Be Aware Of Satan’s Tricks Pt 2 - The Deceitfulness of Riches

Unfortunately, we are engaged in warfare with an enemy that knows the scriptures, though he prefers to use it against us, and as a result knows the promises of God to us as contained therein. As the bible says, God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Our table of promises which reveals God’s goodness for us is laid out before Him. So he tries, using different tricks, to make it impossible for us to get all that has been laid out for us on that table. Some of his tricks are really obvious and others not so obvious. So God warns us to watch for the tricks so we are can fulfill our destiny. Satan has always used our desires against us by manipulating the word of God giving us good reasons to be lured away from God by these desires of our flesh. He tried it with Jesus and failed yet he continues to try with us and must fail too hence God prepares us; putting us on notice so that we are always on guard.

 

1 Peter 5: 8 “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

 

James 1: 14 “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

 

A lot of us have a strong desire to be rich which would ordinarily be understandable especially because no one likes the look of poverty. We desire money to the point, and even beyond, where we want for nothing; but sadly, man is insatiable so that we never get to this point. It is always a point in the future for man, believers and unbelievers alike. The more money we have, the stronger our desire for more. This desire pushes some to work so hard that they toil. In my Country for example, there is no such thing as engaging in a vocation for passion; most of us do what we do because we need to make a lot of money and fast too but with minimal effort; and this could be any vocation ranging from trading to pastoring and even more. We are so desperate to ‘make money’ that this desire guides most of our decisions including even our choice of church to fellowship because we fellowship to network or learn another godly principle that unlocks yet another door to more money. Ah! I forgot to mention, we pay our tithes too but not because it pleases God, for that is the last thing on our minds; but only because we must keep the devourer away from our purse as well as have God open the windows of heaven and pour so much money upon us, that we don’t have room enough to receive. We live on and build our lives around this love and/or desire for money which, according to scriptures, is the root of evil.

 

1 Timothy 6: 10 “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

 

This craving or insatiable desire for money, not the money, is the root of a lot of evil. We need money no doubt but when it drives most of or all our actions and decisions, then we have a problem which satan can capitalize on to work against us luring us out of God’s secret place and into his trap to destroy us, whilst promising us even more money all the way - deceitfulness of riches. A sad reality of life is that money can deceive anyone even mature believers and this includes even Pastors. Money keeps luring one; lying to that one is not rich yet but on the way there though they already are. It is an attitude of mind that is consistently desperate to have more money, struggling to attain to a level of wealth that is imaginary and as a result, unattainable. It lies that if they had a little more money, then they would be rich; an endless pursuit that leaves one always seeking that ‘little more’ money - saving for the rainy day, and then for the children and for the children’s rainy day and so on. Or it could put some others in competition with another who is unaware of and not in competition with them. Unfortunately, as such persons begin to think they are closing ranks with their competition, the competition appears to make major leaps. This goes on endlessly so that one is forever needing to be rich and never able to enjoy the benefit of contentment. Satan has succeeded in luring many away using this trick.

 

Mathew 13: 22KJV “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”

 

Mathew 13: 22NLT “The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.”

 

Money also promises a life that only God can give and satan knows that; so that as soon as we buy into this lie, we start chasing money with a view to getting that ‘supposed good life’ which only God gives and satan’s job is done. Anyone caught in this race is toiling, albeit innocently, because they are driven by the devil who is wasting their strength and time, which amounts to their life; pretending like they will get something at the end of the day. Moreover, it leaves them with very little or no time for God who gives this life which money deceitfully promises and can’t give.  Please note that whenever we get too busy for God, it is time to stop so we don’t lose everything. It’s only a matter of time before one loses what God gives, if they leave Him. We must remind ourselves that promotion comes from God who gives power to make wealth and blesses with a blessing that makes rich. To truly succeed, we must keep our eyes on God which requires a deliberateness regarding our focus.

 

Mathew 6: 24 – 25 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life- whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?”

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.

 

Just like in the Days When There Was No King

I went to a company yesterday where the staff were so polite I almost thought I was in another part of the world. They looked and acted like believers would and when I heard one of them humming a gospel song, that was it for me – they were definitely believers and that explained their behavior but maybe not. Soon after I left the place, I spoke to a believer on the phone and was reminded that we have mostly lost those values that marked us and made me think those people must be believers. In contemporary times, we are mostly unrestrained and without any form of discipline (so we more often than not come off as people who are not cultured), and as a result, we no longer exude the confidence and joy believers exuded, at least in my environment, but not so much now. We have followed after the values of the world leaving behind the values taught by scriptures. We are now excellent students of the world carefully studying and mentored by the ideals and ideas of the world and forgetting the scriptures. Today’s church is in trouble, at least where I live. Words like discipline, self - control and several other words that speak of any sort of restraint are almost non-existent to us. We do anything we feel like when we feel like it despite God’s opinion and our argument is often “he knows me just as I am and will use me just as I am” forgetting that if He thought of us as useable the way we were, then we won’t need to be saved and transformed. I dare to suggest that we are dissatisfied with the life Christ offers and desire a blend of both – the funk and fun of the world and the assurance of life in heaven hereafter, but we cannot serve two masters at the same time.

 

Mathew 6: 24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

 

The other day I heard about a young man in church watching a porn movie whilst the sermon was preached. I guess that is how he felt at the time but I wonder - can it ever be right to attend an event and watch a movie while some one is on their feet speaking or isn’t there anything like etiquette and/or decorum anymore? Even worse is the fact that this young man was watching this porn movie in church as the word of God was preached. Really? How right can that really be? If this young man elected to be in a service then he ought to have acted appropriately. I know that a lot of people believe the house of God is that place where they can “be themselves” which usually means “misbehave” but the bible does talk about conduct which is acceptable in the house of God suggesting that there is some code of conduct in the house of God. There is definitely a way to carry oneself in God’s house. We very often blame all the decadence in the church on the higher church echelon but on that day when we meet with our maker we shall all give individual accounts of our stewardship and the issues with our leaders will not be good enough excuse to escape hell. The bible is available to all of us so that we all can read it and God reveals Himself to as many as desire Him whether church leaders or congregation. I am not exonerating the church leadership but my point is this - at the end of the day, you owe it to yourself to live right. God demands that we have character which speaks of discipline and self- restraint and the bible teaches, very simply, acceptable conduct.

 

Judges 21: 25 “In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in our eyes.”

 

1 Timothy 3: 14 – 15 “I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God.”

 

It would appear like we are, today, exploiting what we consider the wrongs of our leaders for what we think is “our good.” At the end of the day, we will all have to take responsibility for our actions. The excuses we have will not impact on the consequences of these things we do. We cannot erase lines nor can we pretend like they are so blurred we don’t see them; the flesh and the Spirit are very different and the differences are clear. We must bear in mind that God sees our hearts so that our thoughts are open to Him; please do not be deceived, God is not mocked. We deceive ourselves if we think we are acceptable to Him conducting ourselves in the way we want. It is not enough to accept the existence of Christ, satan does; we have to not only invite Him into our lives to be Lord and Saviour, His presence in our life must be evidenced by the changes that will be manifest in our lives as a result of our yielding to His word. We lose the right to just “act it because we feel it” when we become believers. We need to ask ourselves if ‘it is acceptable to God.” Indeed “What would Jesus do?” It may appear like we do not have a King because we don’t see Him but we do and He is The Only Living God.

Do You Know Who You Are? You Are Royalty

I sincerely struggle with understanding why a believer would not know who they are. Every bible believing and studying child of God should know this because over and over again through scriptures, God reveals who He is, who His children are and the privileges and/or benefits of being His. It has nothing to do with your personality type because God gives grace to exhibit any personality trait required to get “the job” done which is why Paul said He could be all things to all men; it really is about the core of your being. It is about whose child you are and what family you belong to so that for every believer, it is about belonging to God and being a partaker of that inheritance. The Kingdom of God kind of reminds me of Americans who believe in the American dream. They believe anyone can make success of their lives in America if they desire to despite the family or where they come from; so it is with the kingdom of God.  

 

Ephesians 2: 19 “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.”

 

1 Corinthians 9: 22b KJV “I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.”

 

I dare to suggest that this is the underlying reason for many believers being very mixed up about our faith. We are so mixed up that though our faith is all about simplicity, sincerity and service, we struggle so much to “announce ourselves” just like the world. So we struggle to “position ourselves” and we do it in such a hurry that we don’t even make room for a period of tutelage. Everyone is working toward being put “out there”, struggling to be noticed and revered but in the process, often leaving Christ behind and not even noticing. We want everyone to notice when we walk in, we desire the highest seats, priority treatment and so on; we want all this at any cost to others but we ourselves not paying the price that God demands. Meanwhile, those of us who do not attain to “such great heights” then criticize those who do but only because we long for their positions but are unable to get there. We want our faces on all the bill boards so much so that billboards have almost become family albums and those whose faces aren’t there yet, yearn for the day when their faces will be there. There is something going very wrong and mostly because some people don’t know who they are and have refused to know. If your pursuit is for accolades and advantages of these esteemed offices, you most likely don’t know who you are. You not knowing who you are is a problem for our faith.

 

1 Peter 2: 10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people.”

 

The sad thing about these desire for accolades and/or advantages of these spiritual office, is that it is insatiable. You just keep wanting more because the underlying issues remain unresolved - you still don’t know who you are. I make these observations very carefully; my intention is not to publish our flaws but for us all to know that our issues can be fixed but only if we allow the word of God help us. This identity crisis is real but you are now in Christ and totally complete in Him. Leave that problem to the world.  The truth is, the pressure is on for believers to get carried away but please we must do all we can not to forget who we are. We are very special, children of The Most High God; Kings and priest; a people who have the right to call God “Father” and not because they earned it but because they accepted His love for them. When you understand this, you realize that you are complete in Him and need nothing or no one to complete you. Only then are you are able to truly be a blessing. The truth is nobody wants extra baggage; not even your spouse, much as you may hate to accept this truth.  This is the bane of some of the issues of some marriages today. You assume your spouse’s action is to meet a need created by your own insecurities and then you are more disappointed than you should be when you find out his action are for other reasons. Of course it is painful when one’s expectations are disappointed but you must accept that underlying your expectations are your insecurities so please don’t blame anyone unduly for not meeting promises you imagined they made.

 

Colossians 2: 10a “S you also are complete through your union with Christ.”

 

When you know who you are and are comfortable with it, you don’t need to prove that to any one nor do you need to make excuses for who you are. You are just that and they will either find out now or in the future but you can’t apologize for being Kings. Leave unbelievers to struggle to prove a point about who they are. When one is nothing, they may need to make a point but not so kings. We are lions just like our Father. We don’t boast about it but anyone who wants to trouble you will not only encounter you, the lion, but also your Father - The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. God has invested too much in our lives for us to accept a life filled with insecurities. To be lacking in confidence is to undervalue God’s investment in you. Please do not make it someone else’s job to boast your confidence. It is wickedness to keep playing the victim and expecting everyone around you to live their own lives trying to make you comfortable because you refuse to work on yourself. It is in truth, the height of selfishness. You are royalty and that notwithstanding your present status or vocation. It is who you are so please carry yourself as such. If Prince William or Harry started work as toilet cleaners, believe me they will do it carrying themselves as royalty because that is who they are. You are rich in all sense of the word; your Father pulls the purse strings so you will never beg bread as long as you don’t forget who you are.

 

Psalm 37: 25 “Once I was young, but now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.”

Destroy the Enemies Within So They Don’t Destroy You

I have been thinking about this Russian plane that crashed on Mount Sinai in which everyone died. I have read articles on some of the people who died in the crash and it is obvious that there were kind souls amongst them. One of them was so kind that he even cared to rescue cats in trouble. I can’t but think of the pain their families must be going through but I can’t help but ponder along with several others on the cause of the crash. From listening to the different thoughts on the possible cause, I have learnt a lot including that an aircraft can only be brought down either by forces within or without. Furthermore, at a certain height, it is most unlikely that an external force can bring it down, not even turbulence because at that level, turbulence doesn’t get bad enough to bring down aircrafts. Such was the level at which the Russian aircraft was flying suggesting that whatever brought it down was inside it supporting the suspicions that a bomb must have been placed in it.

 

Psalm 91: 1, 3 - 4 “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty … For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”

 

This entire thing reminds me of spiritual warfare. As we know, the devil is consistently trying to destroy man who is himself fighting by the Spirit of God to live and live the fullness of life which is the promise of God to us. The truth about this warfare is that our “standing” is a great part of it. To be fully equipped for victory, one has to be standing rightly in Christ and the things that go on inside us affect or impact greatly on our standing in Christ. So there is a fight on the inside of every believer: a fight between the Spirit of God and our “fleshly desire.” The desire referred to as fleshly is the longing based on thirst for things that belong in the group referred to by the bible as “worldly.” Many of us manage this battle within. We often do not think that the enemy within us needs to be defeated. We believe that those weaknesses in us and/or longing for things we ought not to long for, can be managed but that is not true hence God tells us to kill the flesh and its desires. They have to die because whichever one we do not kill later becomes a tool in the hands of the devil to destroy us. If we kill the flesh then we have good standing in Christ and fighting the external enemy then becomes easier. If the enemy within continues to live in us, in our very weak moments when are strength is too little to manage him effectively, he would definitely rise against us. The devil is one being that never misses an opportunity to wreak havoc. I have heard people say “when you dine with the devil, use a long spoon. My question is this; why even dine with him? The devil is not stupid as some of us like to believe and that is why we are called to a life of vigilance as believers.

 

1 Peter 5: 8 – 9 “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

Romans 8: 12 - 13 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But of through the power of the Holy Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.”

 

Now what I find interesting is this, just like aircrafts, there is a certain level one gets to in their walk with God where the devil is unable to get them and that is what is referred to as God’s secret place. It’s that place where God fully becomes one’s shepherd. Interestingly, no one is compelled or dragged there, it is a place one enters willingly and can step out of it willingly also. Entrance into this place is facilitated by a very deep relationship. The more one’s love commitment to God is, the higher one goes in the realm of the spirit, entering into the holiest of all wherein God’s manifest presence is fully revealed. Satan cannot dare to come that high into that presence. It is the very presence of a God whose eyes will not behold iniquity. At that point there may be turbulence, but not enough to bring one down but only to ensure that one’s standing in Christ is maintained and God will not allow it to be so much it destroys the person. You can go to sleep when you get there and just be on cruise control. The only person that can bring you down when you get here is you and the only way that can happen is if the enemies within rise up against and defeat you. We often underestimate the power of these little things inside us to impact on our ultimate success in life. The sad thing is, as with the plane, if these things defeat and destroy us, many other people who are watching us also get destroyed. When the enemy takes down one believer, He takes down a number of people with Him so we must learn to be one another’s keeper and we have to accept that we need help to maintain our standing in Christ. A believer is definitely a light “set on a hill” and all whose sight is facilitated by your light may remain in darkness forever if your light goes out.

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.

Little Foxes, Big Time Destroyers! Kill Them Today!

I guess I am in the season of looking at the small foxes in my life because more than ever before, I have been made aware of the fact that the little details really impact our lives and/or our walk with God: so much more than we think. At the end of the day, those little things could actually destroy our lives forever.

Songs of Solomon 2: 15NLT “Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming”

When we give our lives to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us with all of His goodness and we are then empowered to goodness of our God. From our inside, total transformation takes place and we are no longer the same.  As we draw nearer and nearer to God, all those ugly things begin to change. The little foxes have no choice but to leave us because we are now “possessed” by another Spirit which is the Spirit of God. The bible says old things are passed away. However, though there has been a transformation on the inside, we have to get used to acting out the “new us”. According to scriptures, we then begin to work our salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2: 12b -13NLT “work hard to sow the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God working in you, giving you the desire ad the power to do what pleases Him.”

Unfortunately, we think it is okay to carry on as we were. We frustrate the Holy Spirit and distance ourselves from His presence and person because anyway we are busy; so we are unable to express outwardly all that is on the inside of us. Sometimes we are even so busy trying to establish our own righteousness that we leave the Holy Spirit who is on the inside of us trying to let us know that we can not earn the salvation. If only we can submit to Him so we can then easily begin to manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, that is the character that we are expected to manifest as children of God.

Galatians 5: 22NLT “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The converse is to manifest the fruits of the flesh. How can we be “possessed” by the Holy Spirit yet comfortable with manifesting the fruit of the flesh? The two are just really opposites and they do not connect at any point. This reminds of the saying that “satan has no problems with people going to church as long as they do not manifest the nature of God.” That way, he can use them in the church, to accomplish his purpose.

The impact of these seemingly little things in our lives cannot be exaggerated. These seemingly little things are some of the foxes that can actually destroy our lives forever. Our lives are like tender grapevines blossoming. May we not frustrate the work of God in our lives in Jesus name- Amen.