God Is Doing A New Thing – You Have To Reach For It

How does one know the mind of a personality/person without accessing his mind? If we can’t access the mind of God we can’t know His thoughts so how can we know what He is doing? Meanwhile, it is His desire that we know so that we prepare our hearts and be rightly positioned to tap into this new thing that is beginning to break forth. It would be sad if God lays out a table for all His children and one misses out. Interestingly, one may miss out whilst they are busy pursuing good and/or seemingly godly activities which lead them away from God because God already moved away from that activity and you were unable to perceive that He already moved from it. It is sad for a believer to miss the working of God. It is for this same reason that a certain group of people still have a problem with accepting Jesus Christ as the Messiah even today. They knew about Him but didn’t perceive that He had arrived because they were ignorant of His mode of entrance to earth. God is amazed when we remain deaf or blind to His workings and methods because He already provided all we need to access any information we need, in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 43: 19 “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

I believe very much that God has actually begun this new thing in every area of our lives. A wave of revival has started already, can you tell? Have you noticed that God is, in a manner of speaking, making pathways through the wilderness like never before? He is not just doing them but doing them suddenly. God is giving miracles without signs. In very contrary circumstances, He does what one least expects. If you can’t tell that God is moving, then you may either be wrongly positioned or looking out for the wrong things. Please don’t look out for signs, just trust because He seems to be working suddenly and without signs like He did when suddenly the price of food dropped in Samaria. It is not too late to get properly positioned; the alternative is a major loss.

2 Kings 7: 17b – 19 “So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. The man of God had said to the king ‘by this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver. The King’s officer had replied, ‘that couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven’ and the man of God had said, ‘you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it.’ And so it was, for the people trampled him to death.”

The king’s officer was cynical because there was no indication of what the man of God had said. Their circumstance had remained the same for so long that it looked impossible and who changes an economy so suddenly anyway? He just did not realize that God who does as He pleases, makes all things beautiful in His own time and does not need the entire world working with Him to accomplish His purpose nor does He need anyone’s permission to change whatever He desires to change. From scriptures, we find that He needs just one ‘man to stand in the gap and make the hedge.’ It is time to learn to believe the word of God again even when we see nothing. The bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. We need to trust Him to please Him and our God is searching for God pleasers that He may perfect and use them. He wants to reveal His glory in and through such persons. If Noah had not trusted enough to build an ark, He would have perished in the water though that was not God’s will for him. God isn’t going to build the ark; you have to believe Him enough to build it so that you can ultimately see the fulfilment of His word.

John 11: 40 “Jesus responded, didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”

2 Chronicles 18: 9 “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those who hearts are fully committed to Him.”

I heard Bishop TD Jakes say and I believe that “God chooses people according to their hearts.” God searches for hearts that yearn for Him all the time. Such hearts are definitely kept informed of God’s doings on earth. God loves to let His friends into His secrets; people whose hearts desire to please Him. Unfortunately, many such persons will be ordinary people without spiritual offices but who know and love God passionately and as a result, are yielded to Him. Just knowledge of God is not enough, one needs to know Him. A heart yielded to God cannot help but see the way God sees and will as a result, love the way He does. If you love Him, you must be spending time in His presence as well as allowing yourself to be led by His Spirit. To be led by His Spirit is to simply yield to leadership of the Holy Spirit. It is to trust and obey the Spirit who is His Word.

Don’t Trifle With Worship! It Belongs To God!

Whether saved or yet to be saved, it has become apparent to me, that man loves to be worshipped. There is something about the flesh that yearns for worship and despite that we have committed our lives to Christ, we are often still moved when men worship us, to the extent that it impacts our decisions and choices yet God says He alone should be worshipped. Whilst He compels no one to worship Him, He makes it clear that worship belongs to Him and Him alone. It is most likely that man’s desire to be worshipped is something that became a part of man following from the fall of man. It is certainly not Christ-like so it could not have been one of those things that man acquired from being made in the image and likeness of God. I say this easily because it was never a problem for Jesus. He was never moved by people’s worship or adulation; instead He always saw through man and was well aware of the nature of man. Meanwhile, the devil understands its potency so he uses it against us.

 

John 2: 24 – 25 “But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”

Man at his very best is man and as such cannot be God so we are not suggesting that we never make mistakes. However, if we make the same mistake over and over again then it is no longer a mistake but a habit which God is revealing to us as a character flaw which we need to deal with. The bible says if we continue in sin, we are sinners and that, despite that we claim to be born again. Whatever you do consistently is who you are despite that you didn’t intend to do it and was sorry after doing it. However, God gives grace to make the required correction and will work with us to make the correction. The consequences however, we may have to suffer and sometimes, the full weight of it is not immediately apparent. We must always get to the point where we are able to tell ourselves the truth so that we can seek help from God. An alcoholic may keep telling himself that he only takes a few glasses of alcohol and as such will never seek help. The day he realizes that it is a habit, as a result of which he has become an alcoholic; he then is better inclined to seeking help. Let us not deceive ourselves, God is very kind and merciful to always deliver us but we must remember that deliverance from God is sometimes in the form of grace to go through the consequences of our stupidity.

Luke 18: 18 – 19 “Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: ‘Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus asked him. ‘Only God is truly good.”

One of our problems today is that we no longer see anything wrong with claiming to have committed our lives to Christ yet living according to the dictates of the flesh. So that not only do a lot of us yearn to be worshipped, the agents of satan in our midst have learnt to worship us easily pandering to our flesh and thereby accomplishing their purpose because of our innate longing to be adored. A lot of us blame it on several different things including insecurities, and you may be right, but I beg to let you know that excuses don’t prevent the consequences. You need to face up to the fact that you long for it and ask God to help you deal with it. We must be able to listen to the Spirit of God in the midst of people worshipping us and hear what God would say or do. Jesus would have killed Himself much earlier than His time to die if He allowed Himself to be moved by worship from man. The truth is that the man that wants to give you worship and adulation is doing so for his own benefit and does not care the consequences to you. All he cares about is what he wants from you, you have to watch out for your own self. Even the Gadarene demoniac fell before Jesus in worship acknowledging Him as the son of God even when some of His disciples did not know that, yet Jesus was not carried away by all the worship; He recognized the spirit that was at work in Him.

Luke 8: 28 “As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him.”

Clearly, the bible talks about giving honor to whom honor is due and respecting older people; these are not the same as worship. We must watch out for people that demand worship and those that like to worship others. Neither of both sets of people truly serve the Lord unto whom all worship belongs. Let me observe also, that any true believer will also know to give honor to whom honor is due and be respectful. Even if no one taught you to be respectful, the Spirit of God on the inside of every one of us is able to teach us. However, we must be careful not to cross the line and I dare to suggest that when believers cross this line, they are motivated by selfishness and a strong desire to achieve their own agenda and it could be at the expense of your life like the King who got high and worship and was slain by God. Let us be sensitive. These are perilous times.

Greed Will Destroy You - Please Kill It Before It Destroys You

Greed is a terrible thing. It is sad that we often ignore it despite that the word of God has nothing good to say about it. It is one of those things I would describe as "little foxes that ruin the vine." It has been known to destroy great men including mighty men of God. Greed is insatiable; it never says it has had enough. It is a trait which should die if found in any believer. It cannot be managed; we can't live with it. No wonder the bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain. The profundity of that statement is much clearer to me today seeing how greed destroys believers whilst also leaving a number of us without character and/or integrity so that we are slowly bringing the Lord's name to disrepute albeit unintentionally. 

Ephesians 5: 3 "Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people."

Sadly, we refuse to see that we are greed driven even when we are; we mask our greed in several different ways so we don't have to deal with it. For example, we prefer to say we are "driven" or even very ambitious when we know in truth that we are greedy. I am not suggesting that it is bad to be driven or ambitious but the question we ought to ask ourselves whenever we make this excuses is this - what drives me or has ambition possessed me? Could this be greed? There is a fine line we must never cross and every believer knows when they have crossed it. The Holy Spirit always let us know. Greed may seem right at the beginning but greedy people never end well. 

Proverbs 15: 27a "Greed brings grief to the whole family."

Contentment has become an unacceptable word for many believers in my Country yet the bible says Godliness with contentment is great gain. We must remind ourselves that our God is the All Wise God and His counsel is always right. If He says we need to add contentment to Godliness, we must make every effort to do so. We cannot outsmart God; we can only ruin our lives in trying to outsmart Him. God knows a greedy man from one that isn't so that all the fine words we use to mask greed do not deceive God. When greed made Ahab and Jezebel eventually kill Naboth, they discovered that their greed was not hidden from God though they hide it from man as they lied against Naboth to get him killed. We must not allow ourselves suffer the faith of those two and several others like them. 

1King's 21: 4 - 6 "So Ahab went home angry and sullen because of Naboth’s answer. The king went to bed with his face to the wall and refused to eat! “What’s the matter?” his wife Jezebel asked him. “What’s made you so upset that you’re not eating?” “I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or trade it, but he refused!” Ahab told her."

Oxford dictionary describes greed as an Intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food, whilst Webster's dictionary describes it as selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. Greed and covetousness are intertwined because a greedy person would at some point or the other desire strongly that which belongs to another. Such people want all that is their's as well as that which belongs to another. Like Ahab, they can kill to get what they desire and yet want more. Such people unwittingly cede control of their lives to the devil making him Lord in their lives. Greed has no place in a believer's life. That strong desire is not of God but from your flesh which is obviously yielded to the enemy. We must learn contentment again.

1Timothy 6: 6 "Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth."

DISCRETION – A Virtue Believers Have To Acquire

The word “discretion” has been on my mind for a while now. So I have taken a closer look at it and would like to share some of what I learnt. Who knows, just one person may be blessed. I checked the dictionary as well as the scriptures, for correct application of the word. The dictionary describes it as “the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid social embarrassment or distress”. It is also “the freedom or power to decide or act according to one’s own judgment” and is referred to as “prudence, decorum and tactfulness”. All the best intentions in the world can be ruined by indiscretion.

The scriptures affirm that God definitely urges discretion for believers. It is one of the traits we should acquire as believers. No matter how anointed or nice we are, we must learn to be discrete otherwise we would destroy meaningful relationships including marriages despite that the other party or parties still love us. Being tactful or prudent is not to lie or pretend about the way one feels; it is to speak the truth in the most appropriate way and/or time. To do that, we must have good sense of judgment. It won’t make painful truth less painful for the receiver but it makes it more appropriate.

James 1: 19 “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

Discretion starts with thinking and listening well before one speaks. When we fail to hear others, we find out too late that they were not saying what we thought they were saying yet we already responded. We need to hear people to respond to them appropriately. Speaking “out of turn” often, makes even people who love us prefer to stay away from us. Though they love us, they are “ticked off” by the things we say and/or how we say them. Unfortunately, apologizing all the time doesn’t make it less annoying. Moreover, they already know one didn’t mean harm anyway but who wants to be “ticked off” always. It is honestly tedious and very frustrating dealing with people who lack discretion. Sadly such people often see themselves as the wounded party never understanding what they did wrong.  

Proverbs 18: 2 “Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.”

The problem sometimes, is not with what we say but the inappropriateness of it at the time and in the circumstance. We have to realize that the same rule of speaking does not apply to everybody and every circumstance no matter how similar they may seem, so we have to be thoughtful to be appropriate. Inappropriateness is never masked by sweetness even if you are as sweet as pancake syrup; it is even more annoying because it adds an insulting edge. It creates the impression that you think the other person is so stupid they won’t notice your indiscretion. 

Proverbs 11: 22 “A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.”

Proverbs 16: 22 “Discretion is a life-giving fountain to those who possess it, but discipline is wasted on fools.

It is never too late to unlearn and learn a more appropriate way of speaking and/or dealing with others. Daniel saved his life and that of others by speaking appropriately at an appropriate time. It is wisdom.

Daniel 2: 14 “When Arioch, the commander of the King’s guard, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion.”

“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 Letter to “My Friend”

Dear friend, as you go forward, I need to admonish you to show yourself friendly. Note though that this is different from choosing and keeping friends an art for which you need help from the Holy Spirit. It is best to let God choose your friends because anyone can be deceived into making a friend of an enemy. Indeed, if you have many friends, it is most likely that you have mistaken some enemies for friends. Though you and your friends may not be alike, you must agree on very critical and fundamental issues. Another thing you need to know is that all friendships are not meant to last forever; so enjoy it while it last and move on when it’s time to move on. Also, not all friendships are on the same level or exactly alike; you must discern who is in your inner circle. Jesus had an inner circle so don’t let anybody make you feel bad for having one. Some friends are closer than some.

Proverbs 19: 3 - 4 “People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. Wealth makes many friends, poverty drives them away.” 

Success in any form comes with its own problems; one of which is the people who feel the need to be identified with you but only for their own benefit. They just need to perceive that you will succeed and they start playing the part of friend. Though they are believers, they have an agenda which is the same as satan’s – to steal, kill and destroy. They desire to control and/or manipulate you with the ultimate goal of preventing you from going forward. The truth is they are not your friends and can’t love anyone other than themselves. As long as you do what they want and don’t go forward, they are happy; but when you begin to fly they hate you. Blinded by envy, they are unable to see God bearing you on His wings so they fail to see that their problem is actually with God and hate you instead for yielding to God. They will spare no cost to pull you down. Worse than enemies who will declare war openly; these ones pretend to love you just to get close enough to strike most viciously when and where you least expect.

Proverbs 18: 24 “There are friends who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 14: 25 “a truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is a traitor.”

When they do well, you celebrate with them; but they always have excuses for missing your moments and times of joy and/or celebration. Believe me, it is deliberate. You accommodate their wrongs but they amplify your mistakes and make mountains of issues that should be ignored always wanting to make you look bad and yet insisting on sticking with you. They blackmail you emotionally just to hold you bound unwittingly making the friendship abusive. Don’t let anyone do that to you. They are being evil and crafty; moreover, the friendship will still end albeit painfully. Worse is the fact that they are taking advantage of you and controlling your life; using you in the way that pleases them. It is most likely that in pleasing them, you are displeasing God and making yourself sad but they don’t care. We must discern our friends if we will fulfill our God given obligations and attain to the heights that He ordained for us. True friends are life savers; keep and respect them if you find them.

Proverbs 27: 17 “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”