lips; assured of their ability to deceive people into doing whatever they desire or granting their every wish – all this very ungodly yet happening in the church. They speak idly, not measuring their words; lies, boastful words or flattery; sometimes, even negative words which eventually impact on their destiny. They say one thing and mean another; even deliberately presenting a false image of their reality just to create an impression. How can we continue to exalt vileness yet pretend to be righteous and demand that God do what we want how and when we want it? God wants the glory for all His works in our lives.

God’s process may be tough but it ultimately ensures that He can commit spiritual things to us knowing that it will be well managed. Guess what! Even money is spiritual. If it wasn’t people won’t have to join cults or do abominable things to make money and the love of it won’t be so destructive. Unfortunately, God does not give pearls to swine so if you want it from Him; He needs to ensure that you are not swine. The one that gives to the ungodly does not really care who He gives because He destroys them at will but God cares because He doesn’t want it to destroy you. He is working to answer our prayers.

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF NAZARETH?

This is a question that people asked concerning Jesus. Thank God Jesus knew who He was and was certain that He was “something good” though He had come out of Nazareth. Today, the devil asks us the same question, in a manner of speaking, from day to day. When he asks this question, he wants to make mockery of us, to laugh in our faces and make us feel small. He knows that if he can make us feel small, we would most likely not attain unto the greatness ordained for us. The easiest way for the enemy to achieve his purpose in our lives is to make us defeat ourselves; one of his best tools to achieve that is ensuring that we see ourselves as grasshoppers. Once you do that, he then becomes a giant to you so that the battle is tougher and the walls insurmountable.

Yes something good can come out of Nazareth; indeed the truth of the matter is that God is in the habit of bringing good things out of Nazareth. It does not matter where you are at when you allow Him be Lord in your life; He takes over and begins to work good. Whenever the devil whispers that question to us, the straight up answer should be a loud “yes.” Indeed that we answer is just to enable us shut out the voice of the devil otherwise I would say don’t even dignify him with an answer. It is not about Nazareth but about the God of Nazareth; meaning it is about the God in your life. He is able to take you wherever you need to be to move you up. 

1 Samuel 2: 8 “He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord’s, and He has set the world in order.”

Be assured that God did not carelessly elect to bring forth His son from Nazareth. It was deliberate and I believe that one of the messages He sends by doing that is that we must never measure ourselves by where we are at or where we are from. In electing what family you were born into, He was not unmindful of your destiny – which is that you shall be great; yet He allowed you to be born into that “seemingly wretched family”. He definitely knows that you do not need to be born into a royal family to become king. When Kate Middleton was born, nobody thought she would one day be queen but she is right now in direct line to be queen someday.  

Genesis 26: 22 “Abandoning that one; Isaac moved on and dug another well. This time there was no dispute over it, so Isaac named the place Rehoboth (which means “open space”), for he said, “At last the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.”

You don’t have to be born into a family with great inheritance to be great. Our God knows how to make room for us exactly where we should be. He did it for Joseph when it was His time and an office that never existed in Egypt was created for him instantly. Where you were born or the family you were born into has no power to determine your destiny. It is always written; and can only be rewritten by you. For with God, whatever is written is settled forever. That is why we are certain that if we walk with Him, our latter end shall always be greater than the former.

Be assured that it is never too late for you. The key thing however, is to ensure that He is Lord in you r life. He has to be in control to achieve His purpose. Is He truly Lord in your life?

TIMES AND SEASONS

Daniel 2: 20 “Praise the name of the God forever and ever, for He has all wisdom and power. He controls the course of world events”

The Webster’s dictionary describes time amongst other things, as an appointed fixed or customary moment for something to happen or the point/period when something occurs. It also likens time to a season. All these describe “course of events” which God controls. Time is absolutely controlled by God. It only stops when God says so. As time moves, so seasons change; the same set of seasons over and over again (winter, summer etc.), but a past season can never be regained; it is gone for good. Though it is summer again, it can never be the same as the past summer so we must spend our time wisely.

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

Apparently, in setting the course of a man’s life, God works with time and/or seasons.  He appoints a time and season to everything that should happen in the course of a man’s life leading up to the fulfillment of his destiny. Though God sets these times and seasons in the spirit, they are expressed in the physical so that a man who allows himself to be led by God should naturally align with the times God has set in place for him. When the cup of the Amorites was full, it was time for God to respond to the cry for deliverance of the Israelites who were in bondage. If Israel had chosen instead to remain in Egypt, God would not have forced liberty on them since He leaves us with the power to make our choices but they would have missed their time for deliverance. We need to be sensitive to the timing of God for our lives so that we do not miss out. 

Sometimes, satan wants to make us miss our season by doing everything possible to frustrate us so that our timing is out of sync with God’s proposed timing for us. He knows that if God purposes a thing and we are in consonance with Him, it will surely happen. So he either tries to create delays or cause us to move before our time. If it happens before its time, it is not fulfilling and ugly.  I heard Bishop Jakes say that though pregnancy is a good thing, it does not look good when a 13year old girl gets pregnant. I agree with this analogy. If he succeeds in slowing us down, it is also not as fulfilling as it should; it loses its beauty and the joy is no longer as it should be. 

He can use anything from spiritual/physical giants to our weaknesses like procrastination etc. If we are sensitive enough to discern the times, then we must fight with all we have to ensure we get all that is ours in each season. This warfare is primarily spiritual and the weapons of our warfare are not only spiritual but they are also mighty. Like Daniel when the prince of Persia was delaying answers to His prayers, we must learn to tarry in the place of prayer until we take what is ours.  

It is true that if there is a delay, it is not as fulfilling as it ought to be; but when the delay is permitted by God, it is okay because He has the power to make all things beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3: 11 “yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.”

COUNTING THE COST PART 2

A number of people assume that people they consider “spiritual” are not really “earthly” useful to them since they are full of the word of God. Such people tend to think that the word of God is only good to deal with “heaven or heavenly related matters” so that in their opinion, the word is unable to provide the guidance they require for daily living.  To them it is irrelevant in dealing with real challenges; when in reality they do not understand it and so, are unable to receive and/or apply the wisdom therein.

Luke 14: 31 “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10, 000 could defeat the 20, 000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away.”

I am still writing today, about the wisdom of counting the cost. If we don’t learn to count the cost before actualizing our decisions, we would always appear to be in difficult situations and God would appear to be silent. The reason being that we would believe we have a spiritual problem, and some may truly have them, and so keep praying and casting out demons; when in reality, we should be praying for grace to be more responsible because the root cause of our problem would be our consistent refusal to count the cost of actualizing decisions or if you like, our recurring irresponsibility.

From what the above scripture says, you don’t go to war – spiritual or physical based on emotional reasons. You don’t fight with your friends or enemies just because you are angry. It is okay for example to be angry but don’t’ make a decisions to enter battle just because you are angry. You have to count the cost thinking about your options, the weight of your opponent and the consequences, whether you win or lose; before you make that decision. The same way we must count the cost before we commit to anything else particularly a lifelong thing.   

God is advising that notwithstanding the fact that you feel angry enough to fight, you have to be controlled enough to still think so that if you realize that your opponent is stronger, or much better prepared, withdraw from going into the battle. It is never too late to withdraw. Now sometimes, when we manage to withdraw from going into a battle, we think we have done our best because our egos already feel wounded that we had to withdraw. 

The scripture above suggest that even after you have withdrawn from the battle, you will then need to humble yourself further to pacify your opponent: you live to prepare to fight another day. However, a lot of us would insist on fighting and say that God has not told us to stop. Did He tell you to start in the first place? Usually, we are just making excuses for our pride. We even try to make people see that we have good reasons for electing to fight but this scripture does not say make your decision to fight based on the strength of your reasons. 

Whatever your reasons are for fighting, if you are prudent, you would foresee the consequences and then make up your mind whether or not you need to hide.  God does not need to speak again when the counsel is already made available in His word. Don’t deceive yourself by saying you did not hear God before you started out, He already spoke to you in His word.

COUNTING THE COST - PART 1

It is my firm belief that the bible is replete with counsel which if applied in life, would definitely make one very wise and successful. Unfortunately, to many believers, the bible remains a mystery: a book which we barely understand because we do not study it. Jesus explained to His disciples, that He spoke in parables so that some people will not understand so they do not receive the treasure hidden therein and reserved for believers. He said however, that the disciples ought to understand because the treasures in the bible are not hidden from them. 

Luke 14: 28 “For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?”

God is in this scripture admonishing us to count the cost before we take a responsibility or make actualize our decisions. Counting the cost includes thinking through the price you have to pay and the possible consequences of the decision. As believers, we need to do all the research necessary and consider the likely consequences of our actions. Very often, we don’t do this and attribute it all to faith which is usually a lie. What one tends to see, are reckless and irresponsible believers who would rather indulge self by doing whatever they feel like doing when they want to. Unfortunately, when they fail, they blame it on someone else and when there is no one to blame it on, they blame it on God or satan.

Also for those us that often leave things half done, never able to complete anything they start, the scripture is a testament to the fact that it is not a good way of life; and also that the reason that happens is that we did not count the cost in the beginning. In my environment, many of such cases are attributed to the influences of demonic forces. Whilst I agree that sometimes that is the case, it is not always so. If we would count the cost before we set out, the demons may be less able to win the victory over our lives since we may not start on a lot of things we take on and fail. This is wisdom which the bible says is better than weapons of war. Indeed form the tone of the scripture; it would appear that God is amazed when He sees anyone who starts construction without first checking to see if they have enough to complete it. 

Construction here could be anything from a business to marriage, pastoring a church etc. We need to be responsible enough to check that we have enough resources which would include education, money, Holy Spirit or whatever else you need for the particular thing you are building. If you don’t have enough then you must know what you need, how to get it and when to get it.  We have to be responsible. 

Luke 14: 20 “otherwise you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, there is the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!”

When we consistently are unable to complete the things we started, we give people room to make fun of us and we then complain that they are mean. It is not their fault; you gave them room to make fun of you and to hiss whenever your name is mentioned by leaving half-finished projects all over the place. God is saying if you don’t want them to do that to you, then you must begin to act responsibly.